This hardware compatible?

Hi folks, nice to be here.
I haven't built a new pc for a couple of years so I'm a bit out of touch.
Could some kind soul check my proposed list below for compatibility?
Thanks

Intel Core i5 10400F 10th Gen Comet Lake 6 Core Processor
Gigabyte H510M S2H V2 m-ATX Motherboard
Crucial 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM
Kingston A400 480GB SSD
Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Desktop Hard Drive 3.5" SATA III 6GB's 7200RPM 64MB Cache
GT 710 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card
Asus DRW-24D5MT 24x Internal DVD Writer
Aero Cool Mecha ARGB Mid Tower Gaming Case
MSI MAG A550BN UK PSU

I'm not very kind, but...

A quick look indicates that the Aerocool Mecha ARGB Mid Tower Gaming Case has no place for an optical drive. (Not unusual for newer cases.) Is that correct? One alternative would be an external drive, but that's a bit of a nuisance.

The GT 710 is an old (2016), very weak graphics card. I think you might do better getting an I5-10400 (without the F suffix) and using its integrated graphics. Looking at Newegg,, the I5-10400 costs about $30 more than the I5-10400F. You may save a little money by buying the 10400 without the GT 710.

For the 16GB of RAM, do you intend to use one 16GB DIMM, or two 8GB ones? The latter would give you the better performance ("dual channel"), but the microATX board only has two DIMM slots, so you'd need to replace them if you ever wished to upgrade the RAM.

What I see is that the Intel i5 CPU will be fine, good as long as it 8th Generation or higher, the one you list is 10th Generation.

I'm also in favor of the 16GB Crucial RAM, got some ordered for a slightly older computer.

The GT710 Video card looks similar to what I have in my ASUS Desktop from about 5 or 6 years ago, good performer, my ASUS doesn't have onboard video support but it was from ASUS Business line and a solid performing machine.

The specs for the Gigabyte motherboard itself show support for 3 displays but I couldn't tell more than a DVI port.

I've always favored Gigabyte with AMD CPUs but have found lately gathering parts for a new machine to be a bit more costly than one off the shelf.

You should be okay running Windows 11. But might I ask, why the HDD? IMHO, you should get a SSD and let that 10 Gen i5 do it's thing (run really fast).

Berton said:

I'm also in favor of the 16GB Crucial RAM, got some ordered for a slightly older computer.

Click to expand...

Good luck on getting something directly from Crucial. I tried ordering some RAM from them about two months ago. They jerked me around for about a month before they finally canceled the order, because they didn't have it in stock and had no idea when they would get more. They could have listed it on their web site as "out of stock". I then found the same memory on Amazon and had it in three days. Of course, it was memory from Crucial, but at least they listed it "in-stock".

In the end, the memory worked fine.

Thanks chaps, your input is appreciated.
I missed the fact that there was no space for an optical drive so a different case is needed.
They all seem to have flashing LED lights as well...I need a more conservative look.
I'm putting in an SSD and a Large HD as there will be a load of video files transferred over.
Cheers!

I was given a computer with a blue light inside on the case fan, it can be unplugged without harm but that may be hard to distinguish from the description of the case.

I know I've asked this but just to make sure before I order.
The motherboard, processor and memory are all compatible, correct?
Thanks

The socket on the motherboard for the CPU is specific as to whether an Intel or AMD CPU and which model can be used, should be in the specs. which should also specify the type of memory, DDR-3/PC3, DDR-4/PC4 or the newer DDR-5. [Sidenote, just saw on Crucial they no longer list DDR and DDR-2 modules.]

History: the motherboard for 80386, 80486 and early Athlon/Pentium could interchange the CPUs as they used the same socket but there were a whole lot of jumpers that had to be set for proper operation, quite easy to burn up parts if things not done right the first time.

spottydog10 said:

I know I've asked this but just to make sure before I order.
The motherboard, processor and memory are all compatible, correct?
Thanks

Click to expand...

CPU Compatibility List

The I5-10400F is on the list. (But get the I5-10400 instead, and lose the GT710.)

Not sure exactly what RAM you've chosen, but: Crucial upgrades

If I was in a critical mood, I'd also suggest not getting a microATX motherboard. They are a bit cheaper than a regular ATX board, but you get less. (Fewer DIMM slots, in particular.) Maybe a nice B560 or even a Z590 board.

Why not go straight to 12th gen ?

i3-12100 outperforms the i5-10400

SIW2 said:

Why not go straight to 12th gen ?

i3-12100 outperforms the i5-10400

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i3-12100 vs i5-10400

Intel Core i3-12100 vs Intel Core i5-10400 @ 2.90GHz [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Click to expand...

Interesting idea. I see that it's possible to buy 600 series motherboards (for 12th gen CPUs) that use DDR4 for about the same price as 500 series ones. There are B660 boards for less than $100US.

A 6 core I5-12400 (not 12400F) costs $37 more than an I5-10400 (not 10400F). However, that may be too much for the OP.

However, if integrated graphics are important (don't get a GT 710 graphics card!), maybe an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with a B550 motherboard would be the best choice. The 5600G won't have quite the CPU performance of a 6 core Gen12, but I believe its iGPU would be much better than the Intel's.

The i3-12100 and a 600 series ddr4 board, no need for the GT 710 graphics card.

Crucial 16GB ( 2x8gb) 3200MHz DDR4 RAM ( I am using it now )

Any reasonable sata ssd , or an nvme disk instead ( they arent much different in cost from a sata ssd).

For extra storage on a budget a mechanical disk as originally suggested. Either the Seagate CMR 1tb , which the op has already mentioned, or the WD CMR 1tb blue.

That is better than an i5-10400 system and probably around the same cost.

SIW2 said:

Why not go straight to 12th gen ?

i3-12100 outperforms the i5-10400

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i3-12100 vs i5-10400

Intel Core i3-12100 vs Intel Core i5-10400 @ 2.90GHz [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Click to expand...

Honestly please dont use Cpu Benchmarks website as a source of info, Its literally one of the worst for it. Theyre speed rankings and all that crap tend to usually be wrong.

None the less, I'd go for the latest and best you can afford, Also Micro Atx mobos have no place in normal cases, It kills me inside seeing a case with a teeny weeny mobo, Makes it look even smaller than it is, Especially for the money, just isn't worth it man.

@SpottyDog, have a look within your budget

So, the built-in video on the CPU is better than a separate graphics card?
I haven't built for a couple of years, but conventional wisdom used to be that on board graphics use up system memory or has that all changed now with these new gen CPU's?
Thanks.

spottydog10 said:

So, the built-in video on the CPU is better than a separate graphics card?

Click to expand...

No, a dedicated graphics card is far superior to on-board video.

spottydog10 said:

So, the built-in video on the CPU is better than a separate graphics card?
I haven't built for a couple of years, but conventional wisdom used to be that on board graphics use up system memory or has that all changed now with these new gen CPU's?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Better or Worse can be quite subjective, mostly depends upon what one needs for productive work or simply wants for other types of activity such as gaming. As to what memory is used might check dxdiag and get a better idea about it.

spottydog10 said:

So, the built-in video on the CPU is better than a separate graphics card?
I haven't built for a couple of years, but conventional wisdom used to be that on board graphics use up system memory or has that all changed now with these new gen CPU's?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

It depends.

A good discrete graphics card is usually superior to integrated graphics.

An old GT 710 is not a good discrete graphics card, by current standards. It appears to have worse performance than the Intel® UHD Graphics 630 in the I5-10400. That's a 10th gen CPU. The 11th and 12th gen CPUs (both with Intel® UHD Graphics 730, at least for the I5-1X400) may be better yet.

Integrated GPUs use system RAM. However, a GT 710 comes with 1 or 2GB of VRAM. If the iGPU consumed that little, it wouldn't be much of a loss with 16GB of system RAM.

The latest AMD APUs (accelerated processor units) are supposed to have the best iGPUs, by far.