Buildapc

Not so much looking to build a PC as buy one, because I'm lazy these days. My old one is forever old and filled with randomly upgraded parts and HDDs. I've also got an old and under performing NAS for Plex. Looking to turn my current PC into my new NAS, and buy a mini PC for my new rig. (I don't game on PC anymore).

The problem is, I want one(ish) large capacity drive on the mini PC. Not 100% tied to a mini PC, just like the idea of being minimalist on this rig.

Any suggestions? 2 monitors. Not much else special.

Maybe an external drive? Or drive bay? Speed isn't critical on the large capacity.

Thoughts?

I'm interested in setting up something to act as a file server. Think of it as "the cloud" but local. I've never built (or bought) something specifically for this, so it's a big foreign to me.

I think really all I would want is something that can store a lot of TB of data easily. It doesn't need to be fast. It doesn't need to be able to stream media anywhere. It really only needs to be able to act as an SFTP server, maybe run sync thing (new to that), and maybe act as a NAS. My gut feeling is something like 10+ TB might be a good amount to start. Something that won't fill up quick and that I can put big things in (like a full system image of another computer) without concern.

What would be a good way to go about this? Building a computer like normal but getting very cheap stuff? Getting something pre built or used (like surplus office stuff)? I'm just not really sure where to begin.

Hiya folks, the last PC I built had a top-of-the-line ATI Radeon 9800 in an AGP port. I'm on a PowerSpec prebuilt now, which is working fine.

My kids are ready to graduate from the spare laptop to an actual PC, and I want to build it with them so they learn about ESD and the joys of thermal paste. I plan to have the kids upgrade these in pieces over the next few years as/if they grow to need more power.

They mostly play minecraft, fortnight, and roblox. They don't care about max graphics or AAAA games or max FPS yet, but maybe they will in the future. I still don't.

I'm trying to keep it under $800, and I already have OK but not great 1080p work monitors.

Here's my first draft: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vxcfFZ

I'm very open to suggestions on any front!

I just learned about this cool PC case a couple days ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqyQeCbq4YA&t=221s), and I kinda want it over my boring aluminium and glass box. I like both the idea of an old looking sleeper and the horizontal pizza box form factor (or pizza box adjacent as it's whole 4U thick).

So I started thinking about possibilities. The FLP01 is just an off-white version of silverstone's normal HTPC case with a different front panel. So what if I got the case and modded it in a similar manner?

I could 3D print this, and probably post-process the surface finish to look as if it were legit. It will probably go nowhere as I can't justify buying a new case just for fun, but I wanted to share this thought anyway.

So I have a Corsair 4000D air flow, and the top of the case is like full of holes to allow airflow (with a dust filter on top of it).

Thing is, I put the case more or less below where my hand is touching the mouse, to the right of my feet.

And, well, I could wash my hands or otherwise have my hands be slightly wet at some point, so I am afraid, those holes would be easy for a drop or two of water to fall down on the PC components.

I want to upgrade my CPU in my HP ProDesk 600 G2 Mini as the current one is a little slow with 2 cores and 2 threads. I did a little bit of research and found, that my motherboard (HP KBC Version 05.39 (8169)) supports all 6th gen intels with 35 Watt TPD. Based on this, I found the i7-6700T and the i5-6500T.

This PC works for me as a home server with Minecraft at focus, maybe some Streaming service and a cloud later

I am completely new to the hardware side of PCs and don't really know if its even worth upgrading. I think the i7 is a little expensive for me, but I just want to know if both of these would fit my motherboard. Is there anything else I have to pay attention to when choosing a CPU or upgrading it?

This will likely have some technical inaccuracies because I've never dealt with something this specific with PSUs. I have two slots for PCIe. I have a 3070 ti which has two 8 pin connectors. Each of this PSU's cords for the PCIe slots (minus that mysterious 600W one which I think is not for anything I'm doing due to the size) goes from the 12 pin on the PSU to two separate 8 pin connectors (well, 6 with the optional 2).

My gut feeling is to just plug a single cord from the PCIe slots I to the two slots on my GPU. But I'm wondering about what would happen if I plugged two cords into the PCIe slots separately and then put a single connector into the GPU from each. Would that be better/worse/the same/catastrophic?

I'm wondering if it has something to do with dividing the current among the different rails in the PSU or something? It has a little jumper to enable "overclocking" which does something like combining the rails, but I'd rather not fool with that. And it also might be totally unrelated to the other question. The jumper is, of course, just out of view of the pic, but it's also not really relevant.

Edit: I went with one and it's working fine.

Hi, first time PC builder here. I've done some research and know what parts I want, but pretty much every guide lists either online stores or US based brick and mortar shops. Seeing as its my first time I think a physical location I can go back to would be a good help. But I can't really find much info on what retailers are reputable/operate as chain stores. Not gonna give away too much about my location but any located in the East Midlands of the UK would be great.

Sorry for the horrible picture. It's hard enough to see with my eyes, let alone get a pic.

This kinda sounds stupid, but everyone I've looked up say "grab CPU by the sides and take out". Thing is, the CPU is in the socket, the sides are surrounded by the socket "walls", I can't exactly grab the sides.

I mean, kinda same thing for putting CPU in, but for putting it in, I can just let go a bit above, and have it fall down into the socket.

Maybe this motherboard is like that, and other motherboard are different, but I don't know.

The only thing I can grab is the heatsink (which you apply thermal paste to) on the top, but I can't get a good grip on it.

I can keep grabbing and pull the CPU to the side on top, but I might bend a few pins doing that.

This is AM5 socket btw.

So, I had some issues with installing the GPU in the case, and the GPU bottom (those metals things at the bottom) ended up scratching part of the motherboard. From what I can tell, there's a bunch of similar components all the way up, so I'd think there's redundancy, so I guess it's not that important. Here is a picture:

https://i.postimg.cc/7LBwkr3h/62e626.jpg

https://files.catbox.moe/62e626.jpg

PC boots fine into bios, fans work, stuff are recognized, mouse and keyboard also works, but I haven't really done much beyond that.

Motherboard is: MSI B650 Gaming Plus Wifi

It's located here, and on them, it is written K72 then vertically smaller K2 (the 2 has an underline):

https://i.postimg.cc/XJNcnppT/modelblock-gaming-pd.png

https://files.catbox.moe/7otcn6.png

Should I get a new motherboard?

Edit: Better quality image, and new image host added.

I have an Old Lenovo ThinkPad laptop.

I am looking to use a Samsun 850 Evo 2.5" SSD in the system to run Linux and practice my programming skills. I see an opportunity for great career growth, and I need a system I can practice on.

After removing the back panel, it appears there are two M2 SSD slots and one 2.5" SSD/HDD slot.

The M2 slots look like there are connections available. While the 2.5" slot is blocked off where I'd expect the connection to be availible. How can I connect the 2.5" SSD to the laptop?

Additional information: The left most slot is the original OS boot slot. The fixture in the slot appears to be a heat sink. The 2 unsued slots have a spot for a ribbon cable, maybe?

Hello,

I’m looking to upgrade the GPU in my current build to better handle 1440p gaming at 60fps for titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Helldivers 2. Here’s my current setup:

• Motherboard: Asus PRIME B350M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
• CPU: Ryzen 3600
• GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 580
• Storage: NVMe Drive
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR4-2666 CL15 Memory
• OS: Windows 10
• Power Supply: Corsair CX450M (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/wKR9C8

The RX 580 has served me well, but it’s struggling with newer games, especially at 1440p. I’m aiming for stable 60fps at medium-high settings.

I’m not looking for ultra settings but want something that will be a significant upgrade while keeping my CPU as the limiting factor to a minimum. My budget is pretty limited and I’d like to keep it around £200 or less, new or preowned.

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in terms of the best budget GPUs! Cheers in advance!

I have an Athlon 3000G (YD3000C6FHBOX/YD3000C6M2OFH) I'm trying to pair with a Gigabyte AB350M-DASH.

I've assembled the pair, connected to a 750W PSU, but I get no video signal output. The system doesn't POST, nor does it return any error signal.

It isn't a RAM error issue as the system doesn't change behaviour with or without the stick.

Can anyone offer some suggestion on this issue? I'm already considering buying an error code external reader, as the board seems to have a dedicated por for it.

My current build is nearly ten years old at this point and it really shows. Time to pull the switch. I got the GPU already last year but only now got around picking the remaining parts. Looking forward to feedback on my chosen parts:

PCPartPicker Part List

When I built my pc I bought 16gb (2x8) of ram. For the Christmas season I decided to gift myself 32gb (2x16). Both sets are ddr4 and run at 3200mt/s but are of different brands. Is it okay to put them in the other two ram slots or should I replace the old ones?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for feedback on my PC build. My current setup, a Ryzen 5 3700X with 32GB of RAM and an RX 480, has served me well over the past three years. However, it’s driving me nuts lately because of the noise. The high TDP of the 3700X, combined with the cheap Cooler Master N400 case I originally got to accommodate my pile of HDDs, has made it unbearably loud. I’m planning to repurpose that build as a file server, so it’s time for a much-needed upgrade.

Here’s the new build I’m considering:

PCPartPicker Part List

A bit about my design decisions:

• Case: I chose the Fractal Design Focus 2 ATX case because of its 140mm fans and the option for a USB-C upgrade. I considered the be quiet! Pure Base 500 for its quieter performance, but I decided against it since the slight noise reduction wasn’t worth sacrificing overall airflow. My main thing is that I can't stand cases with exposed glass panels, so I was looking for cases that either were fully mesh or had non-glass side panels. I'm okay with mini-ATX cases or getting an mATX board but I'd rather have a larger PC and the option of adding additional expansion cards with an ATX mobo.
• CPU: I opted for the Ryzen 7 9700X over the 7700X for its lower TDP, which I hope will translate to quieter operation and lower temperatures. I ruled out the X3D CPUs since my main use case includes development, virtualization, and some local AI workloads (e.g., Local LLaMA), with gaming as a secondary focus.
• Cooler: I went with the Noctua NH-D15S for its quiet operation and compact design. While its airflow is slightly worse than the standard NH-D15, I felt the trade-off was worth it. A little peace of mind as well for it conflicting with the rest of my build.
• Motherboard: I chose the MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK because it has the most USB ports and strong VRMs, which fit my needs since I tend to lag behind the latest GPU generations (e.g., buying prior-gen GPUs for 1080p/1440p gaming). Its lack of a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot could limit future graphics upgrades, but I hope to still upgrade to x4 cards down the line when prices drop. Alternative bundled mobos I considered were the ASUS TUF GAMING B650-E and GIGABYTE B650 EAGLE AX, which I’m open to switching to if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
• PSU: I picked the Corsair RM750e because it was the cheapest Tier A option on the PSU Tier List.
• RGB: Not a fan of LEDs and RGB and I'm willing to pay a premium to avoid it.
• Upgrades in mind: I don’t need this build to last five years without upgrades. My plan is to eventually upgrade the GPU (to the best current-gen GPU under $400 USD when prices drop) and bump the RAM to 64GB if I take on heavier virtualization workloads.

Does this look like a balanced build?

Are there areas where I could improve performance or save money? I’d also love thoughts on my motherboard choice and whether my upgrade path assumptions make sense. Thanks in advance for the feedback! 😊

I'm helping a family member upgrade their PC, and thought it might be good to get a second opinion on it since I'm not a pro either when it comes to PC parts.

Here are the specs:

• Intel Core i5 6600K
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
• Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (and a 2TB HDD)
• 2x4GB DDR4 RAM from Corsair
• ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger
• Corsair RM750i

Intent of the upgrade is to enhance gaming experience.

My first thought was to upgrade the SSD since 500GB isn't a lot anyways and the product page of the 850 EVO says it has 540 MB/s read speed which doesn't seem like a lot to me these days. Then also maybe the RAM, but I have no idea how much of an impact upgrading it has.

The other thing is upgrading CPU and/or GPU, but for that to be worth it I think you need to spend a lot more. I was thinking about giving them my RTX 3070 when I upgrade my own PC soon, in that case what would be a good CPU to go with it. Or would it be fine to just upgrade the GPU?

not really "build" a PC, more "upgrade" but I guess people here might know relevant stuff.

anyhow, I'd like to upgrade storage and get a 2 TB drive. in the $100-region I have these models available:

• ADATA Legend 710 ALEG-710-2TCS
• ADATA Legend 800 ALEG-800-2000GCS
• Crucial P3 CT2000P3SSD8
• KINGSTON SNV2S/2000G
• KINGSTON SNV3S/2000G
• Lexar LNM620 LNM620X002T-RNNNG
• Seagate BarraCuda Q5 ZP2000CV3A001
• Seagate BarraCuda ZP2000CV3A002

I imagine they're all bottom of the barrel type of deal, no DRAM cache, QLC, etc., but this would be my third drive of such variety (500 GB and 1 TB previous) and I had no issues daily driving 'em, linux with btrfs with HMB support.

so, before I start researching them all one-by-one, does one of these stand out as way better? the target hardware is AMD Ryzen 5 5600 on a B450 board. thanks!

edit: so, I got the data for the models from here and here's an image of the result (can I post tables in markdown?)

just as I though, no DRAM on either of those.

Hey guys,

I'm helping a friend build a pc, this will be both our first time doing this. I have chosen all the parts for the PC but I wanted to know what you guys thought.

https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/nn37XR

Hi Everyone,

I just completed a new PC build. Oddly enough, it was able to get to POST and boot. Linux Mint is installed on the drive, but there’s one problem…

The fans don’t work. Neither the ones that came with the case nor the ones that came with the CPU cooler.

Motherboard: MSI X670e Plus Gaming CPU Cooler: Noctua DH-15 CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X GPU: Radeon RX 7800 RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 (Will look up specific model at home, can’t remember atm)

I have tried updating the BIOS, which did not change anything. Double checked all the connections, none seem to be connected incorrectly…?

Tried setting all the fans to PCM instead of DC… Still nothing.

What should I try now? I don’t want to damage the system by running without cooling.

This might be a strange one.

I build a new PC. Yea and verily, it is like unto a tiny god. Especially compared to my old PC, which as I have opined around here before I built in 2012 (!) and was still sporting a Sandy Bridge i7 2600K.

Is. Is sporting. It still works. I will undoubtedly replace my living room media center machine with it.

My new machine is very fast and very swanky, and through my component selection I also inadvertently wound up making it very quiet, as well, which it turns out I kind of like. Part of this is no doubt contributed to by the fact that it hasn't got any hard drives in it -- just two SSD's. Currently its four SATA sockets sit forlorn and empty.

Part of my old machine's raison d'être was that it had a big old RAID array in it. Four whole terabytes across a RAID 5 array consisting of 4 disks. Hey, cut me a break. That was a lot of ones and zeroes, over a decade ago. Of course, the contents of that entire RAID can fit snugly (very snugly...) on my 4TB boot drive now. But I kind of want some additional bulk storage. I have work to do; All that media out there ain't gonna pirate itself.

This raises an interesting concern, since this thing lives on (not under, at least as of yet) my desk full time about 24" away from where I sit. And this is a metric that's remarkably difficult to search or filter for:

What is a good quiet hard drive option?

Not fast, not inexpensive, not even especially capacious -- I'll be stringing 4 disks together as a RAID 5 array again. 10 or 12 TB units will probably do. So I don't care about any of those things.

These days it seems that big spitting platter drives are all marketed towards either NAS applications with all the jet-turbine trappings that entails, or "screaming" gaming performance, which is deeply silly since all of my OS, programs, and games will reside on an SSD.

Any ideas?

(And no, I am not interested in building a NAS and tucking it in a closet someplace.)

Hi all,

First PC build in about a decade. I've seen this issue multiple times online but no real solutions posted and the few I have seen haven't worked.

AMD RYZEN 5 7600X 6 CORES 12 THREADS UP TO 5.3GHZ THERMALRIGHT ASSASSIN X120 REFINED SE ARGB CPU AIR COOLER SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON RX 7800 XT 16GB GDDR6 GRAPHICS CARD CORSAIR RM750E 750 WATTS FULL MODULAR LOW-NOISE ATX POWER SUPPLY MSI PRO B650M-P AM5 mATX Motherboard [PRO B650M-P] G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32GB (2X16)DDR5-6000 CL30 BK Kingston 2TB NV2 PCIe Gen4 SSD [SNV2S/2000G]

I've taken a lot of care, read the manuals and watched videos/tutorials on steps as I went. It was pretty much as I remembered the last time.

I complete the build, turn it on and get the red and yellow light on the EZ Debug.

I have reread the manuals, read Reddit and forum threads, watched YouTube videos of individual component installs to see if I've done something wrong - I don't get it.

I pulled the GPU and one stick of RAM.
CMOS Reset. Tried combination of Ram in different ports. Reflashed BIOS, saw it was a beta, downloaded last stable version and reflashed.
Pulled and reseated CPU plug. Changed out to second CPU plug. Used both CPU plugs on PSU. Reseated CPU and heatsink.
Tried every ram slot with both sticks.

I've run through every solution I can think of and read about, nothing works. Any ideas?

Imgur album, hopefully I've just missed something and I'm an idiot.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - I've tried every suggestion in the thread, I thank you guys for your assistance. I have no idea what the deal is. I have no other PSU/MOBO/CPU. The parts are split between 2 stores, so this should be painful.

Hello folks!

I just found out that my PC from 2018 with its GTX 1080 is infact capable of an SLI upgrade. Now Needless to say thats a terrible Idea! Being well aware of that, I still wanna do it if not for no other reason then for Fun!

So I wanted to ask what are some pitfalls I should look out for here? Some things I should be aware of when taking on this frankly Silly Idea? Thanks!

Ahoy hoy! After some great suggestions and a second pair of eyes I managed to figure out my posting problem was related to the PSU, once replaced I got everything up. Hooked up my old HDD and the new SSD. When I tried to boot it didn't register me old HDD as a boot option, so I unhooked it an installed a fresh windows copy on the SSD, an was able to get it up an runnin, rebooked the old HDD and can see both now, but anything on my desktop or any program on the old one isn't really accessible. What's the best way to get my old HDD moved to the new SSD?