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BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"

Stickman posted:

I though it was just the updated R6 and S2s that had usb-c so far?

Any Fractal case with "C" in the name seems to have USB-C. The Vector, Define, and Meshify all have options with USB-C. No Node or Focus cases do, though...yet.

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Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

BIG HEADLINE posted:

Any Fractal case with "C" in the name seems to have USB-C. The Vector, Define, and Meshify all have options with USB-C. No Node or Focus cases do, though...yet.

The specs still only list 2x3.0 (same with the Meshify C), and Fractal's picture of the i/o doesn't show any usb-c ports:



E: Not the best naming scheme, though :v:

BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"
Might defeat the purpose of a 'cheap' case, but it seems like Fractal decided people might be willing to pay for an I/O upgrade: https://www.fractal-design.com/products/accessories/connect-d1/black-white-grey/

But you are right, the presence of a "C" doesn't denote the presence of USB-C.

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

I looked into that one a while back, and sadly it's only compatible with the Define R6, which is too bad because I'm sure people would pay to add usb-c to a Meshify C or Define C :(

E: I could have sworn I found some sort of usb-c gen 2 extension hub that could just be stuck on to the top or side of the case, but it seems to be eluding me now.

EE: Maybe I'm just thinking of this replacement power button.

Stickman fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Nov 16, 2019

bus hustler
Mar 14, 2019

Action-Bastard posted:

Hey gang, plotting a build I'll probably do early next year. A friend who knows a little more about computers than I suggested I do a clean install of windows on my next system, prior my plan was to just pop in my same old SSD and go.


I actually disagree and think this will work OK. You are keeping the same GPU and drive. I won't go as far to say I recommend it, but I suspect it will turn out just fine if you do it and are comfortable dealing with any trouble that arises.

Windows 10 is very robust, and I've done more jarring shell swaps than this. Let me ask the question at the heart of your question: What's your concern with reinstalling? Licensed software you can't re-install? Just don't want to waste the time? You only have one drive and don't want to format? Maybe we can help there.

Ragingsheep posted:

Would a 5700 be sufficient in playing new games at high/ultra settings at 60fps at 1080p for the next 9 to 12 months (or whenever the 3070/3080 Ampere cards are supposed to come out)?

Yes most definitely, it's a hilarious amount of overkill. Are you buying one or hoping to flip, or you have one and are hoping to hang on to it? Because as a short term option it's way overkill, if you're buying new I would just plan to use it for years.

Ragingsheep
Nov 7, 2009

charity rereg posted:

Yes most definitely, it's a hilarious amount of overkill. Are you buying one or hoping to flip, or you have one and are hoping to hang on to it? Because as a short term option it's way overkill, if you're buying new I would just plan to use it for years.

I've got a 970 now which is getting to the point where you need to tinker with settings in newer games but I'm looking at a while system upgrade to a 3700x now and then hoping to get a high endish Ampere that will pretty much last until another 5 years.

Alternative is to just get a 2070S and hope people don't start putting ridiculous amounts of (good) raytracing in new releases.

Ragingsheep fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Nov 16, 2019

Vasler
Feb 17, 2004
Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?
I have a RAM-related question.

Right now I've got an i5 4670.

I can't figure out if newer Intel chips use the same RAM as the one I have.

I want to add more RAM to my current setup. Right now I have DDR3. I see that DDR4 is what new intel chipsets use. Is it a better idea to just upgrade to a new PC or to buy some more RAM? Looks like new chipsets only use DDR3s so they wouldn't be cross-compatible.

In the meantime, I was thinking about buying a new video card (have a 970 right now, thinking about a 2070).

Does it make more sense to upgrade the whole thing all at once or to buy a video card and some RAM right now?

orange juche
Mar 14, 2012



Ragingsheep posted:

hope people don't start putting ridiculous amounts of (good) raytracing in new releases

It's extremely unlikely that they will be able to do this, unless they find a way to simplify the math required for the ray tracing pipeline, because as it is, the RTX GPUs are some of the largest GPUs by die area ever made. It's like having a second GPU on die that all it can do is calculate rays of light.

It'll be cheaper after the die shrink next year because less silicon will be required for the additional ray tracing bits, but it's still gonna be expensive and slow i think.

BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"

Vasler posted:

I have a RAM-related question.

Right now I've got an i5 4670.

I can't figure out if newer Intel chips use the same RAM as the one I have.

I want to add more RAM to my current setup. Right now I have DDR3. I see that DDR4 is what new intel chipsets use. Is it a better idea to just upgrade to a new PC or to buy some more RAM? Looks like new chipsets only use DDR3s so they wouldn't be cross-compatible.

In the meantime, I was thinking about buying a new video card (have a 970 right now, thinking about a 2070).

Does it make more sense to upgrade the whole thing all at once or to buy a video card and some RAM right now?

1. If you currently have 16GB, you don't need any more RAM. And you're correct - both AMD and Intel are using DDR4 now, and will continue to for probably the next 2-3 years.
2. The 2060S is - more or less - the same as an original 2070. The original 2070 is ~3-5% faster than the 2060S, which is effectively falling into a 'margin of error' range performance-wise. The 2070 Super has gotten down to $489, but that's a little rich.
3. Again, if you're running *at least* 8GB of RAM...I wouldn't upgrade that unless you're planning on keeping this system for another 12-16 months. Buying a new GPU isn't an awful decision right now since there are two rumors about nVidia's next gen: that the x80 part won't be out in retail channels until June-July 2020 or later, or that it won't be out until the latter half of 2021. It all depends on what resolution/refresh rate you're using *now* and what res/rate you'll be using with a new system/monitor.

Vasler
Feb 17, 2004
Greetings Earthling! Do you have any Zoom Boots?

BIG HEADLINE posted:

1. If you currently have 16GB, you don't need any more RAM. And you're correct - both AMD and Intel are using DDR4 now, and will continue to for probably the next 2-3 years.
2. The 2060S is - more or less - the same as an original 2070. The original 2070 is ~3-5% faster than the 2060S, which is effectively falling into a 'margin of error' range performance-wise. The 2070 Super has gotten down to $489, but that's a little rich.
3. Again, if you're running *at least* 8GB of RAM...I wouldn't upgrade that unless you're planning on keeping this system for another 12-16 months. Buying a new GPU isn't an awful decision right now since there are two rumors about nVidia's next gen: that the x80 part won't be out in retail channels until June-July 2020 or later, or that it won't be out until the latter half of 2021. It all depends on what resolution/refresh rate you're using *now* and what res/rate you'll be using with a new system/monitor.

Thanks for the response and sorry for leaving information out, that wasn't my intention.

Video cards are confusing to me right now (I've also asked about them in the GPU thread and am still confused at all the options). I don't remember "S" as a thing when I bought my 970.

I have 8 GB of RAM right now and am using a 970. I game at 1080p and won't be changing that any time soon.

For some reason, I thought the 2070S was way better than the 2060S. I wonder why I thought that.

It sounds to me like a good medium-ground approach is to just buy a 2070S/2080S and leave my memory as is?

Looking at my case, I have two 4 GB sticks and 2 slots available, but my CPU heatsink/fan covers one slot so I really only have 1 slot available. Does RAM still need to be paired?

Schadenboner
Aug 15, 2011

by Shine
Is ray tracing in any of the consoles? I’d guess that getting included will be the spark that kicks off mass inclusion in games?

But I know fuckall about game development so :shrug:?

BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"

Vasler posted:

I have 8 GB of RAM right now and am using a 970. I game at 1080p and won't be changing that any time soon.

For some reason, I thought the 2070S was way better than the 2060S. I wonder why I thought that.

It sounds to me like a good medium-ground approach is to just buy a 2070S/2080S and leave my memory as is?

Looking at my case, I have two 4 GB sticks and 2 slots available, but my CPU heatsink/fan covers one slot so I really only have 1 slot available. Does RAM still need to be paired?

The "S" thing is new. The 2060S and 2070 are, for all intents and purposes, the same card. They use the same core revision. The 2070S is ~10% faster than the original non-Super 2070 and 2060S, and usually ~$80-120 more expensive for that relatively small boost.

The 2080S is a terrible value. If you can find a 2070S for ~$480 (there's a Zotac 2070S on Amazon for $490 at the moment), that's not a terrible buy, but anything around or over $500 is poorly priced.

RAM needs to be paired to gain the advantage of dual channel addressing. With regards to new RAM, don't spend any more than this: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820231637

Be careful not to buy DDR3L. The set I linked is the right kind and it's sold directly by Newegg, not a Chinese reseller.

Schadenboner posted:

Is ray tracing in any of the consoles? I’d guess that getting included will be the spark that kicks off mass inclusion in games?

But I know fuckall about game development so :shrug:?

Not yet, but enough noise has been made about it that I expect *some* implementation of it (certainly not nVidia's, as both MS and Sony have committed to AMD at this point) to make it into the new consoles.

BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Nov 16, 2019

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

I feel like ray tracing will be a big push with the next gen console refresh. So like 5 years from now with the PS5 Pro.

orange juche
Mar 14, 2012



Schadenboner posted:

Is ray tracing in any of the consoles? I’d guess that getting included will be the spark that kicks off mass inclusion in games?

But I know fuckall about game development so :shrug:?

Supposedly both the new Microsoft console as well as the PS5 have ray tracing built in. How good that ray tracing is, is up in the air. As above, ray tracing is expensive both in silicon and computational load, so the ray tracing that the consoles use will probably not be anything on the level of what PCs can do.

orange juche fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Nov 16, 2019

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

Vasler posted:

In the meantime, I was thinking about buying a new video card (have a 970 right now, thinking about a 2070).

What's your monitor's resolution/refresh rate? If you have a 1080p/60Hz monitor the 2070 Super is an overkill right now (and the 2060 Super is just mostly an overkill). If you have a 1440p monitor, the 2070 Super is a decent choice, though a 5700 XT is $100 less and has similar performance minus the raytracing.

Here's some 5700 XT/2060 Super/2070 Super benchmarks to give you an idea of the maximum performance you might expect at high/ultra settings, but keep in mind that you can get an additional 30-60% performance in most games by turning down settings. Your processor might hold you back from achieving higher frame rates in some games, but you should still be okay up to 50-60 in pretty much anything and higher most of the time.

Stickman fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Nov 16, 2019

Stickman
Feb 1, 2004

orange juche posted:

Supposedly both the new Microsoft console as well as the PS5 have ray tracing built in. How good that ray tracing is, is up in the air. As above, ray tracing is expensive both in silicon and computational load, so the ray tracing that the consoles use will probably not be anything on the level of what PCs can do.

Both consoles are also powered by AMD gpus, so at the very least it'll probably be somewhat different to work with than NVidia's RTX. Hopefully it'll be close enough that porting will be easy!

UchihaHirou
Mar 8, 2007

Active Skill:
Solves all problems.
My 4-year old gaming computer died either due to the CPU or the motherboard going bad. Would like some help building a new one. My old card is a GTX 980 TI, but I picked up a 34" AW3418DW monitor during last year's Black Friday sale that I would like to use at 1440p, so my preference is to upgrade to a better NVIDIA card with G-Sync. My budget is $1500 and I live driving distance from a Micro Center.

What country are you in? Murica
What are you using the system for? Gaming
What's your budget? $1500
If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”? 1440p, fancy but not over my budget

My old case is a NZXT Noctis 450 ATX Mid Tower Case that I could potentially reuse, but if it's easier just to buy a new one, I'd be fine with that.

UchihaHirou fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Nov 16, 2019

Gnumonic
Dec 11, 2005

Maybe you thought I was the Packard Goose?
I'm going to rip out the Mobo/GPU/RAM of a super budget G4560 build I did around a year and a half ago to upgrade, but I have a PSU and GPU question.

This is what I've settled on for now:

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 8 GB RED DRAGON Video Card ($359.99 @ Amazon)

(Case, PSU, HDD/SSD are from the old build.)


I have a Seasonic Bronze 520w PSU from my old build. AMD says I need a 650w PSU for the rx5700, but (after I plug in a generic SSD and HDD), the Seasonic calculator and PCPartPicker both say that this thing won't pull more than 400w without overclocking. Seasonic puts me at around 440w if I overclock the 5700 as far as possible but since I'll be playing games at 1080p and 1440p (maybe some *much* older games, like Dark Souls 1/2, in 4k on a 4k tv) I probably don't need to overclock/unlock any time soon. Am I good with my 520w supply despite what AMD says?

I'm already stretching my budget super far so and I can't really swing the price of a new PSU on top of this, so if the 5700 would be pushing it with my 520w PSU, what's the next best alternative for $350ish or less? I was kinda stretching my budget specifically for this card, the 2060 non-super seems overpriced for what it is, it almost seems like it'd make more sense to get a 1660 Super and then just buy a 3660 or 4660 super or whatever when that ends up not being enough. I'm coming from a 1060 3gb which still runs a lot of stuff pretty well but I hate having to turn textures down when a game needs a hair over 3gb vram, so any substantial improvement on that would be welcome.

orange juche
Mar 14, 2012



UchihaHirou posted:

My 4-year old gaming computer died either due to the CPU or the motherboard going bad. Would like some help building a new one. My old card is a GTX 980 TI, but I picked up a 34" AW3418DW monitor during last year's Black Friday sale that I would like to use at 1440p, so my preference is to upgrade to a better NVIDIA card with G-Sync. My budget is $1500 and I live driving distance from a Micro Center.

What country are you in? Murica
What are you using the system for? Gaming
What's your budget? $1500
If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”? 1440p, fancy but not over my budget

My old case is a NZXT Noctis 450 ATX Mid Tower Case that I could potentially reuse, but if it's easier just to buy a new one, I'd be fine with that.

Well, pushing a 3440x1440 panel at an acceptable framerates will require a minimum of a 2070 Super, as an OG 2080(about the same thing, 2080 is about 5% faster for 20% more price) gets it done between 70 and 110 fps at high settings for the vast majority of modern games.

Gimme 20-30 mins and I'll get something together for you to look over.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler ($74.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($162.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($72.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($118.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card ($499.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Walmart)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1363.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-16 04:33 EST-0500

There is wiggle room in this build, can save around 50 bucks stepping down to a B450 Tomahawk board, but you'd probably have to swap the memory out for 3200mhz as well, as the motherboard probably doesn't list a speed high enough to take advantage of that 3600mhz memory. The CPU cooler is not required, as the packaged cooler is perfectly fine for stock clocks, and mild overclocking, but that Dark Rock 4 runs 10 Celsius cooler than the stock one because it's bigger, so the aftermarket cooler is entirely optional.

orange juche fucked around with this message at 10:44 on Nov 16, 2019

Bryter
Nov 6, 2011

but since we are small we may-
uh, we may be the losers

Gnumonic posted:

I'm going to rip out the Mobo/GPU/RAM of a super budget G4560 build I did around a year and a half ago to upgrade, but I have a PSU and GPU question.

This is what I've settled on for now:

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 8 GB RED DRAGON Video Card ($359.99 @ Amazon)

(Case, PSU, HDD/SSD are from the old build.)


I have a Seasonic Bronze 520w PSU from my old build. AMD says I need a 650w PSU for the rx5700, but (after I plug in a generic SSD and HDD), the Seasonic calculator and PCPartPicker both say that this thing won't pull more than 400w without overclocking. Seasonic puts me at around 440w if I overclock the 5700 as far as possible but since I'll be playing games at 1080p and 1440p (maybe some *much* older games, like Dark Souls 1/2, in 4k on a 4k tv) I probably don't need to overclock/unlock any time soon. Am I good with my 520w supply despite what AMD says?

I'm already stretching my budget super far so and I can't really swing the price of a new PSU on top of this, so if the 5700 would be pushing it with my 520w PSU, what's the next best alternative for $350ish or less? I was kinda stretching my budget specifically for this card, the 2060 non-super seems overpriced for what it is, it almost seems like it'd make more sense to get a 1660 Super and then just buy a 3660 or 4660 super or whatever when that ends up not being enough. I'm coming from a 1060 3gb which still runs a lot of stuff pretty well but I hate having to turn textures down when a game needs a hair over 3gb vram, so any substantial improvement on that would be welcome.

GPUs and CPUs tend to overstate their PSU requirements as they don't know if you're using a good brand like seasonic or something decidedly more dodgy. Also PSUs operate at their peak efficiency in machines drawing around 50% of their rated wattage, so it's technically optimal to use a higher rated one, but it's not a huge deal by any means if you're sticking with a good brand. 520W will be fine, just make sure it's not so old that it's out of warranty.

bus hustler
Mar 14, 2019




orange juche posted:


There is wiggle room in this build, can save around 50 bucks stepping down to a B450 Tomahawk board, but you'd probably have to swap the memory out for 3200mhz as well, as the motherboard probably doesn't list a speed high enough to take advantage of that 3600mhz memory. The CPU cooler is not required, as the packaged cooler is perfectly fine for stock clocks, and mild overclocking, but that Dark Rock 4 runs 10 Celsius cooler than the stock one because it's bigger, so the aftermarket cooler is entirely optional.

There's a few dollars to save here without the compromise because of microcenter. You can get the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 AM4 for $95 after Rebate with the bundle price there :eyepop: And it's totally up to him, Microcenter also sells the Inland Profesional non m2 1TB SSD for $80, so just over $100 savings - totally his preference on that. And the processor is like $5 less, but Amazon is getting aggressive with matching.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/508183/inland-professional-1tb-ssd-3d-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-25-internal-solid-state-drive (80)
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608721/asrock-x570-phantom-gaming-4-am4-atx-amd-motherboard (95 after rebate)
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608320/amd-ryzen-5-3600-36ghz-6-core-am4-boxed-processor-with-wraith-stealth-cooler (190)

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

If I lived near a Microcenter I'd be broke

orange juche
Mar 14, 2012



charity rereg posted:

There's a few dollars to save here without the compromise because of microcenter. You can get the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 AM4 for $95 after Rebate with the bundle price there :eyepop: And it's totally up to him, Microcenter also sells the Inland Profesional non m2 1TB SSD for $80, so just over $100 savings - totally his preference on that. And the processor is like $5 less, but Amazon is getting aggressive with matching.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/508183/inland-professional-1tb-ssd-3d-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-25-internal-solid-state-drive (80)
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608721/asrock-x570-phantom-gaming-4-am4-atx-amd-motherboard (95 after rebate)
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608320/amd-ryzen-5-3600-36ghz-6-core-am4-boxed-processor-with-wraith-stealth-cooler (190)

While you can compromise on the board, ASRock has notoriously bad tech support, and there are people who've purchased the board who report that the board won't POST with ram that is clocked above 3466mhz over on /r/buildapc on Reddit. I know it's Reddit but they take hardware advice fairly seriously. MSI boards, while a bit more expensive, are really flexible on what memory you can put in them and get them to boot.

Basically if you're spending $190 on a processor don't spend $90 on a motherboard. Those inland drives are fine though, but you're stepping down to SATA3 from NVME, so they're a bit slower in max read/write speeds.

orange juche fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Nov 16, 2019

UchihaHirou
Mar 8, 2007

Active Skill:
Solves all problems.
Thanks for the build! This is just what i was looking for as a starting point.

bus hustler
Mar 14, 2019

Good news! I just missed this at Microcenter:
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus ATX AM4 AMD Motherboard
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608747/msi-mpg-x570-gaming-plus-atx-am4-amd-motherboard
172.99
$162.99 After Rebate
Save $30 when bundled with a compatible eligible processor
=$133

bus hustler fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Nov 16, 2019

Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe
Sorry to be asking this but I wanted to know if my current system will be at least sufficient until the next gen consoles drop. The only big name games/system pushers on my wishlist right now are Doom Eternal and Dying Light 2. Not sure if Disco Elysium needs much but that's also something else I'm interested in. I play games at 1440p at 144hz using gsync.

System:

i7-7700k
GTX 1070
16gb ram

My current strategy was to not buy anything until the next gen consoles drop and then just put together a new PC then.

BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"

Ryuga Death posted:

Sorry to be asking this but I wanted to know if my current system will be at least sufficient until the next gen consoles drop. The only big name games/system pushers on my wishlist right now are Doom Eternal and Dying Light 2. Not sure if Disco Elysium needs much but that's also something else I'm interested in. I play games at 1440p at 144hz using gsync.

System:

i7-7700k
GTX 1070
16gb ram

You're going to notice more bottlenecking because of your 4/8 CPU relatively soonish. A 2060S is ~20-25% faster than a 1070, but so long as you don't run everything at Ultra, your system will likely keep you happy for another 12-18 months before you really start feeling the itch. By that point we should know more about Zen 4 (Zen 3 should be out by then) and Intel's supposed ~new hotness~ (don't hold your breath).

orange juche
Mar 14, 2012



charity rereg posted:

Good news! I just missed this at Microcenter:
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus ATX AM4 AMD Motherboard
https://www.microcenter.com/product/608747/msi-mpg-x570-gaming-plus-atx-am4-amd-motherboard
172.99
$162.99 After Rebate
Save $30 when bundled with a compatible eligible processor
=$133

Microcenter really is the best drat thing

MikeC
Jul 19, 2004
BITCH ASS NARC

Stickman posted:

Thanks for writing all this great stuff out! At the beginning where you talk about asking the thread, I'd mention that prices change and there are a lot of interchangeable parts, so there's a good chance that asking will shave a bit of the cost the build. I'd also mention the motherboard/cpu combo deals at Microcenter for US folks.

In the budget builds, the Corsair CX (2017) basically the same price as the VS for a newer, higher-quality design.

For the ultra-budget build, the 3400g and 2400g have close to identical gaming performance and dropping down lets you move to a cheaper (but still upgrade-capablee) motherboard. I also switched to the cheaper Masterbox Q300L, which really needs the extra intake fan but still comes out cheaper and more compact. That'll either save $70 or give headroom for upgrade to a 1TB drive. It might also be worth mentioning that swapping out to Ryzen 1600 + 1650/570 is just ~$100 more and would vastly improve performance in more demanding games, but that might be better relegated to thread advice.

MSi's Armor cooling was still terrible when the 580 was released, so I'd avoid that particular model. Unfortunately, 580 prices aren't what they once were and the cheapest model I'd recommend is only $20 away from a decent 1660 (the Ventus doesn't have fan-stop, but it's cooling is fine).

E: For the "Flex" build, I'd probably just go ahead and throw in a Meshify C. It's a decent build-quality upgrade over the P400 for only $20. I'd also just stick to 3200MHz RAM - G.Skill lists that 3600 kit as only qvl for a few top-end x570 boards, so it could potentially have XMP issues.

I'd also probably mention that the 2080 Super is a "splurge" upgrade - it's a pretty marginal ~15% performance boost for $300 over the XT (or $200 over the 2070 Super).

EE: Apparently the su750 is dramless so I'd probably just recommend spending the extra $5 for an su800 to avoid the extra wear-and-tear.

I made several of the changes you suggested. Thanks for looking it over, especially shaving off more money on the ultra-budget build.

The 3600 DDR Ram for Flex and up builds I think should stay even if you want a b450 board. The performance gain is real unless you get really bad timings. The Tomahawk Max has plenty of 3600 QVL ram available and it is just a matter of getting them a kit that is reasonable when they ask. I made sure to say that they are essentially "placeholders". For the last build I just put in the 2080 Ti. If someone wants to spend for a 4k build which is already well past the sweet spot, might as well start them off with the best.

fat bossy gerbil
Jul 1, 2007

I gave my father a computer I built in 2015. It’s got one of those asrock boards with a soldered on Celeron, 4gb ddr3 and a single platter drive. He only uses it to watch YouTube lessons for his pedal steel guitar. It’s got a decent Antec basic power supply that I’d like to harvest for my own use, but the only thing I have to replace it with is a crappy Turbolink 500w unit that I pulled from a friends PC when I gave him a new video card because it didn’t have a gpu connector. I was just going to give him the card but I had to give him my spare psu too.

I know you shouldn’t use crappy power supplies but surely this thing is up to the task? The machine can’t use more than like forty watts tops.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

fat bossy gerbil posted:

I gave my father a computer I built in 2015. It’s got one of those asrock boards with a soldered on Celeron, 4gb ddr3 and a single platter drive. He only uses it to watch YouTube lessons for his pedal steel guitar. It’s got a decent Antec basic power supply that I’d like to harvest for my own use, but the only thing I have to replace it with is a crappy Turbolink 500w unit that I pulled from a friends PC when I gave him a new video card because it didn’t have a gpu connector. I was just going to give him the card but I had to give him my spare psu too.

I know you shouldn’t use crappy power supplies but surely this thing is up to the task? The machine can’t use more than like forty watts tops.

On the one hand, it'll probably work, but on the other hand is it really worth the effort to pull a 4 year old PSU to re-use and swap it? It's getting kind of old at that point. I usually buy a spare PSU on black friday to have one sitting around so you might be able to get a good deal on something quality in less than two weeks. Last year I got a 1000W EVGA 80+ Gold G3 for $99. In previous years I've picked up 750 Watt gold PSUs for $60-70.

OBAMNA PHONE
Aug 7, 2002
drat it sucks theres hardly any microcenters on the west coast

IndianaZoidberg
Aug 21, 2011

My name isnt slick, its Zoidberg. JOHN F***ING ZOIDBERG!
I asked about building an Unraid server on the old thread, but I have another question.

I've priced out something without drives and it's doable, but I've also found some prebuilt servers with hot-swap drive bays on eBay and wanted to get your option on them.

This is the eBay search page.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1312.R1.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xunra.TRS1&_nkw=unraid+server&_sacat=0
What looks good? I'm looking for mass storage and using files threw my network while they are on the server, and to run a Plex server with probably a max of 4 streams simultaneously, but 90% of the time it will probably be only 1 or maybe 2.

I don't know anything about Xeons or if 1 CPU is better or worse then 2.

Basically I have no idea what I am doing and don't even know if this is a good idea. Any thoughts?

Schadenboner
Aug 15, 2011

by Shine
MILD-to-MODERATELY HYPE FOR CYBERPUNK 2077.

I hope a 1660S will be enough to drive 1080 good, though?

:ohdear:

Scruff McGruff
Feb 13, 2007

Jesus, kid, you're almost a detective. All you need now is a gun, a gut, and three ex-wives.

IndianaZoidberg posted:

I asked about building an Unraid server on the old thread, but I have another question.

I've priced out something without drives and it's doable, but I've also found some prebuilt servers with hot-swap drive bays on eBay and wanted to get your option on them.

This is the eBay search page.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1312.R1.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xunra.TRS1&_nkw=unraid+server&_sacat=0
What looks good? I'm looking for mass storage and using files threw my network while they are on the server, and to run a Plex server with probably a max of 4 streams simultaneously, but 90% of the time it will probably be only 1 or maybe 2.

I don't know anything about Xeons or if 1 CPU is better or worse then 2.

Basically I have no idea what I am doing and don't even know if this is a good idea. Any thoughts?

Those can be a good way to get into home servers but there are some things to consider. They will be loud since they're designed for use in a data center, especially 1-2U ones. Also replacement parts can sometimes be difficult to come by since they don't use consumer standards for stuff like the power supply and motherboard, you often have to find proprietary ones on eBay vs just running to Best Buy or Microcenter if something breaks. But if these things aren't that big a deal they're definitely worth a look. I know a number of people that have picked up old Dell Poweredge servers and love them.

With regards to the CPU, just punch it into Passmark to get a general idea of how it stacks up on relation to others in Plex performance. General rule of thumb is that every 2000 points represents another simultaneous transcode. If you don't expect more than 4 streams almost any processor will be fine, having two CPUs would be overkill.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

The apartment building that my sister-in-law's family lived in burnt down a week or so ago. Long story short, they had no renter's insurance and basically lost everything in the fire. The kids are particularly fond of gaming, and they lost their PCs, laptops and gaming console. I have a bunch of old parts in storage that I'm going to put together into a system for them to use to play primarily Minecraft and Fortnite. Specs from what I've managed to rummage through so far:

MSI 880GM-E43 Mainboard
AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz CPU
Microcenter 8GB DDR3 RAM
Sapphire Radeon 7850 2GB GPU
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD
Antec 450W PSU
Samsung 22" 1080p display w/HDMI

All I need is a case, kb and mouse; will be looking at BF deals to find good deals on those. My question is would the 7850 with the Phenom II be ok to run Fortnite at 1080p? I know Minecraft will be fine. Or should I try and look for a better used GPU? Or is the Phenom II going to bottleneck basically anything newer than a 7850? Also, do I need to re-paste the CPU? I think I built the system back in 2011-2012.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

teagone posted:

The apartment building that my sister-in-law's family lived in burnt down a week or so ago. Long story short, they had no renter's insurance and basically lost everything in the fire. The kids are particularly fond of gaming, and they lost their PCs, laptops and gaming console. I have a bunch of old parts in storage that I'm going to put together into a system for them to use to play primarily Minecraft and Fortnite. Specs from what I've managed to rummage through so far:

MSI 880GM-E43 Mainboard
AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz CPU
Microcenter 8GB DDR3 RAM
Sapphire Radeon 7850 2GB GPU
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD
Antec 450W PSU
Samsung 22" 1080p display w/HDMI

All I need is a case, kb and mouse; will be looking at BF deals to find good deals on those. My question is would the 7850 with the Phenom II be ok to run Fortnite at 1080p? I know Minecraft will be fine. Or should I try and look for a better used GPU? Or is the Phenom II going to bottleneck basically anything newer than a 7850? Also, do I need to re-paste the CPU? I think I built the system back in 2011-2012.

I haven't played fortnite in a while but I was able to get it running on a laptop with integrated graphics just by turning the resolution down. I think a dedicated GPU will play fortnite okay, although they may have to turn some settings down. The CPU is below their minimum spec, but their minimum spec is an i3 so it'll probably be fine.
https://www.wepc.com/benchmark/fortnite-system-requirements/

I'd give it a shot, something is better than nothing and just having an SSD will make the PC feel fast in general.

Ak Gara
Jul 29, 2005

That's just the way he rolls.
Got the Aquaero 6 + splitty 9 ordered, was wondering what fans to get and saw a funny noctua review



What, did he buy the 3000 rpm version with no controller? :v:

Anyhow, I ordered 7 of the chromax ones, and was thinking of picking up some phanteks halos lux for em.

BIG HEADLINE
Jun 13, 2006

"Stand back, Ottawan ruffian, or face my lumens!"

BraveUlysses posted:

drat it sucks theres hardly any microcenters on the west coast

From what I've heard, Fry's is on life support. Maybe Micro Center will swoop in and buy them (and their locations) out if/when they finally fold.

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Sniep
Mar 28, 2004

All I needed was that fatty blunt...



King of Breakfast
Last time I was in a Fry's I was looking for a lightning cable and they only had off brand. The employee told me to go to an apple store across the street, that they truly didn't even carry any apple lightning cables at all.

Wild.

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