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My main PC is an ever-shifting, questionably arranged agglomeration of components selected as if at random, initially designed and assembled by yours truly circa March of '22. Apparently, I have a lot to say about it.
I chose the 5700G mainly for its inclusion of an integrated GPU, not because I wanted to use it, but because I wanted it as a fallback in case my dedicated GPU failed. In fact, I tested and Blender renders perform worse when I use both GPUs in parallel instead of just the one.
This chip was also cheaper than the 5800 with the same number of cores and, presumably, similar performance by all other metrics. It took me until after the system was built to realize that its other significant difference from the 5800 is that it lacks PCIe 4 support and is somewhat bottlenecking every other PCIe device in my machine.
Admittedly, a bit overkill for the 65-watt chip it's attached to. I bought it because I was getting thermal throttling with the stock cooler, but when I took it off to put the new cooler on I discovered I hadn't mounted the stock cooler properly to begin with. The stock cooler, mounted correctly, would probably have sufficed, but frankly that mounting system was dogshit anyway. SecuFirm™ gang 4 lyfe.
Now that I have it, this cooler is great. Nothing specific to say, it just works and works very well. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first and last CPU cooler I ever buy. My one complaint is that the fan clips are kind of annoying to deal with.
Nothing much to say here that you couldn't get from the product page on Newegg. Plenty of external I/O, though internal I/O has proven limited, and has yet to cause any problems with operation. I chose it partly for the included wireless functionality, which now mostly gets used for my bluetooth Xbox controller ever since I upgraded to a wired connection.
I recommend this motherboard if for some reason you're building an AM4 gaming system in $CURRENT_YEAR, but be warned that the screws holding the M.2 heatsinks down are made of cheese and will snap off if over-torqued. Don't ask me how I know. Also, the included Wi-Fi antenna is fugly and has an absolutely pathetic mounting magnet.
Good RAM. No complaints. I thought for a while that the XMP profiles weren't compatible with my CPU or something, but an update to my motherboard's BIOS solved that.
Used solely to store my OS and programs. Far bigger than necessary for that purpose, but no issues so far. Plenty fast and all that. I initially assumed it had DRAM, then I learned it didn't, then I learned that it's one of those drives that leeches off of your system memory instead of having an onboard cache, so make of that what you will.
This drive is mounted as /home, for convenient OS reinstalls and such-like. It's a fairly new addition, so I can't remark on its performance, but it certainly wasn't DOA. This one also uses your system memory as a cache, but that's fine. I've got plenty to go around.
The drive that used to fill this role was a WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD that started off serving the same purpose as an aftermarket upgrade to my old laptop, but got transplanted wholesale when I upgraded to the new system. That drive still functions, but since it holds all my most sensitive and irreplacable files, I elected to replace it for Peace Of Mind™ after my PSU exploded, and opted for a cheeky capacity upgrade while I was at it. Plus, this one was on sale for like, $90 off!
This drive was purchased pursuant to the goal of never running out of storage on my computer again, following an upbringing spent gaming on laptops with tiny little SSDs in them. I mostly fill it with Legally Obtained™ movies and Steam games I don't play very often. Absolutely no complaints thus far.
Fine, enough edging. I know this is the part everyone cares about. It's a fine GPU, it performs admirably at 1080p in all my favourite games but can get a little overwhelmed at 1440p with all the shaders on in Minecraft, the encoder is what you'd expect from AMD and the Blender performance leaves something to be desired. I've had some odd stability issues with it in the past but that might have been due to the apparently faulty power supply I was running. It certainly isn't a thermal issue.
I want it on record here that if I ever buy a 3090 or whatever the biggest baddest new $1000+ AAA-cruncher is and I haven't won the lottery, I am to be taken out back and shot like a lame horse. Frankly, I probably need some sense beaten into me if I'm buying lottery tickets to begin with.
I seem to have accidentally gotten into building sleeper PCs. I promise I didn't mean to — I was drawn to this case for its superior expandability, greater ease of working-on, and massively increased piezo-buzzer-havingitude compared to the Corsair 110R this machine used to reside in. It just so happens to also be from 2004, back when "Pentium" was the name for Intel's flagship line of CPUs instead of their worst ones and I was learning to walk.
For all those reasons plus its absolutely charming aesthetic character, I really like this case. Unlike the last guy, I can actually get at the modular PSU without yanking it out and scratching all the paint off. After some aftermarket mods, it even has modern front I/O and shockingly decent airflow.
This power supply is, bluntly, comically over-spec'd for the system it's in. I could run two graphics cards off of this thing if I wanted. I could run two of my entire computer off of this thing, it even has a second CPU power connector.
This turbo level of overkill-itude is (mostly) intentional. My last PSU was a much more sensible Seasonic Focus GX-650 rated for 650 watts, but despite being, by all accounts, the correct power supply for my use case, it still died suddenly with a loud POP two and a half years into Seasonic's 10-year Worry-Free Warranty™. The RMA process was good, at least.
I wanted to get something less likely to suffer the same fate this time around, but having just lost a well-reviewed unit from a reputable brand with a good efficiency rating and a generous yet sensible rated wattage to nothing but bad luck, the only thing I could really do to maybe accomplish this other than just getting luckier was to buy something so overbuilt that it no longer regards my machine running at full bore as a significant load, hence this absolute goliath of a PSU. The original plan was to get a slightly more reasonable 850 watt unit instead, but this one was on a really good sale. I basically paid 850-watt money for it.
As of writing, the day after installing it in my system, my plan has yet to backfire. Time will tell if I made the right call.
It was really important to me that my computer have a disc drive, and this was the cheapest unit on PCPartPicker that supported all the major formats. Like most of the parts in my computer, it functions reliably as advertised without significant issue and I don't have much to say on the matter. I've gotten plenty of use out of it — I have a decently large collection of CDs that I've ripped using this drive.
I've had this mouse for something like six years. I've had it for so long I've forgotten how long it's been. High-quality, long-lasting, and it probably helps that it takes AAs. I wish the software for it worked on Linux, though.
I generally prefer wired peripherals where possible, but the RF dongle this mouse uses has been rock-solid for me, as long as I don't keep it behind a bunch of EMI-blocking metal panels.
I would have just gotten a 100% keyboard, but they didn't have it in the chassis colour I wanted so I ended up with a TKL and separate numpad instead. I'm a huge fan of both, what with the open-source firmware and hot-swappable switches and all. I especially like the extra included keycaps for use with a Mac, not because I intend to use it with a mac, but because it lets me finally get rid of the fucking Windows logo on my keyboard.
Unless I lose them in a house fire or something, I think these units probably constitute my "endgame", as keyboard enthusiasts say. They have every feature I care about and every upgrade or change I can see myself caring to make is maximally easy. This is one of those things that I shelled out for with the intent of never, ever replacing it.
I bought this several years ago when I was still running Windows because I wanted maximum compatibility for minimum effort. It still works now that I'm on Linux, using bluetooth and with xpadneo installed. It's decent, no complaints, I'm sure it could be better but I don't use it enough to justify caring.
Another "endgame" purchase. Very good monitors, if I replace them it'll be because they broke. I truly don't care for OLEDs — they get burn-in, for god's sake, I thought we moved on from that in the early 2000's when LCDs became commonplace.
These are mounted on a cheap, AmazonBasics-tier VESA monitor stand that came with a huge metal foot that kind of defeated the purpose, but that I have since replaced with a much more compact combination of 3D-printed brackets and wood screws.
After a lifetime of losing headphones to frayed cables and the inevitable failure of poor quality materials, my top priority when getting my next nice pair of cans was durability, and Beyerdynamic's products fit the bill nicely. As a bonus, they also have excellent sound quality and are supremely comfortable.
The only issue with these headphones is the non-removable cable, which is an automatic deal-breaker for me. I purchased mine through a modding company that replaced that cable with a 4-pin mini XLR jack, which has proven to be a bit of a double-edged sword as finding sanely priced replacement cables for it is nigh impossible.
I'm also rocking aftermarket cat ears. I just don't trust the quality on the cheap novelty headphones that come with them built in.
It's a USB webcam. The picture is good enough — better than most laptops — but it does some annoying auto-adjustment stuff that makes chroma-key shenanigans difficult at times. Standout features are the privacy shutter, indicator light when the camera is in use, and screw mount. I'm sure the microphone is adequate in a pinch, but I have no reason to use it.
Very good microphone. Probably as good as I'll ever need. Superb sound quality; my friends in voice chat complain whenever they hear me on anything else. I'd have gotten the XLR version but I did not yet own an audio interface and didn't want to shell out just for this.
In what is becoming a running theme, it sits on a perhaps unbefitting $20 no-name mic arm from Amazon, with matching cheap shock mount and pop filter. They work, though. The springs on the arm are loud and, as my friends are keen to point out every time, quite audible through the mic.
Bought to accompany a synthesizer, I have also used this interface to great effect for the purpose of digitizing cassette tapes. I only learned after buying it that both analog inputs are mono, which kind of makes sense and I assume is normal, but it would have been nice to know beforehand.
