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

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Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

I'm looking to do a new build for the first time in almost 10 years! I've heard nVidia is planning a new update, but not being able to find much concrete about it makes me think that is still 6-12 months away or more?

I'd like to build in September, but if new hardware is coming for the holidays I may wait...is that likely or should I just go ahead and plan my build for the fall?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2020 14:04

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 11:19

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

drat, thanks for mentioning SA Mart, y'all just saved me from getting Win10 from Newegg. :toot:

sean10mm posted:

Most recent credible rumor FWIW is supposedly the RTX 30 series will be officially announced in August and actually start being sold in mid-September.

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-ampere-release-date-specs-performance/

Assuming that's true, everyone building a "serious" gaming system really should wait if at all possible. ~Speculation~ is that it's a *big* jump over the current RTX 20 series.

AMD is also releasing their next CPU generation later this year, though IMO that's less important to wait on than the RTX 30.

Again, take that all for what it's worth (not necessarily a lot.)

Well, at least that timing would work with my plans...assuming rumors turn into release dates which don't slip...might even be worth waiting until October or November.

My next question is HDDs: what's the difference between M2, PCIe, and SATA for an SSD boot drive?

I was also wanting a 4TB platter drive for media/backups/games that don't need an SSD: Western Digital seems to have quite a few labels, now. What is my best option for long-term performance and reliability? First glance would suggest either the gold or black series?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2020 01:16

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

sean10mm posted:

Brace for alphabet soup: socket M.2 nvme PCIe 4x is the fastest and not much more $$$ than SATA drives anymore for basic models like the WD Blue SN550. Even the fast ones like WD Black SN750 are reasonably priced.

There are other good M.2 drives but Samsung is very overpriced now.

In real use an SATA SSD isn't significantly slower for most people... but it's also not significantly cheaper anymore if you're dropping $1k or more on your build.

PCIe 4.0 4x is the newest SSD version but in real life it kind of doesn't do poo poo yet compared to PCIe 3.0 4x. It might eventually as the drives evolve to take advantage of the extra bandwidth properly.

MikeC posted:

M.2 is a series of physical formats for SSDs that look like a rectangular key fob and are plug directly into a motherboard receptacle. M.2 SSDs could use either the NvME PCIE interface or the SATA interface and most motherboards have M.2 receptors that can accommodate both interface formats. Old style SSDs that are not in the M.2 format use SATA III cables to hook up to the motherboard.

NvME offers a much greater throughput capacity than SATA allows for although right now, unless you are doing massive sequential read/writes, the difference isn't too noticeable between a NvME and SATA drive. So for everyday use, most people won't notice a difference. I haven't used platter disks in a long time so I can't speak to the other question.

efb

Thanks.

So Samsung is no longer the hot poo poo in SSDs? Or the better question may be: are there any brands to avoid or is the SSD market pretty mature?

The last time I bought an SSD the axiom was get Samsung or risk a lemon. There were also issues with using non-SATA drives as the boot drive, I take it that's no longer an issue?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2020 04:18

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Molten Llama posted:

If you're remembering that godforsaken hell-born "repeatedly stab your motherboard and/or yourself" tension clip, no, things aren't that bad anymore. Most coolers now attach with some kind of screw system.

Some of the designs are so space-constrained that you can only really install/remove them using the specific weirdo screwdriver the cooler vendor provided (don't lose it), but that's still easier and much less bloody. Pretty simple stuff as the other goons said.

gently caress! I hated these. Especially since they were all seemingly designed for mid-tower cases where the mobo was parallel to the floor, and I loved full towers where it was perpendicular to the floor.

Nothing like mounting a 10lbs cooler with a matching backbrace so the PCB doesn't split apart... :sweatdrop:

# ¿ Jul 22, 2020 03:40

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

So B450 won't have next gen support, but B550 will?

Also, what are the thoughts on 16GB vs 32GB of RAM?

My hopes for this build are to run the next-gen of games at max settings at 1080p, and be capable of doing games like Elite Dangerous in VR.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 18:16

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Okay, so here is a napkin build based on what I've learned so far:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4S ATX AM4 Motherboard ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Gold 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Western Digital)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($333.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($117.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1266.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-25 13:36 EDT-0400

I'm probably going to wait until September/October for the next GPU update, so replace the 2060 with whatever new, hotshit $350 GPU drops?

It feels a little unbalanced, though. Like I could spend less on some things and more on others to get a higher dollar-value.

As I said, my big goals are being able to play the next year or two of games at max-settings, 1080p. I want to be able to get into VR, not necessarily at high/max settings, but definitely with stable framerates. I would like to have a ton of USBs on the front of the case (might need an expansion slot for the front of the case?), I've been spoiled by my decade+ old CM Stacker that has 6 USB ports on the front. :ohdear:

How wrong am I?

# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 18:42

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Soylent Pudding posted:

Is there a point to building a home theater PC in tyool 2020? Right now we just plug one of our laptops in via HDMI

What country are you in? USA
What are you using the system for? 1) Streaming media sites. 2) Video calls.
What's your budget? ~$500 +/-100

Not sure you're going to get much more functionality that you would from a laptop...if you're not gaming I would probably just stick with those?

Refurbished PS4s are also half that price range, come with a bluray player, and offer the same functionality?

# ¿ Jul 28, 2020 04:10

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Zeta Acosta posted:

Hi friends, this is my current pc

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430
GPU: AMD R7 260x
HDD: WD Blue 1TB
RAM: HyperX Fury DDR3 1866 C10 2x4GB
MBD: MSI H81M-E33 (MS-7817)

I want to spend 400 dollars, what would you do? I want gaming pc specs

Is that a platter or an SSD? If you haven't upgraded to a solid state drive, that will be the single, biggest performance increase.

I'd use the rest of the money on the GPU. You're mobo/ram are getting long in the tooth, but you would use up that budget just changing out the CPU/Mobo/RAM, and then you'll still be left with a 6-year-old GPU (and possibly a platter drive?).

Integrated graphics is an option, and someone smarter could probably make a whole rig on that budget, though...

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 15:08

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Something reminded me: are discrete audio cards still a thing? I remember getting a Sound Blaster Audigy something like 20 years ago and it sounded soooo goooood...

# ¿ Aug 4, 2020 17:51

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Kraftwerk posted:

So taking into account recent history with Nvidia nomenclature:
If you want ultra graphics at 1440p 144hz with very high FPS, is there any reason to step up to a 3080ti or 3090?

I don't think anyone knows, since it isn't out yet, but the consensus is that the RTX3000 series will be a significant performance boost, especially for next-gen games. :shrug:

# ¿ Aug 8, 2020 00:46

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

I miss Speedfan and WinAmp...

# ¿ Aug 10, 2020 18:45

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Okay, so my thinking now is to go ahead and build a new computer, minus the GPU, and use the 1070 I have now until the RTX3k series drops in [ETA UNKNOWN].

My goal, after upgrading to the 3000, is max settings at 1080p and able to handle VR for games like Elite Dangerous and Alyx. It would be nice if I could go to 1440p at max settings for the coming wave of next-gen releases, but I imagine the RTX3ks should handle that in stride.

So here is the plan:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($283.55 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Gold 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Western Digital)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro Tempered Glass ATX Full Tower Case ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1068.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-16 19:37 EDT-0400

With price fluctuations where they are, would it be better to pull the trigger now and wait on the GPU, or just wait for the new GPUs and hope that prices have dropped with potentially new CPUs dropping?

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 00:43

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

space marine todd posted:

3090: A Space Odyssey

# ¿ Aug 22, 2020 04:19

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Has anyone ever done that EVGA 90-day upgrade program? I�m thinking about making some bad decisions...
:ohdear:

# ¿ Aug 26, 2020 23:17

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Elliptical Dick posted:

It's not an issue to build a PC with all the parts except the GPU and add that later, is it? I can hold off on gaming for a while but I want to pass my laptop on and need a machine to just browse the internet and do some work with while I wait for the 3070 release.

Apologies for the dumbass question

The three options I'm considering are:
1) Use my current GPU in the new rig until I am ready to upgrade
2) Buy a budget card for <$200 for the new rig until I am ready to upgrade
3) Wait for Tuesday and see if I am willing to take the EVGA 90-Day Upgrade Challenge... :ohdear:

# ¿ Aug 31, 2020 02:08

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Janitor Prime posted:

US, is there anything I am loving up with this build?

I put 2 monitors cause I'm still on the fence about which one I want.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($209.09 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.84 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($126.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: LG 27GL850-B 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor ($489.99 @ Walmart)
Monitor: AOC 24G2 23.8" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor ($249.97 @ Amazon)
Total: $1715.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-09 18:59 EDT-0400

Looks good, I wouldn't change it if you feel comfortable. But comments for the sake of commenting:

If you're just doing 1080p, a TV would be larger and cheaper. That being said, dual monitors rock and you could get 2x the 1080p for the price of the 1440p. If you are actually using this at a desk, I'd get the 27" 1440p monitor.

I imagine you could also get a smaller PSU: 550W should be more than enough? I think most of the thread will try to talk you into 2x8GB RAM, rather than 32GB with this build, too.

Could save a hundred or more like that?

A lot of people are going with the 3700X over the 3600 since the nextgen consoles all have a hobbled 3700X. The thinking is it will future-proof through the new console generation.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2020 00:14

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Kingnothing posted:

If you�re going for Ryzen the conventional wisdom seems to be 3600 is the sweet spot between cost/speed.

For timing/CAS, the lower the number the better. Generally people are pretty happy with CL16.

Edit: if you wanna make your life easy, once you pick your motherboard look at the QVL list for your board and pick a 3600 CL 16 kit on the list. It�ll make clocking it super easy.

Also dear god

# ¿ Sep 14, 2020 04:47

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Spacedad posted:

Speaking of frontal drive bays, I found out that Valve software uses the Enthoo Pro case extensively in their offices.

The reason why they use that case is because it has four front modular drive bays.

They use those drive bays for a built-in encrypted NAS storage system on each employee workstation PC that keeps the data on the system secure, and can easily hotswap a faulty drive on the front of the system.

There's other uses for frontal drive bays than just hard drives and disk drives of course. There's LED touchscreen fan controllers, rgb controllers, & temp monitors for example. Or i/o expansion slots.

I'm kind of hoping modular front-facing bays make a comeback in the future. They have so many good uses.

Oh man, I just :member:

'd the front panel that came with the Sound Blaster Audigy and :allears:

# ¿ Sep 15, 2020 01:24

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

How are Antec PSUs these days? I'm looking at the High Current Gamer Gold series, specifically...

# ¿ Sep 22, 2020 05:41

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Here is what I've decided on:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($117.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB XC3 BLACK GAMING Video Card
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($156.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-S2S-124K-GP 44.73 CFM 120 mm Fans 4-Pack ($17.98 @ Amazon)
UPS: CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD UPS ($154.94 @ Amazon)
Total: $1393.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-22 21:24 EDT-0400

Gonna use the 1070 I have now until 3080s loosen up. May gamble on a 3070 and try EVGA's Step Up program, if there is any better availability there.

Plan is for high-end gaming at 1080p, but will upgrade to 4k/VR in the next year. Also use the PC as the primary media center, hence the BD drive.

Anything glaringly wrong?

# ¿ Sep 23, 2020 02:28

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

hambeet posted:

I saw a few people here getting after market coolers for the 3700x. Should I too? Is the Wraith Prism not that good?

e;fb - but I believe the two lines of thought are:
1) all things being equal, the larger, after-market coolers are overkill on most systems, allowing them to run whisper quiet
2) modern processors are designed to :airquote:

overclock

themselves as long as they don't hit their thermal threshold, so bigger cooler equals higher threshold equals faster burst cpu

Kingnothing posted:

What�s the spinner disk for? Unless it�s for something particularly specialized no way in hell I�d pay that for a 4TB drive.

Being a child of the Napster Era I have a lot of media and my wife occasionally needs to record HD for work. I am also old enough to remember when 7600rpm drives were ~the hotness~ so I don't mind putting older or retro games on a platter just to keep them around. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 doesn't need my SSD.
:shrug:

1TB is a big drive, but within the next ten years that will probably be 2 or 3 games, so I like the breathing room it gives. I have also been the victim of lovely ISPs enough times that I like keeping my digital library somewhere accessible in case the internet goes out and I want to watch a movie/show. My current PC has ~3.2TB out of 3.75TB, so going to 5TB overall makes me much more comfortable.

I also just love making lovely decisions about hard drives: [ASK ME] about my triple drive RAID 0 WD Raptor array from 2005. :pcgaming:

Javes posted:

IMO it would be worthwhile to use CL16 memory.

Klyith posted:

You have a massive full ATX case but appear to have chosen an dinky space-saving 90mm heatsink. Perhaps you meant to pick the Noctua U14S?

The U9S, despite being made by noctua, is gonna be worse than a basic Hyper 212 or other 120mm heatsink. There's no substitute for size. _{_{^{that's what she said}}}

It's an extremely minimal 0.5% or less difference to performance.

Thanks for the advice...since I will have the option to upgrade to the new CPUs eventually, $15 extra for the CL16 doesn't sound too bad. :shrug:

Here's the changes...went ahead and snagged the PSU since they've been going in-and-out of availability. Now to play the waiting game on an RTX30X0. :f5:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($294.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($63.75 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($138.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB XC3 BLACK GAMING Video Card
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($156.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS60 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-S2S-124K-GP 44.73 CFM 120 mm Fans 4-Pack ($17.98 @ Amazon)
UPS: CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD UPS ($154.94 @ Amazon)
Total: $1418.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-23 03:00 EDT-0400

edit: speaking of old, the last time I installed a big cooler was when the Tuniq Tower came out and I thought it was going to snap the mainboard PCB in half! PC Partpicker is telling me ~The Noctua NH-U14S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler may require a separately available mounting adapter to fit the ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard~, I assume that is the one included?

Toxic Fart Syndrome fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Sep 23, 2020

# ¿ Sep 23, 2020 08:10

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

sean10mm posted:

BIOS updates mostly only matter if there is a specific bug fix or you are installing a CPU that the old BIOS doesn't recognize. Otherwise the rule of thumb is don't fix what ain't broke and leave the BIOS alone.

For chipset/LAN/onboard audio I install the latest drivers when I build the system and generally forget about them.

Video card drivers you almost always want to be up to date.

Do they still do that thing where you can flash your BIOS from the OS? I still find the thought terrifying... :derp:

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 00:38

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

redpleb posted:

I know everyone is saying to wait to pull the trigger on building a new pc until after the announcement of zen 3 in october, but would it be reasonable to get the parts other than the cpu? like the ram, case, drives and so on?

I think it depends on your needs as for when to buy, but always better to buy everything in one go.

My PC is 10 years old and I'm ready to upgrade so I'm pulling the trigger. I'm going with a 550, so if I want to upgrade to zen 3 eventually I'll be able to flash my BIOS for it. All things being equal, the 3700X will be more than enough for most mainstream games, and if I find myself CPU limited; like I said - I'll be able to upgrade.

Availability is also a concern...the RTX3080 fiasco is proving to me that supply chains are a little borked. Waiting for Zen3 might mean waiting until January/February, for me, and I'd rather do the upgrade before November.

Not sure what the Gooncensus is, but my gut says that Zen3 will be big for the top tier, but the middle and budget lines will be mostly unaffected. It's possible they have something that's 2x as powerful for 1/2 the price, but nvidia sure isn't being coy with that knowledge. I'm guessing Zen3 will have something to take the crown from Intel, or at least make it more of a choice for the super-enthusiast community.
:shrug:

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 08:07

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Suburban Dad posted:

This is me but pandemic groundhog days in 2020 make instant gratification look better and better each day. I'm still thinking new Ryzen CPU...if it's available anywhere near the announcement date...and it's actually worth it, otherwise I'd go current gen hoping it gets a price cut (). Then a 3070 if my 1070 seems to be lacking with the new CPU and ram. I'm more CPU bound at this point (i5 2500k and 2133hz ram ) so I may not need to upgrade the GPU right away...but I probably won't be able to get a 3070 near launch anyway.

I decided to look up how long it took to get my 1070 in 2016. It launched on June 10 and I snagged one from newegg via nowinstock on June 22nd. Doubt I'll be able to do the same this time around.

Doesn't the 3090 drop at the same time? Maybe we'll be lucky. :shrug:

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 17:26

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Where are people finding 3080s and what is the over/under on another round hitting the market in the next week or two?

Kingnothing posted:

and no spoiler...mods?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2020 05:35

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Javes posted:

I will be using my PC primarily for gaming, is there a reason to get an NVME drive compared to a SATA SSD? Do NVME drives boot windows noticeably faster?

I don't think boot/load times are noticeably affected, but they are better. I do know some people that do a lot of file transfers and they swear by the NVME drives, though. Also frees up a SATA port, since they can be boot disks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the NVME drives are basically like using a giant stick of RAM as a harddrive?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2020 17:37

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Fauxtool posted:

mayo on hotdogs is great, a ton of countries do it.

Im still shopping around for a 1tb nvme for my b550 build. I have come to terms that I really dont need a gen 4 ssd. For gaming, sequential read is not really a valuable metric is that right? What specs should I be looking at? There are a ton of good choices but I want one of the better choices even if it costs a little more.

WD Blue is the hotness right now:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BhmFf7/western-digital-blue-sn550-1-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c

If money is no object you can spring for one of the overpriced Samsung Pro drives for a significant cost increase and a negligible performance increase!

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 21:15

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Ineffiable posted:

Please direct me if this isn't the right place to ask. I probably need to invest in some large external storage later this year. I need at least 12tb but probably willing to go up to 16tb depending on price .

Has to be a single drive, USB and external power (obviously at that size its external) I've seen some western digital at 12tb and some at 14tb for not that much more, but I'm always wary of those odd sizes (like some of the Seagate that fail more often are 1.5tb and 3tb)

Should I be worried about a 14tb? What drives in the 12-16tb range would you guys recommend?

You can get external drives in that size for $200-$300, but I haven't had good experience with external drives, so I wouldn't know which to recommend. Is there a reason you can't get an internal drive, they come in those sizes for about the same price?

# ¿ Sep 28, 2020 01:17

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

alphabettitouretti posted:

Looking to get a new PSU...anyone got any strong opinions on Seasonic Focus GX vs the Corsair RMx? They're roughly the same price (like less than a tenner difference between them).

My understanding is those are both solid brands. I went with Seasonic, but I think the difference between those is your preference: how modular, which features, fanless modes, etc.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2020 16:24

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

redpleb posted:

So this is a tentative build for my new pc https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WHvZBZ

I'm in the us and this is to replace my current gaming pc. The graphics card is just place holder because I already have that card in my current PC that I'm planning on transfering it to the new pc. I also was contemplating keeping my current PSU because it's been fine so far. I purchased it back in 2014 but I didn't fully assemble the pc it's in now until 2016. should I bite the bullet and get a new psu just because or should the current psu be fine for now? I also have cheap dell monitors with some nonstandard resolution that I have problems with some games (like 1280x968 or something whacky like that), any strong opinions on that monitor as an upgrade?

I would definitely just get the new PSU. No sense in plugging $1200 of new equipment into an old PSU, imo. Adding <10% of the total cost for the security and piece of mind is a sound investment. :shrug:

PCPP says you don't need that much wattage, so unless you are leaving room to upgrade to a 3080+, you could get a 550 or 650W and save $50+ USD (and still get a 3070 later). You could also shift part or all of that over to the RAM and get CL18 or CL16 for +$10 or +$30. OR shift it over to the CPU and get a 3700X.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2020 07:33

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Phew!

Haven't had that kind of stress in a decade! The two big panic moments were trying to seat the enormous Noctua 14cm tower cooler and wondering if the GPU would actually fit in the PCI slot next to it.

The screws eventually caught and the GPU fit, though I'm not sure how...there is probably a millimeter of clearance, I may switch to a smaller cooler if it's a problem.

Also, I get that these new DIMM slots are supposed to be idiot proof, but it took me a half dozen tries to get them seated properly. I miss the old style. :corsair:

Is it still preferred to put a stick in the A and a stick in the B, rather than having the sticks side-by-side? I actually went A2 and B2 to give the CPU fan a bit more clearance. Also had to manually set the RAM for it's rated 3600, it was defaulting to 2133 for some reason. :derp:

Also-also got very confused when I could see the hardware of my platter drive, but the drive itself wouldn't appear. Did I mention it's been ten years since I formatted a drive? :pwn:

All worth it once I pressed the power button (on the third attempt) and everything booted up. Boots up quick as a flash and is running silent on idle: the case's pwm fan controller plugged right into the CPU_FAN2 slot! Looks like everything is in working order, so I just need a key from SA Mart to activate windows! :toot:

Now the wait for a 3080, which hopefully arrives before Cyberpunk in November. :smith:

# ¿ Sep 30, 2020 04:32

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Yeah...I upgraded from an i5-2400 with 8GB of DDR4 1333 RAM so I had obviously never seen an XMP setting or an OC tab in the BIOS! It is neat to see that Windows doesn't know what to do with 32GB and most is sitting empty! :pcgaming:

No one commented, so I'm guessing the paper-thin space between the CPU cooler and GPU is fine-ish?

# ¿ Sep 30, 2020 05:48

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Are you certain something on the case or a loose fan wire isn�t shorting it somewhere?

Either you need to buy a Powerball ticket or it seems to me like there is something wrong with the case: it�s the only constant for failures, right? The PSU is fine, both rails to the GPU isolated, and the GPUs work in other systems?

Maybe an over tightened screw or a loose part of the back panel protector? Did the case have pre-installed risers for the mobo and could there be one that isn�t supposed to be there?

Grasping at vines for ya: hope it helps!

# ¿ Sep 30, 2020 06:33

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Out of curiosity: I have an ASRock B550 Pro4, if I only have one GPU and put it in the second PCIe slot, will it only work at x4 or will it get x16 if PCIe1 is empty? Is this a BIOS setting I can switch, or is the one closest to the CPU physically tied to the x16?

# ¿ Oct 1, 2020 07:31

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Man. I hate the 2mm of clearance between the gigantic NH-U14S and the GPU, but I ran Prime95 and it just would not get above 65C and any time it got to 63 the fans would spool up (according to the monitor, I couldn't tell) and the temp would drop back to 58 for another few minutes...

I actually forgot what I was doing and left it running for about 30 minutes and it was still sitting at 58C with 100% CPU. :aaaaa:

Should I stress test longer to make sure everything is set?

# ¿ Oct 2, 2020 05:31

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

SalTheBard posted:

I've been thinking that if we get a second stimulus check I would like to use at least $1000 of that to build a new machine. My current PC is as follows:

Intel Core I5-8600k overclocked to 5ghz (6 cores 6 threads)
16 Gig of DDR4 - 3200 G.Skill Trident Z Ram
Asus ROG Strix Z370-1 ITX Motherboard
CS650M 80 watt plus gold semi modular PSU
MSI GT 1070 Graphics Card
NZXT H200I Case
2 TB WD Blue SSD
4 TB WD Blue HDD
NZXT Kraken x52 water AIO

While I'm generally happy with the performance of my PC with games like Star Wars Squadrons, Cyberpunk 2077, and many new games coming down the pipe, I would like to upgrade. Now here is my idea:

Upgrade processer to a 9900k
Upgrade to an ATX Motherboard
Upgrade to an ATX Case (have been thinking about the Lian Li O11 Dynamic)
Upgrade to an 30 series graphics card (Probably the 80 this time instead of the 70. I have always regretted buying the 1070 and not spending the $200 or however much it was at the time for the 1080)
Upgrade to a new power supply (probably 750+)

Does this make sense or if I'm going to upgrade the Mobo and Processor should I just upgrade to something that will fit the 10 series Intel chips? Of course this is all not a big deal if we don't get stimulus checks, but just something I'm thinking about. I will probably stick with 1080p right now. I recently bought a new monitor so I have dual 1080p monitors. I think a 30 series card is probably WAYYY overkill for 1080p but I'm also thinking of "Hey maybe I get a 4k monitor down the road)

I feel like you would get the most bang for your buck by just getting a 3080 and letting the rest ride. I don't think you will see any performance increase worth spending the money.

And honestly, if you aren't upgrading to VR or 4k in the near future and staying at 1080p, the 1070 is more than enough for the next 6 months.

My advice: wait for prices to stabilize and grab a new GPU in the winter/spring.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2020 22:55

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

SalTheBard posted:

Green's are the "bottom" line WD Drive. They are more designed for Granny's internet computer. They will still be fast, but the WD Blue has faster read / write speeds

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/WD-Green-240GB-2018-vs-WD-Blue-250GB/m377351vsm191455

I'm a big WD fan boy :-D

I think the Greens are also ~energy efficient~ so that laptops can stay up longer...not that it makes much difference in an SSD?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2020 00:55

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Stan Taylor posted:

Quick question about windows licenses: Do I need to buy another one or will I be able to just like log in with my Microsoft account? If I need to buy another one, what is the absolute cheapest legit way to get one? I bought mine straight up from MS last time, but I'm pretty sure I got some kind of student discount.

You can log in with your Microsoft account, but unless you have already registered your CPU/Motherboard combination with an active license, you will need another eventually.

That being said, you can install without a valid key and use it without being able to customize user settings. It may time out after 30 days, but I don't remember and have never waited that long. :shrug:

Seconding the SA Mart thread that sells keys. I got mine from there for this build and would recommend for other goons, delivered within 30 minutes. Way better than giving Jobs another $150... :five:

# ¿ Oct 9, 2020 04:44

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Stan Taylor posted:

Just seeing PS/2 ports on the back feels like it should belong in one of those late 90s looking cases. I'll probably go with fractal. Those look nice and plain and seem to have comfy features for building/airflow considerations.. I think my current one is NZXT and it's nice and plain.

What's the word on NVME SSDs? I'd like to go ahead and either get a big 2tb SSD or maybe two 1tbs if that's cheaper to mix and match with a SATA connection.

Definitely get an NVME for your bootdrive, make sure it isn't a SATA M.2 drive. You can get a 1TB WD Blue SN550 for $105 at newegg. If money is no object, you can splurge on a Samsung Pro drive for a significant cost increase and minor performance increase. I added a big media platter drive to mine, but if you're comfortable with 2-4TB you can get that with one or two NVME drives.

I also really like the big Phanteks Tower case I just got...case design has improved a lot in the last 10 years, but I'm Plain Jane and didn't want any lights or whistles.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2020 05:46

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 11:19

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Since the thread title is no longer accurate:

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardwar / Software Crap > PC Building Megathread - "Released" is a nebulous term...

# ¿ Oct 10, 2020 07:53

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

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