The Build Itself
I will start off with how much I liked working on this machine. There was very little in the way of trouble when working on it. The case is overall nice with the window (not glass, its Plexi) but the one that I picked up isn't in perfect condition unfortunately - some small dents and scratches; but aside from the blemishes, it was an easy to work in case. I should mention too that it is rather small tower case, and very light.
So aside from the case itself, I wanted to make some changes to the machine. Initially it only came with 16GB DDR4 RAM (2400MT/s), 250GB NVME, GTX 1060 and the awful stock cooler air cooler that comes with a lot of Dell machines, and usually the source of fan noise and overall heat buildup. I decided to upgrade the machine by replacing stock cooler with a tower cooler, an ASUS Phoenix RTX 3060 12GB GPU, 500GB NVME and adding in additional 2x8GB DDR4 RAM (2666MT/s).
Prior setup and old cooler:
Upgrade:
You may notice that in the last photo, the NVME looks different than on photo 5, that is because I had taken the photo of the NVME prior to upgrading from the 256GB that was initially there to the 500GB. Picture 4 I like since I wanna show off fantastic Thermal Paste - GD900. This Thermal paste/grease is absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend using it as its very cheap to get (I believe I got it for $4 for that 30g tube) and it has just generally worked well in all types of builds. Aliexpress Link.
Lastly, I ran 7 passes (close to 10hrs) of Memtest to verify that there is no issues with the RAM since it is a mix between 2x8GB DDR4 2400 (came with Dell) and the added ram (2x8GB DDR4 2666). Thankfully no issues at all and passed! Wanted to also do furmark 2 in order to stress test the GPU for not only potential thermal issues, but to verify that the cooler works and no artifacts.
First photo here is the system specifications under HWINFO64. Second is Memtest86+ showing it passed 7 cycles (Memory Express for example only does 4 max in their tests) and last screen is Furmark 2 in 1hr Artifact scanner. This is very stressful on the GPU and it passed.
Lastly, I ran 3 games as a quick test to make sure the system works as intended and what it can actually do. The three games I chose was: Resident Evil Requiem, Expedition 33 and Crimson Desert. I just picked up Crimson Desert and it really isn't my type of game. Resident Evil Requiem is pretty good although I am more of a fan of the classic RE games. Lastly, Expedition 33 is probably one of the best games I have ever played. Reminiscent of old titles like the classic Final Fantasy Games (6 and 7 being my 2 favorite) and Lost Odyssey (that title needs to be ported from Xbox 360 already....) so if you are a fan of the turn based JRPG style games, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!
