Asus Prime Z490-P

[cyberlizard]

Happy days. In the end I simply gave up with my Dell 3891 motherboard and purchased (second hand) an Asus Prime Z490-P, popped in an i5-10400 and 24GB RAM, an NVME drive (256GB) and a 500GB SATA SSD.

The following works flawlessly: Graphics, Sound (both via HDMI and my USB DAC), network is fine. (The following are untested as I don't need them, bluetooth, wifi, and facetime).

OS is currently Big Sur and being as it works just fine I probably won't immediately jump to update it. Installed Office365, Brave Browser, Affinity Suite 2 (Betas), Inkscape, VMWare Fusion, Cura and Fusion360. I also run Windows 10 in the virtual environment but integrate it with MacOS so don't have to mess about setting up shared folders.

Runs silky smooth.

 

[EliteMacx86]

Happy days. In the end I simply gave up with my Dell 3891 motherboard and purchased (second hand) an Asus Prime Z490-P, popped in an i5-10400 and 24GB RAM, an NVME drive (256GB) and a 500GB SATA SSD.

The following works flawlessly: Graphics, Sound (both via HDMI and my USB DAC), network is fine. (The following are untested as I don't need them, bluetooth, wifi, and facetime).

OS is currently Big Sur and being as it works just fine I probably won't immediately jump to update it. Installed Office365, Brave Browser, Affinity Suite 2 (Betas), Inkscape, VMWare Fusion, Cura and Fusion360. I also run Windows 10 in the virtual environment but integrate it with MacOS so don't have to mess about setting up shared folders.

Runs silky smooth.

Glad to hear!

OEM machines are a bit difficult as compared to custom build PCs. What specs Dell 3891 had?

 

[cyberlizard]

It was the same processor, so:

i5-10400 (6c/12t)
24GB Ram (16+8)
iGPU - Intel 630
NVMe 256GB
SSD Samsung 840 Pro
Integrated WiFi and Bluetooth (though I didn't move those to the new build as I will only ever be using it wired).
The Dell 3891 is a great machine and can be picked up really cheap. I got mine for £200 (GBP) - as the processor sells for around £150 in the UK they are quite the bargain.

All in all, £200 for the old system, £30 for a new case and PSU and £90 for the motherboard, I don't think that's too bad at all.

 

[EliteMacx86]

It was the same processor, so:

i5-10400 (6c/12t)
24GB Ram (16+8)
iGPU - Intel 630
NVMe 256GB
SSD Samsung 840 Pro
Integrated WiFi and Bluetooth (though I didn't move those to the new build as I will only ever be using it wired).
The Dell 3891 is a great machine and can be picked up really cheap. I got mine for £200 (GBP) - as the processor sells for around £150 in the UK they are quite the bargain.

All in all, £200 for the old system, £30 for a new case and PSU and £90 for the motherboard, I don't think that's too bad at all.

That was a nice deal.

 

[cyberlizard]

that wasn't the best part. i picked it up cheap from one of those stores that sells used electronics. i bought it as it was cheap, however, as soon as I got it home, I took the side panel off to see how upgradable it was... that was disheartening, however, someone left a graphics card in it and no-one clearly thought to think. the graphics card was an nVidia Quadro P2200. that promptly got sold on ebay and so the effective price of the computer was -£50 (GBP) as I sold it for £250 for a quick sale.

 

[EliteMacx86]

that wasn't the best part. i picked it up cheap from one of those stores that sells used electronics. i bought it as it was cheap, however, as soon as I got it home, I took the side panel off to see how upgradable it was... that was disheartening, however, someone left a graphics card in it and no-one clearly thought to think. the graphics card was an nVidia Quadro P2200. that promptly got sold on ebay and so the effective price of the computer was -£50 (GBP) as I sold it for £250 for a quick sale.

Nice!