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Rabid Snake
Aug 6, 2004



I have a WD Red hard drive that is approaching three years of use. I use it to store media, downloads, and the occasional big game (looking at you Warzone).What's the recommended program to check the health status of the hard drive?

Also, I wanted to start using Nvidia shadowplay with this hard drive instead of on my SSD. I was also wondering if the constant writing from game recording would significantly increase the chance of failure of the HD. If it's minimal risk than that is fine.

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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.

Constant paranoia. Crystal DiskInfo will give you it's S.M.A.R.T. data which will let you know if it's detecting problems, but drives are perfectly capable of failing without reporting any S.M.A.R.T. issues. 3 years isn't long enough I'd be concerned, but anything important should be backed up from day 1.

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

Rabid Snake posted:

I have a WD Red hard drive that is approaching three years of use. I use it to store media, downloads, and the occasional big game (looking at you Warzone).What's the recommended program to check the health status of the hard drive?

Also, I wanted to start using Nvidia shadowplay with this hard drive instead of on my SSD. I was also wondering if the constant writing from game recording would significantly increase the chance of failure of the HD. If it's minimal risk than that is fine.

I noticed that HWinfo64 gives a drive 'life' % that you could maybe use in a broad strokes sense. Although my WD Red doesn't give that value, at least there is a drive warning box. Take a look:



Shadowplay on your HDD shouldn't really impact the drive (I don't think) compared to something like a raid array where it's constantly being rewritten on. I do wonder though about a WD Red drive not being allowed to idle or w/e, I think it has features that make it optimized for chilling out. I assume you mean shadowplay where it's constantly recording the last x min? You could always have that temp file on the SSD and then have it write to the HDD (I think).

Rabid Snake
Aug 6, 2004



Some Goon posted:

Constant paranoia. Crystal DiskInfo will give you it's S.M.A.R.T. data which will let you know if it's detecting problems, but drives are perfectly capable of failing without reporting any S.M.A.R.T. issues. 3 years isn't long enough I'd be concerned, but anything important should be backed up from day 1.

Good to know, I'll download Crystal DiskInfo

VelociBacon posted:

I noticed that HWinfo64 gives a drive 'life' % that you could maybe use in a broad strokes sense. Although my WD Red doesn't give that value, at least there is a drive warning box. Take a look:

Awesome, I didn't realize HWInfo64 had that ability.

VelociBacon posted:

Shadowplay on your HDD shouldn't really impact the drive (I don't think) compared to something like a raid array where it's constantly being rewritten on. I do wonder though about a WD Red drive not being allowed to idle or w/e, I think it has features that make it optimized for chilling out. I assume you mean shadowplay where it's constantly recording the last x min? You could always have that temp file on the SSD and then have it write to the HDD (I think).
You're correct on it constantly recording the last x minute. I'm not too worried about the HDD not being idle because it only records when playing games. But looking at drive remaining life on my SSDs, I might as well just put a temp file on a SSD.



Thanks!

Rabid Snake fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Oct 9, 2020

Chuu
Sep 11, 2004

Grimey Drawer
I have a Monoprice dual-monitor gas spring setup right now with two 24" monitors. You've seen them before, it's this one:



I want to upgrade one of the monitors to a 30" which weighs 16.20lbs. The specs say the stand can only support monitors that weight up to 14.3lbs.

Will I likely be ok even though I'm about 2 pounds over the max weight, or am I going to need a new stand?

Chuu fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Oct 11, 2020

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Chuu posted:

I have a Monoprice dual-monitor gas spring setup right now with two 24" monitors. You've seen them before, it's this one:



I want to upgrade one of the monitors to a 30" which weighs 16.20lbs. The specs say the stand can only support monitors that weight up to 14.3lbs.

Will I likely be ok even though I'm about 2 pounds over the max weight, or am I going to need a new stand?

I don't know for sure, but I'd probably try it in case the monitor's weight includes the stand or power supply or something.

Chuu
Sep 11, 2004

Grimey Drawer

Rexxed posted:

I don't know for sure, but I'd probably try it in case the monitor's weight includes the stand or power supply or something.

It doesn't, 16.2lbs. is explicitly stated as the "mount weight" without the stand in the specs.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

I mean, you already have the stands so it can't hurt to try before you buy new ones.

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

Worst case scenario OP just stick something under the arm to hold it up while your new arm ships.

Moo the cow
Apr 30, 2020

Are helium balloons an option?

xtal
Jan 9, 2011

by Fluffdaddy

FCKGW posted:

I mean, you already have the stands so it can't hurt to try before you buy new ones.

Unless it falls and smashes? I wouldn't exceed the recommended weight. It might not fail immediately but it will make it more likely to fail over time.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
I'm in the market for a new monitor, and I'm noticing that you can pick up a 24-inch monitor for 1920x1080, and then it goes all the way up to a 32-inch that's still advertised as a 1920x1080.

I understand that with the better monitors comes higher refresh rates, and support for adaptive sync, and the difference in bezels and maybe if the panel is curved, but if I'm fine with a 60 Hz screen and none of the gaming bells and whistles, what's the difference with getting a larger monitor if the resolution is going to be the same? The bigger monitor, at the same resolution, will look like it has larger text?

xtal
Jan 9, 2011

by Fluffdaddy

gradenko_2000 posted:

I'm in the market for a new monitor, and I'm noticing that you can pick up a 24-inch monitor for 1920x1080, and then it goes all the way up to a 32-inch that's still advertised as a 1920x1080.

I understand that with the better monitors comes higher refresh rates, and support for adaptive sync, and the difference in bezels and maybe if the panel is curved, but if I'm fine with a 60 Hz screen and none of the gaming bells and whistles, what's the difference with getting a larger monitor if the resolution is going to be the same? The bigger monitor, at the same resolution, will look like it has larger text?

Check out the OP in the monitor thread for details on this.

Saukkis
May 16, 2003

Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

gradenko_2000 posted:

I'm in the market for a new monitor, and I'm noticing that you can pick up a 24-inch monitor for 1920x1080, and then it goes all the way up to a 32-inch that's still advertised as a 1920x1080.

I understand that with the better monitors comes higher refresh rates, and support for adaptive sync, and the difference in bezels and maybe if the panel is curved, but if I'm fine with a 60 Hz screen and none of the gaming bells and whistles, what's the difference with getting a larger monitor if the resolution is going to be the same? The bigger monitor, at the same resolution, will look like it has larger text?

The best reasons for those are if you have a very bad vision or if you just want a large screen for gaming. At work we had one older professor who used a 50" TV as his monitor.

TOOT BOOT
May 25, 2010

It's probably the same people that used to run their desktop at 800x600 15 years ago.

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

TOOT BOOT posted:

It's probably the same people that used to run their desktop at 800x600 15 years ago.

yeah altho 15 years ago over a third of people were running below 1024x768 so its not exactly shocking

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

I imagine it's very different in different socioeconomic climates. Brazil probably has a lower resolution average than the UK, but maybe an equal number of computers or more.

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

I know this isnt the exact right thread but I tend to post tangentially related questions in threads where I actually know some of the posters soo;

do i need to worry about signal "loss" or whatever for a 3.5 aux cable being extended by 20 feet?

also, what could i be looking at to easily manage switching my headset from being used on one computer to the other? so, basically, headset+mic combo <<< splitter <<< PC1 + PC2(W extenders). if such a thing exists with the ability to switch USB periphs too thatd be worth considering as well

im basically running cables to be able to use one computer in two different rooms. so far its working perfectly and i think that would be the final piece

Geemer
Nov 4, 2010



I'd be more worried about it picking up interference that'll get into your audio than signal loss for such a short distance.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe
I’ve noticed that the power saver power profile on my desktop brings the CPU temps down by like 6-15C (from 45-55C to <40) and keeps things extremely quiet. It also basically never bounces around, it just stays at a stable like 38C. I have a Ryzen 3600/AMD 5700XT build. Hyper 212 cooler.

I haven’t really noticed any issues with performance during office tasks in this profile and I ran Cinebench and it gave me a score of 3415. With the Ryzen Balanced plan I got 3650. Is that ~7% performance hit really the whole compromise of power saving? Is there anything wrong with running in power saving all the time except when I play games?

Is there any way to fully automate the switch? I made a couple of autohotkey scripts to switch between the two modes, is there any way to have it identify a given set of programs as a game and switch to the balanced/high performance profile?

Fame Douglas
Nov 20, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Geemer posted:

I'd be more worried about it picking up interference that'll get into your audio than signal loss for such a short distance.

Yep, if you're running close to other cables even way shorter runs will pick up interference.

tuyop posted:

I’ve noticed that the power saver power profile on my desktop brings the CPU temps down by like 6-15C (from 45-55C to <40) and keeps things extremely quiet. It also basically never bounces around, it just stays at a stable like 38C. I have a Ryzen 3600/AMD 5700XT build. Hyper 212 cooler.

I haven’t really noticed any issues with performance during office tasks in this profile and I ran Cinebench and it gave me a score of 3415. With the Ryzen Balanced plan I got 3650. Is that ~7% performance hit really the whole compromise of power saving? Is there anything wrong with running in power saving all the time except when I play games?

Is there any way to fully automate the switch? I made a couple of autohotkey scripts to switch between the two modes, is there any way to have it identify a given set of programs as a game and switch to the balanced/high performance profile?

Your fan profile is probably set up too aggressively, as is the default with most mainboards if your CPU cooler isn't quiet in Balanced.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Trying to put together a new build:

* I seated two memory sticks into the motherboard slots
* I seated the Athlon 200GE CPU into the socket. I knew the CPU was working as recently as July of this year
* I put some alcohol on the IHS, waited a few minutes, then wiped-off the dried thermal paste with a kitchen towel
* I took the basic AMD box cooler and did the same procedure on the business-end to remove the dried thermal paste on that one
* I applied some new thermal paste, mounted the cooler, and plugged the cooler into the motherboard's fan header
* I went over to the case, and mounted the PSU and the I/O shield
* I screwed the motherboard onto the case's standoffs
* I plugged-in the 24-pin power connector, and the 4-pin power connector
* I plugged in just the two pins for the case's power switch
* I plugged in the PSU into the wall
* I plugged in a monitor and a keyboard

I press the power button, and nothing happens

I violated my own best-practice by not bench-testing the motherboard outside of the case first, so I take the motherboard out of the case, and try to run it just resting on top of the motherboard's cardboard box. I figure this might be a way to isolate if there's some kind of short between the motherboard and the case. Nothing happens.

I use an external power switch to isolate if it's the (brand-new) case's power switch that's the problem. Nothing happens.

I use a PSU tester to verify that the PSU works, and it does. I even already know this because I was using the PSU back in July

I've never tested the memory before, but I figure that if it was bad memory I should at least see the CPU fan start spinning, or that I should get a POST

The problem has got to be the motherboard, right? I've got a few more things I could try, but since I already knew the PSU was good, and I already knew the CPU was good, and if it was bad memory I should have gotten SOMETHING to happen, and I don't want to throw another couple hours into troubleshooting this thing if I've already done my due diligence.

I guess my other question is, could I have killed the motherboard myself due to bad handling?

* I didn't test outside the case first
* the I/O shield was fitted badly. I had to take it off after I realized I couldn't plug into the HDMI port with it on because it was so out-of-alignment. Could the bad alignment, or not having it on at all, have caused a short?
* the power cord I was using for the PSU had the third prong for ground removed. In retrospect that was real dumb, especially since I had a spare with all three prongs, but I could've sworn I was using the same cord when I was tinkering with a build in July

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

gradenko_2000 posted:

Trying to put together a new build:

* I seated two memory sticks into the motherboard slots
* I seated the Athlon 200GE CPU into the socket. I knew the CPU was working as recently as July of this year
* I put some alcohol on the IHS, waited a few minutes, then wiped-off the dried thermal paste with a kitchen towel
* I took the basic AMD box cooler and did the same procedure on the business-end to remove the dried thermal paste on that one
* I applied some new thermal paste, mounted the cooler, and plugged the cooler into the motherboard's fan header
* I went over to the case, and mounted the PSU and the I/O shield
* I screwed the motherboard onto the case's standoffs
* I plugged-in the 24-pin power connector, and the 4-pin power connector
* I plugged in just the two pins for the case's power switch
* I plugged in the PSU into the wall
* I plugged in a monitor and a keyboard

I press the power button, and nothing happens

I violated my own best-practice by not bench-testing the motherboard outside of the case first, so I take the motherboard out of the case, and try to run it just resting on top of the motherboard's cardboard box. I figure this might be a way to isolate if there's some kind of short between the motherboard and the case. Nothing happens.

I use an external power switch to isolate if it's the (brand-new) case's power switch that's the problem. Nothing happens.

I use a PSU tester to verify that the PSU works, and it does. I even already know this because I was using the PSU back in July

I've never tested the memory before, but I figure that if it was bad memory I should at least see the CPU fan start spinning, or that I should get a POST

The problem has got to be the motherboard, right? I've got a few more things I could try, but since I already knew the PSU was good, and I already knew the CPU was good, and if it was bad memory I should have gotten SOMETHING to happen, and I don't want to throw another couple hours into troubleshooting this thing if I've already done my due diligence.

I guess my other question is, could I have killed the motherboard myself due to bad handling?

* I didn't test outside the case first
* the I/O shield was fitted badly. I had to take it off after I realized I couldn't plug into the HDMI port with it on because it was so out-of-alignment. Could the bad alignment, or not having it on at all, have caused a short?
* the power cord I was using for the PSU had the third prong for ground removed. In retrospect that was real dumb, especially since I had a spare with all three prongs, but I could've sworn I was using the same cord when I was tinkering with a build in July

Is the RAM on the mobo QVL? Can you test with other ram? Have you tried using just 1 stick and moving it between slots to see if it works? Not having ground for your PSU is insane. Are you using the grounded cable now?

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

VelociBacon posted:

Is the RAM on the mobo QVL? Can you test with other ram? Have you tried using just 1 stick and moving it between slots to see if it works? Not having ground for your PSU is insane. Are you using the grounded cable now?

I didn't try messing with the RAM sticks because I couldn't get any sign of activity, not even the CPU fan spinning. I packed it all up and made this post to brainstorm for some ideas in the meantime because I was getting frustrated and was liable to do something rash.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

gradenko_2000 posted:

Trying to put together a new build:

* I seated two memory sticks into the motherboard slots
* I seated the Athlon 200GE CPU into the socket. I knew the CPU was working as recently as July of this year
* I put some alcohol on the IHS, waited a few minutes, then wiped-off the dried thermal paste with a kitchen towel
* I took the basic AMD box cooler and did the same procedure on the business-end to remove the dried thermal paste on that one
* I applied some new thermal paste, mounted the cooler, and plugged the cooler into the motherboard's fan header
* I went over to the case, and mounted the PSU and the I/O shield
* I screwed the motherboard onto the case's standoffs
* I plugged-in the 24-pin power connector, and the 4-pin power connector
* I plugged in just the two pins for the case's power switch
* I plugged in the PSU into the wall
* I plugged in a monitor and a keyboard

I press the power button, and nothing happens

I violated my own best-practice by not bench-testing the motherboard outside of the case first, so I take the motherboard out of the case, and try to run it just resting on top of the motherboard's cardboard box. I figure this might be a way to isolate if there's some kind of short between the motherboard and the case. Nothing happens.

I use an external power switch to isolate if it's the (brand-new) case's power switch that's the problem. Nothing happens.

I use a PSU tester to verify that the PSU works, and it does. I even already know this because I was using the PSU back in July

I've never tested the memory before, but I figure that if it was bad memory I should at least see the CPU fan start spinning, or that I should get a POST

The problem has got to be the motherboard, right? I've got a few more things I could try, but since I already knew the PSU was good, and I already knew the CPU was good, and if it was bad memory I should have gotten SOMETHING to happen, and I don't want to throw another couple hours into troubleshooting this thing if I've already done my due diligence.

I guess my other question is, could I have killed the motherboard myself due to bad handling?

* I didn't test outside the case first
* the I/O shield was fitted badly. I had to take it off after I realized I couldn't plug into the HDMI port with it on because it was so out-of-alignment. Could the bad alignment, or not having it on at all, have caused a short?
* the power cord I was using for the PSU had the third prong for ground removed. In retrospect that was real dumb, especially since I had a spare with all three prongs, but I could've sworn I was using the same cord when I was tinkering with a build in July

Sounds like a bad motherboard, but there's no way to tell if you did it or it came that way, really. I'd do a CMOS erase just to be sure and try different ram slots but I've had stuff get hung up on ram problems and the cpu fan still spun, it just wouldn't go any further. Unfortunately these days it seems like stuff often arrives DOA.

A Proper Uppercut
Sep 30, 2008

I've got an MSI B450m. I've got two non-pwm case cans plugged into the two sys_fan headers on the motherboard. In the bios they are both set to exactly the same settings. One of them spins all the time like it should, the other will spin up at boot but then won't spin at all after that. I'm kinda lost, any ideas?

Edit: updated the bios and that fixed it, fuckin hell.

A Proper Uppercut fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Oct 18, 2020

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
Should I feel dumb for getting a B550 instead of X570 when I upgraded? As it stands I’m on:

Ryzen 7 3700x
RTX 3080 FE
Samsung NVMe (PCIe 3)

I made a mistake in thinking the b550 chip had PCIe 4 cpu support but I’m not sure if the performance drop is enough to care or notice until I go to zen3 eventually.

ufarn
May 30, 2009

Rolo posted:

Should I feel dumb for getting a B550 instead of X570 when I upgraded? As it stands I’m on:

Ryzen 7 3700x
RTX 3080 FE
Samsung NVMe (PCIe 3)

I made a mistake in thinking the b550 chip had PCIe 4 cpu support but I’m not sure if the performance drop is enough to care or notice until I go to zen3 eventually.
The only draw of PCIe 4.0 right now is more lanes rather than faster speed.PCIe 4.0 storage devices will be somewhat expensive, and it remains to be seen how much companies will capitalize on it. It's not even supported by Intel yet.

Saves you from the scourge of motherboard fans and oversized heat shields.

Features like DirectStorage and RTX IO are more about better compression-decompression of assets, and who's to say how much PCIe 4.0 speeds will even be utilized by games when PCIe 3.0 SSDs will be the bottleneck for devs anyway.

Saving money now instead of spending something that will become relevant at some point in the future isn't the worst way to spend your money. Ask yourself when you are even likely to upgrade your storage anyway, too.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
That’s kind of my spending mentality but I’m pretty shaky on gen 3-4 differences and tech Jesus still goes over my head a little bit while I’ve been catching up.

My Samsung Evo m.2 SSD is absolutely great at the moment and has plenty of life left, I’m not planning on upgrading that to 4.0 anytime soon. The b550 (if I’m understanding correctly) also already supports the 4.0 capabilities of my 3080, so all I’m giving up are 4.0 cpu lanes that my processor supports.

I wasn’t sure if that performance drop (if there is one) is worth the trade-offs that my current motherboard is silent without the extra cooling and also is already installed.

If it’s not a “no stupid why did you get that motherboard” easy decision I’ll probably just chill with it and my money.

ufarn
May 30, 2009
There is no - current - performance impact of PCIe 4.0 for the 30 series that I'm aware of. It just supports it because it might as well.

Here are some straightforward benchmarks: https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-rtx-3080-pcie-4-0-vs-3-0-scaling-analysis/all/1/

Here is an official quote by Nvidia: https://old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/ilhao8/nvidia_rtx_30series_you_asked_we_answered/

quote:

System performance is impacted by many factors and the impact varies between applications. The impact is typically less than a few percent going from a x16 PCIE 4.0 to x16 PCIE 3.0. CPU selection often has a larger impact on performance.We look forward to new platforms that can fully take advantage of Gen4 capabilities for potential performance increases.

I'd get PCIe 4.0 just because - and because I take like ten years to do a full upgrade - especially as adding new M.2 drives gobbles up PCI lanes, but I also don't know what the price difference is. Motherboards can be pretty expensive.

Pros and cons and all, but for the purpose of gaming performance, as long as you don't take up too many PCI lanes from your GPU, you're probably fine.

The big question is DirectStorage and how it uses and requires PCIe 4.0, I don't have the expertise to give you something certain about that: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/09/08/pc-game-load-times-are-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-faster-thanks-to-microsofts-directstorage-tech/. But again, everything costs money, and is it a bigger performance bottleneck than something else you could spend money on to upgrade like, say, better cooling.

Going by the article, even Microsoft can't tell us if we need PCIe 4.0 for it.

ufarn fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Oct 19, 2020

repiv
Aug 13, 2009

There's no reason to think DirectStorage will require PCIe 4.0, it's using features of the NVMe protocol which long pre-date 4.0 but just haven't been exposed on consumer platforms until now. It'll take advantage of 4.0 speeds if they're there but it's extremely unlikely that cross-platform games will actually expect those speeds this gen, given the Xbox only has PCIe 3.0 speeds (technically it uses 4.0 but only over 2 lanes so it's equal to 3.0x4).

There's a significant price premium for 4.0 drives at the moment so I wouldn't bother unless you're doing a :homebrew: build.

repiv fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Oct 19, 2020

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?

Rolo posted:

I made a mistake in thinking the b550 chip had PCIe 4 cpu support
One of the PCIe slots, and one of the M.2 slots on a B550 board do support PCIe v.4, namely the ones directly connected to the CPU. The only significant difference between a B550 and x570 board is that you won't have PCIe v.4 slots coming off the chipset. Which model do you have?

As long as you don't stick your GPU in the secondary PCIe slot, your 3080 and your CPU speak PCIe v.4 with each other already.

Vir fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Oct 19, 2020

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Vir posted:

One of the PCIe slots, and one of the M.2 slots on a B550 board do support PCIe v.4, namely the ones directly connected to the CPU. The only significant difference between a B550 and x570 board is that you won't have PCIe v.4 slots coming off the chipset. Which model do you have?

It’s a Gigabyte B550m DS3H.

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?

Rolo posted:

It’s a Gigabyte B550m DS3H.
The top PCIe slot and the top M.2 slot are both PCIe v.4, so you didn't mess up in any way. If PCIe v. 4 becomes essential for performance in the future, just leave the top M.2. slot free for a v.4 drive.

B550 is a great choice for a microATX board, actually, since X570 is a bit overkill in terms of making room for everything on the board. For an EATX board, X570 makes more sense. The only possible disadvantage I can see is if you were planning on running bridge-less dual-GPU, in which case PCIe v.4 on both PCIe slots might be an advantage, but that is a very weirdly specific application which few games support.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
This is starting to make more sense. I’m trying to understand the mapping of lanes with respect to the CPU, GPU, storage and motherboard chipset.

It sounds like:

If I only care about the speed for the top m.2 and top PCIe slot (which is the case) that I’m totally 4.0 compatible and that I would only be bound strictly to 3.0 lanes if I wanted to expand further, which would require a 4.0 connection between the cpu and motherboard chipset, something I’d get with an x570 but don’t currently need.

Am I getting closer?

nitsuga
Jan 1, 2007

Only semi-related, but is an A520 motherboard socially acceptable? I’m thinking of an ITX build with one of these: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A520M-ITXac/index.asp

It seems to have everything I’ll need for a decent savings compared to a B550. I’d probably pair it with a 3600 for what it’s worth.

LRADIKAL
Jun 10, 2001

Fun Shoe

Rolo posted:

This is starting to make more sense. I’m trying to understand the mapping of lanes with respect to the CPU, GPU, storage and motherboard chipset.

It sounds like:

If I only care about the speed for the top m.2 and top PCIe slot (which is the case) that I’m totally 4.0 compatible and that I would only be bound strictly to 3.0 lanes if I wanted to expand further, which would require a 4.0 connection between the cpu and motherboard chipset, something I’d get with an x570 but don’t currently need.

Am I getting closer?

Let me make it simple. Don't worry about PCIE 4.0 AT ALL. In a few years it'll matter, and even then it'll be more about board topology and getting performance out of fewer lanes.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
I was just more or less curious at this point but I think I got it now. This diagram seems to back up my vague understanding of what the lanes between the cpu and chipset are used for.



I appreciate the explanations, Vir.

Rolo fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Oct 19, 2020

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?
You're welcome. That sort of block diagram does belong in the motherboard manual too, but it's not always included.

nitsuga posted:

Only semi-related, but is an A520 motherboard socially acceptable? I’m thinking of an ITX build with one of these: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A520M-ITXac/index.asp
Yes there are acceptable ITX A520 boards, because you can even turn on memory overclocking (XMP/D.O.C.P.) on A520 boards, and you only lose manual CPU overclocking which does nothing practical on Zen 2 CPUs anyway. That board even has a PCIe v.4 M.2 slot. The PCIe slot is v3 but as discussed earlier v4 isn't really necessary at the moment. v.4 will really come to its own when it comes to pushing more data through an x1 or x4 slot, but as that board only has an x16 slot anyway,.

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Pedestrian Xing
Jul 19, 2007

Anyone have a rec for a cheap (<$50 USD) USB microphone for general use?

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