|
My computer is getting pretty long in the tooth and I'm considering building a new one. Currently I have an eighth-generation i7, and a GTX 970. So (especially for the GPU) pretty old. Basically, look, most of my time is spent on working (nothing more demanding than microsoft office or citrix, generally). I need it to be quiet, to not have lights or anything else like that, and I'd like it to be small so it takes up less of my desk, and for it to actually look...well, reasonably good. Gaming isn't particularly common and tends to be older games or Magic Arena, and it is not that common I do anything all that graphically demanding - I didn't realize how old my GPU was - but i would like the option to play, like, Diablo IV if I felt like it. At the end of the day I can afford to indulge the fantasy I may one day have time to play computer games again, but don't particularly want to overpay for that - and definitely do not want to compromise on the computer for that ability (so, I don't want a big tower for it, loud fans, etc). I mostly like the Fractal Terra or the Fractal Ridge, from cases I've seen. Here is what I am currently mulling over after browsing PCPartPicker builds. quote:PCPartPicker Part List My two biggest questions are CPU and GPU (naturally). I do not have a good sense of what AMD CPUs are good. I would like, basically, the best CPU I can get before they start doubling as a space heater. Not a lot of thought went into the one I have picked, it was in a build I thought looked reasonably what I was looking for and I didn't know enough to change it, but my instinct is that can get improved without significantly compromising thermals. On the GPU: a 4070 seems like overkill, but the 4060 seems like people think just isn't worth the money (even though it's half the price). It also isn't clear to me which is better (Terra vs. Ridge) - the Terra seems more popular but the Ridge might be easier to build in? Also, are there any other dumb mistakes I'm making?
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2024 20:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 05:42 |
|
|
Branch Nvidian posted:What is the budget you're trying to aim for and what resolution are you wanting to be able to play games? The amount I put there seems reasonable on a budget - I can go a few hundred more or less but I don't really want to buy stuff I won't actually need just to have it. I have one of those super-wide desktop monitors (3440 x 1440) that's (iirc) 60 hz so huge FPS isn't a big issue. Since I don't really do much modern gaming these days it's more a question of having the capability to if there's some game that manages to be both interesting and I have time for it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2024 20:34
|
|
|
Branch Nvidian posted:If you're really stuck on either the Terra or Ridge here is a build with the Ridge that I think would fit your needs perfectly well with lots of room to grow if you decide you want a nicer monitor later on. Thanks! I take it the CPU makes a difference, and the video card is still worth splurging a bit for rather than dropping down to something like a 4060?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2024 20:46
|
|
|
Branch Nvidian posted:If you're really stuck on either the Terra or Ridge here is a build with the Ridge that I think would fit your needs perfectly well with lots of room to grow if you decide you want a nicer monitor later on. So two follow-up questions on this from digging into the details here: 1) The 7800x3d processor seems far and away the best gaming processor, but from what I have read seems to have compromises in non-gaming use as a result because it can't hit as high a frequency as most others - and most of what I'm going to be doing is non-gaming. I considered switching to a 7700x, which is cheaper and better at the non-gaming stuff but the difference in gaming stuff seems really significant (and, it strikes me as the sort of capability that might be useful in the future), or an intel processor but those seemed to quadruple the power budget which is non-ideal in a SFF system. So I have been leaning towards a Ryzen 9 7900X3D - which seems to be an odd duck but has higher frequencies to outperform in non-gaming results but still has the same benefits in gaming. It is meaningfully cheaper than the 7950x3d (it's about $470, despite the list price of $600) and also less power consumption (but, can do nearly double the power consumption of the 7800x3d). Is this all dumb and I'm overthinking it, or is this a reasonable change? The extra money isn't an issue. 2) Is there any reason to go for a PCI 5.0 HD? It looks like an extra ~$40 or so. But I'm not going to be doing anything that involves really heavy data use - is this going to show any benefits in day-to-day use?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 14:52
|
|
|
thanks all, very helpful. it seems picking the right chip these days is much harder than it was six years ago, why can't we just go back to "bigger number == better, get the biggest number you want to pay for" 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 15:17
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 05:42 |
|
|
so thanks for all the help in building my system (basically went with this except i upgraded it to a 4070 rtx), it's great. one issue i am trying to diagnose: it seems to emit this droning/thrumming noise that's hard to identify exactly where it's coming from (but is obviously coming from the computer) - but not under load (like, it's sitting there with the monitor off). Any suggestions on what might be causing this/ways to fix it? wondering if i have misaligned fans, or fans not fully secured, or something like that, or if there's good resources for reading up on how to diagnose/fix issues like this. it would make sense if it was under load and the computer was straining to expel heat but it's doing it when it's not (and, oddly, sometimes stops when I actually start using it).
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2024 14:29
|
|