PC build specs

Just use windows 10. It will be fine.


Ransomware disproportionally affects even big companies with massive IT budgets. I doubt your run of the mill windows defender or avast is up to scratch really so you are just rolling the dice and go to bed hoping in the morning your files are still there. Maybe you need a very clever backup strategy (to make sure backup doesn't get infected)... I'm really not sure.
I have come to realise I had a very easy life IT-wise until now. It's like getting off your car onto motorbike, just a very fast one.
 

Ransomware disproportionally affects even big companies with massive IT budgets. I doubt your run of the mill windows defender or avast is up to scratch really so you are just rolling the dice and go to bed hoping in the morning your files are still there. Maybe you need a very clever backup strategy (to make sure backup doesn't get infected)... I'm really not sure.
I have come to realise I had a very easy life IT-wise until now. It's like getting off your car onto motorbike, just a very fast one.
Our IT department have a phishing email program, sending fake phishing emails (based on real ones) out to everyone a couple of times a month. Up to 30% of people in some groups click the link. Just unbelievable.

Windows is fine until someone loads up malware.
 
£800 spent so far and without GPU it is just sitting there and collecting dust.... It looks mighty unlikely to find a decent offer till at least February now. The just announced RTX 3060 looks very interesting with 12GB DDR6 at RRP £299. Problem is it will ship from end of FEB and availability may be just as bad as 8GB £369 3060 Ti (how odd - more memory for less?!). I suspect the cheaper one would perform better in editing tasks?!

For CPU I just grabbed 5600X from currys the other day out of pure desperation. I may come to regret this, or perhaps I will just treat it as as a very brief stopgap till the end of the year. It was a really stupid idea to build a desktop in 2020/21. You either build a monster Threadripper / XEON or go laptop...
 
Buy what precisely? https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/shop/geforce/?page=1&limit=9&locale=en-gb

Certainly not paying £400 for abused 2016 1060 etc. It's not worth £100.

It looks more likely I will get to dump everything I've got on eBay


Just choose something, doesn't have to be perfect. JUst get the thing built and it will make life easier for you rather than selling stuff off.
 

Just choose something, doesn't have to be perfect. JUst get the thing built and it will make life easier for you rather than selling stuff off.

Rubbish 2016 card for the price of new 3060... Great. I have zero work now anyway thanks to Boris and co. Besides it is not even available!!

That's like paying £4000 for Nikon d700 today
 
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Wow, I went to try to look for a card for you, something like 1070. Even that is mostly more than £200. Wow! I sold my 970 in May for £80 and sold the "I want to play Asgard's Wrath now" stop-gap 1070Ti for £210 in September, on this very forum.

The way to look at it, buy something cheap to get you started, at least able to use the computer. Then when you sell it on, you won't take too much loss in the grand scheme of things. Something like gtx970 or rx570?
 
Wow, I went to try to look for a card for you, something like 1070. Even that is mostly more than £200. Wow! I sold my 970 in May for £80 and sold the "I want to play Asgard's Wrath now" stop-gap 1070Ti for £210 in September, on this very forum.

The way to look at it, buy something cheap to get you started, at least able to use the computer. Then when you sell it on, you won't take too much loss in the grand scheme of things. Something like gtx970 or rx570?

You should see how much used 570 are now going for and probably it's not the limit. Even 470 or 550! People are irrationally desperate.

Yesterday I read some articles and basically even auto makers are cutting back and shutting down because they can't get some chips. There is some very serious s*** going on out there.
 
My son ordered one of these from eBuyer last week, was given delivery dates of 20th Jan and 20th Feb, but its turned up today

 
The way to look at it, buy something cheap to get you started, at least able to use the computer. Then when you sell it on, you won't take too much loss in the grand scheme of things. Something like gtx970 or rx570?

I think this - otherwise the OP will take a bath on the parts they've bought if they sell them on.

And that's the joy of a PC - you can upgrade parts along the way.

I'd just get the thing built.
 
And that's the joy of a PC - you can upgrade parts along the way.

The only useful thing in 2022 from this kit left will be the GPU and maybe the case. And that's a big maybe because it has no USB4 ports. DDR4 RAM, MB and CPU, possibly even PSU will be incompatible with anything new. I reckon I'll sell the whole thing towards the end of the year and maybe by then we will have some more macs on offer and better software compatibility. At least I will know if my printer will be supported on there going forward. I certainly don't wish to experience the repeat of this parts fiasco nor have any intention to spend any more time on Windows than strictly necessary. If it proves noisy it will move even quicker.
Perhaps I'll use it as a strictly editing-only, Offline PC. I'm realistically forced to keep the old MBP for car diagnostics (Virtualbox windows) and on-site work and it has no issues for web browsing and email. It will be crazy if it becomes a printer interface too in a little while.

My son ordered one of these from eBuyer last week, was given delivery dates of 20th Jan and 20th Feb, but its turned up today


Sometimes you get lucky. The sellers drop a few cards per day, many severely overpriced. I think I would certainly take the 8GB 3060 TI FE or 8GB 3070 FE now given the situation, but if it drags on to FEB I am genuinely interested if the cheaper non-TI 12GB card is actually better for editing needs. nVidia really confused the situation yesterday.
 
If it’s one of the newer 3000 series you are looking for, nvidia are doing a bait and switch: send out FE cards for review at lower price, then when FE card stock dry up, board partners raise their prices.

In the DIY market, the PSU should be compatible for the foreseeable future. The mobo, CPU and RAM will not be compatible when AM5 DDR5 comes out. But remember new stuff won’t change your current stuff capability. You should be able to add USB 4 PCIe card and use existing hardware. It’ll likely be just 10% slower than latest and greatest, no biggie.

Or you could make some money selling that 5600x now, if you can’t beat them.....


(edit: clarified: slower than latest greatest, speed won't change overnight)
 
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Buy what precisely? https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/shop/geforce/?page=1&limit=9&locale=en-gb

Certainly not paying £400 for abused 2016 1060 etc. It's not worth £100.

It looks more likely I will get to dump everything I've got on eBay

Overclockers have Radeon 580s in stock for £300. You could have your machine up and running by the weekend. It's more than they used to cost but, you know....

I'm not sure what you're trying to run - but my 590 is perfectly adequate for lightweight tasks like Cyberpunk and Watch Dogs Legion :)
 
Overclockers have Radeon 580s in stock for £300.

You are very welcome to buy my heavily used 5d3 for £2400. It is perfectly fine and will happily cover weddings. We can then discuss other similarly insane purchases. I do mean it
 
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You are very welcome to buy my heavily used 5d3 for £2400. It is perfectly fine and will happily cover weddings. We can then discuss other similarly insane purchases. I do mean it

As it happens, I have enough cameras thanks.

But if I needed one I'd buy the best I could at the price available rather than reminiscing about when they cost less :). Since it appears you don't need your computer I guess you'll just wait the drought out.
 
As it happens, I have enough cameras thanks.

But if I needed one I'd buy the best I could at the price available rather than reminiscing about when they cost less :). Since it appears you don't need your computer I guess you'll just wait the drought out.

Reminds me of the great Dutch tulip craze quite a while ago :) That's a textbook example how to bin your hard earned cash and worse this encourages Scalpers and OverPricers,
 
Reminds me of the great Dutch tulip craze quite a while ago :) That's a textbook example how to bin your hard earned cash and worse this encourages Scalpers and OverPricers,

Apologies - I thought you were looking for ways to make your computer work. I understand now that you want to complain about it not working. My mistake.
 
Apologies - I thought you were looking for ways to make your computer work. I understand now that you want to complain about it not working. My mistake.

Whatever. I didn't ask to completely bankrupt me. Covid is quite enough
 
does your MOBO have onboard graphics. If so - just use that and put in a GPU later and use the thing. Your parts will depreciate anyway and it sounds like you need it.

It has nothing to do with mb. All amd retail consumer CPUs have no GPU now, opposite of intel. I find it very surprising that they include the graphics link in the mb and thus makes us pay for something entirely useless, just like those usb2 ports.

There is just no f*****g way I am going to spend £300 on 2016 doorstop. End of discussion. Period.
 
You can get a 1660 Super for not much over £200 used [at least I'm seeing them over here for that], a 2019 card that is more than capable for ultra 1080p gaming and has no trouble with PS/LR [I'm using the standard 1660 and never had any issue running any game or software inc Adobe's latest] you could sell it on when the 3060 is available at no loss really
 
You can get a 1660 Super for not much over £200 used [at least I'm seeing them over here for that], a 2019 card that is more than capable for ultra 1080p gaming and has no trouble with PS/LR [I'm using the standard 1660 and never had any issue running any game or software inc Adobe's latest] you could sell it on when the 3060 is available at no loss really

That's what I have and I'm running 4k Ultra Widescreen. Excellent card for the money.
 
That's what I have and I'm running 4k Ultra Widescreen. Excellent card for the money.

Just the OC 1660 I got and find it plenty good enough for 1080p at least, I don't yet have a 1440pp monitor but I imagine it would still run good, maybe dropping a couple settings to high/med. I've thrown games like Metro Exodus, Outerworls, The Witcher III, Forza H4 and Resi Evil 7 at it, all on max and not an issue. TWIII looks gorgeous even just in 1080p and I get my 60fps maxed [just switch off the silly 'hair works' and you're golden.
 
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Just the OC 1660 I got and find it plenty good enough for 1080p at least, I don't yet have a 1440pp monitor but I imagine it would still run good, maybe dropping a couple settings to high/med. I've thrown games like Metro Exodus, Outerworls, The Witcher III, Forza H4 and Resi Evil 7 at it, all on max and not an issue. TWIII looks gorgeous even just in 1080p and I get my 60fps maxed [just switch off the silly 'hair works' and you're golden.

I used MSI Afterburner and allow it to automatically overclock, which does help. I dabbled a little with manually overclocking but the gains over the auto were not really worth the stability issues. I've got a side exhaust fan right over the card which seems to help keep it a little cooler as well.
 
In May/June time, 1070 Ti can be had for a hair over £200 used (I bought one). Slower but more recent, brand new 1660 Super for a bit over £200.

6 months later, you need to pay more for a second hand card!? I can't blame LongLens don't want to jump in right now.

Perhaps buy a GT 1010? It's a brand new 2021 card and ought to be in stock at MSRP ;)



Seriously, I think a second hand earlier generation or low end GPU is the way forward to get it running for now. Depreciation of 20% for £100 card is a lot easier to swallow than a £200+ card. As both company fill their product stack from top down this generation, the lower you go, the less chance it will be directly replaced by newest generation before you can buy the GPU you want.
 
I used MSI Afterburner and allow it to automatically overclock, which does help. I dabbled a little with manually overclocking but the gains over the auto were not really worth the stability issues. I've got a side exhaust fan right over the card which seems to help keep it a little cooler as well.

Yeah I got MSI AB, I just followed a YT tutorial on how best to set it for my specific card and have left it that way since, not sure how much difference it makes but I get zero stuttering/lag playing max settings [I guess that answers it :D ] most games made up until this year at least. Current gen games are much more demanding now with all the rtx stuff and the competition to get the best out of higher end cards with 16GB+ cards on the market

On fans, I just have 3, 2 x 120mm intake at the front, and one 80mm exhaust just over the card, by the other fan on the cpu [2600x , 4 fans really then] and even during play on graphic intense games I never see above 60 degrees
 
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Every time I look at the tech news it just keeps getting worse and worse. AMD / nVidia are now openly telling not to expect better situation till Apr or even May, and there are reports of them pulling FE cards. Meanwhile scalpers already made over $50mil reselling cards. WTF!

Today I can see 2 options that I'm not overly extatic about:
1. New AMD RX 550 4GB https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PowerCol...967264&hash=item1a960a01c2:g:bLgAAOSwO-dfDDkO
Probably that will be gone in like an hour. It's a s*** card for more than 2017 money, just barely better than integrated UHD 630 but it will allow office work at 4K. Worst of all it will be the bigger part of £86 down the drain before too long.
2. Butcher eGPU from Lenovo and pull out RTX 2060 at £430 https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptop...7-series/Lenovo-Legion-GPU-Dock/p/88GMY701467
You could live with that and it will sort of make the PC sellable but not as desirable as with 30 series...
It all depends if the dock can be sold reasonably enough. If anyone wants the dock only this could be interesting.

Any quick thoughts?

It will be my last PC build for sure. I don't like being treated as a 3rd class customer by both the likes of UK retailers and makers such as AMD and nVidia. By the looks of it I will need a laptop this year one way or another.
 
It will be my last PC build for sure. I don't like being treated as a 3rd class customer by both the likes of UK retailers and makers such as AMD and nVidia. By the looks of it I will need a laptop this year one way or another.

And being bummed by the likes of Apple is so much better.

Rather unique circumstances this year with GPU's but a PC would suit you down the ground.
 
And being bummed by the likes of Apple is so much better.

I'm not a fan of apple these days and I don't think their new products are mature enough yet but on that point I could have it by Tuesday guaranteed rather than p***ing around for 3 months and then being stuck with windows and 20kg box
 
Today I can see 2 options that I'm not overly extatic about:
1. New AMD RX 550 4GB https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PowerCol...967264&hash=item1a960a01c2:g:bLgAAOSwO-dfDDkO
Probably that will be gone in like an hour. It's a s*** card for more than 2017 money, just barely better than integrated UHD 630 but it will allow office work at 4K. Worst of all it will be the bigger part of £86 down the drain before too long.
2. Butcher eGPU from Lenovo and pull out RTX 2060 at £430 https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptop...7-series/Lenovo-Legion-GPU-Dock/p/88GMY701467
You could live with that and it will sort of make the PC sellable but not as desirable as with 30 series...
It all depends if the dock can be sold reasonably enough. If anyone wants the dock only this could be interesting.

Any quick thoughts?
Depends on whether you plan to upgrade to latest generation when stocks become available. Or once the PC is built, it's a unit for a few years.

If the former, get the cheapest card that can get you going. So option 1.
If the latter, get the quicker card.
 
Depends on whether you plan to upgrade to latest generation when stocks become available. Or once the PC is built, it's a unit for a few years.

I probably intend to sell it in the summer. I reckon it needs to be marketed as a gaming pc with that CPU.
 
One thing I fancy upgrading on mine this year is the primary drive.
Currently got a Samsung SSD 256gb few years old now.
New board supports gen4 m.2 so fancy seeing what a 7000mbps drive will do. 1TB would be plenty.
 
I probably intend to sell it in the summer. I reckon it needs to be marketed as a gaming pc with that CPU.
Unfortunately neither option can achieve "gaming pc" status. Gaming PC is a PC with majority of its budget sunk into graphics card. The latter comes close, you can say it's designed to be upgraded with the beefy PSU.
 
I just pulled the trigger on the Lenovo Booststation RTX 2060. They now have it with extra £30 off at 400; I'm trying my luck with quidco too.

The case will probably have to end up on fleabay unless you think it is worth to hang on to it for some nice future 13" USB4 (=TB3??) laptop or not?
 
Things seems to be going this way: a portable thin laptop with powerful CPU and external GPU/docking for acceleration.. So if single do-everything laptop is the way you plan to go, it's worth keeping it and throw in an accelerator card of some sort later down the road.

Do keep in mind PCIe performance through TB would likely to reduce performance slightly.
 
I did all the installing (minus the graphics) today. Everything was simple enough but I am a little confused what to do exactly with the case fan controller cable and the orientation of power / reset headers (letters facing top and bottom, respectively?!). The manuals are surprisingly ambiguous.
 
I did all the installing (minus the graphics) today. Everything was simple enough but I am a little confused what to do exactly with the case fan controller cable and the orientation of power / reset headers (letters facing top and bottom, respectively?!). The manuals are surprisingly ambiguous.

There should be connectors somewhere on the motherboard for the fan. Hopefully the connectors are keyed so should only fit one way but if they're not keyed then it shouldn't be a problem if connected the wrong way. Power and reset switch connections can go either way around. The power LED should be marked but if not and you connect the wrong way around then the LED won't illuminate but you won't do any damage so just reconnect the other way around.
 
There should be connectors somewhere on the motherboard for the fan. Hopefully the connectors are keyed so should only fit one way but if they're not keyed then it shouldn't be a problem if connected the wrong way. Power and reset switch connections can go either way around. The power LED should be marked but if not and you connect the wrong way around then the LED won't illuminate but you won't do any damage so just reconnect the other way around.

There are so many. I don't know if there is any difference between cha_fan1, 2 and 3. Well I can't reach fan1 but the other two are very close. Then there is cpu_opt which I presume is for something else but not sure what. Manual just doesn't explain
 
Isn't cpu_opt for cpu heatsinks which have two fans? I think it can also be used for a pump if doing liquid cooling.
 
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