Newly assembled computer

WARNING

This year, I treated myself to a new desktop PC for my birthday

. My old setup from four years ago—a 9700KF paired with a 1660S—was no longer cutting it, and the 1080P 60Hz monitor had become underwhelming.

After selling the old PC and monitor, plus dipping into my savings, I barely managed to scrape together enough for the upgrade.

Spec List

• CPU: 12400F (loose chip)
• Motherboard: ASUS 610M-A D4
• Cooler: Thermalright AX120 R SE White
• GPU: Yeston RX 7700XT Sakura Blossom Bride
• RAM: Klevv 16GB×2 DDR4 3600MHz
• SSD: Fanxiang 1TB S500PRO
• PSU: MSI MAG A650BNL Bronze
• Case: Aigo Xiao Lan White Panoramic (no center pillar)
• Fans: 4× Aurora regular fans + 3× reverse fans
• Monitor: Koorui X41Q 23.8-inch 2K 180Hz

Assembly

The build wasn’t too difficult overall—just watched a Hardware Tea Talk video and got to work.

The main challenges were installing the fans, GPU brace, and case wiring:

1. Fans: The included self-tapping screws required high torque to thread. Regular fans were easier to mount from the outside, but the reverse fan between the PSU and GPU had undersized screw holes—luckily, the case’s longer screws worked.
2. Cable Management Nightmare: All seven fans had RGB, so their 4-pin power cables had to be daisy-chained to the motherboard (unsure if it could handle the load). The 5V 3-pin ARGB cables also needed chaining, including one from the GPU’s ARGB strip. The resulting spaghetti was impossible to tidy with zip ties. The non-modular MSI PSU had stiff cables, and the cramped case (small size + bulky air cooler + chonky GPU) made front-panel routing a pain.
3. GPU Woes: While not excessively long, the GPU was absurdly thick—less than a centimeter of clearance from the reverse fan. To fit the brace, I had to tear off its bottom cushion foam, likely voiding the case warranty. Oh, and three cables are now pinned under the GPU… fingers crossed.
4. Case Wiring: Connecting the front-panel headers wasn’t hard, but I misaligned them multiple times, leading to frantic troubleshooting when it wouldn’t POST.
5. Gave Up on Cable Management: Closed the back panel—out of sight, out of mind.

Behold the final product (it’s very aesthetically pleasing, like, 9.5/10):

I chose the 7700XT over the 4060Ti because:

• No plans for AI workloads anytime soon. Even if I did, the 4060Ti’s performance would be inadequate.
• The 4060Ti 16GB is currently overpriced (~¥4000) due to a minor crypto-mining surge.

So, I’ll stick to gaming with this beast (and admire the Sakura Blossom Bride GPU’s beauty—yes, it actually smells nice, hehe).

P.S. The Sakura Blossom Bride card is gorgeous… and it genuinely has a fragrance. Hehehe.