A new PC

I haven’t build any new one from scratch since previous Ryzen. Even that one was only CPU + Motherboard + RAM. This one is almost full set except GPU (and optical drive).

It started when I noticed I’ve been running pretty low RAM for both of my desktops. Buying more RAM sticks would be cheaper but I figured some boost in single threaded performance would be nice as well. Unlike the first Ryzen, third generation Ryzen finally rivals Intel CPUs in single threaded performance.

The only problem is ECC RAM is pretty expensive. While non-ECC variant has fallen in price over the last few years, ECC ones are barely cheaper compared to last time I bought some. So in the end I went with cheaper option. At 64 GB it’s not all that cheap though.

CPU

As implied above, it’s a Ryzen. Ryzen 5 3600 to be exact. 3700X would’ve been nice but it’s quite a lot more expensive.

Motherboard

As for motherboard, there aren’t that many choice as I’m limited to the available bundle options. I went with this one as it seems to be balanced between cheapness and usefulness. The two PCI-e x16 and one accessible PCI-e x1 would surely come in handy.

Initially considered an ATX board but there isn’t much benefit over micro ATX and it’s slightly more expensive. The story would be slightly different had it has more PCI-e x4 slots though. Desktop boards need to catch up with workstations/servers in this area. At least give desktop boards more physical x16 slots. Or open ended slots.

I didn’t go with X570 as I don’t want to deal with tiny extra fan.

Memory

Four sticks of 16 GB PC-3200 DDR4 RAM. Detected right away by the motherboard and pretty much have no problem. Except maybe the CL22. I got it down to 18 relatively stable but I didn’t need those extra performance yet. Also apparently using more sticks means more difficult to get tighter timings?

Storage

My first NVMe storage. Apparently this is one of the faster NVMe available? It’s pretty cheap as well.

Power Supply

Initially wanted an 80-Plus Gold but then found this which has good review and modular as well.

This is my first modular PSU. Should last me some good years.

Case

Pardon the lighting

This is the cheapest not-so-crappy case I could find.

I later learned it doesn’t have reset button which I actually prefer. I don’t usually connect reset buttons as the last thing I need is an easy way to lost my running session.

Weirdly it has one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port. Considering it involves extra cable and connector for the USB 2.0 I wonder if it’s cheaper than just two 3.0 ports. Seems pretty dumb.

The main problem with this case is the expansion slot area. The installation order is expansion card → side cover → screw. It means using slot cover is pretty difficult as you need to hold them all when screw/unscrewing. Either that or just not screw the side cover flush to the slots as the GPU I’m using blocked the cover’s retention plate, lol…

Misc

There’s no miscellaneous. That’s all. Not even proper CPU fan. The one bundled is pretty good already albeit a bit noisy at times. I’ll probably upgrade it later or something.

I’ll probably need to upgrade my GPU sometime soon as well because the one I’ve been using have been rather unstable for a while now.

OS

Windows 10 (latest) is the only version which doesn’t block updates on newer hardware so I’m stuck with it. Forever. It’s also the main reason I ended up selling my previous Ryzen. I think it’s a bit better now especially with Enterprise Edition as I can block more annoying stuff compared to Pro. I just need to ignore all the crap they bundled with installation/upgrades.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *