Should I build a new PC?

[J T]

You'll like it Steve. I have a Samsung SSD (I think it's an EVO but with a different number, 840 or 850 perhaps, cba to check) and it's just fine for standard use. You can see that I'm far from benchmark-obsessed

Another thing that I like about SSDs is that without the moving parts it doesn't really matter if you just plug them in and chuck it in the case any old where if you can't be bothered to put them into the usual HDD bays

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To be fair though, my PC has been unplugged for probably over 20 months.

I use my work laptop (an MBP), which is a far more recent spec, if I need to do anything significant. I have a PC laptop somewhere in the house, or maybe the garage. I'm not really sure where it is to be honest

Fans of ennui will be pleased (or maybe not, whatever) to hear that the PC still remains unplugged and the windows laptop location remains, uh, uncertain.

[Stephen Coates]

Another thing that I like about SSDs is that without the moving parts it doesn't really matter if you just plug them in and chuck it in the case any old where if you can't be bothered to put them into the usual HDD bays

You mean you shouldn't do that with HDDs?

[Stephen Coates]

The SSD arrived the other day and I finally got round to trying it out today.

I did some benchmarks with CrystalDiskMark and it benchmarks much faster than the Seagate HDD as expected.

I copied my Linux install on to it to try out and it did seem to boot faster, but that was hard to measure, because I buggered something up, and now Linux spends 40 seconds polling the floppy drive before it will do anything .

crystal_ssd.png crystal_hdd.png

[J T]

40 seconds polling the floppy

Chuckle

[Stephen Coates]

I notice a lot of SFF cases don't seem to have any external drive bays. One would think a cube PC or a pizza box PC would at least have room for a laptop-size CD drive and a card reader.

[Stephen Coates]

These MicroATX cases from In-Win looks really good.
https://www.in-win.com/en/gaming-cha...sub_series=338
But no b***** drive bays!

Fractal Design have some nice ones. I rather like the Node 202. But, again, NO DRIVE BAYS. I suppose we can accept that on such a small case, but even some of the massive ones are missing drive bays.
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/p...eries/node-202

These MicroATX cases from BitFenix looks pretty cool, and they at least have one drive bay.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfe...ca-142-bx.html

Pondering Lian Li's options, they do have one that is a bit smaller than my current one, and has 3 drive bays, but its not much smaller.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian-...ca-426-ll.html
They have some neat 'slim' cases, but they are stupidly expensive at £300+.

If you fancy something a bit different, you could always go with one of these:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian-...ca-74i-ll.html

[Stephen Coates]

I've just been pondering a Shuttle XPC. I always used to really like the form factor of these, but I never bought one.

They have models with both a 5.25" drive bay and a 3.5" drive bay, as well as two PCIe slots - one for a graphics card and one for another kind of card.

They do one with the recent H370 chipset for the recent Intel Coffee Lake CPUs. I'm thinking a low end Coffee Lake i3 might be a good option.

Now, can a Coffee Lake CPU make me a cappuccino?