New PC build

[Smartie]

Has anyone built a PC recently?
I've been doing it for the past 30 years and the most recent is now 7 years old.
The processor is gen 7 (i5-7600) and not supported by Windows 11, so, time for a new one.

Looking for any thoughts on current components for desktop applications, some non-challenging gaming and photo processing.
Intel/AMD processor, motherboard, cooler etc.

It seems that the current crop of Intel processors run very hot and there is a possible bug with the 'Raptor Lake' 13/14 gen chips.

Might keep my Geforce GTX 1070 graphics for now and change it later.

Also, PSU for my 2 bay Synology NAS is dead. Maybe a new 4 bay Synology to replace that.

[Dorkeaux]

Exciting. I haven't done that in years..

No current knowledge of the coolest motherboards and graphics cards, but I did have a tendency to get the quietest cooling fans and graphics cards.

Modern computers sound to me like jets taking off while I'm trying to work.
I used to start at quietpc.com.

Are you going the liquid cooled route?

I was also considering replacement for my 15 year old NAS, but can't face it.
You can get a replacement power supply for not much.

[gables]

Has anyone built a PC recently?
I've been doing it for the past 30 years and the most recent is now 7 years old.
The processor is gen 7 (i5-7600) and not supported by Windows 11, so, time for a new one.

Looking for any thoughts on current components for desktop applications, some non-challenging gaming and photo processing.
Intel/AMD processor, motherboard, cooler etc.

It seems that the current crop of Intel processors run very hot and there is a possible bug with the 'Raptor Lake' 13/14 gen chips.

Might keep my Geforce GTX 1070 graphics for now and change it later.

Also, PSU for my 2 bay Synology NAS is dead. Maybe a new 4 bay Synology to replace that.

I have but it didn't really go to plan Like you I had an "old" PC I built back in 2016 almost to the month which still performs absolutely fine.

Mine had a 6th Gen i5-6500 processor (iGPU, 16GB RAM, SSD drives) which isn't supported by Windows 11, however the rest of the PC met the required specs and so this was a bit annoying as the processor is really very good for what I need; which is a general purpose desktop which I also use for work, and recently this has been to access a VDI so no stress on it for that, and for the odd bit of photo processing and running VirtualBox to try out different OSes etc. So I went the route of upgrading to W11 with a registry hack so it ignored the cpu being unsupported and all was well. It performed perfectly and I would have been happy just to keep it like that.

BUT then I had an itch to try out some local AI models, which worked slowly using just the cpu and so thought I'd get a separate graphics card, unfortunately the mobo only has 1 full size PCI slot which had an SSD in it. My solution was to replace just the mobo with more full size PCI slots, a new CPU and then reuse everything else and then add a graphics cards later. Except I bought a mobo that was DDR5 and not DDR4 so couldn't use the RAM I had, and also I didn't notice the "F" on the CPU designation i5-13400F which meant no onboard graphics so had to buy a graphics card straight off the bat.

Long and short is that I ended up with PC with an i5-13400F on an ASUS PRIME B760M-A WIFI mobo (both good prices, which is my excuse as to why I made the errors) with 32Gb Corsair RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 6GB graphics card; everything else from my old PC I reused.


I didn't want to spend a huge amount, initial costings were about £249 but with my errors I ended up spending about £495 - hopefully this will last another 9 years

Just need to decide what to repurpose my old PC to do, at the moment I'm thinking firewall.

[Smartie]

Exciting. I haven't done that in years..

No current knowledge of the coolest motherboards and graphics cards, but I did have a tendency to get the quietest cooling fans and graphics cards.

Modern computers sound to me like jets taking off while I'm trying to work.
I used to start at quietpc.com.

Are you going the liquid cooled route?

I was also considering replacement for my 15 year old NAS, but can't face it.
You can get a replacement power supply for not much.

Yes, current set up has an ID cooling spinning LED liquid cooling thing. Very cool. Maybe a new one needed though.

Synology can't supply a new power block as it's so 'old'. There are cheap Chinese versions on Amazon but risking destroying the drives with an off-spec unit puts me off and I wouldn't mind a better RAID set up that needs more than 2 drives.

[Smartie]

I have but it didn't really go to plan Like you I had an "old" PC I built back in 2016 almost to the month which still performs absolutely fine.


Just need to decide what to repurpose my old PC to do, at the moment I'm thinking firewall.

Had a brief look at the hacks but it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.
Trouble is once the processor needs changing it's the motherboard, memory, cooling etc.
Can keep the Case, PSU, graphics, drives (though I need a bigger SSD boot disk).
Have an old case that the old stuff can go in to be repurposed for something.

Likely I'll end up with an AMD processor that use less power and run cooler than Intel so likely quieter, compatible motherboard and 16-32Gb memory (for photo processing).
Onboard bluetooth would be handy for wireless headphones and no doubt there have been a few other upgrades over the past few years.

Shame I can't put it on expenses anymore :-)

[gables]

Had a brief look at the hacks but it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.
Trouble is once the processor needs changing it's the motherboard, memory, cooling etc.
Can keep the Case, PSU, graphics, drives (though I need a bigger SSD boot disk).
Have an old case that the old stuff can go in to be repurposed for something.

Likely I'll end up with an AMD processor that use less power and run cooler than Intel so likely quieter, compatible motherboard and 16-32Gb memory (for photo processing).
Onboard bluetooth would be handy for wireless headphones and no doubt there have been a few other upgrades over the past few years.

Shame I can't put it on expenses anymore :-)

Yep the hack got me installing W11 as an in-place upgrade as I wanted to see how it performed and the result was great, also gave me a system disk for new mobo.

I've only used Intel and did think about AMD, but as I was going to use my existing W11 disk I stuck with Intel. The mobo I went for has built-in WiFi (6) and Bluetooth which might prove handy. I didn't really need 32GB (2*16GB) but the ASUS compatibility pages didn't show the 2*8GB Corsair option, good excuse for more and for a bit of fun I went RGB to match the SSD :-)

I'm not a gamer but just for fun I bought from GOG a whole load of DOOM, which takes me back to 1994 :-)

[Smartie]

I used to build my own PCs - and built them for my kids as well - but last time I needed to upgrade, I bought a gaming PC which is specifically designed for the consumer to upgrade as an when. Liquid cooled, which is nice. It's very quiet.

I had to get a new one as the switch from the front of the case of the old one to the mobo failed. I did get a new case and put the old shebang into it and it works fine now, but I like the pretty colours of the gaming PC.

A switch is a very simple device - opportunity to add a 'Diet Coke' call button :-)

[Paracelsus]

Definitely go with AMD for CPU. They've been much better for a few generations now - very fast, much cooler and less power draining.
Intel have usually managed to keep the single-threaded performance crown, but only by pushing absurd amounts of power through the chips. So pretty much the only audience for for which their high-end chips make sense is competitive gamers who are happy to spend 200 watts of power/heat going from 170 to 175 fps in a shooter.

Even a low to mid-range chip - when combined with an NVME SSD - is enough for the majority of what people use PCs for to be tulip off a shovel fast.
If you want high-end gaming, 3d rendering, high-res video editing/streaming, then go for a full-fat one, otherwise middle of the road will do.

Cooling - a good quality air cooler like a Noctua or similar is enough, they are so good now that watercooling is mainly used for either aesthetic reasons or cooling top-end Intel/overclocked chips.

[Smartie]

Definitely go with AMD for CPU. They've been much better for a few generations now - very fast, much cooler and less power draining.
Intel have usually managed to keep the single-threaded performance crown, but only by pushing absurd amounts of power through the chips. So pretty much the only audience for for which their high-end chips make sense is competitive gamers who are happy to spend 200 watts of power/heat going from 170 to 175 fps in a shooter.

Thanks, looking at it a Ryzen 7 9700X chip runs cool - just need to pick a suitable motherboard with the right sockets etc.
Surprised how cheap everything is, especially memory, though I guess I shouldn't be.
Processors, MBs etc same kind of price as 10 years ago so a lot cheaper in real terms.
32Gb memory for £100, 2Tb NVMe drives for the same price. I'll have 2!

[Paracelsus]

Aye, most things are still quite cheap relatively. Except high-end graphics cards which have gone from ~£400-500 back in the early 00s to thousands now... but they are also exponentially more capable - back in the day, your full-fat card would get you running Oblivion at 45fps or whatever, now you can do realistic lighting or run an LLM locally