Custom PC

[Jugginator]

Yeah don't forget higher refresh rate monitors will burn out faster, too. And you, to be honest, don't need all of that unless you plan on playing twitch-shooters such as CSGO competitively. Even so, 60hz works fine.

[Jugginator]

14 minutes ago, BioFringe said:

Thanks for the insight on the SSD, I think I understand better now. Monitor is a bit trickier for me because I've never been one to worry too much about super big or super resolution. I play a lot of games where graphics just don't matter and I've been extremely happy with 1080p. Most likely, whatever monitor I get it will probably allow me to dabble in higher resolutions but for the most part I'm a 60 FPS VSync gamer. As a matter of fact...I've been know to be very satisfied with an FPS capped at 30 so I'm not sure how getting a higher refresh rate monitor will help me. If I'm going to cap with VSync or even Half-VSync why get a 75Hz monitor? Of course, that's a serious question as I'm open to all suggestions and insight.

 

Definitely got for an NVME/M.2 SSD. My load times in 7 Days are mere seconds versus a few minutes on an HDD. And it helps with performance.

 

Resolution and size are 100% up to your own eyes. Personally, I don't like 2k and up as a long-term play resolution because too much pretty and sharpness kills my eyes after a bit, I like a happy 720 - 1080 (although 2k/4k/8k is really really pretty lol). As far as refresh rates, FPS, etc., I do recommend at least staying at 60FPS and using something like Freesync or something outside of games if possible. To explain a bit more... maybe this will help ya (yes, it's based on CSGO but the theory is the same, and no you don't need to max your FPS when playing solo stuff or a game like 7 Days, it's just the theory of it all; I normally don't go for videos on research but a lot of people are visual learners and this is a visual thing lol):

 

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Jugginator (see edit history)

[BioFringe]

Thanks for the videos. I'll check them out this afternoon. I am in fact a visual learner so they could help. I'm like you in that higher resolutions hurt my eyes after a short period of time and anything over 60 FPS always seemed like overkill to me. Oh, and I don't plan on ever playing twitch games competitively and like I mentioned, I'm not a graphics whore...though I do appreciate beautiful graphics it's never been a must for me. Stability and Performance must come first and I'm always willing to sacrifice graphical fidelity and FPS for both. I also don't like a lot of the high end graphic options either...Can't stand Bloom, Depth of Field, High Shadows, etc. I'm pretty much a High Texture, High Detail with most other options lower or disabled. If I want to see something beautiful I'll just stare at my better half

[Teacyn]

Having a 120 or 144 Hz monitor is like stepping into another world, but I don't think they're at all important for slower games like this. Are they nice? absolutely. Should you focus on them? absolutely not.

[Jugginator]

Hah lol I'm the same way. I like crisp, clean textures and none of the jazz. Shaders are nice to have up there, too. I will say that 60 FPS is so good to have, and anything above that is vital for twitch-shooters but other than that, it just gives you a buffer to drop FPS and stay above 60 I guess lol. But, I do like keeping my refresh/fps the same to reduce screen tearing. Although I hate the input lag 99.99% of games cause with their native V-sync, so I never use it. And you're welcome. The first one in particular showcases it, the second is more on the refresh rate.

[Fox]

4 hours ago, BioFringe said:

Monitor is a bit trickier for me because I've never been one to worry too much about super big or super resolution. I play a lot of games where graphics just don't matter and I've been extremely happy with 1080p. Most likely, whatever monitor I get it will probably allow me to dabble in higher resolutions but for the most part I'm a 60 FPS VSync gamer. As a matter of fact...I've been know to be very satisfied with an FPS capped at 30 so I'm not sure how getting a higher refresh rate monitor will help me. If I'm going to cap with VSync or even Half-VSync why get a 75Hz monitor? Of course, that's a serious question as I'm open to all suggestions and insight.

I too tend to cap my fps to 60 or 72 depending on game even though I have a 144Hz G-Sync 27" 1080p monitor. I personally think 60fps is minimum for me these days cuz I can see the stutters in frame at anything lower than that. Personal preference I guess. Also, do note that a 27" screen at arm's reach is the absolute limit for 1080p resolution without making everything look all pixelated and ugly. So if you want to go bigger than 27", 1440p is my recommendation. 4k is kind of dumb unless you have a 40+ inch monitor at arm's reach and have the expensive hardware to run it.

 

Also, if you hate screen tearing, G-Sync is the way to go... or at least freesync as there's no added input lag from G-Sync (don't know much about freesync  though). This then allows you the option to disable the v-sync feature completely. I hate it too.

 

And based on your replies... I do now recommend forgetting about the RTX cards completely since you're not interested in high graphics settings anyways. I do recommend you wait for the prices to drop down a bit for the older cards to save a bit of money, and I would maybe recommend a GTX 1660 or if you're in a good location and are a bit lucky, a used GTX 1070, GTX 1080 or RTX 2060, RTX 2070. Ryzen 5 (any generation) is really all anyone needs for most gamers, but if you can get a 2600 or 3600, it'll give better memory support. B450 motherboard. Samsung Evo SSD (M.2 or sata, no difference). 650 watts bronze PSU or better. 16GB of ±3200MHz ram. Great balance in performance allowing you to spend more on a nicer monitor and accessories.

 

This is the case my sister just bought... very inexpensive while still looking quite nice and has great airflow... might interest you as well:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaKMTdWd_sI

Edited September 11, 2020 by Fox (see edit history)

[Hellsmoke]

While you are shopping i thought I'd throw my case in here for you. Researched cases for months and ended up here. Looks great, MASSIVE AIR FLOW, lots of room and just all around the best case I ever had. The price is a joke for what you get. 

http://www.phanteks.com/Eclipse-P600s.html

 

Also, I ended up getting the Rog Strix 2060 super and it's a beast, highly recommended.

[BioFringe]

Update:

 

I've decided to take everyone's advice and wait for a bit to see what happens with all the new releases. Safe to say that it's been a cluster f... in the industry over the past month and it's getting even harder to follow whats-what. Going to wait a bit longer until the 3060 and 3070 get released, then I'll make a decision on GPU & CPU...the rest should fall into place after that.

 

Biggest change over the month is that I've decided to build only 1 system as my current system is good enough for the types of games that my other half plays so she'll get a hand me down and I'll get a new system. The new budget for 1 system is $2000 for everything except for a keyboard and mouse pad (since I love my current ones).

 

If any one would like to chime in with their thoughts on the current situation in the GPU & CPU markets please do so. I'm very interested to hear what others think about what is going on and what I should do about it. In all honestly, the 30 series looks nice and the price points are reasonable but with such crappy stock availability among other issues I've read about the 20 series at discounted prices is starting to look pretty nice. Thoughts?

 

Thanks again to everyone that has offered their help. Much appreciated.

Edited October 21, 2020 by BioFringe (see edit history)

[stample]

Since you mentioned watercooling, thought I'd share this.  I just saw it a few days ago, and was surprised at how well good airflow works, and can even be better than watercooling (and certainly lasts longer).  I'm starting to really like Linus Tech Tips.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23vjWtUpItk

[pApA^LeGBa]

@BioFringe Good decision. The new Ryzen CPU´s look pretty good, but it was just a presentation by AMD, we need to wait for the independent benchmarks. AMD was pretty honest with the benchmarks when presenting the last generation tough.

 

The new Nvidia RTX 3000 is a paperlaunch, more likely to win some money at a slot machine than getting a RTX3000. They said the situation won´t change until 2021 (and didn´t name a specific date, not even wich quarter....). 

 

28th of October AMD presents their GPU line up, let´s all hope they can compete and deliver. Ryzen 5000 CPU´s should be in stores on Nov. 5th.

 

I personally wait with upgrades until after christmas. Usually you get some sweet deals in the first few days after christmas.

 

@stample is right about watercooling. Unless you go custom watercooling a good air cooler will outperform most AIO´s. If you don´t mind spending a bit of money on cooling, i would recommend a Noctua cooler. They provide a new montage system for free if you change your CPU and the old one doesn´t fit the new socket. Also they are pretty good and silent.

 

A case with good airflow is also importnant. Watch Gamers Nexus on YT for in depth case reviews.

Edited October 21, 2020 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[Mastermind]

Right now is probably the worst moment to buy something new.  With all the releases, it's probably better to wait a month or 2.

 

Depending on your budget, it might be better to aim for last generation, depending on price changes.  7DTD might not be crazy optimized(yet), but you don't need the latest and greatest either, especially on the CPU side. Until last year, I was still gaming on a FX 8350. I upgraded to a Ryzen 5 3600, but I haven't seen much difference to be honest. Maybe on some compute-intensive game (like mega factories in Factorio), but other than that, not much to write home about.

 

About resolution,  getting 2K was nice...  on a 27". If you're on a 22", that would be overkill. And below 32", 4K is probably overkill too.

 

As for GPU,  AMD is presenting their new one next week.  They had a benchmark preview of it earlier this month (when presenting their new CPU)suggesting it was competitive with the 3080, and there are speculations suggesting that the number presented wasn't even for their biggest GPU.  I guess we'll know next week.  I'm running the 5700XT so... I'll probably skip this generation.

 

About Intel vs AMD...  Yeah, AMD didn't compete with intel at the high end...  But they were always competitive in the rest of the spectrum (Except maybe the bulldozer era). There was people claiming "AMD is slower" and I was like "At any price point I care about, AMD is faster!". So, the fact that AMD now compete again with Intel in the high end isn't all that relevant to me because this is at a price point I don't really care about. I guess I just prefer value to flair.

[pApA^LeGBa]

@Mastermind Switching from an I5 4460 to a R5 3600 i had avery noticable difference in horde nights or when there is a larger number of zombies  Same for my mate who came from a FX8350 too. This game is CPU intense especially in horde night. 

 

You are propably in the GPU Limit so you don´t notice it. For 1080p there is a lot of a difference.

 

 

Edited October 21, 2020 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

9 hours ago, stample said:

Since you mentioned watercooling, thought I'd share this.  I just saw it a few days ago, and was surprised at how well good airflow works, and can even be better than watercooling (and certainly lasts longer).  I'm starting to really like Linus Tech Tips.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23vjWtUpItk

Yes, and way cheaper too. I have been using an Evo 212 for years with extreme overclocking, and with a positive-pressure case the temps are always nice. The Evo 212 is very similar to the Noctua he uses in that video, and about a third of the cost.  The Noctua fans are better though, and I have since upgraded the Evo's fans.  Next time I get one, I'll be getting the Noctua.

 

While the new AMD GPU's may be capable, we all saw the @%$#-show with the 5700. Over a year later, and they're still having driver issues that are un-resolved. Developers are having to bend over backwards to fix games to run on them properly. This has been a staple of ATI cards for as long as I can recall, and AMD buying ATI didn't change a thing. There is a good reason Nvidia is near 75% of the GPU market.

 

AMD's new line of CPU's is looking real interesting. And with Intel's underwhelming results in their last two generations, I don't see them improving much this time around. Hell, their videos advertising their latest generation mention AMD more than themselves.

[Fox]

1 hour ago, SylenThunder said:

And with Intel's underwhelming results in their last two generations, I don't see them improving much this time around. Hell, their videos advertising their latest generation mention AMD more than themselves.

2 generations? I think it's more like 4 generations (soon to be 5) being pretty much the exact same technology but slightly tuned and OC'd better, and will likely once again require yet another new motherboard for it just because Intel is Intel.

[SylenThunder]

21 minutes ago, Fox said:

2 generations? I think it's more like 4 generations (soon to be 5) being pretty much the exact same technology but slightly tuned and OC'd better, and will likely once again require yet another new motherboard for it just because Intel is Intel.

Well, 7th and 8th gens at least overclock pretty well enough to make them worthwhile.  I agree though that Intel has been a bit lackluster for a while. It was amazingly frustrating to see that the 10th gen wasn't any faster than the 9th gen, and in some cases was actually slower. I don't see the latest to have much of a change regardless of the new architecture. They showed real promise in the 3rd gen by going to 6-core CPU's, but then went right back to 4 for reasons I cannot fathom.  Upgrading does kick you in the ass with each generation having a different socket. Sometimes even within the same generation. AMD definitely made the right choice there.

[pApA^LeGBa]

@SylenThunder Well if there aint no Nvidia GPU´s you can buy all the stable drivers don´t mean anything. They still don´t have any clue when in 2021 the supply will be stable. The founders edition isn´t listed anymore. And the 2000 series is slowly vanishing from the stores. That´s what i call a @%$# show. The prices they called are BS also. If one is lucky enough to get a RTX3000 the price is for sure way more than the UVP.

 

Also there is hope that AMD has the drivers under control this time. We will see soon.

Edited October 22, 2020 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[BioFringe]

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.

Edited April 6, 2021 by BioFringe (see edit history)

[Jugginator]

Honestly all of the new cards are overkill unless you want 4k raytracing, so any of them are good. You said "need 2 after all", you don't mean SLI do you? IMO seems like a waste of money if so, be better spent elsewhere. Good luck in this market!

[Roland]

11 minutes ago, BioFringe said:

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

 

I went from a 960 to a 1650 and it was night and day. It think the worst of the lot is going to be absolutely amazing if you are able to get your hands on it.

[Fox]

Good luck getting any kind of decent graphics card right now. I've been trying to get my RTX 3080 since September, I even joined the waiting list at EVGA website in October, still waiting. My landlord is also waiting for pretty much any graphics card that will do 1440p video editing (aka 6GB video card).

 

Also, I get the impression that Newegg isn't receiving any EVGA cards at all anymore as EVGA sells them directly from their site now with their insanely high queued waiting list.

 

And you might want to hurry up and buy your CPU(s) as anything made with silicon is disappearing fast and could remain in massive demand for up to the next 5 years.

Edited April 6, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

From what I've been hearing, it's better to just buy a pre-built system with a card in it. Though you may still be at a bit of a lottery as to what card you get.  Estimates are that we won't really see much improvement until next summer.

 

[BFT2020]

Glad I limited my budget to the previous generation graphics cards and didn't even try to get the 3000 series.  My new system has a 2080 TI card in it and doing very good right now (everything set to max on my games).

 

Co-worker of mine was able to get the 3080 card through Best Buy...though he got it through a Special deal which required him to first purchase an UPS.

[BioFringe]

4 hours ago, Jugginator said:

Honestly all of the new cards are overkill unless you want 4k raytracing, so any of them are good. You said "need 2 after all", you don't mean SLI do you? IMO seems like a waste of money if so, be better spent elsewhere. Good luck in this market!

 

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 :)

[Roland]

@BioFringe just in case you missed this important announcement....

[Ornias]

My new system just went into build after a 3 month wait on the graphics card. I usually build my own, but I had no shot of getting a card this year.