[tech] Upgrades for Pinball and Clownfish

[Tom Almeida]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your feedback.

I went for the lower spec Ryzen 2600 because because it is cheaper than the
2700 without losing too much performance. While the extra two cores that
the 2700 has can make a difference in some scenarios, I can't see a
situation where someone would be majorly annoyed that they would be on a
computer with a 2600 instead of a 2700.

With regards to the GPU, Newegg currently has the MSI card listed for
$530.20
<https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137263>,
and Amazon for $329.99
<https://www.amazon.com/MSI-RX-Vega-Air-Boost/dp/B078DZR5YK> (although I
can't tell if the price is USD or AUD). I also can't find any information
about the fans, so I'm happy to change to the RTX 2060 if you believe it to
be the better choice.

Coming to storage, I agree that an M.2 SSD is probably optimal. I'll double
check the cases for pinball and clownfish later this week to make sure the
PSU and fans will be fine.

Thanks once again for your feedback.
[THA]

On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 11:38 AM Bob Adamson <bob at ucc.asn.au> wrote:

> Hi Tom,
>
>
>
> My 2c…
>
>
>
> CPU: The most recent rebuild of porcupine went with a Ryzen 2700 – I’m
> curious why you went with a lower spec on these two?
>
> GPU: Spec looks good – where did you find a vega 56 card for under $600
> though!? I had a look around and had real problems with vega 56
> availability, so I’m suggesting nvidia alternatives. The thing that kills
> the most graphics cards in UCC is without a doubt the fans seizing; I
> strongly recommend getting ball bearing fans where you can. I can’t find
> anywhere that lists the fan type on the MSI vega 56 card, but usually they
> advertise when they have the feature – definitely go with that if it has
> decent fans and your stated price. Otherwise, something like the Asus RTX
> 2060
> <https://www.pccasegear.com/products/45183/asus-geforce-rtx-2060-turbo-6gb>
> might be worth a look? You will want to double check the PSU size in
> clownfish if you go with the MSI – it suggests a 650W.
>
> Mobo: Good
>
> RAM: Good
>
> Storage: SATA presents a bottleneck that really sucks these days, and I
> think an M.2 SSD is the way to go. We went with an M.2 Samsung 970 EVO
> (MZ-V7E500BW) on porcupine and that seems to be pretty good. I would get
> this for both new machines and treat the 500GB SATA SSD as a spare/upgrade
> for something else.
>
> PSU/Case: I believe that both pinball and clownfish were built with
> several iterations of machine in mind, so the case and psu **should** be
> okay. The only thing we got bitten by with porcupine is the case fans. I
> ended up getting one of these
> <https://www.ple.com.au/Products/625721/Corsair-SP120-120mm-Static-Pressure-RGB-Fan>
> for the rear, and one of these
> <https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620077/Noctua-NF-R8-80mm-Redux-Ed-PWM-Cooling-Fan>
> for the front.
>
>
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> *From:* tech-bounces+bob=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.asn.au <tech-bounces+bob=
> ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.asn.au> *On Behalf Of *Tom Almeida
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 10 April 2019 6:32 PM
> *To:* tech at ucc.asn.au
> *Subject:* [tech] Upgrades for Pinball and Clownfish
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> After having recently had a look at the specifications for various
> machines in the clubroom, it has become pretty apparent that both Pinball
> and Clownfish are in dire need of an upgrade. I've listed their specs below:
>
>
>
> Name
>
> CPU
>
> GPU
>
> Mobo
>
> RAM
>
> Storage
>
> Pinball
>
> Intel Core i5-750
>
> NVidia GeForce 960
>
> ASUSTeK P7P55D LE
>
> 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333
>
> Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
>
> Clownfish
>
> AMD A8-3850
>
> NVidia Geforce 8800 GT
>
> ASUSTeK F1A75-M LE
>
> 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333
>
> Corsair Force 3 120GB
>
>
> Obviously Pinball has a "good enough" GPU and a pretty decent SSD, so
> those are likely not needing upgrading, however it seems to me as though
> almost everything else should be upgraded. Here are what I'd like to
> propose as new components for both of the computers:
>
>    - CPU: AMD Ryzen 2600 - $244
>    - GPU: MSI Radeon RX Vega 56 Air Boost - $550
>    - Mobo: ASRock B450 Pro4 - $139
>    - RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) - $150
>    - Storage: Samsung 860 EVO 500GB - $120
>
> All together, this would be a sum total of ~$1736 for all the parts for
> both computers given that everything gets bought new.
>
>
>
> Please let me know what you all think.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> [THA]
>
>
>
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