The plan was to save for a Late '20/Early '21 buy.

Reality... The parts arrived this past Tuesday and I'm currently typing from said working system. = )

As a techie, I researched the hell out of the parts I got. I then scrapped most of it and just focused on parts that worked together from brands I trusted in the price range I was willing to pay. I'd already bought a decent graphics cards a few years back (not that I run heavy games on my rig anyway) and replaced my power supply with one that could handle new stuff when the time came. That said... here's the breakdown.

- One (1) AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core, 16-thread processor with stock cooler 'cause I don't overclock my daily drivers like that.

- One (1) ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus with WiFi motherboard. Why X570? 'Cause I figured it'd be a safer bet that the tech would be upgradable some 7 to 10 years out. And the built in WiFi opened a slot for other cards.

- One (1) pack of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 memory at 16gigs. It's a pack with two sticks of 8gigs, it's black without any RGB and is more than enough for what I do at the sweet spot Ryzen likes for memory frequency. Plus I have two slots left if I really need more in the future.

- Two (2) new hard drives. The ones I had are getting long in the tooth and I wanted to replace them earlier but... well, funds.

That's the basics. It's not a bleeding edge 36-core Threadripper with more glowing RGB than sense (not that I could've afforded all that). It's also not a penny-pinching compromise either.

The R7 3700X is a solid chip, runs at a cool 65 TDP and has enough power to last me a while. As it stands, I could've probably gotten their lowest tier chip and still been blown away but I was looking something that - like my boots - would work well and not need to be replaced anytime soon. Buying smarter beats buying cheaper in the long run if you can swing it.

And this build wasn't cheap (about $750 in parts!) but it's going to last beyond the next few parts cycles. It's also very low on bling... but I do have video of what little RGB I ended up with running. The reality is these parts live in a steel box under my desk so none of it is exceptionally visible when it's running. I couldn't let that be the end of it and had to shoot something to relive the Pretty Shinies for when it was all buttoned up. = )

You can watch it run here. -> [RGB LinkTastic!]

Now it's back to the next strip. It's a one-shot and an bit of a buffer for the story that's to come. I'm going to look elsewhere in the world for the next story bit and let the crew chill out for a while.

'Till next time! = )