Hi all, new to these forums. Currious about these forums, so I’ll post my desired upgrade kit for my current pc.
** WARNING: Alot of time went into this post. I tryed to hide alot of stuffs, so to hide the TLDR stuffs. Feel free to unfold, and read it all. Scroll to the bottom, to read my questions. **
Current pc:
Summary
AMD A8 5600k (4-core APU)
16 gb DDR3
MSI 1050 ti (depending on game type, it might get bottlenecked)
240 gb Kingston HyperX Savage SSD
1.5 tb Samsung HDD (8,5+ years old and spinning)
3 tb Seagate HDD (well over 3 years I asume)
4 tb Seagate HDD (just over 8 months old?)
850 watt Zalman 80+ gold full modular PSU
Ancient round full-copper Zalman CPU cooler. This used to be higher end. The stock blue-LED fan broke down, and I’ve mounted 2x 80mm fans to it. Push-pull, vs stock single push fan.
Highly modded crappy case with:
Summary
Zero provisions for cable management
Flipped around motherboard (glass on the right side of the case, PSU in the bottom)
2x (1) 120mm front panel intake fans (1 broke down already)
2x 80 mm top exhaust fans
2x stand alone RGB strips in cans on top of the case (with remote control)
4x small pieces of regular glass as side panel windows
Black-orange colour scheme
Thick “bumper bar” infront of the pc case, with a candle mount
Cloth/filter as front panel
Now let me try and follow the “General Guidelines - Build a PC”.
Summary
Budget: I do not have a fixed budget, but I do want to stick to a lower budget. There are several components I want, so it’s not LOW-budget. I origionaly was looking at around 400 euros, but my current wishlist is closer to 500 for the actual hardware. Also, I’m on wellfare, so the parts have to last me a long time. Last time I bought a NEW pc core, I got an AMD X2 64 4200+, which lasted me 9 years of 24/7 usage, and that PC core still works just fine.
Where do you live: I live in the Netherlands, and I use the Euro.
Is there a retailer you prefer? Yes, I am going to buy from an online store called “Megekko”. It’s the allround cheapest online store I can find in my country, and I’ve bought parts there before.
Do you need or already have peripherals? Yes, considering it’s an upgrade kit.
What will you be using your Glorious computer for?
-I do play games with my GF online which are creative in nature. Games like The Forest, Empyrion, Space Engineers, Factorio, Rising World, Satisfactory and Raft. I also like to play 4x games like the Civilisation games or Stellaris. I do not play those games online, and I will also stay away from (toxic) FPS multiplayer games. High FPS is not required for me.
-Storage pig. My current pc has 8.5 tb of HDD storage, and it’s 75% in use. Movies and series, downloads from Youtube. That kind of stuffs. I don’t own a tv, and I’ve got a second monitor in my bedroom. Considering buying a 3rd screen (a large tv) to watch stuffs from a couch.
-Browsing all kinds of websites. News, Youtube, tech, porn, wiki, science… You get the picture.
-Simple webserver. I host a few homebrew web pages from my pc for private usage. (me and my GF)
-Alarm clock. Yes, I use my pc as my alarm clock, because no regular clock will wake me up propperly.
-“It’s better then tv”. Watching all kinds of movies/series, often in lower quality. My eyes are fooked anyways, and both my screens run at 1280x1024.
-I still want to start a crappy low budget DIY YT channel, so rendering might be in the future. I don’t know a thing about rendering/editing. But I’ve got some time to wait.
-24/7 turned on. My current case doesn’t even have a power-off switch. Currently 217 days online without any sleep mode. And I kinda need to dust everything off. (so lets get an upgrade kit!)
Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking? I do not plan on overclocking right away. I expect that the performance increase will make me amazed enough for the first few years. But later in life, when the hardware gets dated, I might want to OC before I do another upgrade. This way, I hope the core components can last me a long time. (5+ years minimal)
Do you plan on going for custom water-cooling now, or in the future? I am considering getting a nice (good) AliExpress waterblock and D5 pump and hook it all up with an large (externaly placed) CAR radiator or CAR AC radiator. But I need to do some other things first. It’s mostly to keep things origional-ish and fun, not for a higher OC.
Operating System. I’m currently using windows 7, and I kinda don’t like the concept of windows 10. But I am considering a fresh windows 10 install. (this should not be included in the total build cost)
"If you Game"
Summary
I’ve already listed several games I like to play, and the genres. I play usually at 1280x1024. Several of the more “heavy” games suffer more from crappy sim speeds, then low FPS. But as long as games remain playable, I’m happy with low 30’s and low settings. It’s about the experiance of making stuffs, not so much the graphical things TO ME.
"If you Render or Edit things"
Summary
I might get into making YT vids, but I have no clue at which software I would need, or what settings to run. I can’t work with photoshop at all. My smartphone records in 1080p, 30fps.
"If you don’t have peripherals"
Summary
It’s an upgrade kit. I have a fully functional pc as it is right now, and I will take all peripherals from it.
Desired upgrade parts
CPU: AMD Ryzen R5 3600 195,00
I am not allowed to use links in my posts…
Motherboard: Asrock B450 STEEL LEGEND 99,00
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Memory: Ballistix Sport AT DDR4 16GB Kit 8GBx2 3200 MT/s 89,95
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CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB 58,05
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Case fans: Cooler Master MasterFan MF120R RGB 29,90
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RGB splitter: Akasa RGB LED Splitter Cable 1 to 4 7,95
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Why/what/how:
Summary
I will be keeping my current 1050 ti, 5.1 surround sound speakers (3.1 in use right now), 850 watt PSU, all my storage and my SSD, mouse + keyboard and my 2 1280x1024 monitors.
Case mods:
Summary
I will also be keeping my current PC case. I will repaint it into mat black and glossy white. I will be putting a big piece of glass into the side panel. Mounting the radiator on top might be slightly tricky and not fully optimal considering the 2 cans “chimney style” diameters. Might need to make a shroud, so all airflow gets directed outwards. But the openings should be plenty big, especialy considering how poorly some brand new cases are made. And finaly I will be looking at a nice new piece of black-white cloth for the front panel cover.
All 4 fans (2x 120mm and 2x 80mm) need to be replaced. They are LOW-budget, and well over 5 years old/spinning 24/7. With a larger side panel, the current LED strips don’t cut it, and getting some propper RGB fans is the cheapest/best looking option. (vs getting low-budget black fans and an aditional RGB strip)
Cooling:
Summary
Considering how I plan on using my pc, the AIO will be overkill and most likely sub optimal. I plan on using this platform for at least 5 years, and I consider it very possible that the AIO will fail before that. But it looks really nice, and the pump will be at it’s lowest place. If I do not buy this AIO, I need to replace the 2x 80 mm fans, which can be low budget/doesn’t have to be RGB.
The Ryzen R5 3600 CPU comes with the wraith stealth cooler, which seems to be capable enough. But if I don’t buy this AIO, I will be re-using my ancient broken but fixed full copper Zalman CPU cooler. (will do some thermal testing, because this is an really old and used cooler)
B450, Ryzen 3000
Summary
I do not plan on getting any PCIE gen 4 hardware any time soon. So an 570 motherboard seems like overkill to me. The Ryzen R5 3600 seems to be mid-range, and I don’t plan on doing anything SLI. So the 470 motherboards seem to be overkill because of that. So the B450 makes the most sense to me.
The Steel Legend motherboard as sold by this retailer, seems to have an firmware/bios version, which does support Ryzen 3000 series CPU’s, so I don’t need a loaner CPU or play with an USB stick without a CPU installed.
The Steel Legend also has 5 audio plugs, so I could hook up my current 5.1 (3.1 in use) surround sound speakers. Although the audio chip itself isn’t the best? (not a headphone user, so less of an issue?)
The motherboard also is ATX formfactor, which fills up my pc case nicely. I like the neutral colours and that it has both RGB and ARGB headers. 6 sata connectors is the bare minimum for me, considering I will be already using 4 of them. 7 regular USB connectors on the back is also really nice, because I have had them fail due to dust and such in the past. Having a PS/2 connector on the back is also a must for me, because it always works.
And finaly: back in the day, I considered Asrock an cheaper brand. But it seems to have changed. And Asrock seems to really make an effort on fixing firmware/BIOS stuffs, which is something that’s really important to me.
The memory
Summary
I know Ryzen likes it’s memory fast. People will often say you should at least get 3000 mhz memory. The memory I’ve picked is some of the cheapest 3200 mhz memory for that webstore. But not only that, it looks kinda good. It will fit very well with my (fixed) pc case and motherboard/GPU. It’s also CL 16, which isn’t that horrible at all. And finaly, I wen’t for 2 sticks of 8, so I have both channels occupied. And considering that those creative games like memory, 16 gb looked like the minimal amount to me. (+ I’ve currently already got 16 gb DDR3 memory, and it will get propperly past 8 gb in use)
CPU, 3600
Summary
I want (need) an CPU that is very capable and modern. I like having alot of cores, but it needs to remain affordable. And being an AMD Fanboi for ~20 years, Ryzen it is. When looking at the line-up, I could go with a 2700(x) or something like the 3600 or 3600x. But many reviews and comparisons I found, said that the 6-core 3600 will be better then the 8-core 2700x. I like the idea of having plenty of cores, but it did make me lean towards the 3600(x).
Because I have my pc on 24/7, power consumption is also a consideration. Which made me look more closely to the 3600 vs the other 2. 65 watt tdp does sound really interesting. And after watching a Tech Jesus video several times, I came to the conclusion that the 50 euro more for a 3600x, isn’t worth it.
Any comments/suggestion?
What would you change? Did I look at all the important things? Did I miss something? Would you change motherboards, and if so, to which one? Would you go for the AIO, or stick to the stock or ancient CPU cooler? Would you want a picture of my current pc/case mods?
Last note: I’m on wellfare/really poor. I need these main core components to last me a long time. And spending almost 500 euro, just freaks me out/makes me really insecure. Thanks for reading!