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PC Parts Whaaaat?

TragicMonkey

Poisoned Waffles
TragicMonkey
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Daaaaaamn. Needing to assemble a new PC before Windows 10 dies from unsupport next October, and fearing consequences of possible tariffs on stuff, I went ahead and ordered the parts I need to build a new PC. An Xmas present to myself!

However, I was shocked (SHOCKED!!!) to learn that since the last time I messed with computers (2016) apparently an entirely new form of SSD has been invented? This "NVMe" thing?! Can it be REAL?!!? I guess I'm going to find out since I just ordered one. Have any of you got one of these? Do they really work as fast as claimed? Can I actually put the O/S on the thing? I still have a pair of serviceable SSDs in my current computer I plan to bring over.

Also noted with interest that even though most components are more advanced than they were 8 years ago, they're mostly cheaper now. (For now, anyway). I didn't get top-of-the-line everything, mostly stuck with next-best. Also the motherboards I looked at were quite reasonable if you don't want them all "WiFi". I don't. I don't like WiFi, and I don't trust WiFi.

Weird thing though is the parts that apparently have had no technological improvement in 8 years. Same heatsink I currently have, except the fan will light up with pretty colors now.

Anybody else messing about with computer builds lately?
 
Also when the time comes to do the thermal paste I will freak out and cry. It's nervewracking!
 
I built a machine this year - and yes, it was easier than the last time I did it (about 10 years ago, not counting minor upgrades).
Yep, NVMes are awesome. No problem to install. Depends on what kind of cooling your Motherboard offers for them, but you probably don't need any heat conducting paste. Install Windows on this, and use your SSDs for mass storage.

Much more important and tricky and potentially expensive is putting the CPU on the motherboard - very easy to bent some pins, and that might be that for the board.
 
Just got back from the nerd store. Holy crap, it was busy. Even for a Saturday. I wonder if other people are anticipating tariffs affecting the price of tech and getting in early? I'm was reassured that I picked good combination of parts for my build when the guy next to me at the pick-up counter was getting pretty much the same parts I picked, same case, same motherboard, and same processor. Although he went with a fancier graphics card and a cheaper power supply. Electricity makes me nervous so I'm willing to pay extra for quality there. Also he got the case in black which I feel is always a mistake: it shows dust so much more.
 
Note that fancier graphics cards require larger power supplies.

I'm chuckling now because I probably have a couple of 150W power supplies in the shed, and am comparing this with the 500W Cooler Master, that I've just replaced with an EVGA GD 700W (Gold).

This is amusing as comparing current hard drives to the original 100Mb drive in my first PC...
 
I worked application development and support for many years, and would never even think about constructing my own computer. I applaud (and am mystified by) you who choose to do it. TM you said Windows 10 dies but I'm sure you just mean that support will end for it at that time. It will still function fine. I have a Windows 7 laptop I use solely for a media server and it keeps asking for updates that fail so I turned that part off. Otherwise it does what I want it do. Also rips CDs and DVDs which I can't even do on my newer more highfalutin' thingies.
 
alfaniner said:
I worked application development and support for many years, and would never even think about constructing my own computer. I applaud (and am mystified by) you who choose to do it. TM you said Windows 10 dies but I'm sure you just mean that support will end for it at that time. It will still function fine. I have a Windows 7 laptop I use solely for a media server and it keeps asking for updates that fail so I turned that part off. Otherwise it does what I want it do. Also rips CDs and DVDs which I can't even do on my newer more highfalutin' thingies.
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Yeah, support ends for Win 10. Which means no more patches and updates...including security. I just don't feel comfortable using it past then. Also software has gotten more demanding in the last 8 years, it's time to update anyway.

As for "building", really it's just buying compatible parts and putting them together. There are online tools which you can use that match compatibility so you don't have to figure it all out yourself and end up with a video card too big for your case, as used to happen. It's fun! (except for the thermal paste) and when you do it yourself you can omit most of the bloatware that manufacturers install when they do it all for you. And you can omit the stuff you don't want, and include the stuff you do. I don't care for WiFi, for instance, but I do insist on extra fans. And I like extra-big, roomy cases for maximum airflow-- none of this silly "oooh I want my computer to be as slim as possible" stuff.

With all the videos and guides online it's getting easier and easier to put together a PC.
 
novaphile said:
Note that fancier graphics cards require larger power supplies.

I'm chuckling now because I probably have a couple of 150W power supplies in the shed, and am comparing this with the 500W Cooler Master, that I've just replaced with an EVGA GD 700W (Gold).

This is amusing as comparing current hard drives to the original 100Mb drive in my first PC...
Click to expand...
Bah. I have a 10MB one.
 
NVME can be great BUT you have to watch out for the ones that slow down when worked hard.

I discovered to my cost that a cheap 4TB one was fine until I tried to copy some large files. It sped along at a good pace until it suddenly decided it was too hot and slowed down to a crawl.

So. Make sure the one you order is not one of the budget tier items.

A good NVME will be able to run cool.

All digital technology uses transistors of various sorts. Using less transistors saves money.

The cheap NVME drives will use technology that crams four bits of information into the one storage cell. It's called QLC. That means when it writes data is not a simple binary on off and of it goes to the next bit of data. It has to fiddle around and set a state that's multi level. So it has to see what's in that cell already, then rewrite it. Each cell can only be written to a certain number of times before it wears out and starts getting errors.

The manufacturers also pile up layers of cells. How well they do that also impacts performance and heat generated in use.

If this all sounds very complex it is. It takes a lot of energy to do so that work so it heats up. Smart controllers, onboard cache memory and a small amount of fast write memory help to make it faster.

That makes the job of working out, before you buy it, of you have bought something that is fast and reliable or cheap and slow.

What part did you buy? I ended up the a WD Black SN850X. It works well and doesn't seem to grind to a halt.
 
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TragicMonkey said:
Also when the time comes to do the thermal paste I will freak out and cry. It's nervewracking!
Click to expand...
The thermal paste is built in. Makes it so much easier. However, the stock fan that came with my Intel CPU had an annoying whine as it sped up to cope with the CPU under load. I bought an after market fan which is much bigger but also much quieter. I don't overclock so the extra cooling capacity isn't needed but it's so much quieter.
 
catsmate said:
Bah. I have a 10MB one.
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In my youth when I worked in a computer shop, we made good trade on "Winchester Drive" add-on cards for the cheap Amstrad PC clones. As long as they got a low-level formatting every other week they were fine products! Came if memory serves me right in 10MB and 20Mb variants.
 
Darat said:
In my youth when I worked in a computer shop, we made good trade on "Winchester Drive" add-on cards for the cheap Amstrad PC clones. As long as they got a low-level formatting every other week they were fine products! Came if memory serves me right in 10MB and 20Mb variants.
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You bastard. I want to kill you for reminding me of those awful things.

We have a working, re-cased, XT complete with twin floppies and 10MB hard disk.
 
catsmate said:
You bastard. I want to kill you for reminding me of those awful things.

We have a working, re-cased, XT complete with twin floppies and 10MB hard disk.
Click to expand...
I became quite the expert of fdisk and its relations.

I think the oldest box I've got up in the attic has a 486SX 25MHz processor in it with a 40 - yes a whole 40MB hard disk. I doubt it would work, probably should get around to chucking it out. But it's the only device I have with the SCSI port for my SCSI scanner and you never know when you might need it!

Now the SCSI connectors were real connectors - none of this under powered, lily-livered USB-C nonsense that you can barely see - you could use a SCSI cable and connector as a lethal weapon.
 
Back in around 1989, when I got my first PC, a slightly used 286, it had a 40 mb hard drive, and the vendor told me I'd never manage to fill it up.

My camera is already over ten years old, and that hard drive would comfortably hold one image from it but not a second.
 
I'm going through a de-cluttering process on my entire house, and as I'm also about to build a PC I fear it is time to pull out the Big Cardboard Box of Ancient Tech. You know the one. Cords for long-lost devices. Floppy disks for installing Windows ME. Flash drives that hold 20 KB because that was a lot back then.

It shouldn't be so bad because I did go through it about four years ago....but it's still going to be awful. Last time I needed a SATA cable I knew I probably had one in there but it was just less horrible to go to the store and buy a new one.
 
Darat said:
I became quite the expert of fdisk and its relations.

I think the oldest box I've got up in the attic has a 486SX 25MHz processor in it with a 40 - yes a whole 40MB hard disk. I doubt it would work, probably should get around to chucking it out. But it's the only device I have with the SCSI port for my SCSI scanner and you never know when you might need it!

Now the SCSI connectors were real connectors - none of this under powered, lily-livered USB-C nonsense that you can barely see - you could use a SCSI cable and connector as a lethal weapon.
Click to expand...
Ah, the good days of diode clamped termination. And a box of adaptors and connectors.
 
Darat said:
I became quite the expert of fdisk and its relations.

I think the oldest box I've got up in the attic has a 486SX 25MHz processor in it with a 40 - yes a whole 40MB hard disk. I doubt it would work, probably should get around to chucking it out. But it's the only device I have with the SCSI port for my SCSI scanner and you never know when you might need it!

Now the SCSI connectors were real connectors - none of this under powered, lily-livered USB-C nonsense that you can barely see - you could use a SCSI cable and connector as a lethal weapon.
Click to expand...
Some people pronounced it “scuzzy”. Others pronounced it “sexy” 😍
 
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