PC Building Thread V6 - "running six RGB controller utilities at once" edition
999 replies, posted
Bloody fuck, me and my friend got done with the flooring in my room and hallway, when I discovered a leak coming from my bathroom wall. A few hours later tearing the bathroom apart, cleaning it up and a trip to home depot, now my computer build budget is now a bath room remodel budget.
vv
How crucial is ECC ram to something like Unraid? I know it's a good thing for ZFS FreeNAS applications, but is it worth it for unraid?
I'm planning on running it as a NAS, media server (Emby), and also running virtual machines on the go whenever I can be bothered
My Build plans are:
Fractal Node 304 case
Ryzen 3700x
16/32gb ECC/Non ECC
OS on a Nvme drive
6 x 10TB HDD's
500W PSU
Maybe a better low profile CPU fan, but dunno if necessary, is the ryzen cooler good?
i9 9900K for $80, seems like bullshit but for that price and with ebay buyer protections...
I almost want to try?
I saw that a little while ago. seems it's been taken down.
the account seems reputable otherwise, probably someone else got into it.
1st time i've seen this m2 ssd cards, and wow they're tiny
I got the impression that they were a lot larger from LTT:
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/458919/bf95952b-2b15-4d6b-a368-4b08418ec07f/tiny.jpg
Anything can look bigger than usual in Linus' hands 👀
Finally caved and got a Surface Go, cover and pen, the whole nine yards. Really enjoying it so far, I got the upmodel with double the RAM and a proper SSD, and am pleasantly surprised how polished and snappy it feels for the price.
My only gripe... Win10S. I mean, it's fine, I'm giving it a chance and it's a lot less limited than I thought it would be, but I do want GIMP and it's not in the store. Is there a tangible performance hit for disabling S mode on the Pentium Gold? Some reviews I read complained that it starts to chug once you lean too far into Win32 territory with pro stuff, but there are no apples to apples comparisons for things like boot times and general responsiveness.
Installing programs from other sources wont hurt the overall performance of the device, as long as you don't have a bunch of them starting up with windows and running in the background.
I've seen quite a few videos about people setting up budget builds by using something like an Optiplex i5 as a base and slapping a fairly OK GFX card in there to get it "gaming" worthy.
What's the pros and cons with this? Because an Optiplex i5 does seem like a stable base to build from.
Pros:
Cheap
Relatively good
Cons:
Not great
Can't upgrade all of the parts, you're locked to that motherboard and therefore socket so CPU upgrades are limited, PSUs are often proprietary.
Not every pre-built will even have a free PCI-E connector (or two) for a GPU so you're limited to cards that can draw from PCI-E slots.
Not every pre-built even has a PCI-E slot on the board.
And the case might only support low-profile or single-slot cards.
You really have to do your research before buying anything.
If you're looking for an Optiplex, you want an Optiplex MT or "Mini Tower". It can be kind of rough since Ryzen is extremely competitive in pricing. I would recommend looking for one which uses a standard ATX power supply and is equipped with a motherboard that takes standard 24-pin power and not just a single 8 pin like many do. Then you just shove a decent power supply into it along with a really nicely priced GTX 970 or other used budget card. Although RX 570's are really good value and Polaris cards can be found used for about the same price of $100 too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-9010-MT-PC-Core-i7-3770-3-40GHz-8GB-RAM-No-HDD-NO-OS-WIN-7-Pro/283427421680
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817151228
https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-240GB-Solid-SA400S37-240G/dp/B01N5IB20Q/
Sapphire nitro+ rx 480 8g video card | eBay
Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 570 4GB GDDR5 PCI
You'll have to be careful with video card length or you'll need to remove the drive cage, which I personally would probably do anyways just to mount a front fan in the case to make it suck less then velcro or 3m double sided tape your SSD to the bottom of the case. As far as a HDD, you can always pick up a 3.5" to 5.25" drive bay adapter and stick it up top. I did that with my Corsair 450D, the hard drive is a lot louder with top radiator vents but it's only used for file storage and game storage.
Also, thoroughly search your local used options. I've seen them go local to me for half what they do on ebay. There's a lot of videos advertising how cheap used workstations are so there's decent demand and they can either inflate the prices or make them move really fast so it's hit or miss. Dells aren't the only option either, they're just one of the most common, easiest to find and easiest to understand naming schemes.
I just did this with an old Athlon II system I had, just for shits and giggles. Problems I ran into mostly involved the fan connectors, as Dell has their own connectors that you can use with off the shelf fans, but you'll have to break off the plastic keying around the pins to connect them, and figure out the pin outs by trial and error. I also moved the mobo to a Corsair case, so I had to figure out the pinout of the front panel headers and rig that (which wasn't trivial because dells' headers are both thinner gauge and use proprietary keyed connectors. You also don't get anything useful in your BIOS.
Big bonus to the whole operation is that you can find optiplexes with higher-end core iX -s skus for either very cheap or free in the case of decommissioned towers.
The only two things I'd really need that aren't in the store are GIMP and maybe Chrome. Think either of those would be much of a drag on the 8GB/SSD model?
So going back to a post I made a bit under a month ago, once Zen2 launches I'm planning on replacing most of my 3570k-based system for something that I'm hoping will carry me a good few years down the line.
CPU: Ryzen 3600X/3700X - I'm leaning more towards the latter for the sake of longevity.
Motherboard: ATX or mATX, depending on the case and what solution works best for me. Would be one of the boards launched alongside Zen3, not sure what manufacturer to consider.
Cooler: Not sure whether to go with the stock cooling or get an AM4 bracket for my CM 212 Evo, also not sure if it would even fit
RAM: 16GB - with Ryzen the higher frequency is the better, so probably 3000/3200MHz?
PSU: I was thinking a 750W modular PSU, Seasonic - would be going off the LTT Tiers thread
GPU: At the moment I've two cards on hand, an ASUS Strix Vega 64 and a GTX 1080 Founder's Edition. Former's in the middle of RMA because of some display issues I've been having with it so might even wind up getting a refund for that, the 1080 I got for the cost of £180 via some black magic and trickery with the local CeX. I'm not sure in the long run (depending on if I'm able to sell up the spares or no) whether it would be worth picking up AMD's high-end Navi offering, would hinge on whether or not it can match/exceed RTX 2070-2080 performance. I recently picked up an Acer Nitro VG270U 1440p 75Hz screen and will probably stick with that indefinitely, not interested in 4K or spending further on a 144Hz screen at this point so it'd be whatever can meet that for the next few years.
Case: I'm hoping to downsize from the Fractal R4 I've had and grab a case which could ideally fit the underside rack on my desk which measures at the bottom railing a width of approximately 217mm. Did consider the NZXT S340 Elite but I've heard they have shite airflow at the frontal intake. Fractal Meshify C/Meshify C Mini have my attention as the main two candidates but I didn't know if there might be something similar to look into too?
SSD: Might get another SSD to complement the current storage I have, just looking for general suggestions.
Go with whicever one has 8 cores. The next gen consoles will have 8 zen3 cores so you want at least that.
mATX boards are generally kinda awful, I would definately stay clear of them until indepth reviews are out.
MSI's400 series boards were pretty good, but they might completely cheap out to cash in on the goodwill they got.
Frequency wont matter as much on zen2 iirc, but 3000-3200 is usually pretty cheap so its worth getting.
Cooler master's new NR600 is pretty excellent if you get an extra 120 mm fan for it, seems to fit your desk too:
https://youtu.be/Sytapy-WNs8
Just my take on things, because it's dead at work RN.
Get at least 8 cores, IMO. It's the future.
ATX has a lot less pitfalls, and much better choice.
I prefer ASUS's super high end boards, so probably what will be the Crosshair VIII Hero.
For mid-tier ($100-200) I recommend ASRock for AMD boards. Their BIOS and documentation are a bit wonky, but they expose all the knobs and dials if you want, and have solid hardware, especially for the price.
Gigabyte is ok, somewhat dumbed down BIOS, good quality boards.
I can't stand MSI for AMD, totally useless BIOS.
If you have the money the Dark Rock Pro 4 is good, but might have clearance issues if you use a small case. Honestly I'd hold off until we know the thermal situation with Zen 2, and the case you pick.
I recommend 2x8GiB 3200MHz.
Seasonic, EVGA, and Superflower or Delta PSUs are all good, always go fully modular.
Unlikely, but ultimately depends on the motherboard onboard sound solution.
NVMe OS drive, I rep Samsung 970 Pros because I'm sick and like the best when it comes to storage.
I have 2x970 in SLI. Would it be worth it to upgrade to 2070? I feel like not many games use SLI anymore, and I have to lower my settings a lot for newer games. Doesn't help I play with a 2560x1080 144hz screen.
Here's my current specs:
Intel I7-4790k 4ghz
ASUS Z97-E LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III (And some other ssd and harddrive)
My plan this year is to build an entire new system with a 2070 but I might be good with just a new gpu for a while. I did however buy most everything in 2014/ early 2015.
Wait for Navi.
4ghz is also the base clock for the 4790k, you should be able to bring it upto 4.5-4.6ghz. The only 4790k I got to mess with was unstable above the turbo clock but I figure it was just a dud like my i7-920 was. Those were really the start of the K-skus being significantly closer to the limits of the silicon and the death of the 1ghz+ overclocks that you could see with older hardware.
Mkay, guess I'll keep saving for an entire new build later this year.
I never overclocked my CPU because my system usually handled everything pretty well. I'll give it a shot now I guess.
Should I RMA the motherboard in my cube PC over the broken off pin on the USB 3.0 header, or should I just sell the PC with the knowledge that that is an issue leading to one of the two USB 3.0 front panel ports to not work? I fucking hate it now but I'm in a crunch for some extra cash thanks to needed remodeling of my house.
It's a pretty minor issue. Doubt most people would care
I don't even have usb 3.0 headers on my motherboard, I had to buy an pci-e card when upgrading from an Antec Nine Hundred since they hadn't standardized that header yet when they made X58 motherboards. If one header isn't enough for somebody, I'm sure they can either buy a splitter or a $10 card from somewhere.
Dumb idea but maybe you could jam a pin into the plug and let it push into the contact where the pin is broken off?
Can't, when the pin broke it was a bitch and a half to try and take out of the header itself, so I got mad and flipped the case upside down and shook it a few times. I didn't want it making contact with anything else on the motherboard if it did get out somehow, so yeah. The whole reason I'm iffy on it is because it's an M-ITX board with only the one 3.0 header, with only one PCIE x16 slot being occupied by the graphics card, so there is no expandability through adapter cards unless I wanted to take out the NVME 970 pro OR the graphics card, which I don't with either.
It's only the one fucked up front USB input, while the motherboard has 4 3.0 and 2 3.1 USB inputs so in reality, 7 USB 3.* inputs to choose. Maybe I was overthinking it a bit.
Maybe a larger pin that could stay jammed into the plug?
Yeah, that's pretty rough. I'd just list it up as is then say it doesn't work, you don't know why and you ended up wanting something larger.
I mean it's worth a shot, I have old PC's I can snip a pin from and try.
You could probably do it with a piece of wire, a paper clip, ect. Maybe a front panel header pin, or some jumper pin. Anything that would actually stay in the plug might work as long as it touches.
Bent a USB 2 header pin out of an old motherboard and "placed" it where the missing pin is.
It fucking works god damn.
Being that the only game in recent memory to get a SLI profile was Anthem, I'd bet they're trying to kill it off. Would love to see async compute become more of a thing tho
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