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So it's been approximately forever since I needed to permanently move stuff off my hard drive(s); for as long as my current build has existed, I've basically been able to get by with just adding HDDs (and later, SSDs) as needed, while keeping the old ones hooked up just for the hell of it. But I've finally reached an inflection point for a number of reasons:
And beyond all of the above, archiving stuff I never actually use, but don't want to lose, just seems like a generally good idea. So, my first thought is to get a Blu-ray burner and some discs. However, it's impossible to buy an optical drive in this day and age without feeling some reservations -- am I just jumping on board another sinking ship? I'm not really seeing any better options though. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. It's been forever since I considered buying a new drive. I'm also torn on whether to go internal or external. The former is what I've normally done. (I actually already have a BD drive which also burns DVDs, but it doesn't burn BDs. It was part of my original build.) But external does potentially give me a future advantage, since it could be hooked up to other things -- perhaps even my next build, which may not need a permanent optical drive at all. * I realize I'm still probably not going to get very far with Plex without getting a NAS or something. That's still very much a secondary concern. Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 19:19 on May 2, 2022 |
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May 2, 2022 19:02
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It's been about 10 years since my last major upgrade (motherboard/CPU/etc.) -- and some of the less crucial components, such as the case, date back to 2007. It's served me very well, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to slot any meaningful upgrades into this thing -- I think my inability to get an NVME SSD was the last straw. So I'm finally looking to rebuild from the ground up. At the moment, I'm not planning to upgrade my GPU, since I got that in 2020. It'll go from being the only thing making modern gaming remotely possible for me to being the bottleneck, but I'll deal with that some other time, unless a really good deal comes along. But I don't want to skimp too much on the other components right now, since GPU upgrades are pretty easy and I know I'll be looking at that every few years regardless. I want the base system to last me another 10-15 years if at all possible. What country are you in? USA Do you live near Microcenter? Sadly no. (Used to live in NY where they grow on trees, now I'm in the comparable desert of NC.) What are you using the system for? Gaming, some amount of media streaming (Plex), audio editing/mixing, and potentially video editing. What's your budget? Around $1000 that I've saved up throughout the year. Since this is basically my "Christmas gift" I could possibly wrangle some other money together for it, but basically, $1000. Not looking to upgrade monitor or peripherals at this time. If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution / refresh rate? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”? I'm flexible on this, and as mentioned above I'm nebulously assuming I'll do a GPU upgrade at some future point in time. I do care about graphics but I'm pretty much always slightly behind the curve, and I'm okay with that. Currently I'm gaming at 1080p / 60Hz and I have no plans to change that any time soon. Getting my current PC to run DOOM 2016 was a milestone and I'm content with that for now. If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? N/A as this mostly will not be any kind of work computer. I did mention some music & video editing above, but only on a hobby basis, and I have not really found my current PC wanting in that regard. Right now I'm kind of stuck in analysis paralysis -- I really have no idea if I want to go AMD or Intel, for example. I have been keeping an eye on the PC Part Picker "build guides", but I've noticed they are often slightly at odds with this thread. They usually recommend AsRock motherboards, for example, whereas this thread seem to have soured on them a bit. I definitely don't want to skimp on the motherboard. I also want the motherboard to have built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, since there are times I've really wished I had those. Their build guides & filters usually don't seem to point me in that direction, though I've found some on my own. Speaking of which, what's the deal with DDR4 vs. DDR5? Seems like I might want to support DDR5 but it also might be cost-prohibitive right now due to some supply chain issues or something? This is another thing I'm kind of willing to just go with the flow on. If future-proofing would be several orders of magnitude more expensive, I'll just deal with it for now. I'm not dead-set on getting 32GB instead of 16, but at these prices I'm kind of figuring why the hell not? Also, I don't need fancy RGB stuff but I admit I'll be kind of sad if stuff ends up not having it  I recently got a new gaming mouse (also for the first time in at least 10 years) and I was like a kid at Christmas seeing all the neat RGB stuff it could do.Oh, I also like the idea of it being a bit quieter and less power-intensive than my current build, but I'm kind of figuring that will just happen. Not looking to spend extra on that, if that's even a thing. Here's the parts list I've been working on, but I'm 100% open to suggestions. (I've included my current graphics card just as a compatibility check, but my understanding is not much about that has changed in years. I'm putting it in strikeout font so that if anybody missed my wall of text, maybe they'll read up here to figure out why the hell I "chose" that card.) PCPartPicker Part List CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($279.98 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler ($53.89 @ Amazon) Motherboard: *Gigabyte B660 GAMING X AX DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Amazon) Memory: *Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($40.97 @ Amazon) Memory: *Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($40.97 @ Amazon) Storage: *Silicon Power A60 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.49 @ Newegg Sellers) Case: Antec DF700 FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.99 @ Newegg) Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($121.99 @ Newegg) Total: $942.27 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-11 14:18 EST-0500 Here's my current build if anyone's curious -- as you'll see, it's pretty outdated, to put it lightly. And I've simply been accumulating SATA hard drives for friggin' years. (I may have gotten a few of the parts wrong like the PSU or whatever, but who cares. Since they're on here, I should mention that I have no plans of carrying over my dinosaur optical drives or sound card. I have a portable BD-R drive for whenever I need it, and I'm finally going to kiss sound cards goodbye!) Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Nov 11, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 20:29
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Hobnob posted:Edit: Good inquiry, I have no plans of keeping all those drives, haha. They're all old as hell. I might keep the 2TB around for bulk media storage, but that's probably it. I'm trying to get away from that whole setup -- the only reason I didn't get rid of any of those drives was because they simply refused to die on me
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Nov 12, 2022 01:45
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lih posted:i'm a bit confused by what you're going for here. 10-15 years lifetime is just not a reasonable expectation, you will be bottlenecked by something long before then. i'm really not sure what you're going to get by just upgrading the CPU - your GPU is still quite old and very much going to be a bottleneck these days for gaming and you said that your hobbyist video/audio editing isn't taxing on your decade-old CPU. since you're sticking to 1080p 60Hz, i would upgrade your GPU to a 6600 (~$190) or 6600XT/6650XT (~$250) now which will be a significant improvement over the 1060 6GB and run pretty much anything new fine at 1080p. Sorry, I know I get long-winded trying to explain things and end up making it more confusing. I should clarify that I'm expecting/hoping to be able to upgrade the GPU kind of soon, just not right now. (I'm thinking another 6 months or so.) The way I'm thinking, there isn't anything I could buy now that would lock me out of a GPU upgrade for the foreseeable future, so I have time. Like even if they decided tomorrow to immediately ditch PCI Express for all future cards, I doubt I'll be outpacing a GeForce 4000 series any time soon. I will definitely keep my eyes open for a more balanced AMD-based full rebuild though.
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Nov 12, 2022 04:41
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lih posted:well, what sort of performance are you going to be after when you do upgrade your GPU (even if it is 6 months away) and are you planning to upgrade your monitor then too? Still probably targeting 1080p. It's very rare that I upgrade a whole bunch of stuff at once, I usually just wait until something breaks, and currently I don't have any monitors or TVs that go higher than that. I'm also used to being a few years behind the curve on games -- as evidenced by the fact that I still consider the 2016 DOOM to be top of the line. I'm actually pretty okay with the graphical performance I'm getting on most games right now -- I think the CPU and disk drives are at least partially responsible for some bottlenecks I'm experiencing in stuff like PUBG, Assassin's Creed, etc. And I know it's not even worth trying Flight Simulator X without a faster drive. I don't mind keeping settings below maximum as long as it looks "good" and is playable. Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Nov 12, 2022 |
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Nov 12, 2022 14:05
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Micro Center currently has a bundle with a 12700K and an Asus Z690 Plus Tuf Gaming WiFi DDR4 motherboard for $350: https://www.microcenter.com/product/5005927/intel-core-i7-12700k,-asus-z690-plus-tuf-gaming-wifi-ddr4,-cpu-motherboard-combo Holy crap I just realized I might actually be close enough to a Micro Center this Sunday to consider any deals they currently have going on. Can't get there any earlier than that, but I'll really have to keep my eyes open for stuff like this... I've been writing them off entirely until now.
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Nov 18, 2022 16:16
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How is this combo from Micro Center? AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with Wraith Prism Cooler, ASUS B550-PLUS Prime AC-HES, CPU / Motherboard Combo - $219.99 Specifically how does the Ryzen 7 3700X compare against the Ryzen 5 5600 that was recomended earlier? Based on the pricing, # of cores, and GHz it seems like it's better; I'm just trying to make sure since the branding is confusing, as like, one of the numbers is higher and one of them is lower, so  Apparently this comes with its own cooler too, a "Wraith Prism" -- looks to me like a good one, but could someone let me know if it's crap and I'll still have to buy a separate one? (As a quick refresher, I'm looking to upgrade a mobo/CPU that are about 10 years old, not expecting top-notch gaming performance and not going higher than 1080p/60Hz, just basically need a nice all-around upgrade to level up a bit. I was also planning on keeping an old NVIDIA card with it, but if Micro Center throws good enough deals at me I just might upgrade that too.)
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Nov 20, 2022 03:21
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Ok thanks for the sanity check; even by Micro Center standards that seemed a little too good to be true. They do have plenty of other great deals I'm looking at, but I had to do a double-take when I saw that one. And I definitely plan on buying an aftermarket cooler, as I usually do; I just wasn't sure if that basically was one already.
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Nov 20, 2022 04:49
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So I did manage to get to Micro Center and ended up with way better stuff than I expected for the same budget. Got the 12700k + z690 deal and the Samsung 980 pro 2TB. This is actually my first time seeing an NVME drive in person and I genuinely can't comprehend how small it is. Mind blown. I got this case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh C RGB I realized after the fact that it only comes with 3 fans in the front, I guess maybe because they figure people might want to do liquid cooling so they just let you figure out that part. I think I've seen other people in this thread build in this case -- how many extra fans should I get? (I won't be carrying over any from my previous build, I think one of them might have RGB but I'd still rather just get new ones.) I was thinking clearly 1x120mm in back for exhaust, at the very least. It looks like I could also add 2x140mm at top (or 2x120), and then 2x120mm at bottom. But I've seen some threads online where some people didn't seem to think bottom & top fans would be helpful -- just straight front-to-back. Any thoughts? Also, I got this CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black edition It looks like I can actually add a second fan to it -- not sure if I actually should though. I'm not specifically against overclocking, but I'm not really planning on doing it, either -- and this seems like it might be more intended for that. I do like the idea of less noise & power consumption (& price) so if the only thing I gain with more fans is like 5° of extra cooling or whatever, I would probably want to just stick with the basics. But obviously I don't want to be stuck with too few either. The only thing I still need is RAM, they didn't seem to have any truly amazing deals so I'll just see what happens online this week. Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Nov 21, 2022 |
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Nov 21, 2022 15:34
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:About the cooler, unfortunately I don't think you picked a good one for the 12700K. The Hyper 212 might not be good enough for it. It's a classic cooler that's been around for quite a while, but it might have to run really loud to keep up with the 12700K's high power draw. You really want a dual-tower cooler at least with the 12700K. I don't know how easy it would be for you to return that cooler and get another, but I think that would be the best option. Something like the Thermalright Peerless Assassin would be a better choice. You could add an extra fan to the 212, but that rarely does much more than remove a degree or two at the cost of some extra noise. That's a bummer to hear, I don't really think I can return it. I actually didn't pick it myself, the Micro Center salesman convinced me to. (I was originally thinking of the Thermalright, but I was also originally thinking of a slightly different CPU & mobo, so I wasn't sure what was better anymore.)
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Nov 21, 2022 16:45
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I mean even though I don't see any way I could return it, I might try to get rid of it some other way. Ebay or something I guess. It wasn't even an especially good deal honestly, I just didn't really know enough to call it out as the wrong choice. I'm seeing a few other forum threads that agree with your assessment, and I really have no reason to stick with it other than that I already bought it.
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Nov 21, 2022 17:32
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Rinkles posted:MC doesn’t accept returns? It's a 4½ hour drive, but I happened to be in the area. I'm going to see if there's any chance they'll accept a shipped return even though I don't think it's standard policy. Either way I do not think I'll be using this cooler. (There's a chance I might bug my parents who are driving up that way for Thanksgiving, but that's kind of a last resort, clearly) Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Nov 21, 2022 |
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Nov 21, 2022 17:54
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Something like the Thermalright Peerless Assassin would be a better choice. At the risk of asking too many questions -- since I'm already dealing with the repercussions of not asking enough -- is there any real significance to the "120 SE" vs. "120" or are they just slightly different models of the same thing? (There are pricing/availability/color differences and it would be easier to pick if the "SE" doesn't matter.) Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Nov 21, 2022 |
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Nov 21, 2022 19:42
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:As for cooling, you probably want an air cooler in this case since you can turn the fans down when recording and not have to worry about pump noise or anything. Currently the best air-cooling case is probably the Fractal Design Torrent, which has a ridiculous 2x180mm front intake and 3x140mm bottom intake. With a custom fan curve, they can move a huge amount of air while spinning at low RPMs, being very quiet in the process. I'll chime in on this and say that I just did my first new build in years (with help from this thread) and I was shocked by how quiet fans are now. My old computer sounds like a drat refrigerator even when it's idling, but my new one is practically inaudible, even with basically the same number of fans. They've really come a long way.
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Nov 27, 2022 12:23
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Fan tech has improved considerably, but fans also do get noisier over time. 10 year old fans are typically gonna rattle like hell since the bearings wear out over time. That's true, and I guess I also need to consider the fact that there aren't any mechanical HDs of any kind in there at this point. (I was planning on keeping at least one for bulk storage, but they all seem to be planning on dying before that can happen)
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Nov 27, 2022 19:19
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On the flip side, having nothing go wrong with a new build is actually kind of unnerving to me. I usually at least forget to plug in one of the ATX cables or something. But it turned on right away this time! I kind of missed having that moment of "welp I guess I just wasted a few hundred dollars"
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Dec 4, 2022 05:10
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Roundboy posted:As much as I think lian li and how they make cases, I had to do was too much educated guessing and cross checking of the website and other places Oh yeah, that was the one issue I had during this build. Like so many manufacturers they do the annoying thing where one manual is about 2 different products so it's all like "this might be here but it might not, figure out if you need it somehow" so it took way too much googling to realize I needed to connect SATA power for the case fan lights.
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Dec 5, 2022 04:26
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I've seen this question asked before but I'm not sure how to search for it, so I'll just ask again -- does anyone have any recommendations for how to get rid of old computer parts? Most of my old build has not actually died on me, but it's just generally obsolete and I have no desire to keep using it. But it still feels weird to just throw it in the dump or whatever. I'm probably giving one of my old drives to my dad, but other than that I still have this big Cooler Master Cosmos case whose only real crime is being big and loud. It seems like it could be worth money to someone, I'm just not sure who.Roundboy posted:I did eventually figure it out and I have to say after installing everything, enabling xmp and running some OCCT 100% loads, this case is quiet. I wasn't getting any RGB on the case fans at all without the SATA, so I do think it's needed. Regardless, I agree, it's a wonderful and quiet case. (I'm guessing it's the Lancool II Mesh C, if not then I guess they're just good in general)
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Dec 5, 2022 15:17
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lordofthefishes posted:Which version of the Cosmos case? This one, missing a few parts, at least 2 front USB ports broken, etc: Cooler Master COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case https://www.newegg.com/black-silver-cooler-master-cosmos-1000-atx-full-tower/p/N82E16811119138
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Dec 7, 2022 18:38
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I feel obligated to mention that I was actually able to return that Cooler Master Hyper 212 to Micro Center out-of-state without a hitch. Well, I guess the only hitch is that I had to pay my own shipping. But they covered everything else, which is especially good because I actually did (slightly) open it, before taking the thread's advice and buying a Thermalright instead. Since this wasn't really covered by their standard return policy I had to open a live chat and then discuss it over the phone, but in the end it worked out.
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Dec 13, 2022 21:24
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Eediot Jedi posted:Lian li lancool II mesh C. As mentioned earlier in the thread, if you're not getting lighting on the front fans, you might need to plug a SATA power cable from the case header to the power supply. That's in addition to the main RGB plug which you already seem to have identified.
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Dec 17, 2022 04:22
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Roundboy posted:The sata connection is used to power the top light control buttons. I was told it also includes lights overall, but that apparently is not the case. It's the only connection using SATA in my build Yeah maybe mine somehow got stuck in the Off position, idk. It wasn't working at all until the SATA.
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Dec 18, 2022 01:22
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DoombatINC posted:Through a combination of rebates and coupon codes, there's a 6650 XT for $260 at Newegg Dang that's tempting, even though I too was leaning more in the Nvidia direction mostly due to brand loyalty/inertia. I'm guessing the "Radeon Raise the Game bundle valued at $119" probably shouldn't really factor into this decision, right? Just asking for clarity's sake...
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Jan 12, 2023 21:29
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wilderthanmild posted:I ended up going this route. Excited to install my first new graphics card since 2018. I pulled the trigger as well, pretty excited about it. I went ahead and added those 2 games since they were free, but I watched the trailers and I really don't want them in the slightest so I'll have to see if I can sell/donate the keys to someone
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Jan 13, 2023 04:41
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lih posted:no, there's a system where you sign in with steam after the amd tool checks your system and then it adds the game to your account. no steam keys involved, obviously to avoid reselling Ah well. First world problems and all that. I'm glad the deal was good enough without the freebie.
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Jan 13, 2023 08:26
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Ugh, I feel like an idiot here because I got a little too excited about my Radeon RX 6650 XT arriving in the mail, and it seems like I did too much of a rush job swapping out my old GeForce without uninstalling everything first. Now Windows 11 does this weird thing where it seems to be working fine at first, but gradually as you click on stuff it just stops working until eventually it's actually frozen. I have to use the reset button, and to get a proper shutdown I have to do it from the login screen before the full freeze happens. If I unplug the power & monitor from the GPU and use the onboard video instead, it works fine. I've downloaded and run "DDU" from Guru3d.com (a common recommendation I saw online) to belatedly do a complete uninstall of the Nvidia stuff. But the issue persists when I switch back to the GPU. My next guess is that I also need to disable onboard video, though I'm also kind of apprehensive since that's the thing that still works without issue. I guess I could probably still re-enable it by swapping all the plugs again, as it seems to be a Windows driver issue, so I can probably still get into the BIOS. (It's an Intel Z690 board and i7-12700k CPU.) Anyone else had a similar experience? I won't have time to really sit down with this until after work today, but I just want to be as prepared as possible. And if disabling onboard video doesn't fix it then I have no idea what will. (I guess the next thing would be really hunting down any last trace of Nvidia to make sure it's really gone.)
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Jan 18, 2023 13:56
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wilderthanmild posted:This might be a dumb question, but you did install the latest AMD drivers and everything right? Well I haven't really been able to get that far. I can't use Windows for more than a minute or two if the GPU is plugged in. It's weird because it's not a hard freeze, I can click stuff, but it just stops functioning (i.e. clicking the Start button does the little animation where it looks like it got pressed, but it doesn't come up). I suppose maybe I should try downloading them (on a different computer, or in safe mode, or without the GPU plugged in) and then see if I can uninstall whatever Windows installed automatically, then maybe it won't run into the same issue now that the Nvidia stuff is actually gone.
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Jan 18, 2023 15:46
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Ok, I was able to fix my AMD graphics card issue. Main thing was booting Windows into safe mode and uninstalling the display adapter in control panel. It more or less worked after that. I guess I just had to clear out whatever damage was done by letting it install on top of Nvidia drivers and start over. I still had a minor issue with the AMD installer after that, but I was able to fix that by once again going into safe mode, uninstalling, and then making sure to select the "factory reset" option in the AMD installer.
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Jan 18, 2023 23:19
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Sorry if I missed it, but I thought the thread might like to know that Micro Center is finally adding 3 more stores! https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micro-center-launching-new-stores The first one is in Indianapolis. The other 2 are TBA.
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Mar 11, 2023 17:28
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power crystals posted:According to reddit scuttlebutt (based on real estate purchases, I think) the other two are Miami Florida and Charlotte NC. I'll go nuts if it's anywhere in NC. Charlotte would still be a bit far, but I do have family out there, so much better than the current closest one way up in northern VA.
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Mar 14, 2023 02:58
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Unlucky7 posted:I think I will try that out then. Again thanks! I wonder if it was the same guy that convinced me to get one, which I later mailed back on the advice of the thread and replaced it with a Thermalright. Weird that somebody keeps pushing those. (I got lucky on the return, technically I don't think they had to accept a mail-in but I really had no other option, as I bought it while travelling near Virginia. Charlotte store can't open soon enough.)
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Mar 22, 2024 03:46
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For those in the Charlotte, NC area, Micro Center finally announced their Grand Opening date: May 10th. (There's also an "Early Access" date of May 8th, though I have no clear idea of what that means other than I guess if you show up May 8th there will still be someone there?)
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Mar 25, 2024 21:17
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Horace Kinch posted:Why couldn't it open in Raleigh instead? I want to check it out but not if it means putting up with 74. Yeah I was thinking it would make (arguably) more sense in the broader RTP area, but I'm assuming Charlotte has better rent prices or something. (Which would not be a difficult bar to clear.) Since it's also where the only IKEA in the area is, I suppose it can become a family trip.
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Mar 28, 2024 12:27
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