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It's time I built a new PC.

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djsb:
So I last built my own desktop PC in 2006. It was using an Intel Core 2 duo CPU on a EVGA 122-CK-NF68 motherboard (https://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/122-CK-NF68.pdf), a Corsair HX620W power supply and a Geforce GTX750TI graphics card. I thought it was about time I built a new one.

So, I've just bought a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite ax v2 motherboard with an AMD 5600X CPU and Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 memory. I'm just wondering if I can still safely reuse the existing PSU and graphics card at least temporarily? I will upgrade when finances allow. I next have to buy a case and 2TB SSD. I'm looking at a fractal Design or Corsair 4000D case (budget £50 to £80) and will probably go with a Crucial 2TB SSD. Is it possible to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 and then Windows 11 for free? I have Windows 7 with a product key and I have the Windows 10 Pro ISO on DVD that I downloaded. I have heard that Windows 10 will no longer be available beyond the end of January. Will this affect me? Can Windows 10 be upgraded to Windows 11 for free on compatible hardware. Thanks.

Jackster:
Your old PSU and GPU will be fine.

Windows upgrade still works even though it officially ended like 5 years ago. But could stop any day so there is no guarantee. Windows 10 runs quite well on old hardware so you could upgrade now, get your new Windows 10 key (you can extract the key from the OS with some tools) and then install fresh onto your new SSD.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. It has been a while.

The 4000D is a nice case. Lots of airflow and good cable management.

Your CPU and RAM choice is also good. I just upgraded my work PC with the 5600G and the same RAM.
Testing out the 5600G to see if the graphics are enough to save me from upgrading a GPU. They are so expensive still 😖

mariush:
Yeah, you can reuse PSU and GPU.

The 5600x consumes up to around 80-100 watts, from the 12v output of the power supply, so it's not like you'd overload the power supply.
The GTX750ti consumes maybe up to 60 watts when you're gaming on it.
Ram will consume 2-3w per stick, usually from 5v,  motherboard (chipset, onboard audio, network, usb etc) around 10-15w again mostly from 5v and 3.3v
SSD will consume around 1-2w idle or reading, up to 5-10w when writing a lot of data ... and that's from 3.3v or 5v of your power supply (M.2 connectors are 3.3v only but some motherboards have dc-dc converters producing 3.3v from 5v, for voltage stability and other reasons)


For SSD, I would suggest picking a drive that uses TLC memory (ex Samsung 970 Evo plus, Samsung 980, WD SN570, WD SN770, WD SN850x etc).

Drives with QLC have much lower endurance, and the write speeds decrease if you transfer a lot and fill the write cache -  there are some QLC SSDs with very large pseudo-SLC cache  like for example Crucial P3 Plus, but most have only up to around 50-100 GB (depending on how much free disk space is

Ian.M:
IIRC, until Microsoft eventually get around to turning off the Win7/Win8 upgrade option, you can simply activate Win10 1909 or later with a Win7/Win8 product key that hasn't been blacklisted, without having to do an upgrade install of Win10. 

mapleLC:
I am struggling to understand how anyone would use a Microsoft OS by choice today.

You either get the data whore modern OS or you get to put up with one of their old OSs.  We used to run Windows NT back when because Windows Vista sucked, then we'd Windows 2000 server at home until Windows 7 was passable.

The best OS Microsoft did was probably Windows 10, as Windows 11 crossed the line on data whoring.  In the end, its a not very good company which has never really innovated much, its just one Zune after another and nobody wakes up to it.  The only thing that kept many programmers in their net was C# which is a pretty usable language.  And how its taught and used as part of the H1B tunnel, the cheapest programmers out there are usually C# and maybe some web crap I am not aware of.  Oh sharepoint, there is development 1 step up from QA.

Microsoft is expert at making themselves consumer friendly, otherwise it's not a very good platform.  I guess with computers it will take much longer for us to learn the lessons of proprietary technology and Betamax again.  I would suggest a different OS.

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