Building a new rig

[plague311]

It's been a few years, and my desktop was getting a bit aged. I usually build a new one every 3-5 years depending on what technology has come out. I decided to theme this one a little and do an AMD rig.

So far I've got:

750W PSU
ASUS TUF x570 Mobo
2x 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo PC4-28800 DDR4 3600MHz RAM
1TB Gen4 NVMe 4.0 SSD
Radeon RX 6800 XT vid card
and last but not least the AMD Ryzen 5 5600x

As I'm sure it's not a shock to many, my processor and video card are backordered until somewhere in 2035. I'm using fill-ins now.

This is the first AMD rig I've built in a LONG time, probably a decade. I'm stoked to see what the outcomes, benchmarks and all that are now that they've stepped up a bit (sans the ray-tracing on the GPUs but, meh).

Anyone else building anything fun?

[deaman]

Very cool and fun to get a new machine built.

Curiosity question:

What do you use it for?

What functions, daily or weekly, will push this machine to its limits?

[plague311]

Originally Posted by deaman

Curiosity question:

What do you use it for?

I wear a lot of hats, but I'm mostly a SysAdmin at my job where I work from home periodically. Working from home for my job revolves around running VM's for PLC programming (I use 3 right now a windows XP, a 7 and a 10 with varying years of Rockwell Automation and Ignition software), as I'm learning that as a new skill.

Originally Posted by deaman

What functions, daily or weekly, will push this machine to its limits?

The things that will push this PC to its limits will mostly be video game streaming. I started a channel awhile ago, and while my current setup works...decently (i7-6700k sitting on top of a 1080 hybrid) there is some video lag, and RAM bottlenecks I'll hit (the latter very rarely). Games like the new AC and Cyberpunk 2077 have to run on lower settings than I would like to be able to stream + play without lag.

That being said, I'm hoping with the new rig the new limits won't be hit as frequently.

[Hlafordlaes]

I've almost totally shifted from gaming to folding@home, so my rigs are mostly being de-RBG'd so I can sleep at night. But I do have a used Logitech G13 coming in the mail for my DOOM sessions during the day (too expensive to fold during peak hours).

Meanwhile, dying to get my hands on an RTX 3080, which means all five folding rigs would be producing at least 2 million PPD, and my GTX 980 can finally be retired to my XP rig. Only GTX left in service will be the 1080Ti KPE, a decent folder still today. Never gamed on it, though, as it was bought used and RMA'd twice, and relegated by then to folding.

Hoping for the 3080 to be an ASUS TUF OC to go with my only AMD rig, also ASUS TUF (B550), which might then be my primary gaming setup ("only" has a 3700X right now).

[deaman]

Originally Posted by plague311

I wear a lot of hats, but I'm mostly a SysAdmin at my job where I work from home periodically. Working from home for my job revolves around running VM's for PLC programming (I use 3 right now a windows XP, a 7 and a 10 with varying years of Rockwell Automation and Ignition software), as I'm learning that as a new skill.



The things that will push this PC to its limits will mostly be video game streaming. I started a channel awhile ago, and while my current setup works...decently (i7-6700k sitting on top of a 1080 hybrid) there is some video lag, and RAM bottlenecks I'll hit (the latter very rarely). Games like the new AC and Cyberpunk 2077 have to run on lower settings than I would like to be able to stream + play without lag.

That being said, I'm hoping with the new rig the new limits won't be hit as frequently.

Very cool!

[Trebuchet]

My "rig" is a 2010-ish Dell laptop with a dead battery and Win7. Meh, it works.
What I really need to do is build a new catapult! I haven't built a new one from scratch since 2014, although I've done major mods.

[jnelso99]

Originally Posted by Hlafordlaes

Meanwhile, dying to get my hands on an RTX 3080, which means all five folding rigs would be producing at least 2 million PPD, and my GTX 980 can finally be retired to my XP rig. Only GTX left in service will be the 1080Ti KPE, a decent folder still today. Never gamed on it, though, as it was bought used and RMA'd twice, and relegated by then to folding.

Hoping for the 3080 to be an ASUS TUF OC to go with my only AMD rig, also ASUS TUF (B550), which might then be my primary gaming setup ("only" has a 3700X right now).

Be prepared to wait a few months before being able to get a 3080. Scalpers and cryptominers are grabbing them the instant (literally) they go on sale.

[Hlafordlaes]

Originally Posted by jnelso99

Be prepared to wait a few months before being able to get a 3080. Scalpers and cryptominers are grabbing them the instant (literally) they go on sale.

Truly awful situation. I don't expect to see my prayers answered (by NVidia) until perhaps early Spring.

At least I don't feel so bad anymore about having built my folding setup late Spring last year (bought 3x RTX 2 series), only to see the next generation blow it away almost completely. The resale values didn't tank entirely as I feared, which I depend on to finance upgrades (except the 2080 Ti, which was beyond my budget, but boy did Ti owners get burned when its resale value hit almost third of the selling price).

[Blue Bubble]

Originally Posted by Hlafordlaes

I've almost totally shifted from gaming to folding@home,



...

Talking of which


For the times you (plague311) are not playing games, please consider joining our Folding@Home team. I'm sure you would be most welcome with such a nice little system



See: http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=321779

[Darat]

Originally Posted by plague311

It's been a few years, and my desktop was getting a bit aged. I usually build a new one every 3-5 years depending on what technology has come out. I decided to theme this one a little and do an AMD rig.

So far I've got:

750W PSU
ASUS TUF x570 Mobo
2x 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo PC4-28800 DDR4 3600MHz RAM
1TB Gen4 NVMe 4.0 SSD
Radeon RX 6800 XT vid card
and last but not least the AMD Ryzen 5 5600x

As I'm sure it's not a shock to many, my processor and video card are backordered until somewhere in 2035. I'm using fill-ins now.

This is the first AMD rig I've built in a LONG time, probably a decade. I'm stoked to see what the outcomes, benchmarks and all that are now that they've stepped up a bit (sans the ray-tracing on the GPUs but, meh).

Anyone else building anything fun?

Hang on a moment - this can’t be a real build else you’d be going on about the programmable LEDs, and how your cooling system takes up the size of a refrigerator and can get your processor to 1 degree below absolute zero.

[eerok]

Originally Posted by plague311

Anyone else building anything fun?

I hate to be a bummer, but nothing about doing this will be fun until the covid market settles down and there are fewer shortfalls/scalpers. Some parts are really hard to get, and this will persist for a while longer. I've been buying some occasional parts (ie, two replacement 6TB Ironwolf drives for my server), and the prices have been unpleasant.

That being said, I'm an avid, experienced builder who wants to make something very similar to your project. I'm a long-time Intel guy, but I want to try a high-end AMD build. Your parts look pretty good, though I'm hardly an expert on AMD.

If I were you (and I will be in an unspecified number of months) I'd drop by Reddit and present the build to r/buildapc for them to check, and also submit a build request to r/buildapcforme. Those guys are stupidly knowledgeable.

[RecoveringYuppy]

Originally Posted by eerok

I hate to be a bummer, but nothing about doing this will be fun until the covid market settles down and there are fewer shortfalls/scalpers.

Is there actually a Covid factor here or did you mean bitcoin?

I usually build from items that have just fallen out of the top tier. Last build was four years ago. I've had to turn down some setting on a few games but so far nothing where I think it really matters. This thread prompted me to look though.

[eerok]

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

Is there actually a Covid factor here or did you mean bitcoin?

Covid has really messed up production/availability/price of computer components (that are mostly made in China). For example, last spring I looked at buying a power supply for my old server, and I gave up on it -- prices were stupid and availability sucked. Not all parts are like this, but sometimes the ones you want are.

The general advice of avid builders is to wait until the covid crap is over.

[RecoveringYuppy]

Did not realize that. Good reason for me not to pursue another distraction then.

[eerok]

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

Did not realize that. Good reason for me not to pursue another distraction then.

It still might be okay to do what you want. Some things seem to be relatively unaffected. For example, I recently bought an 8TB Ironwolf spare drive that was cheaper than the 6TBs I got the week before. Just be diligent and patient. Things should normalize.

[Mongrel]

Originally Posted by eerok

Covid has really messed up production/availability/price of computer components (that are mostly made in China). For example, last spring I looked at buying a power supply for my old server, and I gave up on it -- prices were stupid and availability sucked. Not all parts are like this, but sometimes the ones you want are.

I think that's a problem for a lot of products, people being restricted to home has suddenly made any sort of project much more desirable.

That said I got most of the bits I needed for a new build piecemeal in the sales from Black Friday through to Christmas and was lucky enough to score the Ryzen 5600x a couple of weeks before Xmas (looking at their site now they seem to have it in stock a lot more consistently although no idea how that will change with Brexit).
The one thing that I had an unexpectedly hard time getting was the particular power supply I wanted, everywhere was out of stock and predicting Mid to late January to get it back in so I just went with a Corsair model.

[Sceptic-PK]

COVID isn’t actually the issue here, at least not according to the tech press. It’s more about wafer production (particularly Samsung’s 8nm) not producing enough quality silicon. That, and there being a lot of demand for TMSC’s production lines from competing tech companies.

...

Yeah, I have an absolute monster of a PC waiting in my cart at a local supplier, waiting (shock horror) on a 3080 and 5800x or 5900x. I’ll go with whichever CPU is available first (prob the 5800 as it’s way over-priced due to requiring better silicon for its 1 chiplet than the 5900’s 2). Have been planning on a new setup all year and having to wait when everything else is good to go is frustrating. My anticipatory 4K OLED is also sitting quietly in its box and that’s killing me lol.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by Darat

Hang on a moment - this can’t be a real build else you’d be going on about the programmable LEDs, and how your cooling system takes up the size of a refrigerator and can get your processor to 1 degree below absolute zero.

I know you're joking, but the case is important. When I built my current computer I chose an unusually large case and it's been wonderful--there is so much space between components it's not difficult at all to get in there and swap things out. Both sides are hinged, one of them transparent, and I put in blue LEDs aimed the fans so I can see if one is getting sluggish or stops. And the top is a grating fitted with a covering panel that just lifts off, in case I'm doing something that could overheat and could use a little extra airflow.

That it looks awesome is just an added bonus.

[Hlafordlaes]

Originally Posted by Sceptic-PK

... I have an absolute monster of a PC waiting in my cart at a local supplier, waiting (shock horror) on a 3080 and 5800x or 5900x. I’ll go with whichever CPU is available first (prob the 5800 as it’s way over-priced due to requiring better silicon for its 1 chiplet than the 5900’s 2). Have been planning on a new setup all year and having to wait when everything else is good to go is frustrating. My anticipatory 4K OLED is also sitting quietly in its box and that’s killing me lol.

Condolences. True suffering, indeed.

[Mongrel]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

I know you're joking, but the case is important. When I built my current computer I chose an unusually large case and it's been wonderful--there is so much space between components it's not difficult at all to get in there and swap things out. Both sides are hinged, one of them transparent, and I put in blue LEDs aimed the fans so I can see if one is getting sluggish or stops. And the top is a grating fitted with a covering panel that just lifts off, in case I'm doing something that could overheat and could use a little extra airflow.

That it looks awesome is just an added bonus.

Yeah, I used to spend £30 on a case and call it done, everything fitted right?
Now I'm spoiled; big case, lots of airflow, some vaguely colour co-ordinated lighting inside (not Unicorn barf RGB) and most importantly room behind the motherboard tray. Finally having the room to be able to cable manage more than "If I sit on it the panel will go on" *bliss*

[eerok]

I remember many years ago there were only those crap beige cases with bare stamped alloy inside, and I always cut up my hands working on them. So ugly, clumsy, and they weighed a ton.

Modern cases are so much better. Good airflow, cable control, and access. I just go for the mid-level ones, but they're a pleasure to build with.

[novaphile]

Originally Posted by eerok

I remember many years ago there were only those crap beige cases with bare stamped alloy inside, and I always cut up my hands working on them. So ugly, clumsy, and they weighed a ton.

Modern cases are so much better. Good airflow, cable control, and access. I just go for the mid-level ones, but they're a pleasure to build with.

Amen to all this brother.

I bought a Gigabyte Poseidon chassis many years ago, and it's still in use after three rebuilds.

The drives are all in slide in/out racks, front and rear fans, lots of room, and very simple access to remove the front and sides.

[P.J. Denyer]

Originally Posted by plague311

Anyone else building anything fun?

Not exactly.. But just before Xmas I bought a reconditioned gaming rig for peanuts: Corsair case, Gigabyte mobo, 8Gb DDR3, overclocked i5 processor, GTX660 and SSD, not brilliant but it was £130 delivered so I jumped at it & it was enough for he mostly retrogames I was planning, then I got a bit of the bug again & stuck in another 8Gb of RAM, a GTX970 & an i7-3770k (all 2nd hand). Still far from state of the art but up to running pretty much any current game acceptably (havent tried Cyberpunk 2077 yet admittedly but CYRI says I'm good) and I haven't broken the bank. I've got room to overclock too.

My wife bought me a 3D printer for Crimbo so it's putting in modelling & slicing work now too.

[plague311]

Originally Posted by Trebuchet

My "rig" is a 2010-ish Dell laptop with a dead battery and Win7. Meh, it works.
What I really need to do is build a new catapult! I haven't built a new one from scratch since 2014, although I've done major mods.

You could probably use the laptop as a projectile! It would do a lot of damage.

Originally Posted by Darat

Hang on a moment - this can’t be a real build else you’d be going on about the programmable LEDs, and how your cooling system takes up the size of a refrigerator and can get your processor to 1 degree below absolute zero.

LoL you're absolutely not wrong. I see those builds on craigslist all the time. I can't do it because I have pretty severe attention issues, and the lights are constantly distracting me.

Originally Posted by Blue Bubble

Talking of which

For the times you (plague311) are not playing games, please consider joining our Folding@Home team. I'm sure you would be most welcome with such a nice little system

See: http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=321779

I am not familiar with it, but I'll look into it after a bit. I run a Dell R810 (a bit old) server at home too. So I'm sure I'd have some free bandwidth\resources to help out.

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

*snipped for brevity* That it looks awesome is just an added bonus.

That sounds a lot like the case I'm currently using. The Corsair Carbide Series Air 540. It's huge, and has a ton of space. I love it, but I'm looking at cutting down the desk space as I have to use a work laptop sometimes too.

Originally Posted by P.J. Denyer

My wife bought me a 3D printer for Crimbo so it's putting in modelling & slicing work now too.

I've had a creality ender 3 for about a yearish. I run octoprint on a raspberry pi. I have run it off my PC too using Cura (it's not my favorite but it works). They're a blast, but a ton of maintenance.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by plague311

That sounds a lot like the case I'm currently using. The Corsair Carbide Series Air 540. It's huge, and has a ton of space. I love it, but I'm looking at cutting down the desk space as I have to use a work laptop sometimes too.

Close, mines the Corsair 760T ATX. It does take up a lot of space but I'm fine with that because I'm very low clutter.

[plague311]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Close, mines the Corsair 760T ATX. It does take up a lot of space but I'm fine with that because I'm very low clutter.

I am jealous, I'm the exact opposite. Between the drawing monitor, my two normal monitors, and now the audio setup for the podcast\streaming there's so much stuff I pretty much have no choice.

The whole thing that triggered this is my youngest son, 18, is graduating from high school. So I'm giving him my old rig.

[eerok]

This is my biggest Corsair case. I've gone smaller since I no longer stuff them full of HDDs.

[plague311]

Originally Posted by eerok

This is my biggest Corsair case. I've gone smaller since I no longer stuff them full of HDDs.

The NVMe certainly is nice for clearing up space and cables. I'll be putting most of it together, sans the video card, tonight. I ordered a get me by processor until the 5600x's are available, just so I can get my kid the computer. Now it's just to wait for a vid card.

[eerok]

Originally Posted by plague311

The NVMe certainly is nice for clearing up space and cables. I'll be putting most of it together, sans the video card, tonight. I ordered a get me by processor until the 5600x's are available, just so I can get my kid the computer. Now it's just to wait for a vid card.

I like having everything spread out on the table before I do anything -- mise en place style. You gotta do what you gotta do, though.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by eerok

I like having everything spread out on the table before I do anything -- mise en place style.

That's what I try, but it never works out.

The Start: a completely clean (scrubbed clean, even!) large table with nothing but components on it, all neatly laid out in order, all necessary tools and supplies ready to hand, instructions and checklists neatly clipboarded and ready to follow. Surgeries are less neatly planned.

Midway: I'm sobbing in panic, thermal paste smeared on my hands, shirt, and forehead. I've managed to cut myself and get blood drops on the motherboard. Screws are lost somewhere on the floor, I find one when I step on it and it goes into my instep. I dropped the video card at one point and heard a cracking noise but can't tell what it was. Possibly my own spine. There's a weird bit sticking up that is blocking a component from going in, and I can't tell what that bit is--should I force it? Could I just snap it off? I can't see properly through the tears.

The End: The last cable shoved anyhow into the case, "I'll neaten that up later," I say, and conclude "it's good enough for now!" and vow that next time, it'll be different.

[TJM]

Originally Posted by plague311

That sounds a lot like the case I'm currently using. The Corsair Carbide Series Air 540. It's huge, and has a ton of space. I love it, but I'm looking at cutting down the desk space as I have to use a work laptop sometimes too.

I use its little brother, The Air 240. If your looking for a space saver, this is a fairly small case yet very easy to build in. Here is my nothing fancy, non-LED'd, sloppily wired build. Gigabyte Micro ATX board, 16 GB, Intel I5, GTX 1070. Added the two exhaust fans. Everything went in without any fuss.

[eerok]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

That's what I try, but it never works out.

The Start: a completely clean (scrubbed clean, even!) large table with nothing but components on it, all neatly laid out in order, all necessary tools and supplies ready to hand, instructions and checklists neatly clipboarded and ready to follow. Surgeries are less neatly planned.

I have a new hobby table in the basement -- a 5'x3' drafting table equidistant to a big screen TV and a beer fridge. I expect great builds in the future.

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Midway: I'm sobbing in panic, thermal paste smeared on my hands, shirt, and forehead. I've managed to cut myself and get blood drops on the motherboard. Screws are lost somewhere on the floor, I find one when I step on it and it goes into my instep. I dropped the video card at one point and heard a cracking noise but can't tell what it was. Possibly my own spine. There's a weird bit sticking up that is blocking a component from going in, and I can't tell what that bit is--should I force it? Could I just snap it off? I can't see properly through the tears.

Lately I always seem to plant a big fat thumbprint on every CPU cooler's thermal paste, as if I didn't know it's preapplied. I bleed less on MBs these days, though I can't say it's because I learned anything. I've had some bad times with misplaced stand-offs that seemed welded on, and sometimes there's nothing under a screw I want to put in, no matter what I do.

Now that I'm old, I need a magnifying glass and flashlight to connect the silly case power leads. It's the largest miracle to me when it all works.

I call this adventure. Adventure is fun. That's how sophistry works.

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

The End: The last cable shoved anyhow into the case, "I'll neaten that up later," I say, and conclude "it's good enough for now!" and vow that next time, it'll be different.

Once the case is closed and it completes POST, it's perfect. That's what I tell myself.

[Yalius]

This is the best PC build case known to man. We use several of them here at work for bench and test build machines. It's... labor intensive as it comes completely disassembled, but sooooo customizable.

[JoeMorgue]

"I have to keep all my cabling neat and clean and organized."
"Why?"
"Because there's a giant plexiglass window in my PC case."
"Why?"
"So I can look at my cables."

[eerok]

Originally Posted by Yalius

This is the best PC build case known to man. We use several of them here at work for bench and test build machines. It's... labor intensive as it comes completely disassembled, but sooooo customizable.

Now that's a serious case. Eventually I'll want a new server with at least 8 drive bays, and this looks like it could do it, though it's likely overkill for a server. My second-tallest case is an older build with a Thermaltake, but it's not nearly as big as that one.

[Yalius]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

"I have to keep all my cabling neat and clean and organized."
"Why?"
"Because there's a giant plexiglass window in my PC case."
"Why?"
"So I can look at my cables."

Also makes it a little easier when you're in the situation of "Ah, crap, I need to mount these RAID-0 volumes for a data recovery, which bench machine has enough open drive bays to do that?"

[plague311]

Originally Posted by eerok

Lately I always seem to plant a big fat thumbprint on every CPU cooler's thermal paste, as if I didn't know it's preapplied. I bleed less on MBs these days, though I can't say it's because I learned anything. I've had some bad times with misplaced stand-offs that seemed welded on, and sometimes there's nothing under a screw I want to put in, no matter what I do.

I do the thumbprint thing almost every time with mine as well.

I stopped losing a lot of blood when I switched from zip ties to Velcro straps to do cable management. Those cable tie ends though, my God. I've got life long scars from those damn things.

[plague311]

Originally Posted by Yalius

This is the best PC build case known to man. We use several of them here at work for bench and test build machines. It's... labor intensive as it comes completely disassembled, but sooooo customizable

I like the looks of it, but that's even a bit bigger than what I was looking for since most of those components I won't be using. No spinning disk hard drives, I just picked up a backup Gen3 NVMe, and no optical.

I agree, it would make a great server case or bench case. Easy access and plenty of room.

[Darat]

I got sucked into YouTube yesterday and ended up watching a video of someone building a PC into their desk.

My computer desk has two drawers and it looks like they are high enough to take my graphics card without any mucking around, I’m tempted to have a go at moving my PC into a drawer.

[Dr. Keith]

Sometimes, usually while I'm waiting for someone to call me about something urgent that I have to put everything on hold for but then it takes them 30 minutes to actually pick up the damn phone, I will read threads that I don't have any real interest in. I haven't even considered building a PC since the 486/66 was the new hotness and have no intention of doing so anytime soon. But my kid has built one and I like to know what they are talking about, so I read past the stuff I don't understand to try to figure out why LEDs are important and how much of a difference does the GPU really make.

Originally Posted by Darat

I got sucked into YouTube yesterday and ended up watching a video of someone building a PC into their desk.

My computer desk has two drawers and it looks like they are high enough to take my graphics card without any mucking around, I’m tempted to have a go at moving my PC into a drawer.

And then you post this and I am so glued to the edge of my seat I'm pissed that I bought chair instead of a stool. This would be freaking awesome and I can't even consider clicking over to Youtube because that call could come in any moment now.

Thank you.

My poor child will hate you for planting this seed.