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

ezodagrom · Dec 10, 2018

Nothing said:
I think you're confused. The Windows 10 license is tied your pc. i.e. your mobo, RAM, and CPU. So of course Microsoft recognized those parts when they were transferred to your sister's PC.

Your PC is no longer the same PC. Is has new core components and therefore it's a new PC (by Windows 10 installation standards).

Anyways, you can get a Windows 10 key on Ebay for like $4 if it's a problem.

No, since the Anniversary Update, a digital license can be tied to the account, and supposedly we should be able to use the activation troubleshooter to re-activate windows, but it doesn't always work as it should.

In Windows 10 (Version 1607 or later), link your Microsoft account to the Windows 10 digital license on your device. Then you can reactivate Windows using the Activation troubleshooter if you make a significant hardware change later.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

Either way, in the end both me and my sister got both our systems activated, even if it wasn't as smoothly as it should.

derFeef · Dec 10, 2018

Yeah I had to buy a cheap license... but my new Ryzen-powered PC runs well so far, just need to do some stress tests and maybe some overclocking but no complaints so far!

My win10 was tied to my MS account and I even tried the "I made hardware changes" and selected my old registered PC, but it would not let me do it. I guess it has to do with a string of upgrade to upgrade to win 10 licenses or something...

Supreme Leader · Dec 10, 2018

Any good deals on monitors under $200 floating around? Looking to use it for programming and low demand graphics in gaming.

Lakeside · Dec 10, 2018

I posted in the RTX 20 series reviews thread but thought I'd mention here that my 2080 Ti died. Nvidia was incredibly quick to replace. They sent a brand new card via Priority Overnight Fedex.

myzhi · Dec 10, 2018

Lakeside said:
I posted in the RTX 20 series reviews thread but thought I'd mention here that my 2080 Ti died. Nvidia was incredibly quick to replace. They sent a brand new card via Priority Overnight Fedex.

Was your old card Micron ram and new one Samsung? That was my case.

Lakeside · Dec 10, 2018

myzhi said:
Was your old card Micron ram and new one Samsung? That was my case.

Yes

Vilifier · Dec 10, 2018

Does anyone know of case maker that has the option of adding rackmount to their case?

SilverStone's GD10 series has the option with their RA02 kit, but my GPU needs 5.5in height clearance and the GD10 only supports 5.25in.

oneils · Dec 10, 2018

Question to folks that use afterburner/or other gpu fan curve software:

I have a new rtx 2080. I have the fan curve set that in the games I play I don't see temperatures over 55c. At that temp I have the fans of the gpu running at 65%.

I'm thinking of turning it down to either 55% or 45% to see what temps I get. At 45%, the fans are really quiet. I'm thinking that if I get temperatures between 60 to 69 degress celcius, that might not be too bad.

Anyone here do something like that or would you consider doing something like that? My older cards ran much hotter than 55, so I don't see it being too big of a problem.

Lakeside · Dec 10, 2018

oneils said:
Question to folks that use afterburner/or other gpu fan curve software:

I have a new rtx 2080. I have the fan curve set that in the games I play I don't see temperatures over 55c. At that temp I have the fans of the gpu running at 65%.

I'm thinking of turning it down to either 55% or 45% to see what temps I get. At 45%, the fans are really quiet. I'm thinking that if I get temperatures between 60 to 69 degress celcius, that might not be too bad.

Anyone here do something like that or would you consider doing something like that? My older cards ran much hotter than 55, so I don't see it being too big of a problem.

Most people never touch the fan curve and run in the 80s all the time. It'll be fine.

oneils · Dec 10, 2018

Lakeside said:
Most people never touch the fan curve and run in the 80s all the time. It'll be fine.

I'll try the default, then, and see how that goes. Thanks.

Wolf · Dec 10, 2018

Anyone with a Corsair 500D recommend two front 140mm or 3 120mm fans?

Rizific · Dec 10, 2018

oneils said:
Question to folks that use afterburner/or other gpu fan curve software:

I have a new rtx 2080. I have the fan curve set that in the games I play I don't see temperatures over 55c. At that temp I have the fans of the gpu running at 65%.

I'm thinking of turning it down to either 55% or 45% to see what temps I get. At 45%, the fans are really quiet. I'm thinking that if I get temperatures between 60 to 69 degress celcius, that might not be too bad.

Anyone here do something like that or would you consider doing something like that? My older cards ran much hotter than 55, so I don't see it being too big of a problem.

I have it so my gpu (1070) fans dont even start spinning until 55c. I think my fan curve maxes out at 65% and at full load my temps hit about 68-69c. Seems completely reasonable to me.

Nothing · Dec 10, 2018

Lakeside said:
I posted in the RTX 20 series reviews thread but thought I'd mention here that my 2080 Ti died. Nvidia was incredibly quick to replace. They sent a brand new card via Priority Overnight Fedex.

what did they make you do with your old card?

SinOfHeart · Dec 11, 2018

Wolf said:
Anyone with a Corsair 500D recommend two front 140mm or 3 120mm fans?

I have the version that already came with 3 120mm rgb fans mounted on the front. I think that would probably look better just due to how the front grates of the case look (i.e. it looks like there are supposed to be 3 fans there if you look in from the front). I then have 2 140mm exhaust fans on my aio radiator mounted to the top (seems like less of a visual concern what you do up there since you can only see those fans when you look inside not from the top). I was also going to put a 120mm fan in the back of the case but it seemed way too snug again the motherboard IO panel so I decided against it.

astro · Dec 11, 2018

Question for UK builders: what are the best current sites to source parts from?

The have my build pretty much locked, and I'm shopping around now, but I'd quite like some feedback on experiences buying from specific companies etc... if possible.

Cheers!

sym30l1c · Dec 11, 2018

astro said:
Question for UK builders: what are the best current sites to source parts from?

The have my build pretty much locked, and I'm shopping around now, but I'd quite like some feedback on experiences buying from specific companies etc... if possible.

Cheers!

On https://uk.pcpartpicker.com you find different vendors (but you probably already know that).
For my recent build I got parts from:

- Amazon: quick delivery and great customer service (especially if you have Prime). I had problems with some parts, and got replacements no questions asked.
- Overclockers.co.uk: great service, great packaging and quick. Expensive parts are shipped with DPD, so shipping is quite expensive, unfortunately.
- Scan.co.uk: quick with different shipping options and good packaging.
- Novatech.co.uk: very quick with different shipping options. Not so great packaging: bought a PSU and the box was not put into another box or bubblewrapped. It was simply put into a Parcelforce plastic envelope (fortunately it arrived in pristine conditions).
- Cclonline.com: good service and quick, but, similar to Novatech, not great packaging (i.e. just a plastic envelope).

Depending on prices, I would recommend buying from Amazon for the customer service. Of the other vendors, I was overall very satisfied with Overclockers, but it's just my personal experience!

Also, I bought my graphics card directly from EVGA. If you plan to get an EVGA card, I think it's better you get it from them rather than another retailer.

astro · Dec 11, 2018

sym30l1c said:
On https://uk.pcpartpicker.com you find different vendors (but you probably already know that).
For my recent build I got parts from:

- Amazon: quick delivery and great customer service (especially if you have Prime). I had problems with some parts, and got replacements no questions asked.
- Overclockers.co.uk: great service, great packaging and quick. Expensive parts are shipped with DPD, so shipping is quite expensive, unfortunately.
- Scan.co.uk: quick with different shipping options and good packaging.
- Novatech.co.uk: very quick with different shipping options. Not so great packaging: bought a PSU and the box was not put into another box or bubblewrapped. It was simply put into a Parcelforce plastic envelope (fortunately it arrived in pristine conditions).
- Cclonline.com: good service and quick, but, similar to Novatech, not great packaging (i.e. just a plastic envelope).

Depending on prices, I would recommend buying from Amazon for the customer service. Of the other vendors, I was overall very satisfied with Overclockers, but it's just my personal experience!

Also, I bought my graphics card directly from EVGA. If you plan to get an EVGA card, I think it's better you get it from them rather than another retailer.

This is exactly what I was hoping for, thank you very much! :)

dmoe · Dec 11, 2018

Are there any updated BFV benchmarks for 2080's? I have a 1080 and am really debating on upgrading just to get the extra 30 or so FPS, not really concerned with RTX. But I can only seem to find Alpha benchmarks. Is that upgrade worth it? I play at 1440p not 4k.

HamSandwich · Dec 11, 2018

So I oc'd my 8700k and was able to achieve 5ghz @ 1.28 (I think?). I say I think because I forced it at 1.28 but when I look at HWMonitor during my stress test, it looks like it maxes out at 1.34v. Is there anyway to prevent it from going past 1.28?

Also I kept my cstates enabled and it my clocks are stuck at 5ghz. How do I keep it down low workload tasks?

If it helps, it's a Z390 gigabyte board.

Thanks!

Soda · Dec 11, 2018

dmoe said:
Are there any updated BFV benchmarks for 2080's? I have a 1080 and am really debating on upgrading just to get the extra 30 or so FPS, not really concerned with RTX. But I can only seem to find Alpha benchmarks. Is that upgrade worth it? I play at 1440p not 4k.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUhCf6t3RBA

correojon · Dec 11, 2018

I´ve been looking into getting a new computer, mainly to play the following games:

Nioh
Nier: Automata
Dark Souls 3
DMC V

Looking at their specs I´m going to need something like an i5 CPU and a GTX1060...or maybe less. See, I do want to play them at 60fps, but I don´t care much about graphics and effects being at ultra and I won´t play at a bigger resolution than 1920x1080. As long as the game is fluent and the graphics are not too bad I´m good.

So with this in mind I´ve done some research and I´ve found that most computers meeting these specs at around 1000€, not counting the monitor, speakers and other extras which I´ve already got. So I´ve looked at laptops and am very surprised to find that those with similar characteristics are also in the same price range of 1000€. I was originally looking for a desktop computer, something under 600€, just to play these games but if there´s nothing below 1000€ and I can have a laptop for that price I´ll go with that for convenience.

The thing is I´m pretty sure that I´m overlooking something so...please help!

Jag · Dec 11, 2018

Lakeside said:
I posted in the RTX 20 series reviews thread but thought I'd mention here that my 2080 Ti died. Nvidia was incredibly quick to replace. They sent a brand new card via Priority Overnight Fedex.

I posted this, but my Gigabyte RTX 2070 died after 6 days. Getting a full refund from Newegg. Going to wait out the RTX line for now. Just way too many problems for a product this expensive.

Lakeside · Dec 11, 2018

HamSandwich said:
So I oc'd my 8700k and was able to achieve 5ghz @ 1.28 (I think?). I say I think because I forced it at 1.28 but when I look at HWMonitor during my stress test, it looks like it maxes out at 1.34v. Is there anyway to prevent it from going past 1.28?

Also I kept my cstates enabled and it my clocks are stuck at 5ghz. How do I keep it down low workload tasks?

If it helps, it's a Z390 gigabyte board.

Thanks!

When you overclock you need to deal with overshoot and Vdroop. I'm not an expert but you can look into those things.

dmoe · Dec 11, 2018

Soda said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUhCf6t3RBA

Damn you. This is what I needed and now i want a 2080ti

thepenguin55 · Dec 11, 2018

So I'm looking to build a gaming PC (dumb shit incoming). I've built A gaming PC before (about a decade ago at this point) but it's been so long since I've had to think about this stuff that I feel like I'm kind of starting from scratch again. In 2012 I got a decent gaming laptop which I've been relying on for quite awhile but it's in rough shape now. While I'm not opposed to going down that road again it seems like we're kind of in the middle of a transitional period so I question being able to get the longevity I'm looking for right now out of a gaming laptop. So here's what I'm looking to achieve with this PC:

My preferred budget is to keep things under $1,500 though I guess my max would be $2,000 (though I would strongly prefer to keep things under $1,500).
I think like most who build PCs, I want this thing to have long legs in terms of upgrade-ability (that's right, upgrade-ability)
I am not planning to immediately go down the SLI/Crossfire road but I want to keep that as a possible option
Coming from a mostly console gaming background I guess the baseline capabilities I would want from this thing are for it to be better than a Xbox One X. So what that means to me is full 4k resolution, minimum of 60fps and maximum visual fidelity for damn near every game currently available.
I prefer function over form and ease of use above all else. So if this thing is gigantic, gaudy and loud I'm totally fine with that as long as when I open it up I can do with it what I want with relative ease.
I don't want storage to be a concern so I'm thinking of going with a single 2tb SSD. I assume the main benefit to having multiple drives is that if one fails the other one is there (?) but I personally have always found having multiple drives more annoying than anything.
I have zero experience with AMD in any capacity but am very open to their products if they make sense for me. It seems like of their product lines I would want to pay the most attention to Vega 56, Vega 64, Ryzen 7 and Threadripper?
The GPU line I've been eyeing as a starting point is the GTX 1070 as the 1070s in general seem like they'll achieve what I want right now.

I would love to get input on the above items as well as this part list I put together on PC partpicker.com: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jzL8vn
As useful as pcpartpicker is it probably is not the be all end all when building a PC so let me know if I can build something equivalent to or better than that for less.

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on prebuilt PCs? Can prebuilts be a good starting point to build off of or can they be pretty limiting? The PC I built at pcpartpicker was based on a prebuilt PC I found at Microcenter: https://www.microcenter.com/product/504925/aspire-gx-281-ur14-desktop-computer

I'm considering just getting that prebuilt PC because it's cheaper than what I built and there's a Microcenter near me that has one in stock so I could technically go home with it today if I wanted to but could I be limiting my ability to upgrade with this prebuilt?

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

Congrats in advance! I don't have too much to say on all of that but I did notice your proposed motherboard has two gigabit Ethernet ports. Was curious why you also have a network adaptor in your build list with that in mind: do you need to actively use three?

It depends on where you get your prebuilt stuff but there's a wide gap depending on where you go, even though manufacturers are more mindful of this market than that used to be. You might do better with flash sales and rebates if you go piece by piece though, and you seem knowledgeable about it! When I was shopping for a midrange first build, I didn't personally notice a price advantage to pre-built items from Dell or Cyberpower, or their parts weren't what I wanted. Dell might be better in terms of build quality than Acer in this field if you stick to a big manufacturer: their recent XPS desktops seemed pretty good compared to older generations.

Was also curious why you chose the 1700X and not the 2700X? Waiting for Zen 2? Ryzen 5 and 7 chips (mid range and higher end) from the first and second generations seem to be well-liked as good balanced CPUs, and the coming third-generation/Zen 2 chips will keep the same socket: that'll help you in terms of near-term upgrading options if you decide to swap CPUs quickly. Some of the review consensus is that the AMD CPUs are better general-purpose chips than gaming-specific chips, and you might get steered to an Intel Core depending on how deeply that resonates with you. (At least, that was my takeaway when I researched this for myself.)

thepenguin55 · Dec 11, 2018

Lo-Volt said:
Congrats in advance! I don't have too much to say on all of that but I did notice your proposed motherboard has two gigabit Ethernet ports. Was curious why you also have a network adaptor in your build list with that in mind: do you need to actively use three?

It depends on where you get your prebuilt stuff but there's a wide gap depending on where you go, even though manufacturers are more mindful of this market than that used to be. You might do better with flash sales and rebates if you go piece by piece though, and you seem knowledgeable about it! When I was shopping for a midrange first build, I didn't personally notice a price advantage to pre-built items from Dell or Cyberpower, or their parts weren't what I wanted.

Was also curious why you chose the 1700X and not the 2700X? Waiting for Zen 2?

So with the Network adapters: I just forgot to remove one of those. lol

Haha, I'm very good at appearing knowledgeable on stuff. For example: me choosing the 1700X over the 2700X was a mostly arbitrary choice and I didn't even know about Zen 2.

As for buying piece by piece, obviously I just missed Black Friday and Cyber Monday but even beyond standard sales days like those I never really seem to be looking to build a PC when there on substantial sales on various components :/

BriGuy · Dec 11, 2018

Got a real specific question I hope someone can address. A few years back, I bought one of those "HP deal" computers that a lot of people back at the old forum jumped on (an i7 6700k, a 980ti, etc if that jogs any memories). I want to put in an nvme SSD but I don't know if it's compatible. The motherboard in these systems is apparently a thimphu ipm17-tp. It's got an m.2 socket (socket 3, key m) but I don't know what that means.

Has anyone with one of these machines installed an nvme drive? Is it possible to boot windows and steam from it? Thanks in advance.

Hereafter · Dec 11, 2018

Quick question. Where is this led plug suppose to go? I have a B450m and I don't see anything that fits.

https://imgur.com/a/Lpy0OH3

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
So with the Network adapters: I just forgot to remove one of those. lol

Haha, I'm very good at appearing knowledgeable on stuff. For example: me choosing the 1700X over the 2700X was a mostly arbitrary one and I didn't even know about Zen 2.

As for buying piece by piece, obviously I just missed Black Friday and Cyber Monday but even beyond standard sales days like those I never really seem to be looking to build a PC when there on substantial sales on various components :/

No worries! Zen 2 is a rumor mill at the moment. Clearly happening soon but wait for CES. People still enjoy Zen (Ryzen 1XXX) just fine, while Zen+ (2XXX) is considered a nice refinement. If you're not budget constricted (your price ceiling is pretty nice), might as well! In some cases on this socket, you might need to flash the mobo BIOS to support 2XXX chips: it might be less painful to read the description to see if out-of-the-box "second-generation Ryzen" CPUs are supported.

Newegg seems to be aggressive on sales on a rolling basis this month, so I don't know if you lost out yet. This might still be a good time to look around!

Vulcano's Assistant · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
So I'm looking to build a gaming PC (dumb shit incoming). I've built A gaming PC before (about a decade ago at this point) but it's been so long since I've had to think about this stuff that I feel like I'm kind of starting from scratch again. In 2012 I got a decent gaming laptop which I've been relying on for quite awhile but it's in rough shape now. While I'm not opposed to going down that road again it seems like we're kind of in the middle of a transitional period so I question being able to get the longevity I'm looking for right now out of a gaming laptop. So here's what I'm looking to achieve with this PC:

My preferred budget is to keep things under $1,500 though I guess my max would be $2,000 (though I would strongly prefer to keep things under $1,500).

I think like most who build PCs, I want this thing to have long legs in terms of upgrade-ability (that's right, upgrade-ability)

I am not planning to immediately go down the SLI/Crossfire road but I want to keep that as a possible option

Coming from a mostly console gaming background I guess the baseline capabilities I would want from this thing are for it to be better than a Xbox One X. So what that means to me is full 4k resolution, minimum of 60fps and maximum visual fidelity for damn near every game currently available.

I prefer function over form and ease of use above all else. So if this thing is gigantic, gaudy and loud I'm totally fine with that as long as when I open it up I can do with it what I want with relative ease.

I don't want storage to be a concern so I'm thinking of going with a single 2tb SSD. I assume the main benefit to having multiple drives is that if one fails the other one is there (?) but I personally have always found having multiple drives more annoying than anything.

I have zero experience with AMD in any capacity but am very open to their products if they make sense for me. It seems like of their product lines I would want to pay the most attention to Vega 56, Vega 64, Ryzen 7 and Threadripper?

The GPU line I've been eyeing as a starting point is the GTX 1070 as the 1070s in general seem like they'll achieve what I want right now.

I would love to get input on the above items as well as this part list I put together on PC partpicker.com: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jzL8vn
As useful as pcpartpicker is it probably is not the be all end all when building a PC so let me know if I can build something equivalent to or better than that for less.

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on prebuilt PCs? Can prebuilts be a good starting point to build off of or can they be pretty limiting? The PC I built at pcpartpicker was based on a prebuilt PC I found at Microcenter: https://www.microcenter.com/product/504925/aspire-gx-281-ur14-desktop-computer

I'm considering just getting that prebuilt PC because it's cheaper than what I built and there's a Microcenter near me that has one in stock so I could technically go home with it today if I wanted to but could I be limiting my ability to upgrade with this prebuilt?

To add to the points made by Lo-Volt, some areas where you can save:

- Those Asus liquid coolers come with a premium price tag. They perform the same but are a twice as expensive. You can outperform that 120mm radiator model with a 240mm corsair for the same price, or if you got for a Ryzen 2700X (as Lo-Volt suggests) they already come with a capable air cooler.
- The Corsair 750D is a full tower with way more space than what it seems, you would be fine with a Mid Tower case from Fractal Design like the Meshify C or from NZXT and it would be almost half the price.

Additionally.
I would put that into a 1070 that is not of the small form factor variety, and has two or three fans like the Asus ROG STRIX.

senj · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
So I'm looking to build a gaming PC (dumb shit incoming). I've built A gaming PC before (about a decade ago at this point) but it's been so long since I've had to think about this stuff that I feel like I'm kind of starting from scratch again. In 2012 I got a decent gaming laptop which I've been relying on for quite awhile but it's in rough shape now. While I'm not opposed to going down that road again it seems like we're kind of in the middle of a transitional period so I question being able to get the longevity I'm looking for right now out of a gaming laptop. So here's what I'm looking to achieve with this PC:

My preferred budget is to keep things under $1,500 though I guess my max would be $2,000 (though I would strongly prefer to keep things under $1,500).

I think like most who build PCs, I want this thing to have long legs in terms of upgrade-ability (that's right, upgrade-ability)

I am not planning to immediately go down the SLI/Crossfire road but I want to keep that as a possible option

Coming from a mostly console gaming background I guess the baseline capabilities I would want from this thing are for it to be better than a Xbox One X. So what that means to me is full 4k resolution, minimum of 60fps and maximum visual fidelity for damn near every game currently available.

I prefer function over form and ease of use above all else. So if this thing is gigantic, gaudy and loud I'm totally fine with that as long as when I open it up I can do with it what I want with relative ease.

I don't want storage to be a concern so I'm thinking of going with a single 2tb SSD. I assume the main benefit to having multiple drives is that if one fails the other one is there (?) but I personally have always found having multiple drives more annoying than anything.

I have zero experience with AMD in any capacity but am very open to their products if they make sense for me. It seems like of their product lines I would want to pay the most attention to Vega 56, Vega 64, Ryzen 7 and Threadripper?

The GPU line I've been eyeing as a starting point is the GTX 1070 as the 1070s in general seem like they'll achieve what I want right now.

I would love to get input on the above items as well as this part list I put together on PC partpicker.com: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jzL8vn
As useful as pcpartpicker is it probably is not the be all end all when building a PC so let me know if I can build something equivalent to or better than that for less.

X370 chipset boards aren't on the QVL list for that RAM, and I know the older 1*/X370 Ryzen series are fussier about memory compatibility than the newer Ryzen 2*/X470. I probably wouldn't risk it, personally.

How set are you on water cooling? There are cheaper air coolers with nearly the same performance. (An NH-D15S is like $50 cheaper and the temperature difference at load is only going to be a couple of degrees C). Are you looking to overclock this thing a lot? If you're not looking to overclock, that cooler is probably just a lot of overkill. The 1* Ryzens also aren't terribly great overclockers -- your ceiling is going to be less than a 2700X would hit stock.

And if you're not looking to overclock at all and considering a 2700X, you could save even more by just using the stock cooler.

Vulcano's Assistant · Dec 11, 2018

Hereafter said:
Quick question. Where is this led plug suppose to go? I have a B450m and I don't see anything that fits.

https://imgur.com/a/Lpy0OH3

That's a molex connector. Check your PSU cables. Usually a cable connected directly the Power Supply would end it that type of connection, or sometimes fans come with cables that daisy chain with molex connectors so they can be powered from a single mobo fan header.

Mozendo · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
long post

This is honestly a better use of your money - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8QNrXP
Your previous build is all over the place and not worth the money at all.
1. You do not want to consider a multi-GPU PC. They're not worth it, companies are starting to focus on them less and less and you're going to run into diminishing returns.
2. I added a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Honestly I feel that even a 500GB SSD would be fine. Anywho the 1TB of space is plenty of room for games that might take awhile to loaded into like Arma 3 or a heavily modded Skyrim or whatever. The 2TB HDD can be used for games that don't benefit from an SSD something like Rainbow Six Siege or Prey since the load times aren't that long.
3. I went with an AMD CPU just because I'm more knowledgeable with their line. If you really want the best gaming performance Intel is the way to go, but that comes at a price premium, and I don't think it would fit in your desired $1,500 range.
4. Prebuilts aren't bad, Micro Center's PowerSpec line are great, I dislike the big brand names due to the fact it can be a hassle upgrading parts since the case can make it difficult to swap parts. PowerSpec doesn't suffer from this.

Niks · Dec 11, 2018

Any recommended cases for around $80? I'm leaning towards the phanteks p400, but I've read that it has pretty bad airflow?

Anyone has experience with this case?

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

BriGuy said:
Got a real specific question I hope someone can address. A few years back, I bought one of those "HP deal" computers that a lot of people back at the old forum jumped on (an i7 6700k, a 980ti, etc if that jogs any memories). I want to put in an nvme SSD but I don't know if it's compatible. The motherboard in these systems is apparently a thimphu ipm17-tp. It's got an m.2 socket (socket 3, key m) but I don't know what that means.

Has anyone with one of these machines installed an nvme drive? Is it possible to boot windows and steam from it? Thanks in advance.

I checked the tomshardware forum and an ASUS knowledgebase article to try to suss this out. Grain of salt please, I should be fact checked here!

Key M means the port has a specific physical key shape, so you will need to pay attention to the kind of stick you buy. M is different than B, but some sticks have a B+M option.

M.2 is a physical form factor. In terms of data transmission, NVMe refers to the fact that those kinds of drives use PCI express lanes to do their job, while other older kinds are using serial ATA (the same data standards as more familiar SSDs and HDDs). I think your best bet is to specifically search by socket and look for an "M.2 Socket 3 Key M" drive and go from there.

And yeah, it's mass storage, so you can use it to boot! I'm still perplexed myself if your motherboard's M.2 slot is meant for NVMe or Serial ATA though.

cebri · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
So I'm looking to build a gaming PC

Mozendo said:
This is honestly a better use of your money - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8QNrXP

That's a great build. And the 1070ti is substantially better for 4K than the 1070, with a little OC could get you above 60fps for most modern games at high settings.

Lakeside · Dec 11, 2018

Niks said:
Any recommended cases for around $80? I'm leaning towards the phanteks p400, but I've read that it has pretty bad airflow?

Anyone has experience with this case?

I love the Meshify C and it's sub $90. There are probably other great cases, but I liked this one enough that I bought another for my kids.

Of course I skipped out on the glass panel so the wife can't see that I have $1M worth of bling in there.

Deleted member 29660 · Dec 11, 2018

thepenguin55 said:
So I'm looking to build a gaming PC (dumb shit incoming). I've built A gaming PC before (about a decade ago at this point) but it's been so long since I've had to think about this stuff that I feel like I'm kind of starting from scratch again. In 2012 I got a decent gaming laptop which I've been relying on for quite awhile but it's in rough shape now. While I'm not opposed to going down that road again it seems like we're kind of in the middle of a transitional period so I question being able to get the longevity I'm looking for right now out of a gaming laptop. So here's what I'm looking to achieve with this PC:

My preferred budget is to keep things under $1,500 though I guess my max would be $2,000 (though I would strongly prefer to keep things under $1,500).

I think like most who build PCs, I want this thing to have long legs in terms of upgrade-ability (that's right, upgrade-ability)

I am not planning to immediately go down the SLI/Crossfire road but I want to keep that as a possible option

Coming from a mostly console gaming background I guess the baseline capabilities I would want from this thing are for it to be better than a Xbox One X. So what that means to me is full 4k resolution, minimum of 60fps and maximum visual fidelity for damn near every game currently available.

I prefer function over form and ease of use above all else. So if this thing is gigantic, gaudy and loud I'm totally fine with that as long as when I open it up I can do with it what I want with relative ease.

I don't want storage to be a concern so I'm thinking of going with a single 2tb SSD. I assume the main benefit to having multiple drives is that if one fails the other one is there (?) but I personally have always found having multiple drives more annoying than anything.

I have zero experience with AMD in any capacity but am very open to their products if they make sense for me. It seems like of their product lines I would want to pay the most attention to Vega 56, Vega 64, Ryzen 7 and Threadripper?

The GPU line I've been eyeing as a starting point is the GTX 1070 as the 1070s in general seem like they'll achieve what I want right now.

I would love to get input on the above items as well as this part list I put together on PC partpicker.com: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jzL8vn
As useful as pcpartpicker is it probably is not the be all end all when building a PC so let me know if I can build something equivalent to or better than that for less.

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on prebuilt PCs? Can prebuilts be a good starting point to build off of or can they be pretty limiting? The PC I built at pcpartpicker was based on a prebuilt PC I found at Microcenter: https://www.microcenter.com/product/504925/aspire-gx-281-ur14-desktop-computer

I'm considering just getting that prebuilt PC because it's cheaper than what I built and there's a Microcenter near me that has one in stock so I could technically go home with it today if I wanted to but could I be limiting my ability to upgrade with this prebuilt?

If you are looking for a good place that does pre builts you might want to check this out.

https://www.nzxt.com/bldnow

From what I heard they do good work and you can bump up or down various builds depending on your need and price point. It has a unique suggestion feature that goes by what games you want to play and it even gives you estimates on what the FPS will be. Only good in the States is the big thing.

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

I didn't know they did that! I'm curious: are they Nvidia only? I played with a $1K-1080p build on their site and only saw GTX and RTX models.

BriGuy · Dec 11, 2018

Lo-Volt said:
I checked the tomshardware forum and an ASUS knowledgebase article to try to suss this out. Grain of salt please, I should be fact checked here!

Key M means the port has a specific physical key shape, so you will need to pay attention to the kind of stick you buy. M is different than B, but some sticks have a B+M option.

M.2 is a physical form factor. In terms of data transmission, NVMe refers to the fact that those kinds of drives use PCI express lanes to do their job, while other older kinds are using serial ATA (the same data standards as more familiar SSDs and HDDs). I think your best bet is to specifically search by socket and look for an "M.2 Socket 3 Key M" drive and go from there.

And yeah, it's mass storage, so you can use it to boot! I'm still perplexed myself if your motherboard's M.2 slot is meant for NVMe or Serial ATA though.

Thanks for the response. I might just buy the ssd and see if it works, and if not, just use some Christmas cash to replace the mobo with something newer. The difference between nvme and sata transfer speeds is nuts.

TenaciousD · Dec 11, 2018

My build is almost done, looking for PSU recommendations. I'm doing an ultra silence build, so I'm looking at something that's a bit overkill in terms of wattage so the fan doesn't spin up.

Ryzen 7 1700X
Noctua NH-U9S
Asus Crosshair VI Extreme
G.Skill Trident Z 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz
GTX980Ti (windows vm)
RX 550 (linux host)
2 256GB ssd's
Fractal Define R5 (will upgrade to R6 when stock is available, I want to use the R5 for my server and it doesn't support EATX natively but I can jerryrig it.)
2x Noctua A14 (front intake)
1x Noctua S12A (exhaust)

Not in the US, it's between the:
Superflower 850w Leadex I 80+ Silver for ~R1500, the
Superflower 750w Leadex I 80+ Platinum for R1700, the
Seasonic PRIME 80+ Gold 1000w (secondhand but not even a year old with full warrenty) for ~R1800 ,the
Corsair RMx850 80+ Gold 2018 version for ~R2200 and the
Corsair RMx1000w 80+ Gold for R2500.

All of these PSU's should last 7 years minimum, so cost per year isn't that bad. I'm leaning towards the Superflower 850w 80+ Silver, but the secondhand Seasonic is in good nic and has a much longer warranty (11 years) for only R300 more. It's not that quiet though.

Deleted member 29660 · Dec 11, 2018

Lo-Volt said:
I didn't know they did that! I'm curious: are they Nvidia only? I played with a $1K-1080p build on their site and only saw GTX and RTX models.

Probably so, I know they let you choose between AMD and Intel. But that might be it.

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

BriGuy said:
Thanks for the response. I might just buy the ssd and see if it works, and if not, just use some Christmas cash to replace the mobo with something newer. The difference between nvme and sata transfer speeds is nuts.

True! Though if compatibility or documentation is a concern, would it be safer to get a "normal" SSD? Sales prices on those are pretty good this season.

BriGuy · Dec 11, 2018

Lo-Volt said:
True! Though if compatibility or documentation is a concern, would it be safer to get a "normal" SSD? Sales prices on those are pretty good this season.

Well, that's kind of where I became confused. I was going to buy a normal SSD, but then I read that the nvme drives were newer and crazy faster.

Nickerbocker98 · Dec 11, 2018

Not sure if this is the thread to ask. But could y'all look over my specs to see if an upgrade is in order or if I am good for a little bit longer?

CPU: i7-4930k
GPU: GTX 780 Ti
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79 (DDR3 RAM supported)
64 GB of RAM

Hereafter · Dec 11, 2018

Vulcano's Assistant said:
That's a molex connector. Check your PSU cables. Usually a cable connected directly the Power Supply would end it that type of connection, or sometimes fans come with cables that daisy chain with molex connectors so they can be powered from a single mobo fan header.

I thought I checked all the connectors, but I'm apparently blind! I found the cable after your post made me recheck. 👍

Lo-Volt · Dec 11, 2018

BriGuy said:
Well, that's kind of where I became confused. I was going to buy a normal SSD, but then I read that the nvme drives were newer and crazy faster.

They are: the issue seems to be how the M.2 "port" on your motherboard is going to transfer data, and the documentation didn't make it clear. It might be worth asking a support forum at hp.com!

senj · Dec 11, 2018

Nickerbocker98 said:
Not sure if this is the thread to ask. But could y'all look over my specs to see if an upgrade is in order or if I am good for a little bit longer?

CPU: i7-4930k
GPU: GTX 780 Ti
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79 (DDR3 RAM supported)
64 GB of RAM

Depends on what you're trying to play, I suppose. 1080p? 4k? 60 fpps? latest games? older releases?

Niks · Dec 11, 2018

Lakeside said:
I love the Meshify C and it's sub $90. There are probably other great cases, but I liked this one enough that I bought another for my kids.

Of course I skipped out on the glass panel so the wife can't see that I have $1M worth of bling in there.

Thanks for the answer.
Yeah, the meshify is ideal but I'm seeing it online at about $90 +shipping, it was the TG version though.