It's been a long time. How have you been? (bonus points for knowing the reference).
I finally bit the bullet and bought a new computer. The old one was dated circa 2008 and since I moved in with my boyfirend, the poor thing didn't get any love.
The most important bits are in my signature; if you prefer the PCPartPicker version, here's the closest approximation of parts I have (the chips are the same, some models may be different) https://pcpartpicker.com/list/T9wBb8
I got lucky (I guess, not sure if it works for everybody) with Windows as I had an old Windows 8.1 licence key lying around. Windows 10 activated with no issues with it.
Some stray observations:
- Damn, you NA guys are lucky - I paid ~$940 for the entire thing. Compared to PCPP prices, that's $200 more. Do you guys pay additional sales tax on those prices?
- Default AMD Wraith Spire cooler is relatively quiet, but I will need to make the switch down the line.
- Non-modular PSU is not a fun thing to have in a small case; PSU shroud helps a lot.
- For the price, the case is perfect. I would definitely recommend it to anybody who's thinking about a mATX system. Just switch the included fan, your ears will thank me.
- While on the subject of mATX - the format needs more love.
- I have an SSD on my work laptop, but I was surprised how much faster the desktop one is - guess that's NVME for you.
Things to upgrade in the near future:
- CPU cooler - default one is adequate and not very loud, but a better one is definitely recomended.
- PSU - this unit is good, but I wish it was modular and had fully sleeved cables.
- RAM - I think I'll need 32GB. Both my boyfirend and I use the computer and we have indiviual accounts. Windows seems to be RAM hungry in this case.
- Maybe add some fans to the case.
Let me know if anything particular interests you about the build.
I'm just happy I returned to the modern age of computing after an Athlon X2 5400+
Cheers!