[ale] Back to new the desktop question

[DJPfulio at jdpfu.com]

On 12/16/22 07:19, Leam Hall via Ale wrote:
> Needs:
>    - Case?
>    - Power supply?
>    - Suggestions on RAM vendors to get/avoid

Been reusing the same ATX cases since the 1990s. Why spend any money at all unless you have special needs?

Picked up some Seasonic Bronze+ PSUs around 2007 for a deal ($45 ea) and haven't needed anything newer since. None of them has failed. They are all relatively quiet. I don't know that any PSU is better than any other. I've had some name-brand PSUs fail and expect that I've just been lucky with the Seasonics.  More efficiency usually means less heat, which means less fan noise and being better made.

RAM ... pick a kit from the APL and don't plan on adding more later, without getting all new sticks that are a matched set from the same bin.  Unmatched RAM at these speeds often cannot run at the rated performance.  I'm using G.Skill RAM in 2 Ryzen systems, but if it is on the APL, it should be fine (assuming they are matched sets).  Ryzen is less picky than it was about RAM 4 yrs ago, but still picky. That's mostly due to motherboard firmware improvements, I'd guess.

I'm a fan of Noctua case fans, but you only need extra cooling if you have extra heating. I usually wait until the fan included with the extra stuff that needs extra cooling (like a hot-swap drive cage) gets noisy before failing. Then  replace it. If you load up a bunch of internal HDDs, perhaps extra cooling is needed. If not, probably not.

Neither of my Ryzen systems has a separate case fan. One of them has a passively cooled nvidia GPU for the last 3+ yrs.  Effectively, just the PSU fan removes heat from each system. No pets here leaving hair everywhere. Perhaps that helps with simple cooling. YMMV. People with reptiles as pets don't have pet hair issues ... er ... perhaps hairball issues, post-feeding?

BTW, saw the 5600G was $110 last week.

I cannot answer if the 5600G connectors support multiple monitors. I've just never connected that config up. Don't know why it wouldn't, with the right cables.