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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 20, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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lol

I really appreciate your taking the time to write out the detailed steps, but I have to ask, you do realize what you wrote out does not mesh with "isn't that complex", right? I'm stereotyping here, but maybe forward the list to someone who is not your dad and isn't a DIY tinkerer, and ask them if they think it's a stroll or a massive undertaking. Just a few examples:

pick the CPU you like

I mean I would just go by userbenchmarks but as another poster nearby commented, you can't necessarily even trust that because of its anti-AMD bias, and the "effective speed" metric isn't as straightforward as it sounds like. Now I have to go down another rabbit hole to understand what's best.

find out the socket

I have no idea how many types of sockets there are and the pros and cons of each.

you might have to order a new mounting bracket for it

There's another hour at least of research to understand what's going on

disassemble your PC

assemble you new PC

This reminds me of the draw-the-rest-of-the-owl meme.

Honestly you see willing to make some non-optimal choices and maybe give up some money or porformance for ease. if you just buy a new motherboard and cpu bundled you can just follow the lego like instructions that come with the motherboard. You will probably spend some two digit number of dollars more and have slightly worse performance but it's probably the middle ground you're looking for.

I did expect this reaction, but it's honestly not that bad. Building a shed or changing a tire is harder, because you actually require some manual dexterity to turn your knowledge into practical results. Learning how to upgrade a PC takes a few evenings of scrolling and the parts actually slot together with minimal effort.

For example, if you search for 13900K on Wikipedia, you get to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_Lake, where it says in plain text it uses socket LGA1700. Then you click through to the page about the socket itself and see the list of chipsets that work with Raptor Lake, of which there's just one, the most expensive Z790.