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Syenite
Jun 21, 2011
Grimey Drawer
That is absurdly expensive for what you get.

E: gently caress, snipe

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Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

upgunned shitpost posted:

this user doesn't really care...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($251.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.50 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($102.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Black NVMe 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card
Case: Antec VSK4000E U3 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: XFX Core Edition 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Total: $625.00cdn

gonna recycle some parts from my old machine, since cases and psus are heavy and I don't wanna bring them home on the bus. the gpu is fine for now, might replace that in six months. it's a mid-size case, would there be any advantages dropping down to a mico-atx board? I am willing to be talked into cooler motherboards, but within reason.

Unfortunately, the Pro4 isn't guaranteed to be 3rd-gen compatible out of the box, and it doesn't have the ability to flash the bios without a cpu installed like most of MSi's B450 boards. There's a good chance that'll have a compatible bios installed, but if it doesn't you'll need to get it flashed at a local shop, borrow or buy a 2nd-gen cpu for flashing, or get a loaner from AMD. Our standard recommendation to pair with 3rd-gen Ryzen, the Tomahawk MAX, is $55 more expensive right now. The MSI Pro-VDH Max has guaranteed compatibility for $105, but you'll be losing the type-c usb and 3.1 gen 2 ports compared to the Pro4 or Tomahawk, and the VRM is a step down (but still totally sufficient for a 3600). It's also microATX so you'll lose some PCIe slots, but you could buy a smaller mATX case for it! The non-MAX variant is $100, but you might have to update the bios yourself with the "flash bios" button and a usb flash stick (and your bios will be keyboard-only instead of mouse-driven).

Alternatively, you might want to consider saving $100 and dropping down to a Ryzen 2600. It's guaranteed to be out-of-the-box compatible with the Pro4 and it'll be a totally sufficient for 60Hz gaming for a while yet. You can drop in a 3rd (or possible 4th) gen upgrade some years down the road when it starts feeling anemic.

I'd also consider just getting a 1TB Adata su800 for $120 instead of the WD Black NVMe. The NVMe is technically faster but it mostly only applies to reading or writing very large files - gaming performance will be basically identical.

E: If you're psu is out of warranty, I'd consider replacing it as well. The last thing you want is a psu failure taking out new components! A Corsair RM would last you a while (it comes with a 10-year warranty), but if you want to save some money the Corsair CXM is decent and has a five-year warranty. If you plan on sticking with a low-power gpu on the level of the 1050 ti, you could get away with the 450W version.

Stickman fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jan 8, 2020

Assepoester
Jul 18, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 11 years!
Melman v2

Tab8715 posted:

Has anyone looked at the new Intel NUC?

Intel Ghost Canyon NUC


At face value this seems like a really good idea. While I enjoying assembling my own equipment I think it'd be nice just to immediately make my own gaming pc. The only thing stopping me is the starting price tag of $1,000.00 USD? And this is the laptop not desktop processor. Doing some quick napkin math this I what I came up with initially...

1. Intel NUC i5 Intel Ghost Canyon
a. $1,050
2. DDR4-2666 2x16GB
a. $130
3. M2 NVMe
a. SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2 1TB - $220
4. RTX 2070 MINI
a. $440
5. Windows 10 Pro
a. $90

Total - $2,040.00

I suppose I could probably drop to lower model video card but I'm thinking if I were just to build my own SFF Mini or Micro-ATX Rig. I could still use a desktop processor and keep it under a grand. The only thing I lose is the out of box convince, packaging and I have to do my own assembly.

Am I on the right track here? Thoughts?
I'm the blower cooler on a CPU






Mu Zeta posted:

It's too expensive

The modularity is really cool and the reason it costs so much. Maybe a couple years down the line it will be priced reasonably.
None of Intel's NUCs have ever been priced reasonably

Moly B. Denum
Oct 26, 2007

Stickman posted:

The non-MAX variant is $100, but you might have to update the bios yourself with the "flash bios" button and a usb flash stick (and your bios will be keyboard-only instead of mouse-driven).

At least for the non-max tomahawk, the mouse still works in the cut-down bios. The main difference is that it's not in color, and you can't save OC profiles directly to the bios chip.

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

Moly B. Denum posted:

At least for the non-max tomahawk, the mouse still works in the cut-down bios. The main difference is that it's not in color, and you can't save OC profiles directly to the bios chip.

Thanks! That's good to know, and I suspect that the bios interface would be the same across the B450 lineup. Was the non-graphical bios in the original 3rd-gen bios updates, or was that just pre-release speculation?

The United States posted:

I'm the blower cooler on a CPU


Well, it has to be blower because there's only a millimeter of clearance between the cpu card and the gpu :v:

Stickman fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jan 8, 2020

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Stickman posted:

It's definitely worth discussing because it's one of the factors that distinguish motherboards, and you're right that it's importance is mostly overblown for most users.

My main concern with boards like MSI x570 Gaming Plus / -A Pro is that my impression is that their temperatures in the 150W+ range (not just 200+) are high enough that they could potentially reduce the lifespan of the components themselves, and that's within the reasonable running range of a processor like the 2700X + PBO (which actually has overclocking headroom, so is reasonable to push). It's not going to be problem for a 3600 or 3700x at stock, but most people seem to keep there systems for a long time and with AMD's cross-generational compatibility and cpu price depreciation it'll be more tempting to drop in upgrades rather than replace the system. 4th-gen Ryzen might also be power-efficient with no overclocking overhead so it might not even matter down the road, but when boards are within ~$15 of each other (as the Gaming Plus and TUF had been recently) I've been erring on the upper side.

150W is the 125 amp calculation in buildzoid's vid, which is 18 watts from the VRM, split between two heatsinks. That's warm but not exactly blazing. The mosfets are well-heatsinked, buildzoid is complimentary of the heatsink MSI used as actually functional rather than a dumb chunk of decorative metal. (tl;dr on that whole vid is basically "the VRM is cheap but I like it".)

Stickman posted:

It's possible that I'm off on my longevity assumptions, too - there's really no hard data to go off of because no one's done a well-designed longevity study :/
Capacitors are extremely well-studied in longevity, and those are the main thing that's got a lifespan limit on the mobo. They've got a rated temperature (105C for the ones used in important areas of mobos), a rated lifespan, and every 10C lower than the rated temp approximately doubles lifespan. End of life means they go out of spec, not turn into a pumpkin.

So 18-20W from the VRM area and 150W from the CPU, the important question is what does the rest of the system look like? An air cooler that keeps air moving around the general CPU zone & case with decent airflow? Hot put the caps are almost certainly below 75c. An AIO water cooler that leaves the CPU zone stagnant and a case setup where the AIO is the only thing getting fresh air? Maybe hot enough to reduce life from functionally infinite to "my 5 year old PC keeps bluescreening".

But even then, only if you run the CPU at full load a whole lot to generate all that heat for thousands of hours. And keep doing it for several years. The number of people with high-end CPUs, plus badly setup cases, plus folding enthusiasts, plus infrequent upgrades is probably very small.


It's true that $15-25 more on a $1k system gets a mobo with both the IO and a good VRM is a safe call ITT where you don't know what people are going to do or how they'll install things. But budgets are budgets, it's easy to spend an extra $20 on everything.

Tatsuta Age
Apr 21, 2005

so good at being in trouble


hello thread!

I got a 2700x based system from deals/info in this thread not too long ago. I got 16gb of memory in 2x8gb sticks (these: https://www.microcenter.com/product...-16gvkb---black) when I did. I want 32gb now, so I bought another identical set. These do not work with XMP any longer!

What's the easiest way to not step down from 3200mhz -> 3000mhz (which SEEMS to work, but haven't done load testing to make sure yet. it does boot though). Does it even matter that much performance wise? I'm mostly performance sensitive for gaming, but I do some virtualization/docker stuff pretty frequently, hence the desire for more ram. Thanks!

Tatsuta Age fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jan 8, 2020

SL the Pyro
Jun 16, 2013

My soul cries out
with the desire to
FRACTURE
your puny spine.


what do you mean that hotkey disappeared
Thanks guys. I think I have a good baseline. You all may now lay into me for how bad I did.

quote:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/rkrPzN

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($490.95 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste ($9.99 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($180.87 @ Vuugo)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($176.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Western Digital RE4 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($90.87 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Apevia X-Hermes ATX Mid Tower Case ($180.54)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($179.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($107.75 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit ($199.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($44.99 @ Memory Express)
Speakers: Logitech Z213 7 W 2.1 Channel Speakers ($39.88 @ Amazon Canada)
Custom: 5.25 USB 3.0 SATA All in 1 Front Panel Multi Card Reader HUB PCI-E PCIE ($37.99 @ Newegg Canada Marketplace)

Total: $1950.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-07 21:11 EST-0500
My budget is $3,000 give or take a hundred, so I'm not too irritated at some of the higher price points on the list, but I am open to less-pricy alternatives for some of these things. Bare in mind this isn't a finalized list as I won't be getting these parts until three months from now, the only thing I need urgently is the graphics card to use in my old PC for the time being.

You might've noticed, however, that the video card is not listed. That's because I cannot decide on a good card to use, for two reasons:

1) My screen is a VGA using a DVI-I converter, and many new cards use DVI-D or DisplayPort. Am I forced to get a new converter, or worse, a new screen?
2) The price-points on recent cards are still godawful, even with the $1,000 buffer in my budget, so I have zero idea what will give me the most bang for my buck.

Again, thanks in advance for the help!

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
If you're spending $3k on a new computer I personally feel it'd be worthwhile to invest in something more recent than a monitor with VGA. You can get some amazing deals on new monitors if you look around.

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Tatsuta Age posted:

hello thread!

I got a 2700x based system from deals/info in this thread not too long ago. I got 16gb of memory in 2x8gb sticks (these: https://www.microcenter.com/product...-16gvkb---black) when I did. I want 32gb now, so I bought another identical set. These do not work with XMP any longer!

What's the easiest way to not step down from 3200mhz -> 3000mhz (which SEEMS to work, but haven't done load testing to make sure yet. it does boot though). Does it even matter that much performance wise? I'm mostly performance sensitive for gaming, but I do some virtualization/docker stuff pretty frequently, hence the desire for more ram. Thanks!

This is a nearly unavoidable consequence of going from 2 to 4 sticks in most systems. The most common memory layout for mobos is daisy chain, where the wires for slot 2 are connected directly behind slot 1. This makes memory very easy to qualify in a 1-stick-per-channel setup, but means that when 2 sticks are in a channel they have very slightly different timing (due to the speed of electricity between slot 1 & 2).

the alternate method is T topology which looks like a T, of course. it's better for 4 sticks, but worse when you have 2 sticks. and more expensive on the mobo.

Things that might work:
1. apply more voltage to the DIMMs

2. try CAS 18 at a variety of speeds -- 3200 should work but you might be able to bump it slightly higher. whether this is faster due to improved bandwidth or slower due to more latency is very task-dependent.

3. take the 3000 and call it a W because the performance difference is very minor

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Tatsuta Age posted:

hello thread!

I got a 2700x based system from deals/info in this thread not too long ago. I got 16gb of memory in 2x8gb sticks (these: https://www.microcenter.com/product...-16gvkb---black) when I did. I want 32gb now, so I bought another identical set. These do not work with XMP any longer!

What's the easiest way to not step down from 3200mhz -> 3000mhz (which SEEMS to work, but haven't done load testing to make sure yet. it does boot though). Does it even matter that much performance wise? I'm mostly performance sensitive for gaming, but I do some virtualization/docker stuff pretty frequently, hence the desire for more ram. Thanks!

Going 4x sticks vs 2x can be less cooperative. I'd pop in the new kit separately to make sure it can hit it's rated speed alone. If not, return it, if it can just shrug - the performance difference will be extremely minute.

Demostrs
Mar 30, 2011

by Nyc_Tattoo

SL the Pyro posted:

Thanks guys. I think I have a good baseline. You all may now lay into me for how bad I did.

My budget is $3,000 give or take a hundred, so I'm not too irritated at some of the higher price points on the list, but I am open to less-pricy alternatives for some of these things. Bare in mind this isn't a finalized list as I won't be getting these parts until three months from now, the only thing I need urgently is the graphics card to use in my old PC for the time being.

You might've noticed, however, that the video card is not listed. That's because I cannot decide on a good card to use, for two reasons:

1) My screen is a VGA using a DVI-I converter, and many new cards use DVI-D or DisplayPort. Am I forced to get a new converter, or worse, a new screen?
2) The price-points on recent cards are still godawful, even with the $1,000 buffer in my budget, so I have zero idea what will give me the most bang for my buck.

Again, thanks in advance for the help!

Not only do I agree with GunnerJ that you should just buy a new monitor, there's no reason to get an Intel processor for a monitor that's certainly just 60hz (or basically at all, for that matter).

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($249.99 @ Memory Express)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler ($60.23 @ Amazon Canada)
Thermal Compound: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut 1g 1 g Thermal Paste ($5.59 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($143.95 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($192.95 @ Mike's Computer Shop)
Storage: HP EX920 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($142.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital RE 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($125.00 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Canada Computers)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($44.99 @ Memory Express)
Total: $1200.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-07 23:36 EST-0500

Even a 3600 will be excessive for what you're currently trying to drive, but with the significant savings you should just get something that doesn't use VGA anymore. The stock thermal paste will probably be better than Arctic Silver if you don't wanna buy a tube, but if you care that much Kryonaut is the new gold standard. I also don't see the point of getting internal optical drives (especially a Blu-Ray one, do you have an especially large collection or something? If you do, don't you already have a home theater set-up to watch movies?) and readers nowadays, but I did at least choose one of the few cases that still includes multiple 5.25" bays and is still pretty good. Also, you get the evergreen advice of just getting a key for Windows from one of the SAMart vendors selling them!

Demostrs fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jan 8, 2020

The Hausu Usher
Feb 9, 2010

:spooky:
Screaming is the only useful thing that we can do.

Demostrs posted:

Hmm, to me, it feels like you could do a killer build for only 800 pounds. The 3600X really isn't much faster than a 3600, and the 3600 is a low enough price that you don't have to skimp on a case or PSU getting it.

PCPartPicker Part List

Syenite posted:

It's worth considering the 3700x over the 3600. A bit more expensive, but markedly better performance on encoding. And it doesn't sound like you need a beefy GPU, so it should be doable at or near your budget.

Stickman posted:

Here's what I'd start with:
PCPartPicker Part List

Mu Zeta posted:

Maybe consider a 2700x instead to save some cash. 8c/16t for like $150 when it was on sale last month.

Just wanna thank y'allfor the replies, including delivery I've spent just over £900 which I can live with. I did go for the better graphics card, didn't get the cooler but I think that's something I can add at some point. Is it a just noise issue or will it also effect performance? Should I look out for anything and can I get away with it until my income becomes better in 6 months? This will be my first build, I did notice PCpartpicker say the motherboard might not be compatible with my CPU but from reading around the web it seems I should only worry if it was produced a while ago, what do you guys think? Appreciate the replies, thanks.

SL the Pyro
Jun 16, 2013

My soul cries out
with the desire to
FRACTURE
your puny spine.


what do you mean that hotkey disappeared
I see the wisdom in just getting a new screen since I have the budget for it. On the other hand, I could (and probably should) get a VGA-to-(whatever input I'm gonna use) converter, as that would be a lot cheaper and this screen still suits my needs perfectly otherwise. That, and to get a brand new screen with my setup would mean getting a new desk to accommodate it, which I'd rather not have to do yet.

I don't know much about thermal paste brands, I only picked Arctic Silver because I think that's what I used last time I built a PC. I'll trust your judgment though.

Unfortunately, I do actually need an optical drive and a card reader, as I do not own a Blu-Ray player (which means my computer is where I watch them even if my collection isn't very big) and I manage quite a few SD cards (either my own or my Mom's), though I will definitely look into cheaper options. Admittedly the SATA plug-in w/ power at the front of that media dashboard was what drew me to it, as it would make it very easy to transfer my stuff from the old hard drives to the new ones.

It had not occurred to me to use SAmart to see if I could get cheaper deals on any of this stuff. I'll definitely look into that.



Thanks for all the advice, guys. It's going to be a few months before I actually start building the new PC (and thus I'll probably pick my parts better by then), but I now know enough to pull the trigger on the graphics card and get my games back online.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
don't use VGA I'll find you a monitor with DVI (or whatever you need but come on)

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E
My world for a pair of 24" Sony trinitons tho :discourse:

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



It's me again, being in GPU dilemma for a month now.
For a €150,- price difference, 1660 Super or 2060 Super. I narrowed it down to those two, I think.

Ebola Dog
Apr 3, 2011

Dinosaurs are directly related to turtles!

Zedd posted:

It's me again, being in GPU dilemma for a month now.
For a €150,- price difference, 1660 Super or 2060 Super. I narrowed it down to those two, I think.

To perhaps add to the dilemma you can get a 5700 xt for the same price or less than a 2060 super unless you really want nvidia.

TacticalHoodie
May 7, 2007

Is the only use case for 32gb of ram still productivity tasks? I am trying to talk my friend out of upgrading his ram from 16GB as he is convinced that he needs it for Cyberpunk 2077 and he only uses his pc for gaming.

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Whiskey A Go Go! posted:

Is the only use case for 32gb of ram still productivity tasks? I am trying to talk my friend out of upgrading his ram from 16GB as he is convinced that he needs it for Cyberpunk 2077 and he only uses his pc for gaming.

A. Yes

B. Buying things, especially ram, to run a game whose specs haven't even been announced yet is a stupid, stupid thing, and I would get on your friends case for being dumb.

eames
May 9, 2009

Whiskey A Go Go! posted:

Is the only use case for 32gb of ram still productivity tasks? I am trying to talk my friend out of upgrading his ram from 16GB as he is convinced that he needs it for Cyberpunk 2077 and he only uses his pc for gaming.


Some games are starting to use 16GB, consoles with 16GB are out soon, the cyberpunk tech demo ran on a 32GB system and analysts expect RAM prices to rise again.

You are right in that he probably doesn't need 32GB for that one title but there have been worse times to splurge on RAM.

CordlessPen
Jan 8, 2004

I told you so...
Really quick question: I'm looking for a RAID1 option for external storage and need some help finding an enclosure. I found a few HDD enclosures with hardware RAID support, but I'm getting A LOT of feedback on how they kill drives or corrupt data. Almost everyone I talked to suggested a NAS, with the Buffalo LinkStation 220 seemingly everyone's favourite (or best value, at least). To be honest, I'm not against the idea, but I feel like I'd be overdoing it since I don't need ethernet or anything a NAS has over a simple enclosure, plus the 8TB sku is only sold by third party sellers (I'm in Canada) and I'd MUCH rather have easy recourse if something breaks.

Have you guys used a reliable 2-bay USB 3 enclosure? Should I go with software RAID? Is the NAS my best option?

Thom P. Tiers
May 29, 2008

Red Birds
Red Ass
Red Text

SL the Pyro posted:

Thanks guys. I think I have a good baseline. You all may now lay into me for how bad I did.

My budget is $3,000 give or take a hundred, so I'm not too irritated at some of the higher price points on the list, but I am open to less-pricy alternatives for some of these things. Bare in mind this isn't a finalized list as I won't be getting these parts until three months from now, the only thing I need urgently is the graphics card to use in my old PC for the time being.

You might've noticed, however, that the video card is not listed. That's because I cannot decide on a good card to use, for two reasons:

1) My screen is a VGA using a DVI-I converter, and many new cards use DVI-D or DisplayPort. Am I forced to get a new converter, or worse, a new screen?
2) The price-points on recent cards are still godawful, even with the $1,000 buffer in my budget, so I have zero idea what will give me the most bang for my buck.

Again, thanks in advance for the help!

As mentioned already, if you have a $3K budget, put some into a new screen. Buy a Ryzen chip.

You also seem to have your mind in the past a bit (as in, maybe you aren't entirely up on the new technology because you haven't paid attention since your last build) based on the questions you asked (dual graphics cards, using VGA connectors, asking about quad/dual channel RAM). This isn't meant to be an insult, it's fine if you don't pay attention to that stuff. But this thread is very up to date on everything and pretty knowledgeable about building something that's going to last you a decent amount of time and do everything you want it to. I would definitely take its recommendations. If you have $3k and want to splurge a bit I would do this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($419.99 @ Memory Express)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($240.99 @ PC-Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($248.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($219.99 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card ($669.00 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($74.50 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.99 @ Canada Computers)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.95 @ Mike's Computer Shop)
Total: $2263.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-08 10:48 EST-0500

You can buy a Windows key from SA-Mart for dirt cheap. You also don't need a wifi card with this motherboard. Buy yourself a really nice monitor with the leftover money. You can probably save yourself a ton of money if you tell us what you intend to do with the new computer (gaming and resolutions or work). But if you really want to spend $3k, this is what I would do.

Scruff McGruff
Feb 13, 2007

Jesus, kid, you're almost a detective. All you need now is a gun, a gut, and three ex-wives.

BisonDollah posted:

Just wanna thank y'allfor the replies, including delivery I've spent just over £900 which I can live with. I did go for the better graphics card, didn't get the cooler but I think that's something I can add at some point. Is it a just noise issue or will it also effect performance? Should I look out for anything and can I get away with it until my income becomes better in 6 months? This will be my first build, I did notice PCpartpicker say the motherboard might not be compatible with my CPU but from reading around the web it seems I should only worry if it was produced a while ago, what do you guys think? Appreciate the replies, thanks.

Re: CPU Cooler, it's generally just a noise thing, it should cool the CPU sufficiently so long as you're not overclocking (and with 3000 series Ryzen chips you really shouldn't be bother with that anyway unless you're an OC hobbyist). The stock cooler can sound like a jet engine depending on the fan curves, CPU load, and ambient room temp. It's always something you can add later if you find it to be a problem.

The compatibility warning will show any time you pair a 3000 Ryzen chip with a B450 or X470 board. As you read, at this point most boards have had their BIOS's updated to support Zen2 (and if you got an MSI "Max" board then it's guaranteed to work). Check your box for a "Ryzen 3000 Ready" sticker or something like that when it comes in. If it turns out it's not then you have a couple of options. If you got an MSI board that has a BIOS flashback button then you can do a CPU-less BIOS update where you just have to download the new BIOS, put it on a flash drive, stick it in the specified USB port (check the manual) and it'll do the update for you. You can also check with any computer retail/repair shops around you, most will do that update for you for a small fee. Or you can try to use AMD's BIOS update support process where they send you an old FX chip to stick in the board to perform the update and then send the chip back to them.

CordlessPen posted:

Really quick question: I'm looking for a RAID1 option for external storage and need some help finding an enclosure. I found a few HDD enclosures with hardware RAID support, but I'm getting A LOT of feedback on how they kill drives or corrupt data. Almost everyone I talked to suggested a NAS, with the Buffalo LinkStation 220 seemingly everyone's favourite (or best value, at least). To be honest, I'm not against the idea, but I feel like I'd be overdoing it since I don't need ethernet or anything a NAS has over a simple enclosure, plus the 8TB sku is only sold by third party sellers (I'm in Canada) and I'd MUCH rather have easy recourse if something breaks.

Have you guys used a reliable 2-bay USB 3 enclosure? Should I go with software RAID? Is the NAS my best option?
I'd recommend the enclosure route if you know the NAS isn't something you'd get use from but I always feel like prices on NAS solutions are crazy high for what you get so I'm biased. My preferred drive peripheral vendors are Icy Dock, Mediasonic, and Sabrent but I should say I've never specifically used an external RAID enclosure from any of them so I can't speak to that.

Scruff McGruff fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Jan 8, 2020

upgunned shitpost
Jan 21, 2015

Stickman posted:

good stuff and things.

thanks for the feedback! upgrading from a 4570 to lasers and poo poo for $600cdn or so is too good to pass on. the psu kinda sucks for cable management, but it's got three years and change left on the warranty. it'll happen, definitely for something modular this time, but tossing it feels wasteful right now. same with the case... it... um... does case stuff. can't complain. I think I want to put in an mATX though, if only for more places to hide the wires. for a mid size case, it's kinda cramped and the board would sit almost flush with the psu, or does currently. never mattered, but it also doesn't need to happen. the smaller dimensions make for better housekeeping and I don't actually know what stuff like usb c is or why I'd need it.

looks like if I want a board that stays cool by nature, it'd be the msi gaming plus or bazooka, but that's a really dumb name so prolly not an option. still not really sure what vrm does, but I know they come with heatsinks and those are good. the aorus has better audio apparently, which is kinda more my jam. is there a standout 450m like the tomahawk? I read earlier that memory express will update the bios, so I've kinda been leaning on that when thinking about this. they seem close enough to everyone else price wise that picking it up seems easiest.

the m2 is absolutely ludicrous and I want it. three second boot times. for no reason! it's so loving cool. there's also an old kingston I can put in if I need way more ssd storage immediately. thanks for letting me bounce some ideas, appreciated.

upgunned shitpost fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jan 8, 2020

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



Zedd posted:

It's me again, being in GPU dilemma for a month now.
For a €150,- price difference, 1660 Super or 2060 Super. I narrowed it down to those two, I think.

Ebola Dog posted:

To perhaps add to the dilemma you can get a 5700 xt for the same price or less than a 2060 super unless you really want nvidia.
I have multiple reasons but I'd prefer Nvidia due to past experiences.

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

What monitor do you have?

Bank
Feb 20, 2004
Just throwing this out there, but I have an RX 5700 (non-XT) and I flashed it to the XT variant in about ten seconds. Seems to be running fine; it's a ~10% performance bump, but the power consumption does go up ~25%.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/flashing-amd-radeon-rx-5700-with-xt-bios-performance-guide/

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



ItBreathes posted:

What monitor do you have?
Some crappy-ish 1080p one, planning to get a Free/G-sync one down the line this year, most likely QuadHD. Just no good sales / prices on them atm.

Tatsuta Age
Apr 21, 2005

so good at being in trouble


Klyith posted:

This is a nearly unavoidable consequence of going from 2 to 4 sticks in most systems. The most common memory layout for mobos is daisy chain, where the wires for slot 2 are connected directly behind slot 1. This makes memory very easy to qualify in a 1-stick-per-channel setup, but means that when 2 sticks are in a channel they have very slightly different timing (due to the speed of electricity between slot 1 & 2).

the alternate method is T topology which looks like a T, of course. it's better for 4 sticks, but worse when you have 2 sticks. and more expensive on the mobo.

Things that might work:
1. apply more voltage to the DIMMs

2. try CAS 18 at a variety of speeds -- 3200 should work but you might be able to bump it slightly higher. whether this is faster due to improved bandwidth or slower due to more latency is very task-dependent.

3. take the 3000 and call it a W because the performance difference is very minor


ItBreathes posted:

Going 4x sticks vs 2x can be less cooperative. I'd pop in the new kit separately to make sure it can hit it's rated speed alone. If not, return it, if it can just shrug - the performance difference will be extremely minute.

cheers mates, it's seemingly pretty stable at 3000 now so I'll run prime95 overnight or something and if it doesn't crash just let it ride.

edit: yeah it's failing like crazy on memtest. I'll return the new sticks. Thanks again!

Tatsuta Age fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Jan 8, 2020

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Tatsuta Age posted:

cheers mates, it's seemingly pretty stable at 3000 now so I'll run prime95 overnight or something and if it doesn't crash just let it ride.

use memtest to test mem :hmmyes:

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E

Klyith posted:

use memtest to test mem :hmmyes:

memtest86 has always been there for me until recently when I tried to use it on an older 2P opteron workstation which caused it to immediately reboot after loading memtest 5.01. So something in the latest version was causing that older opteron system to freak out but luckily I was able to test the memory by going back a few version on memtest.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?

Bank posted:

Just throwing this out there, but I have an RX 5700 (non-XT) and I flashed it to the XT variant in about ten seconds. Seems to be running fine; it's a ~10% performance bump, but the power consumption does go up ~25%.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/flashing-amd-radeon-rx-5700-with-xt-bios-performance-guide/

I'm glad I searched through the comments on this because the brand I have (PowerColor) has some problem with it that seems to prevent returning to the stock BIOS, which is worth considering.

Bank
Feb 20, 2004

GunnerJ posted:

I'm glad I searched through the comments on this because the brand I have (PowerColor) has some problem with it that seems to prevent returning to the stock BIOS, which is worth considering.

Yeah in that case I'd probably just wait for the warranty to die out, then squeeze out more from the card before having to upgrade. There are also complaints about stock coolers not being able to cool it down, so definitely don't do this if you have a blower..

Elman
Oct 26, 2009

I'm building an AMD+Ryzen computer for gaming at the moment and I was looking into something like:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
RAM: 2x16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT BLS2K16G4D32AESE 3200 MHz

The graphic card will be a 6GB 1060GTX.

How does that look? That CPU/Mobo/RAM combo should play along well so I'll be able to simply turn on XMP to make the ram run properly, right?

Thom P. Tiers
May 29, 2008

Red Birds
Red Ass
Red Text
Based on you still using the 1060 6GB, you most likely can save $100 and get a 3600. You are going to notice like ~1% in terms of pure gaming performance from a 3600 to a 3700x.

As for the XMP, the RAM you chose isn't on the Aorus Elite QVL list. It will *probably* run fine but not guaranteed to hit XMP. You also probably don't need 32GB of the RAM.

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232195

This seems to be on the QVL and is faster speed.

What resolution or games are you running? Might give us a better idea of how to save you money and maybe clear some room for a newer GPU if you have a budget.

Elman
Oct 26, 2009

My plan is to upgrade the graphics card in a year or two, I figure it'll be enough for a while but I do need a new CPU at the moment. And yeah, you're definitely right that a 3600x seems like a much better idea.

I know 32GB aren't necessary at the moment but as someone mentioned earlier this page they might be as the new consoles start getting here, so I figured it won't hurt. Since I'm not planning to upgrade the GPU yet, paying a bit more for a CPU or RAM that will last longer is fine by me. If that's still not worth it I'm fine with getting 16GB, of course.

I play at 1080p, preferably 50-60fps. I'm not thinking of any games in particular, though I guess right now Cyberpunk and Monster Hunter World are the first ones that come to mind.

Elman fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 9, 2020

SL the Pyro
Jun 16, 2013

My soul cries out
with the desire to
FRACTURE
your puny spine.


what do you mean that hotkey disappeared
Alright, alright. I was going to trust the brands I used before, but I'll look into other brands if they're cheaper.

Thanks for picking out that graphics card. I browsed around for a while trying to find better deals, but this seems to be as cheap as recent cards get, so I'll go with this one.

I have one final stupid question: this is going to be compatible with my current Mobo, right? It's an ASRock z87 Extreme4. I ask because I'm noticing that while suppliers have plenty of replacement options, they don't have any refund options, so I want to make drat sure it's going to work in my system. There shouldn't be any spacing issues, I'm more worried about my Mobo telling me, "this card is too new for me, get a new Mobo".

SL the Pyro fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jan 8, 2020

Thom P. Tiers
May 29, 2008

Red Birds
Red Ass
Red Text
EDIT: I think I get what you are saying now after re-reading your previous post?? Yes, you can safely buy that GPU now and slot it in to your current build. I'm assuming you have a full tower now? You shouldn't have any size restraints.

Thom P. Tiers fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jan 8, 2020

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GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
Just want to say that I wish I'd checked this thread before buying the parts for my now completed build, which would have avoided certain errors like:

-Getting a 2700X because it was on sale and "more cores = better rite" instead of getting a 3600 or 3600X.
-Getting 32 GB of RAM that I haven't used more than 11 GB of and probably won't until this RAM is considered too slow/obsolete (following some questionable advice from a friend), which I can't even take full advantage of its speed because my CPU is 2nd gen.
-Getting a RX 5700 instead of springing for a 5700 XT (tho in fairness I think I was having a hard time even finding an XT online for some reason).

I've learned so much since I bought everything in November but while not optimal, I think I did pretty well for having been completely out of the loop for like 8 years. My last computer had a Phenom, lol.

Anyone just joining, listen to the goons in here.

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