Calendar

[Rich J]

Thanks Keith,

I disabled Adblock Plus for the CCL site and things got a bit better, as in links actually working, but now I keep getting 'page not found' errors. I find it hard to see that as anything but shoddy website design/maintenance.

When I said "That makes me worry about Linux compatibility.." I meant with CCL's systems. They seem very Microsoft-centric. Maybe David was just lucky that his works...

Try clearing your browser history and cache and re-send the request to the site. 

A computer build - bare-bones - is just that.  The architecture will accept any operating system installed upon it.  The fact that CCL are Microsoft-biased just means they won't be able to advise on the OS installed as they don't support Linux (their loss!) but there is plenty of support online, both here and a thousand other places.    A look at my own build specs might help .......

https://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=13593.msg110406#msg110406

[Keith]

I echo Rich's assessment re CCL.

I disabled Adblock Plus for the CCL site and things got a bit better, as in links actually working, but now I keep getting 'page not found' errors. I find it hard to see that as anything but shoddy website design/maintenance.

When you say "keep getting 'page not found' errors" do you mean that most pages are not found or just a few on several websites?  Shoddy website maintenance is common, so don't be surprised by that, but I get very much less than 1% of pages not found. 

Ad blockers shouldn't block the whole site.  I use the Privacy Badger Add-on provided free by the Electronic Frontiers Foundation.  It's very good and will tell you precisely what it's blocking and why.  If a whole site is actually being blocked then there is probably a good reason for it - Firefox is good at that. 

Keith

[mikep]

Hello Folks.

Sorry for the protracted absence. Personal stuff. I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway, I've ordered the motherboard and processor now so I'm commited to a self-build. I'll order the rest of the components I'll need in the next 2 -3  weeks with a view to building the computer over the Christmas bank holiday. It feels like a chore, but it's got to be better than watching the festive drivel on TV.

I'll report back as and when.

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

M

[DavidMcCann]

Just for the record, I've checked the CCL site using both Pale Moon 29 (Addblock Latitude) and Firefox 94 (Addblock Plus). I roamed all over the site with no problems, so I'd still recommend them to anyone wanting a ready-made or custom-built computer — they do components, too.

[mikep]

Evening all,
I'm just about to order the RAM and an M.2 drive, then I should be able to put this thing together at long last.

The latest problem is that Asus' user guide is the most inadequate I've ever seen. It consists of a lot of stupid diagrams and too few words. The 'specifications summary' gives no clue as to whether NVME is supported for M.2 drives, unless I'm missing something.

This is the M.2 I'm thinking of ordering. https://www.ebuyer.com/1291161-kingston-250gb-nv1-nvme-pcie-ssd-snvs-250g. (https://www.ebuyer.com/1291161-kingston-250gb-nv1-nvme-pcie-ssd-snvs-250g.)

Any opinions gratefully accepted...

TIA

[Keith]

That M.2 SSD is fine for your new motherboard.  M.2 sockets are actually connected directly to the PCIe bus - hence better speed compared with an SSD in the normal HDD bay. 

Your board has two M.2 sockets that, because of the particular CPU you've chosen (needing a separate graphics card), are both available for M.2 modules. 

Keith

[mikep]

Thanks Keith,

I'll order it and the RAM tonight then. Hopefully they'll arrive in time to be assembled over the Christmas holiday.

Do you happen to know whether it will run as NVME?

Mike

[Keith]

It says here: https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/ssd/what-is-nvme-ssd-technology (https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/ssd/what-is-nvme-ssd-technology) amongst other things,
"NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communications interface and driver that takes advantage of the increased bandwidth PCIe has to offer." etc. 
It just means that the M.2 memory plugs directly into the PCIe bus as I mentioned before. 

So yes:  It's all compatible.  I built the same combination for a friend and it's fine.

Keith

[mikep]

Thanks again Keith,

Here we go then. My first build in over twelve years. I'm interested to see the performance difference, although I'm not a gamer, so it may not be that obvious. The build looks pretty straightforward, with hardly any cables involved and no ribbon cables at all. Hooray!

I'll report back once it's up and running.

Happy Christmas everybody.

Mike

[Keith]

If the box you are putting it in is a very old one, you might need to buy a modern PSU as all the plugs have changed over the years! 
Good luck with the build - and best wishes to you also for the new year. 

Keith

[mikep]

Hello Everybody,

I finally built the new computer last thursday and so far it's been fine. Much faster than the old one and very quiet (no spinners).

ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming ATX Motherboard, AMD Socket AM4, Ryzen 3000 Ready (£108.48)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler (£214)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black (£32.49)
Kingston 250GB NV1 NVMe PCIe SSD (£23.74)
Total £378.71

I'm very pleased with it. Thank you all  for your help and your time. In the end it was a satisfying experience to build another computer and have it boot first time. I went for 8GB of RAM because that's more than enough for my needs and easily doubled if my requirements change. I'm still marveling at how much easier a build is without all those bulky HDDs and ribbon cables. Not to mention that the motherboard doesn't need an I/O shield.I've always found them to be the thing that made me curse the most after the first three or four attempts to get them in place.

Keith - I didn't need a new PSU. The existing one was younger than the rest of the box. I replaced it when the original one failed and killed a couple of hard drives!

All in all very pleased, but here's the surprise. It didn't fix the original problem! Unbelievable. It's essentially a completely different computer yet the problem persisted. I swapped the keyboard and that didn't work, so I swapped the mouse. So far so good...

I won't close this thread right now as I'm waiting to see whether the mouse was the culprit, If it was I'm down about £350 but, as I said, I'm very pleased with the new build. Not least because it's capable of running more VMs without breaking a sweat. And £378.71 isn't a lot to pay for this kind of upgrade.

[Keith]

Hi Mike.

I'm glad that you are pleased with your new system - and didn't have to buy new PSU. 
We look forward with interest to hear the outcome of your mouse experiment.

Keith

[mikep]

No problems with freezing so far, since I changed the mouse. I'll monitor it a little longer before closing this thread.

I'm having a different problem though, for which I'll open a new thread!!!

[mikep]

Ok, no more problems since I swapped the mouse and changed the keyboard back, so I'm crossing my fingers and marking this solved.

Thanks very much to everyone who helped. Much appreciated.

M