Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.
I can think of two cases I've seen that have a built in PSU from which I wouldn't run screaming, both are ITX tiny boxes, and the cheaper one is 200 dollars.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

CodfishCartographer posted:

Turns out that it was trying to show the boot screen on my VR headset so I couldn't see it. The Headset is HDMI and my monitor is DisplayPort, so it must give that priority. Anyone know of a way to change which it prioritizes, or will I just need to remember to unplug my vive every time I wanna access the boot screen?

Bwahahahaha! No, you can only use the VR headset while accessing your BIOS. U r cyberpunk now!


But for serious: if you boot the PC from shutdown with only the DP monitor connected, it should keep that as the primary monitor the next time around, and the boot/bios will be on the DP monitor subsequently. That's how it's always worked for me across both nvidia & AMD video cards, I've had 2 monitors for ages. I'm not where that info is stored, but it's non-volatile -- unplugging the PC doesn't reset it, only a new GPU or disconnecting the primary monitor.

edit: note that you have to actually unplug the hdmi connection, not just have the screen turned off

Klyith fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Oct 6, 2020

KingKapalone
Dec 20, 2005
1/16 Native American + 1/2 Hungarian = Totally Badass
Would you take a 650W Seasonic Focus GX-650 for $101.50 or a 750W Corsair RM for $103.93?

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

What do you all think of this "modest gaming build" featured on PC Part Picker?

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/rjD48d/modest-intel-gaming-build

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

KingKapalone posted:

Would you take a 650W Seasonic Focus GX-650 for $101.50 or a 750W Corsair RM for $103.93?

Plain RM, not RMx?

Well, the Corsair is 100 more watts for $2 extra so probably that one. But the seasonic has a button on the back for semi-passive mode. If you're doing a low-noise build that might be nice. The RMx has automatic semi-passive (and a better corsair-brand fan), but not the RM.

(Actually *I* would choose the seasonic because I have seasonics already and that way I can keep the modular cables, but that's not relevant if you aren't in the same boat.)


Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:

What do you all think of this "modest gaming build" featured on PC Part Picker?

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/rjD48d/modest-intel-gaming-build

AMD is solidly beating intel for budget and mid-range performance right now, so mostly I think it's not very good compared to the AMD version.

PCpartspicker's automatic builds that choose things with their parametric filters can be something to watch out for, they sometimes select poor-quality / sketchy-brand parts when a much more solid choice is only a few bucks more.

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mDLfrr

Okay so I just worked backwards from the RAM and changed the motherboard, since I guess B450 is soon to be obsolete. Please let me know if my understanding is wrong.

quote:


AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor

Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard

Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory

Inland Premium 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

Asus GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB DUAL EVO OC Video Card

Cougar MX330-G ATX Mid Tower Case

EVGA SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply


Does this build make sense? Is there anything (besides the 32gb of ram) that I should downgrade to save a decent hunk of change without compromising much?

SMEGMA_MAIL fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Oct 6, 2020

Llamadeus
Dec 20, 2005

Klyith posted:

Well, the Corsair is 100 more watts for $2 extra so probably that one. But the seasonic has a button on the back for semi-passive mode. If you're doing a low-noise build that might be nice. The RMx has automatic semi-passive (and a better corsair-brand fan), but not the RM.
I think this came up once before, the RM does have a passive fan mode :v: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...#tab-tech-specs

Qwertycoatl
Dec 31, 2008

Jinnigan posted:

Hmm. Every several hours my monitors black out for a few seconds and then come back. sound stays on, computer stays on. I dont believe its related to GPU heat since its happening when I'm not gaming also (but i am gaming a lot), and as far as speccy can tell the GPU isn't going over 70c. I am undervolting at 800mV/1800MHz, not sure if that would cause it. Not sure how to narrow this issue down.

Sounds like maybe the GPU driver crashing. Do the logs in Windows's Event Viewer show anything happening when the monitors black out?

Frog Act
Feb 10, 2012



So I'm a tech-illiterate idiot and I want to install a new SSD in my tech-illiterate idiot Alienware computer. The extremely good and helpful posters in CSPAM pointed me to the manual here which seems to more or less outline the installation steps and implies that even a cretin like me could do it. I looked around for U.2 drives and they seem really expensive but since I just want a normal SSD to slap in this fucker for Cyberpunk 2077, it sounds like I only need an M.2 drive, which might be cheaper? Anyway, I'm wondering this this thread could guide me to a reasonably affordable SSD and give me any important installation / compatibility tips so I don't order something I can't use or order something I can use then burn my entire computer down trying to stick it in there.

Butterfly Valley
Apr 19, 2007

I am a spectacularly bad poster and everyone in the Schadenfreude thread hates my guts.
You need to provide more information, because that manual is just general info and doesn't specifically state what configuration you have and thus what components you need. Do you have the receipt showing what spec you initially ordered? Either that or follow the steps outlined here and tell us what you find.

It may be that you have to physically open the case and take a picture of the motherboard or try to see what brand/make it is to give us an idea of what connections you have, although I imagine you should be able to buy a standard 2.5 inch SSD and throw it in there, which is gonna set you back ~$100 for a 1tb drive. Only one of the options lists an M.2 drive, which might mean only 1 of the specs even has that connector and it's already being used. Or maybe it's the same motherboard for all the specs and they just ship with different drives, difficult to know.

Butterfly Valley fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Oct 6, 2020

MrKatharsis
Nov 29, 2003

feel the bern

Frog Act posted:

So I'm a tech-illiterate idiot and I want to install a new SSD in my tech-illiterate idiot Alienware computer. The extremely good and helpful posters in CSPAM pointed me to the manual here which seems to more or less outline the installation steps and implies that even a cretin like me could do it. I looked around for U.2 drives and they seem really expensive but since I just want a normal SSD to slap in this fucker for Cyberpunk 2077, it sounds like I only need an M.2 drive, which might be cheaper? Anyway, I'm wondering this this thread could guide me to a reasonably affordable SSD and give me any important installation / compatibility tips so I don't order something I can't use or order something I can use then burn my entire computer down trying to stick it in there.

Once you figure out the compatibility situation, the Paul’s Hardware YouTube channel has very good PC assembly/upgrade instructional videos for the tech illiterate.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

SpaceSDoorGunner posted:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mDLfrr

Okay so I just worked backwards from the RAM and changed the motherboard, since I guess B450 is soon to be obsolete. Please let me know if my understanding is wrong.


Does this build make sense? Is there anything (besides the 32gb of ram) that I should downgrade to save a decent hunk of change without compromising much?

Why are you worried about B450? It will work fine with a Zen2 processor as you have selected, and has no real drawbacks vs B550 other than not including PCIe 4.0. Good quality B450s will be supported for Zen3, which comes out imminently, and whatever comes after that won't be on AM4 and will likely use DDR5, so you'd need a new mobo anyway even if you have a B550.

B550s are relatively inexpensive so there's no reason not to get one if it's in your price range, but for what you have built there's no real reason not to get a B450 and save thirty bucks. You'll also see a very marginal performance increase for 3600 vs 3200. I know you are planning to run a bunch of virtual machines so it might matter, but you are talking small incremental gains here.

Also, Zen3 is announced in like, two days, so you may want to hold off to see how that stacks up before making any purchases.

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Butterfly Valley posted:

Only one of the options lists an M.2 drive, which might mean only 1 of the specs even has that connector and it's already being used. Or maybe it's the same motherboard for all the specs and they just ship with different drives, difficult to know.

It looks to me like they all have the m.2 slot, but many configs have an intel optane module in that slot (which is why they also have the u.2 for SSDs).


Frog Act, if your version of the Aurora has an Optane drive, I would just remove that Optane thing and install a big SSD in its place rather than buying an over-expensive u.2 ssd. Optane really isn't worth a whole lot, and u.2 did not get any use at all as a consumer product which is why the drives all cost megabucks.

The service manual is here which shows the procedure for getting all the way down to the m.2 drive.


Llamadeus posted:

I think this came up once before, the RM does have a passive fan mode :v: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...#tab-tech-specs

Huh, interesting. Guess that's why the RM has (2019) on PCPP. My PSU specs knowledge is getting out of date.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

The key question with planning obsolescence in your system will be 'how long is AMD going to keep using the AM4 socket?'

If the news is that Zen 3 is the end of the line then any motherboard you buy today won't be realistically viable to support an upgrade in 5-6 years time.

Butterfly Valley
Apr 19, 2007

I am a spectacularly bad poster and everyone in the Schadenfreude thread hates my guts.

Klyith posted:

It looks to me like they all have the m.2 slot, but many configs have an intel optane module in that slot (which is why they also have the u.2 for SSDs).

Ah yeah I misread that part. It looks like some of the configs have that M.2 drive as the main drive though presumably with the OS installed on it, which would certainly be beyond OP's skill or inclination to want to change over, so a SATA SSD might still be the easiest way to go.

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World
If we're talking about gaming, if you build a good system now you should expect to coast for the lifetime of this console generation, which is usually like 5+ years.

Beyond that :iiam: regardless.

B450 is, like, fine but the boards are generally built to a lower spec at any given tier, so a B550M Pro-VDH gets you the same VRM as the B450 Tomahawk MAX everyone recommended for gaming builds here, while a B450M Pro-VDH is a step down from that.

For gaming with 65W TDP CPUs at stock clocks it hardly matters, but if I was doing actual work on my PC that actually put stress on my system for extended periods I'd start to look askance at using a bargain bin motherboard from the previous generation chipset. The mobo is the foundation of your system.

Bouchehog
Dec 19, 2002

The Campaign for Badger Rights
Quick question: I've moved my PC (specs) into a cupboard on my wooden desk. I cut two holes in the side to increase ventilation but it's still getting hotter than I would like. When using the PC for non-gaming I get away with leaving the desk door shut (but it still gets hot over time). When gaming I really need to open the door or things heat up very quickly. There is plenty of space around the case.

It seems sensible to stick two fans on the desk to further assist with airflow. The vent holes are currently 13x5cm but I could easily expand them.

I would like: (a) to keep my PC cool(er); (b) to minimize any additional noise; and (c) to be able to control fan speed so that I can further minimize noise when I'm using the PC for work.

I don't care whether I am controlling the fans from my pc or from an external control. The latter would be best if it's possible and easy to sort.

I assume that larger fans = more airflow = lower speeds = less noise for the same cooling (or increased cooling at the risk of greater noise). I was thinking of expanding the depth of the vents and sticking a BeQuiet 140mm fan (specs) on either side in a push/pull. Any comments?

I'm not sure how best to power and control them - a brief google turns up this sort of USB to 3-pin adaptor which seems pretty hideously wasteful of two USB ports and I also note that the fans require DC 5-13.2V / 0.06A and I understand that USB only delivers 5V.

Anyone have any ideas?

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



Bouchehog posted:

Quick question: I've moved my PC (specs) into a cupboard on my wooden desk. I cut two holes in the side to increase ventilation but it's still getting hotter than I would like. When using the PC for non-gaming I get away with leaving the desk door shut (but it still gets hot over time). When gaming I really need to open the door or things heat up very quickly. There is plenty of space around the case.

It seems sensible to stick two fans on the desk to further assist with airflow. The vent holes are currently 13x5cm but I could easily expand them.

I would like: (a) to keep my PC cool(er); (b) to minimize any additional noise; and (c) to be able to control fan speed so that I can further minimize noise when I'm using the PC for work.

I don't care whether I am controlling the fans from my pc or from an external control. The latter would be best if it's possible and easy to sort.

I assume that larger fans = more airflow = lower speeds = less noise for the same cooling (or increased cooling at the risk of greater noise). I was thinking of expanding the depth of the vents and sticking a BeQuiet 140mm fan (specs) on either side in a push/pull. Any comments?

I'm not sure how best to power and control them - a brief google turns up this sort of USB to 3-pin adaptor which seems pretty hideously wasteful of two USB ports and I also note that the fans require DC 5-13.2V / 0.06A and I understand that USB only delivers 5V.

Anyone have any ideas?

If the mobo doesn't have any extra headers you can power fans directly off the power supply

https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Varia...Z5GM96WH5NH0H4W

some even have dials

edit: you can probably find a higher rated one there are tons I didnt look much

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007

Bouchehog posted:

Quick question: I've moved my PC (specs) into a cupboard on my wooden desk. I cut two holes in the side to increase ventilation but it's still getting hotter than I would like. When using the PC for non-gaming I get away with leaving the desk door shut (but it still gets hot over time). When gaming I really need to open the door or things heat up very quickly. There is plenty of space around the case.

It seems sensible to stick two fans on the desk to further assist with airflow. The vent holes are currently 13x5cm but I could easily expand them.

I would like: (a) to keep my PC cool(er); (b) to minimize any additional noise; and (c) to be able to control fan speed so that I can further minimize noise when I'm using the PC for work.

I don't care whether I am controlling the fans from my pc or from an external control. The latter would be best if it's possible and easy to sort.

I assume that larger fans = more airflow = lower speeds = less noise for the same cooling (or increased cooling at the risk of greater noise). I was thinking of expanding the depth of the vents and sticking a BeQuiet 140mm fan (specs) on either side in a push/pull. Any comments?

I'm not sure how best to power and control them - a brief google turns up this sort of USB to 3-pin adaptor which seems pretty hideously wasteful of two USB ports and I also note that the fans require DC 5-13.2V / 0.06A and I understand that USB only delivers 5V.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is the reason it’s in the cabinet noise? I think you’d be better off getting fans that are quieter at lower RPM and taking it out of the cabinet. Even if you put exhaust fans in the cabinet it’ll still get way hotter than out of it (and will be noisier as fans spin louder.


Your MB has 3x 4-pin. Get some nice reviewed quiet 4 pin fans. Noctuas are expensive but very quiet (basically silent) at low load.

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



Kingnothing posted:

Is the reason it’s in the cabinet noise? I think you’d be better off getting fans that are quieter at lower RPM and taking it out of the cabinet. Even if you put exhaust fans in the cabinet it’ll still get way hotter than out of it (and will be noisier as fans spin louder.


Your MB has 3x 4-pin. Get some nice reviewed quiet 4 pin fans. Noctuas are expensive but very quiet (basically silent) at low load.

You can defiantly keep a computer in a desk if you give it fans in and out.

Noctuas are good.

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007

spunkshui posted:

You can defiantly keep a computer in a desk if you give it fans in and out.

Noctuas are good.

Sure, but if the intent is to quiet the system shoving it into a space with more heat and having open air fans probably ain’t it.

Bouchehog
Dec 19, 2002

The Campaign for Badger Rights
The intention is looks, not silence. It's a nice colonial pedestal desk (like this) with a cupboard on one side. The desk is in the middle of the room and I don't want my PC sitting beside it.

Feeding from the headers is probably a winner but that does mean taking the header leads outside the case. I'm sure that I can do that without making it look messy but if anyone knows of a way of doing this with a mains adapter fan header unit that might be neater.

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



Bouchehog posted:

Feeding from the headers is probably a winner but that does mean taking the header leads outside the case. I'm sure that I can do that without making it look messy but if anyone knows of a way of doing this with a mains adapter fan header unit that might be neater.

I'm not really sure what this means, you plug the fans into the motherboard, if the wires aren't long enough you can get extenders.

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

Why are you worried about B450? It will work fine with a Zen2 processor as you have selected, and has no real drawbacks vs B550 other than not including PCIe 4.0. Good quality B450s will be supported for Zen3, which comes out imminently, and whatever comes after that won't be on AM4 and will likely use DDR5, so you'd need a new mobo anyway even if you have a B550.

B550s are relatively inexpensive so there's no reason not to get one if it's in your price range, but for what you have built there's no real reason not to get a B450 and save thirty bucks. You'll also see a very marginal performance increase for 3600 vs 3200. I know you are planning to run a bunch of virtual machines so it might matter, but you are talking small incremental gains here.

Also, Zen3 is announced in like, two days, so you may want to hold off to see how that stacks up before making any purchases.

I got conflicting information about the 450s compatibility with any well priced 2 x 16 gb 3600 ram so I just figured I'd get a 550 which seem to be compatible with a lot more.

As far as the Zen3, will that lead to a massive price drop for the Zen2?

Thank you!

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

Bouchehog posted:

The intention is looks, not silence. It's a nice colonial pedestal desk (like this) with a cupboard on one side. The desk is in the middle of the room and I don't want my PC sitting beside it.

Feeding from the headers is probably a winner but that does mean taking the header leads outside the case. I'm sure that I can do that without making it look messy but if anyone knows of a way of doing this with a mains adapter fan header unit that might be neater.

Any AC-DC 12V adapter with enough amps to cover your fans will do the job. If you want to do babby's first soldering project, here's a vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqJ45QkMZQY

You can also get AC powered fans in the same form factor as PC fans, most of them are high-speed monsters but some are low noise. Or there are nicer things made for home theater cabinets if you want it to look good.

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007

Bouchehog posted:

The intention is looks, not silence. It's a nice colonial pedestal desk (like this) with a cupboard on one side. The desk is in the middle of the room and I don't want my PC sitting beside it.

Feeding from the headers is probably a winner but that does mean taking the header leads outside the case. I'm sure that I can do that without making it look messy but if anyone knows of a way of doing this with a mains adapter fan header unit that might be neater.

You could do something like this, though you won’t be able to control the speed.

CRJ Full Speed 12V Voltage Step-Up USB to Dual 3-Pin and 4-Pin PC Fan Sleeved Power Adapter Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081K8LBH3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_dHiFFbJ9MWN82

You could go nuts and do something like this, but it’d likely be a large expense for a simple problem.

https://www.acinfinity.com/component-cooling/cabinet-fan-systems/controller-2-intelligent-thermal-fan-controller-single-zone/

You could just throw a regular fan into the cabinet if you want to plug it into an outlet. It’s the same thing basically.

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007

Klyith posted:

Any AC-DC 12V adapter with enough amps to cover your fans will do the job. If you want to do babby's first soldering project, here's a vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqJ45QkMZQY

You can also get AC powered fans in the same form factor as PC fans, most of them are high-speed monsters but some are low noise. Or there are nicer things made for home theater cabinets if you want it to look good.

I find we are typing the exact same advice at the exact same time often in this thread :iiam:

MrKatharsis
Nov 29, 2003

feel the bern

SpaceSDoorGunner posted:

I got conflicting information about the 450s compatibility with any well priced 2 x 16 gb 3600 ram so I just figured I'd get a 550 which seem to be compatible with a lot more.

As far as the Zen3, will that lead to a massive price drop for the Zen2?

Thank you!

There may well be Black Friday deals on Zen2. Last year I got a 2700X for $129.

If Zen3 suffers availability issues, or ends up being high-end only, then prices may not drop for mid range stuff.

Vizuyos
Jun 17, 2020

Thank U for reading

If you hated it...
FUCK U and never come back
With the 3xxx series cards coming out, and my old prebuilt PC being over 5 years old and increasingly struggling with modern gaming stuff, I think it's time for an upgrade. And considering how much things seem to have changed over the past few years, I feel like it's a good chance to start from scratch and bring in all the technological advances without having to tie them to this old-rear end CPU and mobo and power supply.

What country are you in? USA
What are you using the system for? Primarily gaming, including VR, and possibly game streaming with some bells and whistles. I also do some programming, and I wouldn't mind being able to dabble in graphics stuff or machine learning stuff either.
What's your budget? Pretty flexible, but seems like $2k should be more than enough?
If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? On the programming side, probably nothing more complex than Unity and Blender.
If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution / refresh rate? My current monitor is 1080p/60Hz, but I'm open to getting a new one? Hell, I might do that anyway since I want to keep the old machine around, since its only real problems are a seriously outdated graphics card and a five-year-old HDD, and an internal layout that's kind of messy to work with since it's a prebuilt.
Random pet peeve: Ideally, I don't want to have to replace the fans exactly 12-14 months after the first time I boot up the machine. It happens every single time and I'm sick of it. If that means using fancier coolers off the bat, then so be it.

Main problem is that "what PC parts are good or not" seems to be a complex mire of a zillion different largely-qualitative measures to the point where it seems like figuring out each part takes days of studying. :ohno: I miss the early 2000s when you could just look at one number for each part and it'd tell you most of what you needed to know. Here's what I have so far:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($109.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Black 6 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($199.99 @ Amazon)

The main question-marks for me are the case, the graphics card, and the power supply. For the graphics card, I feel like a 3080 is what I should aim for, but there's a bunch of different variants from different manufacturers and I'm not sure what to aim for. There's also the question of availability - since they're apparently all sold out already, how the heck do I get one? Will some variants be easier to get than others?

I don't even know how to start picking cases; I don't care so much about having a window or anything like that, but front connectors are nice! As for power supply, afaik that's largely dependent on case and graphics card, plus whatever manufacturer is most reliable, right?

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007


Does your 2k budget include a monitor?

You should probably buy a nicer cpu is you’re going to roll a 2k machine. AMD’s cpu announcement is in like 2 days. If you can handle it you should wait. You’ll either get nice high end stuff, or you’ll get price drops on current high end stuff.

3080 is probably where you should land. Variant will matter on some factors, but mostly your case, or if you plan to try heavier OC. There’s a lot of size variance with the 3080. The Founders editions are the smallest at 285mm, and some go up to nearly 330mm.

It’s still a little early to tell, but it seems like the best 3080s are the FTW3 from EVGA and the ASUS Strix (although these are basically non-existent at this point).

3600 ram is generally recommended with Ryzen. Best to pick ram off the motherboard QVL once you solid that down.

$199 for a 6TB is high, and you likely don’t need a 7200RPM unless you intend to play games directly off of it.

PSU you want fully modular, 750-850w if you go 3080, gold or higher, and from a good company (Corsair, EVGA, seasonic are popular. There are others). I’d probably just buy what’s on sale once you’re ready to buy.

For the case you need to be a lot more decisive on what you want. Go to pcpartpicker and go to cases and look at every filter and pick what’s important. Main considerations are ATX or MATX, specifically what front I/O, how much HDD space, GPU clearance, window or no, RGB or no, and noise damp or airflow.

Fans dying after a year is incredibly weird. If you’re in a high dust environment and never cleaning them that may be a problem. That could be solved by better cleaning schedule or by having good dust filtering on your case. Fans will be highly dependent on your case layout. Noctuas are always almost a good buy.



Since you’re kind of stuck, start with a case then build out from there based on the case restrictions.

funky not a junkie
Aug 5, 2011
So a few years ago I came into the last thread (I think?) asking for a mid range gaming pc build and it’s been working out pretty drat great but I’m kinda starting to feel like I should make some upgrades to it to keep it up to speed a bit more with the next gen games coming out, but I’m not really sure what kind of graphics card I should go with or even if I really need an upgrade at all? Anyone have any advice on this?

This is the build I’m rockin:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RmPktJ

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

SpaceSDoorGunner posted:

I got conflicting information about the 450s compatibility with any well priced 2 x 16 gb 3600 ram so I just figured I'd get a 550 which seem to be compatible with a lot more.

As far as the Zen3, will that lead to a massive price drop for the Zen2?

Thank you!

QVLs are guaranteed tested but I think most users have been running 3600 in B450s without issue.

For the second point, who knows? But you will find out in two days so maybe don't go ordering a processor until then. It's very unlikely that Zen3 will cause prices for Zen2 to increase.

JMBosch
May 28, 2006

You're dead.
That's your greatest weapon.
So I've got my first build that I'm wanting to put together near the end of the month. I think I've got it all figured except for the video card. I'm hoping for an RTX 3070, as it'll be at the cap of my budget and should set me up well for quite some time. But with the massive availability issues, I don't have a lot of faith I'll be able to get one in the next few months.

My question is, if I can't snag a 3070, what video card should I get for relatively cheap to hold me over until the 3070s are more readily obtainable? I'm hoping there's something that won't be too awful of a bottleneck for my system and will be pretty easily resellable to make my money back when it becomes possible to find a 3070.

What country are you in? U.S., near a Micro Center
What are you using the system for? Gaming, Photoshop/GIMP, some video editing. Might stream a bit or get back into light 3D modeling or level design.
What's your budget? For the 3070, $500; for the temp card, much less.
What is your monitor resolution/refresh rate? 3440x1440, 144Hz

Here's the system.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PRO CARBON WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox TD500 Mesh White w/ Controller ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor: AOC CU34G2X/BK 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor
Custom: Silicon Power US70 M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D...

Klyith
Aug 3, 2007

GBS Pledge Week

funky not a junkie posted:

So a few years ago I came into the last thread (I think?) asking for a mid range gaming pc build and it’s been working out pretty drat great but I’m kinda starting to feel like I should make some upgrades to it to keep it up to speed a bit more with the next gen games coming out, but I’m not really sure what kind of graphics card I should go with or even if I really need an upgrade at all? Anyone have any advice on this?

This is the build I’m rockin:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RmPktJ

A new graphics card would be nice, though you might want to wait until the cheaper mid-range cards of the new generation are out (sometime in the 1st half of next year).

More ram is an easy upgrade, ram is so cheap these days. I might just pick up 2x8gb of 3600 rather than mess around with 4x4gb sticks and slower speed of your old ram.

That board can support a 3000 series ryzen, but will not be able to use the new ryzens that are upcoming. If you wanted a CPU upgrade, wait until those come out and pick up a firesale 3600. It'll require a series of convoluted BIOS updates though. I don't think you strictly need one, the 4 core + 8 thread CPUs are still holding their own.

manwithoutskin
Mar 24, 2006
can you see the line where the water ends

JMBosch posted:

My question is, if I can't snag a 3070, what video card should I get for relatively cheap to hold me over until the 3070s are more readily obtainable? I'm hoping there's something that won't be too awful of a bottleneck for my system and will be pretty easily resellable to make my money back when it becomes possible to find a 3070.

In your shoes I would order perhaps the eVGA 2060 Super

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

Once you receive the card, register for the step-up program and now you are in line to receive the 3070 while still having a serviceable card in the mean time. The only money you are "out" is shipping. Much better than being out the cost of a cheaper graphics card though.

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

JMBosch posted:

So I've got my first build that I'm wanting to put together near the end of the month. I think I've got it all figured except for the video card. I'm hoping for an RTX 3070, as it'll be at the cap of my budget and should set me up well for quite some time. But with the massive availability issues, I don't have a lot of faith I'll be able to get one in the next few months.

My question is, if I can't snag a 3070, what video card should I get for relatively cheap to hold me over until the 3070s are more readily obtainable? I'm hoping there's something that won't be too awful of a bottleneck for my system and will be pretty easily resellable to make my money back when it becomes possible to find a 3070.

What country are you in? U.S., near a Micro Center
What are you using the system for? Gaming, Photoshop/GIMP, some video editing. Might stream a bit or get back into light 3D modeling or level design.
What's your budget? For the 3070, $500; for the temp card, much less.
What is your monitor resolution/refresh rate? 3440x1440, 144Hz

Here's the system.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PRO CARBON WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Black 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox TD500 Mesh White w/ Controller ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor: AOC CU34G2X/BK 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor
Custom: Silicon Power US70 M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D...

If you really can't get a 3070, look up how to use the EVGA step-up program and buy an EVGA card for your temp card. EVGA will then let you pay the difference between that card and the 3070 to upgrade to the 3070 when it's available.

Just make sure to read the fine print, and wait for the 3070 to actually show up on the step-up list before you pull the trigger (the 3080 showed up on step-up like right at or soon after the 3080 launch.)

This isn't he monitor thread (go ask them for monitor advice :) ), but are you SURE you want a VA panel monitor?

funky not a junkie
Aug 5, 2011

Klyith posted:

A new graphics card would be nice, though you might want to wait until the cheaper mid-range cards of the new generation are out (sometime in the 1st half of next year).

More ram is an easy upgrade, ram is so cheap these days. I might just pick up 2x8gb of 3600 rather than mess around with 4x4gb sticks and slower speed of your old ram.

That board can support a 3000 series ryzen, but will not be able to use the new ryzens that are upcoming. If you wanted a CPU upgrade, wait until those come out and pick up a firesale 3600. It'll require a series of convoluted BIOS updates though. I don't think you strictly need one, the 4 core + 8 thread CPUs are still holding their own.

Thank you! Would a gtx 1660 ti be a good card to upgrade into?

pocket pool
Aug 4, 2003

B U T T S

Bleak Gremlin
I'm having an annoying issue that I have been troubleshooting for a bit to no avail and I was hoping someone in here might have an idea.

I was lucky enough to score a 3080 FE to replace my 1080ti. After I installed the new card, on every boot I get four quick beeps from my buzzer after the single startup chirp. No error messages are displayed and everything appears to start up normally, otherwise. I've experienced no stability issues or anything.

I've tried a few things to resolve this: First I reset the CMOS and replaced the battery, for good measure - this did not resolve it. I removed/reseated the card and that didn't help. I removed the 3080 and started up using onboard video and they went away, but came back when I re-installed the GPU.

I'm kind of stumped, I don't see any error messages and I can't find much on Google. Any ideas? Obviously just removing the buzzer from the headers is an option, lol.

EDIT: The board is an ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger.

pocket pool fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Oct 6, 2020

JMBosch
May 28, 2006

You're dead.
That's your greatest weapon.

manwithoutskin posted:

In your shoes I would order perhaps the eVGA 2060 Super

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

Once you receive the card, register for the step-up program and now you are in line to receive the 3070 while still having a serviceable card in the mean time. The only money you are "out" is shipping. Much better than being out the cost of a cheaper graphics card though.

sean10mm posted:

If you really can't get a 3070, look up how to use the EVGA step-up program and buy an EVGA card for your temp card. EVGA will then let you pay the difference between that card and the 3070 to upgrade to the 3070 when it's available.

Just make sure to read the fine print, and wait for the 3070 to actually show up on the step-up list before you pull the trigger (the 3080 showed up on step-up like right at or soon after the 3080 launch.)

This isn't he monitor thread (go ask them for monitor advice :) ), but are you SURE you want a VA panel monitor?
Thanks, I didn't know about this program at all. With how fast they added the 3080/3090 to the step-up list, this could maybe work. Although it seems odd that they only added one model of each of those cards to the list. That might cause it to take longer waiting for the right 3070 to come in stock.

sean10mm: My main selling points for a monitor are, (mostly) in this order: resolution, refresh rate, response time, ultrawide, contrast, color. It's tough to hit those first few at the level I want (1440/100+Hz) for a <$500 price tag ($450 at Micro Center), save for a select few VA monitors. I know they have their weaknesses (mainly color and response time, right?), but this one should have 1ms MPRT at least. Don't quite know how the colors and contrast hold up. Do you have other suggestions around that price range that can hit 1440 and 100+Hz? Preferably in ultrawide?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



pocket pool posted:

I'm having an annoying issue that I have been troubleshooting for a bit to no avail and I was hoping someone in here might have an idea.

I was lucky enough to score a 3080 FE to replace my 1080ti. After I installed the new card, on every boot I get four quick beeps from my buzzer after the single startup chirp. No error messages are displayed and everything appears to start up normally, otherwise. I've experienced no stability issues or anything.

I've tried a few things to resolve this: First I reset the CMOS and replaced the battery, for good measure - this did not resolve it. I removed/reseated the card and that didn't help. I removed the 3080 and started up using onboard video and they went away, but came back when I re-installed the GPU.

I'm kind of stumped, I don't see any error messages and I can't find much on Google. Any ideas? Obviously just removing the buzzer from the headers is an option, lol.

EDIT: The board is an ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger.

How big is your psu?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5