First Custom PC ("Steela")

[St0rmSlaSh]

Well I just finished getting all the computers so I will give a description on the parts while pictures will come later after I have built the actual computer.

 

 

 

Motherboard: MSI B350 Tomohawk AM4 Motherboard - This motherboard is a well bought must have for the budget gamer as it offers a lot of power that can be found in a reliant and powerful motherboard.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144018

 

 

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) RAM - I decided to go a little lightweight on the RAM and went with 8GB of it to fulfill a middle ground with the size of memory Steela will have. In the future, I will be upgrading to 16GB but that's it.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233938

 

 

Hard Drive (HDD): Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - This is my preference for hard drives. I love seagate! So, I decided to go with the 2TB instead of a 1TB because a lot of storage will be filled with Steela over time as i plan to have this computer basically until I am in the middle of my college career if that. So to achieve maximum potential with storage, I went with the Seagate 2TB Hard Drive to fulfill my purpose for this computer.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178993

 

 

CPU (Processor): AMD Ryzen 5 1600x 6-Core 3.6 GHz Socket AM4 Central Processing Unit - At the start of building concept for Steela, I wanted this computer to have intel inside with an idea of having an i5-4690k Devil's Canyon CPU. But when I saw the Ryzen and the tests done against the i5 I could not help but buy this CPU for its power and aesthetics. (It also came with Quake: Champions for free as well )

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113434

 

CPU Heatsink: Hyper 212 LED with PWM Fan, Four Direct Contact Heatpipes, Unique Fan Blade Design, Red LEDs Central Processing Unit Heatsink. - I knew from the start of this build to get something that had the hyper 212 name. I wanted to just get a more normal one to best fit my needs. But, I had some extra cash on hand to get this heatsink... for the LEDs. I mean hey, it looks cool and offers the optimal cooling needs for my Ryzen 5 1600x.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103218

 

Power Supply: Corsair TX-M Series TX750 watt Power Supply - For a computer that will be a part of my gaming life for many years, I decided to not give any shortage of power to Steela. To make sure that power always stays at the best performance and optimal duration, I went with the a Corsair 750 watt Power Supply so I can upgrade other parts while still having this nice PSU at my disposal.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139208

 

Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 6GB GDDR5 RAM Graphics Card - Okay. This one took countless nights to get thanks to the rise in data mining for bitcoin. I saw almost all of the 1060 6GB graphics so overpriced it actually made me hurt with how much they were selling them. Luckily, I stumbled upon this elegant grahics card on Newegg.com for only 299.99, which at the time was much cheaper than the other models that share the same specifications as this one. With its plentiful amount of Video RAM and wonderful base clock speed, thhis GTX 1060 6GB from GIGABYTE will offer me the most power in my play offering no shortages in power.

 

link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125903

 

 

And that's it! That is Steela. My first ever custom built computer. once I get all the parts in (The GPU), I will be very sure to share some pictures with you guys!

[Sonofdoc]

Nice!

[*Kiba*]

not a bad setup but i would stay away from amd i really don't care much for them they just don't have the life expectancy that the other do like the i5 and up do + i had lot of trouble with there drivers going nuts and not updating right and i would go 16gb of ram just so you have play room for other things will you game or what not the ram you need in games are doing nothing but going up and 8gb of it just not going to cut it anymore

[captnconcrete]

well my pc build i did in 2002  was a msi board  and its still kickin . that'll be a nice machine!!!!!!

 

dont listen to amd nahsayers i had a 4600 duel core for 10 yrs oced and worked just fine .. i just wanted more power![not that i know alot about new stuff im old]im opposite i hate intels over priced crap!!!

 

good luck puttin that  pc together .. its so fun.. ive done a few its a blast puttin em together.

[Xernicus]

not a bad setup but i would stay away from amd i really don't care much for them they just don't have the life expectancy that the other do like the i5 and up do + i had lot of trouble with there drivers going nuts and not updating right

I must admit, my first reaction was "lol"... but I think this is worth discussing.

First, I think AMD and Intel's processors are made to the same quality standards. All begin their lives as top notch silicon and are binned based on manufacturing defects. For the record: I have never seen an AMD or Intel processor fail due to manufacturer defect. Both can easily last 20+ years.

 

If you're talking about speed- such as IPC... Well both AMD and Intel have gone through their "crap" phases. For example, Intel surpassed AMD during 386, Pentium, Pentium II, Core2Duo and Core ix series 3-7. AMD surpassed Intel during 486, Pentium III, Pentium 4, CoreDuo, Core ix series 1-2 and will probably for ix series 9+.

 

It's pretty easy to tell when a manufacturer is running up against the limit of their fabrication process... they raise the clock speed. Intel did that during Pentium 3-4, Pentium Duo, CoreDuo (Not Core2Duo) and i-series. They're doing it again from at least Skylake to Coffee Lake... minimal IPC improvement, huge clock gains. And AMD's done it on their K-series, Athlon, Duron, and Piledriver CPU's.

 

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Regarding chipset drivers... both manufacturers have screwed up in the past. For CPU's, the last FUBAR I saw regarding AMD's processors was due to Microsoft- and that was back in the day of Windows XP (SP3). I suppose the latest Meltdown issue is more recent, but once again, that's Microsoft's fault.

I haven't seen any significant issues from Intel until Spectre/Meltdown, but I'm not convinced that there wasn't money/bribery involved in quieting issues with their architecture-- Intel is notorious for that actually.

 

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Regarding graphics drivers, comparing AMD to Intel is ridiculous. Intel has never had even the slightest significance in graphics (and nor did AMD until they bought ATi). But comparing AMD to NVidia is fair. Once again, both manufacturers have problems. I've used AMD graphics cards for the past 6 years and have indeed encountered issues that make me want to bash my head against the wall... but I've run into similar issues with NVidia drivers. I say they balance each other out (based on contract jobs, and not personal experience)- especially since I've rarely seen gaming issues caused by drivers from either AMD or NVidia.

 

Here's what I've found regarding graphics:

-AMD is more stable for workstation applications, such as CAD/CAM, 3D modeling, and video rendering.

-NVidia is more stable for consumer applications, such as gaming, and video decoding.

-I have found more hardware issues (artifacts, compute errors, complete failure due to overheating/poor solder joints or silicon) from NVidia's reference cards than AMD's.

-Both AMD and NVidia have released botched drivers that "break" games. AMD had more driver issues in the past with their Catalyst series... I've seen more issues from NVidia since Crimson.

-AMD is much more forthcoming when it comes to "future" API compatibility. I have seen cards from both AMD and NVidia of the same era- The AMD card almost always supports at least 1 more major DirectX API revision than the NVidia card, and 2 OpenGL API revisions. NVidia may have reasons of "the best experience", but I call it planned obsolesce.

 

Please note that these are based on contractual jobs I've received (ie: real life applications). Everybody (including technicians) has their preferred manufacturer and reasons for supporting one more than another. The reasons above are based on money put in my pocket- and not based on fanboy-ism. (I've earned thousands more for issues regarding NVidia cards vs AMD's)

 

 

TL;DR: Both Intel and AMD offer equal quality parts in regards to durability. I would put money on AMD Ryzen+ CPU's outlasting Intel's in terms of compute performance. For graphics, based on my experience, NVidia's GPU's are faster- however AMD's are more resilient in terms of life both physically and for future APIs.

[*Kiba*]

i ran NVidi for a little over 4 years now the only problems i have really ever had with them is me forgetting to update there drivers on the other hand i had AMD for little over 12 years and by the 9 year i would have problems with the software loading up over heating like nuts and the card is clean as it just came out of the box that the only real reason i said anything about stay away from AMD and going i5 or better

 

 

but you do have good points there but still from just reading what you said i would stay away from AMD but that's just my personal preference video cards by AMD NANA CPU by AMD it's up to you i have one in my pc now not really had any problems with it i'm even thinking about taking it from 3.8gb to 4.0 overclocking it just to see what performance i get out of it i will stay this tho this pc is only like 4 years old and the heat shield on it gone

[Vanaraud]

Nice post Xernicus, to add some points:

-Intel uses "toothpaste" even in Enthusiast CPU-s, while AMD managed to use solder as TIM, even though many were saying its technically impossilbe

-AMD adds a decent cooler with their CPUs, Intle uses the same old design for decades

-the recent Meltdown\Spectre issue and to my understanding this isn´t MS issue as Linux didn´t issue updates on AMD as AMD said the Meltdown isn´t affecting them. Meltdown is affecting the speed of Intel based systems, not so much in gaming\everyday life but more in servers. So even if Intel had any perf gains against AMD in 10% with 25% more clocks, they are loosing it now.

-Also in gaming AMD drivers have added perf to the games, even for 10y old systems(AdoredTV did tests, can´t find the link atm)

-AMD will soon start moving to 7nm manufacturing process, Intels next gen will still be 14nm+++++++++(http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-ceo-10nm-meltdown-spectre,36280.html)

- AMD (CPUs) are running cooler nowadays than the competitors from Intel side. See Threadripper\Coffe Lake and der8auer videos. It´s not the era of Bulldozer anymore...

 

Everything is pointing that AMD is more future proof than Intel.

AMD had a big comeback in 2009, 2019 and Vega updates are coming;) Also I doubt Nvidia can pull out 50% perf boost on 2 consecutive GPU generations. Also all  gaming devices- latest Xbox\PS4, "ultra-thin" laptops with Intel APU with Vega GPU- show that AMD is gaining momentum in gaming industry...

 

Edit: my  Nvidia GPU died also within month, but it was more of XFX fault that they over  OC the GPU so that it fried up and not so much of Nvidias fault.

 

Edit2:  Meltdown\Spectre updates are crashing systems with older AMD CPU-s.

 AMD broke DX9 games with latest Adrenaline Software.

[cookiem0nster]

Nice post Xernicus, to add some points:

-Intel uses "toothpaste" even in Enthusiast CPU-s, while AMD managed to use solder as TIM, even though many were saying its technically impossilbe

Some Intel cpus are soldered, at least a few generations ago afaik. But a fair amount of enthusiasts like to "delid" the cpu IHS for direct die cooling, since most every IHS is uneven and thus limits thermal transfer unless lapped to a flatter surface. It is a lot faster and easier to pop an ihs off than it is to lap one flat in my opinion, although I do appreciate a nice lapping - still want to lap the cooler base if you want optimal thermal transfer (assuming the ihs is off or lapped too)

 

 

couldn't find any of my CPUs that I lapped (that were soldered to the core ie. intel core 2 quads)