Aaron and friends build PCs (help) - Build underway!

Is there any sense to CPU and graphics card numbering?

Hypes wrote:Is there any sense to CPU and graphics card numbering?

Not really.

Ryzen 3/5/7/9 tries to mirror i3,5,7,9.

In theory core count and clock speed goes up as you go through these. All these apply to ‘generation’ I.E. 10th,11th and 13th gen intel latest. 13900 being 13th Gen i9.

GPUs. AMD bounce around numbers. 5700. 6xxx and the new ones are 7xxx.

Nvidia go 9xx, 1xxx, 20xx, 30xx and now 40xx for each Gen.

Hypes wrote:Is there any sense to CPU and graphics card numbering?

The below is a very rough guide, and will probably be very quickly corrected, but here's my understanding.

As far is Intel CPUs go, the format is ix-yyzzz.

• x identifies the budget/level of CPU. 3 is your basic, budget model. 5 is mid-range. 7 is high range, 9 is ultra high
• yy is simply the generation. The higher, the newer
• zzz is the specific model within the generation. Generally, the higher, the faster.

There are also sometimes letters at the end which identify things such as being intended for laptops, or embedded use, or low power consumption.

With Nvidia GeForce GPUs, the numbering system is similar. The format is GT/GTX/RTX xxyy

• GT means it's a basic graphics adapter, only really useful for desktop applications or very old games. GTX means intended for gaming. RTX means it has raytracing capability
• xx is the generation. Again, the higher the newer. Used to go up in interations of 1, now goes up by 10 (with a brief moment where it went up by 6 for some reason)
• yy is the level of card within the generation. Avoid anything below 50 if you actually want something useful

AMD, I haven't a clue.

Looking to get a decent monitor in the black Friday sale.

What do you think would be better for my setup - 4k and 60fps or 1440p and 144hz? It'll be about 28 inches (ideally I'd get a 24/26 inch one but can't find a decent one atm)

1440p 144 is sweet spot. You get high quality and high fps if you want it. Gives you more flexibility.

Personally I like ultrawide. I grabbed an odyssey g9 in sale and it’s insane.

I've got a couple of 27" IPS 1440p 144Hz 27" monitors. Both are from ASUS, one from the TUF range, the other the more expensive ROG SWIFT range. To be honest the TUF monitor performs just as well for what I use it for and at ~40% of the cost. It often comes up on sale, but its still a big chunk from the budget.

Should go for a 48" OLED as a monitor.

Well parts all ordered so I should be building a new PC next weekend! Thanks for all the advice Bertie and others, it has been very helpful in navigating the options. I ended up getting a slightly more expensive motherboard which I won't have to flash the bios on and upped the 2tb SSD to a Samsung 970 Evo Plus. I also replaced the HDD with another Samsung 980 1tb SSD, mainly because I forgot to remove it from the basket before check out!

I feel I'm coming at this from the completely opposite end of the spectrum (no pun intended) to the others here, in looking for a bodge job computer that I can make mistakes and play around with as a sort of fun hobby rather than anything serious. Kerr has already very kindly offered his help on this.

Anyhow, I went to my local phone shop, where they were selling a refurbed pc for about £200. In fairness to the guy, I explained my plan to try and build something by adding bits and he advised me to steer well clear of that.

His advice boiled down to going to CEX or Cash Converters, and buying something there with as big a box around it as possible to be able cram more "stuff" in.

So, that's my weekend sorted, happily trawling for fenced goods in the lands deodorant forgot.

Looking forward to seeing some pictures of some builds. I might jump on the Pc in a bit and put some pics up of my pc, cpu lga1700 contact frame mod and the g9.

Happy to help. Would love the chance to support you in building your own PCs, and building your confidence to share around. It’s not as daunting as people think, and it’s just walking through. Best bit is, you can fix it.

andretmzt wrote:I've got a couple of 27" IPS 1440p 144Hz 27" monitors. Both are from ASUS, one from the TUF range, the other the more expensive ROG SWIFT range. To be honest the TUF monitor performs just as well for what I use it for and at ~40% of the cost. It often comes up on sale, but its still a big chunk from the budget.

Should go for a 48" OLED as a monitor.

I'm using an Asus TUF 27" IPS 1440p 144Hz monitor too, can't really fault it as I don't really need anything bigger or higher spec (I don't play any FPSs or many AAA releases these days anyway)

I'll only replace it wheen absolutely necessary.

Abacus wrote:I feel I'm coming at this from the completely opposite end of the spectrum (no pun intended) to the others here, in looking for a bodge job computer that I can make mistakes and play around with as a sort of fun hobby rather than anything serious. Kerr has already very kindly offered his help on this.

Anyhow, I went to my local phone shop, where they were selling a refurbed pc for about £200. In fairness to the guy, I explained my plan to try and build something by adding bits and he advised me to steer well clear of that.

His advice boiled down to going to CEX or Cash Converters, and buying something there with as big a box around it as possible to be able cram more "stuff" in.

So, that's my weekend sorted, happily trawling for fenced goods in the lands deodorant forgot.

As well as looking at CEX I'd check out Amazon Refurb desktops, my Dad got one off them and it was a good price, the best bit though was the hard drive failed like a bit later and so they sent him a replacement PC and told him to throw the first one away, we didn't throw it, I just got a hard drive cheap out CEX and replaced it and he had two working machines.

My last proper laptop was an Amazon Refurb and for it's price it's a good little machine.

We're getting there lads.

Awesome.

The cooler got the LGA1700 brackets?

Looking good!

Love the thrill of a new build

kerr9000 wrote:As well as looking at CEX I'd check out Amazon Refurb desktops, my Dad got one off them and it was a good price, the best bit though was the hard drive failed like a bit later and so they sent him a replacement PC and told him to throw the first one away, we didn't throw it, I just got a hard drive cheap out CEX and replaced it and he had two working machines.

My last proper laptop was an Amazon Refurb and for it's price it's a good little machine.

I have to say, this idea does appeal a bit. I'd already spent a while looking at these in the last few days, thinking I could spend a few hundred quid on one, safe in the knowledge it would at least work to start with and be covered by a warranty.

Before then invalidating that warranty by tricking it out bit by bit with all new parts, like decent graphics cards, memory, spoilers and go faster stripes etc until the whole thing became a sort of Frankenstein's monster.

I'm not sure if there's anything there I need to be careful of, in case I want to upgrade stuff and hit a limit. The processor, presumably. But I'm guessing you can upgrade that too.

Like I say, it's just a bit of a fun experiment, where the mistakes are just as important to make as the bits that work.

I quite enjoy watching Spawnwave on YouTube, where he takes apart consoles, controllers etc and shows you how they all work. Though in comparison, I feel that rather than going at the machine with a variety of correctly chosen screwdrivers and some technical knowledge, I'd be going in with a hammer, a tin opener and the self-confidence that's only earnt through a bottle of wine.

Abacus wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:As well as looking at CEX I'd check out Amazon Refurb desktops, my Dad got one off them and it was a good price, the best bit though was the hard drive failed like a bit later and so they sent him a replacement PC and told him to throw the first one away, we didn't throw it, I just got a hard drive cheap out CEX and replaced it and he had two working machines.

My last proper laptop was an Amazon Refurb and for it's price it's a good little machine.

I have to say, this idea does appeal a bit. I'd already spent a while looking at these in the last few days, thinking I could spend a few hundred quid on one, safe in the knowledge it would at least work to start with and be covered by a warranty.

Before then invalidating that warranty by tricking it out bit by bit with all new parts, like decent graphics cards, memory, spoilers and go faster stripes etc until the whole thing became a sort of Frankenstein's monster.

I'm not sure if there's anything there I need to be careful of, in case I want to upgrade stuff and hit a limit. The processor, presumably. But I'm guessing you can upgrade that too.

Like I say, it's just a bit of a fun experiment, where the mistakes are just as important to make as the bits that work.

I quite enjoy watching Spawnwave on YouTube, where he takes apart consoles, controllers etc and shows you how they all work. Though in comparison, I feel that rather than going at the machine with a variety of correctly chosen screwdrivers and some technical knowledge, I'd be going in with a hammer, a tin opener and the self-confidence that's only earnt through a bottle of wine.

Yeah the biggest sticking points are usually the Processor the motherboard can take and what kind of memory slots the motherboard has... it all depends what you want to aim for, best bet is to look at a programme or game you want to be able to play and aim for that and if you can build something that can play that its a good starting block you have learned more of what your on with and can use or play that thing as a treat for your efforts.

Bertie wrote:Awesome.

The cooler got the LGA1700 brackets?

Yes looks like it does! Thanks for checking!

Will I need to flash/update my bios you think? Pcpartpicker gave a yellow warning that I might need to to make it compatible with something else (maybe the CPU).

aayl1 wrote:

Bertie wrote:Awesome.

The cooler got the LGA1700 brackets?

Yes looks like it does! Thanks for checking!

Will I need to flash/update my bios you think? Pcpartpicker gave a yellow warning that I might need to to make it compatible with something else (maybe the CPU).

Yeah. I think it will need one. You are going to 13th Gen. It should work out the box with 12th gen. You will need to take the mother board out and I think the very first thing will be to use just 24pin and cpu power from the power supply and then get the latest bios update from the website. Add to a usb stick and there will be a guide to flashing the bios without a cpu. It’s something like holding the button for a few seconds. Release and let it flash. Once it stops flashing, it should be done.

https://youtu.be/7EX2bRF7i88

Bertie wrote:

aayl1 wrote:

Bertie wrote:Awesome.

The cooler got the LGA1700 brackets?

Yes looks like it does! Thanks for checking!

Will I need to flash/update my bios you think? Pcpartpicker gave a yellow warning that I might need to to make it compatible with something else (maybe the CPU).

Yeah. I think it will need one. You are going to 13th Gen. It should work out the box with 12th gen. You will need to take the mother board out and I think the very first thing will be to use just 24pin and cpu power from the power supply and then get the latest bios update from the website. Add to a usb stick and there will be a guide to flashing the bios without a cpu. It’s something like holding the button for a few seconds. Release and let it flash. Once it stops flashing, it should be done.

https://youtu.be/7EX2bRF7i88

Okay! I will worry about this more closer to the time.

Parts have gone up about $200 dollars since I ordered so feeling happy about pulling the trigger.