BioFringe

@Fox...Yeah, the benchmarks will tell the whole story for sure. Those will be coming in the next day or two. The system is built, Windows is updated and the graphics drivers are installed. Now I just need to set up a custom fan profile and I can start the tests. I was a bit nervous when I first booted the system because I wasn't aware of Idle Fan Stop on the newer GPUs so I thought that the card was busted right out of the gate. I'll know if the fans are properly working or not once the fan curve is setup. Trying to figure out what games from my library would be good stress testers. No Man's Sky, Subnautica, Doom and Prey all come to mind since I had problems with those at 30 FPS on my other system. I'll need Red Dead Redemption II of course and once 7D2D A20 releases to the public I'll be all over that. Very stressful weekend, and I didn't even run into any major issues, but I think good times are coming up soon.

Thanks for the insights. I was able to confirm that everything was good to go via a Gigabyte rep. The thing that kinda sealed it for me after posting about this here but before contacting the rep was that the gold bars (as mentioned above) were pristine. Now I'm wondering if they even tested this card All the parts are in my possession as of this afternoon so the build begins at dawn. I should probably research what needs to be done right after the build as I haven't done a fresh system configuration in over a decade. Wouldn't hurt to brush up on some things. Thanks again. EDIT: So with A20 right around the corner it seems that this build couldn't have been timed better. Finally going to get back into some good old fashioned zombie killin. Awesome!

Got the GPU today. Everything looks legit. Gigabyte won't confirm anything so I'm left to wonder but I'm 99% certain that it's an actual new card. What do you think...New, Used, Fake? I haven't taken any other pictures yet but visually speaking the card looks like you'd expect a new card to look. I don't see any red flags that would be obvious to me but if anyone has any suggestion on anything important to look for please let me know.

@Sal Thanks for insights. They're much appreciated. In a perfect world or even just a pre-pandemic world I could have pieced this together to be more perfect but there were many constraints that I had to work with so ultimately I'm lucky to be getting what I got let alone anything at all.

It's mostly for my music. I'm a musician and I record most of my stuff in my office/studio. Didn't want to be restricted with what I could plug in and what quality I can get when recording from the new system. I have plenty of other systems that take care of all that but I saved some money due to Black Friday sales so I figured that I'd just get it done with this new system as well. I went with the Gaming Sound Card for several reasons...1) It's highly rated 2) it checks off all the boxes that I would need checked for recording music and 3) the system is primarily for game so it seemed fitting. It may get returned though because I went with a 560M motherboard so I'm not sure that it will fit without obstructing the GPU airflow. If I return it I'll get Red Dead Redemption II instead. Actually, I'll get that regardless Under most circumstances I would agree...you don't need a sound card.

Happy Black Friday! and Happy Thanksgiving as well! As of 1 hours ago all of the parts have been ordered. Here's what I ended up with... Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500DX PSU: Seasonic Focus GM-750 Motherboard” Asus TUF Gaming B560M-Plus Wifi CPU: Intel Core i5-11600K 3.9 GHz CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition RAM: Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming OC Pro SSD: Crucial MX500 1TB SATA 2.5" Keyboard: Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum Keypad: Razer Tartarus V2 Chroma Mouse: Logitech G502 HERO Mouse Pad: Logitech G440 Monitor: Asus TUF Gaming 27" 1440P VG27AQL1A Sound Card: Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Speakers: Logitech Z625 Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM Please don't tell me what I already know...I should have, or I could have, or I would have been better off...it's too late. I couldn't wait any longer so I did the best I could within my budget. I believe that I'll be much happier with this system than my current (even in it's hay-day). Thanks again to everyone that chimed in as I really appreciate the help and insight. Now I just have to wait up to 14 days for everything to arrive then the building can begin. I'll probably post again with any questions that come up during the build phase or in the least to report that it all works and that I'm back to playing 7D2D again. Peace.

I suffer from an Astigmatism and from Ocular Migraines. The curved monitors that I've played on give me fish eye lens and that tends to trigger the migraines but I've played on several 27" Flat 1440p monitors and they actually help with my vision due to the greater pixel density. Since everything is naturally blurry to me playing on a 27" 1920p would probably be the worse option even over curved. I have some time with my eyesight left so I want things to look as beautiful as possible and I think the 27" Flat 1440p is the way to go. Have I mentioned that part prices are insane (as if nobody already knows this). I'll be spending way more than I'm comfortable with but I'm getting this done one way or another. Then I'll quitely fade away to play 7 Days for the next 5 years and you won't hear a peep from me.

Thanks again for all the info. I think that I pretty much have it all under control now and should start ordering parts this weekend. I might hold off a couple of weeks and look for sales. It would have actually been cheaper to have a system integrator build me a system than doing it myself in a post-pandemic economy. With GPU and many other parts costing 50-100% in the least over MSRP it hasn't made the process any easier. Thankfully I have a bit of extra cash that I saved up over the past year to add to the PC fund that will cover the additional costs. This hasn't been an easy process for me and I haven't even started actually building yet (that will probably be the easiest part...knock on wood). But alas, the end is at least in sight. Oh, for anyone curious...I have major vision issue and will probably be legally blind within the next 10 years. Because of these issues any time that I've used a curved monitor (be-it 1500 or 1000) they tend to trigger massive headaches, motion sickness and overall dizziness. Until I personally experience a curved monitor that doesn't do this I can't justify spending the money on something that will probably make me sick. This of course is a personal issue and I wouldn't want to discourage others from buying a curved monitor because of it as they seem to be the wave of the future to be sure. Thanks again. I'll probably post a couple more questions throughout the rest of the purchasing process and probably some more once building begins. Not sure if I'll disclose any of the parts that I ended up getting because half won't be what I would have gotten in a better economy and I wouldn't want to offend anyone.

Sticking with Windows 10 I've actually flipped back to building the system myself. I have a lot of the parts already in a shopping cart waiting for me to press the button. Just trying to work out a few more parts to add to the list then I'm good to go. Should be ordering everything this weekend. At least that's the plan anyways. I'm really hung up on the Monitor right now. I originally had my heart set on a 27" 1080p 144hz Flat Panel but now I'm thinking about a 27" 1440p 144hz Flat Panel. I've already ruled out curved displays for personal reasons but I just can't figure out where to go from there. I've seen a lot of 1440p monitors with 165hz or even 170hz. Are those the ones that I should actually be looking at or should I stick with 144hz regardless of resolution? I've heard good and bad things about 1080p on a 27" but it all seems to come down to personal preference and I'd love to get a 27" instead of a 24" if possible. I'm sure someone has some info that can set me straight on this.

Thanks for the insights Fox, very much appreciated. I'll reconsider the Intel vs AMD for the CPU. You make a lot of good points but for me it's very difficult not buying from the same company in which my last product from them lasted 11 years. I figure that in the least, from me anyways, they deserve a bit of brand loyalty and I just have this feeling that if I switch to AMD I'll have bad luck that will cause me to regret the decision. I know that on paper with all things considered AMD is the way to go to be sure so I'll reconsider. And yes, you're not the first to consider me stubborn but aren't we al? I only mention the i9 to show that with the parts that I'm considering there's still room to grow if need be down the road. My current system is an i9 but that's from a time when they weren't that expensive. In regards to graphic cards...There are several that I would consider even from the 1000 series but most of the sites that I've looked at that allow you to pick your own parts only offer 3000 series cards to choose from. There are a couple that offer some cards so I'll look hard at them before buying. Lastly, you have convinced me to avoid the 12th gen for now and all of the new parts that go with it. There's just no reason for someone in my position to be worried about all that right now and to be honest it just caused a headache. I'd rather stick with hardware that has been run through the trials a bit before going full steam ahead with absolutely brand new tech. The only other thing that is holding me up is choosing between Windows 10 and Windows 11. I haven't found a site yet that offers a choice as so far all of them either offer one or the other. I'd rather stick with Windows 10 so if others tell me to stick with that I'll avoid the sites that only offer 11. Oh and I'll be checking out Digital Storm today. It was on my list of 10 sites to look into and I'm pretty much only doing two a day until I pick the winner. Thanks again for all your help over the past year.

1 Year Anniversary Update... I've given up and decided to just buy a PC from a System Integrator (not a pre-built system). Not sure which one I'll use as I just started the deep dive research process but there are at least 10 good ones to choose from. This will be the first system that I haven't built myself in over 30 years so I'm a bit sad about that but I think waiting for over a year is good enough. How much more could you ask from a PC Gamer? At any rate, for anyone that would be interested in helping me to seal this deal, I'll probably post a couple of specific question here over the next week or so while I try to figure this all out. The thing that has me hung up right now is picking out the CPU since the 12th gen is right around the corner. I have decided to go with Intel (I know, I know) and I don't care about overclocking the CPU so I had the choices down to 3... the i5 10600, the i5 11400 or the i5 11600. I'm pretty certain that I can't go wrong with any of those choices (I'm upgrading from a 1st gen i9) but now that the 12th gen has entered the mix I'm not quite sure if I should go for that or not. Prices seem reasonable but it would require several other part upgrades that cost even more money (DDR5 RAM and Z690 Motherboard in the least). My current frame of mind is to get the 10th gen CPU with the intention of upgrading to a 11th gen i9 down the road. I think that that should last me a long time between the two chips. The GPU that I'm going with is the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti which will probably be the Founders Edition since that's what I expect most of these sites will offer. Lastly, concerning the PSU, it looks like it will either be 750W or 850W at the end of the day. Any thoughts or insights are welcome and Thanks Roland for not banning me for bumping this thread (again)...at least not yet

It's funny (not really) because as early as 2019 if I had asked that question the response would have been... "Don't buy a pre-built. Build your own. Watch a YouTube video. It's easy, less expensive and will be better overall." Oh, how times have changed so quickly. Thank you all for the informative replies. My research has shifted to a different focus now. Let's see if I can get something that would satisfy my desires. Not just for a system with certain parts but I've been building systems since the 80s. This will be a first (well, since the first and only store bought system that I had at 16).

Well it looks like things are getting worse instead of better with even more bad to come. Dare I ask...What company would you recommend for a pre-built? At this point I'm about to throw in the towel and say screw it.

I'm building 2 identical systems all the way down to the mouse pad. The rest is a general response and not aimed at the above quote... My personal sweet spot is high refresh 1080p so that's what I'm shooting for but all of the 1000 & 2000 series cards are way too expensive right now to bother with them so I'll hold out. I'm not in any hurry obviously since this whole project started in October of last year and it hasn't gone anywhere yet. I guess the point of the update was because I finally decided to get off my butt and be more pro-active about it. I hadn't signed up for any waiting lists or even done much research until last week. I started this thread and gathered a bunch of information as to where to start but so far that's as far as I've gotten until now. Newegg is selling EVGA cards still so if you're interested you might want to start paying attention to the shuffle every day. In the past 3-4 days they have had at least one EVGA 3000 offering in each shuffle. I know that it's a long shot but if you're already on a waiting list it's just another opportunity to try. At least the shuffle isn't based off of first come first serve but there is a lot of luck involved. There is an app that has push notifications so you won't miss a shuffle. It's worth the time to check out at least. If it takes another six months then this will become my 51st B-Day gift to myself instead of my 50th. By and by, it will also by my 30th year sober in November so hopefully all the stars will align for me. I know that you all are already wishing me luck :)

Raising this from the dead with an update if anyone cares... Still haven't budged on this project. Since it's been 6 months longer than planned I'm back to building 2 identical systems since the cash is now there for both. I'm looking at anything in the 3000 series. I've entered the Newegg Shuffle today for an EVGA RTX 3060, which is obviously the least performing card in the lot, so we'll see. It'll probably be awhile before anything happens. I'm looking at securing 2 GPUs then working around those for the other parts so I'm waiting to buy anything until I know exactly which cards I end up with. I really want the EVGA RTX 3060 Ti Ultra FTW3 but not only will it cost me an extra $150 each (need 2 after all) they'll probably be harder to come by. My price point right now is $500 per card give or take but that might increase depending on how long this actually takes. I know that the RTX 3060 isn't the best and it wouldn't normally be my first choice but considering all of the circumstances involved...I'll take it if I get the opportunity. In the least it's night & day compared to my current GTX 950 Anyways, thanks again to all of those that contributed. The insight has been extremely valuable and of course I look forward to whatever anyone would like to add at this point. I knew I could count on this community for a mature discussion. Peace.