A similar start like Linus

[Don Iron]

So, let's start off very simple:

I work as a sound designer/ article writer/ audio engineer.

Since I need a certain kind of computer to fulfill my needs in terms of a nice workflow, I decided to jump into the magnificent world of computer building, and who else got me into it than good old LTT community.

But I didn't want just any kind of computer to start off. I wanted right away MY computer, the computer that reflected me and was both pleasing for me to look at as it was to boot.

So, after some researching, flea market spelunking and eBay scouring, I found actually quite close to where I live a massive salvation army depot that sold second hand items, or items that were refurbished to be returned to the general public.

And I found something that truly yelled "me". Here's a tease.

 

 

 

 

Still can't guess? Okay fine, here:

 

  

 

Yes you are seeing it right. The case was a good old Lanboy Original, which I found out basically after seeing Linus' video on his first build.

For a reasonable €90, what I got was 500gb storage,a Corsair 500W PSU, an AMD Xenon with a nice, big Noctua cooler,  a beefy GTX 460 and around 16gb of RAM.

 

End of build, see ya.

 

 

 

Hah you thought, no this was already a small problem. You see, the computer got power in terms of all fans spinning, lights showing and the HDD going clickity clack and then spinning on.

But, no image whatsoever from the DVi.

So of course since the motherboard was an AM3 Gigabyte motherboard, I thought: "Why not make this a Ryzen build?"

 

Okay so I am definitely not much of a computer building whiz. If anything, most of my decisions in terms of my build goes according a simple few criteria:

- My build should be able to manage on long-term sound design programs

- A few games on high resolution at best is preferable

- Fairly quirky form factor to be kept original, no tampering of what is inside. No matter how long it took to cable manage (which was impossible to be honest)

 

So, I began checking around what could possibly work fine with this build. Should I go m-ATX or ATX? Should I RGB it or no? Should I switch the PSU just in case? Ryzen 3, 5 or 7?

Many questions, but one simple factor:

budget.

 

Yes I know I know, "cheap wont ever buy quality" and all that and that is true.

But I had to start off somewhere and allow myself upgradeability. Which this actually did.

 

Let's show some internals:

 

 

So as you can see, a tight package. Don't mind the cables, I will find a way to make it all as clean as possible when I got time.

 

The list goes as follows, with the form of component, name and the price I paid for it all:

 

 

Case (as with the purchase price)                   €90

Motherboard         Asus ROG STRIX B350-F    €79

Power Supply        Corsair CS550M                ~€95

CPU                        AMD Ryzen 3 2200G           €110

RAM                       HyperX Fury 8gb                  €70

GPU                       Radeon R9 280                    €70

SSD                        Samsung EVO 240gb          €67

HDD                       WD Blue 2tb                         €64

 

TOTAL  €645

 

 

Excluding fans since those are such a small factor in the pricing, some items are more or less an idea of what the RRP is.

So, how does it run? Well thermals on idle according to CAM show that the idle temps are at around 30-40 celsius for the CPU and the GPU sticks at about 30-35 celsius, fairly decent. The RAM load seems to idle at 59% with minimal load.

Now as for gaming, well it runs Fallout 4 at High settings with constant 60fps, with a few drops during firefights but no less than 55fps.

During gaming the thermals jump up to around 50-55 on both the GPU and CPU, sticking nicely in them thanks to the small fans keeping the air flow constant, and the AMD stock fan is just a godsend. It really keeps the circulation in the case going and the air behind feels just nice at body temps.

 

But how about sound design programs? Well using Mixbus v4 mainly, it all runs decent of course. Not much of a workload, thermals stick at the 40 celsius region and the interfaces are extremely smooth. That might also be since most of my audio programs including plug-ins are in my SSD.

 

And as a small addition, you might have noticed small stripes of black in the case's bottom.

Well those are bitum damping mats cut in small nifty pieces, keeping the case's ambient sound at a very nice, soothing 12db constantly, which basically is the sound of a windless summery day basically. So using the mic during recordings is un-hindered.

 

Now this all sounds good, but I am not saying no to an upgrade path.

Next up is more RAM until I get either 22 or 24gb of RAM installed, then it is from Ryzen 3 to Ryzen 5, since 7 is not yet what I need. And of course who could forget the GPU, that'll be shifted to either a 1060Ti or a 1070, it is all about how much space I can have since as I said, this is a sleeper that won't have mods done to it except for a possible cathode lamp inside to amp up the retroness.

Okay I might maybe spray paint that ugly neon green frontal fan case black.

 

So there you go, that was an introduction to Luq and to what the future holds for this small binary road warrior.

[Don Iron]

Forgot to add, this is my first ever build too.

[Jurrunio]

That's quite a decent job for a first build.

[Don Iron]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

That's quite a decent job for a first build.

I got a knack on fiddling with small components due to fixing some mixers and such so I guess it ported over haha

[Beeta]

Welcome to a wonderous world - you will be hooked.

[Crunchy Dragon]

31 minutes ago, Don Iron said:

Forgot to add, this is my first ever build too.

Congrats! I never tinkered much with my first build, although sometimes I wish I had.

 

Hunting for parts is always fun to me, I'll go on Craigslist and Ebay just to see what there is, even if I can't afford PC parts at the moment.

 

AMD's stock cooler is amazing, I love mine.

[Don Iron]

8 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Congrats! I never tinkered much with my first build, although sometimes I wish I had.

 

Hunting for parts is always fun to me, I'll go on Craigslist and Ebay just to see what there is, even if I can't afford PC parts at the moment.

 

AMD's stock cooler is amazing, I love mine.

A small thing with the motherboard though is that it didn't include "extra" peripherals, aka a backplate and a socket holder so now it sort of hinges on a system of zip locks haha.

 

But hey, backplate got ordered for the AM4 and if anything I am thinking of upgrading the cooler to a similar style Noctua at some point to keep the form factor minimal, retro and angular

[Don Iron]

10 minutes ago, Beeta said:

Welcome to a wonderous world - you will be hooked.

Thanks! It is fun!

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, Don Iron said:

A small thing with the motherboard though is that it didn't include "extra" peripherals, aka a backplate and a socket holder so now it sort of hinges on a system of zip locks haha.

 

But hey, backplate got ordered for the AM4 and if anything I am thinking of upgrading the cooler to a similar style Noctua at some point to keep the form factor minimal, retro and angular

That would be sick.

 

Sleeper builds are always really fun, it's still on my bucket list of things to build.

[Fasauceome]

53 minutes ago, Don Iron said:

an AMD Xenon

What this?

[Don Iron]

9 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

What this?

it was the previous gen chipset by AMD. To be honest I think that might have been the problem when I got the case, it had a small indentation in it

[Don Iron]

Now I have been thinking:

 

Of course to fully realise this into an amazing PC that allows me to do great mixes and prep it up to become a powerhouse of a sound designing PC, I need to come up with the end goal.

 

So here is the plan I devised:

 

MID TIER UPGRADE PATH

 

AMD Ryzen 5, since the cores it gives will for now suffice.

GTX 1070 4gb to allow more visuals in terms of plugins

24gb RAM to also allow many background programmes for the beginning.

Firewire PCIe card to connect a mixer into it that allows DAW control

BUDGET AIM: adding around €500-€600 to the current base budget

 

HIGH TIER UPGRADE PATH

 

CPU to an AMD Threadripper (duh)

Motherboard for it

CPU cooler, preferably Noctua

Memory to M.2, aiming to that sweet on-board terabyte(s) level 

PSU to be fully modular allowing extra connections just in case of possible quality of life upgrades

GPU to jump up and possibly even enter the RTX world, depending of what would feel great. Preferably an 8gb GPU

BUDGET AIM: around €1500-€2000

 

Problem being of course the money since well, ain't got a job that can dish out decent moolah yet but hey will see, if anything knowing what I should aim for will allow me to do preparations to that.

And as a preventative: I don't want to just save up and buy the top end right away since I want first to do my research on everything related. The mid tier already has had it's research done so it is waiting to happen, but I have yet to read fully on what threadripper can hold but I have found out a few builds that audio engineers use with threadripper in it so I will contact them in terms of that to find out the pros and cons.

[Don Iron]

And here is the Threadripper idea:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Threadripper 1900X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor	$312.90 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-U12S TR4-SP3 54.97 CFM CPU Cooler	$69.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte - X399 DESIGNARE EX ATX TR4 Motherboard	$399.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill - FORTIS 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2133 Memory	$184.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card	$385.99 @ Walmart
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G1+ 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$95.00 @ Amazon
Monitor	Samsung - LC27JG50QQNZA 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor	$309.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1758.76
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-18 20:17 EST-0500

Thoughts?

 

[Enochian]

if you are into sound etc, maybe you can think also about a pcie sound card and some accessories to support your work?

[Don Iron]

33 minutes ago, Enochian said:

if you are into sound etc, maybe you can think also about a pcie sound card and some accessories to support your work?

Thing is, sound cards themselves are simply just extensions to headphone outputs and what I need is a computer that:

- Allows me to connect a mixer or audio interface with a constant speed

- Lets me run long sessions in terms of audio production

- Has reliable memory integration

- Won't degrade program wise

 

Sound cards themselves are basically useless in that term, but a firewire card would be perfect so I could connect to a mixer controller. Maybe even a USB extension card might be a good add to it, but otherwise sound cards themselves are specific to headphones and USB interfaces already have headphone amps in them giving great sound quality.

[Enochian]

I had in mind something more like this (asus strix raid pro) -  to add to your build . Depends if you are happy enough with the sound cards included in headphones.