Search the Community

Recently, I've been in search of a new mobile workstation for my business, exploring various options. One that has particularly caught my attention is the upcoming Framework 16. However, this weekend, while I was traveling to visit my family, an unexpected work task arose. In a pinch, I resorted to using my mother-in-law's Chromebook, which she had snagged as a Black Friday special. Through the wonders of Chrome Remote Desktop, I was able to connect to my powerful desktop workstation back home. Surprisingly, the Chromebook proved more than capable of fulfilling my requirements, without the need for the processing power found in a high-end laptop that typically costs over $1500. I'm curious if anyone else has embraced this setup in their own lives and can provide insights into its effectiveness. Given that my business demands the use of a top-tier computer for tasks such as CAD/CAM and rendering, I'm now contemplating the idea of forgoing the purchase of a high-end workstation and instead opting for a SIM card-enabled Chromebook. Any thoughts or opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

hi everybody! I'm piecing together a computer for my mom and my sisters. I have enough experience with computers so I know all the components will work, but a little advice never hurts. they are mostly going to be using it for school and videos, and some light gaming. their budget is 200usd and I want to get them something decent with the room to grow in to something upgradeable. something like throwing a 580 8gb or something in it at some point. anyway here is the build: I found a Dell 3620 for 95$ it has a i5 6600 16gb of ram, and a 500gb hd I was planning on throwing in a $70 6700k a 256gb SSD to boot off of and a $10 copper slug stock Intel cooler rated for 125w. where they live, there are a ton of thrift stores where they could get a monitor mouse and keyboard for like $15 and that's fine. I just really want them to have something that isn't going to feel old or cheap or raggedy any thoughts would be much appreciated. thanks for your time

Budget (including currency): 2720$ (3000-(830-550(msrp)) Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Solidworks and 3d printing, VR and 4k-gaming, 4k movies, tower speakers and subwoofers. Hello, building my first PC. Can spend up to 3000$, and looks like that'll happen because I just spent 830$ (760+tax and shipping) for a scalped ryzen 5900x. That was a lot of money, but I need a new computer, and based on my needs: I can afford a new max budget of 2720$ (3000-(830-550(msrp)). I was trying for weeks to win it on the LTT Verified Actual Gamer Program, but slept on the big day. Looked into buying a gaming/server/maybe-using-gpu-to-mine mini PC on AVADirect.com in order to rip out the GPU and build this tower, but their rtx 3080 prices were not very close to msrp at all. Let me know if you know any other "system integrator" like that who'll let you choose from so many brands and parts in any build. After accepting my position, I decided just to pay the stupid premium on the CPU and borrow a friends GPU until this shortage is over. Hopefully for his sake that's ASAP, but it doesn't look like he'll need it for anything in particular. That brings me here. I have a CPU and I'm borrowing a GPU until markets stabilize. My philosophy is that I want to get the best I can right now and maintain it to last as long as possible. This way I'll be able to run anything I want for years to come without any upgrades. I do care about noise, but airflow/temp and dust-proofing are more important to me for longevity reasons. Thinking about adding sound dampening foam to the case side panels, and possibly a little bit of extra filter material for dust. What do you think about those ideas? I thought about water cooling, but I like the simplicity, price, and longevity of air. I want to avoid RGB and disregard aesthetics- except for the case. I just chose the PCU based on the LTT PCU tier list: A tier: gold black and blue standards, and case compatibility. I'm focusing on solidworks/CAD performance and gaming/VR capability. Would my storage solution be the best option for CAD/gaming? I plan on just putting whatever programs should be quick in the NVME boot drive, and everything else (probably just a large music/movie library) on the HDD. I like the idea of connecting a 1440Hz=<, 4k TV or monitor for gaming (any game, really) and movies, as well as analog tower/sub speakers. The networking speeds are also important to me because I'm a big Rocket League guy, and their servers aren't the best. I can't think of anything else to help inform you of my needs. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading, and any help! [PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7sxJW3) Type|Item|Price :----|:----|:---- **CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KwLwrH/amd-ryzen-9-5900x-37-ghz-12-core-processor-100-100000061wof) |- **CPU Cooler** | [Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4vzv6h/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15) | $96.99 @ Newegg **Thermal Compound** | [ARCTIC MX-4 2019 Edition 4 g Thermal Paste](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JmYLrH/arctic-mx-4-2019-edition-4-g-thermal-paste-actcp00002b) | $7.59 @ Amazon **Motherboard** | [Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZRBhP6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-master-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-master) | $369.99 @ Newegg **Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zcH8TW/gskill-ripjaws-v-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3600-memory-f4-3600c16d-32gvkc) | $199.95 @ Amazon **Storage** | [Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TwWfrH/samsung-970-evo-plus-500-gb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-mz-v7s500bam) | $79.99 @ Adorama **Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mwrYcf/seagate-barracuda-computer-2-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm008) | $52.99 @ Newegg **Video Card** | [NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB Founders Edition Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RnDkcf/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-10-gb-founders-edition-video-card-9001g1332530000) |- **Case** | [Fractal Design Meshify 2 ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6KWBD3/fractal-design-meshify-2-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-c-mes2a-01) | $141.98 @ Newegg **Power Supply** | [Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VgQG3C/corsair-rmx-2018-850w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020180-na) |- **Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wtgPxr/microsoft-os-kw900140) | $108.78 @ Other World Computing **Case Fan** | [Noctua A15 PWM 140 mm Fan](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/znPfrH/noctua-case-fan-nfa15pwm) | $21.95 @ Amazon **Case Fan** | [Noctua A15 PWM 140 mm Fan](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/znPfrH/noctua-case-fan-nfa15pwm) | $21.95 @ Amazon | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* | | **Total** | **$1102.16** | Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2021-04-10 13:38 EDT-0400 |

Budget (including currency): preferred ~ 3.5k USD/ Max 4k USD Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Main focus of the build would be for 3d modelling/rendering with some animations with mid to high poly count. I would primarily be using DAZ 3D Studio and Blender to model and animate, (most of the work will be done in Blender, DAZ is just a part of my workflow), GIMP for making touchups on finished renders. I would be rendering through Blender with the AMD ProRender plugin. Using DAZ and Blender because I can't afford the costs associated with other programs as well as familiarity with them, (in addition to the assets available through DAZ are a bonus so I don't have to feel like I'm constantly reinventing the wheel or lacking in the inspiration department). Other details: Just for clarification my current PC will still be my daily driver for when I'm not working on renders and animations (I won't be able to use the workstation while it's rendering), so I won't be reusing the parts for the new PC. Current build: MB: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC III Ultra RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 PS: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Planned build Workstation v.1: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mHrH9r I intend to upgrade storage as needed, would like to eventually have dedicated storage to backup my projects and work. I have all of my peripherals and case fans already. I may do some video editing on the machine as needed but my current pc will still be used for most of my other work and gaming. My concerns/questions: The GPU selection, I'm not familiar with Gigabyte, (as in I've never owned one of their products) but chose it based on budget concerns, would prefer to use XFX as my current GPU has been excellent but that would put me over with the way the market is now. RAM choice, based on this info I found in this thread on reddit I'm not sure how to get the desired 64gb of ram for the build. https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/s8elik/4_sticks_ram_vs_2/ Cooling, I'd like to stick with air cooling if possible as I've never used water-cooling, but not sure if the NH-D15 with the case fans in a positive pressure setup would be sufficient, as I don't know what temps to expect and am unsure of the best cooling solution, and tbh having another point of failure in the system intimidates me a bit especially when there's water involved. I'd like to stick to AMD products as I'm not a big fan of Nvidia or Intel, plus I want to take advantage of smart access memory and use both the cpu and gpu for rendering with ProRender. Not sure how to bring the budget down any further as I already made some concessions I'm not exactly thrilled with, but any help in that department would be appreciated. Also any additional advice to questions I probably should have but lack the knowledge to ask would be more than welcome. I'm not trying to get into a debate as to why, since I made this post for assistance on my build, but I have my reasons as to why I won't purchase a Nvidia GPU. I'm aware of the difference in performance and the lack of support that comes with that choice and I'm fine with that decision. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Thanks in advance.

Budget (including currency): $700-1000 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: CADlink Signlab, office work, and maybe other light 3D work in future So I need something for the business I work for. Our current pc we use to design vinyl prints and sign structures is pretty slow and does not handle the workload well. I have been tasked with buying and building the pc because I'm the only one who know how, however I'm not really sure what to use as i usually build gaming pcs and not workstations. like what kind of motherboard should use for intel or amd and how much ram should I get (i'm thinking 32GB) This is what I'm looking at using https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XcfM8r

Hello there, I am seasoned software engineer with little bit gamming background in early days (University days ), recently I am thinking to upgrade my workstation to suite my software dev Workstation and Simulation games mostly Flight sim and Racing sim. Current system AMD Fx6300 Titan Black + GT630 16 GB DDR3 Looking at Ryzen Gen 3 and Intel 12th gen with DDR 4 since DDR 5 is far away I believe. I drive 3 Displays - 1 * 4k + 2 * FHD - but for gamming I am okay with 1440p or 2K Budget: 1000 to 1200 CAD only ! since new Apple mac 2021 M1 is already in wish list.

1. Budget & Location 1-1.5 k USD, Russia 2. Aim work and some gaming. i dont play a lot of AAA games, and graphics are not my priority. good fps at medium settings is preffered. 3. Monitors i use a wide 1080p 75 hz right now, maybe will get a 2nd, 1440p, dunno if it will be wide or not. 4. Peripherals as stated before, i already have a pc so for starters i'm looking just to upgrade the pc. from peripherals i'd only get a new keyboard in the near future, so if you know any good ~100 usd mechanical keyboards, that'd be great. currently looking at HyperX origins core aqua switches. need to check out some ducky's and leopold's to see if they're worth the extra. 5. Why are you upgrading? have been using my current one (which this forum helped build) for like 6 years, so thanks for that :D. but its been a pain working on it lately cuz it barely lets me even see the preview in AE at half res. not enough ram and its like 1600 anyway, that was the main reason of thinking to upgrade. Here's what i put together, again, the prices are not what im gonna buy them for. also the GPU is what im gonna buy when the prices come down, if they do. for now will be using my old one (msi gtx 960 4g) because Russian retailers sell them for their overpriced prices (idk how thats allowed) but w.e PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/X9pWgt CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($272.99 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($84.90 @ Amazon) Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg) Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($217.99 @ Amazon) Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB TUF GAMING OC Video Card Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.98 @ Newegg) Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($67.98 @ Newegg) Total: $1048.82 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-08-26 07:25 EDT-0400 the real total is 1200 WITHOUT the gpu. probaly another 450-500 for the 3060 once they drop

Budget (including currency): $4000-$5000 (R60000 - R70000) Country: South Africa Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Machine Learning (Training deep learning models), Gaming is not essential, but ML and gaming PC parts go hand-in-hand. The RTX 3090 (if I can eventually get one around MSRP) is essential for training large models, due to its 24gb of memory. So unless there are better GPUs with CUDA support (basically just NVIDIA GPU's) and large memory (above 16gb) at around the same price as the 3090, the 3090 is the core component. Looking for advice on the best parts to complement the RTX 3090 without bottlenecking it or overspending on unnecessary parts. Don't really know too much about overclocking yet, but it would be nice to future proof this ability to speed up certain components if necessary. P.S. I chose the 1000W Superflower PSU since it is cheaper than the other branded 750-850W PSU's (corsair, cooler master, etc...) in my country. Is it still overkill to have a 1000W PSU for this build? I read something about running a PSU at less than 60% of its max wattage is not great for the PSU, looking for some confirmation regarding this statement. Also, any advice on if all the components will fit well in side the case and what fan configuration I should use would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Budget (including currency): US$ 3,000 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Adobe software products ranging from XD, After Effects to photoshop and in-design. I also game a lot! I like to play Sims 4, heavily modded, Sims 3 (all expansions), Dragon Age Inquisition (heavily modded+DLC), GTA V online (no mods), and Overwatch. Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): My 4 year old PC is an Alienware Aurora R7 (don’t judge, I knew nothing about computers when I brought it) CPU: Intel i7- 8700 32GB RAM NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti I’ve been having storage issues. I recently brought a 5TB portable external hard drive to better sort the data. After Effects barely runs, but the video games do pretty well with expected choppy gameplay. I hope the new build translates that I’m looking for a faster running PC with more storage. I’m also going for a silver, glam look since my PC will be in my room. I know I’m overpaying for the G.SKILL memory sticks, but it’s so shiny and nice looking. I was originally going to splurge on a GIGABYTE RTX 3090, but I don’t think I need it. I’m also looking for a white or silver+bigger monitor to match the specs. The one I currently have is a 24” curved Samsung monitor. I have no experience with building computers. I’ve just been window shopping online and checking out PC build tutorials on YouTube. Any input is greatly appreciated!

Budget (including currency): 1000-1500€ Country: Germany Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The PC will be used for work 90% of the time, running numerical simulations, CFD simulations and occasionally CAD-Programms. The other 10% will be used for the occasional game with friends. Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Hello everyone! I have included my parts-list as a picture below. I did it using PC Parts Picker, after watching numerous vids of LTT. The main focus will clearly be engineering work, as I am finishing my degree soon and need this PC as a work-station at home (hence the expensive CPU, I believe 16GB RAM is mandatory). Also I will need it to be able to use WIFI, which caused the choice for the motherboard. Ideally, I want this build to be the base for every computer to come, only swapping parts at a time. This is why I went for DDR5 as memory. Yes, there will occasionally run a game on it, but 1080p is definetly enough. I am at the upper end of my budget. First of all, if there are any incompatibilities that you see immediatly, I would be glad if you tell me! Also I would like to get the cost a bit more towards the lower end of my budget, so if you can give me hints on where to save a buck, I would be glad. Thanks in advance for the help!

Budget (3000-3500): Country: u.s.a programs or workloads that it will be used for: Tobaz labs video upscaleing Can you guys can help me build a power house pc specifically that will be used for heavy use with tobaz labs video ai enhancer recommendations welcome build ideass welcom budget is 3000 to 3500

Before I even start... Yes, I realize I could buy low end/used PCs. Yes, I realize this project isn't necessary. Yes, I want to proceed anyway, so long as its at least slightly practical. Ok, so I'm working on setting up a makerspace. Its a slow process and I'm trying to piece it together as we go so that it grows to fit our community. The first things we are wanting to add are 3D printers and workstations to be able to create models and run the slicer. Today we just need Fusion 360 and Cura(and maybe a couple related programs), but down the road we will likely add some graphics software(Photoshop, Illustrator, etc), developer software(Visual Studio, Arduino IDE, Sketch, etc). So our workstations won't necessarily be doing a lot of heavy lifting, but I'd like to offer a decent experience for the people that come in to work on projects. Here's what I'm looking at: 1x Host(PC/Server) Good specs, not over the top Primary OS can be Windows or Linux. I'm more familiar with windows but am willing to work with linux if its better for the project. 10x Clients Bare bones machines remoting into the PC/Server OR Remote Peripherals connected back to the PC/Server Based on my current understanding, I would prefer that the Host be running virtual machines that can be accessed via remote connection. My reasoning is that I could always add more VMs and allow members to remote into the host using their own device(laptop, phone, tablet). This way they can use whatever software is available without having to take a seat from someone that doesn't have their own device. Also, supposedly creating VMs that use dynamic resources is much easier than it used to be. If I understand correctly, I could create 100 VMs but the hardware resources are only split between the VMs that are currently being used. Let me know what you think. I could only find one similar thread, but it was from 2015 and I'm pretty sure there have been some technological advancements since then.

Hello dear people I am in need of help I reacently got myself a thinkpad USB-C Dock gen 2 This will be used to connect my acer aspire a715-41g to my two main moniters and keyboard and mouse. My problem is that i cant get a display on either of my moniters. I Use a displayport cable with HDMI to connect my docking station to the two moniters. When i try to install the firmware with the lenovo website i get an odd error message. The only thing i have connected to the dock is my laptop with the help of the USB-C cable that goes from dock to laptop there will be a picture of the error. I have no idea how to solve this Best regards

So I recently received an hp z800 but it's missing one of cpu fans(mount is missing as well). I was wondering if it was possible to use a 4 pin cpu fan on 5 pin cpu slot on the motherboard. What fan could I get to replace it? Thanks in advance!

I have a little bit of extra money saved up, and I was originally planning to buy an M2 Mac Mini, but I realized that I just don't need the extra performance and it's really not worth the effort of switching to macOS. Then, I saw the new-ish $69 gaming PC video, and since I love myself a little bit of jank, I thought I might build myself a new workstation along those lines. I've been a laptop kind of gal most of my life, and am kinda sick of it. I want upgradability, and I don't want a screen I don't use taking up space on my desk. Budget (including currency): If I'm going mostly used, I'd like to keep it under 200 USD, but I could go as high as $5-600 for new parts instead. Country: United States Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: I've found since I've switched to using Linux full-time, tinkering with that has become more of a hobby than gaming with it, but I'd like to be able to run Minecraft and FlightGear. Maybe some light CAD, but it won't be anything autodesk. Mostly programming work other than that, and I mainly use emacs. I also dabble in music composition, so whatever I'm saving by not buying all that much computer, I'd love some audio or MIDI device recommendations Other details I won't be purchasing Windows, I'm planning to run a Linux distro of some kind. Probably Slackware, but maybe I'll get around to actually making a usable LFS setup I have two displays: An FHD (2560 x 1080) Ultrawide, and a 1440p display Keyboard and mouse are already taken care of If I can avoid a particularly locked-down BIOS, I'd love to. An upgradable machine would be a dream

I am thinking of buying a powerful laptop for work (I am staying at home in the outbreak of recent pandemic), but I am in a tight budget. Therefore I am thinking of getting a refurbished workstation like Dell precision. Can anyone suggest me whether it is right time to buy the laptop? Should I wait couple more month? What are the factors I should consider (I require high thread count and powerful individual core.) How old laptop should I opt for? Will there be future issues? Please suggest.

Hey everyone, I'm working on a build for a good friend of mine. He is looking to use this workstation for After Effects and Premiere Pro with a heavier focus on After Effects. I wanted some Input on parts that i have chosen just in case there is something that may be a better bang for the buck. Also i need a recommendation on a Mother Board AM4 socket. I look forward to hearing what you all think! *Note i used puget system's benchmarks for advice on performance. Ryzen 9 3950X 16 core processor Motherboard unknown 64G DDR4 memory (2 x 32G sticks to allow for expansion in the future) RTX 2070 Super 1TB Samsung SSD (Boot) 1TB Samsung SSD (Current PRojects Files) 1TB Samsung M.2 (Scratch and Media Cache) 750W Power Supply Corsair Windows 10 Pro Let me know if you have any questions or recommendations! -chris

Budget (including currency): $200-$400 (for the MOBO) Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: AutoCAD, SAP2000, Solidworks Adobe Creative Suite, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Steam Link, Revit, Twitch/YouTube Streaming, and Bluebeam Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): RTX 3070 FE, Ryzen 9 5900x, Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 Hey all! I am in the process of building a "hybrid" PC that will function as both my home workstation (I am a civil engineer) and my gaming PC. I have recently preordered the Ryzen 9 5900x CPU to be the core of this build and , therefore, have also chosen to go with an x570 MOBO. The problem I am having is deciding whether or not I should get a "workstation' motherboard or one that is geared more towards gaming. On paper, they seem more or less equivalent and I am personally not well versed enough to differentiate the nuances between the two. Currently I am stuck between these two ASUS boards: 1) ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JWMPVD9/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER 2) ASUS AMD AM4 Pro WS X570: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Pro-WS-Workstation-Motherboard/dp/B07SYWKXJV Can anyone tell me the differences, if any, between these two MOBO's and help me figure out which would be best for my build? Or, if you have a better board suggestion, I would love to hear it; any and all advice is welcomed, Thank you!

hey guys, please help me out with this system, i want to change its motherboard but the all the audio,microphone,power led and h.d.d connectors combined in a single connector(suggest me a mobo keeping this in mind). i have a Q9550 which i want to overclock, so can u guys suggest me a mobo which can overclock as well..... i was looking for gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3p or r but found none of them. Is this case micro or mini ATX?, any help would be appreciated....

Budget (including currency): $1200 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft (with ray tracing is a plus), SoldWorks CAD, light stats modeling/machine learning. Other details: Existing parts: 250GB SSD Keyboard & Mouse Windows OS License Whether any peripherals are needed: No. What you're upgrading from: Dell Latitude 3570 14" Laptop, 6th Gen core i5, 8GB DDR3L RAM, Integrated Intel HD 520 Graphics. When you're going to buy: in the next 30 days +/- I don't care about aesthetics, just performance. I will need to buy a monitor, but I am not including it in my $1200 budget. I am open to suggestions.. Backstory: My cat knocked a glass of water all over my laptop (purchased in 2017) which I was hoping would serve me until 2023. Suffice to say the SSD is the only part I was able to salvage. Now, on to my question. The main design objective for my system is for it to be able to chug along for at least 5-7 years with minimal upgrades. Of course building a machine with the best of the current best will put me well outside my budget. So keeping my design objective in mind, as a general approach/philosophy: Which components do I need to invest in now to ensure the machine will be able to make it into 2025 (at least)? Which components can I save money on, and cost effectively upgrade no earlier than 2 years down the line? Does a system that meets my design objective within my budget exist? If not, please help me readjust my expectations. Thank you!

Hi everyone! Maybe a short introduction from me: I'm Finn, I'm 26 and work as an engineer in composites (mostly carbon epoxy, mainly manufacturing and design). I finished my studies 1.5 years ago and got into computers during my studies, mostly getting my info from Linus and the crew, super thankful for you guys while I was building my first computer back in 2017! I would have been lost, going from knowing absolutely nothing! After leaving uni, I've been out of the game for a while but stumbled over the old pictures I made of when I was building my custom carbon computer case and thought I'd share these with you all! It is my first post here after a while of ghosting around but I thought you guys may be interested, so I joined up It started back in 2016 when I was still studying engineering and I was working on CPU and GPU heavy tasks (larger CAD models, analysis, 3D scanning etc) so I built my first computer with a dual socket server board with two Xeon E5 2680 (V1). That worked well but it was a pain in the space to have as it was absolutely huuuge. After moving from Germany to Sweden to do an internship at Koenigsegg, for which I dragged my huge pc along, I decided I needed something smaller but still powerful. I was looking for something with similar power, not break the bank, but also a case that would fit into a backpack and also look nice. Usually all of those points don't fit together... well... so I decided to make my own case. I wasn't that rich, so I thought I would try and get a second hand CPU and GPU and base the rest around those. After a while I found someone selling a Xeon E5 2680 V4 for quite cheap and a Quadro M4000. I based the following off of those and started making a design. The motherboard I chose was not the smallest, like the mini- ITX boards Linus used for his small builds but the Asus X99-M WS/SE. The micro-ATX does take a bit more space but it offers 4 full sized ram slots so ram is cheaper, proper I/Os and has 3 PCI-E slots as well. Going with a mini-ITX would have felt like an apple move... I got the cad models of the other parts (or dimensions and made space-holders) before buying and played tetris to see what parts worked best. These are the ones I chose at the end: PSU - ST350 Silverstone Cooler - R15 Dynatron Fan - 120mm Noctua This is how the rough CAD model looked like. The actual build did change a bit to make space for things I didn't consider enough at the beginning, like more space for cables, a 3D printed air channel to guide air from the fan over the cooler and bla bla bla things change I guess After getting the parts, I started with the base frame. This was going to be the back-bone of the case. Everything would bolt to it, so it was going to be nice and strong. It's hard to think of every detail (like the through-holes for cables, space for the nuts on the rear of the stand-offs, cable bend radii etc etc) when you build something for the first time, especially when you make it with carbon fiber, because once you mold it, there's little you can edit. I did end up making the back-bone twice because I wasn't happy with the first result. For the carbon guys, I'll just incorporate the details of how I made the case as well. The backbone was made using a wood mold. I just cut blocks of MDF to the right dimensions, stacked them together and fastened them with wood screws. I finished the surface with bog to make it nice and smooth. To make the part, I used dry fibers, placed these down on the mold Picture 1 below) and did an infusion (Picture 2). This is when you put the dry fiber and the mold into a bag, pull a vacuum from one side and let the resin run in form the other. The vacuum pulls the resin through the part. It's not the easiest way because you need a 110% perfect vacuum with no leaks in the bag but it does create a very good material quality if it goes right. The Back-bone carbon panel is roughly 4mm thick and super stiff. The back-bone was then cut, drilled and fitted out to hold all of the components. I didn't have access to any CNC equipment so all of this was done by hand and took ages. Here you can see the cut-outs for the PSU cooler, the fan, the PCI-E extension cable and the motherboard stand-offs. After making the back-bone, I made the visual panels that form the outside everyone will see. These are bonded and bolted to the back-bone. This approach de-couples the functional part that holds everything and has many attachments (back-bone), from the visual parts (which usually do quite little). This makes both much easier to make. Here I again did an infusion, using a glass panel as a mold. This creates very beautiful finishes. These panels were 1.5mm thick, also quite stiff and strong These panels were cut to size and bonded to the flanges of the back-bone. It was super difficult to get everything to line up nice and square. If anything was out by even 0.5 mm, you would see that immediately at the edges where to panels come together. After that I started making the I/O cut-outs. I didn't want to use the std I/O shield because it used too much vertical space. This process was also hard because you needed these holes to fit the GPU and motherboard but you need the GPU and motherboard mounted to be able to know where to put the holes... Chicken and the egg... This also took ages but didn't end up too bad. For the next version I would def. do this differently and make it look more OEM. I have access to CNC machines now so I would probably just copy the I/O shield and cut that directly into the back-panel and laser engrave the lettering around the ports. The pictures below are with all the parts fitted into the frame. Still no cables on the first image or side covers, but at least it looks like a computer You can see that everything is quite close and theirs not much space. See where the PSU cables should come out on the first picture below? Theirs maybe 25mm space. I actually had to re-wrap the cables to make the bend after the connector more compact to not impact the fan After some more work on the side panels, the cable management, GPU attachment points, air flow slots and dust covers, etc etc etc it finally looked like this. I'm still not sure about the panel finish. I kind of like the high-gloss but it's super sensitive to scratches so I might give it a light sand and polish. Koenigsegg does this to some of their parts. It removes the top layer of resin and exposes the bare carbon fibers. This makes it more scratch resistant and gives it a shiny, more metallic look as well One thing I had to consider was cooling and air flow. I chose a Xeon, because of their lowish TDP. The E5 2680 V4 has 120w, the M4000 has 120W as well. The idea was to de-couple both the GPU and CPU cooling exhausts. The Fan would pull air from an opening in the lower rear side of the case (image 3 above on the bottom right beside the GPU), through to the front side and push it through a 3D printed duct over the CPU and out the opening on image 2. The GPU would pull air from the same opening as the CPU and exhaust it out the back and side through the vent where you can see the Quadro logo in image 4. I trialed this with a prototype paper ducting and it didn't work that bad. This case would most likely not comfortably support a heavier CPU tho as it was running at 85°C at full load if I remember correctly. You could probably add a bit of height to the case and gain some cooling but I guess you're always smarter after you're done... I also added sound dampening material from bequiet to the inside of all panels. This and the fact that the fan is quite a far inside the case makes it pretty bearable to sit beside. The case is still not 100% complete. I still haven't made the 3D printed duct and some other small things. After I got to the state above, I finished uni and moved to New Zealand to work at Rocket Lab, a small company building rockets to send small-sats to low earth orbit. That work casually takes up 120% of my time so it hasn't progressed since 1.5 years, but it works ok so it's fine I guess One day our CEO Peter Beck walked by while I was showing one of my friend the case and he went balls to the walls telling me that I need to make this into a business (I guess thats in a CEOs genes...). I told him that I would honestly rather spend my time sending stuff to space than building over priced computer cases... I might make a V2 some time, build it for more modern parts, maybe for an AMD CPU and use a super small water cooling system to deal with the heat. We will seeeee! Hope you guys enjoyed this! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!! Cheers

Budget (including currency): $800 - 900 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 1080 or 1440p gaming, CUDA softwares, Video processing softwares Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I was thinking of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 over the intel's i7 7700, for the budget and extra clock speed + number of cores.... Either ways, I'm open to newer better options than these........

I am building a workstation for vray 3dmax / v ray sketchup thereofre i have chosen dual e5 2670 now which motherboard will best for my workststion.(32-64 gb ram ) on windows 10/8. I have short list some few opinion please tel if i am on right track.Asus Z9PA-D8CAsus Z9PA-D8ASRock Rack EP2C602 Regards

Hello, Hoping someone could provide some guidance. I have been running a workstation with following specs: Motherboard: Asus Z10pe-D16 WS RAM: 128GB DDR4 ECC CPU: 2x Xeon E5-2620 V4 GPU: Asus Strix 1070 OS: Windows 10 Pro VM Software: VMware Workstation 15 Pro The machine is mainly used for running several VM's for basic office and web browsing purposes anything between 15-20ish machines at a time however my CPU generally tends to be running to max these days and was looking at upgrading the CPU's now and this is where I need to advice. saying within the V4 variants of the E5's drives the price up very quickly if you look at upgrading to at min a 12c/24t option but if looking at some within the V3 variants the price is at times way less than half (both v3 & v4 I look at are second hand). What i would like to know is how big a performance impact will dropping to the V3's have versus staying within the V4 is the massive price jump worth it? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

Ryzen 9 3950X Noctua NH-D15 Black Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB @ 3200 x2 (total of 64GB) Corsair Force MP600 1TB ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Noctua NF-F12 Corsair SF750 Lian Li Tu 150 The GPU will be coming from my Aorus GTX 1080 Gaming Box!! Any improvement ideas? my budget is max 3000 cad.