<div dir="ltr">Hey Bob,<div><br></div><div>>>>For the new desktop I'm leaning towards a cheap graphics card as</div>suggested by several along with the ryzen 5 3600 on a B450 motherboard.<br>(I'm not interested in gaming.) Is the cheap graphics card still a<br>reasonable choice if I have to record video?<div><<<</div><div><br></div><div>So I'm not into video production myself, but I listen to a number of TechTubers who are into lots of different video workflows.</div><div><br></div><div>Video production is one of those CPU and GPU intensive jobs that can benefit massively from better hardware. But I think we have to get specific about the actual jobs when we say "doing video."</div><div><br></div><div>I think the CPU/GPU intensive part is transcoding the video from one format (like the raw file from your capture device) out to the format (like mp4 or whatever) that you would watch it with on your phone or browser or something. Also, if you're editing video, you may have to edit and re-render your video multiple times, and each time the rendering time will be commensurate with your hardware investment. I hope someone who actually does what you're doing will chime in and correct me where I'm wrong. </div><div><br></div><div>But the TechTubers I frequently listen to try to answer this question a lot, or at least questions that are similar to your question. So you might look at the build lists from some of these TechTubers for their own rigs, and you can get an idea of the relative performance versus the price tag, and then pick a budget/performance tradeoff that fits for you.</div><div><br></div><div>Some of my favorite TechTubers (on YouTube) for hardware are Paul's Hardware, Bitwit, JayzTwoCents, LinusTechTips, and many, many others. Each of these has many hundreds of videos and playlists where you could hear various arguments about hardware selection optimized for video production and gaming. Paul's Hardware will have many parts lists (called build lists) on <a href="http://pcpartpicker.com">pcpartpicker.com</a> optimized for gaming and video production, and watching some of these will help answer your questions. Here are his saved build lists: </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="https://pcpartpicker.com/user/paulshardware/saved/">https://pcpartpicker.com/user/paulshardware/saved/</a></div><div><br></div><div>As I understand it, transcoding video benefits greatly from more cpu cores, so I think your ryzen 5 or ryzen 7 (or ryzen 9 if that's affordable) will give you an enormous boost from where you are. </div><div><br></div><div>As far as the GPU choice, I would put the rx5700 as a very entry-level GPU. If you can spring for a beefier GPU, you'll notice a big improvement. Again, you video producers correct me where I'm wrong. AMD GPUs target the entry level up to the mid-range levels of GPU. For super heavy duty, it's all Nvidia. But super-heavy is around the $600 and up range.</div><div><br></div><div>>>>When building a new desktop, what things can/should I do to keep it</div>reasonably quiet?<div><<<</div><div><br></div><div>This question is pretty frequently asked, so here's what I can share. First, my hearing is not the best. I've had lots of exposure to gunfire, explosions and Harleys. I currently experience tinnitus. I may not be the best person to answer this question. :-D But, here are some ideas.</div><div><br></div><div>1) If you use an air cooler for your cpu, you can adjust your fan speeds in the bios to quieter settings. You'll have to experiment with your temperatures and see how your settings are working. But you can adjust what is called your "fan curves." The nicer the motherboard, the more customizable and granular your settings will be.</div><div><br></div><div>2) There are cases you can select that are simply quieter than others. Some of them will actually have acoustically absorbent panels that dampen the sound. Make sure the case has good air flow though, because burning up your CPU or GPU is not worth the noise savings. Many cases today feature large windows so you can see your blinky lights. The quietest cases will have fewer such places sound can get out. But again, the case *has to* breathe. Temperature is very important.</div><div><br></div><div>3) Some people complain about AIO (all in one) water coolers, but I have not had problems with them. They have worked reliably for at least a year or two, and I've not experienced leaks or extra noise (but I'm kinda deaf too), and they have cooled my overclocked PCs very nicely. But again, my hearing is... err, you get the idea.</div><div><br></div><div>4) Wendell over at Level1Tech recently (Sept 2018) built a box for Linus Torvalds, who is also very sensitive to extra noise. He apparently likes his PCs extremely quiet.</div><div>This might be the link I was thinking of: </div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvuDrrFHrhQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvuDrrFHrhQ</a></div><div><br></div><div>Wendell also built a very quiet box for Greg KH recently. That might be the vid I was thinking of: </div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37RP9I3_TBo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37RP9I3_TBo</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Obviously, these builds are very idealized builds with a large budget, but most of the same principles could be applied to building a budget box that is still quiet.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope this helps!</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 1:31 PM Bob via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
<br>
A couple more questions relating to building a desktop.<br>
<br>
1) My wife is sensitive to noise, and we're often working in the same <br>
office at home. She has mentioned that my current=old desktop is noisy. <br>
Even though I don't notice it unless I think about it, I have to agree.<br>
<br>
When building a new desktop, what things can/should I do to keep it <br>
reasonably quiet?<br>
<br>
2) I have to record several hours of video each week. I'm using <br>
obs-studio, and I think obs-studio has suggested a lower resolution due <br>
to the weak cpu.<br>
<br>
For the new desktop I'm leaning towards a cheap graphics card as <br>
suggested by several along with the ryzen 5 3600 on a B450 motherboard. <br>
(I'm not interested in gaming.) Is the cheap graphics card still a <br>
reasonable choice if I have to record video?<br>
<br>
BTW, something along the following is what I'm leaning towards building now:<br>
<br>
>> I tend to think the most "bang for the buck" system today (in my mind)<br>
>> would be a B450 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16G RAM at about 3200 or<br>
>> faster, and I would go for an NVMe M.2 SSD at around 500G. You can use a<br>
>> cheap video card (about $35) and the case and power supply as your budget<br>
>> and preference dictates. Power supplies and cases are a bit more expensive<br>
>> these days, thanks to COVID-challenged supplies, but memory, ssd's and CPUs<br>
>> are relatively cheap. This system would cost you about $550-600 or so,<br>
>> depending on your choices. One example:<br>
>> <a href="https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C</a><br>
<br>
--Bob<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 2020-08-02 10:45 p.m., David Jackson wrote:<br>
> I tend to build a lot of systems, so my perspective is influenced by this<br>
> bias. But I'm unclear about your priorities.<br>
> <br>
> If you were doing something demanding (say rendering videos or doing heavy<br>
> computation or competitive gaming or whatever), you would be well beyond a<br>
> 3rd gen i5 cpu. Since 3rd gen Intel level of tech seems to suit you fine,<br>
> it seems to me your performance requirements are rather low. Another thing<br>
> I'm curious about is how much change are you willing to tolerate. Would a<br>
> lot of added performance be a bad thing or a good thing?<br>
> <br>
> I think you might be missing how easy it would be to get a *massive*<br>
> performance upgrade with a relatively slight effort or cost by upgrading<br>
> all your whole architecture. A LOT has changed since 3rd gen Intel was<br>
> current. For about the cost in difficulty and dollars in upgrading your<br>
> 3rd gen architecture, you could probably find a more current Ryzen system<br>
> that would give this massive upgrade. What has changed a lot very<br>
> recently is that AMD Ryzen normally beats Intel in terms of performance per<br>
> dollar (bang for the buck) nowadays. (I'm trying to keep it simple here.)<br>
> And the surrounding architecture has massively improved as well. Current<br>
> gen platforms are much more efficient and performant overall than a 3rd gen<br>
> i5 was.<br>
> <br>
> If you really prefer to "tough it out" on your current architecture, I<br>
> would have to infer that your priority has more to do with "optimizing the<br>
> last electron out of a potato" as I call it. There's a certain level of<br>
> pride geeks sometimes get over "doing the most with the least" technology.<br>
> If that's you, then nevermind. But it would help to know that "getting the<br>
> last ounce of performance out of your potato" is in fact a priority. If<br>
> that's true, there are other layers of complexity that might be of<br>
> interest, such as over clocking and water cooling, but cost and complexity<br>
> quickly become factors here. But if that seemed attractive to you, my<br>
> guess is your questions would have been very different.<br>
> <br>
> I tend to think the most "bang for the buck" system today (in my mind)<br>
> would be a B450 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16G RAM at about 3200 or<br>
> faster, and I would go for an NVMe M.2 SSD at around 500G. You can use a<br>
> cheap video card (about $35) and the case and power supply as your budget<br>
> and preference dictates. Power supplies and cases are a bit more expensive<br>
> these days, thanks to COVID-challenged supplies, but memory, ssd's and CPUs<br>
> are relatively cheap. This system would cost you about $550-600 or so,<br>
> depending on your choices. One example:<br>
> <a href="https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C</a><br>
> I wager this system would make you grin each time you sit down at your PC.<br>
> I'd also wager that the "grin factor" would quickly offset the dollar<br>
> damage.<br>
> <br>
> I would imagine your existing system might fetch $100 on ebay, possibly?<br>
> <br>
> Hope this helps.<br>
> <br>
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 12:16 PM Bob via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" target="_blank">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Charles has me thinking about upgrading my 8 year old lenovo desktop.<br>
>> I'm thinking of increasing memory and installing an ssd.<br>
>><br>
>> I don't know much about hardware, so I'm hoping some of you might give<br>
>> me some advice and maybe keep me from doing something stupid. I'm not a<br>
>> gamer, so that might make things simpler.<br>
>><br>
>> 1) Memory. Currently, there are two 4 GB ddr3 1600 memory modules in<br>
>> the two memory slots. There is no graphics card in my desktop and the<br>
>> integrated graphics uses some of the memory. I can upgrade to two 8 gb<br>
>> ddr3l 1600. According to <a href="http://crucial.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">crucial.com</a>, the crucial 16gb kit (2 x 8GB)<br>
>> ddr3l-1600 udimm are compatible.<br>
>><br>
>> I believe my motherboard can use either ddr3 or ddr3l. Is there an<br>
>> advantage of one over the other?<br>
>><br>
>> (The power supply unit has been fine, but it's only 280 watts. I don't<br>
>> know if that would affect the above choice or not.)<br>
>><br>
>> Microcenter has a variety of brands: Neo Forza, G. skills ripjaw,<br>
>> crucial, .... Are there brands to avoid? Are there brands that you'd<br>
>> recommend?<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> 2) ssd. This seems more complicated.<br>
>><br>
>> There are 4 empty pci express slots---one is x16 and the others x1. I<br>
>> do not believe that the motherboard supports pcie ssd. The motherboard<br>
>> does not have mSATA or m.2 slots. So pcie ssd seems to be impossible.<br>
>> (I don't know what I'd ever use these slots for.)<br>
>><br>
>> The chipset on the motherboard only supports SATA at 3.0 gb/s. There<br>
>> are 3 SATA ports and one e-SATA port. (There has been no update to the<br>
>> bios/uefi firmware.)<br>
>><br>
>> One SATA port is connected to the optical drive, and the other two SATA<br>
>> ports are connected to the two 1TB HDDs Both drives have plenty of free<br>
>> space.<br>
>><br>
>> I don't know why I get slightly different info for the following. When<br>
>> I execute "sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep SATA", the result is:<br>
>><br>
>> Transport: Serial, SATA Rev 3.0<br>
>><br>
>> but on /dev/sdb, the result is:<br>
>><br>
>> Transport: Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5,<br>
>> SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0<br>
>><br>
>> The e-SATA port is connected to a usm hot-swappable bay where I'm<br>
>> supposed to be able to plug in a portable SATA drive. The connector is<br>
>> supposed to be a standard SATA connector. I have never used this bay so<br>
>> far.<br>
>><br>
>> It seems like I could either purchase an external SATA ssd and plug it<br>
>> into the bay. I don't know if I would have troubles booting from that<br>
>> drive.<br>
>><br>
>> OTOH, I could remove one of the HDDs and put the SSD into either<br>
>> /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. Presumably, I could put the HDD that was removed<br>
>> into an enclosure allowing it to be placed into the swappable bay on the<br>
>> rare occasions that it was needed.<br>
>><br>
>> 1) Does it seem better to remove an HDD and put the ssd into that space<br>
>> vs. putting the ssd into the swappable bay? Does it make a difference<br>
>> if the ssd is put into the drive where /dev/sda is or /dev/sdb?<br>
>><br>
>> 2) Any suggestions on how large the ssd should be?<br>
>><br>
>> 3) Are there brands to avoid or brands that you would recommend?<br>
>><br>
>> --Bob<br>
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> <br>
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