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I want a new PC and I am confused. I checked out MikeC's guide, and everything is crossed out due to incoming processors I guess, and I'm unsure if it's still relevant. If I should still "BUY NOTHING" then I don't mind waiting a wee bit, but it'd be nice to spend the next lockdown with a fancy new machine. Otherwise, the last time I built a computer was probably around 2012 and honestly I feel like I've forgotten everything about how to compare all of these parts- it is pretty overwhelming. I'd like to pretty much just replace everything as some of my bits (just the box and an old harddrive really) date back to the Windows ME era and it's struggling to play newer games even on the lowest settings. Having skimmed this thread a little bit, it sounds like buying a new box might be a good idea, even just for some better heat distribution. At the moment, I really want to play Bloodstained and CKIII, or Skyrim with mods, or use the Dolphin emulator without my machine struggling, but I'm sure there's loads of other stuff I've passed up on because my specs weren't high enough. I have no idea what my monitor refresh rate is, but I've never had a problem with it; it cost me £20 from a second hand shop, so probably not good. The only multiplayer games I want to play are the stuff my friends play (usually platformer-puzzlers, RPGs or strategy games), and I never play with loads of strangers so I don't think I need an amazing refresh rate? I do a bit of graphics work- only very basic editing or stuff with vectors, and my current machine can handle it, so I'm sure any future machine would be able to too. Ideally I'd be spending less than £1,000 (US$1,300), but I am quite flexible having abstained from upgrading for so long- I don't mind spending one or two hundred pounds more if it would significantly better my experience. Although I definitely want to buy a new harddrive (at least 1TB would be good), I'd like to use my old ones too, though I could probably toss out the one from 2000 as the amount of physical space it takes up is ridiculous. If anyone could give me some pointers or a good base to start from that'd be really lovely of them; I look at everything PCPartPicker has to offer and my mind just boggles.
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Nov 3, 2020 11:17
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 08:13 |
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FreeKillB posted:'buy nothing' means 'wait until zen3, 3000-series and 6000-series are out'. Of these, the 3000-series is 'out', both in the sense of 'technically people have cards' but also in the sense of 'out of stock' because demand is super outstripping supply for the moment, because the 3000-series cards released offers a ton of performance over the prior generation and because of covid stuff. The scarcity means that the releases haven't put meaningful downward price pressure on the lower end of GPUs. Zen3 comes out this week, so it's not clear if it'll have the same issue with shortages as the 3000-series. The 6000-series has been announced, and while the consensus is that they fall behind nVidia if you account for DLSS and raytracing, they _might_ be a bit more reasonable to get a non-scalped card than the 3000-series. This is really excellent advice, thank you. I really have no idea how I managed to build a machine all those years ago without becoming overwhelmed by choice. Do you simply know all of this stuff through reputation or do you spend time learning about all of the new products?
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Nov 3, 2020 18:35
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Wow, this is going to be an upgrade for you. Yes! I'm excited to play new games and games I've missed out on over the past decade.  Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Biggest thing is upgrading to an SSD, it's probably the single biggest performance increase in the last 20 years. And now you will want an NVME drive and not a SATA! This is a great starting point thank you. I've compiled a machine using yours and FreeKillB's suggestions, which looks like this: PCPartPicker Part List CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£276.00 @ Amazon UK) CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 CPU Cooler (£28.79 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£119.94 @ CCL Computers) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (£59.14 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£102.91 @ CCL Computers) Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB GAMING X Video Card (£249.95 @ More Computers) Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.98 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: SeaSonic Core GC 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£70.47 @ Scan.co.uk) Total: £987.18 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-04 16:52 GMT+0000 Hopefully I haven't missed anything critical, though I think it all fits well. I'll trust your judgement regarding the case as it's pretty difficult to judge how well ventilated it is or how easy it is to clean just based off the images and occasional review. On the PCPartPicker website I receive an error message with this motherboard reading- "the ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard has an additional 4-pin ATX power connector but the SeaSonic Core GC 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply does not". I'm not sure if this is a fault of the website or something else, but there doesn't seem to be a single documented PSU with this type of connector that also has a gold or above rating. Also, on the manufacturer's website for this board it says it has "M.2 Key E for WiFi", but it looks like the SSD would be taking up that slot. Would it be possible to attach a wifi adaptor in a different slot? Cheers for helping out this ignorant luddite!
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Nov 4, 2020 18:38
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Thanks for your help everyone, I have my computer all built up now, though I am having a problem- The graphics card does not have a vga port meaning it can't be plugged into my old monitor; it isn't a massive problem for now, as I can just buy an adaptor, but while I was testing out the machine to see if it worked, a little red light popped up on the board next the words "VGA". Now I'm hoping this is because the graphics card isn't plugged into anything. Could that be the case, or is it more likely there is something wrong with the card? It seems to be powered as the fans are turning around, but perhaps it could be a pins problem? :s FreeKillB posted:Thread's moving fairly fast, just wanted to add in a note that unless I'm mistaken the Pro4 is in a tier where ASRock motherboards do not have any kind of debug LED. Looking at manuals for budget B550s, the only thing I can say definitively is that it looks like debug LEDs are present on MSI's boards (I checked it for the Pro-VDH max at least). It's not a dealbreaker (my most recent build used a comparable ASRock mobo) as long as you don't have any trouble hooking things up but I wanted to highlight that as a potential feature that could save you a significant headache if you have issues getting things to post. You are mistaken FreeKillB. New technology is amazingly useful. All these little lights telling me what I've done wrong!
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Nov 17, 2020 15:36
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vanilla slimfast posted:How old is this monitor? VGA stopped being the standard for interconnects a long time ago I don't really know how old it is. Old enough to not have a hdmi port I suppose! I bought it cheaply (£20~) about three years ago from a second-hand shop. quote:You can’t use a simple adaptor to plug it in as it requires active conversion to go from digital (DisplayPort or HDMI) to analog (VGA). For the price of an active conversion box, you could just buy a new monitor. 1080p 60hz monitors in the 21” range can be had for less than $100 That is excellent advice, thank you. I'm glad I posted about that. I didn't want to buy a monitor, but I suppose I'll have to. quote:I believe the VGA light on your mobo is telling you that it detected a video card is installed, you just don’t have anything to hook it up to right now I hope you're correct.
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Nov 17, 2020 16:13
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 08:13 |
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vanilla slimfast posted:I believe the VGA light on your mobo is telling you that it detected a video card is installed, you just don’t have anything to hook it up to right now. In this case, VGA is being used as shorthand for “video card” and has nothing to do with the interconnect (confusing, I know) Yep! Turns out you were right. I thought since it had a RED LIGHT, it was something more worrisome. Just tested out the computer using a neighbour's monitor and everything is dandy. Cheers again everyone!
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Nov 17, 2020 19:40
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