Garnet: it's not quite pink

Ducksnuts
Apr 12, 2022
4 min read

Updated: Apr 28, 2022

This story starts with the case.....

I was originally going to use a SilverStone Sugo SG13, in pink, but had been holding off as we didn't need another PC. My plan was to build in a couple of years for my daughter. Then a few months ago saw a Cooler Master NR200, in purple…… So I bought one.

Moving forward a few weeks, and I felt like building another PC. I had enough parts to knock up a basic barebones system. But this case needed more. Plus, I already had purple and orange sleeving that never went into my Amethyst build…… So I started planning.

I had a Ryzen 2200G and it made sense to build around that. Also this is for my daughter, who doesn't need a ball-tearing rig to play Minecraft, I'm able to use the 2200G iGPU. Did some price checks, put together a list, and was ready to go…… So I went shopping.

What's in the box...

CPU:

Ryzen 3 2200G

CPU Cooler:

beQuite Shadow Rock LP

Motherboard:

Gigabyte B450 Aorus mITX AM4

Memory:

Corsair Vengence LPX 16GB (2 x 8Gb) DDR4-3000MHz

PSU:

Corsair SFX 650W

Storage:

O/S: Western Digital SN550 250Gb
Data: Crucial BX500 240Gb - Turns out this was inside the WD Blue box.
Data: Crucial BX500 120Gb - Don't even remember why I have this lying around.

Case Cooling;

Intake: beQuiet Shadow Wings 140mm
Intake: beQuiet Shadow Wings 140mm
Exhaust: beQuiet Shadow Wings 120mm
Exhaust: beQuiet Shadow Wings 120mm

I should've looked a bit closer at the manual here. There's no actual mounting points for 140mm fans in the bottom of the case. They need to be mounted to a radiator. And the top only takes 120mm, so I can't swap them.

The case also comes with 2x Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm fans, but these are black and I got the beQuite fans as I wanted white.

However, as some people have mentioned, the NR200 is a bit cramped for space above the motherboard so a full size 25mm fan doesn't fit too easily. And with 2x SSD's getting mounted up front, the yet to be mentioned Cooler Master Hub won't fit where I originally planned. So through a process of attrition, fan problem has been solved;

Intake: beQuiet Shadow Wings 120mm
Exhaust: beQuiet Shadow Wings 120mm

I'll just need to find another home for my now spare beQuite 140mm fans.

The Build (so far)

Usual things to start with. Take a photo of the boxes (though the CPU was already in the M/B by this point, so only the little plastic container and Ryzen sticker can be seen. And the cable sleeving was mostly done, so only the leftover sleeving is there). Then a quick bench test to check the system would POST.

Once I had it all buttoned down, looking from the RAM side the CPU Cooler wasn't flat. After checking the RAM and cooler, and yep the top row of fins on the cooler are slightly tilted to the left.

Cable Sleeving.

Originally I planned the purple and orange for my Amethyst build, but with inline caps on the Seasonic PSU cables, I decided I just didn't want to deal with them. Then I also noticed that the orange, and some red, paracord that had been exposed to light for a few months had started to fade.

Not wanting this build to look old after a couple of months, I went whole hog and ordered MDPC-X cable sleeving in Oxide Orange and Vivid Violet.

Whilst it is good stuff, it's also thicker and stiffer than paracord, which in a larger case wouldn't be a problem. But working the short SFX cables around in the NR200 is already a challenge, add in the extra stiffness, and if I did it again I'd probably just go with plain purple paracord.

The SF600 also comes with 4x Double Cables, which are just another level of annoying to deal with.

After finishing the sleeving, a quick sanity check and bench test. And also to quickly test the Cooler Master MasterFan Hub and ARGB LED strip.

Putting it All Together

Now time to shove it all in the case.

I've gone with the alternate position for the PSU, as basically it wouldn't fit it the 'normal position with all that chunky cable sleeving trying to squeeze past the Shadow Rock cooler.

Some solid cable training going on, with extra combs and cable-ties.

One nice touch the Cooler Master 'purple' is on a few plugs and stuff, and it just happens to match the case colour.

Once it's attached, you can barely see it. But it's there.

Next up is getting the case connections, case fans, an ARGB LED light strip, and MasterFan Hub in.

Lighting & Other Bits

The M/B has inbuilt LED and a couple of ARGB headers. I've added a Cooler Master ARGB LED strip, and as I originally planned to have double the number of case fans, to help keep it all neat a Cooler Master MasterFan Hub.

So next in were the SSD's. Don't know if it's just me, but SATA power cables always seem to have the plugs too close together. Even just an extra inch apart would be useful. Anyway, both of them mounted up front.

Then the 2x 120mm case fans along with the MasterFan Hub.

The rest of the build was fairly straight forward, and for the most part was managing cables. And then re-managing cables, and one more time for luck.

And finally, adding in the LED strip, getting the case sides on, and firing it up. Photos of the lighting aren't very good, I need to take some shots at night.

Re-Arranging the Cables

And then after all that, I decided that the MasterFan Hub just looks messy sitting on the floor. So I did some reorganising.

Whilst I originally wanted the Hub to be a feature, it has been moved out of sight to behind the PSU. For symmetry the beQuite 120mm fan from the top has been moved to the base.