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The New Coffee Room

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  3. Tell me about building a PC

Tell me about building a PC

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  • L Offline
    L Offline
    Loki
    wrote on last edited by
    #67

    I was able to upgrade free to Windows 10 via Microsoft download. How about that. No money and importantly no decisions to be made.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • 89th8 Offline
      89th8 Offline
      89th
      wrote on last edited by
      #68

      Mark... DROOL

      1 Reply Last reply
      • RainmanR Offline
        RainmanR Offline
        Rainman
        wrote on last edited by
        #69

        That's beyond cool, Mark!
        I really respect the research you have done, to come up with a computer that can do what you want to do, instead of just buying the most expensive components and hoping that price = quality. That is unfortunately, what I tend to do.

        Music-related software certainly does eat up memory. The issue is latency of course. Those milliseconds add up, and can make things more than frustrating. No big deal for small ensemble, but unmanageable for large. Impressive that you have thought through all of these potential frustrations.

        When will you have the unveiling? Have you started the build, or are you waiting for all the components?

        markM 2 Replies Last reply
        • RainmanR Rainman

          That's beyond cool, Mark!
          I really respect the research you have done, to come up with a computer that can do what you want to do, instead of just buying the most expensive components and hoping that price = quality. That is unfortunately, what I tend to do.

          Music-related software certainly does eat up memory. The issue is latency of course. Those milliseconds add up, and can make things more than frustrating. No big deal for small ensemble, but unmanageable for large. Impressive that you have thought through all of these potential frustrations.

          When will you have the unveiling? Have you started the build, or are you waiting for all the components?

          markM Offline
          markM Offline
          mark
          wrote on last edited by
          #70

          @Rainman Waiting for approval from the CFO. 😉

          L 1 Reply Last reply
          • markM mark

            @Rainman Waiting for approval from the CFO. 😉

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Loki
            wrote on last edited by
            #71

            @mark said in Tell me about building a PC:

            @Rainman Waiting for approval from the CFO. 😉

            Why would your CFO stop approving now?😂

            markM 1 Reply Last reply
            • L Loki

              @mark said in Tell me about building a PC:

              @Rainman Waiting for approval from the CFO. 😉

              Why would your CFO stop approving now?😂

              markM Offline
              markM Offline
              mark
              wrote on last edited by
              #72

              @Loki said in Tell me about building a PC:

              @mark said in Tell me about building a PC:

              @Rainman Waiting for approval from the CFO. 😉

              Why would your CFO stop approving now?😂

              Well, I actually have approval to build two of them. One will be sans video card, for the CFO. He doesn't do any gaming or anything outside of normal business tasks. We're really just waiting for the funds to arrive.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • markM Offline
                markM Offline
                mark
                wrote on last edited by
                #73

                The price does include Windows 10 Professional 64bit.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • RainmanR Rainman

                  That's beyond cool, Mark!
                  I really respect the research you have done, to come up with a computer that can do what you want to do, instead of just buying the most expensive components and hoping that price = quality. That is unfortunately, what I tend to do.

                  Music-related software certainly does eat up memory. The issue is latency of course. Those milliseconds add up, and can make things more than frustrating. No big deal for small ensemble, but unmanageable for large. Impressive that you have thought through all of these potential frustrations.

                  When will you have the unveiling? Have you started the build, or are you waiting for all the components?

                  markM Offline
                  markM Offline
                  mark
                  wrote on last edited by mark
                  #74

                  @Rainman said in Tell me about building a PC:

                  That's beyond cool, Mark!
                  I really respect the research you have done, to come up with a computer that can do what you want to do, instead of just buying the most expensive components and hoping that price = quality. That is unfortunately, what I tend to do.

                  Music-related software certainly does eat up memory. The issue is latency of course. Those milliseconds add up, and can make things more than frustrating. No big deal for small ensemble, but unmanageable for large. Impressive that you have thought through all of these potential frustrations.

                  This video is a great explanation of latency.

                  Link to video

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • brendaB Offline
                    brendaB Offline
                    brenda
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #75

                    Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                    X 1 Reply Last reply
                    • brendaB brenda

                      Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                      X Offline
                      X Offline
                      xenon
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #76

                      @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                      Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                      You're not the only one 🙂

                      bachophileB 1 Reply Last reply
                      • markM Offline
                        markM Offline
                        mark
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #77

                        The CFO is my business partner, who just happens to be my brother.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        • X xenon

                          @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                          Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                          You're not the only one 🙂

                          bachophileB Offline
                          bachophileB Offline
                          bachophile
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #78

                          @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                          @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                          Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                          You're not the only one 🙂

                          You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                          brendaB 1 Reply Last reply
                          • markM Offline
                            markM Offline
                            mark
                            wrote on last edited by mark
                            #79

                            AND! Now I am back with AMD. lol

                            More research into the actual difference in single core / single thread performance has put to rest, any misgivings I had about the AMD line. That, coupled with the trepidation of putting this much into the last 14nm Intel processor family has me seriously leaning back in the direction of AMD.

                            Intel is working on a 10nm process that might give some advantage over AMD but, I am not sure they will catch up to AMD any time soon.

                            AMD is already using a 7nm process for the current line and is working on a 4nm process. AMD is just in a better place right now with its desktop processors.

                            The 3.5 Ghz AMD Ryzen 3950 16 Core / 32 Thread, is now my processor of choice. The single core single thread performance is very close to to the Intel i9 Comet Lake 10 Core which is still rated better but not in any significant way that would impact my intended purpose. It is much faster in the multi-core operation because it has 6 additional cores and 12 additional threads running a clock speed that is 700Mhz faster. It actually beats the Intel in a couple of the single thread tests. It is basically a wash at this performance level. I do not see me mixing much more than 16 channels of audio and even that would be stretch. I do intend to get into multi-channel miking for my drums but that usually only takes at the most, 6 to 8 channels. Add bass, guitars, keys, other instruments it could get crowded but I am very sure the AMD will be up to the task. One thing is for certain, it will blow away my current first generation Core i7 930 2.8 Ghz 8 Core / 8 Thread processor.

                            The Ryzen 2950 also consumes about half the power of the Intel and is easier to keep cool, especially when overclocked, where the Intel almost reaches 300 watts of power consumption. The AMD has PCIe 4.0 where the Intel is still using 3.0. That translates into much faster SSD read/writes speeds approaching 2 x the transfer rate with 5,000 MB/s reads and 4,200 MB/s writes.

                            The Motherboard of choice is now the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE Gaming Motherboard. It will be fully populated with 128 GB of ram.
                            alt text

                            https://www.newegg.com/msi-meg-x570-godlike/p/N82E16813144257?Item=9SIAPMXBSP4233

                            The M.2 SSD is now the 2TB Corsair Force MP600 M.2 2280 2TB PCI-Express Gen 4.0

                            alt text

                            I downgraded the video card from the RTX-2080 to the RTX-2070. I might go back to the 2080. 😉

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • bachophileB bachophile

                              @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                              @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                              Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                              You're not the only one 🙂

                              You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                              brendaB Offline
                              brendaB Offline
                              brenda
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #80

                              @bachophile said in Tell me about building a PC:

                              @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                              @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                              Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                              You're not the only one 🙂

                              You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                              True enough, bach, and that would indeed be the wife. 😉

                              markM 1 Reply Last reply
                              • brendaB brenda

                                @bachophile said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                                You're not the only one 🙂

                                You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                                True enough, bach, and that would indeed be the wife. 😉

                                markM Offline
                                markM Offline
                                mark
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #81

                                @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                @bachophile said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                                You're not the only one 🙂

                                You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                                True enough, bach, and that would indeed be the wife. 😉

                                Nah, Mrs. Mark has nothing to do with this one. Strictly business.

                                brendaB 1 Reply Last reply
                                • markM mark

                                  @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @bachophile said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                                  You're not the only one 🙂

                                  You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                                  True enough, bach, and that would indeed be the wife. 😉

                                  Nah, Mrs. Mark has nothing to do with this one. Strictly business.

                                  brendaB Offline
                                  brendaB Offline
                                  brenda
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #82

                                  @mark said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @bachophile said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  @brenda said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                  Mark, I thought your CFO was your wife. 😄

                                  You're not the only one 🙂

                                  You are confusing the responsibilities of a CFO and a CEO, who has overall power to veto anything

                                  True enough, bach, and that would indeed be the wife. 😉

                                  Nah, Mrs. Mark has nothing to do with this one. Strictly business.

                                  Alright. You got lucky this time. 😀

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • RainmanR Offline
                                    RainmanR Offline
                                    Rainman
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #83

                                    All sounds good, Mark. Whatever it means.

                                    Don't forget to let us know when you first start it up.
                                    We will all cross our fingers, and hope there is no blue screen of death.
                                    Now, THAT I've had to deal with. Blue screen of death. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    • X xenon

                                      Here's a pretty good build in terms of bang for buck. It is DEFINITELY overkill for minecraft - but is something I would recommend as a fairly future-proof machine (this CPU is extremely capable for digital editing / coding / encoding):

                                      https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2FbPDx

                                      You can save $170 by going no graphics card (getting a CPU with built'in graphics like a laptop). Or about $100 by going with a very basic video card.

                                      You could perhaps save another $100 or so by going one tier down on the rest of the parts. But after that you're starting to make some real compromises.

                                      jon-nycJ Online
                                      jon-nycJ Online
                                      jon-nyc
                                      wrote on last edited by jon-nyc
                                      #84

                                      @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                      Here's a pretty good build in terms of bang for buck. It is DEFINITELY overkill for minecraft - but is something I would recommend as a fairly future-proof machine (this CPU is extremely capable for digital editing / coding / encoding):

                                      https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2FbPDx

                                      You can save $170 by going no graphics card (getting a CPU with built'in graphics like a laptop). Or about $100 by going with a very basic video card.

                                      You could perhaps save another $100 or so by going one tier down on the rest of the parts. But after that you're starting to make some real compromises.

                                      Revisiting this.

                                      Some questions -

                                      Probably would get the kid 16GB memory. Assuming I like this setup, what do I need to know about sizing and/or fit in the motherboard?

                                      What about an internal PC speaker? Or do people just not do that these days?

                                      How do you install windows on an initial build?

                                      I'll have other questions as I move forward.

                                      Only non-witches get due process.

                                      • Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
                                      X 1 Reply Last reply
                                      • jon-nycJ jon-nyc

                                        @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                        Here's a pretty good build in terms of bang for buck. It is DEFINITELY overkill for minecraft - but is something I would recommend as a fairly future-proof machine (this CPU is extremely capable for digital editing / coding / encoding):

                                        https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2FbPDx

                                        You can save $170 by going no graphics card (getting a CPU with built'in graphics like a laptop). Or about $100 by going with a very basic video card.

                                        You could perhaps save another $100 or so by going one tier down on the rest of the parts. But after that you're starting to make some real compromises.

                                        Revisiting this.

                                        Some questions -

                                        Probably would get the kid 16GB memory. Assuming I like this setup, what do I need to know about sizing and/or fit in the motherboard?

                                        What about an internal PC speaker? Or do people just not do that these days?

                                        How do you install windows on an initial build?

                                        I'll have other questions as I move forward.

                                        X Offline
                                        X Offline
                                        xenon
                                        wrote on last edited by xenon
                                        #85

                                        @jon-nyc said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                        @xenon said in Tell me about building a PC:

                                        Here's a pretty good build in terms of bang for buck. It is DEFINITELY overkill for minecraft - but is something I would recommend as a fairly future-proof machine (this CPU is extremely capable for digital editing / coding / encoding):

                                        https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2FbPDx

                                        You can save $170 by going no graphics card (getting a CPU with built'in graphics like a laptop). Or about $100 by going with a very basic video card.

                                        You could perhaps save another $100 or so by going one tier down on the rest of the parts. But after that you're starting to make some real compromises.

                                        Revisiting this.

                                        Some questions -

                                        Probably would get the kid 16GB memory. Assuming I like this setup, what do I need to know about sizing and/or fit in the motherboard?

                                        What about an internal PC speaker? Or do people just not do that these days?

                                        How do you install windows on an initial build?

                                        I'll have other questions as I move forward.

                                        RAM has a "speed rating" for lack of a better term (e.g., 3600Mhz or PC-28800) and you just need to make sure your motherboard is compatible with that speed rating. All new mainstream motherboards and RAM should be "DDR4" RAM (that's the slot / plug style). Only caveat here - don't mix and match speed ratings. Use one type of RAM.

                                        In fact - your whole build needs to be compatible with your motherboard. The motherboard sets the parameters for all the parts you're allowed to use.

                                        No internal speakers - don't even think that's an option. A lot of monitors have built-in little speakers these days or you can get separate satellite speakers.

                                        If it's important to you to pair bluetooth devices to your computer (e.g., Airpods, wireless speakers, etc.), then you'll want to buy a motherboard that has bluetooth built in. Alternatives are getting a bluetooth USB dongle, or an internal PCI card that plugs into the motherboard.

                                        For the windows install you need to use another machine to make a boot drive (on a USB key). The microsoft website will guide you through the process.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        • markM Offline
                                          markM Offline
                                          mark
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #86

                                          @jon-nyc Check out JayZ.

                                          https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkWQ0gDrqOCarmUKmppD7GQ

                                          He has some great videos on PC parts selection and building.

                                          jon-nycJ 1 Reply Last reply
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