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I love computers, and I love building them. However, this just happens to be one of the worst times ever to build one. The CPU's and GPU's people want can't be found, and other parts are selling at or above MSRP. I've had to tell so many people to buy a pre-built if they want something right now. And I still can't find a PS5.

 

So, for those of you who have built your own computers, tell us all about them here. Or even if it's a prebuilt, lay down them specs.

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I build all my own computers... Usually.  Not Laptops 🙂

My main video editing rig / workstation is based  on an AMD Threadripper 3970x processor, 64 gigs of RAM, and dual RTX 2070 graphics cards each with 8 gigs of vram.  I'm running dual 1TB NVMe drives, one as the boot/program drive and the other is setup for caching.  Caching what exactly?  Well, that would be my HDD RAID, which is now sporting 24TB of storage.  The point of all this is to support real time editing, compositing, and color grading of RAW 4K material in DaVinici Resolve.

In the room adjacent to my edit suite I have my own little mini data center.  In it I am running a custom built PF Sense box based on an entry level, affordable, Xeon processor (I forget the exact one), 16 gigs of RAM, and a 120 gig NVMe drive.  It has a few different networking cards in it- The first has dual gigabit fiber connectors that I use for my gigabit fiber connections to the outside world.  One of which is an enterprise gigabit fiber line from Comcast, the other from Century Link.  This provides seamless redundancy should either of them go down.  The other Network cards in the PF Sense box provide gigabit ethernet.

I am then running two web servers that are almost identical, except in their disk drives.  They both are based on AMD Epyc CPUS and have 32 gigs of ECC memory.  One is configured with 4TB in a redundant RAID, the other is currently configured for 12TB in a redundant RAID.  The smaller capacity one is what I use for my adult sites, while all of my mainstream work and hosting for clients is on the larger one.  I then have a NAS box that is setup as my own personal cloud storage, it is running on old, salvaged hardware- An AMD FX processor and 8 gigs of RAM with 4 TB storage.

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I have a laptop that I had a custom shop build over 5 years ago now.  It has served me well, but it has a few little issues here and there.  Then I have my 10 year old desktop computer (which I did build) which has a failed system drive and needs seriously cleaned out inside if I want to get it to power on.  We had a bit of a very localized natural disaster befall our house and we had to move out for several months, and when I came back, my desktop had thermal issues.  Turns out that there was a stink bug that had climbed into the case and gotten itself wedged under the HSF for the CPU, preventing the fan from spinning.  I get it dislodged, but it still has issues and, as I said, the system drive is kinda hosed (bad sectors and such), so right now, if I had the money, I could go out and buy a replacement drive and try to breathe new life into it, but money is tight and I work primarily from my laptop anyway.

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I did build computers for myself and in the past for family and friends.

Last year my old AMD FX System broke down. Not sure what exactly was broken but I replaced the Motherboard, CPU and RAM. I suspected the old motherboard was at fault. The system had stability issues since a year at least...And some parts were really old...

Now I have replaced most of the old stuff...

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 

Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4. 

Graphic: RX580 8GB

The OS runns on a 500GB SSD

For storage I only have a 3TB HDD, my other HDD also broke not long ago and I have to look for a replacement. I probably should replace the old 3TB HDD too. With almost 1500 days working. 😅

I wish I had some money to spare. I would like to replace the case with something more modern. I think its 12 years old. 🙃

 

 

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I have two computers I use, but I did not build either of them (sad, I know!)

-My current laptop was purchased in March 2020, right after COVID was named a pandemic. I had been wanting to purchase a new one to replace my aging Lenovo ideaPad, and I figured that was the best time to buy one, since I was worried the world was about to get really bad off. I purchased a Dell XPS 7590 Laptop. Spec-wise, it has:

-A 9th Generation Intel Core i7 Processor clocked at 2.6Ghz

-32GB of DDR4 RAM at 2666Mhz

-1TB NVMe SSD

-Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU

But my favorite feature of this laptop is its 4K, OLED screen. It's absolutely gorgeous. It makes the artwork on this website really pop.

-As for my desktop, I just bought a new one not too long ago. It's actually an All-in-One and not your usual Tower+Monitor combo. It isn't as powerful as a regular towered desktop, but that's ok, because I mainly game on consoles. However, I consider it a "sleeper" All-in-One due to its specs. It replaced an aging HP All-in-One I bought refurbished several years ago, and my current All-in-One is also an HP. Spec-wise, we have a :

-10th Gen Core i7 clocked at 2.9Ghz, but will go up to 4.7Ghz if needed

-512GB NVMe SSD with a 1TB HDD I use for storage. It also has one of those 32GB Intel Optane drives, but all that does is help my SSD talk to my HDD faster

-Nvidia RTX 2070 with Q-Max Design (it's the same as a 2070 you'd find in a laptop)

-16GB of DDR4 Ram at 2933Mhz

It's not OLED, but it's also a 4K screen. Both my laptop and desktop are only 60hz displays, so in the next few years, when it's time to replace them, I'm getting a 165hz or 240hz panel. This All-in-One also has a wireless phone charger on its monitor stand. That has been such a helpful feature

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4 hours ago, FluffySeal said:

I did build computers for myself and in the past for family and friends.

Last year my old AMD FX System broke down. Not sure what exactly was broken but I replaced the Motherboard, CPU and RAM. I suspected the old motherboard was at fault. The system had stability issues since a year at least...And some parts were really old...

Now I have replaced most of the old stuff...

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 

Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4. 

Graphic: RX580 8GB

The OS runns on a 500GB SSD

For storage I only have a 3TB HDD, my other HDD also broke not long ago and I have to look for a replacement. I probably should replace the old 3TB HDD too. With almost 1500 days working. 😅

I wish I had some money to spare. I would like to replace the case with something more modern. I think its 12 years old. 🙃

 

 

I've heard less than stellar things about the AMD FX line of processors, so just moving up to a Ryzen was probably a big boost for your system

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14 minutes ago, SCTrainFanatic said:

I've heard less than stellar things about the AMD FX line of processors, so just moving up to a Ryzen was probably a big boost for your system

Jep previous of Ryzen things were really bad for AMD. The Bulldozer microarchitecture was atrocious. I got stuck on the AM3 Socket and at the time could not just dump it. At least it worked for almost 10 years, its something I guess. If not for Ryzen I would have switched for an Intel i5 System.

Oh and yes naturally the performance boost was huge.

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1 hour ago, c o t t o n said:

I built my PC piece by piece over a few years, it wasn't purchased all at once. I ended up having bad temps on both the CPU and GPU, so i changed my airflow configuration with push and pull setups and a modded bracket to fit a CPU AIO on the GPU and a modded front panel, temps don't go above 60C on max load. Eventually i want to get a RTX 3080 and a better monitor.

Case: NZXT H400 Micro-ATX with custom modded front panel for airflow by ColdZero (unfortunately NZXT doesn't make micro-atx cases anymore)
MB: Asus Rog Maximus XI Gene Z390
PSU: Enermax MaxTytan 80 PLUS Titanium 750w
CPU: 9700k (4.7GHz undervolted) delidded with direct die mount and ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240
GPU: Strix OC 1080ti with G12 Kraken Mod and Corsair H80i 120mm
RAM: GSkill Royal 2x16GB 3600MHz
Storage: 1+2TB Sabrent Rocket m.2
Fans: 8x Noctua NF-F12 120mm fans 2000RPM with 8x 120mm Phanteks RGB Halos Lux fan frames, both AIO's in Push/Pull
Monitor: LG 29" Ultrawide 2560x1080p
Keyboard: Roccat Vulcan (Satisfaction 75 keyboard ships q3)
Mouse: Corsair Nightsword (also use an Xbox Elite 2 and  modded Switch Pro Xenoblade 2 controller with soldered Xbox Elite V2 3D Joysticks with the Black Chrome bases and an LED mod)
Sound Setup: Creative 7.1 Surround Sound PC Speakers, Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro's and ModMic with Atom amp and Sidetone mixer

pcsetup.thumb.jpg.1c852a2f20d0378df967596f0b69c131.jpg

The second PC i have is technically my girlfriends (i used my spare parts to build it for her ^-^), but it also runs Plex. Planned upgrades are a better GPU and CPU AIO though she mostly plays League of Legends lol

Case: NZXT S340
MB: Asus Rog Maximus IX Formula Z270
PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 80 PLUS Gold 1300W for Plex which i know is still overkill
CPU: 7700K Delidded with pure nickel IHS 4.5GHz and Corsair H110
GPU: GT640 (going to upgrade soon)
RAM: GSkill Ripjaws V 3200Mhz 16GB
Storage: 250GB Samsung EVO SSD + 8TB Seagate HDD for Plex
FANS: Deepcool RGB fan pack 5x
Monitor: Samsung 27" 1080p
Keyboard: Corsair K70 Lux Cherry MX Blue
Mouse: Razer Mamba Wireless
Sound: RGB Speakers

139738211_2848737578783390_6320602942796898540_n.jpg.43be3facc742be7d608ce5df0a6578a8.jpg

I have those exact same RGB speakers seen in your last picture. And I love all the purple RGB!

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I actually just got upgraded from a 1050ti to an RTX 3060 Founder's that I managed to snag. aside from that my specs are:

CPU: Ryzen 5 1600x 3.6 GHz with a Noctua NH_U9s cooler

MB: MSI B450 tomahawk

RAM: Team Vulcan 16GB DDR4

Case: Fractal Design Focus G

PSU: Corsair TXM 550 W

Boot drive: WD blue SN550 500 GB M.2

Extra Drives: Seatgate FireCuda 1 TB  +  some random 1TB seagate drive, can't find a name for it.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Decim said:

I actually just got upgraded from a 1050ti to an RTX 3060 Founder's that I managed to snag. aside from that my specs are:

CPU: Ryzen 5 1600x 3.6 GHz with a Noctua NH_U9s cooler

MB: MSI B450 tomahawk

RAM: Team Vulcan 16GB DDR4

Case: Fractal Design Focus G

PSU: Corsair TXM 550 W

Boot drive: WD blue SN550 500 GB M.2

Extra Drives: Seatgate FireCuda 1 TB  +  some random 1TB seagate drive, can't find a name for it.

 

 

I'm so happy you managed to find a 3060ti! I'm sure it will be a great card. I kinda wonder if it will bottleneck that Ryzen 5 1600. I hope it doesn't

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On 1/26/2021 at 9:22 PM, SCTrainFanatic said:

I'm so happy you managed to find a 3060ti! I'm sure it will be a great card. I kinda wonder if it will bottleneck that Ryzen 5 1600. I hope it doesn't

I got it by following stock bots on twitter and watching my phone like a hawk for like 3 days. when I got the notifcation I was actually about to browse omo stuff so I jumped out of my bed and pulled my pants up lmao. I got the card knowing full well that it would probably bottleneck my cpu, but even then at least I have a card thatll be good for a while. I can always upgrade cpu later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a fun threat! You all have some nice desktops. I have a "beefier"  enterprise Lenovo laptop since I'm not a gamer. I'm quite proud of the Freenas server I build which has 12TB of redundant storage on HHDs and another volume of 1TB of redundant ssd storage. The server has a ryzen processor and 32gb of ddr4 ram that I utilize with BSD Jails for various applications like Plex.

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