Laptop suitability & megabase compatible rig configuration

[je11693]

Btw, i noticed that my favourite comparison site does have a UK version now. Filtered for mainboards that can do high RAM clocks and the cheapest one is the Gigabyte Z370P D3 (92£ @amazon) which is the same board Koub had in his original link.

@Budget: btw, is that budget with or without VAT? Because on reddit you said it's without, and here you seem to imply with.

Sorry, my bad, it should be after VAT.

[je11693]

This was suggested over on Reddit:

CPU AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card
Case Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Keyboard Gigabyte - FORCE K83 Wired Standard Keyboard
Mouse Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse

If I switch the video card for a 1050Ti, the case for a CiT F3 Black Matx Gaming Case (https://www.amazon.co.uk/CiT-Black-Gami ... B01BLI516W), the keyboard and mouse, I can add in a Cooler Master - Hyper T2 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler and still get quite close to the upper range of my budget (£631.42). Downside is it's a Ryzen 5 processor instead of Intel. Also unsure if the motherboard is compatible with 3000MHz RAM as the spec says 2933 MHz bus speed.

[Koub]

I was wondering why choose Micro-ATX instead of ATX. If you lack space, this makes sense, but if you want to shave a few bucks, ATX might be a better option. Motherboard could be cheaper, and case of same price.
For the rest, not bad at all. I'm still convinced Intel would do better than AMD for Factorio, but budget is a hard master

[eradicator]

Also according to PC picker you can shave off another 6.37£ by buying a Seagate (29.39£) instead of your current Western Digital (35.76£) harddrive. Also as a "harddisk enthusiast" i'd really like to recommend a 2TB drive, just in case you want to store some music/pictures/movies etcpp... but those start at 50£ and harddisks are the easiest thing to add later...so, i'm going to refrain :p.

[je11693]

I was wondering why choose Micro-ATX instead of ATX. If you lack space, this makes sense, but if you want to shave a few bucks, ATX might be a better option. Motherboard could be cheaper, and case of same price.
For the rest, not bad at all. I'm still convinced Intel would do better than AMD for Factorio, but budget is a hard master

I didn't realise ATX is cheaper than micro ATX. If you know of a better/cheaper combination of ATX motherboard and a case that it would fit in with some fans I would be keen to know! (also has to be compatible with 3000 RAM)

[je11693]

Also according to PC picker you can shave off another 6.37£ by buying a Seagate (29.39£) instead of your current Western Digital (35.76£) harddrive. Also as a "harddisk enthusiast" i'd really like to recommend a 2TB drive, just in case you want to store some music/pictures/movies etcpp... but those start at 50£ and harddisks are the easiest thing to add later...so, i'm going to refrain :p.

Missed this earlier, thanks for the suggestion!

[Zanthra]

It’s quite possible the reason some motherboards may not support some memory speeds is due to unmatched wire lengths on the connections to the RAM modules. At 4Ghz transfer rate light (and therefore the signal in the wire) travels around 75mm per transfer. At those speeds waves don’t tend to be clean square waves and any other electrical characteristics like capacitance or delays may reduce the time data is “good” in the signal, and if bits are not well phase alligned you can end up with errors. You can sometimes see traces on the motherboards make S turns in order to lengthen some traces to match the length, but some of the cheaper motherboards may put less effort into matching and simply support lower speed memory where the phase does not matter as much.

[Koub]

f you know of a better/cheaper combination of ATX motherboard and a case that it would fit in with some fans I would be keen to know! (also has to be compatible with 3000 RAM)

I think https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listi ... dition=new (73£, free shipping instead of 72+8£ shipping) should be OK
And for the case, this one should do : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listi ... 203&sr=1-1
When choosing your RAM, be sure to check the memory compatibility list on the manufacturer's website. Example for the Asrock one : https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350%20Pro4/#Memory

[eradicator]

Btw, while you're buying at amazon don't forget to grab some cheap cable spiral or similar. It'll greatly improve the airflow (==cooling) compared to leaving all the cables float freely.

[je11693]

f you know of a better/cheaper combination of ATX motherboard and a case that it would fit in with some fans I would be keen to know! (also has to be compatible with 3000 RAM)

I think https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listi ... dition=new (73£, free shipping instead of 72+8£ shipping) should be OK
And for the case, this one should do : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listi ... 203&sr=1-1
When choosing your RAM, be sure to check the memory compatibility list on the manufacturer's website. Example for the Asrock one : https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350%20Pro4/#Memory

I checked and it seems the original m-ATX components are cheaper so I'm thinking of going for this:

Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6 core
MSI B450M Pro-VDH AMD Socket AM4
Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Seagate 1TB hard drive
MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card
CiT - CIT-F3BLACKPURPLE MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Logitech K120 Wired (USB) Keyboard
Genius - DX 110 Wired Optical Mouse

Comes in just over budget (~£614). The motherboard goes to 2933. I've checked and I think all the parts should be compatible in terms of size for the case, m-ATX, etc, but would appreciate a second opinion as a sanity check to make sure I'm not missing anything?? The max CPU cooler height for that case is 160, but I can't find anywhere the measurements of the cooler that comes with the Ryzen (I believe they call it the Wraith Stealth cooler) so if anyone knows I'd appreciate knowing before I buy... Also, is 450W enough for this, or do I need 550W?

[je11693]

Also according to PC picker you can shave off another 6.37£ by buying a Seagate (29.39£) instead of your current Western Digital (35.76£) harddrive. Also as a "harddisk enthusiast" i'd really like to recommend a 2TB drive, just in case you want to store some music/pictures/movies etcpp... but those start at 50£ and harddisks are the easiest thing to add later...so, i'm going to refrain :p.

Will get this if it's still available, assume it works with any setup, thanks for suggesting.

[eradicator]

assume it works with any setup

Sure. Harddisks are pretty much the same regardless of manufacturer. The only thing you need to worry about is rotation speed and cache size, which both of the links i posted are equal in.

Btw, you should really get used to googling component names. Literally the first hit for "MSI B450M Pro-VDH" gives you the specs:

DDR4 Memory:
1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667Mhz (by JEDEC)
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)

I have a K120 too btw :P.

[je11693]

Hi guys, so I think I've managed to build the PC properly but I'm not sure how to get an OS onto it. My laptop has Vista and when I try to use a USB as an installation tool for Windows 10 I can't because Vista isn't supported. Any suggestions? Could I use Linux ( and how do I get it onto the new build PC if I can)?

[eradicator]

Download the .iso image of the OS you want and burn it to a dvd? Copy shops should offer burning services if you don't have a burner (carry it there on your usb stick). Then insert the disk and when booting up you there should be a message at the bottom of the screen saying something like "Press F12 to select boot medium." though the botton varies by manufacturer. Then just select the dvd drive and the installer should start.

[je11693]

Download the .iso image of the OS you want and burn it to a dvd? Copy shops should offer burning services if you don't have a burner (carry it there on your usb stick). Then insert the disk and when booting up you there should be a message at the bottom of the screen saying something like "Press F12 to select boot medium." though the botton varies by manufacturer. Then just select the dvd drive and the installer should start.

I haven't put a DVD drive in the PC I built. I have downloaded the Windows 10 ISO but it won't let me copy it to a USB, and it says I need Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 to be able to create a media creation tool to be able to use the USB. Since I only have Vista I can't do that. Unsure where to go now, other than if I can use Linux. Any suggestions on how to get Windows, or Linux, etc?

[Loewchen]

I haven't put a DVD drive in the PC I built. I have downloaded the Windows 10 ISO but it won't let me copy it to a USB, and it says I need Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 to be able to create a media creation tool to be able to use the USB. Since I only have Vista I can't do that. Unsure where to go now, other than if I can use Linux. Any suggestions on how to get Windows, or Linux, etc?

You have the iso, you can use any software that builds a bootable medium from it: https://youtu.be/jC0-4iyzgps
If you intend to use rufus, get 2.18 from: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases

[je11693]

Just to update you guys with the end result. Thanks to everyone for their help, really appreciate it. Great Factorio community!

I went with the following, I'm sure it's not perfect but hopefully enough to get me going:

Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6 core
Gigabyte B450M DS3H
Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Seagate 1TB hard drive
MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card
CiT - CIT-F3BLACKGREEN MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Logitech K120 Wired (USB) Keyboard
Genius - DX 110 Wired Optical Mouse
Windows 10 - no product key for now so the restricted version.

1 x copy of Factorio (downloading as I type! ) - hoping to get a proper session over the weekend when I don't have to get up early for work.... Also, where do you guys save your games, SSD or HDD? I think my Windows is on my SSD if that makes a difference.

[Jap2.0]

For HDD vs SSD: SSD is faster, but that will have little to no affect on playing Factorio other than saving and loading (although many people will argue that faster autosaves is very nice). I have my games on my hard drive, because those have a higher capacity at a lower cost, but if you have enough space there's no reason not to install it there.

[Koub]

I have a fast 256 GB system SSD (M2 PCIE). This is for system and software. With that, the slowest part of my computer startup is me typing my password . And I have a "slower" 1 TB SSD for games. By slower, I mean it has far lower performance than my system SSD, but no HDD can come close to its specs (save capacity). And finally, I have a few TB of HDD, for inert data storage, because one never has too much storage space .

Factorio does not need an SSD (except, as stated, on autosaves). I feel loading time is not hugely impacted upon game launch. Other games, on the contrary benefit hugely from SSDs. It really depends the amount of data, its spread across the disk "surface", ... Random access is usually HDDs' weakest points when compared to SSDs.

If you're the type of guy that only plays one game at a time, for an extended period of his life before switching to another one when fed up, installing Factorio (1-ish GB) will not fill your SSD too much. If you're more like playing 5-6 games depending on mood, and these are typical AAA games (~40-60 GB nowadays), then your SSD will never suffice.

[eradicator]

Also, where do you guys save your games, SSD or HDD?

Funny enough i didn't even notice the second interpretation of that ambigious question.

Where do i install my games?
→ On the harddrive, because modern games tend to be tens of gigabyte in size.

Where do i save my savegames?
→ Most modern games put progression data either in "my documents" or %appdata% on your main system drive (i.e. your SSD). If you install factorio via the installer or steam it'll do this too. You often don't get a choice on this.

Factorio is so small that putting it on the SSD won't hurt, but probably won't have much of a benefit either. I've recently moved it from HDD to SSD (various reasons) and haven't noticed much of a difference. Factorio is also in the weird situation that maps can get quite large, so large infact that if you save a lot your savegames will become larger than the base game data :D.

Factorio does not need an SSD (except, as stated, on autosaves). I feel loading time is not hugely impacted upon game launch.

My sprite atlas is 1.5GB. So theoretically loading the sprite atlas from a fast hdd would take about 15 seconds, vs less than 3s from ssd. But as it only happens once on initial launch it's not that much of a difference.

Other games, on the contrary benefit hugely from SSDs.

I don't remember any where i really noticed it. But i don't play any AAA games, so \o/. The best option is probably to install the games that you actively play on SSD, and the other ones on HDD. Steam has a "move this game to that other place" option somewhere if you're scared of manually copying stuff around ^^.