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pres589 (djronnebaum)
pres589 (djronnebaum) UltimaDork
10/16/22 1:03 p.m.

$200 or less for a 'decent brand' 2060 seems like a great deal.  The dollars to performace ratio there is probably untouchable.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/17/22 11:25 a.m.
GIRTHQUAKE said:

Also, do you live near a microcenter?

Yes 20-30 minutes away. Been there several times. 

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/17/22 11:26 a.m.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

Thanks for confirmation on the M.2 thing. I have only read a few articles about this format of drive. I was starting to realize I needed to dive deeper into what the letters meant. 

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/17/22 1:21 p.m.

Ok after checking prices I found

  • Radeon RX 550 for $109 but a Radeon RX6400X 44g for $160
  • Ryzen 5 5500 does not support PCIe 4.0. So I will go with the 5600
  • Motherboards are confusing but I think I have one with Wifi for $140
  • Power supplies are hard for me to determine as many people comment on sites about the physical size of units in DELL desktops are custom are sometimes hard to replace. Found a sale on a 850W ASUS ROG STRIX for $110 but need to confirm the size of it. 

 

 

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/17/22 1:25 p.m.

Question again on memory. Amazon has a sale on corsair DDR4 32Gb (16x2) 3200 MHz for $90.

The Asus motherboard says that 3200 is supported and anything higher has an "O.C." next to it. In the past I understood overclocking to be a manual override thing while now it is somewhat supported windows/BIOS/other software. I don't want to overclock so if I just install the RAM will it automatically overclock? 

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE SuperDork
10/17/22 2:11 p.m.

In reply to Advan046 :

Only to a very light extent, but likely not. Overclocked RAM is very unstable because it both advances input as well as output speeds apropos of the rest of the system. Big name tech guys like Linus Tech Tips are very against OC'ed RAM and I've only known one person who has and they will never do it again.

ProDarwin
ProDarwin MegaDork
10/17/22 2:17 p.m.

I would check your specs against this:

https://www.logicalincrements.com/

 

you have very solid processor/memory/power supply, paired with a very low end video card.  Why not drop the rest of the guts to match?  If your goal is just Windows 11 compatibility and playing ancient games, you can get there cheaper/eaiser.

szeis4cookie (Forum Supporter)
szeis4cookie (Forum Supporter) Dork
10/17/22 2:21 p.m.
Advan046 said:

Ok after checking prices I found

  • Radeon RX 550 for $109 but a Radeon RX6400X 44g for $160
  • Ryzen 5 5500 does not support PCIe 4.0. So I will go with the 5600
  • Motherboards are confusing but I think I have one with Wifi for $140
  • Power supplies are hard for me to determine as many people comment on sites about the physical size of units in DELL desktops are custom are sometimes hard to replace. Found a sale on a 850W ASUS ROG STRIX for $110 but need to confirm the size of it. 

 

 

That power supply will be the standard ATX size. Nearly all power supplies out there will either be the ATX size or one of the SFX standards for small form factor. The only place you're going to get a Dell-shaped power supply is probably from Dell itself, if they even have any left. If there's any doubt I'd just get a new case and be done with it.

I'd strongly recommend against either of those graphics cards, especially new. Performance per dollar is just not there - especially if you get into more modern games. Used graphics card prices have dropped like a rock over the past 3-6 months as they have become unusable for crypto mining - I sold an RX 570 locally for $80 back in August and prices should have only dropped from there. If you really want to buy new the RX 6600 is your value weapon of choice.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/18/22 10:45 a.m.

In reply to szeis4cookie (Forum Supporter) :

I am shy against used PC parts due to past bad experiences.

  • Motherboard that always gave me crashes.
  • Network card that I realized was cracked. 
  • Another motherboard that ran very hot.

I have that listed video card as it is within budget for new graphic cards. A $280 graphic card may be a 3 year from now upgrade.

Got my first piece of the puzzle!

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/18/22 10:54 a.m.

In reply to ProDarwin :

I guess while my hard requirements are low...Must Haves. My desired future proofing was moderate. I think except for a better gaming graphics card or my kids needing something requiring a lot more capabilities for school; I wouldn't ever need to go beyond the desktop I am going to build.

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE SuperDork
10/18/22 4:12 p.m.

In reply to Advan046 :

There really isn't such a thing as "future proofing", and if you go AMD for the processor you've done that already since you can swap processors as needed. Having a graphics card that can Ray-trace will also "future proof" you, but it's really a graphics quality improvement while AMD/Radeon tends to just dump E36 M3loads of HMD ram into their cards to give them more overall "grunt".

For awhile, my Vega64 had serious advantages in a handful of games over the 1080ti JUST because it had like, 40% more RAM.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
10/28/22 9:42 p.m.

Almost have all the pieces. I know chip and graphic card prices are falling fast but I had to jump sometime so....

I am not a fan of the led circus/fair desktops so searching for a stylish case without the glass panels. 

dps214
dps214 Dork
10/29/22 12:15 a.m.
Advan046 said:

I am not a fan of the led circus/fair desktops so searching for a stylish case without the glass panels. 

I was in the same situation and ended up with a cheap Corsair case. All black, no glass, no rgb anything. Looks like that model is discontinued or just out of stock. Did a quick search and this was the closest thing I could find, it's more expensive but still pretty cheap I think.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
11/6/22 1:08 p.m.

I ended up buying this case as it was on a flash sale. 

Looking at PSUs I see a Corsair CX650M 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze ATX Semi-Modular Power Supply at micro center for $61.

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE SuperDork
11/24/22 10:05 a.m.
Advan046 said:

Looking at PSUs I see a Corsair CX650M 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze ATX Semi-Modular Power Supply at micro center for $61.

Frankly, I wouldn't buy a PSU until you have the rest of your components picked, and I would watch some Gamer's Nexus videos on them because the "Bronze/silver/gold" ect. classifications are ALL bullE36 M3.

I think Seasonic is the brand that does pure sine PSUs that are like, 96%+ efficient and rarely require fans. They're expensive but they're worth it.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
12/13/22 9:55 p.m.

Alright should be build weekend. I will post my prices when done. I missed out on a couple sales that would have made it all a bit cheaper but I am excited to finally get new PC. 

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
12/19/22 4:49 p.m.

Got started late this weekend due to sick family members. 

 

I built my last computer in 2005ish and then ended up buying off the shelf through to this build. It is up and running win11 and I forgot about how long it takes to get software then updates/patches loaded and a million reboots. Feels good. I wasn't doing the PC version of the $2000 Challenge. At the end here I realize I wanted to experience the build as much as stay within reasonable cost. 

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