Which case is it? Cooling a 2080 Ti in a SFF case (if it's that) is a challenge. Obviously not everyone uses SFF for HTPC so just checking.
All of the "Ultra" cards are large but the FTW3 is even taller in addition.
The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2
- Thread starter Soda
- Start date
- Status
Which case is it? Cooling a 2080 Ti in a SFF case (if it's that) is a challenge. Obviously not everyone uses SFF for HTPC so just checking.
All of the "Ultra" cards are large but the FTW3 is even taller in addition.
Yes, it's your RAM. (with 95% certainty anyhow, could be the memory controller or board, but both are very unlikely at these clocks). XMP is "overclocking" so isn't technically guaranteed for the most part. If you can exchange it for another set without any great delay / hassle, you may as well do so. Alternatively, rather than just using XMP settings, try setting the timings manually. Try 3133 or 3000, see if that's fine. Personally first thing I would do is set it to XMP 3200, and then bump voltage from the XMP'd 1.35V to 1.4V - this will very likely give it the little extra oomph it needs to be stable at this frequency. Since it works fine at regulation speeds it is not "faulty modules" per se, they are just borderline (and falling short) when being pushed to their max. Probably.
Guys, I'm trying to upgrade my setup next month, in the black friday...
Right now I have the following:
i5 4690k
16gb ram dd3
gtx 1070
Mobo MSI z97 gaming
Monitor Asus 144hz vg248qe (1080p)
120gb ssd (one of the first corsair models) and 2tb hdd
I'm trying to save as much as possible in the new build, and I don't plan to upgrade my monitor right now, so I will probably keep my GPU for now.
So please, what would you guys recommend under US $700?
Normally I try to play most games upscaling them to 4k, unless it's a high demanding game... To keep 60 fps at least...
Right now I have the following:
i5 4690k
16gb ram dd3
gtx 1070
Mobo MSI z97 gaming
Monitor Asus 144hz vg248qe (1080p)
120gb ssd (one of the first corsair models) and 2tb hdd
I'm trying to save as much as possible in the new build, and I don't plan to upgrade my monitor right now, so I will probably keep my GPU for now.
So please, what would you guys recommend under US $700?
Normally I try to play most games upscaling them to 4k, unless it's a high demanding game... To keep 60 fps at least...
I have this monster:
It's a cavern in there.
which kind of says a lot about the prospects of buying a 2080 Ti right now for 4K gaming.
I'm pleased with my 2080 Ti @ 4K/60 (and I don't think the sentiment is scarce) so manhandle is the key in that statement. The "right now" is important, but if now is the time someone can upgrade then it is what it is unless they want to wait some unknown amount of time (likely 6+ months).
If anything I'm looking forward to a smaller die for 4K/60 because my use case is HTPC with SFF case.
It's clearly time to upgrade your CPU, RAM, and motherboard and it sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on your situation. The GPU and monitor can carry over until you decide to upgrade your monitor. Time to decide what you want to buy between the 3600X and 9600K, or the 3700X and 9700K. That should be your first step. Then you can decide what kind of value you want to place on the motherboard from there.
You have lots of options, but that's where you want to start. The question is whether you are mainly just gaming (Intel) or whether you plan to use your PC for a workstation/multitasking (AMD).
I was always under the impression that a 2080 Ti could get you there most of the time. I mean, my 1080 Ti can still do 4k60 after lowering some settings here and there (some of which don't even degrade IQ in an obvious way)
Right... it gets you there most of the time. That's why I said nothing could manhandle it.
Maybe that's a bad word, just trying to say there isn't a card that will definitively handle that use case in the way that there is for 1080p, 1440p, etc. In no way can you buy any current card knowing that you can max most/all settings at 4K/60 for all games.
Well, the EVGA 2070 Super XC Gaming is looking tempting, but now I have to figure out if I buy now ($20 rebate), or just wait for a more substantial sale. 🤔
lol, I'm eyeing the same exact card but want to hold out for any Black Friday sales.
Guys oh no oh no
So, I swapped my 2600 for a 3600X because I'm a tech whore. What happened after is a disaster and I need to confess.
My Hyper 212's thermal paste was apparently too thick, because when I tried to massage it off my first processor, it came off with the processor. Yanked right out of the socket. Horrified, I checked the pins and none broke. It also reseated appropriately, but I was still panicked.
Because I was still panicking, I placed my old 2600 in and booted it without the heatsink, because panic. It did boot, but that was really awful protocol. My rig is fine. I do wonder if I now have a useless hunk of an old CPU, though. Please don't judge me, I'm doing it myself - but does someone want to comment?
The Outer Worlds damn well better be worth it.
So, I swapped my 2600 for a 3600X because I'm a tech whore. What happened after is a disaster and I need to confess.
My Hyper 212's thermal paste was apparently too thick, because when I tried to massage it off my first processor, it came off with the processor. Yanked right out of the socket. Horrified, I checked the pins and none broke. It also reseated appropriately, but I was still panicked.
Because I was still panicking, I placed my old 2600 in and booted it without the heatsink, because panic. It did boot, but that was really awful protocol. My rig is fine. I do wonder if I now have a useless hunk of an old CPU, though. Please don't judge me, I'm doing it myself - but does someone want to comment?
The Outer Worlds damn well better be worth it.
Thanks. Given the limited availability of the Skyreach S4Mini I'm considering this as an option. I hear some people even opted for watercooling, but I'm really scared having to deal with such systems as I have absolutely no experience with those.
I might go with a Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Cool again for my cooler but I hear nothing beats Noctua in terms of performance.
I also don't care about RGB so hopefully that makes things simple for me.
Waiting on some deals but getting a 3700x ($429cdn atm so I'm thinking $400ish next month during sales) and was planning on an X470 board since I don't need pci 4.0. Any reputable one okay? I checked the buyers guides in PCPP and it says all good.
kind of just assembling a list of things I would be willing to buy and I'll snap stuffup at good prices.
kind of just assembling a list of things I would be willing to buy and I'll snap stuffup at good prices.
Thank you so much for replying!
Yeah, I want to use for both gaming and work, but as work, just some simple tasks as excel, access, photoshop, etc.
I love emulators, and back in the pcsx2 time, I remmeber some people having issues with amd setups, because they were incompatible with some of the emu settings, and also they used to heat a lot more than intel, so I ended up skipping amd for a decade or so...
I want to build something white this time, since my current setup is all black with rgb, and it looks a bit outdated... This case from corsair got my attention https://brain-images-ssl.cdn.dixons.com/0/2/10190620/u_10190620.jpg
So I think I need a white cpu, in this case for AMD right? because I'm multitasking :D
I've inquired a few times about upgrading my gaming PC, but lack of a stable income as well as consoles continuing to grow more convenient and including more previously PC-exclusive games have put me off the PC gaming space.
But considering I have no less than 500 Steam games, many of which are still exclusive to the platform or perform significantly better than their console ports, I wanted to inquire again about possible upgrading recommendations. Plus, I may be starting a new job in the next week, so I can feel less bad making such a hefty purchase.
These are my current PC specs:
As much as I prefer performance over presentation, I still do have the occasional dream of going big and having maxed-out PC games running at 60 fps, 4K resolutions, HDR/Ray Tracing...all the big boy stuff. But if compromises have to be made, stability is more important.
So I'd love to know what components I would need, and then narrow down recommendations based on reliability and affordability.
I have also been hoping to find a "one button method" when I take my desktop PC to game mode, which involves displaying it on my TV, controller-in-hand. This is naturally accomplished through Steam Big Picture Mode, but I still have to perform several steps to get that going:
1. Change the external display from my PC to TV
2. Change the audio output from my PC headphones/speakers to the audio receiver on my TV
3. Open Steam, then BPM
4. Hope the latter doesn't crash or some other nonsense once I boot the game of my choice.
Again, this is why I've gravitated to almost exclusively consoles: you push a button, game goes. But again, I've got a big library of titles I don't want to let go to waste, so hit me with the good stuff.
But considering I have no less than 500 Steam games, many of which are still exclusive to the platform or perform significantly better than their console ports, I wanted to inquire again about possible upgrading recommendations. Plus, I may be starting a new job in the next week, so I can feel less bad making such a hefty purchase.
These are my current PC specs:
As much as I prefer performance over presentation, I still do have the occasional dream of going big and having maxed-out PC games running at 60 fps, 4K resolutions, HDR/Ray Tracing...all the big boy stuff. But if compromises have to be made, stability is more important.
So I'd love to know what components I would need, and then narrow down recommendations based on reliability and affordability.
I have also been hoping to find a "one button method" when I take my desktop PC to game mode, which involves displaying it on my TV, controller-in-hand. This is naturally accomplished through Steam Big Picture Mode, but I still have to perform several steps to get that going:
1. Change the external display from my PC to TV
2. Change the audio output from my PC headphones/speakers to the audio receiver on my TV
3. Open Steam, then BPM
4. Hope the latter doesn't crash or some other nonsense once I boot the game of my choice.
Again, this is why I've gravitated to almost exclusively consoles: you push a button, game goes. But again, I've got a big library of titles I don't want to let go to waste, so hit me with the good stuff.
Old CPU is very likely fine, they have a thermal cut-out to prevent damage from mistakes like this these days, and will throttle before it gets to that point too.
However, learn from this. You should never be working on the insides of electrical systems with them connected to live power. NEVER! Switch off the PSU, and click the power button a few times to dissipate any stored energy and make sure it's properly off!
Edit: Tests from the olden days:
Every CPU is protected like an old Pentium IV was nowadays. But still, best not to make a habit of it lol!
Last edited:
Is there a better/cheaper option than this ($89) Gigabyte GT 1030 for a computer that will play zero games, just normal surfing and videos, over a couple of monitors?
Do you have an intel processor with integrated graphics?
No, this is my dad's AMD 2600. I put an old 7850 in there and figured it would be enough, but now that's having issues.
Actually, that wasn't the mistake but good advice all the same. The machine was off and unplugged. I think I applied too much thermal paste and it bonded REALLY well, hence the clean break from the socket. How I checked the old CPU after is another story, sheesh. Glad I didn't melt it then - I might sell it as planned if so. 😬
But I'm throwing that to the hive mind. Is this OK to sell under the circumstances? I am not into giving damaged goods.
Last edited:
It's actually not that uncommon a thing with AMD CPUs and their ZIF sockets. There's not a vast amount of clamping force on the pins, unlike Intel's inverted socket thing with metal cover. Good trick is to twist the heatsink off on an AMD to break the seal and avoid the horror of ripping the CPU straight out as you experienced!
The extra boost may come in handy. Yesterday I used evga precision X1 to OC the memory and slightly OC the clock on a 2070S and my 4K FPS benchmark test went up ~8%. Pretty impressed!
Black is perfectly fine. They make great cards overall and a bigger cooler is a matter of preference like I wanted a card as quiet as possible.
Didn't you ask about that PC a while ago and I told you to get a 2400G instead of the 2600+old gpu for that reason? I might be misremembering.
Either way, the RX550 is a lot better performance-wise for the same price, but I don't know how loud these bottom of the barrel gpus can get so... who knows? Maybe get the 1030 since it draws a tiny bit less power, even if it's overpriced.
Right, I went better CPU and the old video card I already had, but as is the way my luck has been going, now that's failing.
So tell me about adding custom resolutions in Nvidia Control panel. I see that warning message and nope out due to fear.
My 21:9 monitor forces 3440x1440 with no resolution option to go lower(2560x1080 why not???. So many recent titles usually hover in the 60-80+ range with a 2070 Super. But the most demanding stuff can go way lower(Control, Metro, BFV). I scale back visual options quite a bit...but I always preferred to keep High/Ultra settings and lower the resolution instead as I want to the pretty lights at the cost of a bit of clarity. Can't do that with my monitor for whatever reason unless I force add 2560x1080p I suppose... so how dangerous is doing such a thing in Windows 10?
My 21:9 monitor forces 3440x1440 with no resolution option to go lower(2560x1080 why not???. So many recent titles usually hover in the 60-80+ range with a 2070 Super. But the most demanding stuff can go way lower(Control, Metro, BFV). I scale back visual options quite a bit...but I always preferred to keep High/Ultra settings and lower the resolution instead as I want to the pretty lights at the cost of a bit of clarity. Can't do that with my monitor for whatever reason unless I force add 2560x1080p I suppose... so how dangerous is doing such a thing in Windows 10?
Realistically nothing bad should happend except the screen going blank for the time (15-30 seconds) that it takes the nVidia control panel to test (which it probably will) the custom resolution.
Worst and unlikely case would be Windows getting stuck on the non-displayable resolution, but that could be solved fairly easily by either connecting a second screen/TV and setting a proper displayable resolution for the other screen or perhaps the ordinary Windows-display/projection shortcuts (I believe Wndows+P would be the one) might be able to reset them. Or booting Windows in save mode if all else fails.
There is no danger to your hardware however.
This is an extremely common occurrence with AMD CPUs since they do not have a hold-down cover on the socket. It's probably fine. You'll see suggestions online to do something CPU intensive before shutting down and removing a cooler on AMD platforms for this reason since the heat will soften the thermal compound.
P H E W
Thank you both for clearing that up. I've swapped heatsinks and CPUs on AM4 before but this was a new one for me. I'm lucky to not have encountered it until now!
Thank you both for clearing that up. I've swapped heatsinks and CPUs on AM4 before but this was a new one for me. I'm lucky to not have encountered it until now!
price and resolution isnt really an issue. as long as the shit isnt like 5 friggin G's or some shit like that.
I just need it to be like 32 or higher in physical screen space and have g sync, its going in the living room to replace the 42 inch there. im tired of the stuttering from this v sync shit
worst time to upgrade is Jan-Mar. You miss out on BF deals but the new stuff is right around the corner.
BF is great BUT watch out for junk on sale that's low priced but won't actually meet your needs.
Have you considered an MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon at $145 CAD.?
It's fully loaded with features. Excellent VRM.
If you don't need SLI then B450 is the way to go. The advice I got was buy a top end B450 rather than a low end X470/570 if you don't need the latter advanced stuff.
Planning to upgrade my rig since my Mobo died. I'm choosing among Ryzen 3600, 2700/X since I can afford the price differences. Which one should I get? My GPU is an RX480 and I play mainly 1080p on an Ultra Wide monitor (will upgrade my GPU to the RX5700/XT and my monitor to a 144hz / 1440p in the future)
I went to microcenter for the first time today with some friends. It was glorious. My friend wanted to buy a new case, and I helped him out.
Is faster RAM worth the extra money? I game relatively lightly on my PC. Need to get new motherboard and CPU. Will need to make the jump to DDR4. Is 3600 ram worth the extra? Or just get 3000?
thanks for the suggestion! That's the lowest price it's been too. I won't be doing SLI or anything fancy. Just wanting a system that is beefy enough that I don't have to squeeze every frame by tweaking like crazy while also not just tossing money away.
Well. Seems my long-time issue of 60 FPS videos intermittently looking like 30 FPS is back, despite a new 1660Ti graphics card. A video that's 60 FPS will appear to be 30 for a while, then when it goes back looking 60 I rewind and sure enough, it's smooth.
No idea if it's Nvidia, Windows / DWM, or my monitor. Both my screens are reported as 60.0Hz (not 59.94) in CRU.
Any suggestions what to try, or how to troubleshoot? Maybe should try recording the duplicated display output with my capture card, not sure if it's compatible with the fancy FCAT program though.
No idea if it's Nvidia, Windows / DWM, or my monitor. Both my screens are reported as 60.0Hz (not 59.94) in CRU.
Any suggestions what to try, or how to troubleshoot? Maybe should try recording the duplicated display output with my capture card, not sure if it's compatible with the fancy FCAT program though.
Is NZXT cam software that bad that I should reconsider their x62 aio? Or are most of the issues overblown?
Woke up thinking I'd like to order it today. Don't want to wait that long, with no guarantee this model will have a better deal than $20+game. I don't know, heh.
The other issue with waiting for black Friday is stuff sells out so quickly. And then if you need to return because of defect, there's no stock left to exchange it for.
check in Nvidia control panel to make sure that the refresh rate is actually set to 60 Hz not 30 Hz.
Buying a new SSD: M2 or SATA3? They're about the same price. I think I've read that M2 is theoretically faster than SATA3 but has no real effect in practice.
AMD is going to release their flagship GPU summer next year. I would expect Nvidia to have something ready to respond, and the price is going to depend on AMD's pricing/performance.
Very vague question without parameters on how much extra money, which motherboard, and which application.
For gaming, and for gaming now:
Ryzen 3600 if no promotions going on.
Ryzen 3600X if you manage to find it <$230 + game.
Motherboard:
• B450 Mortar for smaller case
• Tomahawk for ATX
• Carbon Pro if you need Wifi/Bluetooth/Higher tier audio
M2: no cables, convenient.
Sata: better for the future build. I don't see Sata ports being phased-out soon, and most motherboards have like 2x M2 slots. This SSD might be your slowest drive in the next PC, and you don't want to waste the M2 slot for it.
Last edited:
Most likely a Ryzen 2700X with a Gigabyte Auros 450 motherboard. Is it worth it to get 3600 DDR4? Or should I spend the $20-40 on a bigger SSD?
I think the value isn't great, but another thing to consider is how well memory OCs with Gigabyte B450 + Zen+. Can you even get all 4 slots to 3600mhz on that board.
Just go for Ballistix or Vengeance 2x8Gb 3200 CL16.
- Status