The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2

Rice Eater · Mar 2, 2020

m_shortpants said:
How much do you all think a 2080 Super will sell for, used, by the end of the year?

I'm about to make a bad decision.

I assume you want to buy one and sell it later, correct? Unless you're willing to sell for no more than $400 then people in the used market would be better off with 3060. But that's based off my guess that the 3060 will be nearly equal to the 2080(non super) in performance and sell for $400.

Considering a new 2080 Super retails for $700+, that's a tough pill to swallow. You could still find a buyer for $500. But you'd have to come across someone who didn't do their homework.

ploonkey · Mar 2, 2020

Rice Eater said:
But that's based off my guess that the 3060 will be nearly equal to the 2080(non super) in performance

How do you figure that? Not challenging you, just curious!

Rice Eater · Mar 2, 2020

ploonkey said:
How do you figure that? Not challenging you, just curious!

Sorry but their is no science behind it. It's just a random guess based on all the talk that ampere is supposed to be a big jump from Turing.

If the 3070 is equal or slightly better than a 2080 TI like many hope it will be than the 3060 should be around 20% behind which is a 2080. Which is why I'm guessing 3060 will basically be a 2080 in terms of performance.

Deleted member 25042 · Mar 2, 2020

If you buy a high end GPU now to sell it after next gen cards come out, I hope you're ok with taking a big loss
Even if Ampere is just like Pascal was to Maxwell (an optimized version on a smaller node), a 2080/S should be around 3060 level

Sell them before the new cards release, not after

Crazymoogle · Mar 2, 2020

Thanks maped and JurassicUtility ! I will give that advice a lot of thought. I noticed the DRAM Calc author put out a Ryzen power plan that makes my CPU run noticeably hotter, but in general my case (mesh + 3 140mm intake + DR4Slim) seems pretty good with heat + XMP/DOCP has been no problem, leading me to believe DRC should succeed at some level.

ploonkey said:
Should I proactively upgrade the cooler at the 4/5 year mark or disregard what I heard and only upgrade once it's dead?

The Enermax situation notwithstanding, basically most AIOs either (a) slowly dissipate coolant over the years and the pump works itself to death, getting louder, or (b) the pump fails at some point for some other reason. In my case my h100i from 5+ years ago still works every day. But it is clearly louder than my new 6 fan mesh case, and probably is being slowly starved of coolant. In general I think it's fine to keep what you've got if you're happy with it, because worst case it fails and your CPU will protect itself anyway rather than melting down. I've never heard of a catastrophic (leak) type failure but I suppose it's possible.

That being said, if it's loud and old, switching to a new AIO should bring an immediately noticeable difference.

Dave. · Mar 2, 2020

RandomError said:
RAM:
I'm a bit more conflicted when it comes to RAM. When I bought my current PC, 8GB was considered the happy medium, and I haven't regretted going the extra mile. It can get a little tight (~80 - 90% usage) once you have a a couple graphics applications, an IDE, some local servers and a half dozen browser windows open - though nothing some workflow tweaks couldn't manage. You can always buy more I suppose, but the likelihood of price increases and a new console generation right around the corner has me spooked.

Since you're doing work that uses up RAM, don't think twice about splurging on the larger amount. The people saying "16GB is enough" are speaking in relation to gaming-only, pretty much. No game right now performs better with 32GB over 16GB. Since you find yourself using nearly the full 16GB already for non-gaming reasons, you can be confident buying 32GB will be useful for sure! I will second the "get 3600MHz CL16 if it's not much more" recommendation.

catpurrcat · Mar 3, 2020

Well this is interesting!

tldr: buy!

big_z · Mar 3, 2020

Yogi said:
As another poster said, Red is for always on NAS drives. I was considering getting one for increased reliability in a desktop but I did read there were downsides to that and it's not appropriate...I just forgot what they were. Might be something to do with file-writing and "SMR", iirc.

TLER im guessing is the downside as it could make errors less noticable running solo. I ended up going blue and was able to price match to half the cost of the red. Even with the lower durability it should be fine. Just need it long enough until large ssd are cheaper.

Surprisingly the troubled drive decided to work like normal tonight but im not going to chance it. At least it has made file transfer a snap.

Black_Stride · Mar 3, 2020

shancake said:
Just completed my first PC build (after being a Mac user for 15 years). So happy.

Only a few little issues:

Not super happy with the PCI-e cord hanging over the GPU logo.

G.Skill ram stays lit when PC is sleeping

Does the radiator breath well or does that case have some sort of side intakes?
What do your temps look like under load?

P.S What Ram and speeds are you running at, getting the same motherboard hoping to hit min 3600.

パンダさん · Mar 3, 2020

catpurrcat said:
Well this is interesting!

tldr: buy!

Deleted member 34132 · Mar 3, 2020

So... my PC is getting 6 years old this year. The only thing I upgraded was the graphics card and that was also 4 years ago. I currently got a i5-4570, 8 GB Ram, GTX970, no SSD, just a 1 TB HDD. So I'm planning to build a completely new PC.

1) What's your budget and currency?

€. Around 1500 € would be nice, 2000 € is the absolute maximum.

2) What do you want to use the computer for?

Mainly gaming and some office stuff.

3) When do you plan to purchase the parts and build it?

As soon as possible.

4) Are you reusing any parts or are you building a completely new computer?

No.

5) Do you only need the computer itself or do you need accessories, such as a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers?

Only the PC.

6) Are you interested in overclocking?

No.

The last time I informed myself considering PC parts was 2014 when I built my current rig. So I'm completely out of touch.

What about the following parts?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700X
CPU Cooler: be quiet dark rock 4
Motherboard: MSI B450M Pro-VDH
Memory: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200
Storage: 1TB Samsung 860 QVO SSD
Graphics: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 2080 Super
Case: be quiet Pure Base 600
Power Supply: 750 Watt be quiet Straight Power 11

With windows 10 this would be around 1600 €. But please feel free to recommend me better parts if there's something not so good.

Katonix · Mar 3, 2020

Any news about when can we see 3xxx Nvidia cards?

Crazymoogle · Mar 3, 2020

Katonix said:
Any news about when can we see 3xxx Nvidia cards?

Nvidia's GPU Summit has been converted into online only due to COVID-19, I believe its set for 22-26 March. Seems likely we will hear at least about the GPU if not a price and release date.

TikeMyson1308 said:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700X
CPU Cooler: be quiet dark rock 4
Motherboard: MSI B450M Pro-VDH
Memory: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200
Storage: 1TB Samsung 860 QVO SSD
Graphics: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 2080 Super
Case: be quiet Pure Base 600
Power Supply: 750 Watt be quiet Straight Power 11

Nothing wrong with that setup. DR4 is a great cooler for the 3700X, 2080S is a great GPU.

The only things you could do better on:

NVMe SSD instead of SATA. Nothing particularly wrong with that drive but NVMe is way smaller, requires no cables (so, easier build) and you can get TLC options still instead of QLC. So something like the Sabrent Rocket, ADATA SX8200 Pro, etc
X570 Board instead of B450. It's more forward looking, supports PCIe 4.0, etc. That being said...there is I think only one Micro ATX X570 board on the market. And MSi is the king of B450 boards. So if you need MATX you're in good shape. If you want ATX, you should consider going X570 with like the ASUS TUF or one of the Gigabyte boards perhaps.

Animus · Mar 3, 2020

How many of you here uses dedicated sound cards in your PC ? Are integrated Realtek ones in modern motherboards good enough?

laxu · Mar 3, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
Nvidia's GPU Summit has been converted into online only due to COVID-19, I believe its set for 22-26 March. Seems likely we will hear at least about the GPU if not a price and release date.

It might be only about data center / machine learning GPUs but who knows. At least we will know something more about the architecture. I expect gaming cards to be revealed later this year at either GDC or Gamescom. Coronavirus will have a heavy effect on how things are available so I would not be surprised if you can only get these in stores in Q4. Better value for the 2080 Ti I bought in 2019 at least!

Nothing wrong with that setup. DR4 is a great cooler for the 3700X, 2080S is a great GPU.

The only things you could do better on:

NVMe SSD instead of SATA. Nothing particularly wrong with that drive but NVMe is way smaller, requires no cables (so, easier build) and you can get TLC options still instead of QLC. So something like the Sabrent Rocket, ADATA SX8200 Pro, etc

X570 Board instead of B450. It's more forward looking, supports PCIe 4.0, etc. That being said...there is I think only one Micro ATX X570 board on the market. And MSi is the king of B450 boards. So if you need MATX you're in good shape. If you want ATX, you should consider going X570 with like the ASUS TUF or one of the Gigabyte boards perhaps.

Unless you have specific needs, NVME is not going to help you. In real world use I can't tell a difference between my NVME and several generations of SSDs for general desktop and gaming use. Large file copies are much faster but how often do you really do that? For game installs you are limited by network connection or optical drives. NVME cost has gone down so much that it isn't a huge factor so might as well go that route if you are buying new drives.

I doubt PCIe 4.0 will become relevant at all until a few generations of hardware further. Paying extra for it as well as dealing with the stupid chipset fans doesn't seem like a good tradeoff at this point. BIOS support for Zen 3 will come earlier for X570 though but by the time those are released we might have the B550 platform out as well.

laxu · Mar 3, 2020

Animus said:
How many of you here uses dedicated sound cards in your PC ? Are integrated Realtek ones in modern motherboards good enough?

I use a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 gen 2 audio interface because I do music stuff. Yes it is better sound quality than the integrated stuff but for most people the Realtek or Intel audio chipsets are going to be more than enough. I see absolutely no need to buy a dedicated PCIe slot soundcard when they no longer offer any real benefits over the integrated ones as proprietary 3D audio stuff is no longer a thing.

StaffyManasse · Mar 3, 2020

With all these Youtubers saying I should buy my system right away it's very hard to stick to the rationality that a) I need to wait at least one more month to see how we are doing financially, b) it's a bad time to buy a GPU.

Oh well. If things go so bad globally I can't afford or get a PC late April / May I'm just going to think getting one right now would have been unwise anyway.

Crazymoogle · Mar 3, 2020

laxu said:
Unless you have specific needs, NVME is not going to help you. In real world use I can't tell a difference between my NVME and several generations of SSDs for general desktop and gaming use. Large file copies are much faster but how often do you really do that? For game installs you are limited by network connection or optical drives. NVME cost has gone down so much that it isn't a huge factor so might as well go that route if you are buying new drives.

I doubt PCIe 4.0 will become relevant at all until a few generations of hardware further. Paying extra for it as well as dealing with the stupid chipset fans doesn't seem like a good tradeoff at this point. BIOS support for Zen 3 will come earlier for X570 though but by the time those are released we might have the B550 platform out as well.

I don't totally disagree with your points, but with NVMe there are some very obvious improvements: in build, in points of failure, and (maybe) in future games. It certainly can't hurt and depending on your region there isn't an obvious pricing difference. Beyond that, I'll take TLC and a longer MTBF without as severe a write penalty as disk space fills.

For X570, well, all I can say is I've never heard the chipset fan on my TUF, I do think it's valid to consider Ryzen 4000, and I'm setup in the future for gen2/3 NVMe if I desire (plus whatever, if anything, comes from Gen4 Nvidia cards). If you're planning on upgrading again in a couple of years, sure, go B450. But if you don't upgrade too often, I feel fine going X570.

Tim · Mar 3, 2020

Last week my computer shut off while playing HOI4 and was completely unresponsive when I tried to reboot. At first I thought it was a power supply issue, but after I installed a new one it still wouldn't turn on. I decided to start taking parts out one-by-one and sure enough the computer turned on after removing my GPU. I tried plugging the GPU into the other PCI slot, and again it wouldn't turn on. Am I right in thinking this is just a GPU issue or could it still be the motherboard?

If it is the GPU, what do people recommend for around $200 or so?

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
PSU: EVGA - 600W ATX 12V/EPS 12V 80 Plus Power Supply

ABeezy1388 · Mar 3, 2020

Here with another issue/question :)

I have my pc plugged into either my 65" LG B7 OLED or 65" Samsung KS8000; depending where I want to game at. In both TVs I have a Sonos beam sound bar plugged into the tv via HDMI 2/ARC with an HDMI cable. I also have 2 Sonos Play Ones set up as rear surrounds, and then a subwoofer for a 5.1 Dolby surround sound set up.

My issue is that in the sound options on my PC I'm only showing stereo output. My consoles and cable set top box all recognize the 5.1 and use it with no issues.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I been googling it and getting so many convoluted answers and I'm racking my brain over it. Some say it's possible to fix, some say it's a mobo issue (my onboard audio is Realtek), and others say it's a GPU issue. Wondering if anyone else has a similar setup or knows of a fix? Would love to pc game with 5.1 :(

My pc specs are:

Power Supply: EVGA 650GM 80+G FM SFX PSU
Memory: G. SKILL 32GB 2X16 D4 3200 RIPJAWS
Storage: IPSG 256GB I PREMIUM NVME SSD (boot drive)
Storage: IPSG 1TB I PREMIUM NVME SSD
CPU: AMD RYZEN 5 3600X WRAITHS
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X570 AORUS ITX WIFI
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080 SUPER BLACK GAMING
Cooler: NOCTUA NH-L9a CHROMAX BLACK
Case: LOUQE GHOST S1 LIMESTONE

NattyBo · Mar 3, 2020

NattyBo said:
Can anyone point me in the directions of a barebones system for me to plop my 1660TI? The card is still damn decent but my AMD8320 FX just isn't cutting it. I'd like to squeeze another year/2 out of the card before building a mid gen monster. Ideally around $300 but willing to do $399 or a little more, depending.
I'm not very comfortable building myself - extent of what I can do is put the card in.

anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

DJ Lushious · Mar 3, 2020

Animus said:
How many of you here uses dedicated sound cards in your PC ? Are integrated Realtek ones in modern motherboards good enough?

It depends on how your speakers are connected and how much of an audiophile you are.

I have an X-Fi Titanium HD I've held onto throughout the years and the difference in sound quality between it and my corresponding motherboard sound chip is a night and day difference. DACs matter!

ABeezy1388 said:
Here with another issue/question :)

I have my pc plugged into either my 65" LG B7 OLED or 65" Samsung KS8000; depending where I want to game at. In both TVs I have a Sonos beam sound bar plugged into the tv via HDMI 2/ARC with an HDMI cable. I also have 2 Sonos Play Ones set up as rear surrounds, and then a subwoofer for a 5.1 Dolby surround sound set up.

My issue is that in the sound options on my PC I'm only showing stereo output. My consoles and cable set top box all recognize the 5.1 and use it with no issues.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I been googling it and getting so many convoluted answers and I'm racking my brain over it. Some say it's possible some day it's a mobo issue and others say GPU issue. Wondering if anyone else has a similar setup or knows of a fix? Would love to pc game with 5.1 :(

You're going to have to send out a Dolby Digital or DTS signal through your HDMI ARC chain for the SONOS to pick it up. Your TV's ARC can only pass through 2 channel PCM (which is what your PC is doing now), Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, or DTS.

And I'm certain you can't send a Dolby Digital, DD+, or DTS signal via your GPU without an additional add-on. Possibly look into the Dolby Atmos add-in for Windows 10. It's available in the Windows App Store.

NattyBo said:
anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

What are your current PC's specs?

Crazymoogle · Mar 3, 2020

Tim said:
GPU into the other PCI slot, and again it wouldn't turn on. Am I right in thinking this is just a GPU issue or could it still be the motherboard? If it is the GPU, what do people recommend for around $200 or so?

Yeah, that smells heavily of the card failing. I would usually assume the slot but as you said it failed in both. GTX 1660 Super is around ~239 on Amazon. If that's too much, the 1660 regular is around 200-209 ish. The ranking is 1660ti (Best) > 1660 Super > 1660.

gdt · Mar 3, 2020

Thinking I'm gonna upgrade the case too.

So that's a

Ryzen 3700x
Mugen schythe fan
16 GB DDR4
Asus TUF Mobo
A nice case, thinking $80 to $100

Gonna stick with 16gb of ram for now, to swing the case and keep the budget around $650 to $700.

NattyBo · Mar 3, 2020

DJ Lushious said:
It depends on how your speakers are connected and how much of an audiophile you are.

I have an X-Fi Titanium HD I've held onto throughout the years and the difference in sound quality between it and my corresponding motherboard sound chip is a night and day difference. DACs matter!

You're going to have to send out a Dolby Digital or DTS signal through your HDMI ARC chain for the SONOS to pick it up. Your TV's ARC can only pass through 2 channel PCM (which is what your PC is doing now), Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, or DTS.

And I'm certain you can't send a Dolby Digital, DD+, or DTS signal via your GPU without an additional add-on. Possibly look into the Dolby Atmos add-in for Windows 10. It's available in the Windows App Store.

What are your current PC's specs?

AMDFX8320E
Gigabyte 1660TI
CRUCIAL 16GB 8X2 D3 1600 BLSP C9
CORSAIR CXM 650W 80+B SM PSU
COOLMAST HYPER T4 CPU COOLER
ASROCK FATAL1TY 970 PERFORMANCE
CORSAIR CARBIDE 200R WDW ATX CASE

Like I said I'm not real comfortable building myself, which was why I hoped to just plop the 1660Ti into something pre built that will at least not bottleneck me as bad as the 8320

Tim · Mar 3, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
Yeah, that smells heavily of the card failing. I would usually assume the slot but as you said it failed in both. GTX 1660 Super is around ~239 on Amazon. If that's too much, the 1660 regular is around 200-209 ish. The ranking is 1660ti (Best) > 1660 Super > 1660.

Thanks! Just ordered a Super.

DJ Lushious · Mar 3, 2020

NattyBo said:
Like I said I'm not real comfortable building myself, which was why I hoped to just plop the 1660Ti into something pre built that will at least not bottleneck me as bad as the 8320

Your AMD FX 8320E has about the same performance as a Ryzen 3200G, according to PassMark. So, how is your CPU not cutting it any more? I can't imagine you are gaming at anything above 1080p.

I'm not so certain shooting for a prebuilt PC in the $300-$400 range is worth the time. Save that money and put it towards that mid-gen monster you want to build.

SmartWaffles · Mar 3, 2020

catpurrcat said:
Well this is interesting!

tldr: buy!

Friend at a major manufacturer once said to me that videos like this from Linus has massive market driving capability, like people will actually follow his advices so it could make component shortages coming even faster than expected.

NattyBo · Mar 3, 2020

DJ Lushious said:
Your AMD FX 8320E has about the same performance as a Ryzen 3200G, according to PassMark. So, how is your CPU not cutting it any more? I can't imagine you are gaming at anything above 1080p.

I'm not so certain shooting for a prebuilt PC in the $300-$400 range is worth the time. Save that money and put it towards that mid-gen monster you want to build.

thanks. It's certainly felt like it's been a bottle neck and I've noticed it's come up as a minimum spec for some games coming out this year, but I think you're probably right about just stashing the $ now

Wowfunhappy · Mar 3, 2020

So I installed (1) my motherboard, then (2) my cpu, then (3) my cpu cooler, a Noctua NH-C14S. The edge of the cpu cooler comes right up against the top of the case.

I realized after installing my motherboard's cpu fan port is underneath the cooler near the top, where I can't get to it.

Okay, so I figured I'd just remove the motherboard from the case... except one of the motherboard screws is ALSO under cooler.

Is there any way to plug this in without uninstalling the cpu cooler? :(

Never mind, I stopped being lazy and removed the cooler, which I was dreading but actually wasn't hard.

gdt · Mar 3, 2020

Ok so ended up getting

Ryzen 7 3700x
Asus TUF 570x
Scythe Mugen CPU cooler
16 GB Corsair DDR4 3200 ram
Nzxt H510 white case mid tower.

Should all be here soon. Hope the installation is smooth. Reusing everything else.

gdt · Mar 3, 2020

Sorry wierd double post.

eddy · Mar 3, 2020

edit: Well fuck me.. Wrong everything.

Wraith · Mar 3, 2020

Wowfunhappy said:
So I installed (1) my motherboard, then (2) my cpu, then (3) my cpu cooler, a Noctua NH-C14S. The edge of the cpu cooler comes right up against the top of the case.

I realized after installing my motherboard's cpu fan port is underneath the cooler near the top, where I can't get to it.

Okay, so I figured I'd just remove the motherboard from the case... except one of the motherboard screws is ALSO under cooler.

Is there any way to plug this in without uninstalling the cpu cooler? :(

Only thing I can think of is trying to snake the fan connector in there using needlenose pliers, or a ratcheting screwdriver to get at the motherboard screw.

Advc · Mar 3, 2020

SmartWaffles said:
Friend at a major manufacturer once said to me that videos like this from Linus has massive market driving capability, like people will actually follow his advices so it could make component shortages coming even faster than expected.

Yeah it's crazy the amount of influence Linus has on this kind of stuff. I have read reviews on Amazon from a lot of people mentioning they bought certain component due to his videos.

gdt said:
Ok so ended up getting

Ryzen 7 3700x
Asus TUF 570x
Scythe Mugen CPU cooler
16 GB Corsair DDR4 3200 ram
Nzxt H510 white case mid tower.

Should all be here soon. Hope the installation is smooth. Reusing everything else.

Hype! It's always exciting when you get to build a new PC so enjoy!

Shoichi · Mar 3, 2020

wish I found out about the NZXT H1 mini case earlier (wanted the Corsair One if you could have just purchased the case)...that thing looks so good but the case only purchase is all sold out...
I was thinking about going all out making a custom water cooled build either this year or next year. But a compact thing like that is very enticing

Deleted member 34132 · Mar 3, 2020

Crazymoogle said:
Nvidia's GPU Summit has been converted into online only due to COVID-19, I believe its set for 22-26 March. Seems likely we will hear at least about the GPU if not a price and release date.

Nothing wrong with that setup. DR4 is a great cooler for the 3700X, 2080S is a great GPU.

The only things you could do better on:

NVMe SSD instead of SATA. Nothing particularly wrong with that drive but NVMe is way smaller, requires no cables (so, easier build) and you can get TLC options still instead of QLC. So something like the Sabrent Rocket, ADATA SX8200 Pro, etc

X570 Board instead of B450. It's more forward looking, supports PCIe 4.0, etc. That being said...there is I think only one Micro ATX X570 board on the market. And MSi is the king of B450 boards. So if you need MATX you're in good shape. If you want ATX, you should consider going X570 with like the ASUS TUF or one of the Gigabyte boards perhaps.

Thanks. Did some changes here and there and ended up ordering the following setup:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700X
CPU Cooler: be quiet dark rock 4
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus
Memory: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200
Storage: 1TB Samsung NVMe SSD 970 Evo
Graphics: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 2070 Super Gaming White
Case: be quiet Silent Base 801
Power Supply: 650 Watt be quiet Straight Power 11

I decided to go for a 2070 Super instead a 2080 Super. That saved me more than 200 € and I read that the performance isn't dramatically better with a 2080 as long as you are not planning to play in 4K. So I rather ordered a 2070 and another motherboard and storage.

If all goes well I get all the parts by friday (CPU cooler and a new second display unfortunately take their time until saturday) and I only have to work until 1 pm.

GeezyAF · Mar 3, 2020

ploonkey said:
What happens exactly? Chip gets hot and triggers a shutdown? What if you leave the PC on and you're not around?

Also had a Corsair AIO go out one time during gaming, and the CPU just throttles itself to stay safe.

If you leave the PC on idle and you're not around, wouldn't get hot enough to be of any real danger honestly.

JurassicUtility said:
If you want to go down the rabbit hole of fine tuning your timings, I found this to be a pretty useful resource:

MemTestHelper/DDR4 OC Guide.md at master · integralfx/MemTestHelper

C# WPF to automate HCI MemTest. Contribute to integralfx/MemTestHelper development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Regarding testing, I found their suggested settings of 800-800k fft in prime95 were a pretty reliable way to quickly reveal instability (~10-15 min usually). After you find settings that don't immediately fail, then you can test long term stability with memtest, or just more prime95 if you like.

This guide is actually pretty good. Thanks for that.

Christopher · Mar 3, 2020

shancake said:
Just completed my first PC build (after being a Mac user for 15 years). So happy.

Only a few little issues:

Not super happy with the PCI-e cord hanging over the GPU logo.

G.Skill ram stays lit when PC is sleeping

This would solve the PCI-e cable issue:
EVGA PowerLink

I have it in my build:

ABeezy1388 · Mar 3, 2020

DJ Lushious said:
You're going to have to send out a Dolby Digital or DTS signal through your HDMI ARC chain for the SONOS to pick it up. Your TV's ARC can only pass through 2 channel PCM (which is what your PC is doing now), Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, or DTS.

And I'm certain you can't send a Dolby Digital, DD+, or DTS signal via your GPU without an additional add-on. Possibly look into the Dolby Atmos add-in for Windows 10. It's available in the Windows App Store.

thanks, I'll check that app. I think it may be my only option. Or buying some type of sound card

GeezyAF · Mar 3, 2020

ABeezy1388 said:
thanks, I'll check that app. I think it may be my only option. Or buying some type of sound card

So fellow Michigander, I also have the same issue with my Sonos 5.1 and it's a Sonos issue. It cannot decode anything besides DD.

Just about anything would be coming out as LPCM from the PC, so you'd need something to encode to DD for Sonos 5.1 to work.

I haven't really found a good solution for this, but if you do please let me know. Just about all streaming technologies (Moonlight/Steam Link) also output to LPCM.

ABeezy1388 · Mar 3, 2020

GeezyAF said:
So fellow Michigander, I also have the same issue with my Sonos 5.1 and it's a Sonos issue. It cannot decode anything besides DD.

Just about anything would be coming out as LPCM from the PC, so you'd need something to encode to DD for Sonos 5.1 to work.

I haven't really found a good solution for this, but if you do please let me know. Just about all streaming technologies (Moonlight/Steam Link) also output to LPCM.

Michigan FTW! lol! I am not the most advanced when it comes to sound and codecs and all that so I am pretty much at a dead end. I am beyond irritated with this though as on my PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, they both handle the 5.1 no problem, so does my cable set top box. Ive been googling it and there does not appear to be a way to make this work (I havent tried the Dolby app on Windows yet but thinking its not going to work). Someone mentioned about an external sound card (I would have to go external having a SFF PC,) and then using the beams optical cable to plug into the pc... so basically the beam would have HDMI to tv and optical to PC... not sure if that would work though either? There has to be a way somehow... right? lol

GeezyAF · Mar 3, 2020

ABeezy1388 said:
Michigan FTW! lol! I am not the most advanced when it comes to sound and codecs and all that so I am pretty much at a dead end. I am beyond irritated with this though as on my PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, they both handle the 5.1 no problem, so does my cable set top box. Ive been googling it and there does not appear to be a way to make this work (I havent tried the Dolby app on Windows yet but thinking its not going to work). Someone mentioned about an external sound card (I would have to go external having a SFF PC,) and then using the beams optical cable to plug into the pc... so basically the beam would have HDMI to tv and optical to PC... not sure if that would work though either? There has to be a way somehow... right? lol

The PS4 and XBX are able to output as Dolby, so it's no issue for Sonos. I'm assuming your cable box works the same way.

Sound card (int/ext) would work if it was encoding to DD. It's a messy setup, and not one I want. But in that scenario you'd still be getting picture via HDMI and the sound would be sourced from the optical.

My PC and TV set up are in different rooms, so I leverage the streaming technology and running an optical cable is not feasible for me.

Honestly the only thing that would work for me is getting a soundbar/receiver that supports LPCM, sigh. Sonos is great otherwise, but the Beam/Playbar really lack here.

ABeezy1388 · Mar 3, 2020

GeezyAF said:
The PS4 and XBX are able to output as Dolby, so it's no issue for Sonos. I'm assuming your cable box works the same way.

Sound card (int/ext) would work if it was encoding to DD. It's a messy setup, and not one I want. But in that scenario you'd still be getting picture via HDMI and the sound would be sourced from the optical.

My PC and TV set up are in different rooms, so I leverage the streaming technology and running an optical cable is not feasible for me.

Honestly the only thing that would work for me is getting a soundbar/receiver that supports LPCM, sigh. Sonos is great otherwise, but the Beam/Playbar really lack here.

That is honestly a real buzz kill. I love Sonos, the quality is great, being able to control it via google/alex/phone/tablet/pc is awsome. I have 2 beams, a sub, 6 speakers throughout the house lol. I invested a lot of money and the different room audio is awesome but this just sucks. Especially for gaming and streaming videos/movies on my new pc :(

Crazymoogle · Mar 3, 2020

TikeMyson1308 said:
I decided to go for a 2070 Super instead a 2080 Super. That saved me more than 200 € and I read that the performance isn't dramatically better with a 2080 as long as you are not planning to play in 4K. So I rather ordered a 2070 and another motherboard and storage.

I'm basically at the front of people advocating more GPU than needed, but the 3700X+2070S is a fine, balanced config nonetheless. You're sitting in the business class seats with the 970 EVO.

The only thing to keep in mind is that MSI is having VRM cooling problems on their X570 line. 3700X is fine but (a) wouldn't upgrade to 3900/3950x later and (b) overclocking potential is going to be limited. If you do a CPU upgrade in the future on that board, you'll have to wait and see what Ryzen 4000 models come and what fits in your power envelope. It's nothing to freak out over, just that it's not an overclocker/high power draw board. Considering you have a 3700X and 650W PSU, it should be just fine.

Christopher said:
This would solve the PCI-e cable issue:
EVGA PowerLink

That's both brilliant and terrible. I mean, it's a very obvious plastic dongle...and yet, it totally works at rerouting those nasty PCIe cable bundles. So something to keep in mind for the future. (I already realize how useful it can be to have a GPU brace for sag, wow, my 970 is not conformant lol)

Milennia · Mar 3, 2020

Hey all, building a 2070 super rig (until the 3k cards drop) and deciding between a 9700k and a 9900k
Most likely wont upgrade the CPU for 2 years but will upgrade the card this year when ampere drops
Cooling is a Kraken x52 in an H500I case

Wowfunhappy · Mar 3, 2020

Has anyone ever gotten a motherboard that basically seems to work fine, but just consistently takes a really long time to POST? Talking upwards of 60 seconds, every boot.

I Don't Like · Mar 3, 2020

Wowfunhappy said:
Has anyone ever gotten a motherboard that basically seems to work fine, but just consistently takes a really long time to POST? Talking upwards of 60 seconds, every boot.

No. That's crazy. Update the firmware. Also check for a quick-boot option.

DSP · Mar 3, 2020

Milennia said:
Hey all, building a 2070 super rig (until the 3k cards drop) and deciding between a 9700k and a 9900k
Most likely wont upgrade the CPU for 2 years but will upgrade the card this year when ampere drops
Cooling is a Kraken x52 in an H500I case

you will want those threads, 9900K should be good for many years. Just get it now and forget it, 9700 is not that great. You should consider 3700 or 9900 depending on how much you want to spend.

You can wait for 10700, that should be cheaper than 9900k and basically be same thing or better but with current virus out break it is hard to say what is going to happen to future products, prices and supply.

Milennia · Mar 3, 2020

DSP said:
you will want those threads, 9900K should be good for many years. Just get it now and forget it, 9700 is not that great. You should consider 3700 or 9900 depending on how much you want to spend.

You can wait for 10700, that should be cheaper than 9900k and basically be same thing or better but with current virus out break it is hard to say what is going to happen to future products, prices and supply.

Thanks! will roll with the 9900 then

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