PC Building V4 - "ok SSDs got cheap, now do RAM next" - Hardware & Software

It is so ridiculously hard to configure a decent build these days that isn't covered in edgy milspec patterns or gaudy LED arrays that STILL DON'T ALL SYNC TOGETHER IN 2018. Like, I'm okay with some RGB accents as long as they're not overpowering, but it feels like all the subtle stuff speaks entirely different languages, or have different quality LEDs that don't match correctly, or have different min and max brightness. It's a fucking mess, I hate it.

I suppose that wouldn't be awful depending on how far into bama the office is, and how often you go there. Hell I get most my packages shipped to my office but I'm also there probably most days of the week.

about an hour drive from here, but I only go every 2 weeks to pick up my check at the moment.

Gotcha Ill just wait till the new series comes out.

Probably a pricing error, but if you've got the sprae $150 and need/want a new monitor, this is apparently a thing... Viewsonic XG2560 24.5 WLED LCD Monitor 169 1 ms by Office Depot ..

Aaaaaand it's gone. Texted a supply chain contact for OD/OM about it (since I wanted to buy one directly, and my work has ties with the company), and apparently after word got out, they received "several hundred individual orders, for one each, via different Paypal accounts, within a very short span of time." In other words, the entire stock might've been bought by a scalper via a horde of Paypal bots. Congrats to any of you who actually got one. I'm just salty I can't buy stuff via CEP while still on the clock.

My dumbass went and bought a Logitech z623 system for $99 today. Should've deposited the cash and checked online for deals like that and ordered one... Feels bad, man. Don't get me wrong though, the z623 is AMAZING. Bass is too stronk for my tiny bedroom though. With it at 3/4 volume I could feel air under my desk moving around from the sub.

Yaay. Finally got refunded for all my purchased parts, time to go hunting for good prices on newer ones now I might grab a new PSU as well since the one I have is running pretty old - I found a decent price for a Seasonic S12II-430W , which should work just fine for my build (Ryzen 5 2600 w/ a 1060 6gb, shouldn't pull more than 300W with all the shit attached to it)

I think a 520W should run a bit more efficiently at that load. If it's not a significant price increase, i'd recommend it.

Damn, that 2TB looks pretty appealing as a new primary drive. 400TBW endurance isn't terrible either; that's what my 1TB SATA drive is rated at, and after over a year of decently heavy use it's not even down to 99% yet.

400TBW is a lot for a system drive. My Corsair 240GB SSD's that I used nonstop since 2012 with lots of caching and pagefile had like 90TB written. drives are much more reliable than people give them credit for.

Just checked on that ADATA 1TB drive I got for $150. Has a rating of 800TBW. That's insane to me.

A lot of the stigma with SSD longevity comes from early ultralights like the OG MacBook Air, which used 32 or 64GB SSDs with maybe 1-2TBW endurance tops There were some particularly heavy users that wound up with dead drives in under a year. Even with improvements to SSD tech, those people will always fear them now.

This is actually a pleasant surprise. The write ratings on the 1/2TB aren't bad, and the 500GB isn't catastrophic either. They're still far above today's trash tier SSDs. I'm still worried it's going to halt and catch fire like the 600p does when the SLC cache is filled, though. I get the feeling they've worked around this with that dynamic sized SLC cache, which isn't the best solution. The reviews are a good sign, but i wouldn't trust those drives before someone does benchmarks with the drives nearly full to see what happens when the SLC cache is small. Also: 200$ for 1TB isn't bad for MSRP, but it's not particularly difficult to get 2TB SATA drives for 250-300 right now. I rarely see Intel drives go below their MSRP before it's too late to be worthwhile, so i don't see sales fixing that anytime soon. Considering NVMe is pointless for consumer workloads, i'm not too enthusiastic from the price alone. I guess Intel pricing it at 200$ is a good sign of things to come, though.

There is a coworker of mine who falls into the "enormous distrust of solid state" camp, and some of the things he's apparently said on the matter are pretty funny in hindsight "The iPhone doesn't use a hard drive? Are you kidding me? They've been in iPods for years!" -Circa 2007 "Hard drive miniaturization will kill flash storage dead, just wait." -Circa 2009 "These new phones use disposable storage and that's ridiculous, people will wise up eventually." -Circa 2010 "The fact they're putting this unproven tech in so many laptops, pushing it to so many people, should be cause for concern." -Circa 2013 "Under no circumstances should you ever trust your OS to an SSD, unless you don't mind it disappearing one day." -Circa 2016 "WD slowing production doesn't mean a damn thing, hard drives are still dominant, and always will be." -Circa 2018

I can't wait to get charged sales tax for online purchases in a state that doesn't have sales tax at all when retailers just start to blanket charge random taxes on everyone. The new Corsair 400C is a pretty slick case, it looks a little larger and it's still a mid tower. You really don't need a full tower unless you have like a E-ATX or need the space for drives, water cooling parts and other stuff. Mid towers for the most part have grown a little as long as you get a higher end one, they're nowhere near as cramped as like the Antec 900 and cases from back when. I have a Noctua NH-D14 which I had to cut part of my side panel from the Antec 900 to fit and have fit extra length cards like the 5870 into my 450D which will not fit in micro atx mid towers. There's also an insane amount of really good case offerings out there, I really love the Fractal Meshify cases. As far as building it slowly, I would go video card > modular psu and or case > cpu cooler > ryzen cpu/mobo/ddr4 > m.2 ssd. Ivy bridge still holds up really well although anything without hyperthreading is at a disadvantage. Sliding a modern video card into it is going to make the largest difference overall. Next upgrading the aesthetics of it in a way that you feel better about it after putting your hands on it again will either cement an upgrade sooner or make you feel more content with it in the meanwhile as you save up. At the same time you can choose to switch to a modular PSU like any of the Seasonic or EVGA offerings or continue using the one you have until you have finished buying everything else. PSU's definitely do go bad and with how insanely good "budget" enthusiast PSU's have got lately it would be a really good idea. While it's unlikely for any meaningful wear or damage to occur even if you were to use that power supply on new hardware for it's entire lifespan. You can get some of the best power supplies ever manufactured(and modular too) for under $100 with 10 year warranties now. I wouldn't think twice about using your PSU with a brand new system I spent $1000 on though. I would open up some hardware monitoring software and check what voltages your motherboard is getting on the 12v, 5v and 3.3v. If your voltages drop or move around a ton during stress tests, just replace it for peace of mind. I was using a Thermaltake Toughpower 750W from 2006 up until last year when I got a Seasonic Focus+ 850W, voltages are like dead constant now and I actually doubt the fan even kicks on during normal use.

A heads up for people looking to build a PC in the US. I'd try to buy your parts now before the prices jumps up from the Chinese tariffs on PC components. Making Electronics Just Got 25% More Expensive In The US | Hacka..

$200+ for 16gb of RAM ahoy

keep looking at monitors the choice is either cheap trash or expensive trash wtf why does noone make a good middle of the range monitor. im willing to compromise on a lot of features since its pretty much required unless you want to pay 2k for 4k/hdr/144hz that doesnt even have the bandwidth to support its featureset, maybe im blind but i cant find a 1440/75hz+/VA or better for a reasonable price

27" CHG70 Gaming Monitor with Quantum Dot Monitors

ok thats quite a nice monitor

HDR kind of sucks right now, even on the highest end. Don't buy in yet.

That model is a weird unique model that I literally cannot find on Samsung's product list :V I'd go with the known models. ☝️✅

i think its this https://displaysolutions.samsung.com/business-monitor/detail/1285/C27JG52

I have it (the 30 inch since it was like 30 or 50 more and why not) and its pretty nice. It looks good the VA panel has really really nice colors and pretty great blacks. I don't use HDR since I have a 970 and that doesn't support the proper input so can't say much about it. The only negative is the black smearing which isn't too bad, but with alot of sharpening it can be noticeable. But overall I think its a good monitor if you can find it discounted even better.

Okay, so my Ryzen 5 2600X is idling around 50C and realistic benchmarks push it past 80C. That's with every fan in the system running at 100% speed, including 2 140mm intakes. Are these normal temperatures, or do I need a new cooler? I thought the Wraith Spire was supposed to be pretty decent.

XF2 sucks up any remaining headroom. So high idles aren't uncommon.I have my 2700x on an NH-D15 and on max fanspeed it will hit 85c under synthetic loads. Zen+ is smart, I wouldn't worry. If it's hitting the proper speeds under full load it's fine, IMO.

It boosts to about 3.9-4.0 GHz at 80C. It only boosts to 4.2 in short spikes.

Base clock and spec'd TDP is 3.6 and 95W respectively. For a box cooler, hitting 3.8-4.0 (does depend on the workload) is pretty great. Aftermarket coolers are basically always going to perform better, if you want 4.0-4.2 all-core, you're going to be pumping like 130-150 Watts of power into the package, and so you'll need a cooler capable of doing that comfortably.

Use HWINFO to look at the total package power. It's likely you're pushing just so much total power through the cooler versus the cooler being bad. My 2700x can at peak push 180watts through the entire package.