Put together a patchwork PC

Your older hardware needn’t be consigned to the scrapheap — Alan Dexter says put it to use in a patchwork PC.

THE CONCEPT

We are asked to piece together machines all the time here on APC. These one-off projects are generally short-lived, and are designed to solve a particular problem or help elsewhere: a quick boost to a rendering farm, say, or to see whether a new graphics card or CPU really improves performance in a particular application. We also get more specific requests, such as a recent one to build a system for games coding. The caveat on this one was for a machine that they would get to keep — something we don’t normally do because the components generally need to be returned to our hardware hoard for future builds. However, we were feeling benevolent, so set out to put some of the older gear to good use.

When it comes to coding, there aren’t many specialist requirements above and beyond what you would want from a modern machine. A little more memory than the bare minimum helps, as does a speedy multi-core processor for compiling, and fast drives can make a difference when throwing around high-resolution assets. But in general, any PC can turn its hand to the task. Still, it helps to know what the machine will be used for when picking components.

BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS

This build was a departure from the norm, in that it wasn’t a case of starting with a shopping list, then tracking down an ideal collection of hardware from which to build a glorious system. Instead, it was about looking at what was in the storeroom, what wasn’t likely to be recalled, and what would work together to form a machine that was fit for purpose. So we trawled through our spreadsheets and dusty cupboards for parts that were viable, if not exactly cutting-edge.

Our first port of call was the AMD FX-8370, which is a reasonable enough processor, if not quite competitive with Intel’s offerings. It’s an 'eight-core' chip that relishes multi-threaded environments, though it struggles at less parallel work. The price doesn’t make a lot of sense either, which is why it’s been languishing in our chip drawer, waiting for a moment to shine. We’ve slotted this into the MSI 970 Gaming, which is a thrill-free but competent board.

For graphics, the ASUS Strix 960 2GB is beginning to show its age, but it handles older games without a problem. The rest of the spec is fairly straightforward, with the exception of storag e —where we’d normally use a spinning drive alongside a speedy boot SSD, we’ve employed another SSD for that task. This will help keep access speeds up, while providing plenty of space at the same time. It’s a pricey solution, but it makes sense to focus the potential budget where it counts.

1 COOL AND QUIET

We admit to being obsessed with cooling, and adding more fans to a case is pretty much the first thing we do with any build. Easing more fans into the BitFenix Shadow was straightforward, as there’s room for a pair of 120mm fans behind the front panel. We reached for a couple of the Spectre Xtremes, and screwed them into place after popping off the panel. We were squeezed for PWM fan headers on the MSI 970 Gaming, but didn’t want the fans running at full speed all the time, as that would be unnecessary. This is why we attached the fans to the motherboard through a low-noise adapter (LNA), which reduces their running speed, so helps keep noise levels down, and they're nice and cheap.

2 FLOATING STORAGE

The BitFenix Shadow case isn’t exactly cutting-edge, but it’s not a relic either, which is why we were surprised to discover that there’s no easy way to mount SSDs in its monolithic form. There are plenty of drive bays, but the holes for the 3.5-inch bays don’t line up with the mounting holes on our SSDs, and the tool-free brackets on the 5.25-inch bays don’t fit either. Our solution was to screw the drives into place instead. Unfortunately, this was only possible in the 5.25-inch drive bays, but there’s the obvious problem that we couldn’t secure the drives in place from both sides, as we couldn’t find a mounting bracket. We’re not too concerned about the drives only being screwed in on one side, though, because SSDs are light, and won’t move under their own weight.

"When it comes to coding, there aren't many specialist requirements above and beyond what you would want from a modern machine."