My PC overview, July 2017
Over the course of last year, I had a few different computers for various needs. I had an Xbox One for gaming, a generic HP tower to serve as my Plex server, and a Lenovo laptop that was my on the go device and media converter. Late last year, that started to change. I switched out my Lenovo laptop for a Chromebook, and decided to build myself a computer than would be my gaming machine, home server, and media conversion box.
The main deciding factor behind my component choice was the desire to play video games. This meant a mid-range or better processor, and as powerful a video card I could get. All the media conversion applications primarily use the processor to convert the disk to an MP4 file, so that meant a high-end processor as well. Hosting a Plex server requires a solid network connection and a boatload of storage for my files, and using the PC for homework purposes could be done on any level of hardware. With this in mind, I bought my components.
My current components are:
Case: Fractal Design Core 500
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150N Phoenix WiFi
CPU: Intel i7–6700K
CPU Cooler: Themaltake Engine 27
RAM: 16GB (2x8) Corsair Vengeance
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce GTX1080TI Founder’s Edition
Solid State Drive (SSD): Crucial MX300 1TB M.2
Hard Disk Drive (HDD): HGST Ultrastar He8 8TB
Power Supply: Corsair SF600
Disk Drive: Pioneer BDR-211UBK UHD Blu Ray Drive
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
Monitor: Samsung 32" 1080P TV
Miscellaneous: Xbox Wireless Adapter, Xbox One Wireless Controller, Insignia Bluetooth Adapter, Logitech MX Master 2S mouse, LinDon-Tech 61 key wireless keyboard, Logitech C920 Webcam
I first built my PC in December 2016, and have changed cases twice and major parts a few times. I prefer a smaller form factor PC to save space, especially when the PC was living inside a TV stand as it was in my previous apartment. Even now that it’s on a proper desk, I still prefer having a minimalistic case. case instead of something larger. I currently have a Fractal Design Core 500 case, but when I first built my PC I built it inside of a Silverstone ML07. I chose the ML07 initially because of recommendations that it was a great small form factor case. I moved to the slightly smaller Silverstone ML08 case in May, and I regret doing so. For being slightly narrower than the ML07, I had to get rid of my 3.5 inch hard drive and use a smaller video card. I would not personally recommend the Silverstone ML08. About a month later, I purchased the Pioneer Blu Ray drive, which meant getting a case that could hold a 5.25” drive. I ended up with the Fractal Core 500, which I’m super happy with. I much prefer the more cube-like form factor of the Fractal Core than the elongated rectangle of the Silverstone cases, and the Fractal Node was easier to build inside. Were it not for my use of the Blu Ray drive, I would have waited and purchased a Dan Case A4 SFX since that case is even smaller.
Experienced readers may note that I am using an overclockable processor with a chipset that does not allow for overclocking. This was something I did not realize when I purchased the components, and it’ll serve as a lesson for next time. Even without overclocking, the 6700K processor is plenty fast for everything I need. But if I were building a system today, I would more than likely purchase an AMD Ryzen 7 1800X with a compatible motherboard. Handbrake — one of the programs I use for video convserions — will use as many cores as a system has to convert videos, so using an 8-core system instead of a 4-core system would be much faster. Even so, the 6700K is fast enough for now. When/if users can ever rip UHD Blu Rays to their computers, the file sizes for those are going to be much larger than they are on 1080P Blu Rays today. Then, I may look at upgrading to a processor with more cores to speed things up. The motherboard features an M.2 SSD slot on the rear of the motherboard, 2 RAM slots, USB 3.1 generation 2 (10 gbps) via one USB-A and one USB-C port on the rear, a handful of USB 3.1 generation 1 (5 gbps) USB-A ports, one gigabit Ethernet port, a PS/2 port for older mice and keyboards, one DVI and one HDMI port, and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. All these work as intended, except for the Bluetooth. I’m not sure if it’s just my bad luck, but Bluetooth on any computer I’ve owned that uses Intel’s Bluetooth — as this motherboard does — doesn’t work. Because of this, I’ve disabled the Intel Bluetooth in Windows Device Manager and use an Insignia USB Bluetooth adapter. I chose the Thermaltake CPU cooler based on price and size alone, and I’m happy to say it performs very well. I decided on 16GB of RAM because that is the maximum that the motherboard will support.
Inside the M.2 slot, I currently have a 1TB Crucial MX300 drive. When I first built my PC, I used a 512gb Samsung 850 Evo drive in this slot, but upgraded for the extra storage when the MX300 went on sale. The SSD is used for my operating system, programs, games, and as a buffering zone for my movie conversions. When I rip movies from their disk, I rip them to the SSD to make that process as fast as it can be. Similarly, I have the conversions write to the SSD to make those as fast as possible as well. Once the conversion process is done and the files are tagged using MetaX, I move them from the SSD to the HDD and copy them to my external backup drive. On paper, a drive like the Samsung 960 Pro would be even better because of its faster read and write speeds, but at $575 for the 1TB version, I’m not in a rush to upgrade. Depending on how many games I have installed or how many videos I’m working on converting, I typically have between 400gb and 700gb free on the drive, so the upgrade to a 1TB drive was well worth it.
As for the hard disk drive, I just upgraded to an 8TB version of HGST’s Helium-filled enterprise-grade drive. I currently have 2.25 TB of content on the hard disk, but I wanted to make sure there was room to grow. When I built the first PC, I used a 5TB drive I had inside my previous server PC (an off the shelf HP tower from Best Buy), combined with a 4TB drive I had as additional storage for my Xbox One into one dynamic 9TB drive (closer to 8TB after formatting). The death of the 5TB drive is part of what led me from the ML07 to the ML08, at which time I purchased two 2TB Seagate drives to combine into a 4TB (3.63 TB after formatting) dynamic drive. As suggested, turning drives into dynamic drives allows users to see and write to one large pool rather than multiple smaller pools. The downside to this is decreased read and write performance. Reading from the drive is still more than fast enough for playing back movies and TV shows, but slow write performance rears its ugly head whenever I’m copying files from the SSD or from my external drive. Because of this and the general unreliability of Seagate drives — the 5TB drive and my previous external drive were both Seagate drives, and both died after less than two years of use — I decided to bite the bullet on the 8TB HGST drive. I just started using it, and I hope it serves me well.
For my video card, I started with a Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Extreme because it was the fastest clocked version of the GTX 1080 at the time of purchase. The card performed well, but still stuttered when trying to play games at 4K with max detail settings. When I moved from the Silverstone ML07 to the ML08, the GTX 1080 was too large to fit inside the ML08. Fortunately for me, a friend was looking to build his first PC. I was able to sell him my GTX 1080 and upgrade to the Founder’s Edition GTX 1080 TI. I had been wanting to upgrade to the 1080 TI anyway because it can actually play games at 4K with max detail and high framerates, so that worked out well. I decided on the Founder’s Edition over one of the custom variants because I wanted to be sure it would fit inside the ML08 case.
I chose the Corsair SF600 power supply because the ML07 required a small form factor power supply, and the SF600 was the largest capacity I could get. With power supplies, it’s important to get more power than what the components require. If all the components inside a PC require 400 watts of power and the user puts in a 400 watt power supply, that power supply is going to be using running at 100% speed, meaning the power supply fan will be constantly running and the power supply will wear out faster. Getting extra capacity up front also lets the user avoid upgrading their power supply when they upgrade other components. When I moved from the 180 watt GTX 1080 to the 250 watt 1080 TI, I did not need to worry about getting a more powerful power supply because I was still within the range of what the power supply could comfortably output.
When I first built my PC, I kept using the external Blu Ray drive I’d been using for about a year. When the Pioneer BDR-211UBK was released, I decided to purchase that because it was the first (and so far, only) Blu Ray drive capable of handling UHD Blu Ray disks. It is still not possible to actually decode those disks to convert them to an MP4, but having an internal Blu Ray drive has other advantages. It frees up a USB port, allows for a cleaner overall build, and conversion speeds are much, much faster on an internal drive than an external drive. For my operating system, I purchased a Windows 10 Home USB drive from Amazon. If I were to do it all again, I would have made my own Windows 10 USB installation using Microsoft’s Windows Media Creator tool, and purchased a Windows 10 Pro key online. There are a few sites that offer legitimate OEM keys that users can use for their system, and I recently upgraded to Windows 10 Pro using a license key purchased from Kinguin.net. I decided to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro primarily for the including Bitlocker drive encryption so I could encrypt a flash drive containing personal files. Another benefit of that is being able to hide built in applications I don’t use such as OneDrive and Groove Music.
For my monitor, I’m using a 32 inch Samsung 1080P TV. I decided to get this instead of an actual monitor because it has speakers already built in, something that isn’t guaranteed with all monitors. Fortunately, it isn’t a smart TV so I don’t have to deal with the extra bloat that comes from a smart TV OS. While a 4K monitor would be nice, this will work just fine until those come down in price. While I keep my webcam unplugged most of the time for security reasons, I use the Logitech C920 webcam when I do need to do a video call.
For games, I decided to stick with my Xbox One Elite Controller, since I prefer using a controller over a keyboard and mouse. This was especially true when the PC lived in my living room, but even now that I’m playing at a desk, I still use a controller. I know that it puts me at a disadvantage compared to keyboard users, but I don’t care. To connect, I purchased an Xbox Wireless USB adapter, and it worked without issue. I’m actually going back to gaming on an Xbox One S, but that’s an article for another day. Even now that I have one of the newer Xbox Controllers with Bluetooth, I still connect via the wireless USB adapter because of the aforementioned Bluetooth problems. When I had my PC in my living room, I used a Logitech K830 keyboard to navigate the interface, but I’m now using a Logitech MX Master 2S mouse and a Lindon-Tech 61-key mechanical keyboard, both paired over Bluetooth. Astute readers may note I did not mention any custom RGB lights for my PC, and that’s on purpose. I understand why people may want to see their internal components and have their own lighting assigned, but I do not. I want my computer to do work, and it does.
Overall, I’m really happy with how my PC currently is. It performs all of its assigned tasks wonderfully, is unassuming and quiet, and works without issue. While I’m curious about the new AMD Ryzen processors, that upgrade will be a few months away at the soonest. I’m very happy I was able to combine all my disparate devices into one powerhouse.
