Help me build my PC: 2024 Catch-All

Tom's Hardware has a positive review for that monitor too. Unfortunately, no reviews from more rigorous outlets like RTINGS.

Gonna be hard to match the size and features at sub-$250. The real good "budget" 1440p monitor is the Gigabyte M27Q, which is 27" and $300. Or 32" and $399 for the M32Q.

If you're going to buy a budget gaming monitor, you probably want make sure it's IPS, which this Monoprice one is. VA black smearing is brutal, and while some VA panels are fast enough to avoid smearing, you're going to have a harder time finding them at budget prices. IPS glow, to me, is a far more forgivable flaw.

That gigabyte one is the weird one with KVM built in. I looked at it the other day. Can't remember if it was on sale or something else was on sale and i followed reviews to it instead.

But I just bought Switch OLED for this month so I doubt the wife would be thrilled with another $300+ purchase

Nice, Cartoonin. I got the AMD equivalent MB.

I built my machine a week ago, using the parts previously listed, and evidently needing a new copy of Windows is not a thing. I took my old Windows 7 key that I used to upgrade to 10 on my previous computer, deactivated it there, and plugged the key in during installation on the new one and had no issues, except MS wanting me to upgrade to 11, which I'm going to skip that version.

I will say, CPU temps were concerning at first ranging all the way up to 48C on the 7800X3D at idle, but that appears to be within norms of others reporting online, even with water AIO's.

The only things I'm unhappy about are having to deal with two different resolutions now, and having to leave behind my 24 year old keyboard and 12 or so year old 2nd monitor since the ports are obsolete. That feels ridiculous after typing it, and even though neither are broken, there are no PS/2 or DVI ports on the new build. Thankfully I had a backup keyboard and a replacement monitor sitting around (long story).

I ordered a new keyboard since the replacement is a basic and slim style one. So I went mechanical, programmable, wireless/wired capable, and with RGB (might leave it turned off). It's a Keychron K10 pro. Went with the red switches as I'd rather a quieter experience. From what I can tell, I should be able to program the extra keys to pause/play media, open calculator, and open file explorer. If so, I'll be a happy camper.

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That feels ridiculous after typing it, and even though neither are broken, there are no PS/2 or DVI ports on the new build. Thankfully I had a backup keyboard and a replacement monitor sitting around (long story).

Did you look at getter adaptors?
DVI to HDMI

That's a good point. HDMI started as DVI+audio+DRM. The adapters/conversion cables basically just have to line the right pins up so the cheap ones should do the job just fine.

WizKid wrote:
That feels ridiculous after typing it, and even though neither are broken, there are no PS/2 or DVI ports on the new build. Thankfully I had a backup keyboard and a replacement monitor sitting around (long story).

Did you look at getter adaptors?
DVI to HDMI

ohhhh... So you're saying I could go 3 monitor?

I think you can get ps/2 to USB converters too

kazar wrote:

I think you can get ps/2 to USB converters too

Yeah, making a PS/2 keyboard work on a USB-only computer is trivial. About $6 on Amazon solves that problem.

Any advice for buying second hand video cards?

I see various people claiming to get good deals on eBay but I’ve never bought electronics there before myself.

I’m in Canada which may impact the price of shipping depending on where I buy.

Trading post thread here is about the only place I would trust 100%.

Stele wrote:

Trading post thread here is about the only place I would trust 100%.

Yeah I’ve been watching there.

I’m looking for a low power video card that can run in my dad’s desktop with his cheap 300w power supply.

He’s using the Intel HD 630 built into his processor right now. He doesn’t play extreme games but Age of Empires 4 is pretty rough on that card. Something ancient like a GTX 750 would be an upgrade for him but video RAM may become a problem. A GTX 1050/1650 or Radeon 6400 would be better.

Brand new, those cards are more expensive than replacing his case and power supply so he could use one of my older higher power cards.

I'm fairly sure I have a 750TI lying around that I retired in 2018. I'll try to check in that closet tonight or tomorrow.

I appreciate the feedback you guys gave on my Dark Matter monitor query. I ended up ordering it.

-BEP

Looking for a mid size case that would fit well on top of a fancy office desk. Anyone know of any?

I want to upgrade an NVMe M.2 SSD. I'd still like to use the old SSD in my system. Does anyone have a recommendation for either a PCIe or SATA adapter so I can still use my old NVMe M.2 drive?

So far, I've come across these:

PCIe Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/M-2-Adapter-A...

SATA Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...

Any thoughts?

i would go PCIe to avoid the potential botel neck of SATA as long as you can spare the slot for it.

The second adapter is specifically for connecting to U.2 ports, not just any ol' run of the mill SATA port.

If you do have a U.2 port, then that is a fine way to make use of it, because U.2 didn't really go anywhere. You'll basically be converting it into another full speed M.2 port.

If you don't have a U.2 port, then the PCIe adapter is the way to go.

I got one of these that works pretty well. A bit more expensive but it makes it portable. As long as you get a USB 3 connection it is pretty fast too.

ASUS ROG STRIX Arion Aluminum Alloy M.2 NVMe SSD External Portable Enclosure Case Adapter

kazar wrote:

I got one of these that works pretty well. A bit more expensive but it makes it portable. As long as you get a USB 3 connection it is pretty fast too.

ASUS ROG STRIX Arion Aluminum Alloy M.2 NVMe SSD External Portable Enclosure Case Adapter

i got one for around 20$ that works fine as well. going over USB though you will be limiting your speed of the drive.

https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-...

USB3 Gen2 can do 10Gbps. So if you are plugged into the right USB port on your computer, you should get pretty much what the drive is capable of.

Don’t you have to check that your BIOS support NVMe too? I recall having to do a BIOS upgrade when I installed a PCIe to NVMe adapter.

I have a boot problem.

As mentioned earlier, I'm upgrading my CPU to a Ryzen 5600X. I updated my BIOS to the version listed (there is a newer version than that one but it's a beta version so I just went with the stable one that supports that chip). I double-checked both in the BIOS and in Windows that it had successfully updated. I also put in new RAM and a wi-fi card. When I boot, the motherboard LEDs (Asus B350-F) go through red and amber but gets stuck on white and nothing happens. When it goes to the white LED, the PSU fan stops.

As I understand it, red is for the CPU and amber is for the RAM so both of those should be fine. White means there's a GPU problem. Is that right? I just want to make sure that's the case before I pull the CPU out and put the old one back in.

The GPU was newly installed a few weeks ago and was working as of yesterday. I pulled out the wi-fi card to make sure that wasn't the problem, still white.

Edit: I fixed it. One of the +2 power cables had apparently come loose and I somehow missed that after looking everything over a dozen times.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

As I understand it, red is for the CPU and amber is for the RAM so both of those should be fine. White means there's a GPU problem. Is that right? I just want to make sure that's the case before I pull the CPU out and put the old one back in.

That sort of thing is motherboard-specific. Also, motherboard error lights can be misleading at times, so don't take them as gospel.

But if the light supposedly indicates a GPU problem, given that I assume it was taken out during the CPU swap, my first guess would be the card not quite being re-seated right. Either in the slot, or the power connectors.

Also...

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I also put in new RAM and a wi-fi card

Change only one thing at a time. Take that new RAM out. (I saw you've already pulled the wifi card).

*Legion* wrote:

or the power connectors.

It was that. Found it right before coming back here.

*Legion* wrote:

Change only one thing at a time. Take that new RAM out.

That was actually the first thing I did. Immediately put the old RAM back in.

OK, great. Glad to hear it was that simple. Enjoy the 5600X! I can only imagine how much of a boost it is from a 1600.

I've been following the new ROG ally release and im debating between that or a desktop PC. The mobility is nice, but not 100% necessary and i feel like the price is very reasonable for what you get. for 700$, can you even build a PC with the same performance? the last time i tried to pick parts on newegg i couldn't get anything reasonable for under $1200.

*Legion* wrote:

OK, great. Glad to hear it was that simple. Enjoy the 5600X! I can only imagine how much of a boost it is from a 1600.

How much of a boost would it be from a 2600x? I’m starting to get an itch to upgrade.

WizKid wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

OK, great. Glad to hear it was that simple. Enjoy the 5600X! I can only imagine how much of a boost it is from a 1600.

How much of a boost would it be from a 2600x? I’m starting to get an itch to upgrade.

Passmark says around 30% single and multi thread performance. Whether that makes a difference to you likely depends on what bottlenecks you currently run into.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare...

My most recent upgrade was around 35% single thread and 66% multi-thread and the impact to me was huge.

FiveIron wrote:

I've been following the new ROG ally release and im debating between that or a desktop PC. The mobility is nice, but not 100% necessary and i feel like the price is very reasonable for what you get. for 700$, can you even build a PC with the same performance? the last time i tried to pick parts on newegg i couldn't get anything reasonable for under $1200.

If you figure it out please share.

If you are ok with mini-pc check out the Beelink SER6 with Ryzen 7735HS APU (680m GPU). It’s not quite as powerful as the ROG Ally APU but in the same ballpark.

Spoiler:

The APU/GPU in the ROG Ally is not that powerful compared to a newer low end dedicated GPU. It has better performance per dollar tho.

Since the best desktop APUs aren’t as good as the Ally APU you are going to need a dedicated GPU to match performance. A GTX 1650 or RX 6400 perhaps. The performance per dollar on those is not great.

I’ve seen no indication that RDNA 2 or 3 APUs are coming for desktops. You can get a mini-pc with one tho. Beelink SER6 as mentioned above. Likely new models incoming.

Whenever I see someone on YouTube try to make a desktop equivalent of something like this they tend to use the lowest possible price of second hand eBay or refurb parts for price comparison which is not realistically what you are going to pay if you do it yourself.

I’m hoping to see the new AMD 7XXX mobile APUs show up in mid range laptops (without dedicated GPUs) at a price point under the Ally this year but I had the same hope about the 6XXX ones last year and was disappointed.