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First build, looking for feedback
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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By the way, ditch the hard drive for an SSD, even if you have to settle for less capacity to meet your budget. Spinning-disk drives murder performance these days.
I also concur with the other reply about the RAM.
I think you could probably shave a bit of cost off your monitor and keyboard to compensate (a 1080p ~20" monitor can be had for $100 or less, and I wouldn't pay more than $10-$15 for a membrane keyboard, wireless or not). Also, did you forget the mouse or do you already have one?
Thank you! I will double the RAM and look into SSD options.
Yeah, I already have a mouse, and the keyboard/monitor are not set in stone. I just picked those based on the options available in PCPartPicker for a price estimate. I will be buying the keyboard after testing a few in person.
Also thanks for the info about needing a spare CPU - I don't have a way to borrow one at the moment.
Regarding your updated list:
@Contramuffin made a good catch on the lack of GPU; I concur with his 5600G recommendation.
I noticed you switched the motherboard from the ASRock B450M/ac R2.0 to the Gigabyte B550 UD AC for +$10. It's got a newer chipset (B550 instead of B450) and more connectivity (PCIe 4.0 instead of 3.0 and more of them, a second M.2 slot, and USB3.2 including type-C connectors) so it's definitely "worth" the extra 10 bucks, but based on your list you wouldn't actually be using any of the stuff that makes it better, at least not initially. Also, it's a physically bigger card (ATX vs. Micro-ATX for the ASRock), so you'd really need that whole ATX mid-tower case you picked out instead of being able to use a smaller one with the other motherboard. Don't get me wrong: I think it was a good change, but it's just stuff to keep in mind.
Frankly, if you're sure you're just doing "general use" -- or even if you're not, but you're sure you won't need more than 1 PCI card, 2 sticks of RAM and 1 M.2 slot -- you might consider a Mini-ITX board like this, which would let you use a much smaller case. There are even some cases half the size of that, like this one, but if you go that small you might need to spend extra on a CPU cooler because the stock one that comes with the CPU might be too tall to fit. (OTOH, if you don't care about size then keep the big stuff to maximize future expandability.)
I don't know if the supposed performance/reliability/compatibility benefits of matched RAM are real, but the price benefits certainly are. Switch to a 2x8GB matched dual-channel "kit" instead of 2 8GB sticks of RAM purchased separately and save about $10.
Your storage budget apparently went up by a lot: $54 for the 2TB HDD you started with vs. $40+$90=$130 for the 1TB HDD + 1TB 2.5" SSD you have spec'd now. That's more than enough budget to get you into a 2TB NVME M.2 SSD. Regardless, that Samsung 870 Evo is not what you want: a 1TB SSD -- whether 2.5" SATA or M.2 NVME -- should be more like $60, not $90.
I've tried a vertical mouse before and didn't like it at all, but YMMV.
Yes, I switched out the motherboard because I do not have another CPU to use for updating the BIOS. I don't really care about the form factor tbh; I might upgrade the build in the future. (I do think the small case is pretty cute...)
For sure, thanks for pointing that out! I did notice that on Amazon they had separate options for "1x8GB" and "2x8GB".
As for storage, I will probably just buy a 1TB SSD first and then consider buying more. Budget is not a major concern, I just want to keep it under $1k with peripherals + taxes.
I use a vertical mouse at work and quite like it :)