PC Building Megathread - "Released" is a nebulous term...

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Gearman: Dec 6, 2011

Klyith posted:

I was a bit concerned about this too, since with the water cooler you don't have direct airflow onto the VRM like a normal heatsink does. That can be an issue with some boards. So I looked it up.

It's got a 14-phase VRM with 55 amp DrMOS power stages. It doesn't need heatsinks. That thing is so ridiculously overpowered, even your 3900X is using like 1/5th of the power it could potentially deliver.

$250 is silly for a B550 mobo, but between the thunderbolt chip and the VRM you got something for the money. Post pics when you're done, that's going to be a pretty PC.

Awesome, thank you for the insight! In my research I didn't really see anything that jumped out as being truly terrible with regards to the temps, but I figured I'd play it safe just in case. It's good to know that it's not something I really need to worry about!

And yeah, the motherboard is easily $100 more than what I should be spending, no doubt. I figure since I'll likely be using it for almost a decade, and putting it to good use doing a ton of 3D modeling and rendering, that it was worth the extra money to get something I was really happy with.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 00:23

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# ? May 20, 2024 18:49

Suburban Dad: Jan 10, 2007; Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself

Klyith posted:

So my way of answering this question is like this: you've got a 2500K right now, that is almost 10 years old. Did you never upgrade until now because you're the type who'd rather hang on and get max lifespan? Or have you just not bothered because it worked well enough until recently, and doing another build in 4-5 years isn't a big negative.

If the first, a 3700X may be worthwhile because it might eek out a few more years of acceptable life than a 3600. But otherwise, the 3600 is the price/performance king. It's always better to buy at high point of that curve and just upgrade a bit more often by saving your budget for the next PC.

Also, what PSU do you have and how old is it? If you are also looking at a 3000 series GPU it may not be adequate.

I'm leaning towards the 3600 at this point. I'm going with the motherboard that should support next gen but unlikely that I'd buy back to back CPUs given my upgrade history. :v:

Money isn't the issue (not rich but budget is flexible, haha) and I have no problem upgrading if there's a big leap in a few years or if I need it. I kept the 2500k because it still held up well and I didn't have a problem with the performance since I play old stuff that didn't tax it. PSU was swapped with a Corsair 550w gold about 3-4 years ago when I upgraded to the 1070 or close to that time frame. It has a 10 year warranty so it's fine time wise but tbd on wattage. I know it's less than recommended but other reports say it'll be fine most likely with a 3070. I can always throw in a bigger one if reviews say otherwise. :homebrew:

# ? Sep 9, 2020 00:24

MikeC: Jul 19, 2004; BITCH ASS NARC

Suburban Dad posted:

I'm leaning towards the 3600 at this point. I'm going with the motherboard that should support next gen but unlikely that I'd buy back to back CPUs given my upgrade history. Money isn't the issue (not rich but budget is flexible, haha) and I have no problem upgrading if there's a big leap in a few years or if I need it. I kept the 2500k because it still held up well and I didn't have a problem with the performance since I play old stuff that didn't tax it. PSU was swapped with a Corsair 550w gold about 3-4 years ago when I upgraded to the 1070 or close to that time frame. It has a 10 year warranty so it's fine time wise but tbd on wattage. I know it's less than recommended but other reports say it'll be fine most likely with a 3070. I can always throw in a bigger one if reviews say otherwise.

Ah, the 2500k. What a legendary CPU.

The way you are approaching this issue makes me feel like you are one of those "buy it and forget it" types. Shell out the extra dough for the 3700X. The GPU swap will be much easier than a CPU swap down the line if/when the 3600 doesn't hold up. If I am wrong and you aren't worried about getting a new CPU slotted in if the 3600 starts struggling in a couple of years time, then go ahead and grab the 3600 deal.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 00:34

FreeKillB: May 13, 2009

Suburban Dad posted:

I'm leaning towards the 3600 at this point. I'm going with the motherboard that should support next gen but unlikely that I'd buy back to back CPUs given my upgrade history. Money isn't the issue (not rich but budget is flexible, haha) and I have no problem upgrading if there's a big leap in a few years or if I need it. I kept the 2500k because it still held up well and I didn't have a problem with the performance since I play old stuff that didn't tax it. PSU was swapped with a Corsair 550w gold about 3-4 years ago when I upgraded to the 1070 or close to that time frame. It has a 10 year warranty so it's fine time wise but tbd on wattage. I know it's less than recommended but other reports say it'll be fine most likely with a 3070. I can always throw in a bigger one if reviews say otherwise.

Nvidia's recommended wattage is deliberately conservative, in part users will have some substantial variation in how much wattage the rest of the system needs and in part as a hedge against builders cutting corners in the PSU quality budget.

I would say that unless one is using either a crazy exotic cooled AIB or doing something similarly demanding, 550W should be fine for 3070 builds and 650W should be fine for 3080 builds, assuming the PSU is a high-quality gold+ rated part like yours.

In a vacuum, for a system in your range the 3600->3700x upgrade is probably not the optimal way to increase performance per incremental cost but in this particular situation (your PSU can handle a 3070 but a 3080 could easily be pushing it) I think it makes sense.

FreeKillB fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 00:50

movax: Aug 30, 2008

MikeC posted:

Ah, the 2500k. What a legendary CPU.

The way you are approaching this issue makes me feel like you are one of those "buy it and forget it" types. Shell out the extra dough for the 3700X. The GPU swap will be much easier than a CPU swap down the line if/when the 3600 doesn't hold up. If I am wrong and you aren't worried about getting a new CPU slotted in if the 3600 starts struggling in a couple of years time, then go ahead and grab the 3600 deal.

I don't regret at all springing for the 2600K over the 2500K when I built for kind of that reason; it was a lucky time to benefit from a giant uArch leap, and the consoles of the time didn't blow the door open on gaming performance until recently. All I upgraded was maxing to 32GB of RAM maybe a year or two later, and then GPUs.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 00:55

Suburban Dad: Jan 10, 2007; Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself

MikeC posted:

Ah, the 2500k. What a legendary CPU.

The way you are approaching this issue makes me feel like you are one of those "buy it and forget it" types. Shell out the extra dough for the 3700X. The GPU swap will be much easier than a CPU swap down the line if/when the 3600 doesn't hold up. If I am wrong and you aren't worried about getting a new CPU slotted in if the 3600 starts struggling in a couple of years time, then go ahead and grab the 3600 deal.

I can't help but tinker a bit. But for the 2500k's case it seemed good enough upgrading the things around it. I think that build started with a GTX 460 gpu, junk power supply, 8gb of ram and small old school hard drives. Now it's got 16gb of 2133mhz ram (highest the mobo can handle, lol), a CPU cooler with 4.3 OC, GTX 1070 GPU and SSDs with a decent power supply. So it's lasted a couple upgrade cycles at least and still seems good for most of what I play. But on the other side of the coin, I'm still using a ps/2 keyboard from my first ever build...in 2003. :shepface:

I only replaced the same era microsoft mouse when it died a couple years back. I'm more of a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" sort of type.

FreeKillB posted:

In a vacuum, for a system in your range the 3600->3700x upgrade is probably not the optimal way to increase performance per incremental cost but in this particular situation (your PSU can handle a 3070 but a 3080 could easily be pushing it) I think it makes sense.

From what I see currently the 3700x doesn't seem like a huge improvement for 1440p gaming. I guess I'm failing to understand how it makes sense in my particular case given that I am able to get a newer GPU in the coming months...? Can you expand a bit for a dense dad?

Suburban Dad fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 01:32

sean10mm: Jun 29, 2005; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

I think the case for the 3700x in gaming now is that the next gen consoles just have a slower variant of the 3700x, so you'll have a better version of the CPU that every game will be made for for the next 5 years or whatever.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 01:35

orange juche: Mar 14, 2012

Hope nobody was planning on buying 3070s or 3080s.

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/ethereum-miners-eye-nvidias-rtx-30-series-gpu-as-rtx-3080-offers-3-4x-better-performance-in-eth/

quote:

Images have surfaced on China�s Baidu forums showing crypto-miners hoarding NVIDIA�s new GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards in the dozens. Considering that the launch date is still several days away, it�s a surprise that these miners were able to get their hands on so many units...

...In the above image, you can see a mining farm using up to 8 GeForce RTX 3080 cards, possibly the iChill variant from Inno3D. As per the miners, the RTX 3080 is nearly 3-4x faster than the RTX 2080 in terms of Ethereum mining capabilities. You�re looking at 115 Mh/s, while the RTX 2080 manages just about 30-40 Mh/s.

This is a bit worrying as the Ampere GPUs are already supposed to be limited in supply for the first couple of months. Both Ethereum and Bitcoin prices have seen a revival over the past 6 months. At present, Eth is trading at $347 while Bitcoin is placed north of the 10K mark at $10,174. It�ll be really unfortunate if like the last mining boom, consumer graphics cards are cannibalized by miners.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 01:50

Neo_Crimson: Aug 15, 2011; "Is that your final dandy?"

orange juche posted:

Hope nobody was planning on buying 3070s or 3080s.

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/ethereum-miners-eye-nvidias-rtx-30-series-gpu-as-rtx-3080-offers-3-4x-better-performance-in-eth/

I loving hate Bitcoin and dipshits that want to "invest" in them so much.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:00

acksplode: May 17, 2004

Over the last few weeks I've been accumulating parts for a new build with a 3080 shaped hole inside it, and gradually becoming resigned to the idea that getting one will be a battle. Which is great, keeping myself entertained during lockdown is why I'm here in the first place.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:08

the_enduser: May 1, 2006; They say the user lives outside the net.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:12

FreeKillB: May 13, 2009

Suburban Dad posted:

I can't help but tinker a bit. But for the 2500k's case it seemed good enough upgrading the things around it. I think that build started with a GTX 460 gpu, junk power supply, 8gb of ram and small old school hard drives. Now it's got 16gb of 2133mhz ram (highest the mobo can handle, lol), a CPU cooler with 4.3 OC, GTX 1070 GPU and SSDs with a decent power supply. So it's lasted a couple upgrade cycles at least and still seems good for most of what I play. But on the other side of the coin, I'm still using a ps/2 keyboard from my first ever build...in 2003. I only replaced the same era microsoft mouse when it died a couple years back. I'm more of a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" sort of type.

From what I see currently the 3700x doesn't seem like a huge improvement for 1440p gaming. I guess I'm failing to understand how it makes sense in my particular case given that I am able to get a newer GPU in the coming months...? Can you expand a bit for a dense dad?

There's a chance that as games adapt to the next console generation that the difference between 6c/12t and 8c/16t could become an issue the way that quad cores are showing their age now. To be clear, the difference in terms of performance on today's games is minimal; we are a bit of a ways away from a situation where your 3600 could be a bottleneck. In general, trying to future-proof is not a great idea, this particular upgrade is more defensible than many but saving that $100 for the next upgrade cycle is the value choice.

The 3600->3700x upgrade is currently expensive enough that if you are fine with replacing it when it needs replacing and are not the type to hang on to things forever (I'm the type to to wear things down to the point of absurdity), then the 3600 is the more sensible choice.

e:

Neo_Crimson posted:

I loving hate Bitcoin and dipshits that want to "invest" in them so much.

I am unhappy that I know enough about crypto that my immediate reaction to your post was an urge to note that it's almost certainly not Bitcoin itself, which is overwhelmingly mined on ASICs at this point, but is rather probably Ethereum or altcoins that have ASIC-resistant algorithms specifically to ensure that GPUs are viable for mining.

FreeKillB fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:13

Freakazoid_: Jul 5, 2013; Buglord

Mu Zeta posted:

Have you considered the Thermaltake Versa H18? I wish there were more premium matx cases that were actually compact but also didn't cost as much as the Sliger.

Kingnothing posted:

I love my fractal define mini c enough that I�m upgrading to basically the same case in a larger form factor in the define 7.

Fractal has a ton of stuff in small sizes (including fantastic cube cases) that look really sleek and offer really nice side panels.

Vir posted:

The main thing lacking from the Define Mini C is that there's no version with USB C on the top/front panel. Otherwise it's a nice case. The Meshify Mini C is nearly identical except it has more air intake in the front (whole mesh panel and less sound dampening panels). You're not saving much space or money by going for the Mini over the full ATX version though - just a few inches of height and you lose some space under the motherboard.

https://socialcompare.com/en/tools/compare-sizes/define-mini-c-vs-define-c-5ksg03j0

Thanks for the suggestions. It appears all these products have dimensions listed larger on their amazon and newegg pages, compared to their product page. What's up with that?

I'm also looking at the Focus G Mini and the Montech Flyer. The former has 5.25 bays which are still handy to me but not necessary, and the latter looks nice but I suspect air flow isn't so good. Anyone have opinions on those?

(also gently caress crypto)

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:33

FreeKillB: May 13, 2009

Freakazoid_ posted:

Thanks for the suggestions. It appears all these products have dimensions listed larger on their amazon and newegg pages, compared to their product page. What's up with that?

I took a look at the Fractal Define Mini C pages on the Fractal website and on newegg - it seems that the newegg dimensions line up with the 'Case dimensions - with feet/protrusions/screws' for the case as opposed to the vanilla 'Case Dimensions' .

Looks like the newegg page for the Meshify C lists both with and without feet/protrusions/screws.

e: The newegg dimensions are way way higher for the h18 versa compared to the other sources I can find. (and _nothing_ lines up with the manufacturer's website) Best guess I have is shipping dimensions or miskeyed data entry?

FreeKillB fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 02:41

Suburban Dad: Jan 10, 2007; Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself

FreeKillB posted:

There's a chance that as games adapt to the next console generation that the difference between 6c/12t and 8c/16t could become an issue the way that quad cores are showing their age now. To be clear, the difference in terms of performance on today's games is minimal; we are a bit of a ways away from a situation where your 3600 could be a bottleneck. In general, trying to future-proof is not a great idea, this particular upgrade is more defensible than many but saving that $100 for the next upgrade cycle is the value choice.

The 3600->3700x upgrade is currently expensive enough that if you are fine with replacing it when it needs replacing and are not the type to hang on to things forever (I'm the type to to wear things down to the point of absurdity), then the 3600 is the more sensible choice.

Going with the 3700x. It's not a huge price difference over the time period I'll have it and it may extend the life a bit so we'll see. Thanks dudes!

# ? Sep 9, 2020 03:23

dorkasaurus_rex: Jun 10, 2005; gawrsh do you think any women will be there

CPU: Intel Core i9-7960X 2.8 GHz 16-Core OEM/Tray Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-Deluxe II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING OC WHITE Video Card
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Primo ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Titanium 1000 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

This right here is my rig. It's served me well with minor upgrades for a few years now, but as I'm doing more and more video work, I'm realizing I need to upgrade something to cut down on export times and increase my ability to do taxing multi-tasking well. I was doing a lot of heavy work the other day and hit both 100% use on my CPU and GPU, so clearly something needs to be upgraded.

My question is this: What should I upgrade to get the most bang for my buck while also having to mess with my PC the least? I'm not sure if it's worthwhile to upgrade my motherboard at this point in time, or to switch over to Ryzen, and I'm looking at the RTX 30 series and Big Navi with keen interest, but not sure if that would be a misallocation of money for me right now.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 04:10

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Alright, (semi)final system build is complete:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700x
CPU Cooler: Noctua U14S
Motherboard: MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 32GB 3600mhz CL 16 memory
Video Card: Asus ROG Strix GTX 1070
Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D - Airflow Edition
Power Supply: Corsair HX850
Storage: WD SN750 1TB, Seagate Firecuda 510 1 TB

All the remains is to get the 3080 and replace my case fans with Noctua redux fans I have on order and the system is finished.

A couple observations. The Tomahawk is indeed a nice mobo but if you want to run 2 M.2 Drives the secondary M2 slot is small enough that a Firecuda 510 will bend ever so slightly when you install the screw into the standoff. Drive works fine, kinda makes me nervous it'll break a trace somewhere and snap.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen I have no idea why MSI thought it'd be clever to have their LOL "FROZR" heat sink covers be 2 different sizes and unable to properly accommodate a 2280, this is a major design oversight. I'm basically using the heatsink standoff to run the drive. Why couldn't they have 2 similar sized M2 slots the way gigabyte does?

Does anyone have any suggestions on special settings I need to apply in the bios to maximize my CPU performance?

So far XMP Is enabled and I set the DDR4 speed to 3600mhz and Fclock to 1800 which I think is the sweet spot. Everything is ticking along nicely.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 05:31

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

dorkasaurus_rex posted:

This right here is my rig. It's served me well with minor upgrades for a few years now, but as I'm doing more and more video work, I'm realizing I need to upgrade something to cut down on export times and increase my ability to do taxing multi-tasking well. I was doing a lot of heavy work the other day and hit both 100% use on my CPU and GPU, so clearly something needs to be upgraded.

From what you've got there isn't much of an upgrade worth changing things out besides Threadripper. 32 cores for $2k, 64 cores for 3 and a half large. Tech youtubers seem to like them a lot, and those guys have to churn out video for the content mill.

I don't know much about high end video, but is that something where a 2nd video card could actually be useful? One being used for video export, one handling the thing you're working on?

Kraftwerk posted:

A couple observations. The Tomahawk is indeed a nice mobo but if you want to run 2 M.2 Drives the secondary M2 slot is small enough that a Firecuda 510 will bend ever so slightly when you install the screw into the standoff. Drive works fine, kinda makes me nervous it'll break a trace somewhere and snap.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen I have no idea why MSI thought it'd be clever to have their LOL "FROZR" heat sink covers be 2 different sizes and unable to properly accommodate a 2280, this is a major design oversight. I'm basically using the heatsink standoff to run the drive. Why couldn't they have 2 similar sized M2 slots the way gigabyte does?

80mm is 80mm, I don't see how they could have hosed that up. Are you sure you got the drive fully socketed in?

Also the heatsink can be left off it it sucks, NVMe drives really don't need them.

Performance is good out of the box once you do XMP, if you wanna OC it there's a thread for that.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 06:00

KS: Jun 10, 2003; Outrageous Lumpwad

Kraftwerk posted:

A couple observations. The Tomahawk is indeed a nice mobo but if you want to run 2 M.2 Drives the secondary M2 slot is small enough that a Firecuda 510 will bend ever so slightly when you install the screw into the standoff.

Seconding something is wrong here. Is it one of those notched screws like laptops where the M.2 drive fits into the indent in the screw, rather than under it?

It should not bend.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 07:04

uXs: May 3, 2005; Mark it zero!

Klyith posted:

When you open the thing up again, wiggle & push on the power cables that connect to the motherboard, and make sure the ram is fully seated with both latches clicked in. You can give a pretty firm push on these things, PC boards are not made of glass.*

The PC being physically fragile in this way where plugging in a fan makes it not work and unplugging some other things makes it work says to me that you have something barely connected somewhere and incidental movement is making it work or fail.

_{^{*actually they are, glass fiber & epoxy. strong glass.}}

To test your RAM running in XMP settings, put memtest on a USB stick and run it for 1-2 hours. If that fails you have a bad ram stick. If it passes, it's probably flightsim.

I was able to FS for hours yesterday with XMP enabled, so it really seems like the 1st motherboard was at fault.

The 2nd motherboard hasn't been without issues either - not being able to boot at all for a while - but it's a lot better. I'm kinda afraid to touch it now, but I still want to replace a case fan with a Noctua so I'll have to fiddle with it then. When that happens I'll triple check all connections too. Annoying because the PSU is rather hard to access but ok.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 10:53

mizbachevenim: Jul 13, 2002; If you fake the funk, your nose will grow

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/frMsyk

For 7 year old girl who has to virtual school and all that. We've got consoles for most of her gaming, but she'll play bendy and the ink poo poo or hello neighbor periodically.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 11:32

tater_salad: Sep 15, 2007

Just a warning / note for those in this thread who are looking at building or upgrading a PC.
Just get all your fans and a cooler at the same time if your budget allows for an extra hundred bucks...

The long story
I kind of did a Modular upgrade.
I had an old Intel PC that I'll still be retaining for work from home, it was my former gaming PC but was getting long in t he tooth (so far MSFS has cost me $~400 to get for free with gamepass). First it was mobo and CPU.. I cobbled all the mismatched degrees of fans (case fan from Corsair, 1 antec, 3 of some brand from amazon). and had the stock cooler.
I found ballistix ram at a price I was willing to pay so added that and a cooler and a 5 pack of matching pwm case fans (with 12v RGB support which is rare) to my amazon cart and ordered after the main upgrade happens.

Took me nearly the same amount of time to get the cooler / ram and fans into the case as it did to build the PC.. (maybe 20 mins shorter since I didn't need to drop the CPU in and connect some of the case plugs again).

next up.. redoing cable management at some point.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 14:40

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

KS posted:

Seconding something is wrong here. Is it one of those notched screws like laptops where the M.2 drive fits into the indent in the screw, rather than under it?

It should not bend.

No, it's not. But it now that I think about it, the heatsink standoff and the M2 drive standoff probably work differently despite looking the same.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 15:05

tater_salad: Sep 15, 2007

Here's a question that I realllly haven't been able to find an answer on and it's frustrating.

R5 3600
Asus strix b450f gaming
GPU EVGA Nvidia 1070

which slot shoudl I be using for my GPU. I currently have it in the second for clearance and heat dissipation reasons (maybe this doesn't matter much) I've looked at the manual and it's bout as clear as mud. While I know that I get better speeds being closer to the CPU am I really killing my speeds / capabilities here in the second slot (PCIE16x_2)

Manual link here
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...5148.1552069319

# ? Sep 9, 2020 15:33

Fantastic Foreskin: Jan 6, 2013; A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

tater_salad posted:

Here's a question that I realllly haven't been able to find an answer on and it's frustrating.

R5 3600
Asus strix b450f gaming
GPU EVGA Nvidia 1070

which slot shoudl I be using for my GPU. I currently have it in the second for clearance and heat dissipation reasons (maybe this doesn't matter much) I've looked at the manual and it's bout as clear as mud. While I know that I get better speeds being closer to the CPU am I really killing my speeds / capabilities here in the second slot (PCIE16x_2)

Manual link here
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...5148.1552069319

Run GPU-Z and it will tell you in the Bus Interface field what speed it's running at.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 15:47

sean10mm: Jun 29, 2005; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Some Goon posted:

Run GPU-Z and it will tell you in the Bus Interface field what speed it's running at.

My guess is PCIE_X16_2 only runs at x4 speed based on the manual, but the way the manual describes it isn't very clear.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 15:54

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

tater_salad posted:

which slot shoudl I be using for my GPU. I currently have it in the second for clearance and heat dissipation reasons (maybe this doesn't matter much) I've looked at the manual and it's bout as clear as mud. While I know that I get better speeds being closer to the CPU am I really killing my speeds / capabilities here in the second slot (PCIE16x_2)

Manual link here
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...5148.1552069319

Top slot for GPU, always. The heat issue is secondary to being in the high-bandwidth slot.

The second slot is only x4, despite being a full-length x16 slot. I'm not positive if that's enough bandwidth loss to have performance impact -- conventional wisdom is that x8 at least is fine -- but I wouldn't at all surprised if it did.

The relevant bit of the manual is the charts on page 1-8, but I totally get how you'd have a bit of difficulty interpreting those. The first line tells you that if you have 1 GPU (in slot 1) and 1 NVMe drive (in m.2 1), the GPU gets x16 and the SSD gets x4. The second line says that when you plug in anything in PCIe slot 2 *or* a NVMe drive in m.2 #2, it splits the x16 lanes into the x8/x4/x4.

(B450 just doesn't have enough PCIe lanes to do fully loaded ATX mobos in the slightest. How they solve this is up to each brand & model, in your case Asus has a bridge chip that can split PCIe lanes. That's not the worst method -- a lot of others just fake it with x4 or even x16 slots that really only have x1. B550 improves the situation a little bit but you still have a lot of cheating on full ATX boards. This is why we've started recommending MATX B550s now.)

mizbachevenim posted:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/frMsyk

For 7 year old girl who has to virtual school and all that. We've got consoles for most of her gaming, but she'll play bendy and the ink poo poo or hello neighbor periodically.

thumbs up

# ? Sep 9, 2020 15:58

Fantastic Foreskin: Jan 6, 2013; A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

sean10mm posted:

My guess is PCIE_X16_2 only runs at x4 speed based on the manual, but the way the manual describes it isn't very clear.

Yeah mine too, it looks like slot 2 only has traces for x4, but it's a simple enough way to know for sure.

Also the lack of built-in utilities on windows will never not be annoying.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 16:02

tater_salad: Sep 15, 2007

alright I guess I'll open her her up and move slots.. will probably do some cable management when doing that.

it'll be on my long list since looking at how a 1080ti performs on an 8x (GPUZ says 8x in slot 2) there's a 1% difference in speed at 1440 in terms of FPS so not suuuper worried about it.

tater_salad fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 16:26

Pilfered Pallbearers: Aug 2, 2007

uXs posted:

I was able to FS for hours yesterday with XMP enabled, so it really seems like the 1st motherboard was at fault.

The 2nd motherboard hasn't been without issues either - not being able to boot at all for a while - but it's a lot better. I'm kinda afraid to touch it now, but I still want to replace a case fan with a Noctua so I'll have to fiddle with it then. When that happens I'll triple check all connections too. Annoying because the PSU is rather hard to access but ok.

I understand why you don�t want to gently caress with it, it�s been a nightmare.

If you�re still in the return window for most of your stuff I�d gently caress with it and figure it out now. It�s infinitely easier to deal with retail returns than RMAs.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:22

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

What should be the ideal operating temperature range of a 3700X? I need to verify that I applied my thermal paste correctly. When I was trying to install my U-14S it moved around a lot and didn't maintain contact with the CPU as I struggled with the spring loaded screws. I'm thinking maybe the thermal paste was ruined and I need to re-apply.

The CPU idles at around 38 degrees and the temperatures routinely spike up to 48 for an average of about 50 degrees.
Maximum CPU temperature while playing Doom Eternal is 67.8 degrees. Am I overheating or is this an acceptable range?

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:33

Mu Zeta: Oct 17, 2002; Me crush ass to dust

That is a very good range.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:37

Xachariah: Jul 26, 2004

So before I pull the trigger I was just looking into AM4 motherboards and despite a lot of research I still have no concrete idea of what I'm looking for. I just see ELITE BOMB MPG PRIME STRIX CAPSLOCK
PRO PLUS. It just makes me go what the gently caress... Am I buying a PC motherboard or an pre-workout energy drink for frat boys?

I gather I want at least a B550 or an X570 ATX. Apart from that, how the gently caress do you choose between them?

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:49

movax: Aug 30, 2008

Xachariah posted:

So before I pull the trigger I was just looking into AM4 motherboards and despite a lot of research I still have no concrete idea of what I'm looking for. I just see ELITE BOMB MPG PRIME STRIX CAPSLOCK
PRO PLUS. It just makes me go what the gently caress... Am I buying a PC motherboard or an pre-workout energy drink for frat boys?

I gather I want at least a B550 or an X570 ATX. Apart from that, how the gently caress do you choose between them?

I like AnandTech's breakdowns when they review families of motherboards, and guide you based on key differentiators. Here are a few things that would cause you to choose between otherwise identical looking mobos, assuming all are the same form factor:

* More on-board peripherals (Wi-Fi, 2.5 Gb / 10 Gb NICs)
* More x1 or x16 Slots / different configurations of PCIe slots
* Power delivery solution (fuckloads of phases vs. reference designs)
* Cosmetic (poo poo loads of LEDs?!?!)

Personally, I always build with ASUS and they at least have a little bit of rhyme and reason to what they segment too. PRIME is what I would get today as it's the most "reasonable" workstation type product without being their actual WS product, doesn't have too many gamer LEDs, still a robust power solution, and not a lot of extra fills (I do not want a Wifi card in my desktop).

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:53

Pilfered Pallbearers: Aug 2, 2007

Xachariah posted:

So before I pull the trigger I was just looking into AM4 motherboards and despite a lot of research I still have no concrete idea of what I'm looking for. I just see ELITE BOMB MPG PRIME STRIX CAPSLOCK
PRO PLUS. It just makes me go what the gently caress... Am I buying a PC motherboard or an pre-workout energy drink for frat boys?

I gather I want at least a B550 or an X570 ATX. Apart from that, how the gently caress do you choose between them?

First you need to decide what features are must have and which are nice to have. WiFi? Says ports, usb header options, etc.

PcPartPicker can narrow down options you care about pretty easy, then they�ll spit you a list. It�s a good place to start.

I�ll also second that I like Asus boards a lot, despite being frat boy name approved.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:57

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Kraftwerk posted:

What should be the ideal operating temperature range of a 3700X? I need to verify that I applied my thermal paste correctly. When I was trying to install my U-14S it moved around a lot and didn't maintain contact with the CPU as I struggled with the spring loaded screws. I'm thinking maybe the thermal paste was ruined and I need to re-apply.

The CPU idles at around 38 degrees and the temperatures routinely spike up to 48 for an average of about 50 degrees.
Maximum CPU temperature while playing Doom Eternal is 67.8 degrees. Am I overheating or is this an acceptable range?

It's not really possible for thermal paste to be wrecked from the cooler sliding around. The idea is for the paste to be as thin as possible while having good contact everywhere, so smearing it around during install is fine (as long as you applied an adequate amount to start with).

Those temps are warmer than most review comparisons for the U14S, but reviews are generally on a testbench so ambient is low. Also without knowing the fan RPM it's impossible to judge. The default fan curves on many mobos are designed for the stock OEM coolers' high-RPM fans, while the A15 on the Noctua maxes out at just 1200. People having higher than expected temps with their U14S has come up a few times ITT and I'm betting their fans are going at like 600 rpm because they're on the mobo stock curve.

Anyways 68C is perfectly comfortable for the CPU, lowering the temps might get you a fraction more boost time but nothing more.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 17:58

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Klyith posted:

It's not really possible for thermal paste to be wrecked from the cooler sliding around. The idea is for the paste to be as thin as possible while having good contact everywhere, so smearing it around during install is fine (as long as you applied an adequate amount to start with).

Those temps are warmer than most review comparisons for the U14S, but reviews are generally on a testbench so ambient is low. Also without knowing the fan RPM it's impossible to judge. The default fan curves on many mobos are designed for the stock OEM coolers' high-RPM fans, while the A15 on the Noctua maxes out at just 1200. People having higher than expected temps with their U14S has come up a few times ITT and I'm betting their fans are going at like 600 rpm because they're on the mobo stock curve.

Anyways 68C is perfectly comfortable for the CPU, lowering the temps might get you a fraction more boost time but nothing more.

CPU Fan averages around 750RPM at idle with CPU Temps averaging 38-39. I just realized one of the reasons why this is happening is that I'm using HWInfo and apparently the CPU thinks that this is "work" and it spins up the cores which leads to these heat spikes.

Do you have any fan curve suggestions?

# ? Sep 9, 2020 18:13

sean10mm: Jun 29, 2005; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Xachariah posted:

So before I pull the trigger I was just looking into AM4 motherboards and despite a lot of research I still have no concrete idea of what I'm looking for. I just see ELITE BOMB MPG PRIME STRIX CAPSLOCK
PRO PLUS. It just makes me go what the gently caress... Am I buying a PC motherboard or an pre-workout energy drink for frat boys?

I gather I want at least a B550 or an X570 ATX. Apart from that, how the gently caress do you choose between them?

1) What's your budget?
2) What size does it have to be? ATX, mATX, mITX, etc.
3) Do you need a certain number/type of ports or expansion slots? Common example: more cases have USB-C ports now, but not every mobo has a header to connect them to.
4) Are you going to seriously try to overclock this thing?
5) Do you need built in wifi or bluetooth?
6) Are you plugging a shitload of things into it at once, or is it just going to be 1 video card + 1 SSD?
7) Is there random poo poo you want like BIOS flashback, 2.5g LAN, dual LAN, newer/fancier onboard audio, RGB bling, etc.?

That helps narrow it down a lot.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 18:28

Pilfered Pallbearers: Aug 2, 2007

sean10mm posted:

1) What's your budget?
2) What size does it have to be? ATX, mATX, mITX, etc.
3) Do you need a certain number/type of ports or expansion slots? Common example: more cases have USB-C ports now, but not every mobo has a header to connect them to.
4) Are you going to seriously try to overclock this thing?
5) Do you need built in wifi or bluetooth?
6) Are you plugging a shitload of things into it at once, or is it just going to be 1 video card + 1 SSD?
7) Is there random poo poo you want like BIOS flashback, 2.5g LAN, dual LAN, newer/fancier onboard audio, RGB bling, etc.?

That helps narrow it down a lot.

I will say, bios flashback and having error code printing on a board are something I don�t think I could ever go without again.

That poo poo is just so helpful. Even if you only use it once, you�ll regret it if you don�t have it the one time.

# ? Sep 9, 2020 18:35

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# ? May 20, 2024 18:49

Xachariah: Jul 26, 2004

Edit: ^^^ Thanks as well! I think the below has a BIOS flashback thing and has enough headers and connectivity options to have me covered too.

movax posted:

I like AnandTech's breakdowns when they review families of motherboards, and guide you based on key differentiators. Here are a few things that would cause you to choose between otherwise identical looking mobos, assuming all are the same form factor:

* More on-board peripherals (Wi-Fi, 2.5 Gb / 10 Gb NICs)
* More x1 or x16 Slots / different configurations of PCIe slots
* Power delivery solution (fuckloads of phases vs. reference designs)
* Cosmetic (poo poo loads of LEDs?!?!)

Personally, I always build with ASUS and they at least have a little bit of rhyme and reason to what they segment too. PRIME is what I would get today as it's the most "reasonable" workstation type product without being their actual WS product, doesn't have too many gamer LEDs, still a robust power solution, and not a lot of extra fills (I do not want a Wifi card in my desktop).

Kingnothing posted:

First you need to decide what features are must have and which are nice to have. WiFi? Says ports, usb header options, etc.

PcPartPicker can narrow down options you care about pretty easy, then they’ll spit you a list. It’s a good place to start.

I’ll also second that I like Asus boards a lot, despite being frat boy name approved.

Thanks, that is pretty helpful, I was actually kind of leaning towards ASUS in general. It's what I had in my last couple of builds so I have some familiarity with their BIOS setup and stuff like their Audio Manager utility.

Based on that I went to the ASUS detailed comparison of the specs of their B550 motherboards. Looking at the more detailed breakdown of the differences it would seem that I would probably prefer a TUF GAMING or ROG STRIX (these names, seriously...). I'm deaf and have a number of different devices that all connect to my PC so that it's in turn re-broadcast to my hearing aid/cochlear implant, so the whole built in sound card type Sonic Studio mixer thing on the ROG STRIX line is intriguing. Especially stuff like the voice clarity feature.

I think I may go for the Asus ROG STRIX B550-F based on that particular feature. If it's poo poo I'll still have Voicemeeter stuff anyway.

Xachariah fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 9, 2020

# ? Sep 9, 2020 18:37

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > PC Building Megathread - "Released" is a nebulous term...

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