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side_burned
Nov 3, 2004

My mother is a fish.

Alpha Mayo posted:

Kind of want a new airflow case.. with EXTRA BIG rear end FANS (200mm+).

Looking at Cooler Master H500 but is there anything else for the price ($120) that is similar to consider? https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-MasterCase-Mid-Tower-Controller/dp/B07DRVHBWK
Needs to fit a Noctua D15 (165mm+ clearance).

Thermaltake has the Commander series of cases which have 200mm RGB fans with mesh fronts and sale on Amazon for $110.

side_burned fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 24, 2020

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DieLaughing
Jun 27, 2005

We're in a shooting war. We need something to shoot with.

Stickman posted:

If you want to stick to air cooling, there's an "air" version of the O11 that does quite a bit better than the dynamic if you're sticking to air cooling and comes with stock fans. It seems like Adorama isn't actually out of stock like pcpartspicker claims. It still has smaller cpu clearance than most cases, though, so you'd need something less than <155mm like a Scythe Mugen 5.

I found that air model and I'm looking at the Scythe Fuma 2, looks like it has the same clearance as the Mugen 5.

nrook
Jun 25, 2009

Just let yourself become a worthless person!
I forgot to buy the most important component ever: an internal speaker.

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

DieLaughing posted:

I found that air model and I'm looking at the Scythe Fuma 2, looks like it has the same clearance as the Mugen 5.

The Fuma 2 is solid, too. It performs pretty similarly to the Mugen 5, though, just with the second fan giving a small amount of extra cooling potential in exchange for a small amount of extra noise. Either would be totally sufficient for a 3700x!

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

nrook posted:

I forgot to buy the most important component ever: an internal speaker.

Isn't it all just crappy piezo buzzers on the board today? It's been a looooong time since I saw a case with a real speaker (for PC speaker use, not an internal sound card connected one like in some business machines).

Canuckistan
Jan 14, 2004

I'm the greatest thing since World War III.





Soiled Meat
I have a Ryzen 2600x with stock cooler, but the ramping up and down noise is killing me.

After reading the last few pages, the answer is a Scythe Fuma 2? I'm not OC'ing hard, and squeezing every last % of performance is not that important to me. I'm using a full tower case so I should have lots of room.

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.

Alpha Mayo posted:

Kind of want a new airflow case.. with EXTRA BIG rear end FANS (200mm+).

Looking at Cooler Master H500 but is there anything else for the price ($120) that is similar to consider? https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-MasterCase-Mid-Tower-Controller/dp/B07DRVHBWK
Needs to fit a Noctua D15 (165mm+ clearance).

ONE OF US
ONE OF US


I love my H500 because big rear end fans are great. I'm not sure of any other cases running 200mm fans except the Thermaltake Commander that side_burned mentioned.

nrook
Jun 25, 2009

Just let yourself become a worthless person!

HalloKitty posted:

Isn't it all just crappy piezo buzzers on the board today? It's been a looooong time since I saw a case with a real speaker (for PC speaker use, not an internal sound card connected one like in some business machines).

The crappy buzzer is exactly what I'm ordering! The drat thing isn't providing video output, and I'm way too lazy to try to troubleshoot it without at least hearing the POST test beeps.

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Canuckistan posted:

I have a Ryzen 2600x with stock cooler, but the ramping up and down noise is killing me.

After reading the last few pages, the answer is a Scythe Fuma 2? I'm not OC'ing hard, and squeezing every last % of performance is not that important to me. I'm using a full tower case so I should have lots of room.

Nah, you don't need to go that far. Any heatpipe tower cooler is a massive boost over stock. The 120mm Arctic 33 is only $25 bucks right now and totally adequate.

A Fuma 2 is a hell of a cooler for $60, but the regular Mugen is easier to deal with and has plenty of cooling for a 2600. IMO the Fuma 2 and other dual-tower dual-fan setups like the Noctua D15 or Bequiet Pro are only worth it for people doing heavy OC or with the highest power CPUs.

Canuckistan
Jan 14, 2004

I'm the greatest thing since World War III.





Soiled Meat
Thanks. That's very helpful. As long as it's quiet then I'm happy.

Edit - speaking of quiet. Any idea if the continuous operation dual ball bearing fans are noisier than the regular non-CO fluid dynamic bearing? My system is my plex server, so it stays on 24/7. I'm likely way overthinking this, but perhaps the Freezer 34 CO might be a better fit. Same price as the Freezer 33.

Canuckistan fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Feb 24, 2020

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.
So I have been blueprinting a new thing and have came up with this budget build;
Country: EU
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($95.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($94.31 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 1 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card ($239.99 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $884.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-24 15:27 EST-0500

I could upgrade to 3600, but I feel that would be bottlenecking a lot. Rip my sorry rear end PoS concept to shreds.

Currently just playin 1080p stuff, no VR or streaming, mostly sims and strategy, no real need for modern AAA titles with Ultra settings at 4k right now.

El Perkele fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Feb 24, 2020

insta
Jan 28, 2009
I'm building a portable/"LAN box" style build. The case is a Mini-ITX that can fit single-slot GPUs and comes with a 250W PSU. My CPU is a 2400G. Are there any either bus-powered or 6-pin powered GPUs that will be substantially better than the 2400G's integrated graphics, and are also single-slot width? The side of the case is perforated so it can draw cool air, but there isn't enough space for a dual-slot card. I'm also running a B450 chipset, so I'm trying to match CPU & GPU performance without one seriously overrunning the other.

It can be full-height, just single-slot.

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.

A single slot 1650 would be your best bet, there appear to be a couple out there but I've never seen once benched, so I cant speak to any of their relative value. They're all going to be blowers though, so they won't be quiet if that's a concern.

orcane
Jun 13, 2012

Fun Shoe

insta posted:

I'm building a portable/"LAN box" style build. The case is a Mini-ITX that can fit single-slot GPUs and comes with a 250W PSU. My CPU is a 2400G. Are there any either bus-powered or 6-pin powered GPUs that will be substantially better than the 2400G's integrated graphics, and are also single-slot width? The side of the case is perforated so it can draw cool air, but there isn't enough space for a dual-slot card. I'm also running a B450 chipset, so I'm trying to match CPU & GPU performance without one seriously overrunning the other.

It can be full-height, just single-slot.
Everything from GTX 1050 (non-TI) / Radeon RX 560 / GTX 1650 is going to be noticeably faster than the 2400G/3400G APUs, even low-cost/"ITX" models that don't boost as high as the SKUs with huge-rear end coolers. Inno3D makes a GTX 1650 apparently that seems to do both (just one slot and no additional power connector) but I don't know if it's available where you are:

http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=509

insta
Jan 28, 2009
These are a pain in the dick to find. Might be easier to get a more standard card and watercool it at this rate smdh

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Dunno which part of EU you're in, but you may be able to find some 1TB NVMe drives for not that much more than you're paying for a 970. (Ex in france & germany, the 500gb 970 is 100E and a Sabrent Rocket or HP EX920 are 140E.) Samsung charges for their name these days.

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

insta posted:

These are a pain in the dick to find. Might be easier to get a more standard card and watercool it at this rate smdh

You might also want to consider just getting a Lian Li TU150 and a proper SFX psu instead. It’ll be more expensive, but it’ll be much, much easier to build and choose parts for, and it’s still very portable. Throw in a 1600 AF or 2600 instead of the 2400g.

insta
Jan 28, 2009

Stickman posted:

You might also want to consider just getting a Lian Li TU150 and a proper SFX psu instead. It’ll be more expensive, but it’ll be much, much easier to build and choose parts for, and it’s still very portable. Throw in a 1600 AF or 2600 instead of the 2400g.

This is my actual case: https://www.newegg.com/black-apex-mi-series-mini-itx-tower/p/N82E16811154091. I want to keep it because this case and I have history (I built my first Mini-ITX gaming rig in ~ 2006 with one), and it's a fun challenge.

piL
Sep 20, 2007
(__|\\\\)
Taco Defender
I will say I love my TU150, but I also love a good story.

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

insta posted:

This is my actual case: https://www.newegg.com/black-apex-mi-series-mini-itx-tower/p/N82E16811154091. I want to keep it because this case and I have history (I built my first Mini-ITX gaming rig in ~ 2006 with one), and it's a fun challenge.

Fun challenge and history are also good! :v:

Spuckuk
Aug 11, 2009

Being a bastard works



Got a fairly bog standard Ryzen 5 2600, 16gb RAM setup with 1080p monitors and a GTX 970 that's getting a bit old in the tooth

Whats a good GPU upgrade available EU-side that gives me the best bang for my buck at 1080p, and is it gonna be worth investing in a free/g-sync monitor to replace one of these ancient ones?

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.

Spuckuk posted:

Got a fairly bog standard Ryzen 5 2600, 16gb RAM setup with 1080p monitors and a GTX 970 that's getting a bit old in the tooth

Whats a good GPU upgrade available EU-side that gives me the best bang for my buck at 1080p, and is it gonna be worth investing in a free/g-sync monitor to replace one of these ancient ones?

1660S and not if you're playing at 60fps, as I would assume from the CPU and GPU.

Absorbs Smaller Goons
Mar 16, 2006

El Perkele posted:

So I have been blueprinting a new thing and have came up with this budget build;
Country: EU
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($95.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($94.31 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 1 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card ($239.99 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $884.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-24 15:27 EST-0500

I could upgrade to 3600, but I feel that would be bottlenecking a lot. Rip my sorry rear end PoS concept to shreds.

Currently just playin 1080p stuff, no VR or streaming, mostly sims and strategy, no real need for modern AAA titles with Ultra settings at 4k right now.

Here's my take on it:

Switch memory to this G.SKILL Ripjaws 3600 MHZ CAS 16 kit. Cheaper and faster.
Get rid of your samsung SSD and get this 1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME or alternatively go for a regular sata 6gb/s SSD, you probably wont see the difference. If needed get rid of the HDD to make up for the increase in price, and look for a deal later down the road for another 1TB SSD.
Get rid of the 750w PSU (even 550w will be overkill for your build but not worth it going lower) and get a nice Seasonic focus plus Gold 550W, 10 years warranty, fully modular, seasonic quality. And a bit cheaper to make up even more for the added NVME space.
You could use the money saved on the PSU to get the always recommended MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX instead of the Asus B450 mobo.

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.

Absorbs Smaller Goons posted:

Here's my take on it:

Switch memory to this G.SKILL Ripjaws 3600 MHZ CAS 16 kit. Cheaper and faster.
Get rid of your samsung SSD and get this 1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME or alternatively go for a regular sata 6gb/s SSD, you probably wont see the difference. If needed get rid of the HDD to make up for the increase in price, and look for a deal later down the road for another 1TB SSD.
Get rid of the 750w PSU (even 550w will be overkill for your build but not worth it going lower) and get a nice Seasonic focus plus Gold 550W, 10 years warranty, fully modular, seasonic quality. And a bit cheaper to make up even more for the added NVME space.
You could use the money saved on the PSU to get the always recommended MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX instead of the Asus B450 mobo.

Thank you!

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week
drat I didn't notice the Asus B450 Plus, that's not a good mobo. Definitely go with the tomahawk.

Absorbs Smaller Goons posted:

Switch memory to this G.SKILL Ripjaws 3600 MHZ CAS 16 kit. Cheaper and faster.
Get rid of your samsung SSD and get this 1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME or alternatively go for a regular sata 6gb/s SSD, you probably wont see the difference. If needed get rid of the HDD to make up for the increase in price, and look for a deal later down the road for another 1TB SSD.

That g skill ram is not on the QVL for a tomahawk max (or an asus B450 plus). Seems like plenty of people report that it does work at 3600, but the timings are likely trash. It's not guaranteed to do 3600.

The Sabrent Q is a QLC drive, which I would prefer not to have as my primary system drive. QLC drives have some downsides that need to be kept in mind. For example, they get slow when you fill them up enough that the SLC cache becomes smaller than your working data. IMO this is a bad recommendation compared to just getting a MX500 or WD Blue sata drive for the same price.

Klyith fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Feb 25, 2020

Fabulousity
Dec 29, 2008

Number One I order you to take a number two.

Klyith posted:

drat I didn't notice the Asus B450 Plus, that's not a good mobo. Definitely go with the tomahawk.


That g skill ram is not on the QVL for a tomahawk max (or an asus B450 plus). Seems like plenty of people report that it does work at 3600, but the timings are likely trash. It's not guaranteed to do 3600.

For what it's worth I'm running with that kit on a B450 Tomahawk Max and it seems to work just fine. Turned XMP on and forgot about it after that, it seemed to hit the advertised numbers. :shrug:

Leal
Oct 2, 2009
Got my brother's PC up and running good, thank you for the help goons. Not without problems though, my brother ordered a monitor with a dead pixel. Then his replacement also had a dead pixel :v:

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Fabulousity posted:

For what it's worth I'm running with that kit on a B450 Tomahawk Max and it seems to work just fine. Turned XMP on and forgot about it after that, it seemed to hit the advertised numbers. :shrug:



tRFC is a dump stat for mobo auto-detection, you could try stepping that down if you wanted to squeeze a bit more out of it. I'm not positive that ram will really perform much better than regular CL18 3600 despite the big cas 16 up front, but it's the same price as CL18 3600 ram so :shrug:


But I think it's good to recommend ram that's on QVL because I also have ram that's not on my mobo's QVL. Even though I've gotten it working quite well, it's just been a bit more of a pain to set and test everything manually. (I got C15-3000 to save like $15 versus C16-3200 back when Ryzen was still new and ram was expensive. I should have just spent the bucks.)

Ashex
Jun 25, 2007

These pipes are cleeeean!!!
My motherboard has been acting flakey and sometimes doesn't want to power on so I'm finally going to replace it.

Now I've got an Intel I7-3770 which I'd like to keep using somehow so I'm wondering if there is some crazy chance that I can get a modern Mini-ITX motherboard which will support it so that way I only have to buy a motherboard + ram immediately.

The rest of the system is a RTX 2080 and SSD so not a lot of hardware attached.

Ashex fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Feb 25, 2020

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.

Ashex posted:

My motherboard has been acting flakey and sometimes doesn't want to power on so I'm finally going to replace it.

Now I've got an Intel I7-3770 which I'd like to keep using somehow so I'm wondering if there is some crazy chance that I can get a modern motherboard which will support it so that way I only have to buy a motherboard + ram immediately.

The rest of the system is a RTX 2080 and SSD so not a lot of hardware attached.

Short of possibly some weirdo Chinese frankenboard made out of salvaged parts, nope. Fortunately, it's a terrific time for buying CPUs and you can get a 1600AF, a 6 core / 12 thread Zen+ processor for less than $100, just be sure it's it's AF model number and not the AE, which is regular Zen and not as good. If you can't find it a 2600 (which is the same part) goes for $100-110.

Ashex
Jun 25, 2007

These pipes are cleeeean!!!

ItBreathes posted:

Short of possibly some weirdo Chinese frankenboard made out of salvaged parts, nope. Fortunately, it's a terrific time for buying CPUs and you can get a 1600AF, a 6 core / 12 thread Zen+ processor for less than $100, just be sure it's it's AF model number and not the AE, which is regular Zen and not as good. If you can't find it a 2600 (which is the same part) goes for $100-110.

Can't say I'm surprised, I'll have to start doing my research then. I don't know if the 1600AF will cover my needs as I'm doing a mix of gaming and graphics design at 4K, the bulk of the gaming is with star citizen which the Intel CPU was always maxed out in (and it would be nice to not have that bottleneck anymore) and the rest of the time is was definitely breaking a sweat (I originally bought it to extend the life of the motherboard).

Fabulousity
Dec 29, 2008

Number One I order you to take a number two.

Klyith posted:

tRFC is a dump stat for mobo auto-detection, you could try stepping that down if you wanted to squeeze a bit more out of it. I'm not positive that ram will really perform much better than regular CL18 3600 despite the big cas 16 up front, but it's the same price as CL18 3600 ram so :shrug:


But I think it's good to recommend ram that's on QVL because I also have ram that's not on my mobo's QVL. Even though I've gotten it working quite well, it's just been a bit more of a pain to set and test everything manually. (I got C15-3000 to save like $15 versus C16-3200 back when Ryzen was still new and ram was expensive. I should have just spent the bucks.)

Found more info here. Apparently for reasons the BIOS doesn't pick up the tRC value from the XMP profile. I went into the BIOS and forced it from 85 to the 58 (tRP + tRAS) that the memory's profile listed and it seems to be working fine. At best that might mean an extra 1-2% of performance in specific conditions so if things get unstable I won't shed any tears having to go back to 85.

Edit: Initially I thought Trfc was tied to tRC and correcting the former would reduce the latter. Turns out that didn't happen so I guess it's time to grab Samwise and the one RAM kit and go trekking off to the Mordor-like lands of memory optimization hell.

An additional fun note: The MSI BIOS provides access to memory timing settings either through advanced system configuration or through the overclocking panels. The system config route provides all values in hexadecimal, wants all user provided values in hexadecimal which is fine, but provides the user with no way of inputting A-F hexadecimal values and won't convert decimal ones :thumbsup: The other way through the overclocking panel keeps everything decimal.

Fabulousity fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Feb 25, 2020

Submarine Sandpaper
May 27, 2007


Ashex posted:

Can't say I'm surprised, I'll have to start doing my research then. I don't know if the 1600AF will cover my needs as I'm doing a mix of gaming and graphics design at 4K, the bulk of the gaming is with star citizen which the Intel CPU was always maxed out in (and it would be nice to not have that bottleneck anymore) and the rest of the time is was definitely breaking a sweat (I originally bought it to extend the life of the motherboard).

I'd wager star citizen is optimized for Intel tbh.

Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it

Hi everyone, I could really use some help. My current computer is slowly dying (it's over 10 years old) and since I've always wanted to try building one up I figured why not go for it. Everything I've read says how easy it is but browsing the links in the OP got me really overwhelmed. The amount of options for everything is just staggering. I'm not really sure where to start or even what parts would be good for what I'm looking for.

The computer is for graphic design work (so a lot of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) with some light video editing. I do like to game occasionally, but don't need max settings. My budget is around $1200 but I could push it up to $1500.

Any help or a suggestion of where to start will be greatly appreciated!

Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Feb 26, 2020

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Submarine Sandpaper posted:

I'd wager star citizen is optimized for Intel tbh.

Star Citizen is optimized for mastercard and visa.

Fabulousity
Dec 29, 2008

Number One I order you to take a number two.

Chip McFuck posted:

Hi everyone, I could really use some help. My current computer is slowly dying (it's over 10 years old) and since I've always wanted to try building one up I figured why not go for it. Everything I've read says how easy it is but browsing the links in the OP got me really overwhelmed. The amount of options for everything is just staggering. I'm not really sure where to start or even what parts would be good for what I'm looking for.

The computer is for graphic design work (so a lot of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) with some light video editing. I do like to game occasionally, but don't need max settings. My budget is around $1200 but I could push it up to $1500.

Any help or a suggestion of where to start will be greatly appreciated!

Just spit balling a starting framework here:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($211.15 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.89 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.46 @ Amazon)
Total: $581.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-25 18:36 EST-0500

Ryzen 3600X and a B450 Tomahawk Max seems to be a go-to pairing for value that makes a jack-of-all-trades PC. You can also go with a Ryzen 3700 or 3700X since the extra two cores might provide some extra future proofing comfort. The 3600X comes with a heatsink and fan which are adequate but if you don't mind spending an extra $35-50 for an aftermarket tower cooler like a Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B or Arctic Freezer 34 you'll get something that performs better in every way and will be significantly quieter.

What to get for storage depends on your workflow. 500+ GB SSD of some type as the operating system drive paired with a mechanical 1+ TB drive for bulk storage would be the starting point, unless you already have some bulk storage setup for your work outside the existing PC?
Are you carrying over your monitor or are you looking for a new one? Are you getting one or more? Is there a resolution requirement? Sizes? Color accuracy?
For a video card something like nVidia 2060 Super or 2070 would probably meet your needs but I'm not sure what the go-to models are for those right now. Your monitor needs might also change what card would be most appropriate.
The above case is a thread favorite but there are lots to choose from. Do you have any special connectivity needs at the front of the case like USB type C, etc.?
For operating system if you're going Windows and not keeping the old PC you can carry your license over. Otherwise you can get a new license for cheap over at SA Mart rather than paying $100+ from Amazon or whatever.

Fabulousity fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Feb 26, 2020

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

Chip McFuck posted:

Hi everyone, I could really use some help. My current computer is slowly dying (it's over 10 years old) and since I've always wanted to try building one up I figured why not go for it. Everything I've read says how easy it is but browsing the links in the OP got me really overwhelmed. The amount of options for everything is just staggering. I'm not really sure where to start or even what parts would be good for what I'm looking for.

The computer is for graphic design work (so a lot of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) with some light video editing. I do like to game occasionally, but don't need max settings. My budget is around $1200 but I could push it up to $1500.

Any help or a suggestion of where to start will be greatly appreciated!

Puget Systems has some good benchmarks and recommendations for Photoshop (no inDesign or Illustrator, but I expect they'd be very similar). If you were relatively happy with a 10 year old computer, I suspect that your computer demands are low enough that you'd be happy with a 3600 or 3700x - a 3600x isn't worth the extra $40 over a 3600. Fancier processors are technically better, but we're talking about 2-10% reductions in processing time for hundreds of extra dollars. If you're not constantly running intensive filters or processing, the cheaper cpus should be fine.

If you work with large 500+ MB files or if you run a lot of programs simultaneously, you might want to consider 32GB of RAM.

You'll also want an NVidia graphics card because they tend to work better with Photoshop than AMD cards. A 1660 Super would also get you a pretty solid 60 fps at 1080p and maxed settings for most games on the market.

Even with the recent price increases, SSDs are cheap enough that I'd just get 1 TB for the main system drive. The Crucial MX500 is a good value.

Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it


Thanks for the framework! I've got a (relatively) new monitor that I'll be carrying over, and I have a ton of external storage that I back up my files on. No special connectivity needs for the case. An internal solid-state drive that's a least a terabyte is something I'm really looking at, as my current computer's hard drive is a mechanical at just half that capacity. Not terribly fun since I work in art/graphics-heavy publishing. I can almost feel myself growing older with how long it takes to access and move around large files.


Thank you for the link and recommendations! I wouldn't say that I've been happy with my current setup for the past couple years, but now that I'm working more from home it's age has become much more apparent and much less acceptable.

And thanks to both of you for being so helpful! This stuff is all so fascinating but a lot to take in all at once, especially for someone who doesn't have much technical knowledge.



I went through PC Part Picker and wound up with the below based off of Fabulousity's framework and some parts from Stickman. Does everything look ok? The website gave a warning about a BIOS update on some chipsets; does that apply to the parts I picked?

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($308.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.89 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($72.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($72.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($114.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB SC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($228.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.46 @ Amazon)
Total: $1143.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-25 22:15 EST-0500

I realize what's there is probably more than I need, but I'm willing to pay a little more if there's a significant performance increase from where the current computer is at now. As shallow as this might sound, I went with a different case because I like the design of it a lot.

Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Feb 26, 2020

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

The warning for CPU compatibility can be ignored.

Grab this memory instead. It's slightly faster, 2 sticks of memory are better than 4, and the price is only a couple dollars more.


Depending on the size of the videos & data you might work with, you might bet more out of an even bigger SSD than the 2 extra cores of the 3700X. I guess you don't do huge files if you get by with a 500gb HDD (:suicide:) now, and if you're sure that won't change in the future forget about it. But 4k videos get pretty big.


e for added reply:

Fabulousity posted:

Edit: Initially I thought Trfc was tied to tRC and correcting the former would reduce the latter. Turns out that didn't happen so I guess it's time to grab Samwise and the one RAM kit and go trekking off to the Mordor-like lands of memory optimization hell.

An additional fun note: The MSI BIOS provides access to memory timing settings either through advanced system configuration or through the overclocking panels. The system config route provides all values in hexadecimal, wants all user provided values in hexadecimal which is fine, but provides the user with no way of inputting A-F hexadecimal values and won't convert decimal ones :thumbsup: The other way through the overclocking panel keeps everything decimal.

If you haven't read up already, tRFC is the recharge time allotted to keep data active in the ram. That's why it takes so long, but while it's happening that bank of memory can't do anything. I have no clue how much you'll be able to reduce it -- rfc seems like different memory chips have huge swings in suggested values from the ryzen dram calculator.

The hexidecimal thing sounds nuts to me, I've never seen anything like that on mine (x370) or anyone talking about MSI bios stuff. The timings stuff is all in OC -> Advanced DRAM settings. In advanced mode. Always use advanced mode.

Klyith fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Feb 26, 2020

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Chip McFuck posted:

Thanks for the framework! I've got a (relatively) new monitor that I'll be carrying over, and I have a ton of external storage that I back up my files on. No special connectivity needs for the case. An internal solid-state drive that's a least a terabyte is something I'm really looking at, as my current computer's hard drive is a mechanical at just half that capacity. Not terribly fun since I work in art/graphics-heavy publishing. I can almost feel myself growing older with how long it takes to access and move around large files.

I realize what's there is probably more than I need, but I'm willing to pay a little more if there's a significant performance increase from where the current computer is at now. As shallow as this might sound, I went with a different case because I like the design of it a lot.

You are gonna be so mad at yourself for running on a spinning disk for your OS/programs for this long.

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