Rate my PC build!

[Gurke and Hare]

I'm planning on building a new PC, and I've come up with the following set of cmomponents:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/dFJPyk

Would any of the people we have here who know more about this than I do mind passing a quick eye over it and seeing if there's anything obviously stupid about that combination? Also, what other stuff like thermal paste do I definitely need to get? It's about 10 years since I last did a complete build so I'm little out of practice.

Thanks!

[Wilbur]

Do yourself a massive favour and get an SSD for the operating system.

Oh and don't get that wireless card if you are planning on using Windows 10

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

What are you planning using the PC for? Probably get an SSD as stated, swap out the CPU for a AMD Ryzen chip, save the money on RAM and get 16GB.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Needs more neon lights.

[QDRPHNC]

Do yourself a massive favour and get an SSD for the operating system.

Oh and don't get that wireless card if you are planning on using Windows 10

I'm helping my kid pick out parts for his gaming PC. What's the criteria for a good wireless card? He'll be using Windows 10.

[Gurke and Hare]

Thanks for the comments people!

Do yourself a massive favour and get an SSD for the operating system.

I thought about that, but I don't tend to reboot often and I've got a laptop with an SSD - the speed increase doesn't seem worth the cost to me.

[quoteOh and don't get that wireless card if you are planning on using Windows 10
[/quote]

It's going to have Linux on it, which is why I chose that one

What are you planning using the PC for? Probably get an SSD as stated, swap out the CPU for a AMD Ryzen chip, save the money on RAM and get 16GB.

The usual internet stuff, some games, and some development which is why I want the RAM. What's the benefit of the CPU change?

Needs more neon lights.

Fair. Might just get a lighty up keyboard.

[Wilbur]

I'm helping my kid pick out parts for his gaming PC. What's the criteria for a good wireless card? He'll be using Windows 10.

I'd just use a usb wireless dongle. I've not come across a pci wireless  card that plays nicely with Windows 10 and the new dongles are all pretty good.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Don't most motherboards have wi-fi on-board these days? The last two I bought have.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'd just use a usb wireless dongle. I've not come across a pci wireless  card that plays nicely with Windows 10 and the new dongles are all pretty good.

I've got a tenda/edimax one with a fairly generic chipset with a removable aerial and that's been fine.

[Sherman Krank]

I thought about that, but I don't tend to reboot often and I've got a laptop with an SSD - the speed increase doesn't seem worth the cost to me.

A 240gb SSD (more than enough to hold your O/S and main apps) will currently cost you around £20-35.
I've been using Crucial and Kingston drives and have yet to have an issue.
I'm wondering about your laptop as there's a huge speed difference between SSD and HDD.
Running the likes of steam games from SSD's can make a big difference to performance as well.

My optimal internal drive set up would be a 240gb SSD for the C: then a 1Tb SSD (£80-110) mostly used for gaming with a third (and possibly forth) 2-3Tb HD for general file storage.

Mechanical hard drives are currently being eyed up by the dustbin of history.

Also from personal experience I'd recommend WD HD's over Seagate as most of the Seagate drives I've had went bugger up before I was done with them.

What's the benefit of the CPU change?

Saving money.
Your CPU of choice currently costs £275 and benchmarks at 14,606 (the Ryzen 5 2600 I bought well over a year ago for £120 b/m's at 13,221).
For a £190 you could get a Ryzen 5 3600X which benchmarks at 18,306 and put the difference towards an SSD or two.
Also Intel have a habit of slightly changing the socket design when they release a new generation of CPU's so you can't upgrade by just buying a new processor and dropping it in.

Other thoughts.
Seasonic make the best PSU's. They use top quality Japanese electrical components whereas most other brands now use lower quality Chinese stuff. Smoothly supplied power is very good for stability.

With graphic cards it's better to go with the price and release date rather than the amount of RAM.
I went with an 8Gb RX 570 thinking it would be great, it's not.

[Gurke and Hare]

Right, I've swapped the CPU out and added a 240GB SSD for the OS, but doing the rest from HD. Leaving the Seagate in there as I've never had issues with them.

Changed to a Seasonic PSU.

Leaving the oldish graphics card in as Linux drivers can take a while to catch up, so don't want to be cutting edge there.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bPMjYH

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Right, I've swapped the CPU out and added a 240GB SSD for the OS, but doing the rest from HD. Leaving the Seagate in there as I've never had issues with them.

Changed to a Seasonic PSU.

Leaving the oldish graphics card in as Linux drivers can take a while to catch up, so don't want to be cutting edge there.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bPMjYH

Looks much better. As long as you don't plan on doing any "serious" gaming on it.

[Gurke and Hare]

No, nothing that needs to do 4K at 60fps. Thanks!

[Sherman Krank]

No, nothing that needs to do 4K at 60fps. Thanks!

Looks good but there's a couple of things worth mentioning.

The Ryzen CPU's come with a heatsink and fan they call the wraith spire which is more than sufficient unless you plan to overclock the shit out of it. So you don't need the Hyper 212 (which isn't any better than the wraith).
The heatsink should also come with a pre-applied coating of thermal paste so careful how you handle it.

The Mboard you've chosen is the same one I have and while it's a really good board it does have one weird thing which is that it doesn't display the EUFI/BIOS properly if your viewing it through an HDMI connection.
Basically you can boot into it and the menu shell is there but the options and info are gone.
i've got my PC connected to a big telly so I can use it as an all purpose media centre and if I need to go into the BIOS I have to plug it into a wee DVI monitor first (you'll likely need to access the BIOS when first setting it up then hardly ever after that unless you like to mess about with the hardware a lot).

That said, your board will likely be a latter revision than mine so it may no longer be an issue.

[Gurke and Hare]

Thanks - I'll knock the fan off then. I'll be plugging it into two monitors, only one at the most with HDMI, so that's good too. Cheers.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Have you got an Windows/OS key to use on it as well?

[Gurke and Hare]

Installing Linux on it.

[peanutbutter]

Unless you're building a hackintosh don't bother with intel, if you are building one then maybe consider a z490 and a 10th gen i5 chip instead for less, you'll be able to shove an 11th gen one into it in the future if you want.

SSD for sure.

16GB ram should be plenty.

Don't know the case but considering it's the thing everything else is gonna be in, £40 seems like it could cut some annoying corners (poor cable management, less than stellar heat control options)

I'm getting an RX580 myself (for hackintosh purposes) but from what I gather they're pretty mid level now so might start showing issues sooner than you'd expect.

Any particular reason for going ATX over mATX? I've been struggling to see any reason for ATX myself at all.



Here's mine: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/svG2Qq
I bought a bunch of the bits used off ebay so I'm sure something will go badly wrong.

[Gurke and Hare]

Thanks for the input peanutbutter, but I'd already ordered everything by then.

Anyway, it all arrived today and now I'm having trouble attaching the SSD and hard drive. I've attached them to the fittings that were in the case:





This is the inside of the case, where I think they should go



And this is the same bit from the other side:



The problem I'm having is that the way the fittings are, with the screw holes on the inside of that recessed bit means that the screws included with the case are far too short to reach them. Any ideas what I should be doing differently?

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Put the 2.5" SSD Here/there?

*if you've got the same Fractal Designs case as in your list.

[Gurke and Hare]

Ah, thanks. I didn't realise that bit at the side was removable, so I'll try that.

[Sherman Krank]

I looked up your case previously but realise now I checked out the 2500 not the 2300. The 2500 just has the bog standard stick some rails on and slot them in system.

I found a vid on youtube, it's in russian but around the 6 min mark there's a shot of how he's fitted an SSD and a HDD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7o0EsbeHk

[Sherman Krank]

Another video that might be of use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2xjCFUkjbg

[Gurke and Hare]

All sorted now, thanks. Although I note with a certain amount of disgust that the audio sockets on the motherboard aren't colour coded - is that a thing of the past now?

[Huxleys Babkins]

All sorted now, thanks. Although I note with a certain amount of disgust that the audio sockets on the motherboard aren't colour coded - is that a thing of the past now?

No, not really. Some boards colour them differently as part of their aesthetic, though.