Yet another new build thread...

[2005]

Closing in on 3 years now on this current build (August of 2017) and well... I've been wanting to replace it a while.

AMD's first generation Ryzen chips (mines an R7 1700X) just wasn't a fully mature platform and while it got better... it never really got to what I'd call mature. Eh. And Intels offerings since then have been looking better and better and priced better. The latest Ryzen chips are also looking much better.

I probably won't be rebuilding any time VERY soon. Probably another year out. This rig still works more than "well enough". I quit using a local VM to airgap between my VPN connection to work as they swear they are using split tunnel and only my traffic for the VM will be going through the VPN. Performance overall of both my local desktop, and my work VM seems to have gotten notably better since ditching the airgap VM. Be that as it may... I will likely rebuild / start the build process again within a years time. How much product shortages are affecting things and where things are in terms of how close the Intel / AMD are to releasing new stuff will dictate the exact time.

Main goals for the new system would be PCI-E based SSD (at least 512GB for the main disk) and a 512GB nvme drive would be fine. A GPU with DLSS would be pretty nifty. Thats mainly it for now. Maybe 32GB ram.

[palmboy5]

haha, this is a horrible time due to the shortages..

You'd probably ideally want something like a Ryzen 5700X, RTX 3080, and a Samsung 980 Pro, I imagine.

The near-future will turn awkward since there will be a transition period to DDR5... where the rule of thumb there is it'll be a couple years before that gen of platform becomes faster/stable, but building a DDR4 system also means no future-proofing.

[2005]

haha, this is a horrible time due to the shortages..

You'd probably ideally want something like a Ryzen 5700X, RTX 3080, and a Samsung 980 Pro, I imagine.

The near-future will turn awkward since there will be a transition period to DDR5... where the rule of thumb there is it'll be a couple years before that gen of platform becomes faster/stable, but building a DDR4 system also means no future-proofing.

Story of my life when it comes to PC building lol... I always have managed to build at the worst time (with the exception, I think, of my i7 930 system... though it did fall rather close to Sandy Bridge )

I may end up building a 3rd gen Ryzen setup if I can snag used parts for a decent price...


All of this kinda makes me realize, I should just keep what I have now for 2-3 more years. I don't do 4K anything (don't even own a 4K monitor) and barely game. I already have Sata based SSD's. And my Ryzen 7 1700X (first gen) or 16GB of ram are rarely if ever pushed. Any gaming is going to be done on my PS5 save for things like maybe Diablo 4 / Diablo 2 remastered... and so on.

The main reason I felt the 'itch" to upgrade? My first gen hardware is not on the "recommended" list for windows 11. I have the pre insider build on a VM right now. It's... basically a cosmetic update for Win 10. People claim considerable performance improvements... on given hardware against running Win 10. I half wonder if it's just the whole "fresh install of 11 vs 2 year old bloated install of 10 that has 2 years worth of crap / clutter on it" thing or if 11 really does have that performance hike on legacy hardware like Win 7 did on machines that came with Win Vista.

[palmboy5]

If it's fast enough, it's fast enough lul. A 1700X should be plenty for normal use and it's not even that much slower than the 3600 I have right now:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AM ... 2969vs3481

I think performance these days on desktops have more than met the needs of regular computing. I'm even thinking next build I might not even go for an "enthusiast" CPU and instead just get a cool-running, low-power model that is plenty fast for any of my needs. If in some way I could make it work like a laptop where it can turn off the discrete GPU and only use the integrated GPU when I'm not gaming, that'd be great! Probably can't find such a setup though.

As for SSDs, Linus Tech Tips did a blind test of SATA vs PCIe 3.0 vs PCIe 4.0:
https://youtu.be/4DKLA7w9eeA
Those results

And I'd get a 4K monitor just cuz. Perhaps a 27" 4K IPS.

Windows 11's requirement of a TPM is awkward, like, what does that mean if the TPM (CPU in this case) dies? If it does its job at all, the OS will be dead since any replacement TPM would have a different RSA key and should not be able to decrypt the original install.

I doubt Windows 11 magically is faster on the same hardware, but two enhancements that CAN lead to better performance come to mind:
1) Support for optimized use of high and low power cores.
2) Support DirectStorage that lets games load graphical content directly into video card RAM instead of passing through the CPU first.

For #1, none of us have that kind of CPU right now. For #2, very few games support it and I'd be surprised if people who claim "considerable performance improvements" are even testing with this feature.

[2005]

So it's likely I won't be building any time soon.... again.... ugh lol

Part of me wants to build just to build. The other part of me knows this setup is more than adequate. Why? I just got a new job and courtesy of that two laptops. Yes. I need TWO laptops to do my work (company A got bought by company B, so until integration is complete.. 2 laptops). One run of the mill Lenovo and one rather nice Dell Percision 5560 with an Intel Core i9 and 32GB of ram. Even at my old job, my desktop was just a thin client used to connect to a VPN and then to remote into an AWS VM for actual dev work.

August of this year will be 5 years for this first gen Ryzen 7 desktop. Given Zen 4 isn't coming until late this year and is DDR5... unless I go Intel I likely won't be building until fall/winter of 2023.

[palmboy5]

I get the itch to build a PC too, and fwiw there are other outlets to scratch that itch! Like build a NAS/Server That was something I did to give the itch a scratch back in December.

You could try at least looking into upgrading your 1700X. I got curious about your mobo and if its the one mentioned here:
https://www.mylilsite.net/bwp/viewtopic ... 911#p21911

then according to:
https://wccftech.com/msi-adds-amd-ryzen ... herboards/

You can upgrade to a 5000 series CPU if you install the latest BIOS. Perhaps a 5600X?

[2005]

Can't create a new post it seems... the UI is bugged to where the message body field is like one character width wide lol.


I was going to post about how it's been over a year since anyones posted on here, and how I'm STILL rocking this first gen Ryzen 7 build. I just might pull the trigger this year and upgrade.

I just missed a crazy good 24" Amazon IPS monitor sale. It was only 75hz, but VESA compatible and they were only $49 each haha. I should have got some.



IF I do build (which I probably won't, lets be real) I don't know if I'd go back to intel or try an AM5 Ryzen chip.

[palmboy5]

Yo! It has indeed been a while.

I see the broken UI too, interesting... will look into it.

Shouldn't you be getting 27-30" monitors in 2023?

I think the tie breaker with Intel vs AMD right now is that Intel uses wayyy more power (and more heat) to do the same kind of performance as AMD, but at that point it's a matter of whether you care about that at all.

I've still exclusively been eyeing AMD systems, but maybe even just consider a Framework...
https://frame.work/products/laptop16-diy-amd-7040