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If you would build one, any shop you have had good experience from?

No gaming facilities required.

 

Lots been said on the internet that building one would cost less, with better performance.

 

Online check throws up a few from Sim Lim Sq -

Fullwell

Bizgram

Dynacore Tech

 

I do not know if all of the above would build it though or they sell parts only

 

What do I look out for if I am going for some level of good sound ? Fanless ? Does this compromise reliability?

What else fellas ?

 

Need your view, opinion and experaince. Thanks !

 

 

 

 

 

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Fuwell has been around for awhile, but due to them expanding, the prices are no longer the cheapest. I believe you can ask them to help you build a pc for a fee.

Sorry I cannot recommend any components as I have stopped DIY a long time ago. Currently using an NUC 7i5nbh, and even then I asked Videopro to help me install the m.2 and sata hdd, as well as the RAM.

 

 

 

If you would build one, any shop you have had good experience from?

No gaming facilities required.

 

Lots been said on the internet that building one would cost less, with better performance.

 

Online check throws up a few from Sim Lim Sq -

Fullwell

Bizgram

Dynacore Tech

 

I do not know if all of the above would build it though or they sell parts only

 

What do I look out for if I am going for some level of good sound ? Fanless ? Does this compromise reliability?

What else fellas ?

 

Need your view, opinion and experaince. Thanks !

 

 

 

 

 

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Some general questions like purpose of the PC ?

 

Are you more incline towards AMD or Intel (CPU), Nvidia vs AMD (Graphic Card) or onboard graphics card comes with the CPU s good enough ?

 

Some custom PC vendors you can consider:

 

Aftershock

Dreamcore

Mansa Computers

 

For me it is not only about building the PC but also after sales services. The vendors will be there to troubleshoot / warranty issues for the PC itself.

 

Overall, the pricing now is very comparable for similar specs (sometimes even cheaper for the custom vendors). However, the big plus for DIY is you can choose the specific brand of components that the custom PC builder may not offer. (i.e. Gigabyte MB vs Asrock MB)

 

If you are going for a fanless build, a major concern is temperatures while under load.

 

For DIY, you can purchase all the and pay a small fee for the shop to setup for you. If not you can also buy parts from different stores and get someone else to build it.

 

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Fanless is possible... Casing and heatsink gonna be expensive... Massive chunk of copper

 

Of cos the selection of cpu... Determine the cost... If u get a i9 to go fanless...That's a big headache

 

Low speed fan is possible... Really minimum noise

Almost neglible during sound playback

 

Audiophile quality? Need linear power supply ?

Need fancy noise ripple reduction etc?

 

IMO... Get a ryzen cheap and good... Can beef up some other parts like power supply and a nice CPU cooler so u can run the fan slower and still good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If you would build one, any shop you have had good experience from?

No gaming facilities required.

 

Lots been said on the internet that building one would cost less, with better performance.

 

Online check throws up a few from Sim Lim Sq -

Fullwell

Bizgram

Dynacore Tech

 

I do not know if all of the above would build it though or they sell parts only

 

What do I look out for if I am going for some level of good sound ? Fanless ? Does this compromise reliability?

What else fellas ?

 

Need your view, opinion and experaince. Thanks !

NUC pc are fanless, comes with onboard sound.

Creative has sound cards but need to use mini itx case.

You want some level of good sound.

So it depends if you think discrete sound cards is able to satisfy you or onboard sound chip is enough.

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NUC pc are fanless, comes with onboard sound.

Creative has sound cards but need to use mini itx case.

You want some level of good sound.

So it depends if you think discrete sound cards is able to satisfy you or onboard sound chip is enough.

 

Intel nuc have fan...

 

There are third party fanless casing for u to transfer motherboard to it

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If you would build one, any shop you have had good experience from?

No gaming facilities required.

 

Lots been said on the internet that building one would cost less, with better performance.

 

Online check throws up a few from Sim Lim Sq -

Fullwell

Bizgram

Dynacore Tech

 

I do not know if all of the above would build it though or they sell parts only

 

What do I look out for if I am going for some level of good sound ? Fanless ? Does this compromise reliability?

What else fellas ?

 

Need your view, opinion and experaince. Thanks !

 

1. I assume you're into some level of DIY...if not, better stick to the pre-built branded ones from the likes of Dell/HP where you get warranty & support.

 

2. If your use case is for HT, then I highly recommend getting the Raspberry Pi4, get a good casing that can dissipate heat effectively, good power supply. And then load up the LibreElec/Kodi software, and you're good to go. This setup is fanless/silent. 4K is supported. And very cheap solution! I have this as one of my HT source.

 

3. If your use case is for work+photo/video editing+HT/HiFi+media storage, then a DIY PC is the way to go.

3a. Start with a good motherboard (eg. Asus, MSI, Gigabyte) with good quality capacitors & voltage regulators. I chose Asus.

    ** Check for SPDIF Optical/Coax out based on your HT/HiFi need.

3b. Choose your CPU (at least 4 actual physical cores, i7 or higher).

3c. 16Gb or 32Gb RAM.

3d. M2 NVMe SSD as boot drive (alternate is SATA SSD), disk size depends on your budget.

3e. Optional HDD as storage drives. I'd recommend a pair of Toshiba N300 or Seagate IronWolf, disk size depends on your budget. Setup as a mirrored pair.

3f. Graphics card - can't go wrong with NVidia based cards. I went with Gigabyte NVidia graphics card.

    ** Make sure it can support 4K resolution out; and has 2 or more output ports (eg. HDMI + DisplayPort). The HDMI out can go to your HT system.

3g. Get a casing with good ventilation/fan, and storage bays that meet your future expansion needs. Can't go wrong with Coolermaster stuff.

    ** Casing with dust filters help reduce dust from accumulating inside the PC. Highly recommended.

3h. Optical drive - just pick a reasonable bluray drive.

3i. Get a very good quality high capacity power supply. I got myself the Seasonic 850W PSU.

3j. Windows 10 Pro is recommended.

 

4. Your choice of shops are all good. Four years ago, I bought my DIY PC components from PC Themes. I built the PC myself, but you should be able to ask the shop to build it up for you.

 

I hope the above sharing helps you...

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Some tips I would like to share.

 

I would get AMD instead of Intel.  Either Ryzen or Threadripper for high end computerizing.

 

While Intel is struggling with 10nm technology, AMD is already going full steam with 7nm.  Faster, consume less power and have more cores than any Intel clip. (AMD Threadripper 3990 with 64 cores and 3970 with 32 cores)

 

It also sports the faster PCIe speed, PCIe Gen 4 now....Intel has not reach there yet.  You now buy PCIe Gen 4 M2 SSD that run exclusively at unbelievable speed on the TRX40 motherboard.

 

Graphics card?  Again AMD , the 5700 series again run at PCIe Gen4 with GPU manufactured using 7nm technology.

 

Everyone want to run fanless...but the real deals are PC power supplies starting from 850W and up to 1,500W.  They are powerful and capable of running every thing.  They are actually have a fan but it does not power up until it get hot when power requirements increases.  I have 3 Corsair units at 850, 1200 and 1500 and the fan hardly come on.

 

I have tried a few CPU cooling solutions but the best is the Noutua air cooler.  The NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is made exclusively for AMD Threadripper...you can hardly hear it running.  So impressed, I have fit every PC I got with Noctua CPU cooling fans.  You can order them directly from their website and they ship incredibly fast.  Ship within hours and arrive in 2-3 days!

 

Oh, the best rams I got are G-Skills Trident RGB because the AMD CPUs are quite fussy with the rams you used.  I used to buy Corsair Vengeance Rams until I got problems running them with AMD .....so far the G-skills rams are working perfectly.

 

(Audio)

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just buy a intel nuc or cheap laptop then?

 

had a few laptops and they are very convenient but a lot more wear and tear and problems before we ended up carrying it around a lot more. Current HP desk top lasted close to 10 years as I use it with lot more care.

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Fanless is possible... Casing and heatsink gonna be expensive... Massive chunk of copper

 

Of cos the selection of cpu... Determine the cost... If u get a i9 to go fanless...That's a big headache

Low speed fan is possible... Really minimum noise

Almost neglible during sound playback

Audiophile quality? Need linear power supply ?

Need fancy noise ripple reduction etc?

 

IMO... Get a ryzen cheap and good... Can beef up some other parts like power supply and a nice CPU cooler so u can run the fan slower and still good

 

 

thanks for this info

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NUC pc are fanless, comes with onboard sound.

Creative has sound cards but need to use mini itx case.

You want some level of good sound.

So it depends if you think discrete sound cards is able to satisfy you or onboard sound chip is enough.

 

thanks for this, and thanks fellas for all your input , each and everyone.

 

 

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1. I assume you're into some level of DIY...if not, better stick to the pre-built branded ones from the likes of Dell/HP where you get warranty & support.

 

2. If your use case is for HT, then I highly recommend getting the Raspberry Pi4, get a good casing that can dissipate heat effectively, good power supply. And then load up the LibreElec/Kodi software, and you're good to go. This setup is fanless/silent. 4K is supported. And very cheap solution! I have this as one of my HT source.

 

3. If your use case is for work+photo/video editing+HT/HiFi+media storage, then a DIY PC is the way to go.

3a. Start with a good motherboard (eg. Asus, MSI, Gigabyte) with good quality capacitors & voltage regulators. I chose Asus.

    ** Check for SPDIF Optical/Coax out based on your HT/HiFi need.

3b. Choose your CPU (at least 4 actual physical cores, i7 or higher).

3c. 16Gb or 32Gb RAM.

3d. M2 NVMe SSD as boot drive (alternate is SATA SSD), disk size depends on your budget.

3e. Optional HDD as storage drives. I'd recommend a pair of Toshiba N300 or Seagate IronWolf, disk size depends on your budget. Setup as a mirrored pair.

3f. Graphics card - can't go wrong with NVidia based cards. I went with Gigabyte NVidia graphics card.

    ** Make sure it can support 4K resolution out; and has 2 or more output ports (eg. HDMI + DisplayPort). The HDMI out can go to your HT system.

3g. Get a casing with good ventilation/fan, and storage bays that meet your future expansion needs. Can't go wrong with Coolermaster stuff.

    ** Casing with dust filters help reduce dust from accumulating inside the PC. Highly recommended.

3h. Optical drive - just pick a reasonable bluray drive.

3i. Get a very good quality high capacity power supply. I got myself the Seasonic 850W PSU.

3j. Windows 10 Pro is recommended.

 

4. Your choice of shops are all good. Four years ago, I bought my DIY PC components from PC Themes. I built the PC myself, but you should be able to ask the shop to build it up for you.

 

I hope the above sharing helps you...

 

not into DIY and I need a good shop or someone but these are absolutely helpful information, thanks man !

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Some tips I would like to share.

 

I would get AMD instead of Intel.  Either Ryzen or Threadripper for high end computerizing.

 

While Intel is struggling with 10nm technology, AMD is already going full steam with 7nm.  Faster, consume less power and have more cores than any Intel clip. (AMD Threadripper 3990 with 64 cores and 3970 with 32 cores)

 

It also sports the faster PCIe speed, PCIe Gen 4 now....Intel has not reach there yet.  You now buy PCIe Gen 4 M2 SSD that run exclusively at unbelievable speed on the TRX40 motherboard.

 

Graphics card?  Again AMD , the 5700 series again run at PCIe Gen4 with GPU manufactured using 7nm technology.

 

Everyone want to run fanless...but the real deals are PC power supplies starting from 850W and up to 1,500W.  They are powerful and capable of running every thing.  They are actually have a fan but it does not power up until it get hot when power requirements increases.  I have 3 Corsair units at 850, 1200 and 1500 and the fan hardly come on.

 

I have tried a few CPU cooling solutions but the best is the Noutua air cooler.  The NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is made exclusively for AMD Threadripper...you can hardly hear it running.  So impressed, I have fit every PC I got with Noctua CPU cooling fans.  You can order them directly from their website and they ship incredibly fast.  Ship within hours and arrive in 2-3 days!

Oh, the best rams I got are G-Skills Trident RGB because the AMD CPUs are quite fussy with the rams you used.  I used to buy Corsair Vengeance Rams until I got problems running them with AMD .....so far the G-skills rams are working perfectly.

(Audio)

Fuwell has been around for awhile, but due to them expanding, the prices are no longer the cheapest. I believe you can ask them to help you build a pc for a fee.

Sorry I cannot recommend any components as I have stopped DIY a long time ago. Currently using an NUC 7i5nbh, and even then I asked Videopro to help me install the m.2 and sata hdd, as well as the RAM.

 

 

Thanks for the tips man !

 

Good infomation and experainces from all of you

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Some general questions like purpose of the PC ?

 

Are you more incline towards AMD or Intel (CPU), Nvidia vs AMD (Graphic Card) or onboard graphics card comes with the CPU s good enough ?

 

Some custom PC vendors you can consider:

 

Aftershock

Dreamcore

Mansa Computers

 

For me it is not only about building the PC but also after sales services. The vendors will be there to troubleshoot / warranty issues for the PC itself.

 

Overall, the pricing now is very comparable for similar specs (sometimes even cheaper for the custom vendors). However, the big plus for DIY is you can choose the specific brand of components that the custom PC builder may not offer. (i.e. Gigabyte MB vs Asrock MB)

 

If you are going for a fanless build, a major concern is temperatures while under load.

 

For DIY, you can purchase all the and pay a small fee for the shop to setup for you. If not you can also buy parts from different stores and get someone else to build it.

 

 

main purpose would be for work at home, word, excel, basically microsft office

 

like to have a good enough sound system.

 

do not need game, do not want games.

 

I am new to this, so am not inclined towards any particular system or brand, etc.

 

reliability is important, and yes after sales service is very important as you rightly pointed out.

 

thank you.

 

 

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If you elaborate on your requirement of 'good enough sound system' it will help us give you proper guidance.. how are you intending to use this PC? Casual listening only since it doubles as office PC? Connected to USB DAC or HT? Streaming or requiring any large media storage?

 

Only the basic systems are available locally. Most of us with large fanless systems all imported the casing ourselves, and even mac mini upgrades have to be done ourselves (and voiding warranty).

 

If you are absolutely avoiding DIY and want support, then I think the easiest is to buy a basic system like a laptop, mac mini or intel NUC system (they have fanless options), and add some "audiophile" equipment at the output stage to get the sound to be slightly better.

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If you elaborate on your requirement of 'good enough sound system' it will help us give you proper guidance.. how are you intending to use this PC? Casual listening only since it doubles as office PC? Connected to USB DAC or HT? Streaming or requiring any large media storage?

 

Only the basic systems are available locally. Most of us with large fanless systems all imported the casing ourselves, and even mac mini upgrades have to be done ourselves (and voiding warranty).

 

If you are absolutely avoiding DIY and want support, then I think the easiest is to buy a basic system like a laptop, mac mini or intel NUC system (they have fanless options), and add some "audiophile" equipment at the output stage to get the sound to be slightly better.

 

i rekon i did not go into enough details.

 

primarily it will be for work using microsoft office, internet surfing, definitely not gaming .

 

next priority wld be sound. Wld be great if I can watch a concert or two with the sound system .

 

I will not be DIYing and wld need someone to put all together.

 

Bench mark sound wld be the focal XSbooks which I like. Nothing to shout about but this is a start. I have also a hi fi set so I have some idea how a proper hi fi shd sound like and I am realistic how a desk top PC wld turn out.

 

I need help in terms of which parts, software, desk top speaker , amp and which monitor as well , and any other that I shd consider.

 

As of now, what I have in mind wld be the audio engine desk top speakers but am open to others.

 

After sales , and support is important.

 

Thanks

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If it is a productivity computer and you work primarily with Office and internet browsers, I’d still recommend a MacBook. They aren’t crazy expensive but you get Apple’s Office suite for free and OS upgrades are also free.

 

Just get one with 16GB RAM and SSD. Boot up times are fast and I usually don’t even bother shutting down. Just close the lid and resume where I left off. Battery life is also good.

 

No additional malware.

 

There are good apps for music playback. Cheapest is BitPerfect which I got years ago. There’s also Audirvana Plus. Just hook up a decent DAC to your XS Book. I used an iFi iDAC with mine.

 

I’d build a computer only for playing games.

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