Constructing the Perfect RGB-Free Gaming PC

Fractal North PC Case: A Sleek Solution for Gaming Enthusiasts

Parts Choices, 13900K who?

Starting from the top with the CPU choice, I went with the AMD Ryzen 7800X3D. On the current market, there is no beating this chip, it is the top dog in performance and the best price to performance chip on the market. The 14900K pulls an amazing 253 watts, if choose to believe Intel’s spec, and most of the time higher than that; where as the 7800X3D pulls around 80 watts meaning that the 7800X3D does not require exotic coolers to keep it under control much unlike the competition and the non X3D chips from AMD. Taking all the benefits into consideration, and the fact that this system is designed as a gaming only machine, the 7800X3D is a no brainer solution.

Moving on to the CPU cooler, I choose the Deep Cool AK620 Zero Dark. Seeing, as we mentioned, that the 7800X3D does not require crazy cooling I decided to keep it simple and go with air cooling. The AK620 offers highly competitive cooling, when compared to other top coolers such as the Noctua D15 and Corsair H150i, for a great price. Besides the amazing price to performance we are getting out of this dual tower 120mm air cooler, it also matches the color theme we are going for and most importantly has no RGB!

When it comes to motherboards, everyone has certain preferences and needs. For me, I needed a board with built in 10G LAN, Lots of USB 3.0 I/O, fast front type-c charging, four M.2 SSD slots, ZERO RGB, and a color scheme to match. 10 gig LAN was needed for fast access to my NAS and other local devices, all that rear USB I/O was needed for my racing sim and other peripherals , fast front type-c charging helps keep my VR headset alive during long stints of gaming, the four M.2 Slots hold my 14TB of M.2 storage, and the color scheme with 0 RGB keep the theme of the build cohesive. ASUS bios is also extremely easy for me, as my last 2 boards have been from them, so fan profile, EXPO, and other overclocking settings are all great and familiar.

64GB is the new standard for builds moving forward. My last two systems were comprised of 32GB configurations and I began to run into RAM limitations. 6000Mhz is the recommended speed to get the most out of your AMD AM5 CPUs, and the sub timings of CL 34-44-44-84 are on the tighter end for the current rendition of DDR5 from SK Hynix, and this EXPO configuration is plug and play with no tuning needed. I have yet to push the limits of this CPU RAM combo, but have been able to overclock the RAM to 6400Mhz without adjusting anything from the baseline EXPO settings.

Storage is always a tough one for me, and seems to be a point of contention for most. We all have good and bad brand bias, whether or not we are willing to admit it. Seeing as Samsung had some recent firmware issues with their 980 and 990 Pro SSDs, I chose to avoid them. I knew that I wanted a PCIe 5.0 SSD, and with the limited options on the market, I went with Crucial’s T700 2TB. I wanted to keep brand continuity with my storage, so I went with three of Crucial’s P3 Plus PCIe 4.0 4TB SSDs for my mass storage drives. As for the total of 14TB, I wanted to have enough storage for my entire steam library, my sim software and mods, as well as other various adobe and school projects, for years to come.

The RTX 4090 is the current king of GPU performance. AMD’s 7900XTX was not in the picture here, as I find their drivers to be lacking and subpar compared to Nvidia’s. I choose the Founder Edition in order to keep that sleek, office style pc look.

MSI is fairly new to the power supply market, (CWT are the manufacturers of the MEG PSU line up) and they seem to be doing what almost no one else is, creating a 1300 watt ATX size power supply. Admittedly, 1300 watts is complete overkill for this build, as under full GPU and CPU stress tests the system has never crested 690 watts, a 1000 watt PSU would more than suffice. The 80+ Platinum rating and the compact ATX size of this unit drew me in, as well as the MSI Center software’s ability to see power draw in real-time.

Be Quiet makes some of the best fans on the market, and the Silent wings Pro 4 are no exception. The quality of these fans is unmatched, with the added benefit of being able to change the max fan RPM from 1200, 2000, or 3000. I wanted the PC to be as close to silent as possible, these fans do exactly that.

Fractal really knocked it out of the park with this case. Others, such as Corsair, may try to imitate the classic wood design of the North but fall short of this. The North comes in at a very respectable price, has every feature you would need in a modern case, comes in both tempered glass and mesh, and also has options for white or charcoal. For those looking for a no frills, adult looking, office style pc case; look no further.

Want to see the full build video? Check it out below.