Over the years I have run and built many computers. Back in the 1990s I was a dedicated Amiga user, but I had to concede in the end that the platform was dead. I was running an Amiga 1200 that was extensively upgraded with a more powerful processor, lots of memory, a big hard drive and a CD ROM. Well it was a lot more powerful than any standard Amiga. So I decided I would have to move to Windows and bought a PC from some company in London. I think that was a 300MHz Pentium 3. Since then I have built various machines around AMD processors with the most recent having a quad core chip. That was back in 2014. Last year I finally upgraded the memory from 8GB to 24GB as it was struggling with some things. I am not a gamer, so it was more about things like video editing and general web use. Modern web pages are very intensive for processing.
I had seen that prices for memory and storage were increasing due to demand for data centres and AI so I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get something more up to date. I looked at Power Computing who have been around since the Amiga days and are not far from me. They allow you to specify what hardware you want and I was willing to pay the extra for someone else to assemble it. A few weeks ago I picked it up from their shop.
I went for a tower as I want it to be quiet and to be able to add more storage. The supplied hardware was:
- be quiet Pure Base 600 case.
- be quiet 750W PSU.
- be quiet Pure Rock 3 CPU cooler.
- Intel Core i5 14600KF 14/20 3.5/5.3GHz 24MB Cache.
- Asus Prime H610M-A motherboard with Wifi and Bluetooth.
- ADATA XPG Lancer 16GB DDR5 memory.
- ADATA Legend 860 1TB NVMe drive.
- Palit RTG5060 Initity 3 8GB graphics card.
- Logitech MK270 cordless keyboard and mouse.
One of my criteria is that a PC should be quiet as I will want to record music in the same room. I just had to make some compromises to keep the price down. Water cooling may be quieter. Power Computing tweaked my requirements a little to use more of the be quiet components and all I hear is a very low hum.
I also had to compromise on memory. Another 16GB would be about £200 now. Although I do not play games the GPU can accelerate things like video rendering and I may find other applications for it.
Obviously things have moved on a bit in the last 12 years. Memory and solid state drives are much quicker now and the processor has 16 cores so things will just be quicker. I noticed that immediately with some web pages such as Youtube that would take several seconds to load before and are now almost instant. The old PC had a small SSD drive, but this new one is much quicker.
I try to avoid Windows and so I did not buy that for this PC. Instead I installed Ubuntu Studio that includes most of what I need for audio and video on a solid Linux platform. The install from a USB drive was simple. I moved over my old 2TB hard drive and DVD writer. I have some other drives that may go in there too as there is plenty of room.
So far I am happy with my purchase. It seems that every time I want a new computer the price is about the same, but you get much more for your money even with the current supply issues.
I am still using my previous iiyama display, but will have to replace my second ancient screen as this PC only has HDMI and Displayport connections that it cannot use. I am also using my existing Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 audio interface. These things just work with Linux.
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What a beauty. I have an NVMe drive, and it's crazy how fast the computer comes on after hitting the power button. I'm in the market for a larger hard drive, because my 1 TB is always filling up, and I am in a constant battle moving stuff to externals.
I've been thinking of getting a Be Quiet CPU fan, because the one I have now is pretty noisy, and I notice it while recording voice-over stuff.
I read through a second time, and couldn't see if there was a price tag. How much was it? If you don't mind me asking. Your specs are better than mine, which are currently about 6 years old.
It was about £1400. Might have been cheaper a year ago. Video really eats disk space.
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Did you say what kind of processor you got in it? I might have missed that. Congrats on your new rig!
Ah, I missed that out. It's an i5 that I have added now. I'm not up on all the latest processors so just picked one in the price sweet spot.
Makes sense.
Ouch, 16gn ram is not that much for nowadays standards but yeah, prices are ridiculously high now
I know, but I'll see if that improves.
Congrats for the purchase!
Did you get it before the prices rise?
That was old DDR3 memory and was much cheaper than DDR5 so it was easy to justify.
Oh got it. I asked bc rn the price of ram skyrocket hehe.
very nice, Congratulation on your new PC, what is your main purpose for this heavy PC?
About 8 month ago bought mac mini m4, instead of Windows PC, my main purpose is try new things and upload it on youtube, so I am happy with the mac mini m4, also there no lagging while editing video. for Windows and Linux I have 2 another PC.
It will be for audio and video work as well as general use. The GPU may give options for things like local AI. I want it to last a while.
Excellent publication, very informative. The decision to install Ubuntu Studio instead of Windows is a magnificent alternative for those looking for a solid and free environment for video editing and music production
It sounds like you have a great history with tech, from extensively upgrading your old Amiga 1200 to building your own AMD-powered PCs since the '90s. Your 2014 quad-core build lasted a long time, but upgrading the RAM to 24GB last year was definitely a smart move to handle modern web browsing and video editing. It is impressive how you've kept your machines running so well over the years without needing a heavy gaming setup!
I think the change to DDR5 and a 16-core processor must make a huge difference in everyday tasks and video editing.
It's bound to be quicker
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