PC build thread

[casterofdreams]

Still on Win7 myself.

Something I didn't know ahead of time when I built my rig in 2013, is that Windows 7 Home Premium taxes you out at 16GB of ram. I never knew an OS could block that off. And it's weird how other variations of Windows 7 support more. I was ready to go crazy with beefing up my ram more a year or so back until I realized this.

Also on an i5-3470 and that's never changing.

So I think the GPU is the last thing that can keep my rig strong going forward. I went with the 1060 GTX and it's been great ever since, but I think stuff like Cyberpunk or maybe even Metro Exodus next year will really start testing the limits and I'll have to cut options down a lot. No clue though, maybe I can keep upgrading the GPU for awhile and get more juice out of everything.

I'll be real curious to see how next gen consoles compare to my current rig.

I had no clue that Windows 7 HP restricted RAM. Luckily anything over 16GB for gaming is overkill from what I’ve read and watched.

Which 1060 do you have? 6GB? Overclocked?

I’m a huge proponent for gaming at 1080p. I’m also a pretty big proponent for 900p as mentioned above. I’ve always considered 900p as the extender resolution as it extends ones aging setup beyond its “shelf life” as it lessens the impact of running more current games. When those games release next year, 900p is an option.

@tanooki: gaming laptops have improved considerably over the years. I think you will be fine for sure. I think, and I’m no expert, heat can be an issue. I’ve used a cooler master laptop cooler and it’s helped tremendously.

[Tanooki]

Well the laptop I have is a Clevo 170sm through Sager. It's basically the one thing on the market (then, now?) where you buy a shell like a desktop and all the parts go in as parts, no soldered in components like in the past. The 900 line of Nvidia processors was the era that they invented a new tech that allowed the mobile chip not to take nearly a 50% hit in performance but just 10-15% instead so when you got the 980M I did it runs parallel in ability to the 970 desktop which pleased me, so I put most my $ there, and into 16GB of RAM and got a middling i7-4710MQ that still turbo boosts for any program into like the 3-3.2ghz range. Heat you would think is an issue, but the laptop isn't thin by any means, has 2 big fans, two large heat ports out the back and internally also a nice thick pair of copper heat piping. More or less this thing runs around the 45-50C mark and it's rated safely to 70. Not sure what it rolls up to playing Doom (2016) but I probably you just load up a tool I have if I wanted to find out.

[casterofdreams]

That sound great man. The 900M GPUs: can they be overclocked?

Edit: I looked it up. It looks like the 10 series was the first time that mobile GPUs could be overclocked because of better power and heat management and that they are very close to the desktop brothers.

Still, the 980M is no sleeper. It's got power.

[Xeogred]

I had no clue that Windows 7 HP restricted RAM. Luckily anything over 16GB for gaming is overkill from what I’ve read and watched.

Which 1060 do you have? 6GB? Overclocked?

I’m a huge proponent for gaming at 1080p. I’m also a pretty big proponent for 900p as mentioned above. I’ve always considered 900p as the extender resolution as it extends ones aging setup beyond its “shelf life” as it lessens the impact of running more current games. When those games release next year, 900p is an option.

I'm so glad I did research before simply buying more new ram, haha...

Yeah I got the 6GB founders edition from Nvidia.

I'm fully expecting that next gen should be all about 1080p/60FPS base performance for everything. I think it'd be unacceptable if they don't at least provide that. We've gotten a little stagnant with graphics, so I hope performance gets a big boost. I'm still a console guy really but when it comes to FPS's, I've stuck with PC exclusively and it's hard to go back from 60FPS for that genre. I think depending on how good the next gen consoles are might determine where I buy some games again though, like Cyberpunk, etc. Maybe even the Xbox One X is already better or matched with my PC but I'm not sure. My last GPU was a HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB and even that was better than the PS4, lol. I got the 1060 when Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2 dropped in 2016 and it was a nice boost.

[Tanooki]

caster: Yup the 9xx models are no slouch at all, and I was all over it when I was trying to figure out where to go 4 years ago now and it took awhile for me to save into this build too for a mobile as that's a higher expense but I paid for something to last. All it ever had problems with is a defective piss poor HGST drive I had to tolerate dying twice under warranty, then the third weeks ago I dropped for a crucial SSD and it's been amazing since. The 980M = 970 desktop basically like I said, but as you pointed out, being the new kid on the block with the minimal loss in power from scaling down, it has a heat benchmark not friendly to going faster while the 10XX does.

As xeo said, these new 10X0 and the upcoming replacement for that are all centered now on trying to get 1080p rock solid 60FPS which modern consoles struggle hard with as often they wobble from 720 to that, or they find some middle (900) and scale it up to cheat. The 9XX I have, I run 1080 and it's solid on most stuff I run at, didn't really drop under 60 other than with Doom as it's a beast. But since I like to usually run at 720 or 900 for the few real heavies I have as I don't care, has no effect on me as I'm good with that. I can do more, but I just don't care to push it for minimal gain on a 17" wide screen laptop LED screen. Normally though much is run at 1080 as long as 60 is a solid go with it.


That's why I suggested due to the budgets he spoke of posts ago, and given how damn ugly video card and memory prices have been due to bitcoin, memory faux shortages, and whatever else it makes for a bitchin compromise.

[casterofdreams]

If you guys aren’t into the whole raytracing marketing mantra, amazon is looking to restock its supply of 1080ti cards. Yes they are expensive but I bet some members were genuinely looking at spending 1080ti money on an unknown platform.

This might be the last chance to get a 1080ti at close to or below MSRP.

EVGA 1080ti FTW DT is $650 at the time of writing. It can still be overclocked.

[SpikeSlania]

Well, I'm building my first PC. I only bought 3 parts for it so far, the rest keeps changing as I watch more and more videos and read more articles on things. Well, by that I mean the GPU. I don't have set prices for the things I haven't bought yet since you never know when something goes up on sale so you switch over to it, but this is what I have so far.

Bought:
CPU - Ryzen 2600 $150
Case - Phanteks Eclipse P300 $60
Motherboard - MSI B350 Tomahawk $90

Haven't Bought:
Ram - 16GB DDR4 2666
PSU - 600watt
HDD - 2TB
SSD - 240GB
OS - Windows 10 64bit
Fans - Case has 1 built in and Ryzen came with a cpu cooling fan, so thinking atleast 2 more fans to help with the air flow
GPU - GTX 1060 6GB vs RX 580 vs RX 590 vs RX 600 series

Yeah, the GPU part is where things start getting chaotic on my end My friend I relied mostly on for help with my build is pro red team cpu pro green team gpu. So was leaning 1060 at first. But then I start doing my own research and started finding out more about the Red Team's mid ranged GPUs. And if rumors are to be trusted, we should be seeing some new mid ranged GPUs from Red Team November 15th. So I'm thinking about waiting and seeing what the Red Team brings out if the rumors are true. I know full well if I wanted a high end GPU the GTX 1080 slams the Vega cards. Even the 1070 TI beats them for the most part. But where I'm gravitating around is the mid ranged cards which seems to be interesting right now. Nvidia is releasing a new upgraded 1060 to compete with the RX 590, but doesn't sound like a major improvement. I'm really leaning towards the 590 if what I read about it from the rumored leaks are true. But sounds like the RX 600 series might launch at the same time. But that's rumors for you, you never know until AMD officially announces them.

[samsonlonghair]

I don’t know what red team and green team mean. I assume that green team is NVIDIA and that red team is ATI/AMD, right?

Anyway, I was eyeballing an RX580 myself because I need a metal-compatible GPU to upgrade my Workstation. It’s a shame that I’m going to lose CUDA in the process. I don’t think there’s a GPU that supports both metal and CUDA. C’est la vie!

[SpikeSlania]

I don’t know what red team and green team mean. I assume that green team is NVIDIA and that red team is ATI/AMD, right?

Yeah, I been watching alot of tech videos on youtube and the color thing I picked up on. Red - AMD, Green - Nvida, Blue - Intel. The RX 580 and 570 should be getting another price drop soon if the rumors of the RX 590 are true. I mean if they get pretty cheap I might consider using 2 RX 580s with Crossfire. On a random side note, the Blue Team plan on entering the GPU battlefield in 2020.

[Tanooki]

So intel feels they've learned enough from years of developing their HD line of built in video processors they can strike out on their own eh? That should be interesting.