Question Got the "Builder's Blahs?". Built a lean, mean, web-browsing / YT machine. Details inside.

[VirtualLarry]

I guess it would be easier, if I had actual customers waiting, and I did just get a PC done and out of here a few days ago, that I built two months ago.

But I'm suffering from ... "builder's blahs".

I've been acquiring parts, certainly. I bought parts to do a pair of "white-themed builds", with Ryzen R3 3100 then R5 3500X CPUs, white GTX 960 4GB (new, bulk-packed), that I seem to have mis-laid somewhere around here, and some white / tempered-glass / mesh DarkFlash DM21 cases, which seemed really nice-looking to me in pics. I even had someone comment on that build thread that they "had dibs". I guess I could have lined up a customer.

Last month, I bought like three HP Slim Desktop Celeron G5900 (10th-Gen) rigs, with 4GB DDR4 and a 1TB HDD. Not a great rig. But I planned on souping some of them up, with Pentium G6400, 2x8GB DDR4, and either a SATA 512GB replacement for the HDD (although it turns out that there's another SATA power and data connector present), or I found out that the mobo takes an M.2 NVMe SSD as well.

Sadly, the PCI-E x16 slot was swapped in position with the PCI-E x1 slot, so in this chassis, there's not enough room to fit a double-wide PCI-E x16 (even LP) card. So that limits GPU upgrades basically to GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 LP single-slot cards. Of which I obtained two MSI cards that will fit the bill.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, maybe I was just waiting on some components.

Got in some ASRock B560M-HDV mobos, $74.99 @ Newegg.

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

Paired those with Intel 10th-Gen Pentium Gold G6400 CPUs, $64 @ Newegg

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www.newegg.com

For RAM, an inexpensive DDR4-3200 / CAS 16 / 2x8GB kit from Silicon Power, $69.99 @ Newegg

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www.newegg.com

SSD was a relative newcomer, the Samsung EVO 870 250GB SATA 2.5", $39.99 @ Newegg

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Rosewill SRB-01 case + 450W PSU, $54.99 @ Newegg

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

A little over $300 total. Add GPU to suit. (PSU has a single 6+2 pin.)

Edit: Got a chance to test this out with some browsing, these forums, YT, etc. Runs GREAT!

My theory is,, this is one of the fastest SATA SSDs, and the 3200 DDR4 CAS16 RAM really lets the Intel UHD610 IGPU stretch its legs.

I had six YT playing at the same time, hardly broke a sweat.

SpeedShift for the CPU, and B560 chipset's support of XMP 3200 RAM, really make things SMOOTH. Only marred by the fact that @ 4K UHD over HDMI 1.4, I was only getting 30Hz refresh rate, which makes smooth-scrolling in FF less than perfectly smooth. (Shouldn't be a problem @ 1080P.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, I added a GPU. Specifically, an EVGA GTX 650 1GB GDDR5 128-bit card that takes a single PCI-E 6-pin.

Strangely, when I installed it, I got five beeps. Which I believe is "VGA error". I had forgotten to plug in the PCI-E power cable initially.

Even after I plugged it in, though, it was acting weird. It prompted me for Windows Startup Repair, but just sat there for like 15 minutes.

I secure-erased the SATA Samsung 870, and it still sat there, when I booted my Win10 install USB.

Finally, I reset UEFI to defaults, rebooted, set XMP, rebooted, and then was able to get the Win10 install USB to boot. (I had also disconnected the SATA cable plugged into SATA0 from the SSD.)

So, because that booted, I shut down and plugged the SSD back in, and then... fairly smooth sailing from then on.

Also, weirdness, I lost my chipset IGPU enable/PCI-E graphics selection from UEFI. It just disappeared.

IGPU Multi-Mon remained.

I had also, before resetting UEFI to defaults, tried disabling Secure Boot to get the GPU to work, still didn't do much. But I had also set "Above 4G Decoding", which this card may not have liked, being an older card with an older VBIOS.

Anyways, I re-installed Win10, and did Windows Updates, and it was pretty speedy.

After the default NVidia drivers loaded, my HDMI signal went to a 4K UHD 30Hz signal, which I was later able to select 60Hz, and where I'm using it right now.

Very fast and smooth! Finally! It can likely play Fortnite too, although I don't yet own that game to test with.