New 2019 Desktop PC in 2021

I finally setup a new desktop pc after thinking about it since 2017. My previous desktop is using a 2010 processor. After the long period, the only original part of that set is left the cpu, cooler and chasing. I have burn 2 motherboards and few hard disk. My RAM is in bad state as it will easy gone MIA from time to time. 

The main reason I finally change it because I cannot watch movie from Youtube smoothly, it keep lagging and loading slow. 2K mode is a stretch and 4K mode direct die out.

So I tried to get an Intel i5 11th 11400, due to the pandemic, the stock is very rare and I cannot get it from anywhere. I need to make order and wait for it to be available. So I switch to AMD Ryzen, and to mine surprise, the newer model has exceed my budget. It is way expensive than Intel and it is crazy to me.

I tried a few shop but all need to bundle a full set computer, including casing. It is not acceptable for me. So I keep on trying to find alternative. Finally, I got one shop who allow me to only purchase CPU and motherboard only. 

I purchase the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, which is a 2019 chip without GPU and a B450 motherboard and a DDR4 2666Mhz RAM.

At that time, I didn't care much of these spec as I just want a new computer. 

Later on, my friend told me that I had purchase the weaker model of the motherboard as the B450 Tomahawk Max 2 is older chipset and I should get the B550 Tomahawk instead. But the price different between these two is RM300 and for that I will get a PCIE 4.0 slot for GPU which I don't have any and unaffordable to get one with current crazy chaos price. 

A higher ram support but my CPU can only support up to 3200 which B450 need to overclocking it to support and due to my own mistake, I didn't check the ram speed, the shop owner gave me a 2666Mhz, which actually suit for the motherboard. 

I don't have high speed M2 SSD as of now and damn fuck if I need to change hard disk again to reinstall windows again. I have format quite a lot for the pass year and I am very tired to do so again. (I end up format the SSD again due to other reason)

For the rest, all seem to be fine for me. B550 might have the ARGB direct support but I am not fond of that lighting stuff. For that extra RM300, I end up purchase another 3200Mhz ram to make a dual channel ram.

With these three component, I should have enough to set up a new desktop. But life always have a twist. I notice that my PSU also from the original setup and it has used for the pass 11 years, normal PSU has a life limit of around 5 years, which I have exceed it too extreme. This force me to change the PSU. I went to another shop to purchase a 650W bronze level but the shop told me it is out of stock, so I purchase gold level instead as it has 10 years warranty. This has double the budget of my PSU.

The next issue I notice is I put my cooler in wrong direction that block my ram slot. So I have to rearrange it that force me to purchase a thermal paste. After that, I read some review that the stock cooler is not enough as in my old case, the air flow is making the cpu run higher than normal even I have added two new case fan. So I order a new cooler that match my case height limit. 

Then I spot a promo price for a very damn nice case that can support very high cooler which mean better cooler. I tried to replace my order with a better cooler and the store owner allow me. But, life is full of but, the case is a scam alike, it was a mistake pricing and my order for the case is cancelled. 

Now I end up with a higher cooler that cannot fit in my case. This make me mad so I order a new case that will fit my cooler. I torn between two choice of case, Thermaltake T200 TG which has a rgb light beside the frame or a normal design Cooler Master Masterbox NR600. After a few thought, I opt for the NR600 as my case will be under my desk and most of the time I wouldn't see it. It has better air flow compare to the H200 as its front is a mesh that allow air direct being pull to the case. 

So when the case and cooler delivered, I started to transfer the motherboard to new case and install the new cooler to it. I face some issue of screwing the cooler to the board, it seem that one of the leg is a bit de-align and I tried a few times only to able to solve it but not in a perfect condition.

The assemble took me around 3 hours to complete it. I still need to do minor adjustment on the cable for time to time. One of the big issue I keep facing is when I open the right panel and close it again, the SSD tend not to be detected. I don't know why, then I notice I install SSD to SATA 2 and my normal HDD to SATA 1. I switch both of it and will see if this happen again.

Now my whole set of computer is complete. It is a long journey with full of obstacle and careless mistake in part but to my life philosophy, nothing is perfect, the perfect thing is imperfect.   

As for my ram, when I am using single ram 2666Mhz, I keep feeling I am missing something, so I order another ram, 3200Mhz. I put it to slot 2 and 2666 in slot 4. The system XMP will adjust it to 2666Mhz. Then I switch these ram and now the XMP will detect it as 3200Mhz. I didn't adjust the rest of the setting. So now in theory, I have 32GB of 3200Mhz running in dual channel. I did a benchmark and the ram performance is better than last config. I ask the MSI support on my configuration on whether it will damage my ram in the long run, they said as long as the XMP is in auto setting, it should be fine. Guess I will just have to take their word on it.

The final touch will be the 2 blue case fan for the front in-take.

Here is the spec for my new desktop:

Main component:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Hyper X 2666 16G

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max 2

Unplanned add-on:

Cooler Master V650 Gold

Cooler Master Slickleflow 120

Cooler Master Masterfan MF120L blue x 3

USB 3.0 PCIE Card

TP-Link T9UH

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Turbo Red

Cooler Master MasterGel Pro V2

Cooler Master Masterbox NR600

Seagate 4TB portable

Hyper X 3200 16G

TP-Link AX50

TP-Link AX50 - all the wrong make it right?

I just purchase the TP-Link AX50 as it seem that it can support higher bandwidth and from the spec it is look to be better than AX20 which is RM50 cheaper. Not after I purchase it and read its review (* I know I should have read it first but thats how I purchase stuff).

It look like this device has very bad review even thought a lot of big site giving it a good rating (* feel so rotten tomatoes).  

At start, I feel regret that had purchase the worst device for almost RM300 when I can get the better router, AX20 at RM259.

Then I do a compare with both of them. Compare to AX20, AX50 lack of WPA3 and OneMesh support, it also seem like easy gone over heat which said will throttle the WIFI speed. The USB 3.0 speed is not better than the USB 2.0 in AX20.

From first glance, I really make a mistake purchase the device.

Then I started to summarize what I need actually aside what people said you need.

I check my current devices, none of them support WPA3 and if I activate WPA3, none of them will able to utilize the benefit and there might be combability issue also according to some reviewer. Upgrade existing devices to new one is not an overnight change. It might took years to do it. TP-Link UK said they might push the update for WPA3 but promise is only a promise, there is no law to force them to keep it.

Then is the OneMesh feature which is promised by TP-Link but kena can by them without any reasonable reason except to con you to upgrade to the newer router, AX73. From where I live, my house is not that big that I need a mesh solution. Good to have but no use case in near future, maybe until the router die out also wouldn't be using this feature. My previous router has this feature but I never use it either.

These two missing feature is one of their selling point during launch, promising to implement it in near future. It is a bit fuck when a company using these low cheap dirty marketing bait. Will never trust their promise anymore.

On the bright side, compare to the AX20, this AX50 does come with built in Antivirus feature, to me, it is a major feature as we never know when we will get into trouble. Currently I am depending on Windows 10 built-in and browser built-in detection. Another layer of protection is always a plus to me.

As for overheat, I think it is due to the case design, if not, AX21 wont be adding bigger heatsink to it. TP-Link might have notice the heat issue is due to the case design. With Intel chipset that notoriously bad in heat make the situation more bad.

From what I learn from the pass months, electronic device is tear and wear, even you able to keep using it for long period of time, but the new technology will obsolete it and you will need to get a new one.

I aim for this router is 3 years as with its router. Given spending RM100 a year for a router seem not bad. After 3 years, will see what the future has for us. 

 

AMD Phenom II X4 965 - 2010-2021

 I bought this CPU after I felt the Sempron is not capable for my daily usage anymore. As till 2021, it finally meet its moment of retired also. It cannot cope with the 4K media playback. It should be the longest CPU I have usage since the pass decade.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 (125W, BE) specifications

The specs can be used for short-term

listings on auction and classifieds sites

General information
Type	CPU / Microprocessor
Market segment	Desktop
Family	AMD Phenom II X4
Model number  ?	965
CPU part numbers	HDZ965FBK4DGM is an OEM/tray microprocessor HDZ965FBGMBOX is a boxed microprocessor with fan and heatsink
Stepping codes	AACAC AC   CACAC AC   CACDC AC   CACYC AC
Frequency  ?	3400 MHz
Bus speed  ?	667 MHz Memory controller One 2000 MHz 16-bit HyperTransport link (4 GT/s)
Clock multiplier  ?	17
Package	938-pin organic micro-PGA
Sockets	Socket AM2+ Socket AM3
Introduction date	Nov 4, 2009
End-of-Life date	September 2012
Price at introduction	$195
Architecture / Microarchitecture
Microarchitecture	K10
Platform	Dragon
Processor core  ?	Deneb
Core stepping  ?	RB-C3
CPUID	100F43
Manufacturing process	0.045 micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology 758 million transistors
Die	258mm2
Data width	64 bit
The number of CPU cores	4
The number of threads	4
Floating Point Unit	Integrated
Level 1 cache size  ?	4 x 64 KB 2-way set associative instruction caches 4 x 64 KB 2-way set associative data caches
Level 2 cache size  ?	4 x 512 KB 16-way set associative exclusive caches
Level 3 cache size	Shared 6 MB 48-way set associative cache
Cache latency	3 (L1 cache)
Virtual memory	256 TB
Multiprocessing	Uniprocessor
Extensions and Technologies	MMX instructions Extensions to MMX 3DNow! technology Extensions to 3DNow! SSE / Streaming SIMD Extensions SSE2 / Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 SSE3 / Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 SSE4a  ?  AMD64 / AMD 64-bit technology  ?  AMD-V / AMD Virtualization technology
Security Features	EVP / Enhanced Virus Protection  ?
Low power features	Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 CoolCore Technology  ?  Dual Dynamic Power Management  ?  Core C1 and C1E states Package S0, S1, S3, S4 and S5 states
Integrated peripherals / components
Integrated graphics	None
Memory controller	The number of controllers: 1 Memory channels: 2 Channel width (bits): 72 Supported memory: DDR2-1066, DDR3-1333 DIMMs per channel: up to 2 Maximum memory bandwidth (GB/s): 21.3
Other peripherals	HyperTransport 3 technology
Electrical / Thermal parameters
V core  ?	0.825V - 1.4V
Maximum operating temperature  ?	55°C - 62°C
Thermal Design Power  ?	125 Watt
Notes on AMD Phenom II X4 965 (125W, BE)
The processor has unlocked clock multiplier

AMD Sempron 2400+ - 2004 - 2010

 This is my second desktop CPU which I use throughout my university period until 2010 when it has difficulty keep up with new Windows OS.

AMD Sempron 2400+ (Thoroughbred) specifications

General information
Type	CPU / Microprocessor
Market segment	Desktop
Family	AMD Sempron
Model number  ?	2400+
CPU part numbers	SDA2400DUT3D is an OEM/tray microprocessor SDA2400BOX is a boxed microprocessor with fan and heatsink
Stepping codes	BCXJB   BIXJB
Frequency  ?	2400+ (rated) 1667 MHz (actual)
Bus speed  ?	333 MHz
Clock multiplier  ?	10
Package	453-pin organic PGA 1.95" x 1.95" (4.95 cm x 4.95 cm)
AMD Package numbers	27648, 28104
Socket	Socket A (Socket 462)
Introduction date	July 28, 2004
Price at introduction	$61
Architecture / Microarchitecture
Microarchitecture	K7
Processor core  ?	Thoroughbred (Model 8)
CPUID	681
Manufacturing process	0.13 micron
Data width	32 bit
The number of CPU cores	1
The number of threads	1
Floating Point Unit	Integrated
Level 1 cache size  ?	64 KB 2-way set associative instruction cache 64 KB 2-way set associative data cache
Level 2 cache size  ?	Full speed on-die 256 KB 16-way set associative exclusive cache
Multiprocessing	Uniprocessor
Extensions and Technologies	MMX instructions Extensions to MMX 3DNow! technology Extensions to 3DNow! SSE / Streaming SIMD Extensions
Low power features	Halt state Stop Grant states Sleep state  ?  Probe state
Integrated peripherals / components
Integrated graphics	None
Electrical / Thermal parameters
V core  ?	1.6V
Minimum/Maximum operating temperature  ?	0°C - 90°C
Minimum/Typical/Maximum power dissipation	7.9 Watt (Stop Grant mode) / 55.9 Watt / 62 Watt
Notes on AMD Sempron 2400+ (Thoroughbred)
Actual bus frequency is 166 MHz. Because the processor uses Double Data Rate bus the effective bus speed is 333 MHz