Today I decided to upgrade the operating system of my wife's computer. I checked the website of Asus. There are no drivers available for her motherboard beyond Vista. I now know that it is time for a new computer. I would like to use her present case. I have two concerns however. The 80mm fans, and the USB 2.0 on the front. I am emotionally tied to the case. In my opinion it is a beauty. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112100
I don't see the 80mm fans or the possible limitation of USB2 on the front ports as huge issues.
It's very likely that the front USB ports will work just fine. I'm not sure what if any physical or electrical difference there might be for USB2 vs. USB3 on front panel connections other than maybe the number of twists per inch in the wires.
As for the fans, unless you are planning on having a high wattage CPU or more than one HDD I don't see there being a problem keeping the case cool. Most of the high power video cards already exhaust out the back of the case.
Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.
#4. "RE: New Build, Old Case" In response to daniell (Reply # 3) Sat Jan-27-18 02:23 PM by Ttech
8GB RAM is enough for what I do with a computer, but we don't know what your wife does on the computer. 8GB is certainly plenty for web surfing and email.
I looked at the specs for the Ryzen 3 1200, it's only 65W so the 80mm fans should be fine.
Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.
Eight gigs of ram is plenty but after using 32 gigs of ram in my last build I would recommend using as much as you can conveniently afford. It doesn't have to be the fastest ram either but it does make a noticeable subtle difference. My machine is listed as minimum specs for processor and video card for Destiny 2 and it is absolutely stunning on the screen and game play. The ram must have been the difference because minimum specs is usually very poor.
QUOTE: Eight gigs of ram is plenty but after using 32 gigs of ram in my last build I would recommend using as much as you can conveniently afford. It doesn't have to be the fastest ram either but it does make a noticeable subtle difference. My machine is listed as minimum specs for processor and video card for Destiny 2 and it is absolutely stunning on the screen and game play. The ram must have been the difference because minimum specs is usually very poor.
Since no games will be played on the computer, I think that 8 gigs will suffice. I am also going for a solid state drive.
Just trying to convey that more ram really makes a difference in the way applications run and the overall performance. Game machines can = high end business machines and are generally a good cut above.
I am still deciding which components to buy. Since I haven't built a computer for many years, I am still researching. If I go Intel instead of AMD, I wont have to buy a separate video card. My wife will only use the computer for web surfing and writing email. There is no utility in building a super fast one.
The selection of a video card is holding me up.The Motherboard that I selected had a 3.0 X 16 slot. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for a graphics card.
I just got done assembling an Intel system a month ago. Graphics card prices were one of the reasons I went with Intel (i5-8400). Of course had I known about the security stuff I would have waited. I plan on adding one later, I don't game but I keep a few on for when family comes over. If I spend anything on one it will be an ok one (likely geforce 1060). Had I went with Ryzen I'd have probably gotten a cheaper one to start, like a 1050 2GB, they were around $100 then.
I also only put in 8 gigs of RAM for now too. I got two cheap 120gb HP SSDs during the holidays, I have them set up for RAID 0, but I ordered a Samsung 960 NVME and will use the drives in other things, since the NVME is much faster.
My old case was loud, tired of it, I got a Fractal Silent matx. ASRock z370m pro4, and Patriot Viper 3000 RAM.
Got most things during holiday sales. Newegg, Google Express for Fry's, Amazon.