Happy Endings, no matter how you get there, are great. Eight cores makes a difference. :)

The lesson I learned is don't assume things will play nicely just because it sounds good haha. GPU card arrives tomorrow along with a new desk and a pair of monitors. Let's hope I didn't get anything else wrong. Been one of those days!

Mack.

My 8 core Intel is running a little long in the tooth (one of the very early ones), but still delivers amazing results. Two monitors---one landscape, the other portrait---and that makes a difference for coding and image work. :)

My other computer is a 386.

(Just kidding ... it is a plain vanilla Intel Pentium dual core 3ghz I use to surf with browser defaults and limited add-ons like everybody else).

I stopped building personal computers back in 2009 when I finally agreed that Win98se was past last usable date. :)
Bought an iMac - remove from box and plug in! - a shock after 20+ years of building from case out. Year before last replaced that iMac with another, eight years was beginning to show it's age. As tangor, a two monitor, landscape + portrait, setup.

Had to do some work on a Windows machine recently and by golly I remembered a whole lot of swear words... guess new habits dug new ruts...

Ultimately, it is not the machine. It is the screw loose behind the keyboard doing the creating and input. Better machines merely means results of that endeavor just happen a whole lot fast, and sometimes looks prettier. :)

Some folks just don't appreciate the joys of tearing your hair out. I've never bought a store bought manufactured desktop machine. Cannibalised them yes.

Even my very first one - I physically soldered components to the board in 1977. RCA 1602 CPU a whole 2K of RAM [not a typo 2K is correct] a 4 X 4 hexadecimal keypad and a dual 7 segment hex display. A 1K ROM for O/S.

It took us about 2 - 3 hours to multiply 3 X 4 = 12. The joys of Assembly Language. And NO! a CPU still cannot multiply or divide, modern CPU's have those sub-routines built in on board in manufacture.

Then again I've always been the type of person who builds and repairs things. Stoves, washing machines, refrigerators, TV's, radios, CD and DVD players - although in this "modern" era spare arts are becoming either impossible, very expensive, or not available. When was the last time you saw a TV technician?

I'd noticed similar this week after googling a custom built pc. The configurator told me that if I didn't select their default AMD CPU that I may need a GPU.

My laptop is 3 years old, battery is giving up and the AC cord doesn't hook up right any more. It cost £650 but looking at similar spec laptops today they're not any cheaper. Seems like they're a bit overpriced at the moment.

I wish more suppliers gave a choice of OS, on the custom setups removing Windows saves ~£100.

I also enjoy building rather than buying. It's also worth noting that buying a branded machine with the same sort of specification would have cost me close to double the price of the parts I got for the build. This was everything, I didn't reuse any parts, old system will get used for something no doubt, maybe to backup my backups? lol

GPU now installed and the machine is flying, so all in all lesson learned, but an interesting experience never the less.

Mack.

This particular topic using the Ryzen 5 2600X highlights an often overlooked benefit of custom building your own desk top.

If you go and buy a mainstream manufacturers PC you will likely get a standard one year warranty. Any problems with your OS? Then take them to your retailer whose staff have likely been trained to tell you it is the manufacturers problem not theirs.

Custom built - even from long personal experience?

1. Well the CPU in this topic [Ryzen 5 2600X] carries a 3 year manufacturers warranty when purchased retail.
2. Some components like Corsair RAM can carry a lifetime warranty. Same with some other components.
3. Purchasing your OS retail means you get to speak directly to people like Microsoft engineers. Not some 19 year old kid at the retailers who has been told to fob you off.

No matter how much I may pay Microsoft for OS's into the future they will never make a profit from me. When Windows 8 Pro came out, on a brand new custom build I spent around 5 - 6 hours on the phone with the engineers, including a three country conference call with remote control between Los Angeles, somewhere in the Phillipines, and Sydney. Microsoft's time costs would have been astronomical.

It was an undiscovered bug - with the admonition "Mr. Purdie please forget what you are seeing on your screen". In parts they went down to bit level changing hex-decimal code.

With Mr. Intel? If you are going to claim under warranty [a complex process] always say "Oh yes, I most certainly used the Intel supplied heatsink" - I didn't use a far better, state of the art, expensive heatsink. Or as Mr Intel's warranty contact person said to me:

"Mr. Purdie, I'll ask you again - please tell me that you most certainly used the Intel supplied heatsink"

Lots of other stuff as well.

The last one I built - this one I'm using now? When I put it all together, with the Win 8 Pro upgrade disk in the optic drive and powered up?

It sang to me something fierce, and I smiled to myself with a large celebratory drink.

[TIP] That kind of OS upgrade? Always, always elect to go Custom Install - trouble free I've found.

Oh, and I don't do graphics cards, nor gaming. Just have 12 HDD partitions over 9 drives and 16 Gb RAM

It's also worth noting that buying a branded machine with the same sort of specification would have cost me close to double the price of the parts I got for the build. This was everything, I didn't reuse any parts...

Ditto with my experiences - particularly the current machine. Not only twice the cost but inferior components.

I used to spend days in delightful parts comparison designing 'the' most kick *ss desktop within budget possible. And then a decade ago the interest/joy just wasn't there any more.

Since then my fascination has been server architecture. Just moved up an abstraction layer.

While I haven't played with the Ryzen 5 2600x (the reviews look great) I can state unequivocally that the Epyc 7551p is pure awesome in a server. :) AMD is definitely on a run.

IamCP a very true point about Warranty. With a "built" machine the manufacturer will generally supply a warranty for the machine "as is" if you start changing things then you may well find you have invalidated your warranty. With a built system the warranty is a lot more simple, each component has a warranty with the direct manufacturer.

Mack.

Yes and I not so fortuitously said above:

2. Some components like Corsair RAM can carry a lifetime warranty.

Talk about Karma - we're about to check that out once again. Hello Mr. Ram Guy at Corsair...

On boot this morning, one beep nothing else, just one beep wait some seconds repeat. Again I am glad I installed my own Piezo Buzzer, ASRock no longer install one on board.

OK [with difficulty] I remove bank A1/B1. Restart, all now OK. I would have bet with my luck of late I would have had to go to the second bank.

Why did I say difficulty? The push release lever on one side for both modules seems as if it is welded shut. I dunno maybe my summer of 46° C did something - I'll look later when I have time, clean up MOBO and reinstall that bank as a further test before whinging to Mr. Corsair.

To my wife? "Yes my dear, now you know once again why I keep boxes and containers that items came in - to send them back if necessary".