Josh6066

Ok thanks, found a decent b450 motherboard, going to get the ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard. Going to go for the mx500 instead of the bx500 due to reviews saying the performance is better and it is only $30 more. His psu is a corsair cx430 and is bronze rated so that should be fine. Thanks for your help.

Summary: Building 1st Gaming PC for friend Budget & Location: Location is Sydney Australia and all prices will be in Australian Dollars (1 Australian Dollar equals 0.70 United States Dollars at the time) The budget can be flexible but it is as little as possible to get a solid 1080p gaming pc. Aim / Why are you upgrading?: This is a build that I'm helping my friend build and will be his first gaming pc, he is currently on a mac laptop and wants a desktop to do some more serious gaming. He's mainly playing games such as CSGO and Brawlhalla at the moment but this is partially due to the lack of a decent computer. He says he intends to play some light games such as CSGO and a bit of Minecraft, but also some other games such as Fortnite and will try some other more demanding games and explore what types he likes. Will be playing games at 1080p and ideally wants to put setting around high for most games. He may try some streaming, but it may not be possible due to lack of a good internet connection and will do some occasional video editing most likely of 1080p video. He is happy to buy parts second hand, except I have told him not to get second hand storage as I know it can wear out over time. I'll talk about each component individually below. Monitors Has a 1080p monitor which has been used with laptop, planning on keeping it for at-least a couple of years. Peripherals Already has gaming mouse, alright keyboard (may upgrade) and has some earphone (may buy some better headphones later). Build (All prices in Australian Dollars) PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor $120.00 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $75.00 @ Shopping Express Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory $84.40 @ Amazon Australia Storage Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive $175.00 @ Shopping Express Video Card Asus GeForce GTX 970 4 GB STRIX Video Card $150.00 Case Fractal Design Define R4 ATX Mid Tower Case $60.00 Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $664.40 Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-27 17:04 AEDT+1100 CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 I've found a second hand one of these for about $120 which seems like a good deal which I am still waiting for seller to respond. Just wanted to ask if this CPU good enough for this build, its multicore performance seems really good though is the single core performance good enough for gaming? Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard I believe we only need a budget motherboard and this one seems to get pretty good reviews. There is one being offered second hand for $65 from someone who says they only used it for a month whilst they RMA'd another board, do you think I should offer him $40 or so or is it not worth getting a second hand motherboard as it is $80 new? Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory After a fair bit of research about how ram speed affected ryzen I concluded that ram speed matters, and makes more of a performance difference when you have a super high end graphics card, for a build like this it looks like the performance difference from 2666 to 3000 and 3000 to 3200 is about 1-2fps. So it looks like 2666MHz is a good middle ground and I also discovered you have to overclock to get higher than that anyway on a ryzen 5 1600. Please let me know if you think faster ram would be worth it though or if I'm wrong. Was going to buy RAM second hand, but was surprised at how little there was on the second hand market in Australia. There is some people trying to sell there fancy RGB ram for $150 but that's not really what I'm going for. I've found this 2x8gb Corsair 2666MHz for $85 on Amazon Australia so unless someone can show me a better deal this looks good. Though the 3200MHz one is only $98, is that worth it or should I just stick with the 2666MHZ one? Storage: Not entirely sure what to do. Needs some SSD for operating system and main files. Needs storage for games for next few years plus a small amount of video footage probably about 1TB needed. Option 1: $175 Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive Seems like a good drive with good performance and good longevity. Option 2: $149 Intel 660p Series 1TB Gets NVME performance for lower cost, the longevity is less but even if you write 50GB each day it will last for 11 years. Option 3: $149 Samsung 860 QVO 1TB Option 4: $154 from $85 Samsung 860 Evo 250GB and $69 Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Option 5: $133 from $85 Samsung 860 Evo 250GB and $48 Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Option 6: Cheaper SSD either 128gb or 256gb and $48 Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Any recommendations of cheaper SSD's that give good performance that I can pair with a 1TB hard drive? Please offer your advice on what option would be best or a different one I haven't though of, I'm thinking either option 2 or 6 will be the best, though spending as much on storage as each of the CPU And GPU doesn't quite seem right, I guess that's because we are getting it new. Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4 GB STRIX Video Card I've got one of these which I'll sell for him for somewhere round $150, seems like a good match for this build. Case: Fractal Design Define R4 ATX Mid Tower Case There actually isn't very many super cheap cases, but I did find a Fractal Define R4 for $60, which is quite a nice case and will help keep the build quiet, he says he would prefer a quite build if possible, so paring this with the Asus strix gtx 970 which is super quiet and the stock cooler from AMD which I've looked up and gather it is fairly quiet should give a good volume PC. I know how to solder so we could even get some $10 LED's of ebay and can solder them onto a molex connector which would look pretty nice. Power Supply: He already has a 450ish watt power supply, I'll have to check its all compatible but it should be fine. Conclusion: I'm open to changing things here, would just love some thoughts on the build. Thanks Josh

I can just post in here how it turned out if you would like or for anyone to see. Or do you think I should make a new forum.

I'm not sure what you mean by an audio receiver for your computer, do you mean you want to take your phones audio and send it to your computer as if it was a mic. If you want to just send sound from your phone to speakers, you could something like this, https://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-BLUETOOTH-WIRELESS-3-5MM-STEREO-AUDIO-MUSIC-RECEIVER-ADAPTER-DONGLE-AUX-A2DP/131579597994?epid=2175444083&hash=item1ea2c154aa:g:OXMAAOSw~gRVzuEl It just takes a USB for power and then has an audio jack which you could plug speakers into.

Ok thanks, I'll use the 4 ohm ones, if I go with 4 18650's in series or maybe even create a 4S2P for more battery life and that charging controller would I have to stop the discharge of the batteries at around 3.5V or do I just use the speakers until the charge controller kicks in at 2.5V. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me because I was pretty sure you had to stop at around 3.3V-3.5V. Also I presume I would just charge this with my balance charger. Thanks for your help

Bluetooth Speaker Build Hello everyone, I’ve recently watched a DIY Bluetooth speaker build on youtube https://youtu.be/a43LXqRwQC8 and am going ahead and trying making my only build inspired by it and have a lot of questions that I would like someone who knows a little more than me opinions on. Thanks in advance. I plan on building something like this: In this post I’m just going to be considering electronics, I will work on building the housing later but feel free to put any comments, ideas or questions you have about the housing below. Components So far I’ve bought most of the components for it from eBay which I’ve listed below 2 x Dayton Audio ND65-8 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dayton-Audio-ND65-8-6-4cm-Aluminium-Cone-Full-Range-Driver-8-Ohm-Huge-Saving-/322835667559?epid=1469751185&hash=item4b2a815a67:g:3TkAAOSwZlZZ51dS 30w Mini Amplifier (30w times 2 channels) http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEP30Wx2-Audio-Module-Class-D-Digital-Power-Amplifier-Board-Replace-TDA8932-/182474865752?epid=593221892&hash=item2a7c597c58:g:LHgAAOSwx6pYt1BR Bluetooth Module http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bluetooth-4-0-Audio-Receiver-Board-Wireless-Stereo-Sound-Module-for-Car-LN-BT02-/282595837490?hash=item41cc064632:g:Dz0AAOSwoFxZga~G Potentiometer http://www.ebay.com/itm/B50K-50K-Ohm-Dual-Linear-Taper-Volume-Control-Potentiometer-Switch-T1-/252592538746?epid=1787033900&hash=item3acfb0447a:g:4J4AAOSwCGVYBsy7 (I might not use this, I’ll probably just use the buttons that come with the Bluetooth module) The only parts I believe I still need to order are the batteries and charger, the ideal voltage would be 24V as that’s the amps max, and anything that goes with that which is where I’m a bit lost with what to do. Drivers The first problem is that the drivers arrived yesterday and when I opened them one was a ND65-8 (8 Ohm resistance) and one was a ND65-4 (4 Ohm resistance), from what I can tell only difference between the two is the resistance. I’ve contacted the seller and they said they could replace the ND65-8 with a ND65-4 so that I would end up with two ND65-4s. I’m wondering if this would work or do I need to get them to get me a second ND65-8. The amps specs on the back of it say you can use 4R speakers at 16V and 12V. I presume at 24V the wattage would be too high. How much of a difference would there be between using 4R drivers at 16V and 8R at 30W. The only problem is I bought what were meant to be the last ND65-8s but I guess if that is what I paid for they would have to work out a way to get me another one. Just as an afterthought I presume I couldn’t just use what I have and use one of each as I would get different volumes from each. This is the most urgent problem at the moment as I need to respond to the seller. Power The other issue is power, the Ideal situation would be to have the batteries fully contained in the speaker and it self balance (if that is necessary, which from what I’ve been looking at is very important). I would then just plug in a charger brick (e.g like a laptop size power adaptor) and it would charge up all the cells. The last part that I’m not sure is possible but would be really nice to have is a way to see how much battery is left like a little lcd display on the side. All minimum and maximum cutoffs voltages would be taken care of and all I would need to see is the percentage just like a phone but I don’t know if this is feasible or not. Option 1 Use the method in the video of using 5, 6 or 7 individually protected 18650 cells. This method would mean I would have to take each cell out individually and charge them all before putting them back in. I’m thinking this would be a bit impractical. Also all of the protection circuits I’ve been looking at have a minimum cutoff voltage of around 2.5V whereas I’m pretty sure you weren't meant to discharge a cell past about 3.5V. Would this mean I would have to monitor all the cells manually making the over discharge protection a bit pointless but I guess still nice to have. An example of a protection circuit I’ve found, most of them are similar to this. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1S-2A-3-7V-4-2V-Li-ion-18650-Battery-Cell-BMS-Circuit-Protection-Round-Board/112554179554?hash=item1a34c07be2:g:NfUAAOSwfcBZkrgQ Option 2 Create a series set of 5, 6 or 7 18650s cells in series. I’m putting 7 in there because when discharging the cells down fully they will give 3.5V, so 3.5*7=23.5V, pretty close to 24V but not sure how important this is. My only worry with doing this is when fully charged at 4.2V so 4.2*7=29.4V it would be too much for the amp so I would have to get a voltage step down for this. Also with all of the protection circuits they all seem to have cut off voltages of around 2.5V per cell so again this seems to defeat the purpose of the over discharge protection for what I’m trying to do. The example below also has an overcharge cutoff voltage of 4.325V and I know you should only charge each cell to 4.2V. Does this all mean that the purpose of this circuit is more of a backup protection circuit and you still need to use a full on balancing charger as well as over discharge alarms to know when the cells are fully drained.. An example of a 7S protection cell I’ve found, most of them are similar to this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCM-Protection-Circuit-Module-BMS-22A-7S-25-9V-Li-ion-Li-Po-battery-7S22W001-/321784266292?hash=item4aebd63e34 . Option 3 Still using 5, 6 or 7 18650s cells in series and create my own cutoff circuit with adjustable voltages so I could set it to 3.5V, e.g https://youtu.be/1Fs4SfVSsLk. This seems quite complicated as I’m quite new to electronics but could probably give it a go and get some help from someone local. I would need to convert it to 5, 6 or 7 cells, whatever I use and may need a bit of help with that. I could use my Turnigy Accucell-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger (which I already own for drone batteries) if I was using 5 or 6 cells to charge it (it doesn’t support 7S). This would work but whenever took the speaker somewhere like on holiday I would have to take the charger aswell, which could be a bit inconvenient. This method does have the advantage that I could use the cutoffs circuit display as a bit of a battery percentage monitor, though it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else who looked at it and would probably confuse them a bit. So far I’m thinking this is the best method but not perfect. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-accucell-6-50w-6a-balancer-charger-lihv-capable.html?___store=en_us I'm very open to other options like getting a 24V battery that has all of the electronics and everything done for me inside it but I can’t seem to find any that aren't massive and weigh multiple kg but please send me some links if you can. I swear I’ve seen some in videos before but can’t remember where. Please comment on as much or as little as you know and I’ll keep everyone updated with how it goes. A huge thanks to everyone who got this far and really looking forward to what you have to say. Josh

I would love the stealth. It would make all my school work much easier.

So I have tried both cards individually in different slots (2nd and 4th) and they work fine. I then put them both in together with no sli bridge and they both showed up in NVIDIA control panel. So I turned my PC off put in the sli bridge and it comes up with the message, 'To use maximum 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphics cards with an SLI connector'. I then tried it different orientations, left and right pins, a 3 way and 4 way and they all come up with the same message so the problem is now worse then when I started. Also the drivers updated 368.81 but doubt that would affect this. Does anyone no what to do because I'm out of ideas and really want to try these out properly.

I also tried a 3 way SLI bridge I had and I'm still having the same issues I'm going to try rolling back the driver version, what version should I use.

I took them out, blew the ports with a bicycle pump, no canned air left, put them and the bridge back and I'm still having the same problem. Am I meant to put the SLI bridge in the left or right connector or does it not matter. I have a 3 way and 4 way SLI bridge, should I try one and see if it works.

I have the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming GT ATX LGA1150 Motherboard, but I have them in the second and fourth slot because the top one is blocked by the cpu cooler. and I'll try reseating them.

They are both Asus strix versions but looking at NVIDIA Inspector one says GDDR5 (Elpida) and the other says GDDR5 (Samsung), and they have different BIOS versions. Do those things matter?

So I bought a second gtx 970 and after I installed it, the sli bridge and set the sli configuration to "Maximize 3D Performance' I started seeing black and white box randomly appear and disappear and buttons in things like the start menu are in the wrong place and sometimes say the wrong things. My drivers are the newest version, 368.69. I'm not sure what I should do so any help is appreciated.

I have a gtx 970 strix I can try.

I took the gtx650ti (I think) out and the problem stayed the same using the built in graphics. I can get it to Windows recovery using a usb but none of the options there work. Should I still try a different graphics card.