PC enthusiasts, sanity check my new PC please

[Count Arthur]

Corsair PSUs (RM range?) don't turn on until about 50% of their rated wattage is reached. They even have noise profile curves for the fan at different RPMs. This would be my choice, because they are very efficient and in a non gaming scenario the fan will be off.

I have a Corsair RM750x 750W PSU, which is likely over specified for my current CPU/GPU, as I don't think the fan ever comes on; there's never any dust on the intake filter/grill.

The fans on my graphics card don't run all the time either, only when gaming.

It's a nice feature, one I will look for if and when I need to replace things , the whole system is very quiet and innaudible from where I sit when just doing office type stuff.

 

[Lambda]

I second your 1440 decision. Even on my 31 inch monitor everything is still on the small side at 1440.

I have a 1440p 24" screen with a viewing distance of around 80cm-1m and i can clearly see individual pixels and Aliasing if i look for it.
So for me this is far From good enough.

Now i want 4K but i also want >120hz and real 10bit and good collor accuracy... Everything together is expensive... unless i buy a "Smart" TV
but i don’t want Monitor with Remote and Spy/add ware preinstalled.

I replace a i3 7th gen,

In general i would strongly Sugest upgrading more often but with mirage/used professional/workstation hardware.
A new (for you) 3-5 year old Workstation ever 3-4 years can be super chap and high quality hardware On average you have a better computer for less money compared to spending >1000€ every 10 years for brand new mid range Consumer hardware.

And you have less hustle. But you might like the experience.

 

[TheBatsEar]

Friend of me talked me out of sending the stuff back, he thinks the combination should be the bees knees and he would rather change PSU, then mainboard, then GPU.
I don't have much time for this, since the window in which i can send the stuff back closes, but i guess since i have to buy another PSU anyway and a motherboard is only 150€ or so, i could risk postponing the decision to send back to the very last day of said window.

So i was reading about PSUs and under the assumption that there is some kind of strange power management incompatibility, i chose a power supply which lags a few specification iterations behind, in this case ATX 2.3 (instead of ATX 2.4 or 2.52).
I also looked for a simpler power supply with only one 12V rail, both BeQuiet PSUs i used have two rails with 20A+20A and 24A+28A. This one has a single rail with 54A, although i don't think this was the problem.
To get one before the week is over, i ordered this (for 73€): https://de.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=210-GQ-0650-V2

Now i'm looking for an alternative mainboard ...

 

[digitalfrost]

I think the GPU might be at fault, if you can borrow an older GPU from somewhere it would help debugging. I see no reason for changing the board. I agree a new PSU is a good idea.

If you want a new board still this is a good budget option https://geizhals.de/msi-b550m-pro-vdh-7c95-001r-a2309014.html?hloc=de

 

[TheBatsEar]

If you want a new board still this is a good budget option https://geizhals.de/msi-b550m-pro-vdh-7c95-001r-a2309014.html?hloc=de

135€ with shipping and only one M.2 PCIe so i can't use my Wifi6 card.

Anyway, ordered this before i read your message, 105€ shipped:

ASRock B550M Pro4

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 3000, 3000 G-Series, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors<span style=color:red;>*</span>; 8 Power Phase Design, Digi Power; Supports DDR4 4733+ (OC); 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

CPU should run without updating the BIOS and has two M.2 PCIe ports. The GPU blocks 3 PCIe ports, this mainboard would still allow me one full size expansion card, not sure for what purpose, but it's there.

 

[Doodski]

135€ with shipping and only one M.2 PCIe so i can't use my Wifi6 card.

Anyway, ordered this before i read your message, 105€ shipped:

ASRock B550M Pro4

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 3000, 3000 G-Series, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors<span style=color:red;>*</span>; 8 Power Phase Design, Digi Power; Supports DDR4 4733+ (OC); 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

CPU should run without updating the BIOS and has two M.2 PCIe ports. The GPU blocks 3 PCIe ports, this mainboard would still allow me one full size expansion card, not sure for what purpose, but it's there.

That looks like good gear to me. Asrock is good stuff and so is EVGA. Frankly I've had Gigabyte, ASUS (mostly this), MSI, EVGA, SeaSonic and other name brands and they all worked very well...

 

[TheBatsEar]

Cheers. Let's hope it makes a difference and the mainboard itself or some strange power saving feature with the PSU or GPU was the problem.

 

[TheBatsEar]

To bring this one to a close. I got the EVGA PSU, but it didn't make a difference. Still sending the BeQuiet back because it was a bit pricier and the EVGA has a bit more reserve.

The solution was the motherboard. In short, the Gigabyte is trash, the ASRock is well done. Everything is better:

• same chipset B550
• larger, properly mounted heat sinks, the Gigabyte are small and thin and only glued
• the ASRock has 2 NVME ports and one M.2 for A/E keyed wifi/bluetooth cards. The Intel AX210 works fine, no need for adapters
• the GPU has blocked all PCIe slots on the Gigabyte, but on the ASRock the lowest (4 lanes) is still open for business
• the BIOS in the ASRock has more options but is simpler because it has proper help texts

So much trouble because i bought a low quality mainboard.

 

[Koeitje]

In my experience its almost always the mainboard if something doesn't boot in a new build. Sometimes RAM because of compatibility issues, but...you could also blame that on the mainboard

 

[TheBatsEar]

In my experience its almost always the mainboard if something doesn't boot in a new build. Sometimes RAM because of compatibility issues, but...you could also blame that on the mainboard

Dr. Hindsight has entered the chat.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Dr. Hindsight has entered the chat.

That leaves me the part of the guy who posts after the problem is fixed, suggesting something you've tried six times that didn't help

 

[Koeitje]

Dr. Hindsight has entered the chat.

If I had seen this thread earlier then I would have

 

[TheBatsEar]

Some software stuff i did so far:

Operating systems:

I wanted to have 700GB of my 1TB SSD for Windows for games, and the rest for Debian Testing as my daily driver. To do that i started a Debian testing+firmware boot stick, entered a repair shell and started fdisk /dev/nvme0n1. I then created a GPT partition label and two partitions, first with 700GB, and a second with the rest of the space. I then deleted the first and wrote everything to disk.

The idea was to install Windows into the free space, it's setup would create the EFI partition and all that. So i did that and it worked. I installed Windows 11 Pro, for which i bought a shady license for 25€.

Then i booted the Debian USB drive again, this time to install. However, it's important to boot the UEFI partition from USB, otherwise you can't install Grub into the EFI partition. I used the large partition at the end of the disc as ext4 for root, no swap. The Intel AX210 wifi card was automatically detected and the install went through in 10 minutes or so (Debian system + KDE + ssh server).

Once the installation was done, i had to boot into the mainboards firmware and disabled the bootentry for windows. Then i booted into Debian and put this into /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Then i reinstalled Grub:
update-grub

Next time you boot into Debian you can select between Debian or Windows.

Problems:

1. The system used 110W with display at idle in Windows and Linux. I went into the firmware and activated an eco mode, it seems to restrict the CPU to 45W TDP or something like it. I did the same for the display, activated a power saving mode. Idle power usage went down to 70W for computer and display.
2. Once i cold booted into Linux, the wifi card would not work. A reboot would fix the problem. It seems Windows doesn't really shut down properly but enters some kind of suspend-to-disk mode. This means the firmware for the wifi card isn't resetted properly. You have to type "powercfg -h off" into a command prompt in Windows as administrator to disable the suspend-to-disk. This means Windows needs a second longer to shutdown and start up, doesn't matter to me.
3. Was sick of my old Dell keyboard, ordered a Cherry MX with red silent switches and background LEDs for 80€. It's fine.

Todo:

1. I need to look into the CPU power saving features again, not sure if they limit the CPU during gaming. I think i need to look into "Ryzen Master" to get the most out of the CPU.
2. I'm sure there is a bit more power to save in Linux, i need to look deeper into powertop and ways to save more power on the graphics card. Right now the card alone uses around 7 watts.
3. The AMD boxed fan is loud. I need to look for something better. The case fans are loud as well, again, i need to look into silent fans.
4. I need a burner that burns 100GB m-disks for proper backups (so far i only did redundancy, was lucky so far).

 

[Lambda]

I wanted to have 700GB of my 1TB SSD

I would just buy 2 Disks.
Even if you don’t need it now buy at least one sizes up. The fuller the SSD gets the slower it gets and more ware you put on it.
twice as big. is twice as expensive but also twice as fast and will last twice as long.

The system used 110W with display at idle in Windows and Linux.

Thats a lot!

I need a burner that burns 100GB m-disks for proper backups (so far i only did redundancy, was lucky so far).

Have not heard "burner" in along time.
I would thinks Putin it on HDDs (in a nas) with some error detection/correction and power it up monthly and run a check is saver and cheaper?

 

[TheBatsEar]

I would just buy 2 Disks.

I have a 2TB sata SSD from my old server, which i'll put in once i need it.
As far as Linux is concerned, i have never used more than 50 or so GB, so about 250GB will stay empty anyway.

Have not heard "burner" in along time.
I would thinks Putin it on HDDs (in a nas) with some error detection/correction and power it up monthly and run a check is saver and cheaper?

I have 10 16TB HDDs in a NAS, with redundancy, but that is just redundancy.
I want proper long term backups. A 100GB Bluray is more than enough (i need less than 50GB for my important and not so important stuff), one costs 15€, i'll burn one every two or so month, with weekly deltas on DVD and daily deltas in the cloud. Using M-Disks they should be readable for the next few hundred years, for sure longer than i need them.
So far i have used DVDs, but that gets tedious once you need a few for a full backup and they fail easily.

 

[Astrozombie]

The Ryzen 7 has come down in price and you might take advantage of more cores, heck I'm thinking of getting one and i'm on the 3000 series. I would prefer a full sized board, I would get a different PSU from like Corsair or Seasonic.
GPU seems a bit much for the "casual" gamer, I would just get the 6800 by that point. I think the 6700 might be had for 300.

With that low end chip you don't need H20 cooling. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT USE AMD RADEON IF YOU ARE USING LINUX.

 

[TheBatsEar]

@Astrozombie It's all bought and in use now.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT USE AMD RADEON IF YOU ARE USING LINUX.

Why? Seems to work fine so far.

 

[kysa]

The Ryzen 7 has come down in price and you might take advantage of more cores, heck I'm thinking of getting one and i'm on the 3000 series. I would prefer a full sized board, I would get a different PSU from like Corsair or Seasonic.
GPU seems a bit much for the "casual" gamer, I would just get the 6800 by that point. I think the 6700 might be had for 300.

With that low end chip you don't need H20 cooling. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT USE AMD RADEON IF YOU ARE USING LINUX.

But AMD is known to have the best (amdgpu) driver for Linux out there... You are talking utter nonsense.

 

[Digby]

The system used 110W with display at idle in Windows and Linux. I went into the firmware and activated an eco mode, it seems to restrict the CPU to 45W TDP or something like it. I did the same for the display, activated a power saving mode. Idle power usage went down to 70W for computer and display.

and the same in windows? GPU can eat watts for breakfast, more so with 4k monitor and probably more so in Linux. Why throttle the CPU though? I bet by limiting TDP you reduce its processing power considerably. It'd be interesting to know how the monitor is operating in eco mode, what is it doing to reduce power usage and does it affect the image.

I'm sure there is a bit more power to save in Linux, i need to look deeper into powertop and ways to save more power on the graphics card. Right now the card alone uses around 7 watts.

That doesn't seem bad. Is that at total idle or in typical use (browsers open, word processor and so on)? Perhaps better than recording wattage at idle would be to get an average reading for a days typical use.

The AMD boxed fan is loud. I need to look for something better. The case fans are loud as well, again, i need to look into silent fans.

Have you implemented fan curves?

 

[ZolaIII]

Under Windows undervolting and overclocking with CTR is still the best way to go for fifth generation Ryzen.
@Digby it spins high RPM (1700) and neads to go high RPM in order to keep it mild hot (not hot as hell like Intel bundled one's) under load. He neads a deacent cooler in order to do job quiet enough and with good colling results.