PC Build Thread

[rage2]

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For the Vega iGPU you want to use the drivers from ASUS to make sure any ASUS-specific features work properly as they would have been validated for that specific PC. For mobo chipset drivers you typically want to get those directly from AMD.

Thanks. Got it all setup and looks like I can run Sega AM2 emulator full screen under windows 10! Looks like the problem before was shitty intel drivers on the NUC causing it to lockup.

One thing that sucks is the PN50 is apparently poorly designed for cooling. The fan is always on and the 4800U runs pretty hot with nothing but a virtual box VM running. Not a huge deal since I’m only in that room when I’m working, and typically have noise cancelling on so I can’t hear shit anyways.

[taemo]

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Thanks. Got it all setup and looks like I can run Sega AM2 emulator full screen under windows 10! Looks like the problem before was shitty intel drivers on the NUC causing it to lockup.

One thing that sucks is the PN50 is apparently poorly designed for cooling. The fan is always on and the 4800U runs pretty hot with nothing but a virtual box VM running. Not a huge deal since I’m only in that room when I’m working, and typically have noise cancelling on so I can’t hear shit anyways.

surprised you never had cooling issues with your NUC.
I tried replacing my HTPC Dell SFF with a Lenovo mini PC and could hear the fan going when I started to play some youtube, cant imagine running VMs on one 24/7
decided to stick with SFF as they are small enough and have decent cooling.

[rage2]

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surprised you never had cooling issues with your NUC.
I tried replacing my HTPC Dell SFF with a Lenovo mini PC and could hear the fan going when I started to play some youtube, cant imagine running VMs on one 24/7
decided to stick with SFF as they are small enough and have decent cooling.

Both my original NUC and the NUC10 I picked up at Costco as a temp replacement ran cool and silent.

Joining the benchmark game with you guys.



Is that bad?

[suntan]

I made the huge mistake of turning on 4K in a game. It's so beautiful.

[spikerS]

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Joining the benchmark game with you guys.



Is that bad?

Totally. It's like golf, lower the score, the better. LOL

[rage2]

Tried to do your guy's resolution instead of 4K. Still hilariously embarrassing haha.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Thanks. Got it all setup and looks like I can run Sega AM2 emulator full screen under windows 10! Looks like the problem before was shitty intel drivers on the NUC causing it to lockup.

One thing that sucks is the PN50 is apparently poorly designed for cooling. The fan is always on and the 4800U runs pretty hot with nothing but a virtual box VM running. Not a huge deal since I’m only in that room when I’m working, and typically have noise cancelling on so I can’t hear shit anyways.

Glad you got it up and running the way you wanted. The 4800u itself isn't a very hot CPU, but maybe it's getting stifled in that NUC. If you are feeling adventurous you could put some better thermal compound or liquid metal between the CPU and cooler if it is user accessible, depending on what ASUS used at the factory you might see a pretty significant temperature drop.

[msommers]

When you guys are mobo shopping is there anything specifically that you're looking for? I want 128gb capacity and the latest USB but I dunno what else I should look out for. Mobo price range is nuts and I can't really differentiate them easily...

[taemo]

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Tried to do your guy's resolution instead of 4K. Still hilariously embarrassing haha.

that's not bad for integrated graphics, if gaming and emulator you are probably running 1080p and lower anyway.

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When you guys are mobo shopping is there anything specifically that you're looking for? I want 128gb capacity and the latest USB but I dunno what else I should look out for. Mobo price range is nuts and I can't really differentiate them easily...

I look for chipset, I/O available to make sure it covers all my needs, for budget I stick with the mid range level (around 200$) as I don't see any benefits splurging on the top of the line.

[rage2]

For emulator this is overkill. I’ve been getting close to 60fps on the original NUC at 1080p for all the Sega Model 3 games haha. The only real gaming i would even try is testing out game pass games. Apparently I need way more storage to do flight simulator.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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When you guys are mobo shopping is there anything specifically that you're looking for? I want 128gb capacity and the latest USB but I dunno what else I should look out for. Mobo price range is nuts and I can't really differentiate them easily...

For X570, there a few go-to boards. VRM quality is probably the most important attribute as pretty much every decent X570 board has 128GB RAM support and more I/O than you'll likely ever use.

Bang for the buck:
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite / Elite WiFi (often on sale for $239)
Asus X570 TUF ($230ish)

High end options:
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master
Asus X570 Crosshair VIII Dark Hero

With 12 cores you just don't want to buy a board with a shitty VRM, and most boards are safe in that regard aside from some of the entry level MSI boards. All the above can handle 128GB RAM, have USB C 3.2 GEN 2, etc.

Unless you need a very specific feature, I would personally grab the Gigabyte Aorus Elite on sale (currently it's only $239). It has a slightly better VRM than the ASUS TUF, it has Q-Flash Plus allowing you to flash a bios without a CPU (you need this for Ryzen 5000 if you're building it yourself), and it has Intel LAN instead of Realtek.

If you want a high end board, grab the X570 Aorus Master unless you want to do a manual overclock, then grab the Dark Hero which has some special Ryzen-specific OC features. I personally am not overclocking this time around as Ryzen does such a good job with it's automatic overclocking based on your cooling capabilities. The Master is currently on sale for $459 but it looks to be sold out most places as it's a very sought after board.

Honestly even the mid-range X570 boards are so feature rich there isn't a whole lot differentiating them other than things like physical build quality, number of M.2 slots, memory overclocking ability, 2.5Gbit LAN, and better VRM quality/VRM cooling.

For RAM the sweet spot for Ryzen is 3600Mhz CL16. Make sure you actually need 128GB though - I personally have never gone over my 32GB even while editing 4K drone footage. If you go 32GB you can easily increase to 64GB if needed, but if you think you might need 128GB, you will need to start with at least 64GB to avoid having to buy all new RAM if you decide to make the jump to 128GB.

For your SSD I would grab a Samsung 980 Pro so you can take advantage of PCIe 4.0 if/when it becomes a bigger deal. Right now it doesn't help you too much unless you are doing very drive-intensive work or transferring files between two PCIe 4.0 drives, but the price difference is only ~$100 so IMO it's a no-brainer for maximum longevity.

If you want to stick with air cooling, grab a Noctua NH-D15 and be done with it. The Chromax (black) version has been easier to find lately if shit-brown doesn't fit your design aesthetic. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is currently the best thermal compound unless you get into liquid metal, but liquid metal is conductive and doesn't last as long as traditional compound.

For a Case, I like the Phanteks P500a as it has the best combination of cooling and noise that I have been able to find to date based on objective testing, however there are lots of good cases. The Fractal Meshify 2 is another good one and the Lian Li Dynamic and Lian Li Lancool Mesh series are also a fine choices. This will depend somewhat on your build as well, for example how many HDDs you need to put in it.

[msommers]

Thanks man, that's great!

W.r.t to RAM, is 3600 the sweet spot for performance because it's optimized or cost:benefit?

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Thanks man, that's great!

W.r.t to RAM, is 3600 the sweet spot for performance because it's optimized or cost:benefit?

Generally speaking, Ryzen benefits from fast RAM more than other platforms. The main reason has to do with Ryzen's infinity fabric, which is the connection between the core groups on the CPU and the I/O die. For maximum performance on Ryzen, you want a 1:1 ratio with your RAM clock and the infinity fabric clock - if you go beyond that, it actually hinders performance. Ryzen will automatically match the infinity fabric clock up to your RAM speed to a maximum of 1800Mhz (without overclocking), so 3600Mhz RAM (1800MHz DDR) will most easily give you the biggest reward without overclocking or buying very expensive RAM. You can tweak this further however it will depend on your individual parts as to what their thresholds are, but 1800 MHz infinity fabric clock is the highest guaranteed stable speed on all X570 boards, and simply installing 3600MHz RAM will automatically get you there.

RAM timings aren't quite as important, but if you can get faster timings along with the 3600MHz for little extra cost, I would. A 32GB (2X16) 3600MHz CL16 kit is usually around $300. Look at the Trident Z Neo stuff (Neo is GSkill's optimized for Ryzen product but you don't need to have that).

This is the best deal I can see right now on a good 32GB kit: https://www.newegg.ca/g-skill-32gb-2...-861-_-Product

Looks like it's on sale for the next week. There is a kit $20 cheaper but the timings are garbage.

The 128GB kits are nearly $1000

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

As an owner of the X570 Aorus elite, I can attest that both the BIOS/UEFI, and the software packages for Win10, are absolutely and utter garbage. I would 1000% recomment an MSI or Asus board over a gigabyte. We bought an MSI x570 board for my wife's machine, and it's far far far better in both respects.

[zechs]

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Gave up on the new build and ended up getting this guy for $1200
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/as...t:techspecstab

Funny, my parents are getting older and needed a new dedicated computer for a side business my mom is running.

At first, I thought I'd build one, but prices and availability for everything is so stupid.

Bought them this, then will sell the 5500XT for $400-$500, or maybe put it to use in a mining rig. So like, $600 for this fully built computer.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B08FPL...b_b_prod_image

I did the numbers, even without the 5500XT it would be tough to build a computer for this price. It may seem like overkill, but anytime I am tasked with buying them tech it needs to last 5 years without slowing down. This rig will last them, just need to disable the RGB.

[msommers]

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As an owner of the X570 Aorus elite, I can attest that both the BIOS/UEFI, and the software packages for Win10, are absolutely and utter garbage. I would 1000% recomment an MSI or Asus board over a gigabyte. We bought an MSI x570 board for my wife's machine, and it's far far far better in both respects.

My current board is an Asus and have had good luck. Which x570 are you using?

Any recommendations for cases with strong filtration? We're keep the office window open in the summer and naturally get a lot more dust/pollen. Less concerned about noise as I'll be changing all the fans to Nocta stuff anyways. Really impressed with how quiet they are

[rage2]

Looks like I really could use more gpu... forcing 8x supersampling I’m dropping under 60fps in the emulator. Have to settle with 4x which means still some shimmering in old games.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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As an owner of the X570 Aorus elite, I can attest that both the BIOS/UEFI, and the software packages for Win10, are absolutely and utter garbage. I would 1000% recomment an MSI or Asus board over a gigabyte. We bought an MSI x570 board for my wife's machine, and it's far far far better in both respects.

Gigabyte got a lot of praise for their BIOS on X570 because it was such an improvement over their X470 boards and is now widely regarded as one of the best. A lot of the prominent YouTubers also choose the Gigabyte boards for their overclocking and bench testing and they are in the BIOS more than anyone.

Also, most users spend 2 minutes in the BIOS and never go into it again so it's a non-issue anyway for the average user. What specifically don't you like about it?

There is also no need to use any of Gigabyte's actual software if you aren't a fan - I've never heard of anyone actually using software that comes with a mobo.

The BIOS on my Aorus Master is the same as the Elite as far as I know and it's the best BIOS I have personally used. I haven't found anything not to like about it so far and got PBO, XMP, fan curves, etc. set up in no time at all without having to read a manual.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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My current board is an Asus and have had good luck. Which x570 are you using?

Any recommendations for cases with strong filtration? We're keep the office window open in the summer and naturally get a lot more dust/pollen. Less concerned about noise as I'll be changing all the fans to Nocta stuff anyways. Really impressed with how quiet they are

How concerned are you about noise? There's basically two ways to cool a case quietly - you can buy a near-sealed case with sound deadening but then you have to brute force cooling with higher fan speeds, or you can buy a very open case and run the fans near silent, but there will be no sound insulation.

My Phanteks P500a has a dust filter on every fan opening but I haven't owned it long enough yet to tell you how well it keeps dust out. It is the quietest and coolest case I've ever owned which was my priority - if I have to blow it out with compressed air every few months I'm OK with that. The cleanest cases are probably going to be those from Be Quiet!, but they are also generally hot and expensive, so it's always going to be a bit of a trade-off there. The more you restrict and filter a case the worse the cooling is going to be, but not as much dust can get in. The filters are all just mesh as well, I am not aware of any case that has an actual filter.

[taemo]

^this, I am using a Gigabyte Auros Elite X-570 and have 0 issues.

just install the necessary drivers, update the BIOS and configure the settings needed and that's it. I never had to touch the BIOS again.
I don't overclock my 3700X either though and maybe access the Fusion app to change the colors on my Mobo and 3070 Master.