It was the most expensive component at $170. There weren't any sales on the M.2 form factor drive. However, I did use raise.com to buy a discounted newegg.com gift cards to buy the whole setup. I paid ~$265 for $300 worth in cards.

I will be well worth it. I work on computers many hours each day for years now. I have never said that drive is too fast. I have bought faster drives many times.

You do CAD stuff. That is even more demanding than what I do with mine.

I'm sure that it will. I've loved the 128gig SSD I picked up ages ago. That one cost me around $220 I believe. Before that, I went with SCSI drives and/or raided HDDs for improved HDD performance. It was always a huge bottleneck in systems. Not so much anymore I don't think though.

This is a 'next step' deal, but as I said earlier, I am considering getting a new power supply for the computer. There doesn't seem to be a great selection of power supplies for a low power system like this. PC parts picker estimates my max power consumption at ~130W. I kind of doubt it'll even get that high. I'm obviously looking for something as efficient as possible as well. Any suggestions?

Did you mention what you use your computer for?

Its a home office computer. So, lots of web apps and office apps.

Sorry for being late to the party !

If you are really going to buy a new computer system, then this is the best suggestion !

The typical desktop and laptop unit have just hit the market. We are still a few months a way from the flood ! I just read a review comparing a Ryzen to an Intel Core i7. Yes, the Intel won all the number crunching benchmarks, but the Ryzen with builtin graphics won everything else ! Watching video, web browsing, office tasks, etc. Best of all the Ryzen used significantly less power.

Rotating media is now strictly for backup ! I will not buy another computer that does not have some type of flash drive for its primary drive.

The new Intel NUC boards (made for core M processors) and Nvidia Tegra - based boards are both power sippers. Being made for compact systems, cooling fans and/or dedicated power supplies are usually lavish options. A lot of them run off of a laptop power pack and draw nearly nothing while sleeping. Neither setup is made for hardcore gaming, so I won't even go there.

With an SSD and ample DDR3 or DDR4 memory, both systems dominate when playing movies or surfing the internet. If you get a mainboard that will POST fast, these things can boot in 15 to 30 seconds from dead cold. Coming out of hibernation is like using a cell phone or tablet: maybe 5 seconds. Most of the mainboards either have headers for laptop wifi radio cards or have built-in wifi, so connecting to the outside world is no problem. If you need a hardline, they pretty much all have gigabit ethernet ports.

As far as differences between the processors, I would say they compare like this: The Core M based rigs feel more like a windows laptop: better multitasking and more raw power for complicated calculations and simulations. The Tegra based rigs feel more like a tablet or premium android phone: better image rendering, sound and ultra low power draw.

I've had all my components for a while now. I have been hesitant to jump to the new system since I do use my computer quite a bit. However, I am hoping to make the change this coming weekend.

Before doing so, I wanted to get everything else set. To have a little fun, and make this build a little different, I wanted to try a caseless build. This simply means you don't put all your components in a computer case. I decided to mount mine to the back wall of my desk's hutch. Its kind of nerdy and IMO cool looking. I used my 3d printer to make a framework for the motherboard to mount to. It then clips around the hutch's back board and has legs to hold it up.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514988233

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514988269

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514988315

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514988353

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514988365

Cool I like it. Put that 3D printer to work.