Anyone on here built their own PC ?
Since the recent lockdown I decided how to build a PC.
Once I was confident in changing the motherboard and PSU I thought i’d give building a PC from scratch a go with all my parts i’ve accumulated over the last year and got a lovely new fractal design case.
My first ever build took about just over two hours.
Just built another one with old parts that I don’t use and it took about one hour
My last PC I specced myself but had it built by the PC builderers.
And then within 6 months promptly swapped out most of the components.
I’m thinking about the next one though - considering building a standalone media server for streaming to Plex, etc - though I haven’t a clue on the specs I want/need for that.
Yeah it’s fairly straightforward. Here’s my method which worked well.
Mount SSDs and HDDs
Install standoffs inside the case
Fit the I/O shield and then the mobo
Connect the PSU up
Connect the PWR switch/ USB 3.0 cable and USB 2.0 cable ( if you have one ) / Sata cables / Case fans
If installing a new heatsink then best to do it outside the case before you put the mobo in
I built a little home server during the first lockdown last year, didn’t take long, was the first time I’ve done anything like that since i was i school all them years ago
I’ve built a lot of PC’s over the years. I got fed up with the constant hardware upgrades tbh. They were mostly for WFH reasons and Plex server requirements (low performance). Some of them were for gaming (high performance) The requirements for gaming stopped when I finally jumped at the XBox One S when launched and more recently, a Stadia setup in late 2019
I hate the rat’s nest of wires too, so I go cloud/WiFi where I can.
After Plex (Plex Pass) killed the integrated play-from-cloud feature - which worked OK - a few years ago, I’d been looking for an alternative. I don’t particularly like having my own digital library on a local device which could fail, go missing, need updating and also need constant backing up to somewhere else because of these reasons. I have GDrive for that.
So I was on the edge of building a simple standalone PC to act as a Plex server for streaming to Plex clients with a sync’d link to my GDrive.
Then I came across ‘fooling’ a Raspberry Pi into thinking a Google Drive account was a connected USB device. And also setting up & running a Plex server instance on the RPi too. And boom - all my media stored in GDrive is streamed from the cloud to my Plex clients again via the RPi. So if I delete or add to my GDrive, a quick Library scan on that folder from a Plex client and everything is up to date. Works flawlessly too, although my Android TVs, Chromecast Ultra’s and RPi are connected to my router via Ethernet rather than WiFi. Most Plex clients are on WiFi, but they work fine streaming the online content.
No PC hardware and a very small box handles it all.
Cost about £40 all-in and transcoding of cloud media in real time is back baby! (<- I’m very happy about this)
A heatsink/fan is recommended to stop the Pi 
in extreme situations when cloud music is playing in one room at the same time as a film in one room and another film in another room. The temp rises fast 
Interesting - for a little while I had been using an online hosted server (seedbox) for my Plex server - basically connecting it to my Plex account and going from there - and that has worked far faster than my PC based Plex. But I don’t want to pay ongoing fees.
I had been considering getting a 2nd NAS to act as my media server - but again that’s getting into £££ hardware requirements territory (certainly looking at a Synology system anyway).
I’ve basically been slowly digitising my Blurays over lockdown, I’ve ended up with the 25GB-ish copy, and a transcoded 2-4GB file for my server and I’m getting a bit discombobulated in where I should store everything - though I think I’d be happy with one standalone PC connected to the home network/networked telly.
Though the rPi solution looks interesting - do you pay for the Google Drive storage then, and just upload media there? And the Pi handles the transcoding of any of your media in your network? (I.e. you could have a film on in two rooms, rather than a rPi for every telly?)
Also, I’m so lost on the gaming PC front - always been on consoles personally - when speccing the PC I currently have, which is mostly WFH and some CAD, it’s hard to spec for things that aren’t gaming, at least on online communitys. So much RGB too! (Though I am drawn in to some tasteful executions)
My PC build was a while ago now, but it still runs strong (has been built for 4 years now)
Intel core i& 5960x
Gigabyte X99-UD4
2x 500GB SSD
1x 4TB HDD
Radeon Vega 56 GPU
750 watt EVGA PSU
It’s easy to build a PC these days - even easier than when I built mine as most motherboards come with a built in IO shield and most cases have a stand-off to hold the board in place
Pro-tip - put the CPU. memory and cpu cooler on the board first - test the components before you put it in the case.
Leave those on the board as you can then use the cooler to help put the board in the case (if it’s an air cooler anyway)
I do pay for the GDrive storage. I was lucky enough to be on the 1TB plan before it got increased to 2TB at no extra cost. That’s the single location my digital media is stored.
I only have one RPi - it acts as the server, which streams to the various clients (Android TV’s, PC’s, tablets, phones, Chromebooks, Chromecasts)
This sounds like a lot, but with kids and lockdown, it surely helps!
Yup, I’ve been building my own since AMD were on top with their Athlon 64 and socket 939 line. Think I ran a 7900GT in that. I swapped the Athlon 3200 for the 3800 X2 when that came out.
The next one then was the Core2Duo, the E6600, before swapping that for the Q6600. I think that was it for the Core2 line…it was onto the i7, the monster that was the i7 920 with triple-channel RAM. I kept that until fairly recently.
The current one is an i7 7700K, but I’m waiting on another set of parts to upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 3900x --a stand-in while supplies of the 5900x or 5950x start to settle down. I’ll use the i7 as a living room PC for running old games that I find on GOG.
Edit: **I remembered it was a 7900GT, not 7600GT. It was an upgrade from the 6600GT I put in my shop-bought Pentium 4…
Have you had any issues with Google and your media files? I once received a notice from them in the web app regarding a completely legitimate, paid-for digital media file I had in my account.
On the subject of building PCs, I’ve done it for many years. I used to get a bit obsessed about upgrading to the latest and greatest components but I now only upgrade when I need to. It can get quite addictive (and expensive)!
I have built a few before, sites like this one can be useful to see the compatibility of various CPUs with motherboards, etc.
No issues, but it is all my historical CD/DVD collection digitised and only for my use. The physicals are in boxes in the loft gathering dust. For the last few years, we’ve watched recent movies via Sky & Netflix and music via Play music (now dead) and YouTube music. It’ll gradually swing over to streaming everything anyway so clinging on to my local/cloud copies is a bit bonkers, but I love using Plex.
The alert I got has stopped me from putting my digitised collection on there.
My motherboard is the highest rated according to part picker 
Just changed my CPU configuration to a push-pull.
Better temps and the RGB looks amazing
I love building PCs. Currently on a Mini-ITX Ryzen 5 3600 with a Radeon 5700XT in a beautiful Streacom DA2 case.
Currently trying to find ways to have it run a little cooler though. Will have to find a way to squeeze more fans in.
You using the stock cooler ? What sort of temps ?
Using a Noctua C14S on the CPU. I also run the CPU in the step down eco mode, so it’s only a 65w part.
The bigger issue is the GPU. It’s a Gigabyte triple fan cooler, but I think the temps (peaks in the high 80s on the core) are due to the case not having sufficient intake. That’s the price I pay for Mini-ITX I guess.
