-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2
- Thread starter Soda
- Start date
- Status
PCI-E 4 is cool but it's not very relevant for average gamers, if any at all. No current consumer GPUs are even saturating PCI-E 3.0, and the boost to storage speed is not very noticeable in day to day usage and gaming.
Anyone know a good place to check on SSD prices for black Friday?
Recently got a gaming laptop, and it has an extra m.2 slot, and a 2.5 bay. Figure now is a good time to get one, and make up for the base laptop only having 256gb.
Recently got a gaming laptop, and it has an extra m.2 slot, and a 2.5 bay. Figure now is a good time to get one, and make up for the base laptop only having 256gb.
If I can get these NVME drives for these prices:
WD Blue SN500 NVMe 500 GB 1.7gb/sec 78€
SANDISK Extreme PRO® M.2 NVMe 3D SSD, 500 GB 3.4gb/sec 110€
would it be worth it do go for the SanDisk if I use it strictly for games?
I know it's twice as fast as the WD Blue but would I notice any tangible real-world difference in terms of performance for games like Star Citizen that need a SSD?
WD Blue SN500 NVMe 500 GB 1.7gb/sec 78€
SANDISK Extreme PRO® M.2 NVMe 3D SSD, 500 GB 3.4gb/sec 110€
would it be worth it do go for the SanDisk if I use it strictly for games?
I know it's twice as fast as the WD Blue but would I notice any tangible real-world difference in terms of performance for games like Star Citizen that need a SSD?
What is everyone's thoughts on this build? Not buying that PSU, it's one I already have but is there to see if it'll be enough.
Mainly for gaming, verrrrrrry slight possibility of anything other than that but I do want the best gaming. 1080p right now but likely to go up to 4K or 1440p or something higher in the future because I don't have much faith in my TV lasting much longer (it's a samsung 32 inch 3D one, but the backlight keeps flashing and flickering when the TV should be in standby mode and when no signals are being sent to itm so I just now keep it "on" but with a pure black background set to it by my PC).
Want VR stuff to look nice and run smooth too. And will be grabbing and Index for it also.
And the missing parts are what I'm bringing over from my current build and will likely upgrade next year some time.
Mainly for gaming, verrrrrrry slight possibility of anything other than that but I do want the best gaming. 1080p right now but likely to go up to 4K or 1440p or something higher in the future because I don't have much faith in my TV lasting much longer (it's a samsung 32 inch 3D one, but the backlight keeps flashing and flickering when the TV should be in standby mode and when no signals are being sent to itm so I just now keep it "on" but with a pure black background set to it by my PC).
Want VR stuff to look nice and run smooth too. And will be grabbing and Index for it also.
And the missing parts are what I'm bringing over from my current build and will likely upgrade next year some time.
What is everyone's thoughts on this build? Not buying that PSU, it's one I already have but is there to see if it'll be enough.
Mainly for gaming, verrrrrrry slight possibility of anything other than that but I do want the best gaming. 1080p right now but likely to go up to 4K or 1440p or something higher in the future because I don't have much faith in my TV lasting much longer (it's a samsung 32 inch 3D one, but the backlight keeps flashing and flickering when the TV should be in standby mode and when no signals are being sent to itm so I just now keep it "on" but with a pure black background set to it by my PC).
Want VR stuff to look nice and run smooth too. And will be grabbing and Index for it also.
And the missing parts are what I'm bringing over from my current build and will likely upgrade next year some time.
How much could you save around your shops if you replace the i9 with a equivalent Ryzen Gen 3?
My PSU uses the huge braided cables unfortunately (is that still a thing?). Will cable management be difficult?
Last edited:
What hard drive set up would you guys recommend? I currently have a 500GB SSD for my OS and demanding video games, and a 1TB SSHD for less priority storage.
I'm looking to get a 1TB SSD in Black Friday - would it be more advisable to make that my new main hard drive for OS/games, or will games load just as fast off of it as my secondary SSD?
Thanks!
I'm looking to get a 1TB SSD in Black Friday - would it be more advisable to make that my new main hard drive for OS/games, or will games load just as fast off of it as my secondary SSD?
Thanks!
So this monitor is on sale on Best Buy. I heard good things about it.
Recommend?
Recommend?
There will be no speed difference on whether the games are on the same SSD as your OS or on a separate internal SSD. (Assuming both are the same type SATA or NVME.)
What is everyone's thoughts on this build? Not buying that PSU, it's one I already have but is there to see if it'll be enough.
Mainly for gaming, verrrrrrry slight possibility of anything other than that but I do want the best gaming. 1080p right now but likely to go up to 4K or 1440p or something higher in the future because I don't have much faith in my TV lasting much longer (it's a samsung 32 inch 3D one, but the backlight keeps flashing and flickering when the TV should be in standby mode and when no signals are being sent to itm so I just now keep it "on" but with a pure black background set to it by my PC).
Want VR stuff to look nice and run smooth too. And will be grabbing and Index for it also.
And the missing parts are what I'm bringing over from my current build and will likely upgrade next year some time.
If you want the best gaming you should stick with the i9 - pretty important for VR.
So the old HDD wisdom of: "Always have your OS on a separate drive and channel to avoid IO bottlenecks" finally stopped being true with SSDs?
Is it reasonable to delay upgrading until the new consoles around the corner? One can always wait because the the next thing is around the corner, and there is a genuine fear that the new consoles will render the card obsolete?
I'm thinking about getting a 2070 super.
I'm thinking about getting a 2070 super.
Could someone check this list and provide some feedback? I threw this together for a friend quite quickly (and without that much knowledge, to be quite honest). It's mostly the CPU/mobo combo I'm not totally sure on (I'd rather stick with Intel just because I'm familiar with it, unless AMD is significantly cheaper for the same performances).
The use would be coding and some light gaming (League of Legends and Rocket League mostly). The monitor is a regular 1920x1080, so I thought I could sell him my GTX 970 which I have been meaning to upgrade. The only thing missing is a keyboard, which would get him to the ~1000€ he allotted.
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: Intel Core i5-9400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor (€173.78 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: MSI Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€118.23 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€70.48 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: SanDisk Ultra 3D 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€62.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€60.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 275R ATX Mid Tower Case (€74.89 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (€72.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Case Fan: Corsair ML120 Pro 75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€19.89 @ Amazon Italia)
Monitor: LG 24MK600M-B 24.0" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (€124.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Custom: GTX 970 G1 Gaming (€130)
Total: €938.61
The use would be coding and some light gaming (League of Legends and Rocket League mostly). The monitor is a regular 1920x1080, so I thought I could sell him my GTX 970 which I have been meaning to upgrade. The only thing missing is a keyboard, which would get him to the ~1000€ he allotted.
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: Intel Core i5-9400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor (€173.78 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: MSI Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€118.23 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€70.48 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: SanDisk Ultra 3D 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€62.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€60.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 275R ATX Mid Tower Case (€74.89 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (€72.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Case Fan: Corsair ML120 Pro 75 CFM 120 mm Fan (€19.89 @ Amazon Italia)
Monitor: LG 24MK600M-B 24.0" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (€124.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Custom: GTX 970 G1 Gaming (€130)
Total: €938.61
Last edited:
I'd say so, since with HDDs there's always the issue about having data distributed on different parts of the platter surface and how fast the drive could play hopscotch between them. SSDs don't really have that problem (or at least not in a measurable sense outside of synthetic benchmarks.)
Alright yeah that makes sense I guess. I still like to have my OS drive separately though simply because I image it once a month in case things go south and having games on there would make backing it up quite a bit more messier. This already saved me from huge headaches twice early in the Windows 10 life-cycle when updates went wrong.
Yeah I'm not disputing that there are good reasons on whether to keep them separate, just saying gaming performance isn't really one of them.
Like everything in PC builds, it depends on what you're using it for. If you do a lot of multitasking with high-memory tasks like advanced computational work, then yeah having more RAM helps. If this is primarily a gaming build I don't think greater than 16GB really provides any benefit right now.
I have 16 in mine and I don't think I've ever seen more than 60-70% used.
Ah yeah, I'm not doing anything crazy on it. It was just more the idea of Corsair vengeance Rgb pro being on sale so having a full set of lights synced on top of 32 GB sounded good.
I'm fine with 16gb, no reason to spend more just because.
I'm 'concerned' about the same thing I've been for over a year. It's just going to be difficult to get 60Hz+ in next gen console games that target only 30Hz. Doubling GPU and CPU grunt will be tricky for a well optimized 30fps console game.
Oh I didn't mean to come across confrontational, sorry if it came across that way, I was merely rambling on my own system practices.
Where's the cheapest place to buy Windows 10?
Also, thinking of getting a bigger SSD, can't decide on the standard ssd vs the nvme ones. Is there much difference in performance as far as general usage and gaming?
Also, thinking of getting a bigger SSD, can't decide on the standard ssd vs the nvme ones. Is there much difference in performance as far as general usage and gaming?
Right now, in games specifically, you don't need 32 GB of RAM.
That said, prices are good right now and I could definitely see games starting to use over 16gb in the next year or two, so if someone is building now I don't think it would be a bad idea to go 32 GB. There's no guarantee that the prices won't get bad again.
If you're willing to go grey market, /r/MicrosoftSoftwareSwap.
Windows 10 is $40.
The sellers are likely people with corporate accounts that are overprovisioning keys and selling them, hence grey market. But the keys are legit and work.
Maybe not the best thread, but any suggestions on how much I should sell a Benq XL2411z and a Dell s2417dg for?
Getting that final list all ready for the week while watching other potential items. Looking for some final opinions on cases. I'm leaning towards the NZXT H510 but eying that Fractal Design Meshify C case. Anyone have one of those that could give their impressions?
Ask your school's it department for either a free copy or reduced rate. It helps to show up physically if possible.
Otherwise you are entitled to a couple of free copies of ms office through your school
So I'm thinking it's time to upgrade the pc I built back in 2015, as it's stating to show its age. Problem is, I don't have a lot of money to dedicate to an upgrade, only about $500, so I was thinking of doing only a partial upgrade.
My current specs are:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8 GB ram
GPU: AMD R9 380x
Storage: 1 120GB SSD, 1 1TB HDD, 2 2TB HDD
I was thinking I would probably just upgrade the cpu/mobo/memory, but I've not been paying attention to the current hardware on the market, so I'm looking for suggestions on what to go with. My pc is primarily for gaming, though I don't need top of the line graphics as I tend to stick to more chill experiences overall, and I desire performance and stability over nice graphics. The monitors I use are both 1080p, so I also don't have a desire to go into 4k or anything.
My current specs are:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8 GB ram
GPU: AMD R9 380x
Storage: 1 120GB SSD, 1 1TB HDD, 2 2TB HDD
I was thinking I would probably just upgrade the cpu/mobo/memory, but I've not been paying attention to the current hardware on the market, so I'm looking for suggestions on what to go with. My pc is primarily for gaming, though I don't need top of the line graphics as I tend to stick to more chill experiences overall, and I desire performance and stability over nice graphics. The monitors I use are both 1080p, so I also don't have a desire to go into 4k or anything.
Hi everyone, I'd like to build a small form factor gaming PC / HTPC which fits in my entertainment center. So no bigger than 6 inches tall by 12 inches wide. Depth isn't really an issue.
Anyone have cases of this size they like which would fit ordinary full-size GPUs like a 2080? Ideally I wouldn't need specialized components to fit inside of it.
Anyone have cases of this size they like which would fit ordinary full-size GPUs like a 2080? Ideally I wouldn't need specialized components to fit inside of it.
Is there any real difference or benefit between having an m.2 drive and a regular ol ssd?
Also, I know you should get the same ram sticks if you are adding ram, but what if they are the same brand and speed, just different sizes? I bought 2 8 gb sticks but when I buy more if I add 2 16gb in addition to my 8s?
Also, I know you should get the same ram sticks if you are adding ram, but what if they are the same brand and speed, just different sizes? I bought 2 8 gb sticks but when I buy more if I add 2 16gb in addition to my 8s?
Where are all the deals on monitors? Someone throw me some links for high-end gaming monitors pls! :)
Also, where can i find some good deals on RAM? I might as well upgrade to 32 while I have some extra cash.
Also, where can i find some good deals on RAM? I might as well upgrade to 32 while I have some extra cash.
If the m.2 drive is NVMe, it will be much higher bandwidth (~3.5 GB/s vs ~600 MB/s) and lower latency than a m.2 SATA or 2.5" SATA ssd.
Off the top of my head, I think you could pull off under $500 for:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3600 ($190)
Mobo: B450 ($80 max)
GPU: AMD RX 580 ($185 for Sapphire Pulse, a great model)
RAM: 16gb of DDR4 3000 ($60)
That will be a huge improvement over your current rig.
I was about to post the exact same stuff as the post above this, except for the gpu, you might wanna wait a few weeks for the RX 5500 since it might be a really nice cheap upgrade instead of picking a 580.
Just make sure the B450 is already Ryzen 3000 compatible or supports bios flashback.
Last edited:
Looking into adding an NVMe SSD to my build during the upcoming Black Friday sales.
Is there any reason why I should go with something other than this one?
I've heard that the Intel SSD's aren't as fast as the Samsung offerings, but for the price and the storage size, it seems like the best option.
Thanks guys.
Is there any reason why I should go with something other than this one?
I've heard that the Intel SSD's aren't as fast as the Samsung offerings, but for the price and the storage size, it seems like the best option.
Thanks guys.
Well, I spent most of today looking around for the best deals and prices on the build I posted above and was still not 100% in but Amazon had the i9 9900k for £445 and that was the cheapest I could find online and it said it was the last in stock so I grabbed it.
Just buying all the other bits now. Managed to find a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB GAMING OC for £1056.89 with free postage.
Just buying all the other bits now. Managed to find a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB GAMING OC for £1056.89 with free postage.
When it comes to game load time, the difference seems pretty minimal. I just watched a video todaying comparing SSD, NVME, and regular old Disk Drive. The difference was huge between SSD/NVME compared to disk, but between SSD and NVMEA, it was a mere second or two.
Pretty much if you have an SSD already, don't go out of your way to jump to NVME. However, their prices are good enough that if you are building new, there's no reason to not get an NVME over regular SSD. At least, that is my opinion.
Also 3600MHz is kind of a waste of money. 3200 to 3400, or even 3000, is fine already.
- Status