[ale] Back to new the desktop question

[Steve Litt]

Leam Hall via Ale said on Sun, 4 Dec 2022 06:45:14 -0600

>The old dell 960 is starting to flake out, and everything else I have
>is older and slower.
>
>The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X has my attention, since I don't do a lot of
>gaming or graphics. Is there a better CPU, with a decent price point?

I love my Ryzen 5 3600. 6 cores, 12 threads, good speed, only 65 watts.
It's about 2 years old. Your Ryzen 5 5600X is the modern version of my
3600, and right now it's only $159 at Best Buy 
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amd-ryzen-5-5600x-4th-gen-6-core-12-threads-unlocked-desktop-processor-with-wraith-stealth-cooler/6438943.p?skuId=6438943&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=157&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-KWnseLg-wIVjLKGCh0KNAbIEAQYAyABEgJ3UfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://tinyurl.com/2ta76cph

This processor has no built in video, so please, I beg you, get a
Radeon video card, not an nVidia. nVidia is Linux hostile, and I
absolutely could not get an nVidia card to work in my 3600 system
regardless of what combination of drivers I used. Radeon just works.


>Part of me wants a motherboard that can take several 32Gb memory
>sticks, while the other part of me notes that of the 2.4G of ram
>currently used, almost half of it is cached stuff.

My mobo has 4 16GB slots. I had 64GB RAM until one stick went bad, now
I had 48. Unless I'm running a lot of virtual machine guests, I'd guess
it will be 3 or 4 years before I need more.

>
>So, opinions on the 5600X, and suggestions on a motherboard for a
>small tower?

Most small mobos don't have 4 RAM slots, so you're limited on RAM and
also peripheral slots. I use a full tower, not just a mid tower,
because I got the parts from all over the place and I wanted a
guarantee that it would fit in the case. Small cases are also
moredifficult to keep cool. Small towers are great for a consumer level
machine, but if you want something able to do prime number generators
or lots of hard used VM guests, you need a mid tower.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm