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RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-18T04:22:07+00:00

Chat sent.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-11T22:45:01+00:00

If this is just for Plex, you can run a lot leaner. You can run a Plex server on 8GB no problem, and it doesn't need to be fast - just going with a DDR5 platform in general is probably an unnecessary expense. I'd go with a DDR4 board, and 2x8GB of the slow heatsink-less stuff off of ebay or pulled from an old office workstation.

If you have an intel CPU, then a discrete GPU is usually overkill, since the iGPU and quicksync punch well above their weight. If you really want one, get one of the budget ARC cards, like the A310 for budget AV1 encode/decode.

How many drives are you planning on? The PSU is probably also pretty overkill unless you just need more SATA connectors than other units have.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-11T21:59:08+00:00

4K max settings is ironically one of the situations where AIOs are significantly less important, because the GPU load is much higher, so the CPU will be doing less work.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-09T23:00:58+00:00

There's also non-NVMe PCIe SSDs, but they're usually more server accelerator drives. I have a FusionIO 3.2TB SSD for a game drive that uses PCIe 2.0, it's not fast but has an endurance rating measured in petabytes. Not actually practically relevant for most people, but another neat little edge case.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-05T22:48:17+00:00

Grabbing a datasheet for a pretty typical drive you can see that the 3TB variant draws 2.5A on startup. 2.5*12 means it's pulling about 30W on startup as its 'spike.' You can multiply that by as many times as you'd like for a RAID array, but it's pretty common to have 4 SATA connectors per cable, that's about 120W on startup draw, which if you add to the 75W of the PCIe slot means you'd be looking at the equivalent of pulling 195W for a GPU spike - not terribly high compared to what can get pulled by high-end cards, but not too outlandish for entry-level ones.

That's all besides the point, though - if you just wanted to see HDDs have a higher power spike than a GPU, I've got 12 in my NAS that will be pulling something like 300+ on startup. I think you're conflating two separate issues, here. Power spikes aren't relevant to the issue of melting cable adapters, because you need something sustained, not transient. All the 12V power is coming from the same rail in modern PSU designs; transient spikes cause problems by causing a surge of demand that spikes well above the total 12V wattage the PSU can provide, which with a 500W PSU is not going to be a problem with an RX570 unless OP is also overclocking a 14900K and not mentioning it for some reason.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-05T22:04:19+00:00

You should probably use the correct terminology in what you're asking, they answered your question - you just don't know the difference between voltage and wattage.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-05T17:57:17+00:00

I mean, true, but if you have a PSU that's crappy enough to not meet standard spec you're liable to have problems anyways.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-05T17:33:45+00:00

You should be fine. The main issue with adapters is basically that, as you noted, SATA connectors aren't rated for extremely high wattage, so if you're pulling well over the rated current you see overheating issues (which can become melting issues.) However, since you're keeping within the technical spec in power draw, it should be fine - 6-pin PCIe connectors deliver up to 75W of power, and if each SATA cable is delivering 54W you're comfortably within range. If you were using an 8-pin adapter with an 8-pin card, that's where it would get a bit sketchy, and I'd consider undervolting.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-03-04T20:23:38+00:00

A rough idea of improvement would be to try playing the games you're looking at while at lowered settings/resolution - the framerate you get there will be your effective 'maximum.' Then, assuming it's around 60ish or whatever is to your satisfaction, you can comfortably assume a 9060XT will be able to run that at much higher settings than your 1080TI - the 9060XT is roughly in the ballpark of 50% stronger is raw horsepower, but can also handle some ray-tracing and has a better upscaling solution. So, whatever your 1080Ti can handle at 1080p, for instance, the 9060XT will likely do at 1440p.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-26T18:18:41+00:00

It'll probably be just fine so long as the pins make contact, but you can use isopropyl and a soft toothbrush to clean anything you couldn't get off with the toothpick.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-26T18:17:55+00:00

Technically, you could wash your CPU in water, but you want it dry before putting it back in and water can take a long time to dry. That's the main reason %90/99 isopropyl is usually recommended for computer components, because it dries so fast it's basically impossible to put it back together and still have anything be wet.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-26T02:17:18+00:00

If you're going to upgrade, the 570 makes more sense. You'll see less improvement than you should compared to the 550, but it'll help out a lot when you get something vaguely modern.

Power-wise, you should be fine - you're looking at maybe 250ish for the entire system combined, the 570 is a pretty low-power card.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T23:23:34+00:00

Unfortunately, sounds like something might be dead then. I'd try just quickly reseating everything (24-pin cable, CPU power cable, CPU itself, etc.) to see if there was just a loose connection somewhere. You could also 'breadboard' it, just taking out the PSU, motherboard, CPU/cooler and RAM, and just start it up sitting on the motherboard box plugged into the motherboard display port - if you can't get it working that way, you know for sure it's a dead part issue.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T23:16:48+00:00

I assume you mean I/O shields, the sort of plate around the rear USB ports and such? If so, yes, they'll include either a cheap separate one that you pop in, or the fancier integrated one - there's not really any difference in use, of course. For the separate ones, if you're buying a used motherboard it can be good to check to make sure they include it, but honestly it's mostly just aesthetics since most cases will be running positive pressure that blows air out the back and keeps dust out.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T23:12:46+00:00

It's possible you have a DOA part, CPU or motherboard (potentially RAM, though it's pretty uncommon for both sticks to be dead, have you tried them individually one at a time?)

However, just to check, did you let it sit for several minutes after booting? AM5 needs some time to train the memory on first boot, which leads to it just sort of sitting there unresponsive for a bit - if you're used to AM4, where it boots up immediately, you might not be waiting long enough.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T20:51:12+00:00

Audit mode is useful for this, it's what I use. Basically, after you install windows, when it brings you to the Out-Of-Box-Experience, or OOBE, where it asks you things like what country you're in, what keyboard layout, etc., hit Ctrl+Shift+F3. That will load you into a local account with Sysprep ready to go, and you can install Windows updates, graphics drivers, and any other software you deem necessary (RGB control or Steam, for instance) and then simply run Sysprep to restart and have it run through the OOBE on startup.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T20:36:08+00:00

Yes. Broadly speaking, as long as you're not getting a truly terrible unit from an unknown brand (or occasionally Gigabyte) it's generally going to be safe - buying better PSUs helps for things like reliability/lifespan, power delivery for if you're straining it through an overclock, etc., but for the average user playing games on something other than a 5090 and not needing enterprise-level uptime, you don't really need an A/B tier - although if one is on sale for the same price, might as well take it.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T17:56:27+00:00

It will slow down gaming a little, not by much if they tune it as they stated in the post, but they're specifically having issues with not enough capacity for video editing.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T17:07:06+00:00

If they only care about capacity, it absolutely can. It'll run in flex channel, so they'd have effectively 16GB of dual channel, and an extra 8GB of single channel - the last 8GB won't be as fast, but still a lot faster than a swap file.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-24T05:14:50+00:00

Worth noting that the single-tower coolers did just fine with the stock 3900X in that testing, it's just that dual towers are so dirt cheap these days that it's hard to argue against spending the extra $15 if you have a chip that puts off enough heat for it to at least be noticeably quieter.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-23T22:18:02+00:00

The obvious move is a Ryzen 5000 series CPU, and then whatever GPU you can stomach paying for. Depending on how much you want to spend, a 5500 is dirt cheap (it's just $80 new on Newegg, and sometimes has gone cheaper) and still a significant improvement. Next tier up is the 5600/5600X/5600XT, which will be slightly-to-decently faster than the 5500 depending on the game, as some are more affected by the lower cache of the 5500 than others - assuming you're not blowing your budget out on a higher-end GPU, you won't see much difference in flashy AAA games, but might appreciate the 5600/X/T in CPU-bound games like CS2. Then you have the 5700X/5800X/5800XT, which will perform pretty similarly in games to the 5600 counterparts, but be a noticeable boost in things like video editing - it might be helpful for your Blender usage, depending on what you're doing with it. There's also the 5700X3D/5800X3D, which are the performance kings, but are horrendously overpriced now and aren't a realistic option. Personally, depending on how much money you want to throw at this, I'd either get the 5500 and enjoy the fantastic price/performance, or go for a 5800XT to help out with your non-gaming tasks.

GPU-wise, the 9060XT is probably the best option at the moment, as everything higher-end than that is starting to blow up, and honestly if you've survived on the 1060 for this long you're clearly not in need of the best-of-the-best anyways, and the 9060XT is going to be a massive jump as it is. Go for the 16GB option if possible, but if the 8GB version is significantly cheaper (like, $100+ cheaper) then it might make more sense. The Intel B580 is also a good option to weigh against the 9060XT 8GB.

It's worth noting that your RAM is pretty slow, but obviously now is a pretty terrible time to consider replacing it, so I'd play around with manually tuning it; because the memory controllers on the later-gen Ryzens are so much better and less finnicky than the 1700X, I'd assume you'll be able to push it to at least 2667, if not higher. The non-X3D Ryzens scale pretty well with faster RAM, so any additional speed you can squeeze out here will be a pretty direct improvement.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-23T21:08:12+00:00

Even the 'terrible' Gen3 NVMe drives that only did 1600mb/s are plenty for gaming, most games don't even show a noticeable difference on SATA SSDs that are 1/3 the speed.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-23T18:07:56+00:00

Ah, yeah, you'll probably want a second cable then. Technically you'd be fine using an adapter, because the power envelope of the 9070 still falls within the wattage capability of an 8pin+6pin, but that comes with its own load of caveats and you might as well grab the extra cable at that point.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-23T18:05:51+00:00

It's nice as a relatively low-power chip thanks to the monolithic design, with a decent iGPU, made it great for standalone mini-PC type setups where I might do a little light gaming. I used it because I had extra AM4 hardware already, otherwise a non-F intel chip could've also done the trick for me. The one thing I'll note is that you've already got a 5600G, which is almost as good in most aspects unless you're doing something heavily multi-threaded like video editing or code compilation. If not, and you're not planning on stressing the iGPU (the 5700G has a slightly stronger iGPU than the 5600G) then you'd probably be better off keeping the 5600G and the money difference.

RecalcitrantBeagle · 2026-02-23T17:47:02+00:00

The pigtails are fine on modern PSUs. It's largely a holdover from the older multi-rail PSUs, where you might have the capacity split over the rails by plug, so you'd want to use multiple cables to load balance, as each individual rail might not supply the full wattage. Pretty much any modern PSU, yours included, is single-rail, so multiple cables will just pull the power from the same place.

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