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Salt Fish posted:Looking good; did you weigh it once you had it finished? I didn't get an exact weight, but I know if all else fails I could tie a rope to it and use it as a ships anchor. And that is without some of the covers from the case that I removed (like the door inside the door on the back that won't really fit anymore with the power cables in the way).
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Dec 17, 2023 22:22
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My current PC weighs 72 pounds. 
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Dec 18, 2023 00:57
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I used to have an Antec Sonata II case which I stood on to reach high shelves more than once. RIP that case. Built like a tank, couldn't fit a modern-sized graphics card.
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Dec 18, 2023 02:02
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Kintamarama posted:So I received all my stuff way back on the 29th of November and shot off the new AM5 bracket request to Noctua the moment I had my invoice in hand. I received an email on the 6th of Dec saying they've shipped it, but they didn't provide a tracking number. Anyone else with experience in this, how long did the shipping take? As a follow up to this, my bracket arrived this morning (It’s Monday right now in Oz), so it ended up taking 12 days in total, and no tracking number was provided at any point.
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Dec 18, 2023 02:13
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Salt Fish posted:My current PC weighs 72 pounds. I recently retrofitted my FT02 into a NAS. It currently has "only" 5 hdd's in it (but with room to fit 8 more) and I have no idea how much it weighs, but it has to be well over 50 and I dread how heavy it would be when fully kitted out.
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Dec 18, 2023 05:25
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I, being a colossal idiot, ordered a Thermaltake C750 TG because it was the right price, looked reasonable in photos, and a skim indicated it had strong recommendations in terms of thermal performance, and I knew I was cool with a full tower it turns out that the “E-“ before “ATX” was a pretty important detail, and I probably should have checked the dimensions/weight this fucker weighs *37* pounds on its own and is so huge I’ve relocated a bookshelf because I don’t think it’ll work on or below my existing desk otoh the wonky layout *does* mean I think I’ll be able to keep our new kitten from getting at/chewing on more than the mouse and headphones, so that’s a win LGD fucked around with this message at 08:19 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 06:52
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Thought I'd post an update about my daughter's build - so far a success! We did the build yesterday and it went pretty smoothly, minus two things: 1. The SSD's heatsink was a major pain to remove, as it had screws with a tiny star-shaped hole in them. Fortunately my neighbour had the right tool and I was eventually able to get it off, after a half hour of messing around 2. I bought the optional USB C cable for the connector on the front of the case and spent ages looking for where to connect it on the motherboard before realising there wasn't anywhere. She still has USB C on the back of the case, though, so no biggie With the help from this thread plus a couple of videos, the rest was pretty smooth, apart from having to remove the CPU cooler to plug in the CPU power cable from the PSU. The moment of truth when I turned it on was nerve-wracking, but it came on, the fans and RGB lights worked and I got the BIOS. Sadly as our home internet is currently buggered (and it was dinner time) I had to stop there, but I've brought it into work today to finish off. I've installed and updated Windows, downloaded various drivers from the GIgabyte website (including ones I probably didn't need), although I had to go direct to Intel's website to get the wifi drivers on my laptop and transfer over with a stick... also updated the GPU drivers and set up the user accounts so she's linked into MS Family as on my own computer. Now installing her games and setting up runasrob so she can run Genshin Impact without needing my admin code every time. Should all be ready once I lug it home again. Minus our lovely home internet which should be sorted this week, and the poor wifi coverage in her room, which should be sorted this evening via a powerline adapter. I didn't take photos of the build as I was concentrating too hard on what was going on, plus I don't tend to post pics of my daughter online, but here are a couple from today. Thanks again to this awesome thread and all the help you provided. Greatly appreciated, and my daughter is very happy and excited.  
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Dec 18, 2023 17:13
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:
good for you guys, 
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Dec 18, 2023 17:25
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Thought I'd post an update about my daughter's build - so far a success! We did the build yesterday and it went pretty smoothly, minus two things: Glad to hear you've got everything up and running. Just a couple minor things: you didn't need to remove the SSD heatsink, it would have been fine using it instead of the motherboard included one, but no big deal. And you've not installed your CPU cooler fans in the optimal orientation - the fan on the far left should be in the middle instead, pushing air through the back.
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Dec 18, 2023 17:38
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Butterfly Valley posted:Glad to hear you've got everything up and running. Just a couple minor things: you didn't need to remove the SSD heatsink, it would have been fine using it instead of the motherboard included one, but no big deal. And you've not installed your CPU cooler fans in the optimal orientation - the fan on the far left should be in the middle instead, pushing air through the back. Thanks for the heads up. I tried what you suggested, but couldn't get the screw off the mobo heatsink to screw it down. On the fans - thanks for the heads up. Is this correct? The logos on both fans are facing the right hand side.  
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Dec 18, 2023 18:04
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Stick a small piece of paper close to the fan and see what direction it moves. The paper should be moving towards the exhaust fan, if you have it setup correctly.
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Dec 18, 2023 18:19
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In other words, both fans should be blowing towards the left (rear of the case)?
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Dec 18, 2023 18:24
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Thought I'd post an update about my daughter's build - so far a success! We did the build yesterday and it went pretty smoothly, minus two things: Oh hell yeah, that looks great. She's gonna love it. OneSizeFitsAll posted:Thanks for the heads up. I tried what you suggested, but couldn't get the screw off the mobo heatsink to screw it down. Yes, that's the correct orientation. Based on what others have said, the fans like to just spin at like max speed and causes a lot of noise, there is a program called FanControl that will let you set a fan curve based on the CPU temp and keep the fans much quieter.
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Dec 18, 2023 18:25
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Thanks, will look into that. Just corrected the RAM speed and then realised Genshin wasn't installed, only the launcher, so it looks like I will be leaving work a little later than planned (will take forever on our home connection given its current issues).
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Dec 18, 2023 18:37
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Thanks again to this awesome thread and all the help you provided. Greatly appreciated, and my daughter is very happy and excited. This is rad and you are rad. I'm glad it went well! It looks great and that 6700XT is going to demolish Genshin and Fortnite.But yeah, you've got the fans set up right now, and FanControl can be a real help in keeping noise from the CPU cooler down (if the Gigabyte default curves are anything like MSI or ASRock, the fans will sound like hairdryers any time the CPU heats up past 50°) and also help fully utilize the case fans (you may notice them fail to start up, depending - my board's case fan curve is very gentle, and the Pop Air's fans won't even turn on if they're set for less than 21% speed. I usually just keep them at ~50-60% all the time, since they're very quiet at that speed and it just keeps the air flowing.) You can check one of my earlier posts for the CPU fan curve I like to use in FanControl, I can confirm it works well, isn't too loud and the CPU remains well within thermal limits, especially in a more British-esque climate.
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Dec 18, 2023 23:48
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I hope this is the right thread for this. I'm thinking about dipping my toes into VR but I'm not sure it's worth it with my current video card. I have an RTX 3060 - would I get any satisfaction out of pairing that with a Quest 3?
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Dec 19, 2023 01:12
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SpaceDrake posted:
Thanks - you and Branch Nvidian and others have been ultra helpful. In the end, despite the snag with the SSD heat sink, and having to lug the computer into work today to install things and do the internety stuff (our home phone line is due to be fixed this week), it all went pretty smoothly. Can't believe I pointed the cooler fans at each other though - airflow is not something I'm unaware of. And while the cables aren't too unsightly, I reckon could do a better job next time. Overall I'm super pleased with how it turned out. Hoping it will last her a good while, depending on how much more serious she gets into gaming, and then a new GPU should stretch it a bit further before we can always build another if necessary. Of course her younger brother has also made the inevitable request to build one with him in a couple of years too! I imagine there's a reasonable chance I'll also do my own upgrade when that comes, rather than spec and order the bits and then pay a local tech shop as per last time. Anyway it's set up in her room with her new keyboard and mouse (and my monitor and speaker hand-me-downs) and the internet is stable enough in the evenings that she was able to play some Genshin on it before bed. Also she has a few friends over tomorrow for her birthday sleepover, so it's ready in time for her to show her shiny new machine off to them.  I'm so glad we went with the RGB lights - they were a piece of piss to hook up and really put the icing on the cake. And naturally her keyboard and mouse light up too.If I get a chance, I'll take a pic of it all set up tomorrow. Right now I'm enjoying some time relaxing this evening. Cheers all.
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Dec 19, 2023 02:07
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Any recommendations for a graphics card in the $300-400 range?
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Dec 19, 2023 06:04
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Erdricks posted:Any recommendations for a graphics card in the $300-400 range? 6700 XT or deeply discounted sub-$350 4060 Ti. The 6700 XT has 50% more VRAM but no DLSS and worse raytracing. You can get one for $320 right now, which is a pretty good deal. The 4060 Ti has the Nvidia stuff but is starting to run out of VRAM already, on some games and settings it gets the pants kicked off of it by anything with more VRAM, including the last-gen 3060.
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Dec 19, 2023 06:08
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My current computer is so old I've genuinely forgotten how long I've had it, but judging from the CPU, I'm guessing about ten years? It's an intel core i5-4690, 16 gigs of ram, and the video card is fairly recent purchase to replace the original one which failed, so it's a GeForce 3060 Ti. Hard drive wise, the C: is a 120 gb SSD because SSDs were really expensive back then and also the prevailing wisdom was "don't write to them, it kills the longevity", so I also have a 1 TB HDD, a 1 TB external drive, and a 1 TB SSD. But now one of those drives is failing (the 1 TB SSD) and that's the straw, this camel's back is broken. Time to build from new. This is what I put together: PCPartPicker Part List CPU: Intel Core i5-14600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($316.80 @ B&H) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon) Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($239.99 @ B&H) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory ($114.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($285.45 @ Amazon) Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($835.38 @ Amazon) Case: Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.73 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy) Total: $1999.23 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-19 00:52 EST-0500 PartPicker is giving me two warnings. First is that my chosen motherboard might need a BIOS update to recognize my CPU. That one doesn't bother me, it ought to be up-to-date and if not I'll update it. Second is that my CPU cooler "may require a separately available mounting adapter to fit". That one bugs me. Will it or won't it? And what adapter? Otherwise, the prime price driver is obviously the video card, and yes, I know I could just carry over my old one. But I want to play video games with a fancy new monitor (my current one is a 1440x900 Dell dinosaur). Video games are going to be the biggest performance hit this computer is called on to take, with some programming maybe, but I use work computers for that so unless I feel like doing a hobby project, mostly gaming. And yes, I'm near enough to a Microcenter. So what do you guys think?
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Dec 19, 2023 06:57
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CapnAndy posted:My current computer is so old I've genuinely forgotten how long I've had it, but judging from the CPU, I'm guessing about ten years? It's an intel core i5-4690, 16 gigs of ram, and the video card is fairly recent purchase to replace the original one which failed, so it's a GeForce 3060 Ti. Hard drive wise, the C: is a 120 gb SSD because SSDs were really expensive back then and also the prevailing wisdom was "don't write to them, it kills the longevity", so I also have a 1 TB HDD, a 1 TB external drive, and a 1 TB SSD. Honestly looks like a good build, however, I’d suggest going with an i5-13600K. The 14000 CPUs are just slightly boosted 13000 CPUs for more money and they’re universally not worth buying. Additionally you should get a DDR5-6000 MHz set of RAM. The price is similar and you’ll get better performance out of it. Since you’re near enough to a Micro Center there are a couple other options though, especially if you’re okay going with AMD instead of Intel for your CPU. The first getting this combo from Micro Center: https://www.microcenter.com/product...er-build-bundle It has a 7800X3D which is the best CPU for gaming on the market currently. The 3D v-cache does hurt some production workloads, but it simply cannot be beaten for gaming. PCPartPicker Part List CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($499.99) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon) Motherboard: MSI PRO B650-P WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($0.00) Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($0.00) Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($284.80 @ Amazon) Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($835.38 @ Amazon) Case: Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.73 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy) Total: $1826.79 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-19 08:06 EST-0500 The other option is one of these Intel bundles: https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/intel-bundle-and-save.aspx One has a 12900K which should outperform the 14600K by a good amount, but it’s a bitch to cool and will need a way bigger PSU. There is also a 13700K bundle for more money, but it has better efficiency. PCPartPicker Part List CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K 3.2 GHz 16-Core Processor ($399.99) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon) Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z790-V WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($0.00) Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($0.00) Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($284.80 @ Amazon) Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($835.38 @ Amazon) Case: Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.73 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Corsair RM1000e (2023) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($159.99 @ Newegg) Total: $1786.79 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-19 08:07 EST-0500 To answer your questions about the PCPartPicker warnings, the BIOS update probably shouldn't be an issue at this point as most boards on shelves will have been made after the release of the 14000 series, so their BIOS will have support for the CPU, but in the event they don't you can probably take it into Micro Center and pay them to update it. And the cooler's bracket thing is because the Peerless Assassin released just before the LGA-1700 socket came out, and so there is again a slight possibility that it won't have the necessary bracket if the specific unit you get has been sitting on a shelf for years, but again that's highly unlikely, and if it does happen Thermalright will provide you with the necessary bracket if you provide proof of purchase. Edit: So I hadn't had my coffee for the day yet when I posted this earlier. Reminder that Nvidia is releasing a refresh of the 4070, 4070 Ti, and 4080 next month. If you can hold off on buying the GPU for another month you'll be able to either get a better card at the same price or a reduced price on your currently selected card. Branch Nvidian fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 14:06
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I want to buy my nephew a gaming pc. He wants to play online fighting games of some kind (I don't know anything about games or computers). I don't have a lot of money. I know these things cost a lot of money. I'm not going to build anything, I just want to buy something new or probably used. He has a nintendo switch now, he wants something more sophisticated. What are the computer specs I should be trying to maximize while staying under my budget?
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Dec 19, 2023 16:39
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dokmo posted:What are the computer specs I should be trying to maximize while staying under my budget? Incredibly difficult to answer that question if you don't give us an actual budget. Your version of not a lot of money might be different to someone else's, the country you're in makes a difference, what specific games does your nephew want to play (ask your brother/sister to get more information if you don't want to directly ask your nephew and spoil the surprise), do they already have a monitor and peripherals etc? Regardless, the answer might just be a steam deck. Butterfly Valley fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 16:45
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dokmo posted:I want to buy my nephew a gaming pc. He wants to play online fighting games of some kind (I don't know anything about games or computers). I don't have a lot of money. I know these things cost a lot of money. I'm not going to build anything, I just want to buy something new or probably used. He has a nintendo switch now, he wants something more sophisticated. What are the computer specs I should be trying to maximize while staying under my budget? What's the budget? Do you know what games? One of the most interesting low-end PC values out there right now is the Steam Deck at $400-600: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck, but they do not work with many multiplayer games with anti-cheat software. Might work with the games they want to play, may not work at all. Unfortunately there's a floor right now on new gaming desktops around $650, even if you have access to a Microcenter, even if you squeeze and scrimp. Underneath that if you want new or refurb, you might be able to find a discounted, clearance, or refurb gaming laptop that offers a better value. If you're looking used, it's kind of a minefield out there and used prices are still unreasonably high because COVID caused huge parts shortages and dumb pricing for a few years. I'm sure people here could point you what to look for.
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Dec 19, 2023 16:50
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Thanks, I never considered steam deck. I would prefer a pc, but that will be my option if I can't afford a useful pc. The reason I'm not giving many details is that I don't have answers: I won't know my budget for a couple of weeks and no idea what games my nephew wants to play. I understand this makes it difficult to answer my question. Here's a more specific type of question: if I am buying an off the shelf pc, should I be looking for the one with as much memory as possible? Is that a useful thing for games? Or should I look for maximum gigahertz? I don't know what that does, but maybe it's good? It seems like video cards are important—is there a stat that tells me one card is better than another?
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Dec 19, 2023 17:04
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There's no way to shop based purely on numbers like that, unfortunately. AMD, Intel, Nvidia et all rely on an ever-cryptifying series of product names that tell you really nothing about the product except where it falls relative to other products of the same line from the same company. We need makes, models, generations etc to make those kind of calls for that reason - like, if we say you should probably shoot for a system with at least 16gb of memory, a six core processor and a videocard with at least 8gb of VRAM, it's entirely possible to get sold some decade old Xeon E5-2440 strapped to a chinese remanufactured motherboard with 16gb of some ancient server DDR3 memory and a Vega 56 from six years ago.
DoombatINC fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 17:13
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dokmo posted:Thanks, I never considered steam deck. I would prefer a pc, but that will be my option if I can't afford a useful pc. Off the shelf PCs are a worse value for gaming than building your own. Building your own is a hell of a lot easier than it used to be, it's quick and straightforward. Games do not need very much memory and do not benefit much from having more, but also memory is dirt cheap right now so people are throwing a lot in. The video card is the most important thing for video games, and a completely gaming focused PC will spend about half of the total cost on video card. The good video cards that goons here think will play all the games pretty well for years to come start around $550 now unfortunately, for the Nvidia RTX 4070. You can do a build with a 4070 around $1000-1200 that's pretty great. If you're trying to hit a $600 budget, the problem is that $300 doesn't cover all of the non-GPU parts of the PC anymore. That means that you're stuck with a worse GPU, and a machine that's a worse value for gaming than one that cost a little more. You look for specific GPU models if you're trying to maximize value. Those high-value GPUs right now are the AMD RX 6600 XT around $200, the RX 6700 XT around $300, and the RTX 4070 around $550. Edit: If all of these prices are way too high and console gaming might be an acceptable option, think about the Xbox Series X, which is on sale for $349 all the time now and runs games better than a $700 PC does.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:13
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dokmo posted:Thanks, I never considered steam deck. I would prefer a pc, but that will be my option if I can't afford a useful pc. I've rewritten this a few times because I'm genuinely trying my best to not come across like I'm insulting you or your ability/inclination to learn, but I'm afraid I can't really get the idea across without seeming like I am. Basically if your current knowledge of computer hardware and necessary specs is not knowing how much memory is needed or the importance of graphics cards, I don't think you're ready to buy a specialized computer for someone. The OP of the thread has a lot of basic information that I think will help you get an initial understanding of what you should/shouldn't be looking for, and once you have that and know your budget and what games at what resolution is being targeted we can try to help out with a build. There are lots of videos on YouTube that are very informative about what is needed or wanted for a gaming PC, a production PC, a Facebook + Email PC, etc., and you should seek out those resources. As mentioned by Twerk from Home, the price floor for a new bespoke PC is about $650, and that's before you talk about peripherals like a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. If you're near a Micro Center they have a prebuilt called the PowerSpec G516, which is the only prebuilt I personally feel comfortable recommending to anyone, and even then that system is up to $750 right now and you'd still need to buy peripherals. I think a Steam Deck and Steam Deck Dock are probably going to be the best option since the Deck is a very good handheld that can run PC games and can even run stuff outside of the Steam ecosystem, and the Dock allows it to send it's video signal to a monitor and use an external keyboard and mouse if the user wants to. Again, I apologize if this came off as rude or insulting since I honestly don't mean it to be.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:20
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Branch Nvidian posted:Again, I apologize if this came off as rude or insulting since I honestly don't mean it to be. No need, this is all good info, and gives me more context to make some kind of decision. Thanks to everyone who took time to answer me.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:27
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Twerk from Home posted:Off the shelf PCs are a worse value for gaming than building your own. Building your own is a hell of a lot easier than it used to be, it's quick and straightforward. While true, this is about the least suitable person imaginable to ever mention building to. And dokmo that's not trying to poo poo on you, I'm sure you have zero inclination to build either. Unfortunately we just absolutely can't give blanket recommendations about what to look for without an idea of budget, intended use case, intended resolution and what peripherals your nephew already has. It's literally impossible, as DoombatINC points out. If your brother or sister can find out from the kid exactly what games they want to play, and tell you what he's gonna be playing them on (as in do they have a monitor already and what resolution is it), and then when you know your budget, get back to us and you'll be pointed in the right direction but until then you're asking us to read tea leaves. Butterfly Valley fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 17:27
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Butterfly Valley posted:While true, this is about the least suitable person imaginable to ever mention building to. You're right, that entire segment just seems to have been eaten by gaming laptops, cheap models of which usually have some awful trade off and tend to break in hard to repair ways in a few years, while a desktop built from commodity parts will become the PC of Thesus and last forever. I can trace back a continuous line of parts continuity on my machine to a Walmart eMachine that I bought for $349 in 2004, then threw a $399 GPU into (ATi X800 Pro). That machine was a champ. It also got upgraded to a CPU with twice the cores a few years later. Twerk from Home fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 17:31
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CapnAndy posted:So what do you guys think? Aside from what Nvidian mentioned, my usual motherboard question applies: are you going to use all the features of your chosen mobo? Are you going to use some or all of its features? Do you plan on plugging in a lot of internal devices to the PCIe slots? Do you want/need S/PDIF or surround sound support on the board? Is a USB party in the back relevant to your use-case? Maybe you want a ton of m.2s for All The Storage? This is a place where you can save a fair bit of money or set it on fire, so it's worth considering. Granted, with the Micro Center deals, you'll likely end up with a bit more motherboard than you can really use, but it's at a lower price than you'd often pay for separate components, of any sort, anyway. And yeah, once you get up to the $300 range on a CPU, the 7800X3D absolutely has to enter the conversation for gaming-focused setups. It is simply the best value for the money. You currently spend around $50-60 more than a 13600-13700 Intel part for a CPU that atomizes $600 competitors, even in its own product range. The Micro Center bundle is an even better deal. It's only really if people want to put a budget build together and spend $200 or less on a CPU that discussion drifts away from the X3D parts (and only then if they have no access to Micro Center thanks to this little bastard.  )Also, note that while production performance is a bit lower than its contemporaries (which I'm tempted to get into the  weeds about, but I'll refrain ) the operative phrase is "its contemporaries"; going from an i5 4690 to a 7800X3D, backed up with DDR5 and an m.2 NVMe SSD, from a quad core to a hyperthreaded octa-core, is still going to feel like experiencing the Advent Of The Godchrist as hard as you did when SSDs first went mainstream. Prepare yourself for full boot times (cold to working desktop) of about 15 seconds or less, and for hobbyist code compile times to, like, get reduced by like 75%.Anyway, the other thing I will bring up is that manufacturer differences between video cards are extraordinarily minimal in this day and age; the biggest one is actually cooler size, which factors into building small-form-factor PCs and the like. As such, there's no compelling reason to not simply go for the least expensive version of the part you want, and ignore "factory overclock" attempts and the like. I'm also not the biggest fan of that specific case you chose; it isn't the worst about "choking out the front fans", but that metal bar is still a bit unsightly IMO, the front IO is limited, and you can do better for just a bit more money. So factoring all that in, a further revision of what Nvidian suggested: PCPartPicker Part List CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($499.99) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90 @ Amazon) Motherboard: MSI PRO B650-P WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($0.00) Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($0.00) Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($284.80 @ Amazon) Video Card: PNY VERTO GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card ($769.99 @ Newegg) Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.98 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit ($20.00) Total: $1788.65 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-19 11:03 EST-0500 Significantly cheaper video card that will still perform the same, nicer case IMO, and the price of a Windows GoonCode™ from SA-Mart is factored in. That system should meet every one of your needs and comes in at $200 cheaper than what you spec'd out. Just remember to use FanControl to keep the motherboard from turning the Peerless Assassin into a hairdryer, and that system will be amazing. And of course, what Nvidian said about the updated 4070+ line applies. We're three weeks out from CES and the big announcement, so it could pay to wait at this point. dokmo posted:Thanks, I never considered steam deck. I would prefer a pc, but that will be my option if I can't afford a useful pc. It would also help if we knew what kind of games your nephew is playing, since that would give us a baseline to aim for. I'm guessing we're talking like Street Fighter VI and Guilty Gear Strive and the like, if we're talking about current fighting games? Or are we talking something else? quote:Here's a more specific type of question: if I am buying an off the shelf pc, should I be looking for the one with as much memory as possible? Is that a useful thing for games? Or should I look for maximum gigahertz? I don't know what that does, but maybe it's good? It seems like video cards are important—is there a stat that tells me one card is better than another? So the memory thing is one of those factors that depends on the overall component setup: most games will load visual assets (typically the most memory-intensive part of the gaming experience) into "video RAM" first, then into system RAM if that fills up, and then, if the system is dying for memory, into the designated "virtual memory" storage drive. This was a performance death sentence once upon a time, in the era of spinning-platter hard drives, but it's not as bad with the advent of "m.2" solid state drives, which operate a lot more like the technology behind old game cartridges. It's still not ideal, but it won't affect performance as badly. A bit of (amateur) testing recently showed that 16 gigabytes, or even 8 GB, of system RAM was still enough to operate a lot of modern games, especially if you have a video card with a decent allotment of VRAM. 16GB of system RAM is a very standard allotment for most systems, so that isn't going to be much of a concern, unless the company who put the computer together really scrimped on the video card. "Gigahertz" (or "megahertz" in far older CPUs from the previous century) is the measure of the "clock rate" of the central processor and how quickly it can synchronize the operations of its various components, which essentially becomes a crude measurement of how fast it is. Like I was posting above, though, for modern processors a lot more goes into understanding how well it runs beyond clock speed - how many discreet "processing cores" it has, what sort of "cache" arrangement can matter, and so on. There's a lot to consider (and a lot that marketing tries to obfuscate) when considering a processor on the cusp of 2024. Which is to say, yeah, welcome to the jungle that is also a minefield. I appreciate you wanting to do a cool thing for your nephew (we generally dig that sort of thing around here ) but at the very least, we need a budget to work with and ideally an idea of what your nephew will be playing before we make any real recommendations.
SpaceDrake fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Dec 20, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 17:45
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I am looking to upgrade my current gpu and hopefully nothing else. Using PcPartPicker I found that the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G is compatible with the rest of my system. The other parts in that partpicker link I already own but you can use them as a reference. So my real question is, is my gpu going to be hampered or bottlenecked a considerable amount by my cpu/motherboard or am I safe to just get the gpu for now? Is this a good choice of upgrade for my gpu if what I am wanting to do is say play current games at decent fidelity on a 1080p monitor? Like right now steam says a game like Talos Principle 2's minimum gpu is an Nvidia GTX 970, my exact current card. To give an example as to why I think my CPU may need it as well. If I play Deep Rock Galactic, both my cpu and gpu get close to maxed when loading a level if I also have twitch or youtube running on my second screen. Though it seems like twitch is way more of a hog than youtube. BAILOUT MCQUACK! fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 17:48
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SpaceDrake posted:Which is to say, yeah, welcome to the jungle that is also a minefield. I appreciate you wanting to do a cool thing for your nephew (we generally dig that sort of thing around here Got it. Thanks!
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Dec 19, 2023 17:51
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BAILOUT MCQUACK! posted:I am looking to upgrade my current gpu and hopefully nothing else. Using PcPartPicker I found that the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G is compatible with the rest of my system. The other parts in that partpicker link I already own but you can use them as a reference. I'd suggest spending an extra $10 and getting a 6700 XT over the RTX 3060 unless you're wanting some of Nvidia's fancy AI stuff like DLSS/Ray Tracing, though the 3060 doesn't really have the performance needed to drive those features anyway. It has better raster performance, which is what you're used to on a 970, than the 3060 by a country mile. As far as bottlenecking or whatever: I mean, yeah. Your CPU is pretty "old" at this point and it certainly will be the thing holding the whole system back, but you'll want a new GPU even if you upgrade your other components, so I say get the 6700 XT and if it doesn't increase your performance the way you're wanting then either look at upgrading your other stuff or just go back to the 970 and return the 6700 XT if you're generally happy with your current system's performance.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:54
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BAILOUT MCQUACK! posted:I am looking to upgrade my current gpu and hopefully nothing else. Using PcPartPicker I found that the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G is compatible with the rest of my system. The other parts in that partpicker link I already own but you can use them as a reference. If your price range is around ~$300 then I don't have enough good things to say about the RX 6700 XT, it's a real performer at the budget at should last you several years of 1080p with the settings cranked and the frames rock steady As for the 3570K, yeah, it's gonna bottleneck you at this point - the upgrade is still worth it if your ultimate objective is to eventually replace the rest of your build, though e:f,b even down to the same drat newegg link haha
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Dec 19, 2023 17:56
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Branch Nvidian posted:I'd suggest spending an extra $10 and getting a 6700 XT over the RTX 3060 unless you're wanting some of Nvidia's fancy AI stuff like DLSS/Ray Tracing, though the 3060 doesn't really have the performance needed to drive those features anyway. It has better raster performance, which is what you're used to on a 970, than the 3060 by a country mile. 11 year old 550W power supply could potentially be an issue with a modern GPU of that size, isn't the 6700XT moderately higher watt than the 3060? 6600, 6600XT or 7600 might be safer and also cheaper.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:56
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Branch Nvidian posted:I'd suggest spending an extra $10 and getting a 6700 XT over the RTX 3060 unless you're wanting some of Nvidia's fancy AI stuff like DLSS/Ray Tracing, though the 3060 doesn't really have the performance needed to drive those features anyway. It has better raster performance, which is what you're used to on a 970, than the 3060 by a country mile. I assume no cpu that fits my current motherboard would be an adequate upgrade so I'll need to upgrade both right?
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Dec 19, 2023 17:59
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Twerk from Home posted:11 year old 550W power supply could potentially be an issue with a modern GPU of that size, isn't the 6700XT moderately higher watt than the 3060? The 970 draws around 150w under load according to Google, and my 6700 XT tops out at 186w according to the Riva Tuner stat box - but when I'm running a driver level frame rate cap, the wattage regularly goes down to 70-80w during play so it could even be an improvement on power draw depending on the settings / parameters
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Dec 19, 2023 18:00
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BAILOUT MCQUACK! posted:I assume no cpu that fits my current motherboard would be an adequate upgrade so I'll need to upgrade both right? Motherboard, CPU, ram, PSU, storage, you're overdue a whole upgrade
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Dec 19, 2023 18:05
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