Klyith posted:

The 3700X/x570 is overkill if you're a frequent upgrader and expect to do this again in a few years, less so the longer you plan to keep it. Probably you'd be fine with a B450 board like the gigabyye b450 aorus pro wifi. Main thing that gets downgraded with a B450 is only 1 m.2 slot and using it disables 2 sata ports. If 1 nvme drive and 4 sata drives will be enough for your storage needs, go with that.

The intel 660p is a QLC drive. They're fast for games & light apps, but slow down as it gets full. If you are going to a microcenter, I suggest you should instead get an Inland Premium drive (the microcenter house brand) for $10 more. Those are good TLC drives that have no caveats.

The stock wraith prism is a decent cooler, but it still isn't a quiet one when the CPU has load. If you care about noise while playing games or such a full tower cooler is justified. OTOH you don't need the arctic silver, stock coolers come with pre-applied thermal compound.


Those components will easily fit in a mid-tower, there's not much justification for full towers these days unless someone is a storage packrat and still has a bunch of 3.5" drives.

H110Hawk posted:

For Windows 10 - is there some kind of Win 7 -> Win 10 upgrade shuffle that can make that cheaper?

The REAL Goobusters posted:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-socket-am4-usb-c-gen2-amd-motherboard/6382716.p?skuId=6382716

https://www.newegg.com/msi-b450-tom...wE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Looks like it’s available at bestbuy And Newegg right now

Klyith posted:

I just look at newegg, they've got good filters and carry almost everything that's good. If you want to avoid glass then the selection is limited unfortunately. Glass is what's in.

If you want two 5.25 drives, I'd grab the last of the Fractal R5s rather than a full tower. They're good cases for fit & finish.

Klyith posted:

The Phanteks P400A is also frequently pointed to ITT as being good + slightly cheaper than Fractal. P300A is also good if you want the smallest possible full ATX case and don't mind a difficult build (buy an extra fan or two because it only comes with 1).

But like, do you have anything you're looking for besides "a case with good airflow"? Cost? Size? Glass vs no glass? Because a lian li O11 dynamic has good airflow despite no mesh front, but it's huge and expensive and weighs 20 pounds.

Klyith posted:

The be quiet Pure Base 500DX might be a good one to consider, though it only has 1 USB 3 type-A port on the front (plus a C). It hits most of your bullet points other than that (including captive screws).

Otherwise, you could get a P400A for a fair bit less cash, or wait for the Lian Li Lancool II.

Any USB 3 type-A port is the same, the version number is determined by the controller. There's no difference between a case that has "USB 3.0" or "USB 3.2" printed on it but the label.

USB C is different, I believe you need the ones that terminate in the new special gen 2 header to get gen 2 speeds.

OTOH

If this is what's making you less sold on the Meshify C, you should know that the angled stealth-fighter stuff on the mesh panel is a lot less noticeable IRL than in the product photography. It's still there, but it doesn't jump out at you nearly as much. Store and even review pictures amp up the contrast by using lighting angles that show it off.

Fabulousity posted:

It's up to you how to go about building it. You can plug the CPU and RAM into the motherboard and try starting it up with everything sitting on the desk first, but make sure the motherboard is sitting on a clean, non-conductive surface - If in doubt set it on top of the anti-static bag and foam block it was packed with. With the B450 Tomahawk there is a group of error indicator LEDs just above the ATX power connector. With the CPU and RAM in if you power it up you'll be looking for the "no video" LED to turn on, or if you did install a video card for this test then you'll want to see the "no boot device" LED turn on. If you get one of those expected errors then you should be good to go. If you get some other error like no CPU, no RAM, or no power up at all then it's troubleshooting happy fun time.

Agent355 posted:

If the paperclip test doesn't get a PSU to spin up that fucker is dead and there's nothing to do about it.

Klyith posted:

Re USB C: do you have anything that needs a usb C port yet? Even phones that have a C charge port on them generally come with a cable that ends with type-A on the other side for now. If I was you I'd just forget it exists until I had something to plug into it, and then decide what to do.

Klyith posted:

Re RBG light strip: if you plug in the sata power connector, you should be able to cycle through basic colors & patterns with the light button on the panel.

GeorgieMordor posted:

Hmm, interesting. That is a very good point. Is it still worth partitioning them if I went with a single?

Might be silly but I do like the physical separation of my boot drive from apps, though maybe that's just an uncessary habit left over from using HDD for so long?

That Works posted:

Also, for the video card, I was looking at 2060 Supers vs 5700, I don't need the system to be dead quiet, but quieter would be better and I would consider paying a little more if it helps that. The reviews for the card I chose were mostly agreeing how quiet it was, but a few of them talking about noise being a problem

mynnna posted:

Is this just that other manufacturers have caught up and Samsung isn't the unquestioned go-to anymore, so the (hysterical) premium isn't worth it?

e: this question probably says a lot about when the last time I bought an SSD was.

Some Goon posted:

Yes, you can put an SSD in a laptop, they use the same form factor. Just be sure to get a 2.5" drive, not an M.2 drive.

Task manager isn't reporting disk space usage but disk bandwidth usage. Either it's paging like crazy (and probably is with only 4gb of ram), or you're trying to load more things than the slow HDD can keep up with. Or something is bugged somewhere.

My advice: do both upgrades. 4gb of RAM isn't enough for Windows, and no one should have to use a hard disk in this day and age.

Chimp_On_Stilts posted:

I'm case shopping.

What ATX cases do y'all like the aesthetics of? I'm tired of drab black boxes.

I'm wondering if I can find a case with the following:
- Separate chamber for routing cables (I'd like to keep the main chamber uncluttered)
- No optical drive bays (I don't need 'em, reduces clutter, maybe even allows the case to be smaller)
- Large aesthetically pleasing window
- Hard to shatter (I have pets who might, for example, knock something off my desk onto the case - so no tempered glass tops)
- No dumbass "we tried to make it look like a Ferrari" weird angles, big openings, etc. (Example of one such case I think is hideous)
- Front or top USB and USB-C connectors

I realize aesthetics are extremely subjective, so I'm fishing for opinions.

Also, what are some case features you have enjoyed and which aren't obvious things to shop for? Anything to add to my list above?

So far, I think I like this Fractal Meshify case, but that's after a pretty casual search. I also wish it was available in more than white and black. I'd like to see more options.

Klyith posted:

Good drive, and just over $200 is about as cheap as 2TB TLC drives get on any regular basis. Unless "not urgent" extends all the the way to like black friday or something, I'd just get that.

OTOH as a secondary drive a QLC SSD has a lot fewer downsides, especially if used for games & file storage type jobs. Right now the samsung QVO is on a $175 deal at bhphoto which is some moderately decent savings (and the first time I've seen that samsung at a price I'd consider recommending it).

Mu Zeta posted:

I have the 1tb version and love it. It's a workhorse.

Samadhi posted:

How are the be quiet! case fans/products in general? I am trying to make my new build fairly quiet, and with the Fractal Meshify C case I was going to get 2x 140mm fans for the front, and possibly replace the stock fans the case comes with. I was also looking at their CPU fans, possibly the Dark Rock 4, as well.

Eugene V. Dubstep posted:

PCIe wifi adapters: any particular recommendations?

tuyop posted:

Took the thread’s advice and catproofed my power button.

Gearman posted:

Pilfered Pallbearers posted:

I/O plate. They're typically sharp as gently caress. Some manufactures include a "NOT SHARP I/O PLATE" as part of their marketing.

feedback loop posted:

Linear spacebar is more important than heavy spacebar imo

tango alpha delta posted:

posting with a decade old i7-2600k with 16 GB RAM that i've extended the usable lifetime on by installing an SSD and a 1070 GTX Ti.

i'm looking to upgrade to a new rig that does a lot of heavy lifting; i own and use some very CPU and GPU intensive software like Maya, Premier Pro, ZBrush and Unreal Engine.

would this thread recommend Intel or AMD? I'm still leaning towards Intel at the moment.