presently i have
1TB Intel 660p, partitioned out into a 120gb drive for OS and the other for games (idk if this helps or hurts, but it helps me in that it serves to organize better visually)
2x1TB Samsung 860 EVOs (games)
1x1TB 2.5" hard drive (i think it’s a hitachi? idk it was a salvage from a laptop that i upgraded to a Crucial MX500 500gb. I just use it as my ReLIVE gameplay video save location)
Can’t tell the difference between any of the drives tbh, except the hard drive.
Thanks again! Any advice on putting it all together?
Youtube has tons of guides.
This guy i think is good for beginners:
A great video. I was looking a few myself. I have a question. When applying the cpu thermal paste in the video above he places just a single small dot in the center. I noticed some other videos claim to make certain patterns with the paste.
Is there any difference or in a single dot of paste in the center enough for a Ryzen CPU?
Not really, just make sure to pick a decent paste. Something like Noctua NT-H1 would be nice. You don’t need a ton of it either, 3.5 grams should last you for years.
Ryzen CPU cooler has it preapplied.
Subsequent installs will require cleaning and paste, but generally it’s hard to use too much and easy to use too little.
Id say a large pea size is enough.
There’s tons of methods people use to apply and it doesn’t really matter unless you use too little or it’s literally dripping over the sides after installation
Thank you. I did not know the Ryzen had it preapplied. I thought it came with a kit with a small tube of the paste. That will make things easier.
Here’s how it looks to install:
A few years ago many people here were talking about the graphite thermal pads. There were some tests that looked interesting. Did these not catch on?
i think they’re almost as good as paste and reusable - i have enough paste that i never needed to try them out
Yeah, my understanding was they were testing within 1-2 degrees of paste (I believe it was within the margin of error) and some people were recommending them for people who were not comfortable using paste.
They’re kind of expensive for what they are, but I guess it’s a buy once kind of thing. Issue is unless you are changing coolers out regularly, you won’t need either because generally coolers come with preapplied paste or a tube anyway.
I’ve never purchased paste just used whatever came with my coolers and even with my overclocking I never noticed the paste being the problem
Lots of great advice here! Thank you.
For the Case, I know in the builds you chose the best case for the price but I don’t mind spending a little more to get a decent case. Looking for something easy to work with, as I am a first time builder, and with great airflow.
Same thing with the PSU. I don’t mind spending a little extra to make sure I get a decent one that won’t die out on me.
Any suggestions?
Case is often personal preference - look up reviews on them and see which one you think looks the most suited for your use case and that perform well and look the best to your taste.
PSU - I like the Seasonic units but it’s been a while and they’ve changed their model lineups. Corsair RM series is good quality and even the newer CX units are still pretty good.
Fractal design Meshify but even after using it I will prob swap it out to a R6 if a good deal comes around (gave my R4 to my nephew’s build)
Edit: 
Just checked and completely sold out of both units. These freaking PSU prices are plain awful!
You won’t find a better PSU for the price today, as most PSU are currently way over priced.
Corsair 650w Vengeance series is $85 out the door on the corsair web site (they also have the 750w for $10 more).
It’s the same CWT built platform was the cx series but has 105c Japanese capacitors throughout (unlike the cx series) increases efficiency from bronze to silver, and is semi-modular all the while being the same price as the non-modular cx 650w on Amazon. That is a total win.
You can google reviews on jonnyguru for the series, it received a 9/10 in performance and 10/10 in build quality.
i have the Corsair Vengeance Silver 650w in my Ryzen 5 1600 build - it’s a good unit so far but I haven’t seen it on amazon or newegg in a long time (got in on amazon a while ago) so i thought it was discontinued - is that showing on pcpp as an option?
it was back up on amazon and corsair a few weeks ago but no longer, I edited my post a few minutes ago…it’s starting to feel like it’s almost cheaper to fly to China and get a PSU there then it is to buy one here in the states. Every now and then Corsair will post B-Stock of units on their web site. I grabbed a CS550 for almost half off several years ago, JG stated on the forums they were all just return units from retailers that never sold.
all these damn build threads are giving me the itch again
why can’t zen 3 release sooner to give me a damn reason
Doggie have an itch? c’mere, good boy… (That’s what you get for being a Worgen).
Lol, this is why I never got involved … now I really want to go buy stuff - you guys are like digital crack dealers…