Something I learned early on, was that Windows Defender is really all you need in terms of virus/malware protection if you're not an idiot. Once I stopped using a 3rd party anti-virus, I noticed significantly better performance.
Yep I agree and maybe the occasional scan with antimalware like malwarebytes when you suspect something but I usually disable it or uninstall when I don't use it because i've seen it slightly slow down my PC as well for some odd reason
This. I just ran Avast for years because that was the thing to do. Got fed up with the ever increasing amount of pop-ups and ads, went looking to find what the best replacements were, and yeah. Windows Defender was highly recommended. So I've been doing that for years now and it works great. Not the solution for grandma and grandpa who are far more likely to click random links and download random things, but for someone who knows what crap on the internet to avoid, it gets the job done.
True. I used to do a lot of Antivirus hopping in Win Vista/7 days. Haven't looked around for antivirus for almost a decade now except on googling how to COMPLETELY remove McAfee
I agree. Funny thing is for me, "early on" was before windows defender was even an idea. It took a while for MS to make it as good as it was by the middle of Windows 7's lifecycle.
I've been out of the PC game for close to 10 years and just started out again in early 2021. I really appreciate your channel and all the easily digestable information you are supplying. Thank you! My PC wouldn't look as well if it wasn't for this channel. Greetings from Austria!
Timestamps and advices: 1:00 - stock CPU coolers are OK if you're not planning to push your hi-end system to the maximum and beyond. Even more OK if you're living in a colder climate with a lower ambient temp in your room. 5:30 - DO NOT defragment your SSD. HDDs still require defragmentation (my personal note: nowadays windows by default launches defragmentation automatically every week so you still don't have to do it manually) 7:34 - there's no point arguing about the fan types (airflow or static pressure), most fans are hybrid now, so you should pay more attention to things like loudness, aesthetics, motor design, anti vibration pads etc 10:43 - PSU efficiency bell curve changed to be more smooth at higher loads which means the efficiency doesn't drop so quickly after the 50% load so you don't have to buy a 1600W PSU for a 800W system. But it's still recommended to have some head room, so buy a 800W PSU for a 600W system 16:00 - Do not use powered USB-hubs for things like 4K webcams, Elgato stuff and other devices which transfers a lot of data, because it all goes through a single USB-port which may not be able to handle this much data. And also device's own software may not work properly when using a hub. Using a hub for just power is OK
I've built 3 computers over the years and typically do a new build every 7 to 10 years on average. Everytime I go for a new build I have to look things up again because everything is out dated...
I love how this channel remembers to talk to new PC users. So many channels just cover the higher end stuff. I've been working with computers longer than Jay - And I still like to hear this newer advice. Remember that things change and skills from the past need updating too!
I started watching this channel last year when I built my first computer and Jay was just as easy to understand then as he is now. It can never hurt to cover all the bases even if you think everyone will be in the know.
it has to be said, high end stuff is just very cool to look at, but if you're looking for real information you probably need a video about middle/lower hardware and stuff that is simple to understand. That is why this channel is so precious to me.
fun fact about SSDs and defrag, during the earlier SSD days you had to specifically tell windows NOT to defrag it, As sometimes windows would automatically defrag your drives. Today the OS knows you stuck an SSD in there and turns off that feature of automatic action.
The last winders update ate my dual boot. I have a winders drive and a linux drive. IF I have to kick windows to the curb I will. I have done it before. Won't make the wife happy. AS for games I can live without them.
@@azugn5739 Let's be honest. Gaming on Linux has gotten to a decent state, but it's not as plug and play as Windows. You can get most games running on Linux, but some will just behave oddly, and some will take hours or days of tweaking to get working properly. I'm super excited for the day when all games on Linux are just download and go, but we're not quite there yet.
Not sure were you found that info at. I do a lot of Tech support and I have see windows updates turn on defrag in the system event timer and then defrag SSD's to death. Just pull one out of a 1 year old system back in November were windows defragged a Nvme drive to the point were the reserve was completely gone and the drive hard started getting unrecoverable sectors in the main partition. OS Windows 10 sp20h2 drive Western Digital Black 500gb Nvme
That's why I'm rocking a Noctua on my now-old Ryzen build... it might be more cooling capacity than I'll ever need, given how lightly I use this system, but it's even quieter than the already-quiet Wraith coolers I've used before.
I had an old AMD FX-8350 with the stock cooler that sounded like a jet engine under load - lol - Ended up selling that system and building something with an i7 3770k and a Noctua cooler.
Excellent content. As an older enthusiast, (60) I've been in and out of computers as a hobby since i was a kid, depending on my where my finances were at any given point. Kids are expensive.😂 Its been ten years since I've dealt with new hardware, so this was a great quick refresh, as well as a reminder at how fast old computer knowledge can become obsolete. Thanks for this!
Jay's explanation about the 80+ ratings on PSUs was awesome and I'm sure we all understood him. However, I just want to rectify one thing from his calculation of how many watts are needed to be pulled from the wall by an 80%-efficient 1000-W PSU to provide max output. It's actually 1250W, not 1200W. Just wanted to get that out there. 😁 Anyway, I've learned and am learning so much from this channel, and I'm very grateful. More power to JayzTwoCents! 👍
Just to expand on your comments on defragging a drive, Jay: Defrag on a hard drive was to move sectors that were written and rewritten to be together - i.e. make sure all the data that should be together, is, so that the head on the drive doesn't have to seek any more than it absolutely needs to in order to access your data. On an SSD this is not needed, as there is no physical head to move and it doesn't actually matter what data is stored in what sector.
@@forestR1 Yes, it's called optimize drives, it runs trim on ssd. Atleast I think so. Just DON'T use defraggler or any other 3rd party defragmenting software.
@@forestR1 correct. windows has disabled disk defrag on SSDs since they build trim into a win7 update. even if you try to run windows defragger on an ssd it will "optimize" aka run trim on the drive, not defrag it
@@forestR1 yes you can still defrag an ssd on windows, regardless of warning popups or os-specific feature 'lockout' .. to say you can't is just a myth. Further, 3rd party apps dont care about M$ nanny 'features'
@@Tsiikki except some extemely narrow circumstances (which one mostly finds on servers and workstations, and can be limited to only defragging specific files). There can be a benefit in performance due to being able to send less commands to read the file.
Jay I used your videos from 2019 and 2020 to learn from and begin my research on how to build my own computer and find the right parts. In July of 2020 I finally built said computer and going off your advice I am still reaping the rewards of the PC that I built. Just wanted to say thank you for those videos back then and all the content you are still producing! Keep it up my dude!
Ayyyy!! Same! I informed my decisions for parts around his videos and also built mine in July! I'll tell you tho, I was initially bummed that didn't have enough to get a 2060 instead of an rx590 but in hindsight I grabbed a decent mid-range card. Lmao.
The thing is with defrag is that most operating systems will automatically defragment eligible drives for you. Windows actually doesn't allow you to defrag an SSD and instead you'll see an option to optimise or trim the drive.
that actually helped me... i hadn't owned a computer since my gateway back in the 90s, and got a new one, well... new as in it was new, but already old as hell. an i5 3470 cause it was cheap, and i've been actually learning what i wish i had in my teens. would've really made my experience a lot better back then if i hadn't been so tech illiterate. but i kinda freaked thinking it was set to defrag my ssd weekly, and only read 0% fragged on my hdd. so unchecked my ssd, but then i saw this and looked again, it obviously says optimized on it. so, preciate it.
Yes and i have found that the auto schedule is not so helpful with notebooks that spend most of their time asleep so i have worked on reportedly slow machines that had not run a TRIM cycle for hundreds of days. So please make sure defrag is running TRIM and about once a month is just fine or after every large file erasure.
@@Wahinies on pretty much all modern SSDs it's safe beneficial to run TRIM early and often. SSD being told to TRIM does 2 main things, flagging (ignore the data here this part is actually empty) which is done immediately, and the actual "emptying" work which is not (on modern SSDs). The actual writing-the-block-full-of-zeroes doesn't happen until the space is needed (specifically to prevent wearing the SSD out prematurely). Telling the SSD where it has "empty" space also prevents it from copying the unused data which is stored there, which REDUCES wear.
For a windows11 laptop setting the TRIM schedule to [daily] and ☑️[increased priority after consecutive missed] might be a good idea. If it's only on for a short time it probably won't actually run every day, but I'd rather it catch up after several days (~weeks) than after several weeks (~months).
For power supplies I always say it's the one item in your pc you absolutely shouldnt skimp out on Cause it's really the ONLY part that could not only take out your pc but your entire house depending how bad the short is
100%, early in my PC building days, I fried two motherboards, GPUs, and even a monitor, because I was buying cheap no-name PSUs and trying to overclock. Never again!
Definitely never run with an inadequate or low quality power supply. Apart from anything else reliability will fall through the floor. A lot of things that look like software issues - especially OS crashing, - ultimately turn out to be down to power supply problems.
For SO many years I built to the lowest cost possible. BIOSTAR and lower end Gigabyte mobos, overclocked celerons (the upright ones, remember those?), cheapest PSUs. And it was just headache after headache. To the point where it reflected poorly on me with my family. Then I finally said scr&$ it, and got a new gaming 2nd Gen i7 on an Asus Mobo with Corsair RAM and an EVGA 650W PSU. Absolutely rock solid since day one, with many upgrades. Learned my lesson. That PC was retired gracefully and with all honors after 9 years of service.
Let me tell you of a horror story: I used my laptop with a cord that had a short in it for over 2 years. I didn't realize it was a short, nor did my mother who is very familiar with electrical components (She might have known had I not had the respective part covered with tape because it was a bright ass light). Spent that whole time not being able to really charge my battery, but otherwise could still use the laptop.
01:00 "Stock coolers are garbage" 05:29 "Defragment your drive" 07:33 "Fan Types Matter" 10:43 "Should I prioritize higher PSU wattage or higher efficiency?" 16:00 "Always use a powered USB hub"
When you talked about stock coolers, you left out one important reason many people still like to upgrade, that is for silent PC builds for studio and lab use which use an oversized cooler and fan then run it at half capacity. Combined with a high efficiency PSU and SSDs, you can get close to total silence.
I agree with you (as someone who runs their NF-A12x25 case fans at 850rpm and their NF-A14 radiator fans at 550rpm). I know Jay is the type of guy who runs his fans at full speed all the time, so as I was watching this video, I was thinking to myself "let's see if Jay remembers to talk about the silence benefits of using an "over spec cooler."
I've got Dark Rock Pro 4 on my 2700x, bought it and Dark Base 900 in order to silence my pc, and the difference is night and day, although i wish i could silence my aorus 1070 Ti... for some explicable reason i refused to get a triple fan model back then as i was researching for like 2 weeks to build my pc after a friend told me about Ryzen and how good they are, i basically stopped following tech since it was just quad cores forever, except for a GPU upgrade every 3 years. For the next build in like a year or later imma make sure to get a silent gpu(great cooling, with not much if any extra OC by the vendor, also learn to idk what the right word it but to lower it's wattage a bit, usually these gpus are a bit too highly clocked).
@@kiloneie I think you mean either underclocking or lowering the power limit on your GPU... but if it's about noise, I don't know why you wouldn't just adjust your fan curve to not go above what you consider a "noisy" level... unless you're doing super gpu intense production or gaming at 4k, you probably won't hit those high temps anyway. If you do, the GPU will automatically downclock. Or do both, that would be pretty foolproof. It's nice to not throttle the GPU when it might need some short bursts of power, though.
@@pkennethv Jay is the one that had 3 radiators in his build which ran passive when no workload (rendering, gaming, etc) was applied. But still agree. A better cooler can either mean better cooling at the same noise level, or the same cooling at a quieter noise level (or somewhere in between) That's why I tend to cram as many fans in useful spaces as my case allows. More (and bigger) fans means less noise, because they can run slower and move the same amount of air. About GPU noise, it's all relative. So far I had no card that needed more than maybe 40-50% on the fan to stay cool under load, even with oc. And often enouogh it takes 50-60% for it to be really audible. So in idle I can't hear them among my background noise (like a clock or the fridge). And when gaming I got the game audio on speakers or headphones which drowns out any fan noise anyway. When in doubt, adjusting the fan curve solvs any overlap.
There will always be exceptions and specific use cases. A stock cooler usually isn't good enough for overclocking either. It's good for running things stock. If you have custom needs, you need custom parts.
I've built 11 systems as a hobby... but aside from some moderately basic Laptop upgrades I haven't really dabbled in any builds for 10-ish years. Thank you SO much for this video which has helped me catch-up on improvements and variations in the art! Very informative and helpful video! 😁 More, please?
Oh yeah - last 10 years have had massive changes. I actually built my first system in 2013. Almost exactly 10 years ago haha. The availability of good, cheap SSDs, Stock Coolers on lower/midrange CPUs not being automatic trash, and honestly even just Air Cooling options being amazing in general have really changed things. I remember being told in 2013 that I needed to water cool if I wanted the best performance. Instead, I got addicted to Noctua CPU coolers and fans :)
@@I_enjoy_some_things"massive" is a very relative term. Compared to previous decades, we haven't seen that much revolutionary stuff, rather it was about getting more out of a CPU like adding more cores, threads, etc. A 2014 CPU is still comparable to a 2024 CPU. The improvements are obvious, but it's not really an "insane" improvement. Try comparing an 80386SL from 1990 with a nice Pentium 4 from 2000.
6:59 Defragging on an SSD shouldn't be possible with current Windows versions of defrag (basically Windows 8 and newer). If you now run defrag on an SSD, it will instead run the TRIM command on the target SSD. Crucial has a very good explanation of what TRIM command is and how it works on their website that is worth a read.
Not to mention fragmentation simply isnt a problem with SSDs. The problem with fragmentation was how often the drive would have to seek and average seek time on an HDD is noticeably slow, but on most SSDs it's very close to 0.
This is true, perhaps he should have mentioned 3rd party defrag tools like defraggler etc, which may not trim data and instead move data around without caring if it's an SSD
Small nit pick: Defragmenting isn’t about drive “health” per se for spinning drives, it’s about performance… reducing the need for random access of related sectors, minimizing track head movement. When the OS writes data it defaults to “first fit” allocation. When you defrag, you’re reallocating to “best fit”, trying to line up as many sectors that are related to each other as possible. The irony is that modern file systems ( ntfs included ) operates on the principle that sectors in the FS are allocated sparsely to give you consistent performance, so defragging theoretically shouldn’t have done much for performance anyway on modern windows systems. But of course your main point is absolutely true: there is no point at all to defragging an SSD. All you’re doing is reducing the life of your SSD
I always described the old SSD writing method as the SHOTGUN Method. Basically instead of everything being in one spot like youd do when putting books on a shelf the computer basically loaded it up like a shotgun shell and blasted the SSD. Resulting in the data for a program being everywhere, aka a shotgun spread. Defraging at its simplest took these spread out bits of data and then regrouped them next to each other for ease of access. Id say the "health" benefit for the drive was that instead of needing to spin and spin and spin, and for the read/write arm to continuely move up and down the platter, a defraged file meant less wear and tear on the mechanical parts and extending the drives life before hitting what I called "Drive Senility". You know that point where you click a program and your drive takes 5 minutes to realize it should of been doing somthing.
Trimming is the new 'defrag'. You know how deleting stuff doesn't actually remove it from the harddrive? Trimming resets 'deleted' bits to 0, and actually does help with performance.
The simpler explanation would be that a fragmented hard drive has the data that you accumulated over time in the same folder in different places which is why the drive head has to move far across. Defragmentation puts the data right next to each other according to your file system meaning the data you put in your folder at different times is now right next to each other giving you faster read speeds. At least that's how I always understood it. PS.: HDD wear is mostly influenced by heat btw because of magnetic shingles it uses, so while some malfunctions may be due to mechanical movement most of failures I've heard about were due to heat being the primary cause. SSDs of course put the data in cells which can all be accessed at the same speed at the same time, and the drive itself shuffles bits around to avoid defective or used cells to keep the drive at an even wear. So they are never actually fragmented or rather fragmentation is their preferred state and will always be fragmented. And the SSD does health checks by itself already.
I have been using WIndows XP 64-bit (which has no TRIM at all) installed on an SSD. It was my main system for a long time, stable, fast af before I was forced to buy a new PC. SSD is still at 99% Health. And yes, it did defragment. And it was fast, too...
@@Ravenbones "A trim command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered to be 'in use' and therefore can be erased internally" When you delete something, it's still on an SSD until trim literally takes the garbage out
100% true. My fave os win 8.1 knows the difference. Will trim an ssd, Defrag spinning drives. And the Defrag makes recovery of data on a spinning drive so much easier.
If the pc supports it, you can use a PCIe slot to add more usb ports for additional devices. Unsure if that counts as a hub but it works around using a usb port
Steve from GN has shown the 80+ means nothing. Manufacturers can put in a model for testing for the 80+ then after being awarded a rating, the manufacturers can change the internals of the PSU and it can no longer reach a 80+ titanium for example but they get to keep the original rating
That's why everything should have testing done on market models; but just cause things should be that way doesn't mean the current system means nothing. It's like saying every cars emission ratings mean nothing because they could be pulling a Volkswagen. Any brand with a reputation to uphold risks losing the reputation if they are caught, and for things like PC hardware that get 3rd party tested all the time these things will eventually get caught. LMG Labs will be a great step forward in this regard. If we are to follow the logical conclusion of your post that means we just shouldn't buy power supplies because by the same logic they also could not meet the wattage ratings they claim or blow out early from not reaching the 80+ rating so its also meaningless and there is no usable metric to decide what to buy. The fact that you don't agree with the above is an indication you need to add more nuance to your posts because you focused only on the fact that its possible for manufacturers to lie therefore that is all you must care about.
@@nocare You've made some big assumptions from my post merely because I didn't mention some things. Not every one wants to write an essay for a UA-cam comment. But to answer your poor assumptions, when choosing a PSU to buy, go with the wattage you need from a reputable brand with good independent reviews. Ignore the 80+ rating as with the poor standards implemented by the ratings body, it is an arbitrary number
@@nocare Not, because the wattage isn't given by a 3rd party standards agency. The manufacturer says it's a 1000w, the manufacturer doesn't say it's 80+ gold, the testing body does. The manufacturer can then change internal components for whatever reason that maybe inadvertently makes it no longer 80+ gold, but if they make less than 1000w and still sell it as 1000w they are breaking the law as knowingly false advertising. Because they don't have to resubmit the PSU for 80+ rating every time they change an internal part then they aren't doing anything illegal.
I've built a few PC's over the years and it's VERY important to keep your advice and knowledge base up to date because things change REALLY fast... My old desktop PC was built in a case that now is around 20 years old, it was solid enough for that but now the USB's have changed, PSU sizes have changed, fan sizes have changed, GPU's are bigger, we have liquid cooling options now... that case won't cut it anymore (I really like the case but it's time for a new one). Got to move with the times sometimes.
Ehh, you can just get a USB and USB-C front panel for 5.25 inch bays to keep your PC up to date, they aren't that expansive (tough, the USB C ones are always more expansive), PSU's haven changed in terms if size. In fact you can just put a modern PSU in in a case for a Pentium 2 if you want. In fact the PSU fan will help with airflow in your case if they are top-mounted. bigger GPU's can be a factor if you go for high-end, but you can solve it with removing the drive cages. The only thing with old cases that really limits building, is if they have no top-fan mounting. That one thing is really bad for old cases. Especially if the backfan are only 2 80mm spots instead of 1 120mm.
Yeah I haven't built a system in over a decade, but follow as much info as I can so I at least still know what is current best advice. Nothing is worse then falling behind the times.
the PSUs are all a pretty standard size, and still use the same 4 screw-hole positions that have been in ATX cases since the late 90s. But as others said, you could always get a usb/usb-c front panel for one of the bays.
@@caitlinomalley80 It's the cooling that' the main problem, no fan mounts outside the existing ones and there's only 3 iirc, one front behind a solid panel, one rear and one side which all take smaller fans. I could keep it as a legacy system and run older titles that don't work on my new systems assuming I can find my old copy of Windows XP. Lol.
Something you missed that I think should be pointed out: On newer versions of Windows, disk defragmenting(and trimming and garbage collection for SSDs) is carried out automatically. So even if someone is running Windows off a mechanical drive, there is almost never a reason for them to defragment it themselves, it's most likely already been done recently in the background.
Unless they changed it to not automatically do it which I've gotten a pre owned like that once was annoying because they never did it so ssd swapped it lol
Isn't defrag even disabled now it detects SSD? I swear it's not even available. Instead it gives an options like "optimize drive" which doesn't defrag but does some other sort of appropriate cleanup.
This has absolutely stopped me making a couple of errors on my first ever build. I had a lot of uni mates who made computers back in the day and this covers a lot of what I retained from them. I've even swapped out the PSU in my shopping cart for one with a bit more headroom than it had. Thanks for the advice!
I love how the 5600's are dying while my old 5950x is still going nice and strong and it is apparently due to the cooler not keeping up with the 5600s heat generation to the level my 250 watt be quiet cooler is keeping my 5950x cool to
@@nickllama5296 SSDs don't TRIM themselves. Drive does not care what data/filesystem/OS it's hosting, and would have no way of knowing what data is active and what is just leftovers in free space. It's the job of OS to tell it what to TRIM/DISCARD/UNMAP/etc.
@@JusticeGamingChannel You don't tell the "SSD to run TRIM", you trim every single block that you don't need. Older SSDs may have tried to wipe the block in real-time but modern drive controllers just note this in their allocation table and deal with it at their convenience (especially QLC drives, there is no reason to rewrite the data from other layers just to wipe one if you have enough already-wiped blocks). But you need to trim so that the drive controller knows what blocks are no longer needed, without this information it can only rewrite a block when the data is modified (which on a SSD means "written to a new cell somewhere else and remapped in the allocation table"), and worse, without trim it'll go rewriting unneeded data during the internal optimization process, burning through your write cycles. Trim just works automatically in the background in Windows and macOS (and I believe on desktop focused Linux although I'd have to go looking to confirm exactly what they're doing).
@@thedave1771 For desktop Linux, it depends on the distribution; for example, Ubuntu 20.04 has a systemd timer to run `fstrim --fstab` (trims blocks on all registered filesystems) weekly by default.
This is why I swapped out my stock Ryzen 3600X cooler for a nice Cooler Master air cooler. The temps are a little bit better, of course, but my main reason was the noise. It's so much quieter now.
i got a custom cooler that came with my computer but i notice throttling after a few months... do i need to change the thermal paste? Pc runs kinda hot
@@Zipppyart imo it has nothing to do with which manufacturer made the stock coolers. The downdraft stock ones have smaller fans, so they have to spin faster to move the same amount of air a 120mm fan does while spinning slower, thus creating more noise. Could be wrong tho, but to me it's like comparing the acoustics of a 140mm to a 120mm fan while "moving the same amount of air"
I’ve been around your channel on and off for close to 5 years, this is the type of content that keeps me coming back, no BS, just “here are the facts, and here’s why your stupid, don’t be stupid.” But it’s info people need to hear in order to push through all the marketing bs and keyboard warrior techies. Good stuff as always.
Regarding power supplies: I still have to explain to a surprising amount of people that their PC is not going to pull all the power the PSU can provide all the time while it's on No Steve, your PC does not pull 650W when all you're doing is viewing a word document on an i3 and integrated graphics, do i have to tell you that for the 800th time?
@@falcon-ng6sd I was thinking hard about how do you even replace your car's battery, then realized you are talking about the small 12V one, not the 1200lbs integrated one.
@@Adizzle235 it's one thing when they don't get it at first but you can eventually explain it to them properly It's another thing when they're so confident that YOU'RE wrong, and won't listen to anything you try to explain, and keep believing in whatever they think, it makes my blood simmer
Quick Note, in markets outside of the US, the 80+ standars and definitely still a thing. 80+ is the most common and the silver and gold are considered enthusiast. I have been a PC builder for 6 year now here in Colombia and I have seen just a couple of Titaniums
I'm not sure that holds up for the majority of countries though. Though considering you do live down in south America where things are a lot more expensive in many areas, it does make sense.
@@juselara02 yeah I wasn't going to call you guys Poor or anything and I feel like calling you guys "Emerging" has that connotation. I was just going to say everything was comparatively more expensive.
yes you're right, i have been a pc builder aprox 15 or More years, here in Colombia in all the years building pc, the first Gold PSU i saw was a Corsair HX, and in 2005 i saw a seasonic platinum, but, all of them was imported or bought in the usa, the local market was full of generic (codegen and Delux) PSU, the only "real wattage" PSUs was Thermaltake and the first 80+ PSUs in the market was Corsair...but expensive AF... Now in these years i have seen gold, platinum and some titanium, but, the same story... Expensive
Also very important: The 80 Plus rating is usually for 115 V. So if you live in a 230 V country, make sure that the 80 Plus rating is specifically for 230 V.
To add onto the USB hub topic, a good alternative is a USB add on card. Normally will net you at least 4 extra USB ports and you’ll have the added benefit of them having their own controller, as well as being connected straight to the pc
Excellent option. To take it even further, when selecting your USB add on card if you have sufficient money and available PCIE lanes, you actually can get one that has 4 controllers instead of one...one for each physical port. That way, each port gets a full 5gbps, 20gbps total for the card. This will of course require a 4x pcie slot or larger (and will be more expensive than a 1x card), but depending on the users needs, might be worth it. Beyond that, invest in quality cables and triple confirm their actual speed rating when purchasing (especially since without a hub in between, you'll probably be needing longer cables). It's surprising how many inexpensive USB-C cables out there are actually USB2.0 (480mbps) spec because, as Jay pointed out USB-C is actually just the physical connector and doesn't guarantee anything other than the fact that you can plug it in upside down if you want...
I thought this was a good idea but when I tried one from Amazon that reviews said worked with the VR headset I also had, my sensors were still having issues using this pci-e card. So it's a bit hit or miss whether they actually work properly sometimes. They'll usually work for small things but for heavy usage it could be random.
I think hubs are still useful for certain applications - my PC is a bit out of reach, so having a hub (i got one with built in SD/microSD reader) makes plugging in portable storage like flash drives and memory cards way easier since it can be on my desktop
Yup on this, i have a Saitek x-55 hooked up and my mainboard couldn't supply enough power to keep both components running under heavy input. Got a USB3.0 addin card and i have had no issues going on 7 years. The card does have a Molex power input to supplement off the PCI-e bus.
Funny story, I have an RGB cooler master keyboard I really like, but the LEDs wouldn't turn off when the computer is at sleep state. So I bought a x4 USB 3 expansion card, and changed the Windows power policy to not send power to the card at sleep.
Ahhhh the good old old PC days, i used to be a real computer nerd 20+ years ago, building and upgrading desktops as well as learning everything i could about component hardware as well as program software, times and technology have certainty moved on heaps and bounds. There is still great fun in building a new computer today, some things have just become confusing and over complicated, computer and PC component companies have kinda sapped the enjoyment out of PC building for a lot of people, who are either wanting to make their first new desktop etc, or haven't built one in a long time like myself. JayzTwoCents is a great guy and UA-cam channel who always offers good, constructive and sound advice to his audience, no matter whether you are a computer pro, semi pro or newbie, he offers something for everyone. I got very interesred in computer building again about 6 years ago and came across JayzTwoCents UA-cam channel which appeared in the recommendation feed, I've learnt so much from him since and watch his videos when he is discussing a PC topic that I'm interested in. Keep up the good work JayzTwoCents 👍😉
As always, great advice. Another consideration is to buy a PSU which can operate in silent mode (fan off) up to around 250W-300W for office tasks. My build is inaudible during office use even in closed very quiet room.
My PSU is currently pulling 420W (I have a game in the background) and fan is not even spinning. It was costly but damn I love that thing. Asus Thor 1200W (OEM is Seasonic)
Great video. I think a similar video about debunking computer myths would be fun. This reminded me of how everyone used to say that shutting down your computer was bad for it and that it's better to leave it on all the time. They claimed it damaged the CPU or hard drives. Yet, most of the PCs I repaired for people were ones that were left on all the time.
@@douganderson7002 the reason why most of these computers died is because of failing fans causing overheating and dust buildup from running them constantly.
I'm one of those people returning to the PC world after spending 20ish years in the console world. I can't believe how much I love this stuff. It feels like I'm home.
I am watching this video 2 years after it was released. The issue about USB hubs (powered and not) is still highly relevant today. Boy you would think manufacturers would fix things. The only way I get consistent connections on key components is connecting them to my high-end docking station. My docking station plugs into 1 USB-C thunderbolt on my laptop, leaving me with one more USB-C thunderbolt and 1 USB-C port. I am glad I have the docking station. I have sent a number of hubs back to Amazon because they did not live up to manufacturer claims.
"The old days..." for me were when nobody had cooling for the CPU, and usually the only fan was in the back of the power supply. Fan, singular. There was no such thing as RGB lighting effects, because "B" hadn't been invented yet (really). And for floating point efficiency, you needed to install a separate math co-processor, something few people bothered with. If you were wealthy enough to afford a hard drive or two, defragging was a necessity, and your storage maxed out around 20MB... and those were the new, fancy hard drives. Many people just made due with floppies, and a single megabyte of RAM... or less. *That's* the old days, to me...
@@DeathRyder33 That switch, classic. I think the first computer I had access to was a 286 clone with an amber screen and something called EGA graphics. Fond memories of those days.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Last build I made was 5+ years and many things have changed a lot, although I've been out of the scene for a while this type of videos help me to stay current.
yeah shame Intel does not have anything cool like that with their cpu's their heat sinks the ones they give you are just a joke in comparison to what AMD give's you with theirs
Or as they call it UFO. Looks nice but doesn't do a lot in terms of cooling, Phenoms had similar cooling but without the cool looking fan. But hey, when I was putting a Mugen I had to change my PC case because of it's size. Still, the wraiths can keep the temps just a little below the safe point so it's fine I guess.
@@QueertyUCR , yes, it is more efficient to transmit power at higher voltages. I'm not exactly sure why power supplies at higher voltages drop off faster - I'd guess it was because they are designed to maximise commonality between 110V and 220/240V, so 110V supplies *might* actually be 240V supplies in disguise, which is why the efficiency dropoff doesn't show up at 110V. This is wild speculation though.
@@Infinite_Maelstrom The voltage doesn't really matter for conversion efficiency in this case, the difference is in the voltage frequency and transformer efficiency. Basically, the lower the AC frequency, the less efficient a transformer is which is where most of the losses are now. I think most 240v mains are 50hz while our 120hz mains are 60hz. The size required for a transformer to convert a given amt of power is directly proportional to the frequency with lower hz generating more waste heat for a given power as well. Modern 'switch-mode' power supplies achieve their remarkable efficiency by converting the low frequency mains to extremely high frequency AC, allowing for tiny transformers and way less waste heat. It's not a huge difference between 50 to 60hz for switching PSUs because there's other losses that are the same for both low frequencies but, yeah, modern efficient conversion is achieved with high frequency AC which is something I never used to think in terms of. This also allows the greatly reduced size/weight of modern power supplies and was yet another product of semiconductors (specifically fast transistors).
Not true. As a power supply designer - I know this is absolutely false. You are taking in half the current but at double the voltage. In areas at 120V - you are taking half the voltage at double the current. In the end, you are delivering AND consuming the same amount of power. Now if you are talking about power lines - yes, it is more efficient to transfer at a far higher voltage and lower current.
Best advice that I could give (and it aged well) is: Buy a PC case with as much as possible dust protection, which is easy to remove and clean because it not only saves you time (and sometimes broken components) while cleaning, but also helps you to see your RGB backlight (if you're in that sort of thing) instead of an RGB dust cloud. Obviously the temperatures and noise level will also be lower in the long run.
Counterpoint to this - for over a year I've been using an open air case (XTIA Xproto), and dust hasn't been as much of an issue as expected. Somehow I find more dust on the desk next to the computer than on the computer itself. And when it is time for a clean, it's easier to do without having to work around the frame and sides of a case. Since all the parts are fully visible, RGB is there for the world to see, no case windows required. Temperatures are fine because the heat isn't getting trapped in a box, so there's no need for case fans. You only need the fans for your individual components. Noise is a tricky one - since there's no soundproofing from a case, care needs to be taken to select parts that run quieter. For my build, I aimed for a PSU and GPU that can switch their fans off under low loads, and I've used an oversized CPU cooler so that it can run slow and quiet. For a while, the noisiest part was a cheap 30mm motherboard fan, but I've since hacked on a 40mm Noctua. I'd say the main consideration (aside from aesthetics) is damage protection. I don't move my computer around much, and I don't have any kids or pets, so the risk of accidental damage is lower for me. If that risk makes you uncomfortable, then definitely look at getting a sturdy case.
I must be becoming a difficult case as I seem to disagree with everybody :) I would not pay attention to dust protection if you are a DIY builder. Why? Because dust filters weaken cooling a lot and for me, it is just so much easier to open a side panel (actually I usually keep it off all the time) and clean things up sometimes. You don't have to get every speckle of dust away. Just make sure coolers and fans are not stuck with dust. Everything else is cosmetic, but mostly still easy to clean. Keeping the room where your machine is clean, also keeps the machine cleaner. I use a microfiber cloth (carefully) in outside areas of PC case and where there are no electronics close by (to avoid static electricity damage). Then pressurized air with coolers and fans. Vacuum at a low setting in areas where I know it wont suck any jumpers off of the board.
@@TechTusiast 1) "weaken cooling a lot" varies from case to case also "a lot". 2) Thermaltake core v1 and v21 has a 240mm fan in front so it overcompensates all the cooling "weakening" 3) my advice was to people who are not professionals, and also rarely clean their cases (if ever), you surely can remember memes like "my PC shuts down for some reason" and the picture tells us that it wasn't cleaned for like 20 years. 4) your way is way more time and money consuming than just put a fkin' filter and wash it once or twice a year with some water with a shower
@@qbzerodp 1) With my previous PC case I could both lower my GPU temps multiple celsius degrees and lower noise simply by removing front filter (or ditch side panel). 2) I'm not a professional nor have run any tests, but my intuition suggests that an airflow of a large, slow spinning fan is likely affected more by obstacles like a dusty filter than if you have a number of smaller, faster spinning fans with more static pressure. 3) Ok. The unfortunate thing is, filters or no filters and laymen or professionals, you just have to open the case and clean it sometimes. Sure, with filters it might be less frequently, but still. I think it's the same thing with cars, you should pop the hood every now and then even if there are no warning light blinking. 4) Maybe, I don't know. Bottled air is not that expensive and you don't need that much of it. Everyone likely and hopefully has a vacuum cleaner and some rags.
5:26 well stock coolers in the past also weren’t garbage. The stock cooler included with the core i7 930 (the lga 1366) weighs arround 500 grams and has a copper core. It is able to cool the cpu under prime95. It also manages to keep a xeon x5675 with an overclock to 3.5GHz slightly above 80*C. But then of course it is pretty loud.
Those CPUs had a TDP of 120+ watts. Throwing them on anything of 90 or 60 watts is simply what I did, and they are waaay more than enough. I had a i7 920, and I use the same cooler I used back then on much less powerful modern cpus... at much lower temps.
@@lfla0179 Oh but how do you mount them? Aren't the mountings for newer sockets of different size? I remember requesting a special mounting kit from Noctua in order to mount a NH-D15 on a 1366 socket.
@@RacingRalphEVO I had a mastercooler 212 EVO. It had the LGA 1366 mounts, the other Intel mount (750 something?) on the same legs and the AM3 clip ACCROSS the base, dismounting the legs. It just happens that, that SINGLE model clip was compatible with the AM4 mount, so I have it running on my Ryzen 1600x, TEN AMAZING YEARS LATER. Just got it cleaned, new paste, found the brackets and the clip, mounted it back, and smooth sailing. They sell 212 evos on my Country to this day, for lunch money, literally. 27 dollars. Well, I admit, it wasn't clear I was not using the Intel stock cooler, but everything is true. I even bought another 212 EVO to my kids PC, just in case.
I replace them because changing from a 4 pipe included cooler to a 6 pipe cooler was always quiet. Even with a 3800X. The stock coolers work well enough even if you overclock within reason. If you don't mind the noise. AS for GPUs putting a larger cooler from a higher watt GPU also can work. Did not say it is easy. It only works well if the GPU you are cooling is shorter than the donor card. You can find a lot of those coolers off dead ones. The pipes work unless there is a hole in the pipe. Making the OEM fans from the smaller fit the larger cooler requires a bit of work. Adding a case fan on the end running off the motherboard works real well. Because it flows through the heat pipes. You will need more than a screw driver to make it work.
For people who wonder what trim is, it's basically a cache clearing command that's deleting remnants of already deleted files and unused sectors that are temporary
I bought a seagate m.2 ssd for my first build. I could absolutely have fallen into the trap of defragmenting my ssd if it weren't for channels like yours. Thanks Jay and crew!
On the topic of USB hubs, I firmly believe that it is better to sacrifice a little bit of your PCIe lanes for a simple internal powered USB controller. If you have a newer AMD motherboard, you likely have 24 or even 128 lanes anyway. I got one for my Oculus Rift S weeks after purchasing the HMD simply because I was running into the opposite effect mentioned by JTC: the HMD and the software weren't working properly with the USB connected directly to the motherboard. The issue turned out to be a power delivery issue, and having a port with a dedicated connection directly to the system's power supply resolved my issues entirely. In fact, Oculus made a specific choice of hub in their support forum for the exact issue I and many, many others were facing.
How many people actually use PCI Express in their PCs? Besides the GPU of course. So far I've had to use it only once to get gigabit ethernet on my father's older PC. I have many more uses for old PCI and 16-bit ISA but I guess we can't have nice things on motherboards. I can only dream of having a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold in my main PC.
My advice is to subscribe to this channel. You nailed it when you mentioned building a computer after 10 years. That old-school advice was new 10 years ago but now ...old. Excellent information. Thank you!
A good thing I figured out recently is a software called "Fan Control" as a modern SpeedFan replacement, working with basically any hardware. Look it up on the LTT forums, a really solid piece of software. Another thing I can recommend is SignalRGB, especially good for Asus, as a much better replacement for bad rgb software.
I can vouch for Fan Control. Feels lightweight but still pretty powerful in terms of combining temperature sensors to create all kinds of custom fan curves. Haven't tried SignalRGB, but I can alternatively recommend OpenRGB, which works with pretty much any component including keyboards and mice. Felt great to finally do away with all the different manufacturer's software and have a single program that handles everything.
@@Dan4rescue OpenRGB is nice for sure if you have compatible hardware, but due to my incompatible hardware en general lack of a good UI I prefer Signal.
@@mvhdsk1122 Until you want to have a fan curve based on gpu temp, which is arguably more important than cpu. Even then you could set both and have the curve according to the one with the higher temp. Even better than in the bios, besides its much easier in Windows than having to go all the way to the bios.
@@yourick1953 Yep, and having your case fans tied to GPU temperature instead of CPU tempurature will make your system much, much quieter since the fans won't be ramping up and down when you load a simple website or something. I started using Fan Control after building my new PC a couple months ago, and love just how quiet my system is while not gaming or doing anything GPU intensive.
One of the BEST "OLDSCHOOL" JayzTwoCents videos in recent years, Brother; you, sir, organically create AWESOME content when you simply speak from the heart Jay!!! ...a true "return to form" =)
Good updated advice! I use an Anker powered USB hub that has 2 USB drives, mouse, keyboard, external DVD burner and gaming headset permanently connected. Had this setup for over a year now with no issues. I admit trying and returning a number of hubs from Amazon until finally getting one that worked well which was the Anker 7 + 3 model. The B550M motherboard I have had limited usb ports so I needed this solution. I have my latency critical devices such as my audio hub, midi keyboard and webcam connected straight to the motherboard ports.
@@malphadour I love Anker products. Been using it for around a year now with no issues. Must have tried and returned half a dozen different hubs that were basically garbage 😊
I built my first computer in well over a decade just last year. Plenty of your videos smoothed the process immensely, so thank you, Jay. I'm glad I watched this and was personally satisfied to know a lot of that stuff and that my competency returned so quickly. Thanks again for your help.
I've been working on/with PC's since the IBM PC XT (8088) days. And, yet, I still enjoy coming in to watch Jay's videos because you CAN teach old dogs new tricks. Like his other videos, all of this is solid advice... Except the USB Hub...as I sit here rocking an IOGear 4X4 USB Hub/Switch (think old KVMs) hooked up to three systems (one PC, 2 laptops) flawlessly running a Logitech G613 keyboard, G602 mouse, and C920 webcam. :) YMMV.
Yup. When troubleshooting always excluse as many variables as possible. So plugging in stuff directly. And obviously have a known good alternative to swap things around. Sometimes stuff gets weird, like one of my old keyboards that wouldn't work on one specific motherboard, but fine on all my others. while other keyboards would work on that board. Turns out that specific keyboard pulls more than the ancient PS/2 port on that specific board provides.
If you have a lot of devices or like to use the same peripherals with your laptop as you do with your PC, you'll need a hub. It used to be you could buy whatever dorky little hub was recommended by BestBuy or Amazon and it would work fine. Now you'll find that most hubs are garbage and will make devices not work. I first ran into that with a Dell laptop in 2016 and it's only gotten worse. But not _all_ hubs are garbage and if you need one, you can find one that will work.
Yep, USB Hubs aren't unequivocally bad, just gotta' be aware that they can cause issues. I've been using quality USB Hub for attaching game controllers (arcade sticks, PS4 controllers, Rocksmith adapter cables etc.) and a USB HDD and haven't encountered any noticeable issues compared to plugging them in directly.
From my experience, Windows 10 doesn't defragment on an SSD, it does something different (optimize). If it shows up as an SSD in the defragment area, Windows won't defragment it (you would have to use a third party program to force the process)
@@bradhaines3142 Data access speeds on SSDs doesn't really change no matter what the layout of data is since it doesn't need to seek to a specific spot on a platter. SSDs are also good for random IO, so that's also a factor. Optimizing probably does run TRIM manually and some other stuff.
Occasionally defragging a badly fragmented SSD can be a big win. Dont do it often to preserve SSD life, of course. Look at CrystalDiskMark how sequential I/O is 100 times faster than random I/O. This is why if you select 'Optimize' on an SSD Windows will also defrag the SSD once per month if Windows thinks it needs it (badly defragmented). This is not well documented.
@@JSTheAnonymousOne solid state drives get much slower as they fill up. Remember they can't write to an individual cell, only whole row. So as the drive runs out of empty rows, it needs to copy enough data into cache to create an empty row, add new data to it, then do an erase, only then can it write the old and new data to the empty row. NAND based memory just can't write to individual cells, so that's not changing soon. An empty SSD can write to any available row, so it doesn't have to cache and erase first. A TRIM command moves data into contiguous rows, to create as many free ones available for write ops. Even a single cell sized write will occupy a whole row, unit there are no free ones available.
Gosh. Almost everything I did to maintain or build my PC is now wrong. Some of your advice seemed tongue in cheek. I am glad you explained this. Things change.
Thanks Jay, I watched you when I first got into the PC space almost 10 years ago. I'm getting back into it and I'm glad to see you're still out here as a resource for people like me to refer to.
With regards to USB hubs, my experience was the opposite of "you might have issues". Not only did it solve some cable management headaches, it also sorted out a "takes forever to charge" issue with my headset's base station/charger. I have an Elgato Facecam connected via it as well, no problems at all. Nothing I would realistically consider connecting to a hub would require even a fraction of USB 3's bandwidth limits. It goes without saying that this doesn't mean you can buy a $5 hub from a Chinese web store and expect to load it up with external drives and have no issues... But, be realistic about what you plug into it, and make sure it's a recognizable brand name and has external power, and odds are you'll be OK.
what (powered) usb hub example u recommend / using ? can be used for hooking keyboard/mouse, external hdd, connect to display (via hdmi) and charging phone right ?
@@leguminosa9 don't charge a phone on a PC USB. Use the brick out came with. Unless your phone is a $50 generic Amazon piece of plastic, PC USB ports aren't enough to charge it at full speed it even close.
@@ILoveTinfoilHats Ironic how you present outdated advice on a video about outdated advice. Manufacturers have put 2A-capable USB-ports into computers for ages now, and with USB-C and USB-PD the issue of "USB standard only allows 2.5 watts" became even less. But I'd also recommend to use a powered(!) ISB hub for devices that need power but not data. But that's only because it frees up ports on the computer for devices that need data. 4-8 onboard ports isn't that many...
First Advice: Very good point. I mean, even 10 years ago, some stock coolers were still good. I built a system with an AMD Phenom II black edition processor 11 years ago and it had copper heat pipes on it like the one you showed to us. All black edition processors back then, I believe, came with that decent heat sink. I was even able to overclock it to 4ghz from it's stock 3.2ghz speeds without too much of a increase in heat. Second advice: Absolutely great advice. It baffles me that somebody would just recommend de-fragmentation out of pure old school habit when they should be asking if they're running an SSD first. Sure, if they are running a hard drive as a secondary drive, of course that should be de-fragmented now and then. I still use hard drives to this day for extra storage, but since Windows 10 does not work well with hard drives, I will never use them as system drives ever again...and I'm sure most PC enthusiasts agree with that. Third advice: Good point but I never really cared much about RGB or the type of fan they are. I just cared what type of bearing is used. Ball bearing fans definitely last a lot longer than sleeve fans, so that's what I stick to. Fourth advice: This is also great advice, too many people get confused about what 80 and 90+ means, when what really matters is the wattage rating. the 80/90 plus rating is still important though if you care about your electric bill. My old school mindset used to be to buy only Antec power supplies because one of my instructors in college 11 years ago said he only trusted Antec power supplies because he never had one fail on him. There must be some validity to his argument, because my little brother has my old gaming PC tower with the same old power supply I put in it 9-10 years ago, which is the Antec HCG-750 (the old version that was semi-modular). It is one of those now rare 80+ bronze certified power supplies and it's still running great to this day powering his GTX 1060 and 6 core AMD Ryzen processor. Fifth advice: I never really bothered with USB hubs, I always had enough usb ports on my computer that it was never really needed, so I can't really comment on this one. But still, solid advice. Keep up the great videos, Jayz! As more newcomers to PC gaming start building computers, advice like this is so important to guide them on their PC building, so they don't give up on it because they think it's too complicated or they are afraid of breaking something. Like I told my friend who I helped build his first pc 4 years ago, it's much simplier than he thinks. Now, he went on to self-teach himself a lot about computers and is probably better at building PCs than me now because he toys around with water cooling a lot more than I ever have. In fact, I am building a new pc soon and he is going to help me with installing the water cooling system for it. I am looking forward to it. Sometimes the people you help get into PC gaming, will go even further...and it's pretty cool how that works out sometimes.
Great work with this video. I'm a regular at Microcenter St. David's. The point of defragging is to make the mechanical process of extracting data from the platters faster. There is no mechanical process and no platters in an ssd so it's a waste to defrag it.
Actually, there are exceptions to the powered USB hub advice. Some laptops and "thin" devices do not have enough power on the USB ports to power external hard drives. I've had support cases where the USB drive worked on a desktop, but did not work on the laptop. The problem was resolved with a good powered hub. And hubs are a good way to minimize cable clutter when driving USB 2 devices such a steering wheels, flight yokes and throttle quadrants. For those things, and even a cabled keyboard, a hub is still a good device and has a usage.
A hub would be a good device if they stopped only making hubs with 6in long cables. I wanted a hub for something, but couldn't find one as they were all designed for laptops. Hey clowns, we're not all using a laptop, some of us have desktops and could still benefit from a hub. WTF is this short cable garbage?! Shouldn't be a fixed cable anyway. They should have a detachable cable so we can get whatever length we need.
Exactly. The prime purpose of the USB hub that's attached to the inside of my desk is to reduce cable clutter and the number of direct connections to the PC itself. This makes it a lot easier to remove the PC for troubleshooting or maintenance purposes.
something I picked up from the Star Citizen community is just make sure its a powered hub for flight hardware, some sticks do not react well to unpowered hubs(that is hubs running off only USB power vs having a wall wart)
@@hotaru25189 The ports are simply not up to spec so you need to use two Wii U ports to power one drive respectively with something like a USB Y-cable.
Actually Jay, you probably shouldn't defrag the new SMR drives either. The reason you don't want to defrag on SSD, is that you are fighting the internal logical to physical block mapping. Rather you use OS level TRIM support (not S.M.A.R.T technology) go give hints to the drive's controller that certain blocks can be un-mapped and marked as availible. The controller will then routinely attempt it's own defrag/garbage collection as it needs to write new data.
This is all irrelevant for liek 10 years, windows does journaling a lot of the time (finally) as well as auto defrags if a drive actually needs it. (SSDs don't since they don't physically seek)
Interesting point, but I'm not totally sure. The issue is that on HDD, SMR or not, data needs to be _physically_ contiguous for future sequential reads to perform well, to a much greater extent than on SSDs. TRIM on SMR drives does help the drive with future allocations, but doesn't do anything about existing fragmentation. Specifically, the drive has no way of knowing about _logical_ fragmentation, which could occur for instance if you do random writes into a large file on a copy-on-write filesystem. Defragmentation in that case would help, as the defragmented files would get sequentially rewritten, which the drive will handle by storing it physically contiguously assuming that it has enough free zones available.
@@fat_pigeon I don't think drive managed SMR is ever going to perform well. One of the big problems is that there's no way to tell it to open a new zone and write sequentially to it. Sequential or not, it drops into a CCMR buffer zone first. Fill the buffer and the drive chokes. Rate-limiting the defrag procss might work okay. OS and filesystem involvment could mitigate these issue (host aware/host managed)
The reason you would defrag a mechanical drive is because the performance of mechanical drives really falls apart when you're asking it to read/write to several different places in a short time. This is because when a mechanical drive needs to change the location it's reading or writing to, first it needs to physically move the read/write head to that location, then it needs to wait for the platter to spin around to where it needs to be. SSDs are just way faster at changing the location they read/write to. This is where most of the responsiveness improvement came from when people started upgrading from mechanical drives to SSDs. It was a much bigger deal than the sequential read/write speeds.
Also just to add to the PSU thing: headroom matters more for high end systems because high end GPUs have massive power draw spikes. RTX 3090 was notorious for throttling on PCs with PSUs that were supposedly enough, according to regular wisdom! I think I remember reading somewhere that the RTX 3090 can spike beyond double it's rated TDP quite regularly
From my understanding, ATX 3.0 certified PSUs are designed to handle those spikes (using capacitors and so on). So if it's not ATX 3.0, then you need to make sure you have a lot of headroom but if it is, you just need a little.
@@morlankey I don't trust manus. to 'follow spec' so closely. However, you're correct. Latest ATX standard demanded longer 'hold up time' under 'transient load' conditions. TBQH, I'm incredibly surprised that noone's ever made a 'supercaps-on-plug' PCIe extension.
I really appreciate this video. I've been so consumed with work and home life for the past several years that I haven't personally had time to keep up with what is happening in the PC space. I found this video very informative, particularly the USB hub portion. I have been getting some spotty performance out of some of my devices, and that may be why. Thanks for your Two Cents!
most USB hubs lie in regards to their performance. True USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 hubs exist, but thanks to their obscure naming scheme, you just wont find them. Key here is that they deliver true 20GBit, vs the scam hubs which can deliver up to 5GBit or below, and are occasionally even USB 2 still... just under disguise.
A little update. I had my wireless usb headset dongle plugged into my USB hub because it was closer to me than the PC. It was getting an annoying crackling sound. I since moved the dongle to the front of the PC case about 2 feet away from where I sit, but no more annoying crackle sounds come out of it. Thanks for the advice!
i lucked out on the first pc i built a few months ago. got an OEM CPU for like 20 usd less than the boxed one and it came bundled with a stock cooler. ran that for a bit then bought a tower style cooler afterwards. you do lose warranty and aftersales support though but i was thinking most of the components do last at least past their warranty period
All great advice! Appreciated the advice around impact of ambient temperature where you live when it comes to cooling! It's a factor often overlooked by folks living in places where air conditioning is the norm, and can be a huge deal depending on where in the world you are. When I've lived in places without aircon that get to 30C/85F ambient air temperature, going overkill with air cooling at stock speeds on a high end system has been important for system stability.
I've gotten a few people to switch to PC during my time in the Navy, helped a few build their first tower and i always reference them to your vids. Thanks a lot and keep it up ^^
It's been a few years since I've really got into building a PC and some of this info was extremely helpful. Thanks for the update! You're really helping a fellow boomer out.
I upgraded about a year ago. The technician had good laugh because I wanted my CD/DVD drive installed. "You won't need that because everything is online and you get just download it" 1 week later: "I was so glad you kept that driver. My internet kept interrupting the download and caused improper installation errors. I was able to use a physical copy to get it running". So yeah, just because everything's online, doesn't mean it's reliable.
Things you know when you have enough life experience to not rely on one technology only. Can’t wait to see those kids get around after the next Carrington event.
I got a USB connectable blu ray reader and digitalized my entire DVD/Blu Ray collection that way. I'm finally done with the plastic disc mediums, but I like to have it as a back-up, which is also why I don't use a cloud, but keep my data on external HDDs stored in drawers. But hey, I still use CDs in my car! Gotta make a new mix MP3 CD like every 3-4 years. I still need my disc drive, just not permanently installed into the PC case anymore.
THANK YOU! I always have to explain that it’s better to have an 800 watt PSU when a system can run 500ish watts than it is to have a PSU closer to what the system runs at because of PSU efficiency and lifespan. Also, hubs have always sucked for anything beyond a basic keyboard and mouse.
My system runs about less then 600 watts. I bought A PSU with 650 watts 80+ gold and it was faulty. Had to replace it but the store had only 750 watts 80+ gold to offer for a replacement. I played games on max settings 2k res. and i never heard a fan running on my PSU. There's no dust on a filter below PSU.
Considering that you can buy multiple 500 watt PSUs for the price of 800 watt PSU, I'm not sure it might be worth it. Of course if you have ton of money, go and buy the biggest and most powerful hardware you can find, but most of us don't have ton of money.
@@sashabagdasarow497 Except that the lower you go in price, the less likely it is it's going to last you a longer time, and the higher the chance of a catastrophic failure that could damage other things besides the power supply itself. They're high in up-front cost, but a good power supply will last you at the very least five years, probably even longer, even in suboptimal conditions.
On the hub topic, I've found that spending more and getting a name brand, higher quality hub has been worth it. With cheaper hubs I got the usual disconnects and jittery mice and missing keyboard inputs, but with more expensive hubs I've had much better luck. I think the more expensive ones probably use higher quality USB components and take more care to ensure everything is up to spec.
Yep get a relatively well known brand, with a few stronger (fast charging) ports to ensure more reliability and you're in a much safer place. If you cheap out on those, yep jay is right you're going to find trouble.
Couldn't live without a powered hub as my PC is under my table. Also don't really have any problems with it except for my 4TB eternal HDDs sometimes not getting recognised properly but I wonder if this is actually due to Ryzen 5000's USB problems. Restarting the PC will solve the problem and it also doesn't happen all the time. One thing people should be aware about, no matter if using the hub or ports at the back of their PCs, don't plug in 2.4Ghz wireless dongles next to other plugged in USB3 devices as USB also is 2.4GHz and introduces connection problems and far lower reach for the wireless device. Was wondering why my mouse and keyboard combo (dual 2.4GHz wireless and BT) had connection issues when plugged into my laptop's docking station with more or less all ports being occupied, while it worked fine on another PC. Now I use it via BT on two laptops and via the dongle on my Win XP Retro PC.
The cheaper hubs are most likely USB 2.0 and or come with 2.0 cables. So when people go to use them they do not supply the proper power or data transfer
@@moomah5929 yes that's a known issue, and a common solution is to use USB 2.0 hubs which don't have that issue. Obviously that isn't suitable for high bandwidth devices like USB WiFi adapters/NICs, but it works well for mice, keyboards, and headphones that don't need USB 3.
@@sim2er Using a extension cable to create some distance from other plugged in devices should also work. I just wonder how many people did send their wireless 2.4GHz mice and keyboards back, complaining about them being faulty. Read quite a few people complaining about connection issues with the keyboard & mouse combo I'm using when using 2.4GHz (it also offers 2x BT).
Great advice for modular power supplies. DON'T USE CABLES FROM A DIFFERENT MANUFACTURER! Even though some manufacturers use the same psu side connectors, they have a different pin layout and you can easily fry a hard drive if you use the wrong cable.
I've been using SSDs since the Intel X25M G2, and one aspect that was a bit of a hullaballoo back in the early days was ensuring proper TRIM support. To a degree, TRIM is sort of like the SSD equivalent of defragging as proper trimming of the drive can result in slightly more performance (it allows existing data to be ignored rather than rewritten) as well as better drive life. Although, unlike defragging, this is pretty much handled automatically. The video didn't really go into much detail on why people defrag, which I thought might help explain why it's more important for something like a hard drive. The way a hard drive reads is kind of like a ticker or a marquee board. It has a head that moves around to the correct ring on the disc where the data is located and grabs it the next time it comes around. Going back to the marquee board, imagine if the information you wanted was all mixed up on the board. This meant that you had to keep reading and constantly piece the parts together to get the information you want. It sure would be easier if it was all together so you could just read it all at once. Hard drives have the same problem. Over time, as there's less and less contiguous space -- or files are deleted, which leaves holes to write in -- the information that comprises a file ends up split apart on the disc itself. When you defrag, the host system will reorganize the data so files are kept as close as possible on the disc. To a degree, this whole nature of having to seek to get data is also why some video games will duplicate data on disc. Essentially, if the data is needed in multiple spots, rather than require the head (hard drive) or laser (optical drive) to jump around, the data will be in multiple spots so it can read a large chunk of data in a row that typically comprises multiple files. By doing this, the game can reduce load times. My brother mentioned to me that the PS4 version of the latest Horizon Zero Dawn has a higher storage requirement than the PS5 version, and that's pretty much the main reason why. In regard to PSUs, I almost thought you were going to mention some of the old discussions like single rail vs. multiple rails.... or how there used to be a heavy focus on ensuring high 12V wattage. The one thing that I really appreciate in regard to PSUs is how much quieter they are. I'll grab an old PSU at times for things like running a water cooling loop without the host PC running or just booting up a motherboard for testing, and I recall one time being worried that I was hearing a noisy pump; however, that noise was just the normal fan noise from the old PSU. Awkwardly, said noisy PSU was a PC Power & Cooling *Silencer* PSU. For my recent testing, I just switched to this EVGA 600W semi-modular PSU that I had lying around, and oh... how I missed that sweet sound of silence! In regard to USB hubs, I think that just depends. I'm actually using one on my living room HTPC right now. I had to use it because I use three wireless devices with their own dongles. If I just installed the dongles separately in the back, I had issues with poor reception causing mouse skipping, failed key presses, etc. (The mouse was the worst offender though, and it's a Logitech G903.) So, the point of the dongle is to actually move the receivers out closer and somewhat in line of sight of the devices, and I have maybe only had one minor hiccup since I did that. The hub in question is just a simple, Amazon Basics 1-to-4 USB 3.0 hub. I believe it does support the option of adding auxiliary power, but given that I'm just using three dongles in it, that's not really needed. Now, I think the reason why it isn't so much of a problem is that -- if I remember correctly -- USB is designed for this sort of spread. I believe you can enumerate up to 255 devices per PHY or something to that effect.
Storing the same data twice/multiple times on a spinning drive will *NOT* reduce seek times since those identical copies of data are *NOT* used interchangeably...
@@svenkarlsen2702 ...which means exactly that it does speed it up? If they are not used interchangeably, there is no "risk" of the head/laser going for the same file in the other spot. Which quite literally means that there is no additional seek time.
@@tipakA First of all. There's no laser. Also. You obviously lack even the most basic knowledge on how filesystems work. NO! It will NOT speed things up if you store the same exact data several times on a single drive. You should learn the basics before you dream up useless solutions to problems better solved by faster drives or better optimized data compression.
Wow, great information. It's been years since I checked into this kind of stuff (too much horrible work burning out my brain). Definitely following your channel to get my knowledge up to date.
About power supplies: We've heard lots of relevant people saying that the 80+ rating is no longer ideal for measuring the build quality of a power supply. It may still measure electrical efficiency correctly, but as far as consumer PC goes it is much more important to worry about build quality, electrical protection mechanisms and etcetera than efficiency itself (or so I've heard).
What *doesn't* have RGB on it at this point? Front Panels, Graphics Cards, Fans, SSDs, RAM all have it. Do people think the fancy colours actually improve the performance or something?
@@maxtornogood No, but it gets them more fake Internet points on r/battlestations. Personally, I don't plan on ever having a RGB anything, and would rather just have a plain metal box. My current case is from 2005 with a big fan occupying 4 of the 5.25" drive bays.
@@user2C47 good luck. Most decent hardware is rgb these days. You could maybe turn it off in software but ive find usually there's at least one light i can't figure out how to turn off with any kind of software
17:40 you have a good point for sure, we still need good hubs, especially with USB-C. But I'm using one with my K95 RGB with a Razer Basilisk V3 and a Blue Yeti microphone to switch from my laptop to desktop and vice versa and it works flawlessly without needing to feed it any additional power.
I need something like a hub for my set up. I have the Logitech stream cam, and the cable for it is disappointingly short. I was looking at the razer hub (I think it was Razer) because it has just enough ports for what I need. I'm at the limit of USB ports on my motherboard (I don't think i set the front io up properly) but I don't plan on adding much else to the system. Mainly want the hub so I can cable manage better cuz currently a few of my cables just hang behind my monitors. Is there any you recommend?
This is all super helpful. Last time I got a gaming PC was in 2012, and building my new one now in 2022, I'm realizing just how out of date my knowledge has become. Bro, I didn't even know what M.2 was until I noticed it was a feature on my motherboard. I'm so out of touch.
Almost the same here but mine was 2013. Currently, I am building a new one, and took me a few minutes trying to find where m.2 plugs are. I realized they were hidden under the heat sink that comes with the motberboard.
Hubs (even unpowered) are fine if they are being used more for convenience rather than to add more ports. Stuff you may not keep plugged in all the time and you don't want to go to the back of your PC - a thumb drive for instance. On that note, I have seen more USB devices state that they should not be used on a hub, but YMMV. If it doesn't work, plug it into the board.
@@tortordenful Yeah a really poor bit of info from him. We run 8 port hubs in our office with multiple external hard drives, webcams and other devices don't get problems. We do use good quality powered ones, which is really what he should have differentiated. We have also run 4k cams and streamdecks through hubs with zero issues ourselves.
For many reasons I exchanged my old build in a nice case for a tiny NUC Hades Canyon three years ago. It's great having a computer with enough ports that I don't have to use a hub for anything other than USB drives and such. If I build a computer again in the future, I'll make sure it has more than enough native ports to take care of my needs - the NUC has spoiled me.
@@nycbearff I have that same NUC and it's great for so many things. However the USB ports are very close so I had to use an Amazon basics hub with greater spacing because apparently my USBs are mostly phat bois
One note about the USB Hub topic: DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, equipment such as a Novation Launchpad, do not function properly without enough power. Most modern motherboards MIGHT supply enough power thru the rear I/O, but I personally have had more success using powered external USB Hubs. Currently using an ASUS Prime X570-PRO motherboard with a 3700X and 32 GB of RAM @ 3600 MT/s
I remember when I got my 8core bulldozer a few years back, came with a massive copper pipes system with fins and a decent fan, it worked fine at stock. Even when I overclocked to 4.4ghz it was still decent, but for peace of mind I installed a 240mm enclosed rad/pump... ironically it has always been my video cards that produce heat like mad... CPU never really went past 55c-ish air cooled. On average now I get a standing temp at 30c and tops under extreme load at around 45c. Stock systems can be just fine out of the box now a days indeed.
Your CPU produces the same heat you just move it away more efficient. Frankenstein a huge Tower cooler to your GPU with some extra VRM and VRAM cooling and you can get low temps on them too.
I think powered hubs are still a good idea, but you need to have some idea of the bandwidth vs power consumption of the device. The elgato streamdeck doesn't use a lot of data, but uses a ton of power. The elgato facecam uses a moderate amount of power, but uses an absolute firehose worth of data. The streamdeck can go on the powered hub, the camera needs to go to an actual port (which is usually also a hub attached to a single USB controller on your motherboard but...)
Yeah I use powered USB 3.0 hubs at work and at home. If you connect one to your KVM (or monitor that has a KVM), you can easily swap all of your required devices between your work computer/home computer. As much as Jay says modern mouse and keyboards require more bandwidth than those can provide, I call bullshit. My powered USB hub runs a 1080p webcam, a mechanical keyboard, a "gaming" house, a separate mechanical numpad, a blue yeti mic and an 8bitdo ultimate controller. None of them have polling issues. None of them lose connection. None of them have any issues.
One further safer callout, for assessing PSU power draw requirements, is seeing component reviews [exact SKU or equivalent regardless]. Plenty of occasions, more established reviewers [such as Tech Jesus, yourself and others] have identified a component running harder [than their listed ratings], under varied /intermittent instances [aka, Peak power draws].
@@alexatkin Got a PNY Revel 3080 in a prebuild early last year. Without overclocking it will pull up to 350w and run at 1995-2010MHz despite it's FE specs of 320w and 1710 boost. I swapped out the 750w ThermalTake that came with it (which was probably ok), for a Corsair RM1000x mag lev. No stress, better cables, silent.
I sized my PSU with a lot of headroom, because my current setup even under load, the PSU doesn't need to turn its fan on for cooling. It was all about the noise reduction. Same with the 240mm AIO for a 65w chip, I wanted to keep my fan speeds low and quiet.
Great video. You did leave out one reason to use a gigantic cooler on something like a 5600X and this is to limit noise. Noise in general is not discussed enough relative to PCs
I like these refresher videos. I build a new PC every 4 or 5 years and in between I don't pay as much attention to technology changes and trends. So these are good for people like me who are getting back up to speed while building and setting up a new PC. I bought an Asus ROG Dark Hero motherboard primarily for all of the USB ports on the rear I/O since I'm connecting my keyboard, mouse, printer, iPod, phone, external backup HDD and monitor USB to the computer plus the occasional thumb drive to the case I/O. I was unaware of the SSD defrag, but I'm glad I know it now!
A powered USB hub would still be absolutely fine for what you listed there. His advice on this was pretty poor other than 4k cams flaking out which is a known thing. That being said, nothing wrong with getting a motherboard with a ton of ports :)
A powered HUB is still a great addition for : keyboard, mouse, sound card, fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth dongle, 2FA dongle, etc. These could each run from a USB 2.0, but USB 2.0 is sometimes too weak for some devices that don't even require data stream like wireless a wireless smartphone charger. And yes, you use a USB 3.0 ( I mean, USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 or better ), but you usually have many USB ports, and using hubs on a USB 2.0 may cause data loss even for some weak devices like a bluetooth dongle. Also a HUB moves the ports to a conveniant place. Just make sure to have at least 2 other USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 or better for high bandwith devices when needed
my computer complains i’m out of usb recourses sometimes but usually nothing actually stops working. if something does quit it’s my mic and i replug it and reselect it
"De-frag" is probably got carried over to modern storage solutions, Windows can handle "de-frag" which is a TRIM command for SSDs when running the "optimization" thingy every week/month. Manual TRIM will make the OS more responsive in extreme cases, but Windows will do it on schedule automatically, the user shouldn't worry about it. It's really a piece of old advice on modern OSes.
Ah yes, I remember the early 90s when defragging your hard disk was something you did on a slow day at work when you couldn’t be bothered picking up the next assignment
For SSD of any kind TRIM is what you need to do and I hope it has garbage collection. Even SSD companies recommend not defrag your SSD. Like for samsung ssd it has a program and it trims for you.
Also to the defrag thing.... if you are running NTFS as a file system, it is rather resistant to fragmentation. I stayed on FAT32 until I moved to Windows 7. I ran defrag monthly as part of my normal maintenance and was rather shocked when I ran into my drives that were virtually fragmentation-free. I dropped it from my network maintenance checklist after 4 or 5 months. And I was moving HUGE amounts of data around on my home network at the time.
I've run Linux, and switched to XFS filesystem and never worried about fragmentation again... and even the EXTn (where n = 2, 3, 4) filesystems are rather fragmentation resistant compared to the stupid disk sector algorithms used by Microsoft filesystems.
@@harlech2 it's there, it just does it automatically in down time. From Windows 7 on, mechanical hard drives get defragged as part of Window routine automatic maintenance. SSD drives are NOT automatically defragged (and as Jay says, it's best not to)
Unless you changed Windows 7's (or later) defrag schedule then the reason your hard drives were fragmentation free is because Windows 7 and on automatically defrags hard drives (not SSD's obviously) on a schedule that runs during down time.
when it comes to USB hubs, I always look for a powered hub, because most of the time it's just that the host device just can't put out enough power for everything. but yes, you should try to plug things in directly where you can, making sure to create a sort of hierarchy, most intense USB loads plugged directly and plugging things that barely use the bus into a hub, preferably a powered one.
Totally agree, I still have a powered 2.0 Hub around and I use it for USB 2.0 and 1.1 Devices which are still more common than 3.x devices around my desktop. It is still quite handy if used as described by @JessicaFEREM Also most Smartphones still only support USB 2.0, I think.
I totally agree, and it should be noted that higher polling rates on keyboards are internal to those devices. The computer still only sees a 'key down' and a "key up" signal. They probably draw more power, which is likely the source of the problem. I've had old 1.1 hubs melt due to the power draw through cheap chips!
I'm quite annoyed because my current motherboard has a USB-C port, but one of my devices sent me a USB-C antennae that had giant plastic windows on either side. It won't fit in the slot! The whole point of USB-C is that it is smaller! So I had to resort to using their USB 3.0 antennae instead. if they had just made the antennae wings off set about an inch from where it's supposed to fit into the case, it wouldn't be an issue. But things thing will quite literally NOT fit on my motherboard.... it bumps into the larger cables.
Back when USB didn’t have a number after it, many commercial computers were frustratingly skimpy about USB ports, while more and more devices went USB AND would not work through a hub!
I built my last PC, can't believe it now 4 years ago, and now looking to build another one in a year or so. I can't thank you enough for the great advice. You answered my questions with these great videos. Glad to hear that stock coolers are sufficient for us non-overclockers. This information is actually very important, especially nowadays that money is tight!
I got the smallest variant with my Ryzen 5 1600 (six core) and i have to say it was pretty good I think i never got over 70° while gaming for a few hours so yeah, don't underestimate the box coolers Plus, it's not that big of a difference in price getting the box cooler with the cpu so even if it turns out to not be as good as you wanted you can just upgrade I upgraded mine only because i like things running extra cool and i wanted the cool looking RGB cooler in my build lol And I'm just gonna sell the stock cooler online used and get some cash back too
I remember when choosing your motherboard basically locked you into which GPU you could use, or if you used the opposing brand/type you could suffer. Now it's so much better to just buy the card you want.
I like that the sponsor is Microcenter. MC is amazing. Great prices and they actually hire people that have some knowledge and are interested in what they are selling. It's like the opposite of most Home Depots.
Still have a 580w bequiet powersupply from 2006 - my first prebuild pc. The supply got coil whine in around 2011-2012 everytime my pc was turned off which didnt bother me because of a Toggle switch power strip at my setup. It still worked and was used in my primary pc until the end of 2021 with a system i bought at the end of 2013. That PC was used between 6-14h daily so not that bad.
talking about the whole defrag topic. I'm pretty sure windows adopted it a long time ago to TRIM instead of defrag when it detects SSD's much the same as any software like Samsung's or any other vendors software does.
I thought about mentioning this too but windows also auto trims the drive just like it defrags hard drives when the system is idle so most modern operating systems handle it for you.
I don't understand the "stock fan is really good" until there is a sponsored video for a company that makes coolers and then stock fan is terrible and you need whatever they are selling
Im still running mine 2 years later. I only noticed it couldn't keep up in the summer, but an extra case fan solved that problem for me. What did you upgrade to?
I would have agreed with you about fans until I watched the "Major Hardware" channel's "Fan Show" where people send in their 3D printed Fan designs and they test them. I would love for you to build a system using the fan call "The Cheater" so far it is the fan to beat this season. At least one fan was looked at to be licensed by a Big Fan company. Check it out.
The problem with The Cheater is that it is massively oversized compared to a standard fan, the T33 would be a much better fan to use in an actual system.
How are custom 3D printed designs related to market designs? He didn't say certain fan designs aren't better for certain jobs. He said that almost all big manufacturers have basically settled on a hybrid design. Therefore, the need to make a choice is no longer available, and with it the need to argue about it. But if you have access to custom designs, then you can absolutely continue the discussion.
I've been watching so many of your videos and I really love how your one of the most honest youtubers explaining all this stuff. I built my first PC in 2021 just for online university work so I basically just took whatever needed parts my father-in-law gave me at the time. Now that I work from home though on some pretty dense programs I really need an upgrade so I'm doing my research to say the least. I do care about esthetics since I am a console gamer and have my PC set up together with that. Buuuut also a parent on a budget so all this advice has been amazing. Excited to get my PC to where it needs to be for what I do and make it look good too without wasting a ton of cash in the process.
Something I learned early on, was that Windows Defender is really all you need in terms of virus/malware protection if you're not an idiot. Once I stopped using a 3rd party anti-virus, I noticed significantly better performance.
Yep I agree and maybe the occasional scan with antimalware like malwarebytes when you suspect something but I usually disable it or uninstall when I don't use it because i've seen it slightly slow down my PC as well for some odd reason
This. I just ran Avast for years because that was the thing to do. Got fed up with the ever increasing amount of pop-ups and ads, went looking to find what the best replacements were, and yeah. Windows Defender was highly recommended. So I've been doing that for years now and it works great. Not the solution for grandma and grandpa who are far more likely to click random links and download random things, but for someone who knows what crap on the internet to avoid, it gets the job done.
True. I used to do a lot of Antivirus hopping in Win Vista/7 days. Haven't looked around for antivirus for almost a decade now except on googling how to COMPLETELY remove McAfee
I agree. Funny thing is for me, "early on" was before windows defender was even an idea. It took a while for MS to make it as good as it was by the middle of Windows 7's lifecycle.
And if you are an idiot then there's no antivirus that will save you.
I've been out of the PC game for close to 10 years and just started out again in early 2021. I really appreciate your channel and all the easily digestable information you are supplying. Thank you! My PC wouldn't look as well if it wasn't for this channel. Greetings from Austria!
PC tech 2020s is big and fast and rather boring.
Mostly everything just works...
@@joefish6091 You're right. Building a PC now is way more convenient than installing a game back in 1999.
Newer graphics cards keep getting less interesting and more normal and working out of the box, no tinkering required. kinda meh :/
@@U47VII welcome back! Check out Gamer's Nexus too, they have really helped me get caught up over the last few months.
He's the information supplier after all 😂
Timestamps and advices:
1:00 - stock CPU coolers are OK if you're not planning to push your hi-end system to the maximum and beyond. Even more OK if you're living in a colder climate with a lower ambient temp in your room.
5:30 - DO NOT defragment your SSD. HDDs still require defragmentation (my personal note: nowadays windows by default launches defragmentation automatically every week so you still don't have to do it manually)
7:34 - there's no point arguing about the fan types (airflow or static pressure), most fans are hybrid now, so you should pay more attention to things like loudness, aesthetics, motor design, anti vibration pads etc
10:43 - PSU efficiency bell curve changed to be more smooth at higher loads which means the efficiency doesn't drop so quickly after the 50% load so you don't have to buy a 1600W PSU for a 800W system. But it's still recommended to have some head room, so buy a 800W PSU for a 600W system
16:00 - Do not use powered USB-hubs for things like 4K webcams, Elgato stuff and other devices which transfers a lot of data, because it all goes through a single USB-port which may not be able to handle this much data. And also device's own software may not work properly when using a hub. Using a hub for just power is OK
Bless you
Damn, that USB advice is great advice.
Thanks
Thanks.
Somtimes it is useful to trim a ssd
I've built 3 computers over the years and typically do a new build every 7 to 10 years on average. Everytime I go for a new build I have to look things up again because everything is out dated...
I'm doing my third one in 3 years... I have a problem.
@@LosTCoz3000 only if you can't afford it, if you can...I don't see a problem 🤣🤣🤣
I love how this channel remembers to talk to new PC users. So many channels just cover the higher end stuff.
I've been working with computers longer than Jay - And I still like to hear this newer advice. Remember that things change and skills from the past need updating too!
Ray Jay Computers
I started watching this channel last year when I built my first computer and Jay was just as easy to understand then as he is now. It can never hurt to cover all the bases even if you think everyone will be in the know.
it has to be said, high end stuff is just very cool to look at, but if you're looking for real information you probably need a video about middle/lower hardware and stuff that is simple to understand.
That is why this channel is so precious to me.
Amen. I intermittently refer back to basics in my field (automotive technician.) Keeps me from getting stuck in the weeds.
I know right? One of that channel is LTT
fun fact about SSDs and defrag, during the earlier SSD days you had to specifically tell windows NOT to defrag it, As sometimes windows would automatically defrag your drives. Today the OS knows you stuck an SSD in there and turns off that feature of automatic action.
It won't even let you optionally Defrag it.
The last winders update ate my dual boot. I have a winders drive and a linux drive.
IF I have to kick windows to the curb I will. I have done it before. Won't make the wife happy.
AS for games I can live without them.
@@warrenpuckett6134 gaming is good on Linux.
@@azugn5739 Let's be honest. Gaming on Linux has gotten to a decent state, but it's not as plug and play as Windows. You can get most games running on Linux, but some will just behave oddly, and some will take hours or days of tweaking to get working properly.
I'm super excited for the day when all games on Linux are just download and go, but we're not quite there yet.
Not sure were you found that info at. I do a lot of Tech support and I have see windows updates turn on defrag in the system event timer and then defrag SSD's to death. Just pull one out of a 1 year old system back in November were windows defragged a Nvme drive to the point were the reserve was completely gone and the drive hard started getting unrecoverable sectors in the main partition. OS Windows 10 sp20h2 drive Western Digital Black 500gb Nvme
Another benefit to custom coolers: noise level. That could be a reason to upgrade as well.
That's why I'm rocking a Noctua on my now-old Ryzen build... it might be more cooling capacity than I'll ever need, given how lightly I use this system, but it's even quieter than the already-quiet Wraith coolers I've used before.
I like the fans loud. When I hear the fans running when I'm watching TV, it reminds me to shut my system down.
@@jb31842 the wraith is audible in idle for me on a 3900x tbh 😅 But yeah definetely a good point!
I had an old AMD FX-8350 with the stock cooler that sounded like a jet engine under load - lol - Ended up selling that system and building something with an i7 3770k and a Noctua cooler.
Running a custom loop now to run my fans basically at idle and no noise even with an OC'd 3090/5800x
Excellent content. As an older enthusiast, (60) I've been in and out of computers as a hobby since i was a kid, depending on my where my finances were at any given point. Kids are expensive.😂 Its been ten years since I've dealt with new hardware, so this was a great quick refresh, as well as a reminder at how fast old computer knowledge can become obsolete. Thanks for this!
are you still defragging you ssd?🤣🤣🤣
@@SaraMorgan-ym6ue only on Wednesdays.
@@SaraMorgan-ym6ue I'm running my OS on a 5400 RPM drive. 🤣
@@zorkmid1083 you poor man I pity you🤣🤣
Jay's explanation about the 80+ ratings on PSUs was awesome and I'm sure we all understood him. However, I just want to rectify one thing from his calculation of how many watts are needed to be pulled from the wall by an 80%-efficient 1000-W PSU to provide max output. It's actually 1250W, not 1200W. Just wanted to get that out there. 😁
Anyway, I've learned and am learning so much from this channel, and I'm very grateful. More power to JayzTwoCents! 👍
Just to expand on your comments on defragging a drive, Jay: Defrag on a hard drive was to move sectors that were written and rewritten to be together - i.e. make sure all the data that should be together, is, so that the head on the drive doesn't have to seek any more than it absolutely needs to in order to access your data.
On an SSD this is not needed, as there is no physical head to move and it doesn't actually matter what data is stored in what sector.
you cant run defrag on an SSD in windows anyway. it wont do it. Jay missed that one.
@@forestR1 Yes, it's called optimize drives, it runs trim on ssd. Atleast I think so. Just DON'T use defraggler or any other 3rd party defragmenting software.
@@forestR1 correct. windows has disabled disk defrag on SSDs since they build trim into a win7 update. even if you try to run windows defragger on an ssd it will "optimize" aka run trim on the drive, not defrag it
@@forestR1 yes you can still defrag an ssd on windows, regardless of warning popups or os-specific feature 'lockout' .. to say you can't is just a myth. Further, 3rd party apps dont care about M$ nanny 'features'
@@Tsiikki except some extemely narrow circumstances (which one mostly finds on servers and workstations, and can be limited to only defragging specific files). There can be a benefit in performance due to being able to send less commands to read the file.
Jay I used your videos from 2019 and 2020 to learn from and begin my research on how to build my own computer and find the right parts. In July of 2020 I finally built said computer and going off your advice I am still reaping the rewards of the PC that I built. Just wanted to say thank you for those videos back then and all the content you are still producing! Keep it up my dude!
Ayyyy!! Same! I informed my decisions for parts around his videos and also built mine in July! I'll tell you tho, I was initially bummed that didn't have enough to get a 2060 instead of an rx590 but in hindsight I grabbed a decent mid-range card. Lmao.
@@dirg3music I picked up the XFX 5600XT, couldn't afford much else.
The thing is with defrag is that most operating systems will automatically defragment eligible drives for you. Windows actually doesn't allow you to defrag an SSD and instead you'll see an option to optimise or trim the drive.
that actually helped me... i hadn't owned a computer since my gateway back in the 90s, and got a new one, well... new as in it was new, but already old as hell. an i5 3470 cause it was cheap, and i've been actually learning what i wish i had in my teens. would've really made my experience a lot better back then if i hadn't been so tech illiterate. but i kinda freaked thinking it was set to defrag my ssd weekly, and only read 0% fragged on my hdd. so unchecked my ssd, but then i saw this and looked again, it obviously says optimized on it. so, preciate it.
Yes and i have found that the auto schedule is not so helpful with notebooks that spend most of their time asleep so i have worked on reportedly slow machines that had not run a TRIM cycle for hundreds of days. So please make sure defrag is running TRIM and about once a month is just fine or after every large file erasure.
@@Wahinies on pretty much all modern SSDs it's safe beneficial to run TRIM early and often. SSD being told to TRIM does 2 main things, flagging (ignore the data here this part is actually empty) which is done immediately, and the actual "emptying" work which is not (on modern SSDs). The actual writing-the-block-full-of-zeroes doesn't happen until the space is needed (specifically to prevent wearing the SSD out prematurely). Telling the SSD where it has "empty" space also prevents it from copying the unused data which is stored there, which REDUCES wear.
For a windows11 laptop setting the TRIM schedule to [daily] and ☑️[increased priority after consecutive missed] might be a good idea. If it's only on for a short time it probably won't actually run every day, but I'd rather it catch up after several days (~weeks) than after several weeks (~months).
But on older PCs running old Windows versions means it's not gonna show trim option and only defragmenting
For power supplies I always say it's the one item in your pc you absolutely shouldnt skimp out on
Cause it's really the ONLY part that could not only take out your pc but your entire house depending how bad the short is
100%, early in my PC building days, I fried two motherboards, GPUs, and even a monitor, because I was buying cheap no-name PSUs and trying to overclock. Never again!
Definitely never run with an inadequate or low quality power supply. Apart from anything else reliability will fall through the floor. A lot of things that look like software issues - especially OS crashing, - ultimately turn out to be down to power supply problems.
For SO many years I built to the lowest cost possible. BIOSTAR and lower end Gigabyte mobos, overclocked celerons (the upright ones, remember those?), cheapest PSUs. And it was just headache after headache. To the point where it reflected poorly on me with my family. Then I finally said scr&$ it, and got a new gaming 2nd Gen i7 on an Asus Mobo with Corsair RAM and an EVGA 650W PSU. Absolutely rock solid since day one, with many upgrades. Learned my lesson. That PC was retired gracefully and with all honors after 9 years of service.
Let me tell you of a horror story:
I used my laptop with a cord that had a short in it for over 2 years. I didn't realize it was a short, nor did my mother who is very familiar with electrical components (She might have known had I not had the respective part covered with tape because it was a bright ass light). Spent that whole time not being able to really charge my battery, but otherwise could still use the laptop.
@@Kio_Kurashi interesting?
01:00 "Stock coolers are garbage"
05:29 "Defragment your drive"
07:33 "Fan Types Matter"
10:43 "Should I prioritize higher PSU wattage or higher efficiency?"
16:00 "Always use a powered USB hub"
awesome tldw, thank you
Thanks man, saved me 20 minutes
**Never use a powered USB hub**
THIS. Jay, please segment your videos in the timeline. Hate to say it but “linus does…”
As someone else has stated, 7:33 is "Fan types *don't* matter" and 16:00 " *Never* use a USB hub"
When you talked about stock coolers, you left out one important reason many people still like to upgrade, that is for silent PC builds for studio and lab use which use an oversized cooler and fan then run it at half capacity. Combined with a high efficiency PSU and SSDs, you can get close to total silence.
I agree with you (as someone who runs their NF-A12x25 case fans at 850rpm and their NF-A14 radiator fans at 550rpm). I know Jay is the type of guy who runs his fans at full speed all the time, so as I was watching this video, I was thinking to myself "let's see if Jay remembers to talk about the silence benefits of using an "over spec cooler."
I've got Dark Rock Pro 4 on my 2700x, bought it and Dark Base 900 in order to silence my pc, and the difference is night and day, although i wish i could silence my aorus 1070 Ti... for some explicable reason i refused to get a triple fan model back then as i was researching for like 2 weeks to build my pc after a friend told me about Ryzen and how good they are, i basically stopped following tech since it was just quad cores forever, except for a GPU upgrade every 3 years. For the next build in like a year or later imma make sure to get a silent gpu(great cooling, with not much if any extra OC by the vendor, also learn to idk what the right word it but to lower it's wattage a bit, usually these gpus are a bit too highly clocked).
@@kiloneie I think you mean either underclocking or lowering the power limit on your GPU... but if it's about noise, I don't know why you wouldn't just adjust your fan curve to not go above what you consider a "noisy" level... unless you're doing super gpu intense production or gaming at 4k, you probably won't hit those high temps anyway. If you do, the GPU will automatically downclock.
Or do both, that would be pretty foolproof. It's nice to not throttle the GPU when it might need some short bursts of power, though.
@@pkennethv Jay is the one that had 3 radiators in his build which ran passive when no workload (rendering, gaming, etc) was applied.
But still agree. A better cooler can either mean better cooling at the same noise level, or the same cooling at a quieter noise level (or somewhere in between)
That's why I tend to cram as many fans in useful spaces as my case allows. More (and bigger) fans means less noise, because they can run slower and move the same amount of air.
About GPU noise, it's all relative. So far I had no card that needed more than maybe 40-50% on the fan to stay cool under load, even with oc. And often enouogh it takes 50-60% for it to be really audible. So in idle I can't hear them among my background noise (like a clock or the fridge). And when gaming I got the game audio on speakers or headphones which drowns out any fan noise anyway. When in doubt, adjusting the fan curve solvs any overlap.
There will always be exceptions and specific use cases. A stock cooler usually isn't good enough for overclocking either. It's good for running things stock. If you have custom needs, you need custom parts.
I've built 11 systems as a hobby... but aside from some moderately basic Laptop upgrades I haven't really dabbled in any builds for 10-ish years. Thank you SO much for this video which has helped me catch-up on improvements and variations in the art! Very informative and helpful video! 😁 More, please?
Oh yeah - last 10 years have had massive changes.
I actually built my first system in 2013. Almost exactly 10 years ago haha.
The availability of good, cheap SSDs, Stock Coolers on lower/midrange CPUs not being automatic trash, and honestly even just Air Cooling options being amazing in general have really changed things.
I remember being told in 2013 that I needed to water cool if I wanted the best performance. Instead, I got addicted to Noctua CPU coolers and fans :)
What you think of using psu without plus stickers? like a thermaltake 550w or a smart 350w psu for a low end pc?
@@I_enjoy_some_things"massive" is a very relative term. Compared to previous decades, we haven't seen that much revolutionary stuff, rather it was about getting more out of a CPU like adding more cores, threads, etc.
A 2014 CPU is still comparable to a 2024 CPU. The improvements are obvious, but it's not really an "insane" improvement. Try comparing an 80386SL from 1990 with a nice Pentium 4 from 2000.
6:59 Defragging on an SSD shouldn't be possible with current Windows versions of defrag (basically Windows 8 and newer). If you now run defrag on an SSD, it will instead run the TRIM command on the target SSD. Crucial has a very good explanation of what TRIM command is and how it works on their website that is worth a read.
*Thank* you!
Windows 10 runs SSD optimization every so often, I think.
Not to mention fragmentation simply isnt a problem with SSDs. The problem with fragmentation was how often the drive would have to seek and average seek time on an HDD is noticeably slow, but on most SSDs it's very close to 0.
This is true, perhaps he should have mentioned 3rd party defrag tools like defraggler etc, which may not trim data and instead move data around without caring if it's an SSD
That's a relief
Small nit pick: Defragmenting isn’t about drive “health” per se for spinning drives, it’s about performance… reducing the need for random access of related sectors, minimizing track head movement. When the OS writes data it defaults to “first fit” allocation. When you defrag, you’re reallocating to “best fit”, trying to line up as many sectors that are related to each other as possible. The irony is that modern file systems ( ntfs included ) operates on the principle that sectors in the FS are allocated sparsely to give you consistent performance, so defragging theoretically shouldn’t have done much for performance anyway on modern windows systems.
But of course your main point is absolutely true: there is no point at all to defragging an SSD. All you’re doing is reducing the life of your SSD
I always described the old SSD writing method as the SHOTGUN Method. Basically instead of everything being in one spot like youd do when putting books on a shelf the computer basically loaded it up like a shotgun shell and blasted the SSD. Resulting in the data for a program being everywhere, aka a shotgun spread. Defraging at its simplest took these spread out bits of data and then regrouped them next to each other for ease of access.
Id say the "health" benefit for the drive was that instead of needing to spin and spin and spin, and for the read/write arm to continuely move up and down the platter, a defraged file meant less wear and tear on the mechanical parts and extending the drives life before hitting what I called "Drive Senility". You know that point where you click a program and your drive takes 5 minutes to realize it should of been doing somthing.
Trimming is the new 'defrag'. You know how deleting stuff doesn't actually remove it from the harddrive? Trimming resets 'deleted' bits to 0, and actually does help with performance.
The simpler explanation would be that a fragmented hard drive has the data that you accumulated over time in the same folder in different places which is why the drive head has to move far across.
Defragmentation puts the data right next to each other according to your file system meaning the data you put in your folder at different times is now right next to each other giving you faster read speeds.
At least that's how I always understood it.
PS.: HDD wear is mostly influenced by heat btw because of magnetic shingles it uses, so while some malfunctions may be due to mechanical movement most of failures I've heard about were due to heat being the primary cause.
SSDs of course put the data in cells which can all be accessed at the same speed at the same time, and the drive itself shuffles bits around to avoid defective or used cells to keep the drive at an even wear.
So they are never actually fragmented or rather fragmentation is their preferred state and will always be fragmented.
And the SSD does health checks by itself already.
Minimizing track head movement will increase drive's life span. So it is about Health as it is about performance.
I have been using WIndows XP 64-bit (which has no TRIM at all) installed on an SSD.
It was my main system for a long time, stable, fast af before I was forced to buy a new PC.
SSD is still at 99% Health. And yes, it did defragment. And it was fast, too...
Just a side note here. On Windows 10/11 if you go into the disk defragmenter and try to defrag a SSD it actually executes a trim instead.
was about to write that and then seen someone beat me to it
whats a trim
@@Ravenbones its when someone cuts your hair
@@Ravenbones "A trim command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered to be 'in use' and therefore can be erased internally"
When you delete something, it's still on an SSD until trim literally takes the garbage out
100% true. My fave os win 8.1 knows the difference. Will trim an ssd, Defrag spinning drives. And the Defrag makes recovery of data on a spinning drive so much easier.
If the pc supports it, you can use a PCIe slot to add more usb ports for additional devices. Unsure if that counts as a hub but it works around using a usb port
Steve from GN has shown the 80+ means nothing. Manufacturers can put in a model for testing for the 80+ then after being awarded a rating, the manufacturers can change the internals of the PSU and it can no longer reach a 80+ titanium for example but they get to keep the original rating
That's why everything should have testing done on market models; but just cause things should be that way doesn't mean the current system means nothing.
It's like saying every cars emission ratings mean nothing because they could be pulling a Volkswagen.
Any brand with a reputation to uphold risks losing the reputation if they are caught, and for things like PC hardware that get 3rd party tested all the time these things will eventually get caught. LMG Labs will be a great step forward in this regard.
If we are to follow the logical conclusion of your post that means we just shouldn't buy power supplies because by the same logic they also could not meet the wattage ratings they claim or blow out early from not reaching the 80+ rating so its also meaningless and there is no usable metric to decide what to buy.
The fact that you don't agree with the above is an indication you need to add more nuance to your posts because you focused only on the fact that its possible for manufacturers to lie therefore that is all you must care about.
Plantinum and titanium save you negligible money on your utility bills
@@nocare You've made some big assumptions from my post merely because I didn't mention some things. Not every one wants to write an essay for a UA-cam comment.
But to answer your poor assumptions, when choosing a PSU to buy, go with the wattage you need from a reputable brand with good independent reviews. Ignore the 80+ rating as with the poor standards implemented by the ratings body, it is an arbitrary number
@@rossharper1983 that's the thing. If the rating is flawed so it the wattage by the same arguments.
@@nocare Not, because the wattage isn't given by a 3rd party standards agency. The manufacturer says it's a 1000w, the manufacturer doesn't say it's 80+ gold, the testing body does.
The manufacturer can then change internal components for whatever reason that maybe inadvertently makes it no longer 80+ gold, but if they make less than 1000w and still sell it as 1000w they are breaking the law as knowingly false advertising. Because they don't have to resubmit the PSU for 80+ rating every time they change an internal part then they aren't doing anything illegal.
I've built a few PC's over the years and it's VERY important to keep your advice and knowledge base up to date because things change REALLY fast... My old desktop PC was built in a case that now is around 20 years old, it was solid enough for that but now the USB's have changed, PSU sizes have changed, fan sizes have changed, GPU's are bigger, we have liquid cooling options now... that case won't cut it anymore (I really like the case but it's time for a new one). Got to move with the times sometimes.
Ehh, you can just get a USB and USB-C front panel for 5.25 inch bays to keep your PC up to date, they aren't that expansive (tough, the USB C ones are always more expansive), PSU's haven changed in terms if size. In fact you can just put a modern PSU in in a case for a Pentium 2 if you want. In fact the PSU fan will help with airflow in your case if they are top-mounted. bigger GPU's can be a factor if you go for high-end, but you can solve it with removing the drive cages.
The only thing with old cases that really limits building, is if they have no top-fan mounting. That one thing is really bad for old cases. Especially if the backfan are only 2 80mm spots instead of 1 120mm.
@@thundereagle4130 top fan mounting? You can drill one lol, but there is no space too.
Yeah I haven't built a system in over a decade, but follow as much info as I can so I at least still know what is current best advice. Nothing is worse then falling behind the times.
the PSUs are all a pretty standard size, and still use the same 4 screw-hole positions that have been in ATX cases since the late 90s. But as others said, you could always get a usb/usb-c front panel for one of the bays.
@@caitlinomalley80 It's the cooling that' the main problem, no fan mounts outside the existing ones and there's only 3 iirc, one front behind a solid panel, one rear and one side which all take smaller fans. I could keep it as a legacy system and run older titles that don't work on my new systems assuming I can find my old copy of Windows XP. Lol.
Something you missed that I think should be pointed out: On newer versions of Windows, disk defragmenting(and trimming and garbage collection for SSDs) is carried out automatically. So even if someone is running Windows off a mechanical drive, there is almost never a reason for them to defragment it themselves, it's most likely already been done recently in the background.
Unless they changed it to not automatically do it which I've gotten a pre owned like that once was annoying because they never did it so ssd swapped it lol
ive realized that. every time i come to defrag my mechanical drives its always already done
@Telleva Don't say that. My old 4Gb hdd had new life every time I defraget it on 98' with stock defrag
Yes, since Windows Vista this task is made automatically when the PC is idle.
Isn't defrag even disabled now it detects SSD? I swear it's not even available. Instead it gives an options like "optimize drive" which doesn't defrag but does some other sort of appropriate cleanup.
This has absolutely stopped me making a couple of errors on my first ever build. I had a lot of uni mates who made computers back in the day and this covers a lot of what I retained from them. I've even swapped out the PSU in my shopping cart for one with a bit more headroom than it had. Thanks for the advice!
I love how the 5600's are dying while my old 5950x is still going nice and strong and it is apparently due to the cooler not keeping up with the 5600s heat generation to the level my 250 watt be quiet cooler is keeping my 5950x cool to
In Windows 10, the "Optimize Drives" now runs TRIM on solid state drives instead of defragmentation.
Which is fine, but pretty much any SSD drive bought in the last... probably five years or so, already runs TRIM every so often anyway.
@@nickllama5296 SSDs don't TRIM themselves.
Drive does not care what data/filesystem/OS it's hosting, and would have no way of knowing what data is active and what is just leftovers in free space. It's the job of OS to tell it what to TRIM/DISCARD/UNMAP/etc.
@@nickllama5296 You have to tell the SSD to run TRIM
@@JusticeGamingChannel You don't tell the "SSD to run TRIM", you trim every single block that you don't need. Older SSDs may have tried to wipe the block in real-time but modern drive controllers just note this in their allocation table and deal with it at their convenience (especially QLC drives, there is no reason to rewrite the data from other layers just to wipe one if you have enough already-wiped blocks).
But you need to trim so that the drive controller knows what blocks are no longer needed, without this information it can only rewrite a block when the data is modified (which on a SSD means "written to a new cell somewhere else and remapped in the allocation table"), and worse, without trim it'll go rewriting unneeded data during the internal optimization process, burning through your write cycles.
Trim just works automatically in the background in Windows and macOS (and I believe on desktop focused Linux although I'd have to go looking to confirm exactly what they're doing).
@@thedave1771 For desktop Linux, it depends on the distribution; for example, Ubuntu 20.04 has a systemd timer to run `fstrim --fstab` (trims blocks on all registered filesystems) weekly by default.
Personally I would still swap out a stock air cooler with a 120mm air cooler simply because those stock coolers can be loud AF sometimes.
This!
This is why I swapped out my stock Ryzen 3600X cooler for a nice Cooler Master air cooler. The temps are a little bit better, of course, but my main reason was the noise. It's so much quieter now.
@@lehelisbored what's ironic too, is that CM actually makes the stock coolers. They're decent enough but get a bit loud at times.
i got a custom cooler that came with my computer but i notice throttling after a few months... do i need to change the thermal paste? Pc runs kinda hot
@@Zipppyart imo it has nothing to do with which manufacturer made the stock coolers. The downdraft stock ones have smaller fans, so they have to spin faster to move the same amount of air a 120mm fan does while spinning slower, thus creating more noise. Could be wrong tho, but to me it's like comparing the acoustics of a 140mm to a 120mm fan while "moving the same amount of air"
I’ve been around your channel on and off for close to 5 years, this is the type of content that keeps me coming back, no BS, just “here are the facts, and here’s why your stupid, don’t be stupid.” But it’s info people need to hear in order to push through all the marketing bs and keyboard warrior techies. Good stuff as always.
"You're."
my first build was with a ryzen 7 2700x with a wraith cooler, I overclocked it like 4.2-4.4. the wraith cooler handled it like a champ. I loved it.
I'm still running this exact setup, works like a charm ;D
I'm OCing a 5700G with a single fan noctua air cooler to 4.2GHz and it's perfectly stable.
Regarding power supplies:
I still have to explain to a surprising amount of people that their PC is not going to pull all the power the PSU can provide all the time while it's on
No Steve, your PC does not pull 650W when all you're doing is viewing a word document on an i3 and integrated graphics, do i have to tell you that for the 800th time?
Similarly, I have had people ask me if using a battery with higher capacity than the original one in a car could cause harm.
Its the same as your electrical panel. You normally will never pull that may amps at once.
@@falcon-ng6sd
I was thinking hard about how do you even replace your car's battery, then realized you are talking about the small 12V one, not the 1200lbs integrated one.
When people aren’t familiar with a subject it takes a while to adjust to things you think are just common sense. Just saying.
@@Adizzle235 it's one thing when they don't get it at first but you can eventually explain it to them properly
It's another thing when they're so confident that YOU'RE wrong, and won't listen to anything you try to explain, and keep believing in whatever they think, it makes my blood simmer
Quick Note, in markets outside of the US, the 80+ standars and definitely still a thing. 80+ is the most common and the silver and gold are considered enthusiast. I have been a PC builder for 6 year now here in Colombia and I have seen just a couple of Titaniums
I'm not sure that holds up for the majority of countries though. Though considering you do live down in south America where things are a lot more expensive in many areas, it does make sense.
@@donovan6320 You are right. I think that holds for emergin markets like South America.
@@juselara02 yeah I wasn't going to call you guys Poor or anything and I feel like calling you guys "Emerging" has that connotation. I was just going to say everything was comparatively more expensive.
yes you're right, i have been a pc builder aprox 15 or More years, here in Colombia in all the years building pc, the first Gold PSU i saw was a Corsair HX, and in 2005 i saw a seasonic platinum, but, all of them was imported or bought in the usa, the local market was full of generic (codegen and Delux) PSU, the only "real wattage" PSUs was Thermaltake and the first 80+ PSUs in the market was Corsair...but expensive AF... Now in these years i have seen gold, platinum and some titanium, but, the same story... Expensive
Also very important: The 80 Plus rating is usually for 115 V. So if you live in a 230 V country, make sure that the 80 Plus rating is specifically for 230 V.
To add onto the USB hub topic, a good alternative is a USB add on card. Normally will net you at least 4 extra USB ports and you’ll have the added benefit of them having their own controller, as well as being connected straight to the pc
Excellent option. To take it even further, when selecting your USB add on card if you have sufficient money and available PCIE lanes, you actually can get one that has 4 controllers instead of one...one for each physical port. That way, each port gets a full 5gbps, 20gbps total for the card. This will of course require a 4x pcie slot or larger (and will be more expensive than a 1x card), but depending on the users needs, might be worth it. Beyond that, invest in quality cables and triple confirm their actual speed rating when purchasing (especially since without a hub in between, you'll probably be needing longer cables). It's surprising how many inexpensive USB-C cables out there are actually USB2.0 (480mbps) spec because, as Jay pointed out USB-C is actually just the physical connector and doesn't guarantee anything other than the fact that you can plug it in upside down if you want...
I thought this was a good idea but when I tried one from Amazon that reviews said worked with the VR headset I also had, my sensors were still having issues using this pci-e card. So it's a bit hit or miss whether they actually work properly sometimes. They'll usually work for small things but for heavy usage it could be random.
I think hubs are still useful for certain applications - my PC is a bit out of reach, so having a hub (i got one with built in SD/microSD reader) makes plugging in portable storage like flash drives and memory cards way easier since it can be on my desktop
Yup on this, i have a Saitek x-55 hooked up and my mainboard couldn't supply enough power to keep both components running under heavy input. Got a USB3.0 addin card and i have had no issues going on 7 years. The card does have a Molex power input to supplement off the PCI-e bus.
Funny story, I have an RGB cooler master keyboard I really like, but the LEDs wouldn't turn off when the computer is at sleep state. So I bought a x4 USB 3 expansion card, and changed the Windows power policy to not send power to the card at sleep.
Ahhhh the good old old PC days, i used to be a real computer nerd 20+ years ago, building and upgrading desktops as well as learning everything i could about component hardware as well as program software, times and technology have certainty moved on heaps and bounds.
There is still great fun in building a new computer today, some things have just become confusing and over complicated, computer and PC component companies have kinda sapped the enjoyment out of PC building for a lot of people, who are either wanting to make their first new desktop etc, or haven't built one in a long time like myself.
JayzTwoCents is a great guy and UA-cam channel who always offers good, constructive and sound advice to his audience, no matter whether you are a computer pro, semi pro or newbie, he offers something for everyone.
I got very interesred in computer building again about 6 years ago and came across JayzTwoCents UA-cam channel which appeared in the recommendation feed, I've learnt so much from him since and watch his videos when he is discussing a PC topic that I'm interested in.
Keep up the good work JayzTwoCents 👍😉
As always, great advice. Another consideration is to buy a PSU which can operate in silent mode (fan off) up to around 250W-300W for office tasks. My build is inaudible during office use even in closed very quiet room.
My PSU is currently pulling 420W (I have a game in the background) and fan is not even spinning. It was costly but damn I love that thing. Asus Thor 1200W (OEM is Seasonic)
I still have an old Corsair AX750 PSU from 2013. Apart from the brief spin up when I turn the machine on I don't think I ever heard it spinning.
Great video. I think a similar video about debunking computer myths would be fun. This reminded me of how everyone used to say that shutting down your computer was bad for it and that it's better to leave it on all the time. They claimed it damaged the CPU or hard drives. Yet, most of the PCs I repaired for people were ones that were left on all the time.
@@douganderson7002 I worked in IT for 7 years professionally repairing thousands of computers.... Not quite anecdotal experience.
@@douganderson7002 the reason why most of these computers died is because of failing fans causing overheating and dust buildup from running them constantly.
@@douganderson7002 and while you are entitled to your opinion, I find it worthless.
I'm one of those people returning to the PC world after spending 20ish years in the console world. I can't believe how much I love this stuff. It feels like I'm home.
I am watching this video 2 years after it was released. The issue about USB hubs (powered and not) is still highly relevant today. Boy you would think manufacturers would fix things. The only way I get consistent connections on key components is connecting them to my high-end docking station. My docking station plugs into 1 USB-C thunderbolt on my laptop, leaving me with one more USB-C thunderbolt and 1 USB-C port. I am glad I have the docking station. I have sent a number of hubs back to Amazon because they did not live up to manufacturer claims.
"The old days..." for me were when nobody had cooling for the CPU, and usually the only fan was in the back of the power supply. Fan, singular. There was no such thing as RGB lighting effects, because "B" hadn't been invented yet (really). And for floating point efficiency, you needed to install a separate math co-processor, something few people bothered with. If you were wealthy enough to afford a hard drive or two, defragging was a necessity, and your storage maxed out around 20MB... and those were the new, fancy hard drives. Many people just made due with floppies, and a single megabyte of RAM... or less.
*That's* the old days, to me...
like the ibm ps/2 :) with the red flip up switch
@@DeathRyder33 That switch, classic. I think the first computer I had access to was a 286 clone with an amber screen and something called EGA graphics. Fond memories of those days.
Ok, we get it, you're old.
@@SomeAngryGuy1997 I like to think of it as leveled up.
@@stevedixon921 Meant that to OP, but yeah. Must be great to witness all that progress first-hand, though.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Last build I made was 5+ years and many things have changed a lot, although I've been out of the scene for a while this type of videos help me to stay current.
One thing that really got me hooked on AM4 was the Wraith Spire cooler and the stock back plate and mounting hardware.
yeah shame Intel does not have anything cool like that with their cpu's their heat sinks the ones they give you are just a joke in comparison to what AMD give's you with theirs
Or as they call it UFO. Looks nice but doesn't do a lot in terms of cooling, Phenoms had similar cooling but without the cool looking fan. But hey, when I was putting a Mugen I had to change my PC case because of it's size. Still, the wraiths can keep the temps just a little below the safe point so it's fine I guess.
Note - in areas where mains is 240V, many power supplies still do have a much more pronounced bell curve of efficiency.
Oh wow. I didn't know that. I have 220v. Isn't 240 more efficient than 110?
@@QueertyUCR , yes, it is more efficient to transmit power at higher voltages. I'm not exactly sure why power supplies at higher voltages drop off faster - I'd guess it was because they are designed to maximise commonality between 110V and 220/240V, so 110V supplies *might* actually be 240V supplies in disguise, which is why the efficiency dropoff doesn't show up at 110V. This is wild speculation though.
@@Infinite_Maelstrom The voltage doesn't really matter for conversion efficiency in this case, the difference is in the voltage frequency and transformer efficiency. Basically, the lower the AC frequency, the less efficient a transformer is which is where most of the losses are now. I think most 240v mains are 50hz while our 120hz mains are 60hz. The size required for a transformer to convert a given amt of power is directly proportional to the frequency with lower hz generating more waste heat for a given power as well. Modern 'switch-mode' power supplies achieve their remarkable efficiency by converting the low frequency mains to extremely high frequency AC, allowing for tiny transformers and way less waste heat.
It's not a huge difference between 50 to 60hz for switching PSUs because there's other losses that are the same for both low frequencies but, yeah, modern efficient conversion is achieved with high frequency AC which is something I never used to think in terms of. This also allows the greatly reduced size/weight of modern power supplies and was yet another product of semiconductors (specifically fast transistors).
@@Infinite_Maelstrom I guess it's just harder to step down to lower voltages.
Not true. As a power supply designer - I know this is absolutely false. You are taking in half the current but at double the voltage. In areas at 120V - you are taking half the voltage at double the current. In the end, you are delivering AND consuming the same amount of power.
Now if you are talking about power lines - yes, it is more efficient to transfer at a far higher voltage and lower current.
Best advice that I could give (and it aged well) is: Buy a PC case with as much as possible dust protection, which is easy to remove and clean because it not only saves you time (and sometimes broken components) while cleaning, but also helps you to see your RGB backlight (if you're in that sort of thing) instead of an RGB dust cloud.
Obviously the temperatures and noise level will also be lower in the long run.
Counterpoint to this - for over a year I've been using an open air case (XTIA Xproto), and dust hasn't been as much of an issue as expected. Somehow I find more dust on the desk next to the computer than on the computer itself. And when it is time for a clean, it's easier to do without having to work around the frame and sides of a case.
Since all the parts are fully visible, RGB is there for the world to see, no case windows required.
Temperatures are fine because the heat isn't getting trapped in a box, so there's no need for case fans. You only need the fans for your individual components.
Noise is a tricky one - since there's no soundproofing from a case, care needs to be taken to select parts that run quieter. For my build, I aimed for a PSU and GPU that can switch their fans off under low loads, and I've used an oversized CPU cooler so that it can run slow and quiet. For a while, the noisiest part was a cheap 30mm motherboard fan, but I've since hacked on a 40mm Noctua.
I'd say the main consideration (aside from aesthetics) is damage protection. I don't move my computer around much, and I don't have any kids or pets, so the risk of accidental damage is lower for me. If that risk makes you uncomfortable, then definitely look at getting a sturdy case.
@@SheaStevenson you're also forgetting risk of fire... Risk of electric shock... etc.
I must be becoming a difficult case as I seem to disagree with everybody :) I would not pay attention to dust protection if you are a DIY builder. Why? Because dust filters weaken cooling a lot and for me, it is just so much easier to open a side panel (actually I usually keep it off all the time) and clean things up sometimes. You don't have to get every speckle of dust away. Just make sure coolers and fans are not stuck with dust. Everything else is cosmetic, but mostly still easy to clean. Keeping the room where your machine is clean, also keeps the machine cleaner. I use a microfiber cloth (carefully) in outside areas of PC case and where there are no electronics close by (to avoid static electricity damage). Then pressurized air with coolers and fans. Vacuum at a low setting in areas where I know it wont suck any jumpers off of the board.
@@TechTusiast 1) "weaken cooling a lot" varies from case to case also "a lot".
2) Thermaltake core v1 and v21 has a 240mm fan in front so it overcompensates all the cooling "weakening"
3) my advice was to people who are not professionals, and also rarely clean their cases (if ever), you surely can remember memes like "my PC shuts down for some reason" and the picture tells us that it wasn't cleaned for like 20 years.
4) your way is way more time and money consuming than just put a fkin' filter and wash it once or twice a year with some water with a shower
@@qbzerodp 1) With my previous PC case I could both lower my GPU temps multiple celsius degrees and lower noise simply by removing front filter (or ditch side panel).
2) I'm not a professional nor have run any tests, but my intuition suggests that an airflow of a large, slow spinning fan is likely affected more by obstacles like a dusty filter than if you have a number of smaller, faster spinning fans with more static pressure.
3) Ok. The unfortunate thing is, filters or no filters and laymen or professionals, you just have to open the case and clean it sometimes. Sure, with filters it might be less frequently, but still. I think it's the same thing with cars, you should pop the hood every now and then even if there are no warning light blinking.
4) Maybe, I don't know. Bottled air is not that expensive and you don't need that much of it. Everyone likely and hopefully has a vacuum cleaner and some rags.
5:26 well stock coolers in the past also weren’t garbage. The stock cooler included with the core i7 930 (the lga 1366) weighs arround 500 grams and has a copper core. It is able to cool the cpu under prime95. It also manages to keep a xeon x5675 with an overclock to 3.5GHz slightly above 80*C. But then of course it is pretty loud.
Those CPUs had a TDP of 120+ watts. Throwing them on anything of 90 or 60 watts is simply what I did, and they are waaay more than enough. I had a i7 920, and I use the same cooler I used back then on much less powerful modern cpus... at much lower temps.
@@lfla0179 Oh but how do you mount them? Aren't the mountings for newer sockets of different size? I remember requesting a special mounting kit from Noctua in order to mount a NH-D15 on a 1366 socket.
@@RacingRalphEVO I had a mastercooler 212 EVO. It had the LGA 1366 mounts, the other Intel mount (750 something?) on the same legs and the AM3 clip ACCROSS the base, dismounting the legs.
It just happens that, that SINGLE model clip was compatible with the AM4 mount, so I have it running on my Ryzen 1600x, TEN AMAZING YEARS LATER.
Just got it cleaned, new paste, found the brackets and the clip, mounted it back, and smooth sailing. They sell 212 evos on my Country to this day, for lunch money, literally. 27 dollars.
Well, I admit, it wasn't clear I was not using the Intel stock cooler, but everything is true.
I even bought another 212 EVO to my kids PC, just in case.
@@RacingRalphEVO The right name is Master Cooler Hyper 212 EVO. Quite a mouthful.
I replace them because changing from a 4 pipe included cooler to a 6 pipe cooler was always quiet. Even with a 3800X.
The stock coolers work well enough even if you overclock within reason. If you don't mind the noise.
AS for GPUs putting a larger cooler from a higher watt GPU also can work. Did not say it is easy.
It only works well if the GPU you are cooling is shorter than the donor card. You can find a lot of those coolers off dead ones. The pipes work unless there is a hole in the pipe.
Making the OEM fans from the smaller fit the larger cooler requires a bit of work. Adding a case fan on the end running off the motherboard works real well.
Because it flows through the heat pipes. You will need more than a screw driver to make it work.
For people who wonder what trim is, it's basically a cache clearing command that's deleting remnants of already deleted files and unused sectors that are temporary
Trimming also improves wear levelling and performance for the next write.
One man’s stock cooler is another man’s treasure.
I bought a seagate m.2 ssd for my first build.
I could absolutely have fallen into the trap of defragmenting my ssd if it weren't for channels like yours.
Thanks Jay and crew!
On the topic of USB hubs, I firmly believe that it is better to sacrifice a little bit of your PCIe lanes for a simple internal powered USB controller. If you have a newer AMD motherboard, you likely have 24 or even 128 lanes anyway. I got one for my Oculus Rift S weeks after purchasing the HMD simply because I was running into the opposite effect mentioned by JTC: the HMD and the software weren't working properly with the USB connected directly to the motherboard. The issue turned out to be a power delivery issue, and having a port with a dedicated connection directly to the system's power supply resolved my issues entirely. In fact, Oculus made a specific choice of hub in their support forum for the exact issue I and many, many others were facing.
Jay lies Dell still uses 80plus bronze rated psu's in there low end systems🤣
how to do that ?
How many people actually use PCI Express in their PCs? Besides the GPU of course. So far I've had to use it only once to get gigabit ethernet on my father's older PC.
I have many more uses for old PCI and 16-bit ISA but I guess we can't have nice things on motherboards. I can only dream of having a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold in my main PC.
My advice is to subscribe to this channel. You nailed it when you mentioned building a computer after 10 years. That old-school advice was new 10 years ago but now ...old. Excellent information. Thank you!
A good thing I figured out recently is a software called "Fan Control" as a modern SpeedFan replacement, working with basically any hardware. Look it up on the LTT forums, a really solid piece of software. Another thing I can recommend is SignalRGB, especially good for Asus, as a much better replacement for bad rgb software.
I can vouch for Fan Control. Feels lightweight but still pretty powerful in terms of combining temperature sensors to create all kinds of custom fan curves.
Haven't tried SignalRGB, but I can alternatively recommend OpenRGB, which works with pretty much any component including keyboards and mice. Felt great to finally do away with all the different manufacturer's software and have a single program that handles everything.
@@Dan4rescue OpenRGB is nice for sure if you have compatible hardware, but due to my incompatible hardware en general lack of a good UI I prefer Signal.
never missed anything with the temp/cooler curves appliable in BIOS o.o
@@mvhdsk1122 Until you want to have a fan curve based on gpu temp, which is arguably more important than cpu. Even then you could set both and have the curve according to the one with the higher temp. Even better than in the bios, besides its much easier in Windows than having to go all the way to the bios.
@@yourick1953 Yep, and having your case fans tied to GPU temperature instead of CPU tempurature will make your system much, much quieter since the fans won't be ramping up and down when you load a simple website or something. I started using Fan Control after building my new PC a couple months ago, and love just how quiet my system is while not gaming or doing anything GPU intensive.
One of the BEST "OLDSCHOOL" JayzTwoCents videos in recent years, Brother; you, sir, organically create AWESOME content when you simply speak from the heart Jay!!! ...a true "return to form" =)
Good updated advice! I use an Anker powered USB hub that has 2 USB drives, mouse, keyboard, external DVD burner and gaming headset permanently connected. Had this setup for over a year now with no issues. I admit trying and returning a number of hubs from Amazon until finally getting one that worked well which was the Anker 7 + 3 model. The B550M motherboard I have had limited usb ports so I needed this solution. I have my latency critical devices such as my audio hub, midi keyboard and webcam connected straight to the motherboard ports.
These things are pretty well the Rolls Royce of hubs. I've just recommended one to another poster on here :)
@@malphadour I love Anker products. Been using it for around a year now with no issues. Must have tried and returned half a dozen different hubs that were basically garbage 😊
I was aware of not wanting to defrag an SSD, but the updates on fans, power supplies, and USB hubs were very helpful. Thank you.
I built my first computer in well over a decade just last year. Plenty of your videos smoothed the process immensely, so thank you, Jay. I'm glad I watched this and was personally satisfied to know a lot of that stuff and that my competency returned so quickly. Thanks again for your help.
I've been working on/with PC's since the IBM PC XT (8088) days. And, yet, I still enjoy coming in to watch Jay's videos because you CAN teach old dogs new tricks. Like his other videos, all of this is solid advice...
Except the USB Hub...as I sit here rocking an IOGear 4X4 USB Hub/Switch (think old KVMs) hooked up to three systems (one PC, 2 laptops) flawlessly running a Logitech G613 keyboard, G602 mouse, and C920 webcam. :) YMMV.
He's not saying hubs are bad, he's saying "consider this when buying a hub or troubleshooting USB devices connected to the hub."
Yup. When troubleshooting always excluse as many variables as possible. So plugging in stuff directly.
And obviously have a known good alternative to swap things around. Sometimes stuff gets weird, like one of my old keyboards that wouldn't work on one specific motherboard, but fine on all my others. while other keyboards would work on that board. Turns out that specific keyboard pulls more than the ancient PS/2 port on that specific board provides.
If you have a lot of devices or like to use the same peripherals with your laptop as you do with your PC, you'll need a hub. It used to be you could buy whatever dorky little hub was recommended by BestBuy or Amazon and it would work fine. Now you'll find that most hubs are garbage and will make devices not work. I first ran into that with a Dell laptop in 2016 and it's only gotten worse. But not _all_ hubs are garbage and if you need one, you can find one that will work.
Yep, USB Hubs aren't unequivocally bad, just gotta' be aware that they can cause issues.
I've been using quality USB Hub for attaching game controllers (arcade sticks, PS4 controllers, Rocksmith adapter cables etc.) and a USB HDD and haven't encountered any noticeable issues compared to plugging them in directly.
From my experience, Windows 10 doesn't defragment on an SSD, it does something different (optimize). If it shows up as an SSD in the defragment area, Windows won't defragment it (you would have to use a third party program to force the process)
you cant defrag an ssd, thats not the same function.
@@bradhaines3142 Data access speeds on SSDs doesn't really change no matter what the layout of data is since it doesn't need to seek to a specific spot on a platter. SSDs are also good for random IO, so that's also a factor.
Optimizing probably does run TRIM manually and some other stuff.
Occasionally defragging a badly fragmented SSD can be a big win. Dont do it often to preserve SSD life, of course. Look at CrystalDiskMark how sequential I/O is 100 times faster than random I/O. This is why if you select 'Optimize' on an SSD Windows will also defrag the SSD once per month if Windows thinks it needs it (badly defragmented). This is not well documented.
@@JSTheAnonymousOne solid state drives get much slower as they fill up. Remember they can't write to an individual cell, only whole row. So as the drive runs out of empty rows, it needs to copy enough data into cache to create an empty row, add new data to it, then do an erase, only then can it write the old and new data to the empty row. NAND based memory just can't write to individual cells, so that's not changing soon.
An empty SSD can write to any available row, so it doesn't have to cache and erase first. A TRIM command moves data into contiguous rows, to create as many free ones available for write ops. Even a single cell sized write will occupy a whole row, unit there are no free ones available.
iirc even windows 7 can recognize wether the drive is an SSD drive
Not sure if it had the option to preform a TRIM
Gosh. Almost everything I did to maintain or build my PC is now wrong.
Some of your advice seemed tongue in cheek.
I am glad you explained this.
Things change.
Thanks Jay, I watched you when I first got into the PC space almost 10 years ago. I'm getting back into it and I'm glad to see you're still out here as a resource for people like me to refer to.
With regards to USB hubs, my experience was the opposite of "you might have issues". Not only did it solve some cable management headaches, it also sorted out a "takes forever to charge" issue with my headset's base station/charger. I have an Elgato Facecam connected via it as well, no problems at all. Nothing I would realistically consider connecting to a hub would require even a fraction of USB 3's bandwidth limits. It goes without saying that this doesn't mean you can buy a $5 hub from a Chinese web store and expect to load it up with external drives and have no issues... But, be realistic about what you plug into it, and make sure it's a recognizable brand name and has external power, and odds are you'll be OK.
The old "who buys cheap buys twice"
Not saying people have to get the premium, but maybe avoid the bargain bin. Buy inexpensive, not cheap.
what (powered) usb hub example u recommend / using ? can be used for hooking keyboard/mouse, external hdd, connect to display (via hdmi) and charging phone right ?
@@leguminosa9 don't charge a phone on a PC USB. Use the brick out came with. Unless your phone is a $50 generic Amazon piece of plastic, PC USB ports aren't enough to charge it at full speed it even close.
@@ILoveTinfoilHats Ironic how you present outdated advice on a video about outdated advice. Manufacturers have put 2A-capable USB-ports into computers for ages now, and with USB-C and USB-PD the issue of "USB standard only allows 2.5 watts" became even less.
But I'd also recommend to use a powered(!) ISB hub for devices that need power but not data. But that's only because it frees up ports on the computer for devices that need data. 4-8 onboard ports isn't that many...
@@HenryLoenwind uhh 2A 5V for charging phones is pretty outdated. I think you need to refresh your phone database
First Advice: Very good point. I mean, even 10 years ago, some stock coolers were still good. I built a system with an AMD Phenom II black edition processor 11 years ago and it had copper heat pipes on it like the one you showed to us. All black edition processors back then, I believe, came with that decent heat sink. I was even able to overclock it to 4ghz from it's stock 3.2ghz speeds without too much of a increase in heat.
Second advice: Absolutely great advice. It baffles me that somebody would just recommend de-fragmentation out of pure old school habit when they should be asking if they're running an SSD first. Sure, if they are running a hard drive as a secondary drive, of course that should be de-fragmented now and then. I still use hard drives to this day for extra storage, but since Windows 10 does not work well with hard drives, I will never use them as system drives ever again...and I'm sure most PC enthusiasts agree with that.
Third advice: Good point but I never really cared much about RGB or the type of fan they are. I just cared what type of bearing is used. Ball bearing fans definitely last a lot longer than sleeve fans, so that's what I stick to.
Fourth advice: This is also great advice, too many people get confused about what 80 and 90+ means, when what really matters is the wattage rating. the 80/90 plus rating is still important though if you care about your electric bill. My old school mindset used to be to buy only Antec power supplies because one of my instructors in college 11 years ago said he only trusted Antec power supplies because he never had one fail on him. There must be some validity to his argument, because my little brother has my old gaming PC tower with the same old power supply I put in it 9-10 years ago, which is the Antec HCG-750 (the old version that was semi-modular). It is one of those now rare 80+ bronze certified power supplies and it's still running great to this day powering his GTX 1060 and 6 core AMD Ryzen processor.
Fifth advice: I never really bothered with USB hubs, I always had enough usb ports on my computer that it was never really needed, so I can't really comment on this one. But still, solid advice.
Keep up the great videos, Jayz! As more newcomers to PC gaming start building computers, advice like this is so important to guide them on their PC building, so they don't give up on it because they think it's too complicated or they are afraid of breaking something. Like I told my friend who I helped build his first pc 4 years ago, it's much simplier than he thinks. Now, he went on to self-teach himself a lot about computers and is probably better at building PCs than me now because he toys around with water cooling a lot more than I ever have. In fact, I am building a new pc soon and he is going to help me with installing the water cooling system for it. I am looking forward to it. Sometimes the people you help get into PC gaming, will go even further...and it's pretty cool how that works out sometimes.
Built a PC in 2012, took it out of the shed and it started up like a champ! Phenom 6 X-2 12 Gig RAM Cas L. 9 Solid champ, paired with a 660Ti
Great work with this video. I'm a regular at Microcenter St. David's.
The point of defragging is to make the mechanical process of extracting data from the platters faster. There is no mechanical process and no platters in an ssd so it's a waste to defrag it.
Actually, there are exceptions to the powered USB hub advice. Some laptops and "thin" devices do not have enough power on the USB ports to power external hard drives. I've had support cases where the USB drive worked on a desktop, but did not work on the laptop. The problem was resolved with a good powered hub.
And hubs are a good way to minimize cable clutter when driving USB 2 devices such a steering wheels, flight yokes and throttle quadrants. For those things, and even a cabled keyboard, a hub is still a good device and has a usage.
A hub would be a good device if they stopped only making hubs with 6in long cables. I wanted a hub for something, but couldn't find one as they were all designed for laptops. Hey clowns, we're not all using a laptop, some of us have desktops and could still benefit from a hub. WTF is this short cable garbage?!
Shouldn't be a fixed cable anyway. They should have a detachable cable so we can get whatever length we need.
Exactly. The prime purpose of the USB hub that's attached to the inside of my desk is to reduce cable clutter and the number of direct connections to the PC itself. This makes it a lot easier to remove the PC for troubleshooting or maintenance purposes.
something I picked up from the Star Citizen community is just make sure its a powered hub for flight hardware, some sticks do not react well to unpowered hubs(that is hubs running off only USB power vs having a wall wart)
@@hotaru25189 The ports are simply not up to spec so you need to use two Wii U ports to power one drive respectively with something like a USB Y-cable.
Not to mention KVM switches to quickly switch between multiple PCs.
Actually Jay, you probably shouldn't defrag the new SMR drives either.
The reason you don't want to defrag on SSD, is that you are fighting the internal logical to physical block mapping. Rather you use OS level TRIM support (not S.M.A.R.T technology) go give hints to the drive's controller that certain blocks can be un-mapped and marked as availible. The controller will then routinely attempt it's own defrag/garbage collection as it needs to write new data.
This is all irrelevant for liek 10 years, windows does journaling a lot of the time (finally) as well as auto defrags if a drive actually needs it. (SSDs don't since they don't physically seek)
Interesting point, but I'm not totally sure. The issue is that on HDD, SMR or not, data needs to be _physically_ contiguous for future sequential reads to perform well, to a much greater extent than on SSDs. TRIM on SMR drives does help the drive with future allocations, but doesn't do anything about existing fragmentation. Specifically, the drive has no way of knowing about _logical_ fragmentation, which could occur for instance if you do random writes into a large file on a copy-on-write filesystem. Defragmentation in that case would help, as the defragmented files would get sequentially rewritten, which the drive will handle by storing it physically contiguously assuming that it has enough free zones available.
@@fat_pigeon I don't think drive managed SMR is ever going to perform well. One of the big problems is that there's no way to tell it to open a new zone and write sequentially to it. Sequential or not, it drops into a CCMR buffer zone first. Fill the buffer and the drive chokes. Rate-limiting the defrag procss might work okay.
OS and filesystem involvment could mitigate these issue (host aware/host managed)
The reason you would defrag a mechanical drive is because the performance of mechanical drives really falls apart when you're asking it to read/write to several different places in a short time. This is because when a mechanical drive needs to change the location it's reading or writing to, first it needs to physically move the read/write head to that location, then it needs to wait for the platter to spin around to where it needs to be.
SSDs are just way faster at changing the location they read/write to. This is where most of the responsiveness improvement came from when people started upgrading from mechanical drives to SSDs. It was a much bigger deal than the sequential read/write speeds.
@@Knowbody42 Yep, new enterprise SSD's can achieve a few million IOPS. Spinning rust gets a few hundred in the best base.
Also just to add to the PSU thing: headroom matters more for high end systems because high end GPUs have massive power draw spikes. RTX 3090 was notorious for throttling on PCs with PSUs that were supposedly enough, according to regular wisdom! I think I remember reading somewhere that the RTX 3090 can spike beyond double it's rated TDP quite regularly
From my understanding, ATX 3.0 certified PSUs are designed to handle those spikes (using capacitors and so on). So if it's not ATX 3.0, then you need to make sure you have a lot of headroom but if it is, you just need a little.
@@morlankey I don't trust manus. to 'follow spec' so closely. However, you're correct. Latest ATX standard demanded longer 'hold up time' under 'transient load' conditions.
TBQH, I'm incredibly surprised that noone's ever made a 'supercaps-on-plug' PCIe extension.
I really appreciate this video. I've been so consumed with work and home life for the past several years that I haven't personally had time to keep up with what is happening in the PC space. I found this video very informative, particularly the USB hub portion. I have been getting some spotty performance out of some of my devices, and that may be why. Thanks for your Two Cents!
you system fans do not have rgb you should fix that now kid shame on you:)
most USB hubs lie in regards to their performance. True USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 hubs exist, but thanks to their obscure naming scheme, you just wont find them. Key here is that they deliver true 20GBit, vs the scam hubs which can deliver up to 5GBit or below, and are occasionally even USB 2 still... just under disguise.
A little update. I had my wireless usb headset dongle plugged into my USB hub because it was closer to me than the PC. It was getting an annoying crackling sound. I since moved the dongle to the front of the PC case about 2 feet away from where I sit, but no more annoying crackle sounds come out of it. Thanks for the advice!
In my limited experience, buying an OEM CPU and for the “saved” money buying a cooler usually works substantially better than stock cooler.
stock AMD coolers do their job but ye for 30€ you can get a macho rev-b
Yes, but OEM processors do not have manufacturer’s warranty, at least here, where I live.
i lucked out on the first pc i built a few months ago. got an OEM CPU for like 20 usd less than the boxed one and it came bundled with a stock cooler. ran that for a bit then bought a tower style cooler afterwards. you do lose warranty and aftersales support though but i was thinking most of the components do last at least past their warranty period
OEM PC's don't use the same coolers as the boxed ones. OEM PC's typically are way worse.
@@CheapBastard1988 we were talking about grey market OEM processors, not the prebuilt PCs
All great advice! Appreciated the advice around impact of ambient temperature where you live when it comes to cooling! It's a factor often overlooked by folks living in places where air conditioning is the norm, and can be a huge deal depending on where in the world you are. When I've lived in places without aircon that get to 30C/85F ambient air temperature, going overkill with air cooling at stock speeds on a high end system has been important for system stability.
Like wise, I use my PC in winter, when it's -15C, to warm up my room, while it rums World Community Grid/BOINC on the side. 😅
40° C here today 😢
Wish i knew that back then. My room ran close to 85. It was tropical in there at all times of the year. Winter was nice. Summer not so good. 😂
I've gotten a few people to switch to PC during my time in the Navy, helped a few build their first tower and i always reference them to your vids.
Thanks a lot and keep it up ^^
It's been a few years since I've really got into building a PC and some of this info was extremely helpful. Thanks for the update! You're really helping a fellow boomer out.
I upgraded about a year ago.
The technician had good laugh because I wanted my CD/DVD drive installed.
"You won't need that because everything is online and you get just download it"
1 week later: "I was so glad you kept that driver. My internet kept interrupting the download and caused improper installation errors. I was able to use a physical copy to get it running".
So yeah, just because everything's online, doesn't mean it's reliable.
You could have probably used a flash drive
Haven't had a disc drive for 7 years.
Things you know when you have enough life experience to not rely on one technology only. Can’t wait to see those kids get around after the next Carrington event.
I got a USB connectable blu ray reader and digitalized my entire DVD/Blu Ray collection that way. I'm finally done with the plastic disc mediums, but I like to have it as a back-up, which is also why I don't use a cloud, but keep my data on external HDDs stored in drawers. But hey, I still use CDs in my car! Gotta make a new mix MP3 CD like every 3-4 years. I still need my disc drive, just not permanently installed into the PC case anymore.
THANK YOU! I always have to explain that it’s better to have an 800 watt PSU when a system can run 500ish watts than it is to have a PSU closer to what the system runs at because of PSU efficiency and lifespan. Also, hubs have always sucked for anything beyond a basic keyboard and mouse.
My system runs about less then 600 watts. I bought A PSU with 650 watts 80+ gold and it was faulty. Had to replace it but the store had only 750 watts 80+ gold to offer for a replacement. I played games on max settings 2k res. and i never heard a fan running on my PSU. There's no dust on a filter below PSU.
Considering that you can buy multiple 500 watt PSUs for the price of 800 watt PSU, I'm not sure it might be worth it.
Of course if you have ton of money, go and buy the biggest and most powerful hardware you can find, but most of us don't have ton of money.
@@sashabagdasarow497 Except that the lower you go in price, the less likely it is it's going to last you a longer time, and the higher the chance of a catastrophic failure that could damage other things besides the power supply itself. They're high in up-front cost, but a good power supply will last you at the very least five years, probably even longer, even in suboptimal conditions.
Thank you it’s hard to believe it was actually almost 10 years ago I first learned how to build a pc, and this channel was a big part of that!
On the hub topic, I've found that spending more and getting a name brand, higher quality hub has been worth it. With cheaper hubs I got the usual disconnects and jittery mice and missing keyboard inputs, but with more expensive hubs I've had much better luck. I think the more expensive ones probably use higher quality USB components and take more care to ensure everything is up to spec.
Yep get a relatively well known brand, with a few stronger (fast charging) ports to ensure more reliability and you're in a much safer place. If you cheap out on those, yep jay is right you're going to find trouble.
Couldn't live without a powered hub as my PC is under my table. Also don't really have any problems with it except for my 4TB eternal HDDs sometimes not getting recognised properly but I wonder if this is actually due to Ryzen 5000's USB problems. Restarting the PC will solve the problem and it also doesn't happen all the time.
One thing people should be aware about, no matter if using the hub or ports at the back of their PCs, don't plug in 2.4Ghz wireless dongles next to other plugged in USB3 devices as USB also is 2.4GHz and introduces connection problems and far lower reach for the wireless device. Was wondering why my mouse and keyboard combo (dual 2.4GHz wireless and BT) had connection issues when plugged into my laptop's docking station with more or less all ports being occupied, while it worked fine on another PC. Now I use it via BT on two laptops and via the dongle on my Win XP Retro PC.
The cheaper hubs are most likely USB 2.0 and or come with 2.0 cables. So when people go to use them they do not supply the proper power or data transfer
@@moomah5929 yes that's a known issue, and a common solution is to use USB 2.0 hubs which don't have that issue. Obviously that isn't suitable for high bandwidth devices like USB WiFi adapters/NICs, but it works well for mice, keyboards, and headphones that don't need USB 3.
@@sim2er Using a extension cable to create some distance from other plugged in devices should also work.
I just wonder how many people did send their wireless 2.4GHz mice and keyboards back, complaining about them being faulty. Read quite a few people complaining about connection issues with the keyboard & mouse combo I'm using when using 2.4GHz (it also offers 2x BT).
Great advice for modular power supplies. DON'T USE CABLES FROM A DIFFERENT MANUFACTURER! Even though some manufacturers use the same psu side connectors, they have a different pin layout and you can easily fry a hard drive if you use the wrong cable.
just to add, extenders are fine
I've been using SSDs since the Intel X25M G2, and one aspect that was a bit of a hullaballoo back in the early days was ensuring proper TRIM support. To a degree, TRIM is sort of like the SSD equivalent of defragging as proper trimming of the drive can result in slightly more performance (it allows existing data to be ignored rather than rewritten) as well as better drive life. Although, unlike defragging, this is pretty much handled automatically.
The video didn't really go into much detail on why people defrag, which I thought might help explain why it's more important for something like a hard drive. The way a hard drive reads is kind of like a ticker or a marquee board. It has a head that moves around to the correct ring on the disc where the data is located and grabs it the next time it comes around. Going back to the marquee board, imagine if the information you wanted was all mixed up on the board. This meant that you had to keep reading and constantly piece the parts together to get the information you want. It sure would be easier if it was all together so you could just read it all at once. Hard drives have the same problem. Over time, as there's less and less contiguous space -- or files are deleted, which leaves holes to write in -- the information that comprises a file ends up split apart on the disc itself. When you defrag, the host system will reorganize the data so files are kept as close as possible on the disc.
To a degree, this whole nature of having to seek to get data is also why some video games will duplicate data on disc. Essentially, if the data is needed in multiple spots, rather than require the head (hard drive) or laser (optical drive) to jump around, the data will be in multiple spots so it can read a large chunk of data in a row that typically comprises multiple files. By doing this, the game can reduce load times. My brother mentioned to me that the PS4 version of the latest Horizon Zero Dawn has a higher storage requirement than the PS5 version, and that's pretty much the main reason why.
In regard to PSUs, I almost thought you were going to mention some of the old discussions like single rail vs. multiple rails.... or how there used to be a heavy focus on ensuring high 12V wattage. The one thing that I really appreciate in regard to PSUs is how much quieter they are. I'll grab an old PSU at times for things like running a water cooling loop without the host PC running or just booting up a motherboard for testing, and I recall one time being worried that I was hearing a noisy pump; however, that noise was just the normal fan noise from the old PSU. Awkwardly, said noisy PSU was a PC Power & Cooling *Silencer* PSU. For my recent testing, I just switched to this EVGA 600W semi-modular PSU that I had lying around, and oh... how I missed that sweet sound of silence!
In regard to USB hubs, I think that just depends. I'm actually using one on my living room HTPC right now. I had to use it because I use three wireless devices with their own dongles. If I just installed the dongles separately in the back, I had issues with poor reception causing mouse skipping, failed key presses, etc. (The mouse was the worst offender though, and it's a Logitech G903.) So, the point of the dongle is to actually move the receivers out closer and somewhat in line of sight of the devices, and I have maybe only had one minor hiccup since I did that. The hub in question is just a simple, Amazon Basics 1-to-4 USB 3.0 hub. I believe it does support the option of adding auxiliary power, but given that I'm just using three dongles in it, that's not really needed. Now, I think the reason why it isn't so much of a problem is that -- if I remember correctly -- USB is designed for this sort of spread. I believe you can enumerate up to 255 devices per PHY or something to that effect.
Storing the same data twice/multiple times on a spinning drive will *NOT* reduce seek times since those identical copies of data are *NOT* used interchangeably...
@@svenkarlsen2702 ...which means exactly that it does speed it up? If they are not used interchangeably, there is no "risk" of the head/laser going for the same file in the other spot. Which quite literally means that there is no additional seek time.
@@tipakA First of all. There's no laser. Also. You obviously lack even the most basic knowledge on how filesystems work.
NO! It will NOT speed things up if you store the same exact data several times on a single drive.
You should learn the basics before you dream up useless solutions to problems better solved by faster drives or better optimized data compression.
Wow, great information. It's been years since I checked into this kind of stuff (too much horrible work burning out my brain). Definitely following your channel to get my knowledge up to date.
About power supplies: We've heard lots of relevant people saying that the 80+ rating is no longer ideal for measuring the build quality of a power supply. It may still measure electrical efficiency correctly, but as far as consumer PC goes it is much more important to worry about build quality, electrical protection mechanisms and etcetera than efficiency itself (or so I've heard).
Long time ago, PSU quality was about rails and the adequacy and stability of the voltages, especially the 12v..
yeah a very good way to increase efficiency is just removing some smoothing circuits and making it produce less clean power
"Fan marketing isn't about static pressure vs airflow anymore. It's all about RGB"
We've truly regressed as a society
Second take: we've all agreed on what's good for the practical effects of fans and have moved on to -pointless- aesthetics.
What *doesn't* have RGB on it at this point? Front Panels, Graphics Cards, Fans, SSDs, RAM all have it. Do people think the fancy colours actually improve the performance or something?
@@maxtornogood No, but it gets them more fake Internet points on r/battlestations.
Personally, I don't plan on ever having a RGB anything, and would rather just have a plain metal box. My current case is from 2005 with a big fan occupying 4 of the 5.25" drive bays.
I'm so broke I just want one that works
@@user2C47 good luck. Most decent hardware is rgb these days. You could maybe turn it off in software but ive find usually there's at least one light i can't figure out how to turn off with any kind of software
17:40 you have a good point for sure, we still need good hubs, especially with USB-C. But I'm using one with my K95 RGB with a Razer Basilisk V3 and a Blue Yeti microphone to switch from my laptop to desktop and vice versa and it works flawlessly without needing to feed it any additional power.
I need something like a hub for my set up. I have the Logitech stream cam, and the cable for it is disappointingly short. I was looking at the razer hub (I think it was Razer) because it has just enough ports for what I need. I'm at the limit of USB ports on my motherboard (I don't think i set the front io up properly) but I don't plan on adding much else to the system. Mainly want the hub so I can cable manage better cuz currently a few of my cables just hang behind my monitors.
Is there any you recommend?
@@simmski that webcam itself is already dissapointing. In your case I'd use an extension cable.
This is all super helpful.
Last time I got a gaming PC was in 2012, and building my new one now in 2022, I'm realizing just how out of date my knowledge has become.
Bro, I didn't even know what M.2 was until I noticed it was a feature on my motherboard.
I'm so out of touch.
Almost the same here but mine was 2013. Currently, I am building a new one, and took me a few minutes trying to find where m.2 plugs are. I realized they were hidden under the heat sink that comes with the motberboard.
Guys! That info may help you (that's my next PC build):
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X tray
Videocard: Zotac GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC LHR 8Gb
Motherboard: ASRock B550 PG Riptide
RAM: Kingston Fury Renegade 32Gb DDR4-3600MHz Kit (CL16)
OR
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X tray (+30% perf for +37% cost)
Videocard: Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC (+25/+33% perf for +30% cost)
Motherboard: ASRock B650M PG Riptige
RAM: Kingston Fury Renegade 32Gb DDR5-6000MHz Kit (CL32)
AND
Storage: M.2 NVMe Samsung 980 PRO 1 Tb (with heatsink)
PSU: Zalman ZM750-GVII 750W
Tower: - ?
Hubs (even unpowered) are fine if they are being used more for convenience rather than to add more ports. Stuff you may not keep plugged in all the time and you don't want to go to the back of your PC - a thumb drive for instance. On that note, I have seen more USB devices state that they should not be used on a hub, but YMMV. If it doesn't work, plug it into the board.
As an avid flight-simmer, a decent hub is the be all, I'm not sure where I would find a motherboard with 20+ USB ports on it.
@@tortordenful you can get a pcie expansion card. Gigabyte boards have a decent amount of ports too.
@@tortordenful Yeah a really poor bit of info from him. We run 8 port hubs in our office with multiple external hard drives, webcams and other devices don't get problems. We do use good quality powered ones, which is really what he should have differentiated. We have also run 4k cams and streamdecks through hubs with zero issues ourselves.
For many reasons I exchanged my old build in a nice case for a tiny NUC Hades Canyon three years ago. It's great having a computer with enough ports that I don't have to use a hub for anything other than USB drives and such. If I build a computer again in the future, I'll make sure it has more than enough native ports to take care of my needs - the NUC has spoiled me.
@@nycbearff I have that same NUC and it's great for so many things. However the USB ports are very close so I had to use an Amazon basics hub with greater spacing because apparently my USBs are mostly phat bois
One note about the USB Hub topic: DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, equipment such as a Novation Launchpad, do not function properly without enough power. Most modern motherboards MIGHT supply enough power thru the rear I/O, but I personally have had more success using powered external USB Hubs.
Currently using an ASUS Prime X570-PRO motherboard with a 3700X and 32 GB of RAM @ 3600 MT/s
I remember when I got my 8core bulldozer a few years back, came with a massive copper pipes system with fins and a decent fan, it worked fine at stock. Even when I overclocked to 4.4ghz it was still decent, but for peace of mind I installed a 240mm enclosed rad/pump... ironically it has always been my video cards that produce heat like mad... CPU never really went past 55c-ish air cooled. On average now I get a standing temp at 30c and tops under extreme load at around 45c. Stock systems can be just fine out of the box now a days indeed.
Your CPU produces the same heat you just move it away more efficient. Frankenstein a huge Tower cooler to your GPU with some extra VRM and VRAM cooling and you can get low temps on them too.
GPUs have higher power draw, typically 75-300W. CPUs tend to be around 45-140w for desktops.
@@mrn234 GPUs tend to draw 2-4x the heat of a CPU.
I think powered hubs are still a good idea, but you need to have some idea of the bandwidth vs power consumption of the device. The elgato streamdeck doesn't use a lot of data, but uses a ton of power. The elgato facecam uses a moderate amount of power, but uses an absolute firehose worth of data. The streamdeck can go on the powered hub, the camera needs to go to an actual port (which is usually also a hub attached to a single USB controller on your motherboard but...)
Yeah I use powered USB 3.0 hubs at work and at home.
If you connect one to your KVM (or monitor that has a KVM), you can easily swap all of your required devices between your work computer/home computer.
As much as Jay says modern mouse and keyboards require more bandwidth than those can provide, I call bullshit. My powered USB hub runs a 1080p webcam, a mechanical keyboard, a "gaming" house, a separate mechanical numpad, a blue yeti mic and an 8bitdo ultimate controller.
None of them have polling issues. None of them lose connection. None of them have any issues.
whats kvm @@GossamerSolid
One further safer callout, for assessing PSU power draw requirements, is seeing component reviews [exact SKU or equivalent regardless]. Plenty of occasions, more established reviewers [such as Tech Jesus, yourself and others] have identified a component running harder [than their listed ratings], under varied /intermittent instances [aka, Peak power draws].
Particularly 30x0 cards.
@@alexatkin Got a PNY Revel 3080 in a prebuild early last year. Without overclocking it will pull up to 350w and run at 1995-2010MHz despite it's FE specs of 320w and 1710 boost. I swapped out the 750w ThermalTake that came with it (which was probably ok), for a Corsair RM1000x mag lev. No stress, better cables, silent.
I sized my PSU with a lot of headroom, because my current setup even under load, the PSU doesn't need to turn its fan on for cooling. It was all about the noise reduction. Same with the 240mm AIO for a 65w chip, I wanted to keep my fan speeds low and quiet.
Great video. You did leave out one reason to use a gigantic cooler on something like a 5600X and this is to limit noise. Noise in general is not discussed enough relative to PCs
Damn so I can't say "sorry, I have to go home and defragment my hard drive" to people anymore
“Where are you going?!” “I have to defragment some drives”
I like these refresher videos. I build a new PC every 4 or 5 years and in between I don't pay as much attention to technology changes and trends. So these are good for people like me who are getting back up to speed while building and setting up a new PC. I bought an Asus ROG Dark Hero motherboard primarily for all of the USB ports on the rear I/O since I'm connecting my keyboard, mouse, printer, iPod, phone, external backup HDD and monitor USB to the computer plus the occasional thumb drive to the case I/O. I was unaware of the SSD defrag, but I'm glad I know it now!
A powered USB hub would still be absolutely fine for what you listed there. His advice on this was pretty poor other than 4k cams flaking out which is a known thing. That being said, nothing wrong with getting a motherboard with a ton of ports :)
A powered HUB is still a great addition for : keyboard, mouse, sound card, fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth dongle, 2FA dongle, etc. These could each run from a USB 2.0, but USB 2.0 is sometimes too weak for some devices that don't even require data stream like wireless a wireless smartphone charger. And yes, you use a USB 3.0 ( I mean, USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 or better ), but you usually have many USB ports, and using hubs on a USB 2.0 may cause data loss even for some weak devices like a bluetooth dongle. Also a HUB moves the ports to a conveniant place.
Just make sure to have at least 2 other USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 or better for high bandwith devices when needed
my computer complains i’m out of usb recourses sometimes but usually nothing actually stops working. if something does quit it’s my mic and i replug it and reselect it
"De-frag" is probably got carried over to modern storage solutions, Windows can handle "de-frag" which is a TRIM command for SSDs when running the "optimization" thingy every week/month.
Manual TRIM will make the OS more responsive in extreme cases, but Windows will do it on schedule automatically, the user shouldn't worry about it. It's really a piece of old advice on modern OSes.
Thanks dude I was wondering whether he also meant trimming while saying defragging.
Ah yes, I remember the early 90s when defragging your hard disk was something you did on a slow day at work when you couldn’t be bothered picking up the next assignment
For SSD of any kind TRIM is what you need to do and I hope it has garbage collection.
Even SSD companies recommend not defrag your SSD.
Like for samsung ssd it has a program and it trims for you.
I just hope people won't disable their automatic trim due to this video. That would be bad
@@FakeMichau There is a clear difference in disable defrag and disable trim.
Also to the defrag thing.... if you are running NTFS as a file system, it is rather resistant to fragmentation. I stayed on FAT32 until I moved to Windows 7. I ran defrag monthly as part of my normal maintenance and was rather shocked when I ran into my drives that were virtually fragmentation-free. I dropped it from my network maintenance checklist after 4 or 5 months. And I was moving HUGE amounts of data around on my home network at the time.
I've run Linux, and switched to XFS filesystem and never worried about fragmentation again... and even the EXTn (where n = 2, 3, 4) filesystems are rather fragmentation resistant compared to the stupid disk sector algorithms used by Microsoft filesystems.
@@akulkis from Windows 7 onwards, disk fragmentation is virtually non-existent. Not everyone wants (or can) switch to Linux. Glad it worked for you.
@@harlech2 it's there, it just does it automatically in down time. From Windows 7 on, mechanical hard drives get defragged as part of Window routine automatic maintenance. SSD drives are NOT automatically defragged (and as Jay says, it's best not to)
Unless you changed Windows 7's (or later) defrag schedule then the reason your hard drives were fragmentation free is because Windows 7 and on automatically defrags hard drives (not SSD's obviously) on a schedule that runs during down time.
when it comes to USB hubs, I always look for a powered hub, because most of the time it's just that the host device just can't put out enough power for everything. but yes, you should try to plug things in directly where you can, making sure to create a sort of hierarchy, most intense USB loads plugged directly and plugging things that barely use the bus into a hub, preferably a powered one.
Totally agree, I still have a powered 2.0 Hub around and I use it for USB 2.0 and 1.1 Devices which are still more common than 3.x devices around my desktop. It is still quite handy if used as described by @JessicaFEREM
Also most Smartphones still only support USB 2.0, I think.
I totally agree, and it should be noted that higher polling rates on keyboards are internal to those devices. The computer still only sees a 'key down' and a "key up" signal. They probably draw more power, which is likely the source of the problem. I've had old 1.1 hubs melt due to the power draw through cheap chips!
I'm quite annoyed because my current motherboard has a USB-C port, but one of my devices sent me a USB-C antennae that had giant plastic windows on either side. It won't fit in the slot! The whole point of USB-C is that it is smaller! So I had to resort to using their USB 3.0 antennae instead.
if they had just made the antennae wings off set about an inch from where it's supposed to fit into the case, it wouldn't be an issue. But things thing will quite literally NOT fit on my motherboard.... it bumps into the larger cables.
Back when USB didn’t have a number after it, many commercial computers were frustratingly skimpy about USB ports, while more and more devices went USB AND would not work through a hub!
I built my last PC, can't believe it now 4 years ago, and now looking to build another one in a year or so. I can't thank you enough for the great advice. You answered my questions with these great videos. Glad to hear that stock coolers are sufficient for us non-overclockers. This information is actually very important, especially nowadays that money is tight!
I got the smallest variant with my Ryzen 5 1600 (six core) and i have to say it was pretty good
I think i never got over 70° while gaming for a few hours so yeah, don't underestimate the box coolers
Plus, it's not that big of a difference in price getting the box cooler with the cpu so even if it turns out to not be as good as you wanted you can just upgrade
I upgraded mine only because i like things running extra cool and i wanted the cool looking RGB cooler in my build lol
And I'm just gonna sell the stock cooler online used and get some cash back too
I remember when choosing your motherboard basically locked you into which GPU you could use, or if you used the opposing brand/type you could suffer. Now it's so much better to just buy the card you want.
Hell yeah. Intel AMD wars were fought dirty back then.... Nowadays sticking an RTX to a B550 is no biggie.
Not a problem I ever ran into.
@@loganmedia1142 It was not a problem. It was a fact from the older motherboards. That is how they designed them back then.
I like that the sponsor is Microcenter. MC is amazing. Great prices and they actually hire people that have some knowledge and are interested in what they are selling. It's like the opposite of most Home Depots.
Ive always had great friendly service there.
Still have a 580w bequiet powersupply from 2006 - my first prebuild pc. The supply got coil whine in around 2011-2012 everytime my pc was turned off which didnt bother me because of a Toggle switch power strip at my setup. It still worked and was used in my primary pc until the end of 2021 with a system i bought at the end of 2013. That PC was used between 6-14h daily so not that bad.
talking about the whole defrag topic. I'm pretty sure windows adopted it a long time ago to TRIM instead of defrag when it detects SSD's much the same as any software like Samsung's or any other vendors software does.
I thought about mentioning this too but windows also auto trims the drive just like it defrags hard drives when the system is idle so most modern operating systems handle it for you.
The Wraith Prism is pretty good, I used it on my 3700X for a while. I only swapped it out for better airflow and reduced noise in my new case.
I love the strobe effect on the LED fan on the Wraith. So cool if your fan hits that sweet spot RPM and looks like it's standing still.
@@TT-pr9bx Standing still. Hell try where it looks like the damn thing goes in REVERSE for a few seconds.
I don't understand the "stock fan is really good" until there is a sponsored video for a company that makes coolers and then stock fan is terrible and you need whatever they are selling
@@samgoff5289 Most stock fans are bad. The Wraith Prism just happens to be good. No conspiracy or anything.
Im still running mine 2 years later. I only noticed it couldn't keep up in the summer, but an extra case fan solved that problem for me. What did you upgrade to?
I would have agreed with you about fans until I watched the "Major Hardware" channel's "Fan Show" where people send in their 3D printed Fan designs and they test them. I would love for you to build a system using the fan call "The Cheater" so far it is the fan to beat this season. At least one fan was looked at to be licensed by a Big Fan company. Check it out.
Fan showdown is cool people come up with interesting designs
The problem with The Cheater is that it is massively oversized compared to a standard fan, the T33 would be a much better fan to use in an actual system.
I love that series
How are custom 3D printed designs related to market designs?
He didn't say certain fan designs aren't better for certain jobs. He said that almost all big manufacturers have basically settled on a hybrid design. Therefore, the need to make a choice is no longer available, and with it the need to argue about it.
But if you have access to custom designs, then you can absolutely continue the discussion.
If he does I could definitely run a few off if the files are public.
I've been watching so many of your videos and I really love how your one of the most honest youtubers explaining all this stuff. I built my first PC in 2021 just for online university work so I basically just took whatever needed parts my father-in-law gave me at the time. Now that I work from home though on some pretty dense programs I really need an upgrade so I'm doing my research to say the least. I do care about esthetics since I am a console gamer and have my PC set up together with that. Buuuut also a parent on a budget so all this advice has been amazing. Excited to get my PC to where it needs to be for what I do and make it look good too without wasting a ton of cash in the process.