The Stimulus Payment Build, Putting It Together.

[Uttamattamakin]

A week or so ago I created a thread in build planning for how to put together a reasonable computer with good upgrade paths using approximately half of the 1200 USD in stimulus money that we are getting in the USA. 

 

I was fortunate enough to have gotten my payment in a timely manner so I have gone ahead and purchased the parts most of which are in my hands.  The CPU cooler is a transcontinental distance away.  

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$94.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Silverstone AR11 55.76 CFM CPU Cooler	$48.99 @ Newegg
Memory	ADATA XPG GAMMIX D30 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$78.98 @ Amazon
Case	Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Desktop Case	$49.79 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA 400 W ATX Power Supply	$32.98 @ Newegg
Custom	AsRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3	$219.00
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$534.73
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$524.73
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-19 01:56 EDT-0400

Since I had nothing else to do I decided to listen to a physics conference which is now a remote event and put together a computer.

Once I cleared some desk space You can see where the mini ITX case the Thermaltake CoreV1 fits nicely into the space I have. 

 

 

 

Without the cooler there was not much I could get done today but I could install components on the motherboard and check to see if it is physically compatible with this case.  Standards exist for a reason but still always have to check these things. 

Yeah that motherboard fits nicely in place the screw holes seem the line up.  Dropping the processor in is a lot easier than the old fashioned processor sockets of the late 90's and early 00's where we had to apply some degree of force.   As you can see this motherboard is just FULL of options.  With a small form factor with limited expansion having more built in is crucial. 

 

That is all for now.  As you can see it will fit nicely into my workstation.  In the background is my EGPU enclosure an HP Omen that I got to enhance the experience on my HP laptop.  That laptop has been showing its age, spinning its fan up to making a grinding noise  every once in a while.  Which can and will lead to the death of that laptop  within 6-12 months.  For me having a working computer is the same as having a working automobile.  No computer no job.   


So what do you think of this build?   Any questions or comments?  

By Friday at the latest I hope to have this posted, running Linux natively. 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Uttamattamakin
Resizing pictures so they are not HUGE.

[Dedayog]

Doesn't the 3200G come with a cooler?

[LIGISTX]

10 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

A week or so ago I created a thread in build planning for how to put together a reasonable computer with good upgrade paths using approximately half of the 1200 USD in stimulus money that we are getting in the USA. 

 

I was fortunate enough to have gotten my payment in a timely manner so I have gone ahead and purchased the parts most of which are in my hands.  The CPU cooler is a transcontinental distance away.  

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$94.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Silverstone AR11 55.76 CFM CPU Cooler	$48.99 @ Newegg
Memory	ADATA XPG GAMMIX D30 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$78.98 @ Amazon
Case	Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Desktop Case	$49.79 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA 400 W ATX Power Supply	$32.98 @ Newegg
Custom	AsRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3	$219.00
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$534.73
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$524.73
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-19 01:56 EDT-0400

Since I had nothing else to do I decided to listen to a physics conference which is now a remote event and put together a computer.

Once I cleared some desk space You can see where the mini ITX case the Thermaltake CoreV1 fits nicely into the space I have. 

 

 

 

Without the cooler there was not much I could get done today but I could install components on the motherboard and check to see if it is physically compatible with this case.  Standards exist for a reason but still always have to check these things. 

Yeah that motherboard fits nicely in place the screw holes seem the line up.  Dropping the processor in is a lot easier than the old fashioned processor sockets of the late 90's and early 00's where we had to apply some degree of force.   As you can see this motherboard is just FULL of options.  With a small form factor with limited expansion having more built in is crucial. 

 

That is all for now.  As you can see it will fit nicely into my workstation.  In the background is my EGPU enclosure an HP Omen that I got to enhance the experience on my HP laptop.  That laptop has been showing its age, spinning its fan up to making a grinding noise  every once in a while.  Which can and will lead to the death of that laptop  within 6-12 months.  For me having a working computer is the same as having a working automobile.  No computer no job.   


So what do you think of this build?   Any questions or comments?  

By Friday at the latest I hope to have this posted, running Linux natively. 

 

Intro to quantum field theory. I like it! I should have taken more quantum stuff... Its so fascinating.

[Vandorlot]

Why did you get a cooler and such an expensive motherboard?

[Uttamattamakin]

7 hours ago, NZgamer said:

I think it's interesting you paired an X570 mobo with a 3200G, especially when there are B450 ITX boards avaliable

This board has a good simple upgrade path to Ryzen 4000 series APU's or CPU's.  AMD will certainly support it for at least that long.  Plus it has a thunderbolt 3 port which means I can use it with my EGPU enclosure.  Which I have had for a couple of years and see no reason to stop using. 

 

PLUS in a small form factor build with just one slot, one cannot buy cards to add in missing functionality.  The motherboard has to be everything.   Some things just don't work as well in dongle form and lead to a messy desk. 

6 hours ago, Vandorlot said:

Why did you get a cooler and such an expensive motherboard?

See above on the motherboard but 

7 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

Doesn't the 3200G come with a cooler?

YES it comes with the AMD Wraith Stealth cooler BUT this motherboard supports Intel socket 115x cooling solutions.  Socket AM4 cooling requires too much space for them to pack in so much functionality.  Plus I understand that this may make it easier to buy or find a more elaborate water cooling solution latter on.  Ryzen 4000 APU's in notebooks are 8 core 16 thread parts.  Of course more watercooling hardware exist that is Intel/AMD agnostic but there might not be as much stock for that. 

Plus an equivalent cooler is just another 50 bucks.  I view it as the cost of getting Thunderbolt 3 in a case that will fit in the space I have to work with.  (Not trying to redesign my office around a big tower.) 

Though I guess I could've built a computer around a cooling solution instead of technical requirements.

[Uttamattamakin]

It's alive! 

So I was finally able to get all of my parts.  The hardest part was fitting the CPU cooler into the tight space of an ITX motherboard with so many functions built into it.   As you can see it is a very tight fit.  So long as no part of the heat sink is touching the ram but is only touching other cooling hardware, like the VRM heatsink I guess Asrock thinks it is OK.  Since I am not looking to overclock this should be fine. 

 

I also lost the M.2 screw and had to buy another one but It's working and computing and alive.  As of right now 9 AM central time  on this date I am waiting for the release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to finalize installation.  

 

The only part not mentioned before was I decided to move an SSD that I had in an HP Omen accelerator GPU enclosure into this build to use as a very large home drive.   So I have 512 MB of storage on an M.2 NVME for my boot partition and 512 for my data.    Plenty of room for my large science projects and the scientific software that I use to breath.  

 

Latter in the year once the rumored octocore hyperthreaded AMD APU's are out I will upgrade to that, also upgrade the RAM to 32GB and for cooling switch to  water.    While I may not make a difference I am concerned about the heat sink being so close to components.  With a 95w TDP heatsink and 65W TDP processor this shouldn't be a huge problem.  Even though those numbers aren't straightforward.  This heatsink should be able to handle a Ryzen 3 3200g

When it comes to actually using this computer my plan right now is to use LInux as my daily driver for most task that Windows does not excel at.  Then using VNC or RDP to work  control the windows machine.  Alternatively using a software like synergy to control both PC's with one mouse and keyboard.  If I had a ultrawide monitor that would make this an almost ideal situation.   VNC or RDP hold out the hope that I could have my windows apps and Linux apps side by side with a share clipboard and drag and drop of files.  Many of the productivity task I do really excel when the strengths of Linux and Windows are used in concert. 

 

  This was the first computer I have built from parts  since I had an Athlon64 or Athlon 64x2 .  Well over a decade ago.  This was very interesting and satisfying to show myself I still could.  However, if I had been able to find something on the market that had the specific features I wanted at a reasonable cost I would've gone for it.  

 

The below has comments disabled and is unlisted.  So share with care. Proof it really is running. 

 

 

 

[Uttamattamakin]

On last update.  How well does this one run compared to my two-three year old Windows laptop?  It was a Core i7 quadcore 16 GB  with invidia GPU on board and a 1080 in a GPU enclosure.  Running linux fully optimized with Nvidia CUDA drivers installed for GP GPU calculations.  (Used it for a very crude big bang simulation ... well certain aspects of it.) 

 

It scored a Mathematica Mark of 2.51 in Mathematica 11.3.  Now with a trial version of Mathematica 12.1 the stimulus money build scores.

 

 

I should've named it "TheStimulator" or something like that.  

[Uttamattamakin]

On 4/19/2020 at 1:26 AM, NZgamer said:

I think it's interesting you paired an X570 mobo with a 3200G, especially when there are B450 ITX boards avaliable

 I KNEW something like this was going to happen.  I knew that there was a high probability that the latest chipset on the market was the only one certain to support the Ryzen 4000 CPU's or APU's. 

[Uttamattamakin]

7 hours ago, NZgamer said:

Wow, smart buy then I guess. I really didn't see this coming, in all honesty, AMD is being super confusing with their chipsets and releasing them at different times.

Yeah.  They should've been more explicit that physical socket compatability does not imply compatability with what the socket plugs into. 

I was just going by experience, albeit from a long time ago, teaching me that when building a computer the motherboard is not the part to be cheap about if you want to keep it for more than about a year. 

 

[Uttamattamakin]

Here is another figure which with a bit of context expalins how much more powerful this Ryzen is, as constructed in this computer with maximum airflow short of being on an open air bench.  This is running code I wrote a decade ago for a course in computer programming for physicists.  Using a program called Matlab.  At the time I had an HP touchsmart convertible laptop for everything.  I could barely run 100 years of simulation with very few steps per year to try and demonstrate my model gave the precession of Mercury's orbit as shown by General Realtivity.  Usually the computer would thermally shutdown.  

 

Now 100,000,000 steps and 0.0001 years per step and I can see some good physics.    The simulaton loses integrity after a while as the total energy starts to move away from remaining constant though.  I am just glad it works at all.