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I turned my brother's wired arcade pad into one with a detachable cable using a RJ45 jack. Works perfectly!

UPDATE 1.3 is live to my build log!

The Thread has moved! Come here to see updates as this post will no longer be updated - http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/326603-my-scrap-based-build-ratchet-build-update-12-parts-swap-etc/

BACKSTORY My Current Build List - CODENAME: Ratchet - King of the Scrapheap CPU - AMD FX 6100 OC to 4.0GHz (Freebie! Kindly donated by GzeroD) - eBay MOBO - (New!) Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 - ($47 Shipped from eBay) - GPU - AMD R9 280x ($150-ish on eBay) - eBay RAM - DDR3 8GB (Yet to find a good deal, maybe 4GB dimm X2) Case - Bitfenix Neos Red/White ($34 On Sale ends 3/11/15) - NCIXUS CPU Cooler - be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 (39.99 from Newegg) SHIPPED! PSU - Thermaltake TR2 500W ($37 Clearance @ Radioshack RIP) DVD Drive - free (from previous repair) HDD - SATA3 2.5mm 320GB drive (free from previous repair) be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 Unboxing Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILf9sU9ayY This is my "tech" YouTube channel. (I have more than one for SEO reasons) Please subscribe, it means a lot, and you guys are awesome. Also check out my other stuff on the sister channels. Thanks! MOAR videos coming as soon as I get the parts in! Conclusion With my new parts this build costs an estimated total of $370 (USD) out of my $350~$450 budget. Now I haven't bought a GPU or RAM so this is the last part of the race where I can Min/Max as much as I can to turn that $370 into a $350 or even a $340. So this is where I wait and find the best deal and pounce. I've already created followed searches for the R9 280X and 7970 on eBay and check my craigslist once-a-day. I'm planning on getting some kind of performance RAM most likely second hand. Special thanks to forums user GzeroD for donating his AMD FX 6100 toward this build! Although he says it was just gathering dust in the corner, it means a lot and I greatly appreciate it. This truly is a great group of people here at LinusTechTips. Let's all give him some good karma and keep the vibes flowing. Can you dig it? Tell me what you guys think? Decent? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. This is what my locals have to offer at the time. What do you think? Questions? Comments? NOTE - You may have seen this thread here. I have moved the post so the topic could stay relevant and more people could enjoy it.

Update 1.2 is live. Check out what's changed!

Okay looked at some tests and there's literally only a degree of difference between the two (H55 & H60) under high load. Plus the refurb only has a 3-month warranty. So nope. I wouldn't mind a meaty air cooler, but three things preclude me in choosing one. Size, and sound, and airflow. My case is rather small IMO and I'm still waiting for it to arrive. So if I were to shop for coolers I don't even have a physical thing to reference to see if it would fit with the case closed. But even if I could get a good flow going, I've still got a GPU putting off heat. With a rad I might lose some air pull of the system, but it helps with looks and with keeping the thing an overall cooler temp. In honesty all I've worked with is stock coolers in crappy bigbox PCs so I've gotten what could possibly be just a bad impression of what air coolers are capable of. So here's what I'm thinking now - cost to performance. Can I get a better cooler for $40?

That sounds fine for my use. I don't think the more powerful parts at a similar clock produce much more heat. Would you recommend a better setup? Also I found an H60 for the same price. Referb though.

I know that 50~60 degrees Celsius is pushing it right? What was yours running at?

I have a few HDDs laying around I can use. The perks of being a family nerd, I get all the crap to fix but I keep all your old stuff you don't want. I'm probably going to grab a Corsair Hydro H55. They're on sale right now for $40 @NCIXUS. Looks like AMD runs hot, plus with my slight OC I'm gonna need a better than stock solution. The performance delta may not be much better than an air cooler, but I like silence, plus I'm running a mid tower and the radiator may be better for overall closed case temps. Also have a Win 8 product key back when you could upgrade for cheap.

Update 1.1 Full specs. Tell me what you think.

I could use a monitor and all that jazz, but I'm eyeballing some mechanical keyboards. So what I'm thinking about doing is using my TV as a monitor getting a wireless keyboard/ mouse and calling it a day on accessories. Then later upgrading to all the fixings. Gonna need an optical drive at first. Have a lot of apps that wont let you download the software, have to use the CD and a key. I have one, maybe it'll work. As far as GPUs go... I love Nvidia, but I don't know if their features like shadowplay and stuff justify it. The only thing I can think of is CUDA. That really helps with a lot of rendering applications. But doing an all AMD build is appealing as well. Research forthcoming.

I totally forgot about people doing that. Must be a huge aftermarket for burned out ones.

I've got a $350 - $450USD floating budget. Buying parts piecemeal allows me to get better deals, but can add up to be more in the long run given the parts I'm picking at the time. So the two main things I'm using this build for is video editing and gaming. Not PC-Master-Race-Level gaming, but high and steady framerates on medium or high settings.

Dude that would be awesome! I would have to do some reading on how to use that CPU the best, but that would be awesome! I have nothing against AMD at all, but to be honest I wish ATI got better support and optimization. That's one of the reasons I'm shying away from a R9 in my build. Have they gotten better with this lately?

Case is a Cooler Master-something-err-other. Looks decent, but needs to be cleaned badly PIC - I would keep the PSU though, better quality than mine.