PC Building Guide and Discussion #14

[mouser]

Turns out the ROG Strix backplane doesn't fit with a 280mm AIO top mount radiator in this case. Build delayed for a couple days while I swap out for a 240mm cooler.

 

[Puck]

There's a new category of PC monitors out. Sounds interesting. Do it all monitors from Samsung that also include a Smart tv feature and built in speakers.

Smart Monitors | 4K Do-It-All Monitors | Samsung US | Samsung USA

If they ever come out with a 4k @ 120 hz for gaming and add Thunderbolt port support to USB-C, add more docking ports (for laptop and console), maybe some better built-in speaker system, or bluetooth soundbar, add a hideaway cam on top for Zooming like the HP Envy 32, I will be tempted to go that route. Might be a costly monitor but whatever....(can always get a bluetooth soundbar separate now I suppose)

The more features that get rid of all the wiring from my desktop PC is good IMHO. Always looking for ways to cut the cord and some wiring. (I currently have a Hauppauge card connected to cable so I don't have to run to the living room to watch something; of course I can also connect the cable box directly to the monitor's HDMI port; external speakers and sub). I have the Kodi app but that is really a pain to manage.

I could get an All-in-one PC (AIO) like the HP Envy 32, but the AIOs don't open easily, have less performance than desktops. Some do-it-all monitor that falls short of being an AIO would be handy in my books and keep the desktop system (just throw it under the desk and forget it). I think it would be handy for dorm/away-from home students as well. All that wiring on my current system is a bit of a nightmare.

 

[Osprey]

Those will be great for people who want to work, watch TV and maybe console game on the same screen. Unfortunately, they're not suitable for serious PC gaming (60Hz, 8ms response rate, no FreeSync/GSync), so "do it all" is a bit inaccurate. Still, it's a good step forward to close the distinction between TVs and monitors. It'd be nice to, eventually, get all or most of the features of a TV in a monitor and vice versa.

 

[Puck]

I'd also be interested in monitors with more built-in functionality. I gather that Samsung monitor though is promoting the Samsung Dex features to use your Samsung phone or tablet with your monitor, something I have less interest in (owning an iPad and Pixel phone). I suppose that functionality will be coming soon to other brands, to use your phone or tablet to work with your monitor basically turning your monitor into a Chromebook PC. I'm not interested in that specific Samsung monitor, but I did like the idea of a 'smart' or smarter monitor with more functionality.

p.s. edit. I'm told other brands have much of the screen mirroring capabilities and other features of the new Samsung monitors they just don't advertise it as much. And I guess Chromecast could do that as well.

 

[mouser]

Just about finished with the new PC build and ran into an interesting dilemma. Using this case:
LANCOOL II Mesh RGB - Ultimate Airflow Chassis

I have a top mounted 240mm radiator blowing out (2x 120mm). I have 3x more ML120mm PWM/RGB fans and the 3x 120mm ARGB (non PWM) fans that came with the case available. I had been planning on just removing the 3x case fans and using them on another system, however I want to do a top back exhaust fan and any 5 fan configuration would leave me with negative case pressure as I'd have 3x exhaust and 2x intake.

In my current testing configuration have 2x exhaust (top) and 2x input (front) running. Getting 40c idle on my GPU right now (ambient 22). Wouldn't mind adding a fan or two on the bottom of the case to pull fresh air across the GPU. There are two 120mm fan slots on the frame above the PSU and the case side is perforated to allow outside air pull to those fans.

Thinking I'm going to allocate the 3x ML120mm fans I have as 1x Top exhaust and 2x Bottom intake, then buy 2x ML140mm fans to use as front intake. Case layout would be.

Exhaust:
- 2x 120mm Top (AIO radiator)
- 1x 120mm Top Back
Intake:
- 2x 120mm Bottom
- 2x 140mm Front

It's certainly overkill on the # of fans necessary, but these are all PWM fans so I can tweak the system to run them at lower speeds while keeping good airflow. I'm also planning on upgrading to an even heavier GPU when the market adjusts. The bling will be a little silly with 7 RGB fans.

 

[Nizdizzle]

Been looking for a few months now to build a low/mid range gaming PC to replace my 8ish-year old PC that's still chugging along (got a lot of mileage out of the GTX-770). However, it feels almost impossible to get my hands on a GPU right now, unless I pay way more than I'm comfortable with. Is buying a prebuilt the way to go right now? I'm hopefully looking to get something in the $1200-1400 range for just the tower components (not monitors/keyboard...etc).

 

[Osprey]

It doesn't just feel almost impossible to buy a GPU; it is almost impossible. I've been trying for 2 months. I have alerts set up and every time one goes off, bots snag them before I can make it to checkout. We're not even talking about at MSRP, but $150 over it.

Yeah, buying a pre-built is supposedly a way to get a GPU, since miners aren't going to buy a whole PC just for the GPU. It's not a bad option if you need most of the rest of the parts, anyways.

 

[Lame Lambert]

It doesn't just feel almost impossible to buy a GPU; it is almost impossible. I've been trying for 2 months. I have alerts set up and every time one goes off, bots snag them before I can make it to checkout. We're not even talking about at MSRP, but $150 over it.

Yeah, buying a pre-built is supposedly a way to get a GPU, since miners aren't going to buy a whole PC just for the CPU. It's not a bad option if you need most of the rest of the parts, anyways.

This silicon shortage is ridiculous. I built a new system around a year ago with a 2080S, fully aware that it would be a “bad” purchase and now I could sell it for a $200 profit if I wanted to.

So many people are going to be turned off from PC gaming and Nvidia/AMD won’t give a shit because they’re making more money selling these things to miners.

 

[explore]

I timed my upgrade very shortly after the 5000 series and RTX 30 series launched, so I was able to build a new PC with a 5900X and RTX 3070 paying the original MSRP prices ($549 before tax for the 5900X, $560 pre-tax for an RTX 3070 with a triple fan cooler,) but I still had to essentially stalk websites and refresh pages every 1-5 minutes for two weeks straight, and spent more than one or two nights not sleeping before I was able to get my RTX 3070. With the 5900X, I just got lucky and walked into a Microcenter one afternoon when they had a bunch in stock at that moment a few weeks after launch.

That being said, as of right now, it's just an incredibly bad time to try to get a current-gen GPU. Not only because the tariff exemptions expired, but companies are also increasing prices just because they can.

It is a good time get a 5000 series AMD CPU though. Stocks have improved dramatically for the 5600X, 5800X and 5900X since their original launch dates plus AMD hasn't increased prices on the 5000 series CPUs, and Intel's Rocket Lake CPUs (11000 series) are a joke because they have a max power draw of almost 290 W--that's AMD Bulldozer level of heat generation. (AMDs 5000 series have a max power draw of around 140 W, for comparison)

And yes, getting a pre-built is a guaranteed way to get an RTX 30 series GPU, but it's also pretty expensive overall. On Dell, the cheapest build you can get with a RTX 3060 Ti is a G5 that costs a little over $1700 pre-tax, if you move to Alienware, you can add another $100-200 for a similar build with a 3060 Ti

My opinion would be to just skip this generation of GPUs until the world moves past the current COVID situation because there's a 0% chance you're getting one at the original intended MSRP

 

[Puck]

Good explanation for the chip shortages.

 

[Puck]

Article about the possibility of outlawing bitcoin. Might make many gamers happy. More the opinion of a financial investor though, doesn't sound imminent if it does happen.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/bri...d-probability-government-outlaws-bitcoin.html

 

[aleshemsky83]

Article about the possibility of outlawing bitcoin. Might make many gamers happy. More the opinion of a financial investor though, doesn't sound imminent if it does happen.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/bri...d-probability-government-outlaws-bitcoin.html

Extremely unlikely considering there's a ton of corporate investment in Bitcoin.

Only thing I could sort of see is if it's some type of military action against Iran and China who are heavily invested in Bitcoin. Then corporate influence would probably be moot.

 

[explore]

Extremely unlikely considering there's a ton of corporate investment in Bitcoin.

Only thing I could sort of see is if it's some type of military action against Iran and China who are heavily invested in Bitcoin. Then corporate influence would probably be moot.

There's very little Western corporate investment in bitcoin, it's mostly places like China and a random assortment of third world countries where you'll find those bitcoin farms.

There's next-to-no legitimate use for Bitcoin. Yes, you can now buy a Tesla with it, along with some nonsense NFTs, but by and large the primary use of bitcoin is to buy illegal goods and services, and/or launder money

The whole, "Bitcoin is the currency of the future" schtick is fundamentally silly. It's atrociously energy-inefficient to mine bitcoin--to the tune of using more electricity worldwide than the entire country of Argentina, and given the absolutely stupid amount of fluctuation in its value, it's a terrible currency to use in day-to-day transactions to both buy and sell.

The only way bitcoin is the "currency of the future" is if that future is one in which all governments have failed, but the electricity grid and internet still work for some reason, so everyone is living in some weird Mad Max type world where they're paying each other with bitcoins

 

[Osprey]

My opinion would be to just skip this generation of GPUs until the world moves past the current COVID situation because there's a 0% chance you're getting one at the original intended MSRP

I'd probably offer the same recommendation if I already had an RTX 3000 series card, myself. Some of us have 4 year-old cards, though, and could really use an upgrade. I'd normally refuse to pay over MSRP, but even our old cards have inflated value. My RX 570 is worth $200 on eBay right now, but may be worth as little as $50 by the time that things return to normal. I can justify going $150 over MSRP because my existing card's inflated re-sale value would cover it.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I'd probably offer the same recommendation if I already had an RTX 3000 series card, myself. Some of us have 4 year-old cards, though, and could really use an upgrade. I'd normally refuse to pay over MSRP, but even old cards are a lot more valuable now. My RX 570 is worth $200 on eBay right now, but will probably be worth only $50 after things return to normal. I can justify going $150 over MSRP because my existing card's re-sale value would cover it.

I have a 1080 thats getting old (its a founders edition so its like 300 MHz slower than any other version of the card) and tbh thats probably what I'm gonna do.

I could flip it for a 3060 like you for DLSS and raytracing but the 3060 is just not enough of an upgrade, like 10-20% in a lot of games, even over a founders edition 1080 and for me selling stuff online or on kijiji is a hassle (though I realize other people are a lot more comfortable doing it.)

 

[Daz28]

Extremely unlikely considering there's a ton of corporate investment in Bitcoin.

Only thing I could sort of see is if it's some type of military action against Iran and China who are heavily invested in Bitcoin. Then corporate influence would probably be moot.

A big issue with Bitcoin is anonymity. That's what I feel will eventually be its demise.

 

[mouser]

At this point I’m not even considering buying a new GPU before Q3 when hopefully there is somewhat of a recovery in supply. And of course NViDIA will be announcing the 40xx series not too long after that, which may or may not be a bad thing.

I am really happy to see the AMD 5000 CPU supply shortage has significantly improved.

New PC build is complete. Will post some nice photos/video/comments soon.

 

[explore]

NVIDIA released their Resizable BAR update: GeForce RTX 30 Series Performance Accelerates With Resizable BAR Support | GeForce News | NVIDIA

Here's a reddit thread with the stickied post listing links to all RTX 30 series manufacturer's pages to download an updated GPU BIOS if they released it: GeForce RTX 30 Series Performance Accelerates With Resizable BAR Support | GeForce News | NVIDIA : nvidia (reddit.com)

You'll also need a motherboard that's running a BIOS that supports Resizable Bar.

Here's a list of performance boosts for the 3080 from using Resizable BAR:

I also had the extra fun of figuring out that I was using legacy BIOS on my build instead of UEFI (which is required to be able to use Resizable BAR) because I copied over my Windows install from my (very) old build onto my NVME drive instead of re-installing from scratch, so I had to convert my Windows Boot system from MBR to GPT, but in order to do that I had to do an advanced reboot into command line, and my password absolutely wouldn't work and I couldn't figure out why for an hour trying a million different passwords and even changing passwords, until I realized it was because I was using a Microsoft Account instead of a Local Account on my computer. After finally figuring that out and switching to a Local Account, I used the mbr2gpt command line to convert my Windows boot record to GPT, then had to go back into BIOS and disable Legacy CSM support, then enable Resizable BAR. THEN I checked to make sure that my BIOS was correctly using UEFI by running the msinfo32 command, and once that confirmed I was now running a UEFI BIOS, I then had to confirm that Resizable BAR was working by going into NVIDIA control panel and checking system information, and now after spending well over an hour, I finally have Resizable BAR working.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Was just alerted by my shop that they won't be getting my 3070, or any 3070, or 3080, any time ever. Three months of waiting for zilch.

 

[mouser]

New AMD 5600X PC build completed, with dual 27" Gigabyte M27Q 1440p 170Hz monitors.

Overall very happy. The Lancool case is beautiful and the nearly full black case and interior components balance well with all the RGB fan bling.







Note: the cooler tubing isn't actually putting weight on the GPU though it might look so in the picture. Added a GPU anti-sag bracket under the card for extra safety as the EVGA FTW cards are triple wide and heavy.


Comments:
- While the Lancool 2 Mesh case has room for dual 140mm fans on top there isn't enough space to also add a 280mm AIO radiator--it bumps into the motherboard backplane. So had to swap to a 120mm AIO radiator and fans.

- Didn't originally start out with 7 fans in mind, and this is definitely overkill for the build. However these ML Pro fans are amazing (and should be for their price). Whisper quiet with magnetic levitation instead of bearings, the system barely makes any noise at all.

- Ended up at the 7 fans after initially buying the 2x 120mm AIO cooler plus a 3x 120mm fan pack. Then I realized I really wanted the back upper fan, which would leave me at 3 exhaust and 2 intake, not ideal. Decided to buy a pair of 140mm fans for the front and then use the remaining 120mm fans as intake fans under the GPU. The bottom side of the case is perforated, so they'll pulling fresh air in.


Final Parts List

Spoiler

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
GPU: EVGA 1070Ti FTW (reused from prior system, buy a new GP later)
Case: Lian Li Lancool 2 Mesh
Mombo: Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming WiFi
Mem: 32GB Crucial Ballistix CL 16 3600MHz 4x8
Cooler: Corsair H100i Elite Capellix iCue
PSU: Corsair RM850x
Root HD: Western Digital Black SN850 500GB M.2 PCIe 4.0
Game HD: Western Digital Black SN750 1TB M.2 PCIe 3.0
Fans: Corsair 3x ML120 Pro, 2x ML140 Pro
Bracket: Clovertale GPU anti-sag bracket

Monitors: 2x Gigabyte M27Q 27", 1440p 170Hz

More Pictures

Spoiler

Initial Parts. Extra fans not pictured and the H115i cooler was swapped for a H100i cooler
imgur.com

Case:
imgur.com
Note: the drive cage will be later moved to a full front location.

Construction photos:
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com

Lights:
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com

Another video of the lighting with the case more open:
imgur.com

 

[explore]

New AMD 5600X PC build completed, with dual 27" Gigabyte M27Q 1440p 170Hz monitors.

Overall very happy. The Lancool case is beautiful and the nearly full black case and interior components balance well with all the RGB fan bling.







Note: the cooler tubing isn't actually putting weight on the GPU though it might look so in the picture. Added a GPU anti-sag bracket under the card for extra safety as the EVGA FTW cards are triple wide and heavy.


Comments:
- While the Lancool 2 Mesh case has room for dual 140mm fans on top there isn't enough space to also add a 280mm AIO radiator--it bumps into the motherboard backplane. So had to swap to a 120mm AIO radiator and fans.

- Didn't originally start out with 7 fans in mind, and this is definitely overkill for the build. However these ML Pro fans are amazing (and should be for their price). Whisper quiet with magnetic levitation instead of bearings, the system barely makes any noise at all.

- Ended up at the 7 fans after initially buying the 2x 120mm AIO cooler plus a 3x 120mm fan pack. Then I realized I really wanted the back upper fan, which would leave me at 3 exhaust and 2 intake, not ideal. Decided to buy a pair of 140mm fans for the front and then use the remaining 120mm fans as intake fans under the GPU. The bottom side of the case is perforated, so they'll pulling fresh air in.


Final Parts List

Spoiler

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
GPU: EVGA 1070Ti FTW (reused from prior system, buy a new GP later)
Case: Lian Li Lancool 2 Mesh
Mombo: Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming WiFi
Mem: 32GB Crucial Ballistix CL 16 3600MHz 4x8
Cooler: Corsair H100i Elite Capellix iCue
PSU: Corsair RM850x
Root HD: Western Digital Black SN850 500GB M.2 PCIe 4.0
Game HD: Western Digital Black SN750 1TB M.2 PCIe 3.0
Fans: Corsair 3x ML120 Pro, 2x ML140 Pro
Bracket: Clovertale GPU anti-sag bracket

Monitors: 2x Gigabyte M27Q 27", 1440p 170Hz

More Pictures

Spoiler

Initial Parts. Extra fans not pictured and the H115i cooler was swapped for a H100i cooler
imgur.com

Case:
imgur.com
Note: the drive cage will be later moved to a full front location.

Construction photos:
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com

Lights:
imgur.com
imgur.com
imgur.com

Another video of the lighting with the case more open:
imgur.com

I have that old Logitech keyboard from the early 2000s also. It has the volume wheel in the middle and random scroll wheel on the left, along with a bunch of media buttons

Overall, nice build. Decent cable management, and looks like you've got a ton of airflow

 

[mouser]

I have that old Logitech keyboard from the early 2000s also. It has the volume wheel in the middle and random scroll wheel on the left, along with a bunch of media buttons

Overall, nice build. Decent cable management, and looks like you've got a ton of airflow

Yeah, love this keyboard. Used to have three of them, but down to one now. Check eBay every now and then to see if I can pick up some used ones.

 

[explore]

Yeah, love this keyboard. Used to have three of them, but down to one now. Check eBay every now and then to see if I can pick up some used ones.

It was great back when I used it, but I've since moved onto a keyboard that takes up a lot less space while still using mechanical keys to make typing as comfortable as possible. I did have to buy a separate numpad since my current keyboard doesn't have one and typing in values with the number row on the top of the keyboard is a pain, but otherwise wouldn't switch back to the old school keyboards

 

[mouser]

My thing is more being comfortable with the key layout. I can easily push or exceed 100 wpm, hate having to adapt to new keyboards. Always made a point of using identical keyboards across all my systems whether at work or home.

 

[Hammettf2b]

LG 27GP950-B vs ASUS PG32UQ

I am in the market in a 4k monitor for the next gen consoles (hdmi 2.1) and was looking at both of these monitors as a good candidate. I'm not very savvy when it comes to the tech and was wondering what the main differences were with these monitors (besides the size). TV's are just too big for my setup, thats why I have decided on a monitor.