Custom PC

[JCrook1028]

Personally I'd stick with Win 10. We all know how these Windows release are, 11 is gonna suck, bad. Unless you're really desperate I'd absolutely not breaking your pattern, Build the system yourself even if it means using your old gpu for another year. The value is pre builts, even with selecting the parts, simply is not there. I recently built my system (Ryzen7 3700x on an Asus x570 mb with 16 gig ddr4 3200 and a Seasonic 650 watt 80+ gold) and went to 15 select parts sites and every single one of them was a ripoff both in price and in lack of name brand parts options. I waited 6 months in EVGA queue for a 3070 til I couldn't stand it anymore then caved and paid too much for a 3060 ($629, same as I'm in queue for a 3070 for). I figure the shortage is gonna be another 6 months at least. I'm still in the queue so will probably buy the 3070 when my number finally hits and sell the 3060 for whatever I can get for it at the time. Up to you ofc but just my 2c. Go AMD and build it yourself. Don't ever buy cutting edge tech and especially never early adopt any new Windows release.

[Fox]

Windows 10 will be expiring / losing support soon (I don't remember the exact date, but it's not too soon either), forcing us all to migrate over to 11 just like they did with Windows 7. So, just keep that in mind. At least updating to 11 is free, so there's no reason to beta test their junk.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[DJQuad]

In 4 years.

[Boidster]

21 hours ago, JCrook1028 said:

I figure the shortage is gonna be another 6 months at least.

 

Emphasis on "at least".

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/no-end-in-sight-for-chip-shortage-as-supply-chain-problems-pile-up/

 

Quote

“The shortages are going to continue indefinitely,” Brandon Kulik, head of Deloitte’s semiconductor industry practice, told Ars. “Maybe that doesn’t mean 10 years, but certainly we’re not talking about quarters. We’re talking about years.”

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by Boidster (see edit history)

[Fox]

EVGA claimed to have a queue in the millions... that includes me in that list who has been waiting since October of last year. I think 6 months is wishful thinking at this point. If only these billion dollar companies could expand their business and build more factories, etc...

[BioFringe]

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.

[SylenThunder]

3 hours ago, BioFringe said:

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.

Curious about the preference on the flat panel. Though at 27" it really won't make a big difference, however when you get to some of the larger sizes, the curved screen is very desireable.

 

I recently upgraded from 24" flat 1080p to a 35" curved 1440p. The difference is amazing.  Whatever resolution, I would stick with 144Hz. I mean honestly you don't need more than 60 unless you do a lot of gaming, but even with a lot of gaming you don't need above 144Hz unless it's competitive gaming.  Mine can do the adaptive 48Hz-144Hz, but is capable of overclocking to 165/170Hz. I've only seen it hit the upper ones in testing though.

Really it comes down to what your budget is. I managed to snag this 35" for about $250, but they can usually start around $350-$450.

[Star69]

I currently have this one and enjoy using it though I'm thinking of upgrading to another monitor that has PIP: AmazonSmile: ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28” HDR Gaming Monitor 4K (3840 x 2160) IPS FreeSync Eye Care DisplayPort Dual HDMI HDR 10 : Everything Else

[Fox]

21 hours ago, BioFringe said:

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.

I currently have 2x 27" monitors. One of them is an Acer Predator 27" 1080p curved G-Sync 144Hz VA panel for gaming, while the other is a Dell U2717D 27" 1440p flat IPS 60Hz panel for media consumption.

 

I regret going with 1080p on a 27" screen because I can notice the jagged edges more while gaming which sucks. So I would definitely recommend 1440p on a 27". That way, you won't have to rely so much on anti-aliasing. I also recommend avoiding TN panels as they really suck. VA and IPS are really good aside from the initial edge glow that eventually goes away over time (or maybe I just don't notice them anymore). Avoid organic panels such as OLED, they get burn-in way too quickly and the tech just isn't ready for PC yet. If you want HDR, then pay the extra and get as many dimming zones as possible to avoid weird light effects. As far as curved vs flat, I'll admit it took some getting used to, but as long as it's on the desk and not a large tv where you sit several feet away from it and at different angles, I have no regrets going with it for gaming as it immerses you into it a little better. I imagine it'd be even better on an ultra wide too. However, I would not recommend curved if you spend more time consuming media than gaming as the edges would feel too rounded. Also, 120Hz to 144Hz is really all anyone needs for smooth gaming, unless you're really into competitive gaming and look for any excuse as to why you suck. Linus Tech Tips showed that most ppl can't tell the difference between 144Hz and higher and they even had a famous twitch streamer who competes all the time showed that his results in gaming doesn't change at all with 60Hz vs 144Hz as it's all about muscle memory and reflex to him. I myself run some games at 60Hz if it's just a casual slow paced game to keep my GPU fans from spinning up. As for 4k resolution, I personally feel like GPUs are still not quite ready for it yet because game devs keep releasing games that are more demanding than ever and benchmarks show that 4k still struggles to achieve 60fps, and while that sounds fine, keep in mind that 60fps unstable looks and feels far worse than 60fps stable due to frame times.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[Vampirenostra]

Good pick Fox! For others who also work I can recommend the DELL U3419W which I'm using for like 3 years. 4K curved VA panel, it took some time to get used to it after working with 2x24 + 15, but I'll never go back from big screen anymore.

[JCrook1028]

20 hours ago, BioFringe said:

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.

Youtube channel "Hardware Unboxed" does excellent in depth reviews of monitors. they are your source for actual info on the subject.

Edited November 2, 2021 by JCrook1028 (see edit history)

[BioFringe]

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.

[Fox]

On 11/3/2021 at 11:20 AM, BioFringe said:

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.

Oh... well... if you're going legally blind, then there's no point in getting a 1440p fancy monitor right? Might as well save a lot of money and get a 1080p regular 60Hz monitor with maybe eye care feature which reduces the risk of headaches as it lowers the brightness on the blue LEDs. Not sure if that would help you at all though.

 

EDIT: Oh, ok... nvm.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

19 hours ago, BioFringe said:

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.

I went with an Asus TUF gaming VG259 monitor myself.  I deal with keratoconus so I don’t benefit either from the more expensive monitors.

[BioFringe]

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.

Edited November 4, 2021 by BioFringe (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

19 minutes ago, BioFringe said:

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.

Peep all you want.  Nobody has told me to be quiet yet  😉

 

I ended up building a new computer back in November of last year and I spent more than I intended, around $2200 I believe once I was done.  However, this was a completely new computer and replacing a previous one that was over 10 years old (and I think I spent $1500 back then for it).  I typically get 8+ years out of my computer every time I build it myself so I spread the money over the life of the computer.  It's a mental trick, but if this new one lasts 10 years, it doesn't hurt as much to say I spent $220 a year for the computer rather than the lump sum  😉  It seems to work with the wife.  She (not a gamer) does get the initial sticker shock when I informed her how much it ended up costing, but after explaining how much it is per year based on life expectancy (she is an engineer), it goes much smoother (not so if I have to spend another 2 grand in a few years  😒 ).

[Vampirenostra]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:41 PM, BFT2020 said:

Peep all you want.  Nobody has told me to be quiet yet  😉

 

I ended up building a new computer back in November of last year and I spent more than I intended, around $2200 I believe once I was done.  However, this was a completely new computer and replacing a previous one that was over 10 years old (and I think I spent $1500 back then for it).  I typically get 8+ years out of my computer every time I build it myself so I spread the money over the life of the computer.  It's a mental trick, but if this new one lasts 10 years, it doesn't hurt as much to say I spent $220 a year for the computer rather than the lump sum  😉  It seems to work with the wife.  She (not a gamer) does get the initial sticker shock when I informed her how much it ended up costing, but after explaining how much it is per year based on life expectancy (she is an engineer), it goes much smoother (not so if I have to spend another 2 grand in a few years  😒 ).

Huh, I just don't let myself start buying stuff for gaming, as I'll not stop myself after)) And I can't explain myself why spend 2k+ on a gaming rig when there are so many more opportunities to spend them with more sense). That is why I'm still using my company issued MacBook for gaming)) It is almost 4 years since I do not have a pc of my own))

[Fox]

1 hour ago, Vampirenostra said:

Huh, I just don't let myself start buying stuff for gaming, as I'll not stop myself after)) And I can't explain myself why spend 2k+ on a gaming rig when there are so many more opportunities to spend them with more sense). That is why I'm still using my company issued MacBook for gaming)) It is almost 4 years since I do not have a pc of my own))

Some ppl waste a lot of money on consoles and expensive games that never go on sale, others build PCs which have far more uses. Though I would agree that building a PC right now is such a bad idea due to paying twice as much for any GPU. I personally would just recommend building a fast office / media PC (with future upgrade in mind) for now and buy the GPU in a year or two from now if / when the prices become reasonable again.

[pApA^LeGBa]

You can try and get a GPU directly from AMD. It´s very lucky tough. They do "drops" where they sell a very small amount of cards for the MSRP, at least they used to do them. It´s every Thursday i think.

[w0nder_AXEL]

On 9/9/2020 at 12:36 PM, BioFringe said:

Not sure if this should be in General Support instead so please feel free to move it if need be.

 

Just looking for some advice on some parts for a new custom build that I'll be undertaking next month for my 50th. It's been 10 years since my last custom build (with some upgrades along the way, so I'm a bit rusty on what would be considered solid components. I'll need everything right down to the mouse pad and my total budget is $1500 (I'm actually building one for my other half so that's my budget per rig). I'm an Nvidia and Intel person so I would like to stick with those but other than that I'm open to suggestions. If anyone really likes their current video card and would like to comment I'd love to hear from you. Power Supply wattage is another important one that I'm interest in hearing about. I'm not going water cooled if that matters. I'd also like to stick with 1080p gaming and to get a new 24" monitor as well. I also like to build systems with really strong CPUs so that I only need to worry about upgrading the video card and ram in the future. My current CPU is a First Generation i7 and it's a freaking power house for lasting this long.

 

Oh, and if you can tell me where I can get another Logitech G510 Keyboard for less than $500 I'm all ears.

have you looked into the secondary market by chance? I've seen a lot of good deals on both parts and fully built rigs lately. I've went as far as purchasing a few parts in Reddit and from Ebay and they were cheaper than going to a store like Frys for example and you're helping someone else that probably needs a little cash! 

I definitely recommend if you do go the secondary market approach you make sure wherever you buy has a review system for sellers or I've even heard of the sellers willing to do a background check on one of those background sites like www.backgroundcheckrepair.org/ just to be safe and more than anything just to see if the seller is cool with you seeing who they are. I feel like you can never be too careful buying online nowadays but it can also be because I've been taken advantage of in the past. 

Anyway, although I know for sure the Logitech G510 Keyboard is amazing it's also pretty dang expensive. I've seen some others recommend some good alternatives that are a couple hundred lower in price. As you know, when building your own rig the less you spend on keyboards and that type of thing more you can spend on the graphics card and other important things that will help with immersion in the game. I've heard great things about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070

[BioFringe]

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.

 

[Fox]

Wait... ppl still buy sound cards these days? 😲

[BioFringe]

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.

[SylenThunder]

1 hour ago, BioFringe said:

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.

Put it in the bottom slot, and it should be fine.

[Sal]

@BioFringe Well I'd hate be "that guy" but I'm going to anyhow because my anxiety is killing me too much to ignore it lol.  If it were me I would've probably went with 12 gen but that's neither here nor there.

Not too bad of choices but I don't think your utilizing it's full potential though.

Having built alot of computers with this same case I can tell you for sure that you can get really good air flow and temps w/o using water cooling . But I would strongly suggest buying extra fans because your gonna need more than just 1x120 on each rear, top, and front to get good airflow at high usage. Especially if you live in a relatively warmer area or plan to keep the computer in a warmer part of your home (i.e near a heat vent, close to a wall, etc).

Speaking of air flow, that GPU is extremely hard to find (so I'm not even going to ask who you had to fxck to get one or how much it cost) and without better airflow, not only is it going to be screaming at you but you'll also see a dip in performance and lifespan too. Once the GPU reaches a certain temp threshold it will drop it's "performance usage" (for lack of a better term) in order to compensate for high temps to prevent itself from overheating. And in turn, you'll be experiencing nearly the same performance in your GPU that could've been found in another for about 1/3 of the price you paid for yours.

The case is also good for cable management and flexibility but that's also going to be a bit limited with a semi-modular PSU. Not really that big of a deal tho.

 

Having only 1TB of storage is very limited nowadays since a single game alone can take up to 150GB. I would suggest adding maybe a 4tb hdd as a secondary which can be had for less than 100.

The i5-116k is a solid choice if you plan to OC but this begs a few questions. If you plan to overclock then choosing memory with stock speeds of 3200 is going to be very limited. Your MB supports much faster ram so I suggest looking into an upgrade in the future. If do not plan to OC then fine.....but then why not just go with the i5-114 instead and save your self 100 bucks? The performance difference between the two are not very noticeable at all--even at stock speeds.

This is just my [unimportant] opinion and thoughts is all. Nevertheless, enjoy your PC man and congrats.

 

6 hours ago, Fox said:

Wait... ppl still buy sound cards these days? 😲

I haven't bought one of those since 2006 lol.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Sal (see edit history)