Building new machines

[Silverhazesurfer]

Surfer here....I hope all has been well. It's been a while, as usual recently.

I'm building two new machines for the shop. One is a work station that my parts rep will use. Dual screens, nothing crazy. The other will be my Hub machine for use with my daily office requirements as well as supporting additional network connections for device configuration uploads, more USB 2/3 sockets, a couple of hard drives for data storage and documentation, virtual machine potential, and anything else I want to make it do. Here's the thing....

I want Windows 7. FML if I can't work through thousands of boards to narrow down where I can get one that will hold a CPU with enough cores to handle processing but doesn't have a BIOS that requires Windows 10 security functions. Most of what I've gotten in the past is ASUS boards. So far, I find ones that are higher than I want to spend or otherwise not up to par equipment-wise. A board with potential for 32GB of memory and a quad core or higher Intel CPU is where I'm pointed.

Asus was my go to for a while. I used to use Gigabyte video cards a while back (when I first signed up to this site, actually). Those cards would fail, leading one to believe they were crap quality. I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with cramming them in a metal cigar box with all the other stuff and expecting it to run 24/7, right?

Who is your go to for system parts? Do you have a preferred manufacturer? Who should I stay away from? Comment below.

 

[Ian]

Good to see you again . It's almost your 10 year anniversary here!

Most of us on here will be from the UK, but I'm sure some of the USA members will have some component supplier suggestions.

I don't think there are many "avoid" manufacturers these days - there used to be plenty, but any of the big names (Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, ASRock, etc...) are pretty solid. I tend to look at their warranty period and how well supported old boards are for BIOS updates.

Is there a reason you need to use Windows 7, or is it just a strong preference? The reason I ask is that MS are doing anything and everything to shift people away from it (as it's pretty old now). Security updates will stop in around 2020 IIRC, which isn't far away and could leave you with big problems in a couple of years. If you've got any specific problems with WIndows 10, it may be easier for us to suggest a workaround for that instead (or even use Linux).

Those cards would fail, leading one to believe they were crap quality. I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with cramming them in a metal cigar box with all the other stuff and expecting it to run 24/7, right?

I think that you have have found the problem .

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Good to see you again . It's almost your 10 year anniversary here!

Time flies, huh.

I don't think there are many "avoid" manufacturers these days - there used to be plenty, but any of the big names (Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, ASRock, etc...) are pretty solid. I tend to look at their warranty period and how well supported old boards are for BIOS updates.

For me, the only true "avoid" is the AMD systems. I have never had success with a quick AMD setup. Shame, bc I used to like the old school AMD options against the Pentium MMX technology. I'm looking in the direction of GB for a board.

Is there a reason you need to use Windows 7, or is it just a strong preference? The reason I ask is that MS are doing anything and everything to shift people away from it (as it's pretty old now). Security updates will stop in around 2020 IIRC, which isn't far away and could leave you with big problems in a couple of years. If you've got any specific problems with WIndows 10, it may be easier for us to suggest a workaround for that instead (or even use Linux).

Win 7 has been the preference. Not only for me but for the office as well as many of the toys I get to play with. I had a Win 10 machine but quickly formatted it and put 7 on it. These machines are going to be used as workstations and one will have extended use for a terminal to interface with the devices we install on these yachts. I am on the edge of configuring a small domain setup for authentication to handle resource management. While not impossible to manage a 10 enterprise setup, it is not a learning curve that I want to jump into at the moment. The technology needed to get this office set up is not yet old enough to be ridiculously expensive. Once I get the base, I put upgrade schedules in place.

I think that you have have found the problem .

This is what they gave me to work with. I made it fit, for the price they offered. Failure rate was sub 5%.

 

[Abarbarian]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inte...ocket-lga1151-processor-retail-cp-64p-in.html

The Intel Pentium Gold G5400 offers a clock frequency of 3,7 GHz which offers plenty of power in games and applications. The L3 Cache has been increased to 4 Megabytes, the Thermal Design Power (TDP) sits at 54 Watts and as a Pentium Gold edition this dual-core processor comes with Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, meaning that not two but four threads can be processed simultaneously.

In direct comparison to the 200- series, 300- series processors allow for improved power delivery for the entire CPU - thereby improving overclockability. The integrated GPU has undergone similar improvements in terms of clock speeds and drivers, now bearing the new Intel HD Graphics UHD 630 designation. With its 24 Execution Units it offers more than adequate graphics power as well as Intel Quick Sync, GPU Compute and of course a game or two as well. Furthermore the GPU supports DirectX 12 with Feature-Level 12_1, OpenGL 4.5 and OpenCL 2.0 as well as 4K- and UHD resolutions at 60 Hz via Displayport. This requires a compatible motherboard.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...151-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-56p-gi.html

Don't want to spend too much money your next PC build but still want a great performing motherboard? Well the Gigabyte B360M D2V motherboard is perfect for the budget conscious PC builder. At the board's core is an Intel B360 chipset that is compatible with the powerful -8000 series Coffee Lake CPUs. Speedy memory access is provided by a modern M.2 slot as well as PCIe Gen3 and SATA interfaces. It even offers native support for ultra fast NVMe SSDs. This board won't break the bank and you don't have to compromise on performance.

The Gigabyte B360M D2V at a Glance:

• 1x PCIe (3.0) x16 & 2x PCIe (3.0) x1
• 1x M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4) / 6x SATA 6G
• Total of 6x USB 3.0 and 6x USB 2.0 (internal & external)
• Supports max. 32 GB DDR4-RAM at 2.666 MHz

The above cost about £120. Add in a 128 GB NVME drive and 4/8 GB of DDR4 memory and you have your parts rep work station.

https://www.gearbest.com/cables-con...29.html?wid=1433363&currency=GBP&vip=15026323

Oh and another £1 for something like the above to get your dual monitor support.

The above may even be powerful enough for your own pc.



You will have to source the cigar tin your self as I have stopped smoking.

 

[Ian]

For me, the only true "avoid" is the AMD systems. I have never had success with a quick AMD setup. Shame, bc I used to like the old school AMD options against the Pentium MMX technology. I'm looking in the direction of GB for a board.

Funnily enough, with all uses of the machine that you suggested, I was thinking this may be a nice time to try the AMD Ryzen 2 . I've not used AMD CPUs for a few years myself, but my next machine may be one - as it looks like they're great multitasking performers at the moment. Plenty of good Intel options out there though .

Gigabyte are solid, so that's a good choice for a board .