Not sure if it really counts...

Not sure if this counts as a cyberdeck...but I bought this Zenith portable from eBay hoping to restore it.

Essentially everything was broken...hence why it was so cheap. After cleaning everything up (cap juice and such) I still couldn't get anything other than the power supply to *work* (work in the sense that it outputs sane voltages).

Decided to swap out the mostly dead internals with some new gear. Internal mods are fairly minimal. All the lights work. Used a TeensyLC to convert the original keyboard to USB.

Worst case, I figure I can continue to try and get the original internals to work and put them back in later.

I HATE to destroy older stuff...but it was already broken...so...upcycling?

Anyways, specs/parts:

• Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard
• Intel i5-9400 @ 2.9 GHz CPU 6-Core/6-Thread
• Radial CPU Cooler
• 32 GB DDR4 2666 MHz
• 512 GB SSD
• USB-C Power Supply
• Nvidia 1030 GT
• 11.1" Screen

Edit: I may have forgotten to set the date after I pulled the BIOS battery after the final close...I swear I'm not a time traveler...

​

https://preview.redd.it/wwi0wgijoqb51.jpg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91bfde5cbbaec2c22fac6da9f81f4559316fb96a

https://preview.redd.it/iuuml4i6pqb51.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84f7a27d60d40682e7b5523a1be24f63c81c381f

https://preview.redd.it/yy2e1hijoqb51.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3f585d074f536dfb5b0acfed99318716eff0281

https://preview.redd.it/4ednyhijoqb51.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19d4b3402b9d4d6d582775e3f8d5384b15245498

https://preview.redd.it/40vk68kjoqb51.jpg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89d855d0a1bef1bcd4efb8d8aee0186257b4eabb

https://preview.redd.it/qmy6ahijoqb51.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e74383620bea2cbcb460fa548a0bc815e90c0110

https://preview.redd.it/kxljldijoqb51.jpg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa9c41e63a36f2d6a04bc2550563854dc97f79a5

https://preview.redd.it/o45blhijoqb51.jpg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=610856d967060b4d687f14a7d7616b72bc3b9268

https://preview.redd.it/mi5itvywrub51.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7fefb993dbfbddaee694f3ca82da7aaca7726d6

I think your potter m.2 slot only supports sata... So you'd have to get something like this

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/

That's a NVME one.

Here is a SATA one

Difference is the NVME is faster but more expensive and they run hotter.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY

Essentially your usual 2.5 inch sata SSD, just crammed onto an m.2 card using normal sata communications

Is this one ok WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G2B0B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_gcR-EbC71720R

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_i_q7XJEb246A0J4

WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G2B0B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KR1hEbDT47EHD

As for the GPU, $150 wont get you much at all. I recommend finding a GTX 1660 for around $200.

Good luck!

It is a hard drive - All the acer spin 3’s shipped with up to a 1TB HDD or 256GB SSDs, not 1TB SSDs.

It is m.2 SSD compatible though (NOT M.2 NVME) so you can order an M.2 SSD and put it in the spare m.2 slot. Then you’ll have a storage drive + boot drive.

Try this one of you decide to add one in:

WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G2B0B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tDSqFbTXXRBBH

What variant of the K501UB do you have? From what I can tell, the M2 slot in those slightly older models does not support M-key M2 SSDs (PCIe M2), and only supports B-key. Essentially, yes you need a SATA(III) M2 SSD. Silver lining is that if you still want it, you should be able to pick up the larger size SSD and it will work as long as it is SATA.

I've used this 500gb Crucial before without any issues, good cost/performance ratio, and it should be compatible with your system. Just a starting point.

Just put this ram in my cart thanks! Just looking an SSD alternative😳

Thanks. I'd use that extra money to buy another stick of RAM to take advantage of dual-channel. Make sure when installing the RAM you use the correct slots to get them in dual-channel, That info will be in your manual; it's also available online. You should see a noticeable difference in responsiveness from your PC when opening/using applications. Also smaller yet noticeable improvement in gaming.

That'll leave you with $40, so you could save up a bit more and get an m.2 drive for some extra speed and space. I'd recommend something from Western Digital, as they're cheap while remaining reliable.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sr_1_28?keywords=ssd&qid=1583851882&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A14027459011%2Cp_85%3A2470955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&s=pc&sr=1-28&th=1

I believe he was suggesting putting in an m.2 ssd onto your MB. One like this...

Western Digital 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G2B0B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_kvfXFbVKA3VA4

I would suggest one of the MSI B450 MAX motherboards, as for all the other B450 boards and Ryzen 3000 series, you would have to update the bios, and with the MAX boards it comes pre-updated. The Corsair SSD is very expensive for only 480, and you can get NVMe ones like the Crucial or WD ones for a lot cheaper. Besides that looks good!

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S

Better choice between these two?

WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD - SATA III - Read 560MB/s - Write 530MB/s

Silicon Power 512GB A80 - Read 3400MB/s - Write 2300MB/s

That WD blue in your parts list is just a SATA SSD using an M.2 connection.

The Silicon power A80 is an NVMe SSD and is way faster for the same price on Amazon. (both $70)

Just need to make sure the SSD is NVMe. M.2 SSD can be SATA, same speed as their 2.5" brother.

This is the older WD Blue M.2 SATA SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/

This is the latest WD Blue M.2 NVMe SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-SN550-500GB-NVMe-Internal/dp/B07YFF3JCN/

That's an M.2 SATA SSD, the two chunks missing indicate that it's a B+M keyed drive instead of the now more common M key.

The one you linked on Amazon would probably work, but it's safer to go with another B+M keyed drive, e.g. this one from Western Digital, just in case the machine actually has a B-keyed slot instead of an M-keyed slot.

ETA: More info on M.2 slots

That's a good thought. Any specific ones you'd recommend?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

This one ok?

Its not a 2.5" SSD though, its a SATA M.2 drive. I don't really get the difference between SATA M.2 and NVMe M.2, but here is the one I currently have. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_qQy0Fb963K3ZV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I'm still looking for a decent priced NVME SSD still. I initially bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073SBX6TY but when saw the READ/WRITE speed, I'm working on returning it.

Same situation with RAM. Bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MTDEYHU

But after doing a bit more research I found out that 3200mhz would actually perform bad for 3900x CPU and ordered 3600mhz.

And, any good recommendations for a decently priced 650W PSU within the same price range?

First pc build

CPU - Ryzen 5 AMD 2600

GPU -NVIDIA GTX 1650 super

Motherboard - B450-A PRO MAX

SSD - WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 560 MB/s

RAM - XPG Z1 DDR4 3000MHZ 16GB (2x8GB)

Power supply - Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ White certified

Oh, forgot to mention I bought an ssd for the laptop that I am currently using and never used. Stripped the screw for the m.2 sdd slot like an idiot. SInce I cannot use it on my laptop, I plan on using it for the PC

​

This the SSD I bought:

Western Digital 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-nc-drs1_0?cv_ct_cx=500gb+m.2+ssd&dchild=1&keywords=500gb+m.2+ssd&pd_rd_i=B073SBX6TY&pd_rd_r=2d7e1a4d-8fdf-4d5f-ad1e-f7c8755b579a&pd_rd_w=6AKBX&pd_rd_wg=KmgGm&pf_rd_p=84ce0865-d9ca-42e3-87ed-168be8f93162&pf_rd_r=FA97CCY455V1FJNEYGCY&psc=1&qid=1605480913&sr=1-1-88388c6d-14b8-4f70-90f6-05ac39e80cc0

I think this looks largely good. A few thoughts.

According to this PCPP list this build only needs 142 watts out of the PSU. A lot of people are going to suggest a better known reliable PSU, but most of the PSUs people would usually suggest will be overkill because your father will not be pushing the system at all. I guess he might leave it running at worst. The PSU you're looking at right now is probably fairly close in line with what you need. There might be better options, but I am by no means an expert on reliable small wattage PSUs. I do remember Seasonic used to make a few 300-450 watt units that were a good middle ground between $80+ units capable of powering a space station and the Chinese mystery meat PSUs you can buy on eBay for $15, so I know would what you want exists, but as best I can tell those particular units have largely dried up.

I think sticking to a motherboard with four RAM slots is wise as long as it doesn't carry a substantial cost. You want dual channel RAM and 8 gigs is sufficient for this build as it stands. If the system needs more RAM in the near future or your father ends up trying to use the PC for more than you're currently expecting, it's easy enough to buy two more sticks.

You could go down to a truly barebones case, though I'm not sure you'd want to. You're living in a golden era of cable management and airflow, even among budget cases. This Cooler Master would be okay to build in and have great airflow if you added a traditional SATA SSD, an HDD, a graphics card, and a radiator for the CPU. Your current build will be demand less and be even easier to assemble. Most cables, if you end up with a non-modular PSU as is likely, will be bundled with a zip tie out of sight. The only thing running from your PSU will be two cables for the motherboard and CPU. The case fan, the CPU cooler, and storage will all draw power from the motherboard. You could build this PC efficiently in an aluminum box with holes poked in it and a 120mm intake fan stapled to the side. That said, I don't think you're going to find a case that's much less expensive with as nice a port and button layout as the Q300L. It also looks nice compared to other similarly prices cases, which is great for a gift.

Your selection of storage form and capacity is perfect. M.2 drives are very easy to install. If your father ends up needing more storage, he'd be fine with external storage or with adding an HDD. Don't place a premium on NVME vs SATA in this build; your father literally will not notice the difference. Just go with whatever is cheapest, reliable, and supported by your motherboard. There is a great flow chart from an active reddit user here; the WD drive you may be referring to, found at this Amazon listing, would be a great choice, but you have plenty of options.

I think this is a nice gift and it's good you're going to be able to share this with your dad.

You don't even need that much. It depends on whether you want 500GB or 1TB, but you should migrate your windows install to an SSD and your PC will boot 20 times faster. So keep in mind you won't have the entire drive available for (what I assume you'll use it) games.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1373635-REG/wd_wds100t2b0b_wd_blue_m_2_1000.html

I recommend these guys both 500GB and 1TB, which are reasonably priced capacities that are still pretty large. It's up to you which capacity you want.

These are M2 SSDs which are incredibly easy to install, however, since your computer was a prebuilt you will most likely need to buy standoffs for it, unless you have them already.

If you don't, you can buy a little kit in Amazon to install them:

https://www.amazon.com/Michaelia-Standoff-Drives-motherboard-screwdriver/dp/B07D6G9XXL

Look up videos on how to install an m2 drive, it's very very easy and does not involve any cables, it just goes directly onto your motherboard like a memory card in a phone. You just need to screw it in.

After that you should notice a gigantic difference in performance, spinning drives in 2020 are an atrocity. They're good for media storage so you're not gonna want to throw it away or anything! But as far as games and software they're really really crappy and bottleneck EVERYTHING.

Might want to adjust your prices a bit, the 3700x and SSD's are above amazon prices right now, and the ram is basically the same. There's also been a bunch of sales on buildapcsales that you might want to wait out too on a lot of ram and NVME drives. GLWS!

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-3700X-16-Thread-Processor/dp/B07SXMZLPK/

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CMW32GX4M2C3200C16-Vengeance-PC4-25600-Desktop/dp/B07GTG2T7L/

m.2 ssd blue wd

asus prime b550m-a motherboard

seagate 1tb hdd

Hmm you have a fair point..

But objectively speaking, it really isn’t a complicated process, you’re 2 YT videos away from figuring it out.

The drive: 1) Expensive high end M.2 NVME SSD drive, (what’s probably already installed on your device.) 2) Cheaper standard M.2 SATA SSD

It’s very easy to tell the difference physically, look at their connectors, the SATA one has an extra notch on the connector. Open your laptop and confirm which one you have.

I’m not %100 sure, but your laptop may or may not have a 2.5” SSD.

The software side, and moving windows from drive to drive: This one sucks, and there’s no easy way around it, you’ll have to either: 1) Manually move all your files, documents, projects, media, etc, move it all to an external storage, install a new windows, reinstall your apps and programs, and move back your files. This is the pain in the ass way, but it is the better practice and is the recommended practice. Just so you start a fresh start, and avoid any compatibility mishaps or bugs from moving the same windows from drive to drive.

Option 2), You can install an image tool, that captures an image from your ENTIRE drive, all windows system files, settings, license, your local files, EVERYTHING. You then use that image and put it on your new drive.

Last advice, and a very recommended practice when it comes to organizing storage, especially when your main device is not a Desktop PC. Is to never keep too much storage/files on one device. Example, if you had a PC, you could connect many HDDs/SSDs to it, and distribute your files among them, and, you would usually keep your C: drive for applications, and temporary smaller files. While keeping all the important files on other drives. Reason for this is because, C: drive has the highest chance of failure, corruption, getting full, just a headache in general. The problem on a laptop on the other hand is, all you got is this one M.2 slot, or 2 with the additional 2.5” slot if you’re lucky. Besides, laptops are way more common to fail, and harder to fix to begin with, which is more and more reason NOT TO keep all your files on one laptop.

What to do then, conclusion: If you’re working with important files, old projects, work, family pictures, whatever it is, then it’s REALLY important that you follow the recommendation from above! (not keeping your files on one device). So what you should do is, instead of upgrading the laptop’s storage, or selling it and getting one with more storage, get yourself an external storage device. A NAS is very VERY convenient, safe, easy to use, simple to maintain, and is the most recommended way to maintain your storage. Depending on your needs and budget, you can get all-in-one NAS systems. From the likes of Synology (look them up on amazon), or Western Digital and their My Cloud series.

Other options would be a simple external drive, either SSD or HDD.

That blue is M2 But it is running as sata instead of PCIe. You have the wrong replacement. You need this one to keep those speeds at over 2,000 MB/s.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-SN550-500GB-NVMe-Internal/dp/B07YFF3JCN

​

you probably got this one

​

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=WD+Blue+m2&qid=1579630461&s=electronics&sr=1-1

hmmm. my memory reference is obviously a few years dated...

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0A/dp/B073SBZ8YH/

same exact price now.

You can add a bunch of drives to a modern PC, but the performance will diminish drastically as they will share bandwidth.

• M.2 is a shape - M.2 NVMe drives get thousands of megabytes per second, M.2 SATA drives get hundreds of megabytes per second.
• 2.5" is the other shape, and there are 2.5" SATA and 2.5" NVMe (known as U.2 drives).

These are both Western Digital Blue 500GB M.2 SSDs that cost $59.99 - one is SATA and gets 550 megabytes per second, one is NVMe and gets 2,400 - 6x faster:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YFF3JCN

Ryzen and the standard Intel Core CPUs are standard consumer platforms. The latest Ryzen platform is designed around 1 graphics card and 1 M.2 SSD - these will get full performance. You can add more, but all the other devices including the motherboard's own components will share the same same bandwidth. If you put 4 extra NVMe SSDs away from the main slot, these could run at under 1/4 the speed.

Intel X99 and Threadripper are enthusiast platforms, multiple graphics cards, loads of drives, higher end performance, more cores.

Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC are the professional platforms, far costlier but up to the maximum performance. Sometimes there are budget options here worth considering.

Would anyone be able to rate my proposed htpc/vr build? ASUS ROG Strix B450-I motherboard with a Ryzen 5 2600 (I might opt for another or more vanilla cooler, though.. Noctua heatsink/fan depending on the size of the case).. 2x8gb of 2400mhz ram, a vanilla as you can get NVME drive (though this would be optional because I have loads of spare HDDs already..) and finally a GTX 1050 ti

I'm not sure on which case to get, nor which power supply (which will depend on the case), and I will not be opting to use the GPU right away (I have a slightly older one that I want to test in it, but it is not a low profile card).

Any suggestions for a case?

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor

ASUS Motherboard Rog Strix B450

Corsair Vengeance 2x8gb RAM (3200MHz)

WD Blue 500gb SSD

NZXT H510 Case

ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC GPU

Thermaltake Smart 600w ATX 80 plus Power supply

Pc Parts

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-3600-12-Thread-Processor/dp/B07STGGQ18

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-Crossfire-Motherboard-Tomahawk-B450TOMAMAX/dp/B07WF6ZQST

https://www.amazon.com/G-SKILL-Ripjaws-PC4-25600-3200MHz-F4-3200C16D-16GVKB/dp/B015FXXBW0/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=gskill&qid=1598981979&sr=8-8

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-06G-P4-2068-KR-GeForce-Gaming-Backplate/dp/B083GGYNQ6

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-H510-Management-Water-Cooling-Construction/dp/B07TD9C5HS

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Gold-Full-Modular/dp/B07JFLBN3K

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-F12-iPPC-3000-PWM/dp/B00KFCRATC

I'm posting 2 build options, using parts from Amazon - Build A uses a CPU with integrated graphics which is plenty to handle MS Office and even basic video editing (take a look at Filmora9 - either system can run it and about $60 for one-time purchase), while Build B uses a CPU and a separate GPU, which can easily handle any of the tasks you throw at it and is overkill, but will last a long time and probably handle future tasks better. Everything else - all internal parts, Windows 10, copy of MS Office 2019 - is shared between builds. Common parts explanations and links to Amazon page sites below (since pcpartpicker doesn't link to Amazon anymore for some reason):

Motherboard: Good basic motherboard with extra RAM slots should you get into more technical video editing and need more RAM.

Memory: 16GB is plenty for the tasks you listed and should really be all you need even in the future, unless you plan to do serious video editing.

Storage: 1 500GB m.2 SSD for quick boots, and 1 2TB hard drive for a lot of storage.

Case: Nice case with pretty good airflow - this means the fans can spin slowly to cool everything, which means less noise. Included a pack of 5 quiet case fans that you can control through the motherboard and run very slowly for minimal noise; the case really only needs 3 of them - the 5-pack of fans costs less than buying 3 individually, so thus why it's added.

Power Supply: Decent power supply; 450w is enough for either system.

Wifi/Bluetooth Adapter: Nice unit lots of great reviews, strong wifi reception and strong reliable connection.

Software: Windows 10 Home; and a full copy of MS Office 2019 because though it's $200, I feel it's better to pay that once than the new 365 yearly subscription of $70.