Reptar β

PlayStation 2 · September 28, 2017

It's been a long time coming, but it's here.

Reptar β took a long while to think about but I eventually decided on saving some money as I want some money to blow on non-computer stuff and capture equipment, or at least potentially.

My original plan was to go with an R7 1700 and just spend all I had right then and there. But saner thoughts prevailed and I decided that a temporary setup would be more beneficial to me as I could reuse what I'd get out of it, namely the CPU.

I'll make no bones about it: my temporary CPU is not much better than the FX-4100 I had. But it's an upgrade, enough so that it can play Grand Theft Auto V in what I'd call a fine fashion.

I'll quote myself as to why I didn't go for an R3:

Quote

"Why did you get yourself an Athlon and not an R3?"

Simple: I don't want to disappoint myself. I won't go much further than that but that's the explanation I decided on.

Stupid reasoning for some, but knowing myself, I would've much rather not gone that route unless I stood there.

This is what I wound up with, without further ado:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Athlon X4 950 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($46.25 @ Amazon)
Total: $166.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-09-28 19:40 EDT-0400

And a free flash drive from ordering the RAM. RAM was $67.99 at the time of purchase, by the way.

I'll post pictures now before I bore you guys.

Reptar and Athlon. :3

Size comparison of the cases, old one was the Thermaltake Commander MS-I, which needed bad replacing.

The parts sans case that I ordered off of Newegg; I ordered the case and the Reptar Pop figure off of Amazon.

The board all set up; note the cooler.

See? The subtitle is very accurate.

There's not too much to go with this build log, except what I'd go for in the future.

As I stated, I might wind up with an R7 1700. Or I might wind up with my brother's current rig with an i7-2600 and an R9 390. Or I might salvage parts from both rigs to make a nice R7 rig.

I really plan on getting an HDMI capture card, but if I need it will be justified if I wind up with a cable box soon.

Now, I wasn't expecting too much out of the Athlon, but it honestly is a decent deal faster than the old FX-4100. For one, Grand Theft Auto V ran pretty decently, at around 35-50fps with not much in the way of hitching, when my FX-4100 would hover around 20-35 with a lot of hitching. Second, 1080p60 video plays fine through YouTube on a Chromium-based browser.

I guess that's really about it. I finally upgraded my rig after enduring the aging FX-4100.

September 29, 2017

The older FX chips are aging these days and they don't really hold up with today's games very well. The stock coolers that came with those FX chips sounded like jet engines when overclocked. The older sandy bridge i7 2600 (K)s are still good CPUs for gaming these days and they hold up quite well. The Athlon are good budget CPUs for playing esports games and other games that aren't CPU intensive. I mean, at least you have a B350 motherboard that has lots of upgrade-ability in the future. Upgrading to the Athlon is definitely a better upgrade over your older FX chip, especially when it comes to gaming. Overall, your build looks great and your components are decent for a budget system.

September 29, 2017

I like the "I'm building what I'm building, so here it is" approach going on here.

If we all built what everyone approved of, we'd never build anything. Have fun with the process!

handymanshandle · September 29, 2017

10 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Yes.

My cable management isn't much better either, the H440 just makes it easy to hide.

Now I feel like I'm obliged to show what my case makes fairly easy to hide.
Which I suppose tbf I really didn't do that bad of a job with but that side panel is pain in the ass to put back on.

When I get the Meshify C, I really hope that'll be easier to build in since it's a little more open.

But anways nice to see well a more final state of Reptar. Since pretty much all I could really see visually changing would be the cooler and the GPU and of course a better CPU.

I think if you did get your brother's rig, the R7 would still be a better choice but you could probably just throw that board in there if it fits in your N200 and then if his case was better than your Thermaltake put your AM4 board in that case and wait until the 12nm Ryzen Refresh is out.