Building a new desktop

[Aoligei]

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Thought I'd post a picture of my messy build even though it's an ATX form factor. It's utilitarian and sits under my desk. I don't have to look at the messy interior. The AIO came without the logo, but since it was around Thanksgiving, I opted not to return it and to use as is. The case for all it's messy glorious-ness runs cool, but I wish I bought a different case...one with room for a 240 or 360 radiator for the AIO.

One thing though, the system booted up the first time without any issues.

You call this messy build, you should look at mine...

I didn't even bother to put into a case, LOL... My plan is making a test bench during my vacation next week... LOL... I have scrapped the front USB, Card Reader and headphone & Microphone unit from old Acer PC, Power Bottom.

Specification is: Intel Core i3 9100, 16GB DDR4 XPG PC3000, 500G WD Blue SATA SSD, 128G Nvme drive, Nvidia 710, Gigabyte B360M DS3H Motherboard, Gigabyte 400W Power Supply. macOS Big Sur installed.

 

[I7guy]

You call this messy build, you should look at mine...

View attachment 1715452

I didn't even bother to put into a case, LOL... My plan is making a test bench during my vacation next week... LOL... I have scrapped the front USB, Card Reader and headphone & Microphone unit from old Acer PC, Power Bottom.

Specification is: Intel Core i3 9100, 16GB DDR4 XPG PC3000, 500G WD Blue SATA SSD, 128G Nvme drive, Nvidia 710, Gigabyte B360M DS3H Motherboard, Gigabyte 400W Power Supply. macOS Big Sur installed.

OMG. That is impressively messy. Well done!?

 

[Aoligei]

OMG. That is impressively messy. Well done!?

But it works...

This is work currently looks like...

 

[I7guy]

But it works...

This is work currently looks like...

View attachment 1715464

TV on the wall, primary monitor?

 

[Aoligei]

TV on the wall, primary monitor?

Yes... This is really meant for just playing movies, TV shows. Second floor is belong to me and my wife and first floor is belong to my parents (yes, they wants live with us... Their house is rented out, to save money).

Second floor has big living room. So during the night, I will watch shows with my wife.

Currently, I am studying for upcoming exams, so I dig out my old monitor. So I can watch lectures and using Tableau at same time.

 

[maflynn]

Decisions, decisions,
So it appears that my order for Noctua D-15 Chromax.black is due to arrive today and the Dark Rock Pro 4 comes with the rest of my stuff by the end of the week (I hope). I like how the DRP 4 does look, but the D-15 doesn't look bad. Plus it has a better way of mounting, and it out performs the DRP 4 (by a few degrees) One of them will get returned, not sure which

 

[LiE_]

The DRP4 has a better sound profile to my ears if that’s important to you.

 

[maflynn]

I’m seeing conflicting info on which is quieter. Cooling performance is a virtual tie.

 

[LiE_]

I’m seeing conflicting info on which is quieter. Cooling performance is a virtual tie.

Sound profile is different to dB readings.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

People hear things differently. What might annoy one person might be completely acceptable to someone else.

The nearby water heater at my complex was replaced a year ago. Not only was it a bit quieter the noise it now emanates is at a much different frequency than the old water heater. Even if the new water heater had the same amplitude as the old one, the new water heater has a sound profile that's better (less bothersome) to me than the old one.

Here's another real world example: screaming baby versus stereo playing rock music at same amplitude. Which bothers you more? I know some parents would find the stereo much more annoying based on their nonchalant deafness of their kid's wailing.

Last year I replaced my MacBook Air 2019 with an Acer Swift 3 ultrabook. They both have built-in fans but curiously the MBA's fan sound profile was far more annoying than the Swift's despite the fact that the Apple notebook was basically twice as expensive as the PC ultrabook.

Acoustics are in many ways subjective.

Are all peppers at 500 Scoville Units identical? No, they are not. They have different flavors.

Apparently it must be pointed out that fans have variable speeds. Most of the benchmarks test at idle and full load. What they rarely do is test at "normal" usage because everyone's usage is different. I wouldn't blindly count on noise readings from a lab benchmark.

Remember that decibels is a logarithmic scale. A 3 dB difference is actually twice the noise.

Choose with your ears not by someone else's meter or a bunch of numbers you can rattle off from Page X on Site Z or some vlogger screaming at the top of his lungs.

 

[I7guy]

I’m seeing conflicting info on which is quieter. Cooling performance is a virtual tie.

Which ever one you get you will get used to the noise. Maybe get the one that looks better to your eyes in your build.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

No reason to force yourself to get used to unpleasant noises when there are a plethora of great cooling solutions around the same price point especially if one expects many hours in close proximity to this.

One can change CPU coolers more easily than colicky babies.

 

[LeeW]

Which ever one you get you will get used to the noise. Maybe get the one that looks better to your eyes in your build.

Pretty much, we are all different of course when it comes to noise but I suspect if one annoys you, so will the other.

I use the DRP4 but also 5 other BeQuiet fans on the case, I still occasionally look over to make sure they are actually doing something they are that quiet (to me) when all running.

 

[maflynn]

The final list of components is due to arrive today (hopefully), and I'm carving out time this weekend to do the build. I'm leaning towards the Noctua cooler but I'll compare them side by side once DRP4 arrives today - regardless of the choice, I'm rocking with BeQuiet 120mm fans for the case.

I've not fully compiled the costs as I bought some components from NewEgg, some from Amazon and the rest from MicroCenter, but It appears to be just around a 1,000 dollars (maybe a bit over), which I'm pretty happy about.

 

[I7guy]

The final list of components is due to arrive today (hopefully), and I'm carving out time this weekend to do the build. I'm leaning towards the Noctua cooler but I'll compare them side by side once DRP4 arrives today - regardless of the choice, I'm rocking with BeQuiet 120mm fans for the case.

I've not fully compiled the costs as I bought some components from NewEgg, some from Amazon and the rest from MicroCenter, but It appears to be just around a 1,000 dollars (maybe a bit over), which I'm pretty happy about.

So what is the final list of components (aside from the cooler?)

 

[maflynn]

So what is the final list of components (aside from the cooler?)

You made me compile my list

I'm waiting on the motherboard today. I also have some minor components not in the list such as thermal compound (arriving today) and the BeQuiet cooler will be arriving today as well, though that will probably go back.

 

[pshufd]

You made me compile my list

I'm waiting on the motherboard today. I also have some minor components not in the list such as thermal compound (arriving today) and the BeQuiet cooler will be arriving today as well, though that will probably go back.

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$1,000 seems inexpensive but then I see that you already had the GPU.

 

[maflynn]

$1,000 seems inexpensive but then I see that you already had the GPU.

I had no set budget, but I wasn't looking to be extravagant. Once I started my wish list, I started looking for deals, and sales. For instance, I saved quite a bit on the CPU at Microcenter. Given the state of GPUs, I'm not really interested in paying the inflated prices, so I'll wait until things settle down a bit more.

My Razer Blade is using a 2TB M.2 drive that I'll pull and put into the desktop and put back in the original SSD that came with the laptop - saving even more $$

 

[I7guy]

You made me compile my list

I'm waiting on the motherboard today. I also have some minor components not in the list such as thermal compound (arriving today) and the BeQuiet cooler will be arriving today as well, though that will probably go back.

View attachment 1716889

Good components with a nice motherboard. Owning the graphics card really helps. And rocket lake upgradeable.

One suggestion is to bump the ram to 64gb as you never know. The other comment is with respect to windows. My bro-in-law recommended a legit US based company to get a W10 license from. I purchased a "Microsoft Windows 10 Professional Full Retail Version" not OEM for $60. Created a media dvd, installed windows and successfully activated the new license. If you want the name of the company, please message me.

 

[pshufd]

Good components with a nice motherboard. Owning the graphics card really helps. And rocket lake upgradeable.

One suggestion is to bump the ram to 64gb as you never know. The other comment is with respect to windows. My bro-in-law recommended a legit US based company to get a W10 license from. I purchased a "Microsoft Windows 10 Professional Full Retail Version" not OEM for $60. Created a media dvd, installed windows and successfully activated the new license. If you want the name of the company, please message me.

I have 64 GB on my build and it's nice as about half of it is used to cache files. It's certainly not necessary but it's fun when you want to play around with virtual machine experiments as you can run three to five of them at the same time.

On Windows licenses: you don't need a license to run Windows 10. I run a Windows 10 Virtual Machine (on Windows) and it's unlicensed. You lose the ability to change some UI settings but I can live with that.

I purchased a license for my build but I don't for virtual machines.

I've toyed with doing an AMD build but parts are hard to find and selling for well above MSRP.

 

[I7guy]

I have 64 GB on my build and it's nice as about half of it is used to cache files. It's certainly not necessary but it's fun when you want to play around with virtual machine experiments as you can run three to five of them at the same time.

On Windows licenses: you don't need a license to run Windows 10. I run a Windows 10 Virtual Machine (on Windows) and it's unlicensed. You lose the ability to change some UI settings but I can live with that.

I purchased a license for my build but I don't for virtual machines.

I've toyed with doing an AMD build but parts are hard to find and selling for well above MSRP.

I did not know that about windows 10. So I can use the media creation tool to setup a Windows 10 VM without entering a license?

As far as 64gb, I did upgrade to 64gb, but I wish I had purchased 2x32 instead of 4x16. I would have saved about $50.

 

[pshufd]

I did not know that about windows 10. So I can use the media creation tool to setup a Windows 10 VM without entering a license?

As far as 64gb, I did upgrade to 64gb, but I wish I had purchased 2x32 instead of 4x16. I would have saved about $50.

Yup. That's what I do. Media creation tool. It asks for the license and I just bypass that step.

I bought 2x32 because I only have 4 DIMM slots and I figured that I might want to go to 128 GB someday. I can't imagine needing that much at this time but you never know.

 

[maflynn]

One suggestion is to bump the ram to 64gb as you never know.

Its an ITX build, so the motherboard only has two ram slots. I'll think about it, but my Razer has 16GB and its not been terribly constrained. I have time to return the ram and get 64, so maybe.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I did not know that about windows 10. So I can use the media creation tool to setup a Windows 10 VM without entering a license?

Legitimate Windows 10 licenses are $7-8 from online merchants. I'm okay paying that to be able to customize Windows.

I won't buy from dodgy eBay sellers but I will buy from various shops that advertise or pay for "sponsored posts" on well-frequented PC and gaming sites such as Wccftech, TechPowerUp, DSOGaming and others.

Often one can find great bundled deals (Windows+Office) from these same merchants as well.

 

[I7guy]

Legitimate Windows 10 licenses are $7-8 from online merchants. I'm okay paying that to be able to customize Windows.

I won't buy from dodgy eBay sellers but I will buy from various shops that advertise or pay for "sponsored posts" on well-frequented PC and gaming sites such as Wccftech, TechPowerUp, DSOGaming and others.

Often one can find great bundled deals (Windows+Office) from these same merchants as well.

Thanks for the info. It's amazing the discount if one doesn't buy from Microsoft.