[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

Yeah, this is all about what the OP called “willy waving” performance. I’d be gob smacked if you could tell the difference between 1866 Mhz and 3200 Mhz when sat in front of the PC ? What does seem important is not to mix single rank and dual rank. So looking at the table on the ASR site put your single stick in slot A2, doesn’t matter if its SR or DR it’ll go at full speed. When you get the second stick make sure it’s the same SR or DR and put it in slot B2 and it’ll still go at full speed. So I’d say your plan is just fine. If you wanted more you have to go from 2 to 4 slots (no 3) and if they were DR they’d “only” run at a max of 2133. Just not worth worrying about.

Cheers dave, I am nearly there.

Last night I turned my attention to 2 things.

1) that psu is marked down in some reviews for being loud. Any other suggestions?

2) I started to review prices for the items and can see amazon is cheaper for some. So after work I will post links if you could check them as some seem to be slightly different and I wouldn’t want to get the wrong items.

Cheers

[Marc Berry]

for some reason there is no Edit option on my posts now so…

i got dual channel mixed up with dual rank. still not sure what benefit dual rank has over single however, i found an article that says that although to use 2400 dual rank it should only work on 2 slots, they found they could use all 4 slots with dual rank 2666. see page 5 of the article here – http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-ryzen-single-rank-versus-dual-rank-ddr4-memory-performance_192960/5

i presume this wouldnt be all mobos and all ram so this probably gives me more uncertainty than i had before reading it

[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

I use that PSU all the time. 450 watt is more than enough for the graphics card. As for the AB350M Pro4 motherboard, it’s should have all you need and the B350 is the mainstream chipset. You would only want the X370 if you wanted to go totally nuts with overclocking and multiple graphics cards in SLI / Crossfire. But yes, have a look at them all and see if any have any extra bells and whistles. Have a look at the table here https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350M%20Pro4/index.asp#Specification that shows what combination of type of ram chip (single or dual rank) and at what speed you can have. Make sure your plan for the 8GB then 8GB later will work. If it is a problem, as it has 4 slots you could always do 2 x 4GB now and add 2 x 4GB later. Windows 10 licences can’t be transferred. Get one off E-Bay, I do all the time and no problems at all. Same for Office 2016.

if i am reading that table correctly, if i have 2400 ram i have to either chose to only use a2 and b2 thus 2 sticks max if i want to run dual channel. i can add 4 sticks of the 2400 but it would run in single channel.

so, i most likely will only have 2 sticks in there so that wouldnt be an issue but if i decided to add a further 2 way down the line, what is the downside of being single?

or, do i go for 1866-2133 ram to allow 4 sticks of dual channel?

[Marc Berry]

cheers again.

so i have decided on the first case suggested, antec gx-200,  as it is narrower than the others so more leg room.

decided on the single 8gb stick as it is cheaper and allows me to add a second 8gb stick easily down the line.

going with the ryzen 1600, no ‘x’, and will use the stock cooler as suggested.

happy with most of the rest but i wonder, with a bit of a saving made, is there any reason to look to spend a little more on the motherboard and/or psu or will they be good enough with the suggested options?

is it possible to transfer the windows 10 licence to the new pc?

marc

 

[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

Your plan for the ram should work. Now this is why I said do some research, turns out the Ryzen 1600x doesn’t come with a HSF. I assume because they think you’re going to be overclocking it. All the reviews I see use expensive liquid coolers. It looks like the same is true for the i5-7600K. I think that would be enough to push me away from the overclockable CPUs and go for the i5-7600 or the non-X Ryzen 1600. The stock coolers would be enough to see how you get on when the CPU is pushed. If it was too noisy too often you could use a much more modest air or liquid cooler. My own i5 never gets noisy. The graphics card has 2 x DVI-D so the monitor will be OK. Sorry, yes you can get smaller cases. Fractal Design Core 1300 http://tinyurl.com/ycleb9rh or Fractal Design Core 1500 http://tinyurl.com/ycdgvgh6 are reasonably priced and sensibly laid out with radiator support if necessary.

Cheers guys.

I’ll take a look at the cases dave.

I agree I think I’ll drop to the ryzen 1600. I think I’d prefer to use a slightly better cooler than stock unless you think I definitely don’t need one. In which case I realise the smaller case may effect the size I get. Any suggestions?

Cheers

[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

I would be looking at something like this (E-Buyer): ASRock AMD Ryzen AB350M Pro4 AM4 mATX Motherboard 780508 £72.98 AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 6 Core AM4 CPU/Processor 784314 £209.98 Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8 GB DDR4 2400MHz Desktop Memory BLS2C4G4D240FSC 736868 £74.99 WD Blue 250GB 2.5-inch Internal SSD 761161 £78.98 Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1060 WindForce OC 3GB Graphics Card 756319 £198.95 Corsair VS Series 450 Watt Power Supply 726366 £38.92 Antec GX-200 USB3 Black Interior Vented Fascia Midi Gaming Case – No Window 706782 £34.40 Total £709.20 And £20 for W10 Pro and Office 2016 Pro keys from E-Bay (I buy loads of them, no problems yet). An i5-7600K and B250M motherboard based system would cost about the same. Ryzen or i5? Take your pick None of this is a recommendation, just somewhere to start researching.

hey dave, thanks for the continued help.

just a few things. i see the ram can be bought in a single 8gb stick and it is actually a few pounds cheaper. i could then install another 8gb at a later date when funds allow. would you agree this would be a good idea or is there a benefit of the 2 x 4gb?

you havent suggested a cooler for the cpu. any thoughts on that?

any smaller cases that would work?

my existing monitor, liyama prolite e2208hds,  doesnt need replacing unless i have to. it has a dvi-d connection. i presume this will still connect to the new mobo you have mentioned above?

with roughly this budget, any laptop suggestions that would be close to the above specs?

cheers mate.

[Marc Berry]

Ive got some buy in from the wife as she said my sons will be using it for school now they will be doing senior school work.

So I may be able to push the budget to maybe £700 I think that may mean a laptop could fit in the budget if it ticked the boxes I wanted.  Be good if it was a 17inch one if I were to go that route.

Of course I’m open to a desktop/tower again but prefer a smaller one than I currently have.

[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

A larger SSD would help your system in general but won’t do much for UEBS. UEBS looks like it’s quite a system hog. Apparently each figure has it’s own shadow rendered! I would go with the recommended specs here http://tinyurl.com/yaflnn9a which is a top end i5 or Ryzen 100X. Both are £210+ and the graphics card would be the same price. Yiu can’t do this one on the cheap. It’s the old enemy – heat. Powerful kit produces more of it but you do see plenty of MATX and even MITX systems about now, but not slimline. The size of the graphics card would stop that anyway. On a small volume case, like the Cooler Master Elite 110, http://tinyurl.com/kdxhooz I would use a Liquid CPU Cooler such as this http://tinyurl.com/y8p6fv7j Even modest cases can deal with radiators these days, e.g. 110 has a mount for a 120mm one at the front. For £40 the Fractal Design Core 1300 Micro ATX Case can support two and longer graphics cards. TBH an MATX case would probably be fine with some decent intake / exhaust fans and a beefed up CPU cooler.

Cheers dave.

I’ve been out of the pc game for a while now, only dipping my toe in every now and then. With some of your suggestions  above in mind and without spending too much, any suggestions for a full build?

I can re use some bits I have such as- hdd as data drive, optical drives, fans, possibly my corsair psu but it’s getting on a bit.

I think the main new bits would be mono, cpu, gpu, ram, ssd, case and poss the psu

Cheers mate

[Marc Berry]

Dave Rice wrote:

Have a look here https://steamcommunity.com/app/616560/discussions/0/135514507319729706/ Your old graphics card isn’t going to help either. Things have moved on with CPUs too. An i7-2600 is about comparable to a Skylake i3, especially in games https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/287?vs=1682 Look here http://tinyurl.com/yaflnn9a your system is at or below the minimum specs. Increasing the page file size will only make the shortage of disk space worse. You’ve reached the limits of Sandybridge I feel. Time for a new one.

cheers dave, thats what i was just finding as i have been googling for a while tonight about it.

i am loathe to replace all the parts i realize are at the low end, i.e. gpu, memory, ssd as i agree i am now coming up to the time for a full upgrade.

so, if i cant persuade the wife for a full upgrade, would a larger ssd help? it is the cheapest upgrade, is the closest to being below the minimum standards and should be a fairly straight swap after cloning, or…..

what full upgrade to go for? we have limited space now where the pc is so i have started to detest the big bulky tower unit and was thinking of a desktop replacement laptop. with the above in mind, any suggestions that wouldnt break the bank but would have reasonable specs? keep in mind that UEBS is about the max gaming stress i think i will be throwing at it (famous last words)

cheers

EDIT… i just found large laptops are expensive and dont have the best specs unless spending tons. so, any slim, ideally pre-built towers i could go for?

[Marc Berry]

cheers guys, i’ll rethink

[Marc Berry]

it does look at bit ‘kiddy’ but the camera quality seemed okay.

i think if i remotely moved it off the dock i would move it back there manually before exiting or at least before the battery ran out and then press auto dock when close enough.

be good if there was more competition for it to drive both lower prices and better specs

 

[Marc Berry]

hi guys.

today i took it to a car audio shop and it was quite refreshing. he didnt try to sell me anything like another shop i called asking for £300 to improve the sound.

he said that although my car didnt have factory sat nav so thus didnt use the 7th, front centre, speaker, it was in fact there and that the android unit was using it as a general speaker. i had already noticed that the centre speaker was now providing audio and was a source of the extra ‘tinnyness, i was hearing. its a bit odd it is present without satnav being there but as the car has bluetooth, maybe it was also being used for this but i hadnt noticed it before. so i guess the standard unit wasnt using it at all for music and only for the bluetooth output.

with that little fact confirming to me why i was hearing an extra output in the highs he said he was confident that an upgrade with that, only costing maybe £15 it could sound better. he mentioned a speaker that could give more mid range. i have since read up and believe he may mean a coaxial? if so, i could get one myself if anyone on here knows the size i would need.

he said the door speakers sounded okay and i wouldnt get much improvement from upgrading them but is it possible to upgrade the tiny speakers where the wing mirrors are? i guess they are tweeters.

cheers all

[Marc Berry]

Cheers guys, i went with the lg k4. I’ll let you know how my son gets on with it

[Marc Berry]

That looks pretty good. Front runner at present. Any thoughts if there are any even smaller with similar cost and Android version?

[Marc Berry]

its 5 door the corsa and yes both trips computers have mpg since last reset by ysing the left stalk to select. no leather inside, (i dont think, cant remember now) but has almost every ‘toy’ apart from reverse sensor.

[Marc Berry]

hi guys.

the car with the new android stereo is an astra h, 59 reg that had a cd40 i think.  it did have DAB as well as the FM. the reception was great.

not sure that is the issue that was linked as i do get clear fm without issue apart from the sound being poor system wide.

the corsa is an sri, 65 reg and does have MPG read out.

 

[Marc Berry]

Robin Long wrote:

I have read about these units in another forum, the FM Issue is NOT an easy fix. If you brought the DAB+ antenna you need to sight it well though different cars have cause different results, my own opinion is that the actually signal reception you get in your area needs to be good. Others have tried fitting better car aerials to no avail. Due to the way these Units link into the cars systems you may find the car is no longer supplying enough power for the stereo, though this is a new one on me, I have not heard of others experiencing this, have you replaced the cars stock speakers. There’s also a suggestion that the outputs don’t match their labelling ie. Front left is not actually front left but right rear you might try that and see if it solves the issue. There if your car, as it appears is a Vauxhall, there are some active Forums supporting these cars out there and you may find that this unit has been fitted elsewhere.

cheers mate. i have posted in the vauxhall foums and not much joy/answers there.  i have still got the standard speakers. it does identify as left hand drive in the fader menu but i’m not sure how much difference that could make. apart from the front centre still playing when changed to ‘rear only’, the fronts do mute then and when moved to ‘front’ the rears do mute so its mostly correct.

[Marc Berry]

The Duke wrote:

Sound is not my thing. Sorry. Did you purchase the Dab+ box, it looks like it wad an optional extra at $38, I think with out this it can’t receive a digital signal. The built in app will should cover the FM band, but regards to an android app for FM tuners, I’ve never looked into one. I known only small se tin of phones, come with FM available, usually the very cheap ones, and they all come with an built in FM app.

i didnt get the dab as i dont really listen to it, i’ve always turned dab off and used fm on the old stereo. fm seemed to sound better.

[Marc Berry]

The Duke wrote:

With regards to nav sound vs media sound, the only good nav app that let’s you manually change the nav volume independently of the media volume is Here Maps. Ive found here maps uses a nav algorithm than Google maps, I don’t think it is as good for daily stuff, but if your going to a crowded end point, it will give you a completely different route to all the sheep using Google nav. So it stays on my phone for that alone. Also its free, and has a better interface than the comp, Impo and doesn’t require a data connection. Regarding you radio streams, they are never on par with fm/dab feeds. Also i think the streams are only two channel, but this may of changed. Lastly it sounds like you need an amp. The head unit probably had a DAC that is related to the ones in android phones. The majority are poor. The good ones not much better. I plug my phone into my car daily, I have to push the phone to 100% and then up the head unit volume to 58, this is for Audible (books) , normal volume for listening to Dab radio is 11. If I was interested in music, this set up wouldn’t surface. Ive never played with one of these head units, but know all the people that fit nexus 7s (remember them) all heeded an added amp Do you have a picture or video of your set up. Just nosey tbh. I was talking to the wife, about getting a fiesta St at some point. With their poor interior, it’s will be ripe for a retro fit. She said, why don’t you get a panda, I like them. I said learnt to drive I’ll get you one! Frigging panda. Ironically that was my mum’s first car when I was a kid. So I have some nostalgia for the old ones, but I don’t want one. The point was to have a town car with a bit of go in it. Especially as I’m soon be be getting a larger car. I have a soft spot for warm hatches. Lol a fiat panda…

this is the one.     http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-6-0-1-Car-Stereo-GPS-Opel-Vauxhall-Zafira-Antara-Astra-Corsa-Vectra-DAB/142405416086?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648

overall it’s awesome. just a shame i cant get the sound right.

1. any ideas how i’d fit an amplifier? the stereo fitted to the standard connector so no way of fitting between the connector and stereo. i’m not good with this sort of stuff.
2. any suggestions for android apps that use the fm transmitter instead of data?
3. any help with good equilizer settings for ‘pop’ type sound as i find this to be the best all rounder for me, the wife and kids

cheers mate

[Marc Berry]

Cheers guys

[Author]

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