Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10First thing first, let me say that JUST NOW is a very BAD moment to change computer unless you will be forced to do so.
Oh wow, thanks for the very detailed and helpful response, I appreciate it. You make a very compelling case for some of these parts, and for waiting, I just don't know if I can for another 3-4 months lol. I know I've waited 12 years already, so what's another few months? The main reason I wanted one now was because of the NFL season. I need to get back into video making. I tried with this PC, but I can only do 720p at best, and my CPU tends to BSOD on me during rendering (overheating), so I had to stop. The video quality was crap anyway. Thanksgiving will be the middle of the season, and put me behind, but I'll still have to think about it, or at the very least research it some more. I want this new PC to last 5-10 years, so getting the best bang for my buck is important.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Second: your budget is a bit limited for a whole PC replacement monitor included, given the performance level you are searching for. That's forcing you to make some painful sacrifices.
Well the idea was to make some sacrifices now, but leave room for upgrades down the road when necessary, and when things become cheaper.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10All your actual computer is 12 years old? You said it has all the original parts but you don't specify if it has received any additional upgrade. So, 12 years old graphic card? And hard drive? Monitor too?
Yep, the whole thing is 12 years old, never replaced anything except I've added some HDD's along the way, and some RAM. Pretty good considering how much I've used it. Almost 16 hours a day for the full 12 years, so well over 50,000 hours. I wish the CPU had a counter on it or something so I could check. I no longer use the original HDD, but I still have it in a box somewhere. Every once in awhile I want a fresh start, so rather than try to search through a HDD looking for everything I want to keep before reformatting it, I just buy a new HDD. I did have 2 other HDD's fail on me along the way. The GPU fan has experienced some sagging because a little rubber washer wore down to dust, which causes it to rub against its plastic housing, making it sound like a weed whacker lol, but now I run my PC upside down to help minimize that xD. Also every 6 months I take the entire PC apart and give it a thorough cleaning, all the fans, all the nooks and crannies. The heat sink on the CPU gets a new coat of thermal paste, and I take the GPU apart to clean the fins and fan, give it a new layer of thermal too. I experience a noticeable drop in temps after I do that, and it purrs like a kitten again afterward xD. It's probably due for another cleaning.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Just to know if there's something salvageable that could be used still a few more years on new computer to save that money now for other things.
The only thing salvageable would be the HDD's, but I plan to keep using this PC until it dies. I'm almost curious to see how long it'll last now.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Motherboard: I've the same and I'm very happy with it; with the only difference that I've the non-wifi version. I've a good reliable LAN cable to the router; I prefer that than wi-fi connections and that save me a few bucks.
You and @plykkegaard have made me consider looking for the non-wifi version. The wifi was a bonus because sometimes I drag my PC along when I go visiting, and running a LAN cable across the room isn't always an option, but that probably doesn't happen often enough to justify having it.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Of course, with an X570 chipset you are paying now the price of some things that you will need years to take full vantage (the PCIe-4, the amount of RAM...).
Haha yep, that was the idea with the motherboard. I want one that gives me the room to upgrade, because we don't know what the future holds as far as technology goes. I could probably get by with a max 64GB of RAM, but what if RAM becomes cheaper and more of a priority for software or whatever in a few years? The same way HDD storage became a priority recently, because games are now 60-100 GB each, and don't even get me started on the size of video files xD. Or maybe it's because 12 years ago I didn't think I'd ever need more than 8GB of RAM, which is the max for my current motherboard, but I was wrong there. 128GB sounds like too much now, but what about in 5 years?
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10And about B450 chipset compatibility, you could find plenty of motherboards already updated in the BIOS to allow Ryzen Zen 2 CPUs; so that shouldn't worry you beyond the fact to have to check that point. It's up to you.
Yeah I dug into it, but I'd rather just not have to deal with it, or worry about it lol.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Also, wi-fi is one of the most fast-evolving mainstream technology. How many wi-fi version have we got in the last 15 years? Integrated wi-fi in mainboard means you are stuck at that wi-fi level and that in a future it will be deadweight or an anchor. I preffer expansion cards for Wi-Fi interfaces.
You make a compelling argument here. I have the future in mind with this build, and you're right, this could be a useless or inferior feature in a few years. I could save some cheddar there.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Graphic card: AMD doesn't beat NVidia at the top tier range. But at mid and low you will have better prices or better value at the same price on an AMD card; with your tight budget it's something to have in mind. One RX580 or RX590 should beat that NVidia and will have double the VRAM for a similar price (the con is that AMD ones will be way more power hungry, even they will not require a change in your PSU).
I didn't check or benchmark too many top tier cards, just mainly looked at cards for my current budget. The main reason I prefer Nvidia is the familiarity, so unless the top tier (future) AMD GPU's blow Nvidia out of the water in the price/performance category, I'll probably stick with Nvidia here. I only checked to see if AMD could woo me enough in that department to consider a change, like they did with the CPU, but it didn't happen.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10SSD: The one you chosen is one of the best disk in their category. Unfortunately, that category is of those SSD without DRAM cache, one piece that increases enormously either the performance and the lifespan of an SSD.
Ahhh good to know. I hadn't even considered DRAM cache, so I'll have to look into it. The lifespan of an SSD was an important feature to me. It's not so much the cost to replace or whatever, it's the potential loss of data that concerns me the most lol.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Mechanical HDD: Absolutely unnecessary unless you really have a need of storage in your computer that goes beyond 800GB (it's a good advise not to fill an SSD over the 80% unless temporarily). And if even so, you could keep using your newest HDD on the old computer and use it for that.
I'll probably exceed 800GB lol. And the HDD's on the old PC are getting full, and up there in age. My current 1.5TB HDD is 90% full. HDD's are relatively cheap. I'm thinking SSD's will come down in price, have longer life spans, and increase in size the next few years, so I'll keep relying on traditional HDD's for backup and extra storage for now. I'll just use the SSD for speed, booting and running programs. In fact I might even just get a 512GB SSD for now, haven't decided yet. On the other hand, your 80% tip makes me think I should probably stick with the TB. Cuz yeah, now I can see how a full SSD could lead to a shorter lifespan.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10The lifespan of either that old HDD or the new SSD shouldn't had to worry you because what will save you in the future is to have a proper backup of your data; not a reliable hard drive (in which you could not really trust, because reliability is an average statistic, not a value carved in stone for every individual drive).
Ain't that the truth? I had to learn that the hard way having had HDD's fail on me before. One of my newest ones failed on me first, but the original 12yo one still works. It's a crap shoot, but it still doesn't hurt to get a SSD that scores high in the lifespan category.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10RAM: Even with the workloads you say you want to do, I think 32GB is too much to purchase now.
Even for 1080p video editing/rendering? I thought RAM was important for that task and $110 didn't seem that unreasonable. I guess I could ride with a single stick of 16GB to see how it goes, I just didn't want to roll with 2x8GB. 8GB sticks sound like an eventual waste for what I have in mind with this build.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Also, that RAM doesn't pair nice with the FSB of the CPU. On Ryzen Zen2 CPUs, the internal and the FSB clocks are decoupled so you don't have to worry of instability or the CPU downlocking itself, but a RAM that could reliably go at 3.600MHz would hit the sweet spot and the performance boost in the system would be very noticeably; more than having 32 GB or RAM that most of the time could probably be empty.
Oooo boy, this is why you ask questions boys and girls lol. I'm definitely going to look into this. I settled on 3200 because the 3600 required overclocking most motherboards, something I don't want to get into, overclocking. I didn't know 3600 was the sweet spot for Ryzen however.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Power source: Good choice enough, nothing to say against.
Good, up until I saw the EVGA just the other day I was unsure about any of the other power supplies I was looking at. The EVGA grabbed me for whatever reason, unlike any of the others.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Case: As you say, simple model without costly extras.
Yep, I'm not into any of that fancy LED stuff, or side panels lol. I just want something that functions, has enough expansion slots, has room, and good ventilation. The case I bought 12 years ago is a tank. Big and heavy. I could probably survive a nuclear blast if I hid inside of it haha. An Enermax Chakra. They seem expensive now, but I don't remember what I paid for it 12 years ago. Overall my PC build back then was about $1150, not including a monitor. I think I got my money's worth, and that's the plan with the new one.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10Monitor: specially when paying the extra price of G-Sync monitors, unless you change your mind on the graphic card
I was just talking to a friend about this. The 144Hz is probably something the average person would never notice, and I probably won't either, but now that I know it exists, it's something that sounds like it might be more important later. Like the PCIe 4.0. I know it's a little more expensive now, but I don't want it to be something I regret later. It's there if I need it, my system supports it, and I won't have to buy a new monitor down the road to unlock my systems full capability. It's more of a peace of mind purchase I guess xD.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10I would prefer to have a 2K monitor or better colors/brightness that would be better for other works you want to do.
You've made another compelling argument here though. A 2K monitor fits better into the whole "future" theme I got going on here. The build is currently setup for 1080p, but yeah, the higher end CPU/GPU's are geared for 1440p, so that's something I need to reconsider. If I remember correctly, G-sync is only compatible with 144Hz monitors, so I could take that off the table as a concern too and open my options in the 75Hz monitor department.
Some newbie driver wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020 12:10So, as I said, if you can wait just a few months to maybe have a bit extra budget and specially to catch the better prices that are expected to happen on that tier of hardware you are aiming; you could have a way better PC.
Yeah, you and your compelling arguments lol. That's tempting, I just don't know if I can wait that long. I've gotten the itch now, and I've already been at this for a month or so xD. I would like to have a new build in time for the NFL season, but waiting a few months would help me a lot down the road. I've never paid attention, is that when they usually roll out the next line of PC technology, in the fall? On the other hand, I could play the "if I wait a few more months" game indefinitely lol. If I knew the Ryzen 7 prices would come down to current Ryzen 5 levels in a few months, I could probably wait, but what kind of price reduction are we actually talking about here?
I could be a free man by next week, but you want to extend my 12 year sentence by another few months, so that's borderline torture lol. Oh well, I need to at least take a little more time to research and digest some of the tips you've recommended here, which I appreciate. They Ryzen 5 went up $20 recently, so now I want to wait for that to comeback down too. I'm very patient, I just don't know if I'm 3-4 months patient xD.
