Andriy RusanovAuthor of news articles for Mezha with four years of experience editing news feeds. I am a geek in everything I write about, but most of all in computers.
5 August, 22:27
Enthusiast TrashBench, known for demonstrating daring PC hardware mods on YouTube, decided to make a gaming computer out of a file storage (NAS) using an RTX 5060. The ZimaCube 2 model was the best fit for this.
Inside the ZimaCube 2 is a fairly powerful Intel Core i5-1235U, which has 2 productive cores and 8 energy-efficient ones. It is also equipped with an integrated Iris Xe GPU, which is too weak for games, but redundant for NAS. The device’s motherboard has a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, there is enough space inside and there are the necessary holes, which makes this model ideal for experiments.
The results of the system with Windows installed and no hardware modifications were disappointing for gamers. Hitman 3 showed about 18 FPS at low settings in 1080p resolution, Cyberpunk 2077 produced only 13 FPS, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider “struck” 31 FPS. Installing a compact AMD Radeon Pro WX5100 graphics card (a professional version of the RX 480) already allowed to exit slideshow mode, but not to play fully.
The existing three-fan RTX 5060 was too big for the case, so it had to be mounted externally using 3D-printed parts and connected with a riser. The 750W power supply required by the graphics card was able to be placed inside the case, but to do so, all the removable drive bays had to be removed (the system itself ran off the SSD installed inside). The magnetic front cover of the NAS case hid this change as best as possible.
That’s it, the gaming PC was ready. Hitman 3 ran at 167 FPS, which is over 827% more than the original 18 FPS, or more than nine times faster. Cyberpunk 2077 got a sevenfold boost, from 13 FPS to 90 FPS. Shadow of the Tomb Raider sped up “only” to 124 FPS compared to 31 FPS.
But TrashBench wouldn’t be himself if he hadn’t tried his own CPU cooling system using liquid and a freezer. And here he was disappointed. The system’s performance didn’t improve, and in some games it even got worse. “This is the first time a freezer has done worse,” the enthusiast said. Another disappointment may be the price of the ZimaCube 2, which is $1,299, so it’s better to just build a proper gaming PC.
Read also: Portable console with PlayStation 2: the modder created it from the original chip and board of his own design
ComponentsVideocarts
Advert:
Advert:
