PC Building Guide and Discussion #14

[SniperHF]

Planning to build a new computer? Don't know where to start? Read Here first!

Ask questions in this thread about upgrades and new system builds. Read through the OP and compare it to your own situation.

Things to remember: These builds do not include any OS, Keyboard, Mice, Speakers or Monitors. That is up to the builder to choose.

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Common PC questions

Processors (CPU's)

Different types of Sockets

Installing your Heatsink?: Use a proper thermal compound application

Liquid vs Air Cooling

Video Cards:
Can't decide which video card to buy?:
Compare them by year
2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009

Performance Per Dollar by Techpowerup


Want to upgrade your video card? Check here first

Memory:
Ensure your Dual channel memory is appropriately configured. (Dated but relevant)

What are Memory Timings?



Software

Backup, copy, and restore your computer:
Acronis True Image
Western Digital Drive Backup Software
Use Windows 10 to backup your computer.

Put your new system to the test:
Benchmark it with Unigine: Heaven, Superposition - 3dmark - Final Fantasy XV


Differences between Windows 10 versions

Never Installed Windows before?: Watch this video

Storage:

Tom's "Best SSD for the money 2019"

Motherboards
Newegg's Motherborad Buying Guide
Guide to Motherboard Selection

Power Supplies (Or PSU's):

2019 Power Supply guide

PSU reviews: Anandtech - Jonnyguru

Think your PSU is bad?: test it here. (post in the thread if you need assistance)
They now also make testers you can buy

Want to save money?: Don't cut corners on the PSU.

Power supply Efficiency levels


How much power do I need?
Power requirement estimator #1(uses data from trusted review sources)
Power requirement estimator #2 (less accurate but more part options)

How to choose a power supply
Power requirements for video cards


Video Tutorials on PC Building
Short video, more up to date on building a PC (20 minutes)

This series is much longer but also older, you'll learn more watching it than the shorter one.
Pt.1 Basic PC introduction and Component selection.
Pt.2 Assembling your system
Pt.3 Installing your OS, other odds and ends.


Thread Updated as Hardware is Released

I use NewEgg as a reference for PC components. Please shop around and find the best prices if they can be found elsewhere. In my experience NewEgg has fair prices though.

Prices might not be 100% accurate. Check them carefully. Some items include additional mail in rebates as well. Those savings are not reflected in my prices so your build may actually be cheaper in the end.

Click to read more...

 

[flyingkiwi]

Big drama going down in the tech reviewer community. NVIDIA went after Hardware Unboxed and Linus responded with 40 minutes of pure rage. Whether you like Linus or not it's worth a watch.

 

[Osprey]

Big drama going down in the tech reviewer community. NVIDIA went after Hardware Unboxed and Linus responded with 40 minutes of pure rage. Whether you like Linus or not it's worth a watch.

For those who don't want to watch the video to get the gist, Nvidia sent Hardware Unboxed a letter essentially telling them that they'll no longer receive Founders Edition cards from Nvidia because they don't promote raytracing and other proprietary features (like DLSS) in their reviews as much as Nvidia thinks that they should. The letter ends with them saying that they're willing to re-visit the situation if Hardware Unboxed's "editorial direction" changes. Linus is upset because it's a clear attempt by a manufacturer to strong arm a review outlet (which he is one, himself) into giving more favorable reviews.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I see why Linus is so triggered, Apple didn't send him the M1 Macs for essentially the same reason and only sent it to upbeat hyper positive lifestyle YouTubers or shills like Rene Ritchie.

I swear Ritchie is still namedropping Linus in his videos about that because he was "negative"

 

[Knave]

Anyone know of a Ryzen compatible 4K 5.25" drive or even a USB one that can play 4K UHD?

I was looking at this:
LG Internal Blu-ray Drive Ultra HD Blu-Ray Playback & M-DISC™ Support (WH16NS60) | LG USA

But specs clearly state Intel 7th generation, LG themselves won't be open and transparent and as of 2 years ago said "it can work on Ryzen but some things might not work" and for all I know that could mean 4K doesn't work. A review on Amazon in German after translation seems to confirm this though the review was talking about 1st generation Ryzen. In general the reviews I've seen have been messy. I just want a drive I can plug into my PC and rip the movie onto a hard drive for convenience.

 

[flyingkiwi]

Currently playing around with virtual machines for the first time. Got macOS running on VirtualBox, interested to see if it can handle basic audio production in GarageBand or if there's too much delay or distortion.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I dont have any DLSS games but I'm wondering, is there any DLSS support for 10 series video cards? I know ray tracing works on 10 series cards but I haven't seen anything about DLSS.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I dont have any DLSS games but I'm wondering, is there any DLSS support for 10 series video cards? I know ray tracing works on 10 series cards but I haven't seen anything about DLSS.

DLSS requires tensor cores, which are only on RTX cards.

 

[aleshemsky83]

DLSS requires tensor cores, which are only on RTX cards.

Hmm, I thought so. Just figured it could work since raytracing was initially disabled but is now on 10 series cards. But come to think of it, I guess the entire point of DLSS being a form of anti-aliasing that increases framerate, it would make no sense to have it on cards where it would decrease framerate, whereas Ray tracing is a visual feature.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Oh man Zen 3 is so ridiculously overpriced it's not even funny. I feel like I got a steal getting the 3600 for $280 Canadian at launch. At the time I thought it was overpriced

People on Reddit buying the 5600 for $450

 

[Commander Clueless]

Everything is ridiculously overpriced at the moment...except RAM I guess.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Everything is ridiculously overpriced at the moment...except RAM I guess.

Most Intel CPUs are in stock at MSRP, though maybe that's just because so few people want them these days with the ryzen hype. Still I think the i5 10400 is a decent buy right now with even 3000 series ryzen being way above MSRP.

 

[Osprey]

$300 USD is MSRP for the Ryzen 5600X. Also, a quick look at Amazon in the States shows the Ryzen 3000 series to be right at MSRP. The only one over is the 3600 by just $10, and it was at MSRP for the last few weeks and will probably go down again. They may just seem overpriced because they were going for quite a bit less than MSRP in the Summer and have gone up since then... or maybe you're just getting hosed in Canada; I don't know.

BTW, I found a site that can give availability alerts for Amazon and B&H, but what I found interesting is that it has a link to the Amazon product page for the Ryzen 5600X that doesn't show up in the search results when you search for "Ryzen 5600X" at Amazon. On that page, it says that it'll be in stock mid March and has Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons. I tried Add to Cart, but it didn't work. I then tried Buy Now and was able to place an order. I might cancel it if it comes in stock elsewhere in the meantime, but at least I have an order placed and an idea of when I might get it.

US: AMD Computer Processors In Stock Tracker - RYZEN 9 3950X, Threadripper 3960X & 3970X - NowInStock.net
Canada: Canadian AMD Computer Processors In Stock Tracker - RYZEN 9 3950X, Threadripper 3960X & 3970X - NowInStock.net

Edit: I forgot to mention that they also track AMD and Nvidia GPUs at Amazon and B&H, in case you're looking for one of those instead of a CPU.

Edit #2: The 5600X product page that I ordered from no longer has the option to buy it, so whatever small shipment that they got must've sold out. Still, maybe they'll get more soon or this tip will help others.

 

[Commander Clueless]

$300 USD is MSRP for the Ryzen 5600X. Also, a quick look at Amazon in the States shows the Ryzen 3000 series to be right at MSRP. The only one over is the 3600 by just $10, and it was at MSRP for the last few weeks and will probably go down again. They may just seem overpriced because they were going for quite a bit less than MSRP in the Summer and have gone up since then... or maybe you're just getting hosed in Canada; I don't know.

Little bit of both, but the 3000 series returning to (and in some cases, going slightly above) MSRP after the launch of the 5000 series and being discounted not too long ago definitely feels overpriced.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I panicked about this but then I remembered I'm canadian.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I panicked about this but then I remembered I'm canadian.

You know we'll end up paying it too.

 

[aleshemsky83]

You know we'll end up paying it too.

You know that's probably true if the parts all ship to the States and go to Canada after.

 

[Osprey]

Wow. I just got an e-mail from Amazon telling me that they shipped my Ryzen 5600X... the one that was estimated to not arrive until mid-March. I was hoping that it might arrive sooner, but I didn't expect it this soon. It's due to be delivered Thursday. I haven't even ordered the motherboard and RAM for it yet. The 5600X product page also still isn't discoverable with their search engine, which is weird when they seemingly have the product in stock and there's little to no queue. Anyways, if you want to try to get one (or another 5000 series CPU), see my post above. I'll update again when/if I get the package and confirm that it's actually the 5600X. Hopefully, they didn't just ship me a 3600X, instead.

 

[mouser]

This whole CPU and overall part shortage has me waiting to build the new rig. At this point I might wait to see what the Rocket Lake processors look like when they're released in late March.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Interestingly it seems new tariffs have hit the UK due to Brexit being fully completed, so prices have gone up quite a bit there too.

 

[Osprey]

A little bit ago, I got an alert from the Amazon app that my Ryzen 5600X was 10 stops away, so I went outside to wait. While waiting, I checked my Google Discover feed and what's the very first recommended article for me? It's about another Amazon customer who received a 5600X with numerous bent pins in a soft mailer . The truck finally gets here and what does the driver hand me? A soft mailer . I wasn't really concerned because I know that the CPU is protected in a plastic guard inside of the Ryzen box, but I still opened it promptly to check all of the pins. They're all straight; no surprise. I don't even really understand how they could get bent during shipping. I wonder if these people are accidentally dropping the CPUs or bending the pins when they try to insert them into the motherboard sockets and then blaming Amazon for it.

Anyways, it really is a 5600X, so, if you want one, try the steps that I detailed above. Now, I get to look at it on the shelf for the next few days while I research, order and await the motherboard and RAM that I need to actually use it.

 

[Bruins4Lifer]

I wonder if these people are accidentally dropping the CPUs or bending the pins when they try to insert them into the motherboard sockets and then blaming Amazon for it.

I've always thought the same. The way they are packaged, I just don't see how they could be bent unless it happened at the factory- and that just seems even more unlikely.

I also believe the large majority of RMAs (like 75%) for PC parts are of completely functional parts, where the end user installed them wrong or isn't aware they are incompatible.

 

[Osprey]

I also believe the large majority of RMAs (like 75%) for PC parts are of completely functional parts, where the end user installed them wrong or isn't aware they are incompatible.

Yeah, I think that that's a large reason why there's such a market for "refurbished," "reconditioned" and "open box" parts. I imagine that at least half of all "refurbished" parts were simply tested, found to be fine, quickly cleaned and then re-sold.

I'm guilty of it, myself. About 15 years ago, I returned a motherboard to BestBuy because it wouldn't boot. When I installed the replacement, I realized that I had forgotten to plug in that extra 8-pin power cable from the power supply in addition to the 24-pin one. I had never had a motherboard that required that before. In other words, I had returned a perfectly working part, thinking that it was bad . Oh well. A little humility is healthy, I suppose.

 

[Commander Clueless]

It's a tough time to have PC building as a hobby, although I'm sure that's true of many hobbies these days.

I'm not in a rush to upgrade...including my PS4, if I'm honest. I can still game plenty.


I do sort of regret not shelling out the bit of extra cash for the 2060 Super over my 1660 Super back in 2019....even a little DLSS would go a long way right now.

Yeah, I think that that's a large reason why there's such a market for "refurbished," "reconditioned" and "open box" parts. I imagine that at least half of all "refurbished" parts were simply tested, found to be fine, quickly cleaned and then re-sold.

Likely true.

And the other half was the same, except they skipped the testing part.

 

[Osprey]

AMD's CES 2021 presentation was pretty disappointing. I thought that we might hear about the Ryzen 5 5600 (non-X) and/or the Radeon 6700 and 6700 XT, but not a single new Ryzen desktop processor or Radeon graphics card was announced. It was merely promised that we'd get new Radeons in 1H 2021. They also didn't say anything about their upcoming DLSS competitor or improving ray tracing performance/support. Basically, there was nothing in the presentation for desktop users.

What did get announced was their Ryzen 5000 mobile processor lineup, including the 5800U for ultrabooks and the 5900HX for gaming laptops. Reportedly, the 5800U can deliver battery life of up to 17.5 hours for general usage and 21 hours for movie playback and the 5900HX can deliver over 100fps in Horizon: Zero Dawn at 1080p. Laptops with these processors will start being available in February. Besides that, they previewed a 3rd-gen Epyc server processor and patted themselves on the back for their involvement in COVID and with various industry leaders.

If you care to watch it, here's the video. The Ryzen 5000 mobile announcement (which is really all that's worth watching) begins at 18:31.