PC Building Guide and Discussion #14

[stan the caddy]

No one on reddit actually has an AMD gpu but they'll all tell you to buy one.

 

[Osprey]

Steve reviews the new 4090 Ti:

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

It does feel like how Intel was doing their CPUs up until recently. Inject a shit load of power, add on some new stuff here and there and get 30% on average performance better. It's still something I'm grabbing considering I'm coming from a 3080. This thing will be way more than double the performance I'm already getting and last me even longer than my 4+ years with the 3080.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I will be holding off on a GPU upgrade for now, I can't justify buying another $1500+ display right now and 4090 is still good enough for 100+ FPS at 4k output in most games.

Still waiting for pricing and release date info on the 9950x3D.

 

[Osprey]

Tim explains why Multi-Frame Generation isn't worth upgrading to the 50 series for and why it doesn't make sense to use unless you have at least a 240Hz monitor.

 

[Osprey]

Amazon just delivered the Ryzen 9800X3D that I ordered a few weeks ago, when I still thought that the RX 9070 XT was going to be released by the end of the month. I don't usually order things in advance, but the 9800X3D is rarely in stock (at MSRP) and I was afraid that I'd have trouble finding one when I was finally ready for it. Also, the delivery estimate was a month away, so I thought that I needed to be proactive. It came weeks early, so I have the CPU now, but still haven't even ordered an AM5 motherboard or DDR5 yet. It feels a little silly to pair the best gaming CPU with a 4-year-old midrange GPU (the RTX 3070), but it also seems a little pointless to return it and then try to order it again later. So, I'll just keep it and hope that I'm able to upgrade my GPU before too long.

If anyone else wants to buy a 9800X3D, what I did was add a price watch for $479 at camelcamelcamel.com (Canadians will want to use ca.camelcamelcamel.com and set a $700 price). After a week or so, I got an e-mail that it was in stock at that price and I ordered it immediately. It was pretty easy. It just took several weeks (but could've taken much longer, especially since the delivery estimate was 3-6 weeks).

 

[PeteWorrell]

Hopefully you didn't get a dud. That's the risk with Amazon now because of how they mix their inventory.

 

[cjm502]

I used to be big in to PC building as a side hustle (unless you rip people off the margins suck, more of a hobby really) and have probably built between 40-50 PCs but aside from recently building one at cost for a friend, its been years since I've put one together. That build gave me the itch to put something together for myself and get back in to PC gaming. I'm currently building an engine which is draining the finances, but once that's done I have a plan to do something one of a kind. Since I'm a fabricator and have plasma tables, 3d printers, and water jets I'm thinking of making a custom case that would house a motorcycle radiator and make a cooling loop that would cool both the CPU and GPU together. Of course I would have to have to fabricate a type of splitter to give the radiator two inlets and outlets since I don't want the hot water from the CPU going straight to the GPU or vise versa. I would also have to make sure the water flow between the cpu and gpu was equal since im sure GPU waterblocks provide more resistance along with finding an optimal water pump and an additional power source for that water pump using since a standard PC water pump would not pump enough water for this concept and a water pump header may or may not supply enough power for the required pump. I would probably use something like a RGB header to provide a low watt 12v power supply to trigger a relay that would turn on the additional power supply for the water pump. No RGB, nothing fancy or not necessary. The PSU would literally only be powering the absolute necessities being the motherboard, CPU, GPU. Minimal peripherals (monitor, keyboard/mouse, headset), only two large radiator fans (maybe 4 if I go push/pull, dependent on performance), one PCI slot, and two m.2 slots being used. My house is old and has proven to have less than ideal electrical signal integrity, so starting the whole thing off with an uninterruptable power supply would be optimal for a build with both absolute maximum performance and maximum stability in mind. Once I quit dumping endless money in to my car I will upload build pics on here.

 

[cjm502]

Amazon just delivered the Ryzen 9800X3D that I ordered a few weeks ago, when I still thought that the RX 9070 XT was going to be released by the end of the month. I don't usually order things in advance, but the 9800X3D is rarely in stock (at MSRP) and I was afraid that I'd have trouble finding one when I was finally ready for it. Also, the delivery estimate was a month away, so I thought that I needed to be proactive. It came weeks early, so I have the CPU now, but still haven't even ordered an AM5 motherboard or DDR5 yet. It feels a little silly to pair the best gaming CPU with a 4-year-old midrange GPU (the RTX 3070), but it also seems a little pointless to return it and then try to order it again later. So, I'll just keep it and hope that I'm able to upgrade my GPU before too long.

If anyone else wants to buy a 9800X3D, what I did was add a price watch for $479 at camelcamelcamel.com (Canadians will want to use ca.camelcamelcamel.com and set a $700 price). After a week or so, I got an e-mail that it was in stock at that price and I ordered it immediately. It was pretty easy. It just took several weeks (but could've taken much longer, especially since the delivery estimate was 3-6 weeks).

I can respect a full team red build. With the delayed release of the 9070XT and it sounding like sellers will have good stock of all AIBs upon release it should be a lot easier than normal to get your hands on one once they're available. Any ideas on specific brands for the GPU or mobo? Of course there is the battle between trying to grab whichever you can get your hands on upon release in case availability gets crazy, or waiting a week to see reviews of each brand and hoping you can get your hands on the one you specifically want.

 

[Osprey]

Hopefully you didn't get a dud. That's the risk with Amazon now because of how they mix their inventory.

I'm not worried, but that's a good reason to buy the motherboard and RAM soon to make sure that CPU works before the 30-day return window closes.

I can respect a full team red build. With the delayed release of the 9070XT and it sounding like sellers will have good stock of all AIBs upon release it should be a lot easier than normal to get your hands on one once they're available. Any ideas on specific brands for the GPU or mobo? Of course there is the battle between trying to grab whichever you can get your hands on upon release in case availability gets crazy, or waiting a week to see reviews of each brand and hoping you can get your hands on the one you specifically want.

I'm not really trying to go "full team red." I'm not on any GPU "team." I've gone back and forth between AMD/ATI and Nvidia over the last 30 years. It's just that Nvidia will have nothing this gen with 16GB of VRAM for under $749 and AMD will. I'll still consider the 5070 Ti, but I'd rather pay a lot less for 90% of the performance, if AMD delivers. I'm not sure if I'll go reference design or OC. It may depend on the performance difference or just what I can get my hands on. Ideally, I'd like the PowerColor Hellhound because I remember that that version of the 7900 XT was one of the quietest and coolest models. As for the motherboard, I've been very happy with the BIOS support for my current ASUS board, so I'm leaning towards ASUS again, but we'll see.

 

[cjm502]

I'm not worried, but that's a good reason to buy the motherboard and RAM soon to make sure that CPU works before the 30-day return window closes.

I'm not really trying to go "full team red." I'm not on any "team" when it comes to GPUs. I've gone back and forth between AMD/ATI and Nvidia over the last 30 years. It's just that Nvidia will have nothing this gen with 16GB of VRAM for under $749 and AMD will. I'll still consider the 5070 Ti, but I'd rather pay $150 less for 90% of the performance. I'm not sure if I'll go reference design or OC. It may depend on the performance difference or just what I can get my hands on. Ideally, I'd like the PowerColor Hellhound because I remember that that version of the 7900 XT was one of the quietest and coolest models. As for the motherboard, I've been very happy with the BIOS support for my current ASUS board, so I'm leaning towards ASUS again, but we'll see.

I don't think there will even be reference models for the 9700 XT which I hope doesn't come around to bite consumers when it comes to pricing. Ref models also set a standard for AIBs to beat so we will see how this choice plays out for AMD. I'm with you on the ASUS mobo though, my current PC (which I barely use anymore) has a X570 TUF and I've been very happy with it. Maybe its because of familiarity, but all the BIOS settings feel like they are located where they should be and ASUS seems to be on top of BIOS firmware updates and fixes. My only complaint would be that after flashing the BIOS, only some of my saved BIOS settings would go back to normal when loading my previous profile. There are so many settings that have nothing to do with the update wouldn't restore when loading the old profile after a flash and that always annoyed me because a small amount of extra effort from ASUS would fix that.

 

[Osprey]

I don't think there will even be reference models for the 9700 XT which I hope doesn't come around to bite consumers when it comes to pricing. Ref models also set a standard for AIBs to beat so we will see how this choice plays out for AMD. I'm with you on the ASUS mobo though, my current PC (which I barely use anymore) has a X570 TUF and I've been very happy with it. Maybe its because of familiarity, but all the BIOS settings feel like they are located where they should be and ASUS seems to be on top of BIOS firmware updates and fixes. My only complaint would be that after flashing the BIOS, only some of my saved BIOS settings would go back to normal when loading my previous profile. There are so many settings that have nothing to do with the update wouldn't restore when loading the old profile after a flash and that always annoyed me because a small amount of extra effort from ASUS would fix that.

Even if there aren't AMD-branded cards, I think that there will at least be AIB models that use the reference design (clocks and maybe even cooler design) and come in at or near the suggested MSRP. PowerColor's new Reaper line is rumored to be that. I expect that to cost at or no more than $20 above whatever AMD announces as the starting price, then their Hellhound to offer higher clocks and a better cooler for ~$50 more, then their Red Devil with all of the bells and whistles for another $50 or more.

I've had the same frustration with my ASUS ROG Strix motherboard's BIOS. The user profile feature is kind of useless because it doesn't save half of my settings, mostly the advanced ones. I've had to get good at remembering and reconfiguring them each time that I update the BIOS. Also, it's confusing how a lot of settings are in two different locations and setting one in one location doesn't set it in the other, so there's the question of which overrides the other. I think that I have it figured out and have gotten used to it and the user profile thing, so they won't put me off from buying ASUS again, but yeah, their BIOS isn't perfect.

 

[cjm502]

Even if there aren't AMD-branded cards, I think that there will at least be AIB models that use the reference design (clocks and maybe even cooler design) and come in at or near the suggested MSRP. PowerColor's new Reaper line is rumored to be that. I expect that to cost at or no more than $20 above whatever AMD announces as the starting price, then their Hellhound to offer higher clocks and a better cooler for ~$50 more, then their Red Devil with all of the bells and whistles for another $50 or more.

I've had the same frustration with my ASUS ROG Strix motherboard's BIOS. The user profile feature is kind of useless because it doesn't save half of my settings, mostly the advanced ones. I've had to get good at remembering and reconfiguring them each time that I update the BIOS. Also, it's confusing how a lot of settings are in two different locations and setting one in one location doesn't set it in the other, so there's the question of which overrides the other. I think that I have it figured out and have gotten used to it and the user profile thing, so they won't put me off from buying ASUS again.

A major yes to the bolded, seeing the same exact settings in two different places makes zero sense to me. I never figured that one out and I just put the same settings in both although it may be unnecessary and redundant. One would think there has to be a purpose for it since the people developing it are much more knowledgeable than myself, but ASUS does not specify any said purpose. ASUS lets you tweak more things in the BIOS than MSI does and I came to enjoy the complexity of it, but they could definitely clean some things up as well. The percentage of consumers that really dig in to a BIOS like that seems to be small enough to the point where mobo manufacturers don't care much about the finer details though.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I had to deal with some Windows 11 stupidity today.

I decided to flash the latest BIOS update for my motherboard because i had not done so in years. I am not the type to update to every new revision unless necessary or it has been years since i last updated. The process gets completed without any problem.

But then when i try to log in into Windows, it says that my password is no longer available because of a change to the security settings. I can try typing my password as many times as i want but the operating system just keeps rejecting it saying that it's the "wrong" password.

I tried many solutions that i found on the internet but none of them worked. The only way i found was to reinstall Windows 11 and erase the drive that has Windows on it. It's not that big of a deal since i have multiple drives and almost everything else is stored on those so i only lost superficial things.

It's still a couple of hours wasted getting up to date to where i was only because of some obtuse security feature that will lock you out even if you type in the right password.

 

[Osprey]

A major yes to the bolded, seeing the same exact settings in two different places makes zero sense to me. I never figured that one out and I just put the same settings in both although it may be unnecessary and redundant. One would think there has to be a purpose for it since the people developing it are much more knowledgeable than myself, but ASUS does not specify any said purpose. ASUS lets you tweak more things in the BIOS than MSI does and I came to enjoy the complexity of it, but they could definitely clean some things up as well. The percentage of consumers that really dig in to a BIOS like that seems to be small enough to the point where mobo manufacturers don't care much about the finer details though.

I believe that the settings in the "Tweaker" tab override the same settings on the Main tab. I leave them on Auto on the Main tab and configure them only on the Tweaker tab. That seems to work.

I had to deal with some Windows 11 stupidity today.

I decided to flash the latest BIOS update for my motherboard because i had not done so in years. I am not the type to update to every new revision unless necessary or it has been years since i last updated. The process gets completed without any problem.

But then when i try to log in into Windows, it says that my password is no longer available because of a change to the security settings. I can try typing my password as many times as i want but the operating system just keeps rejecting it saying that it's the "wrong" password.

I tried many solutions that i found on the internet but none of them worked. The only way i found was to reinstall Windows 11 and erase the drive that has Windows on it. It's not that big of a deal since i have multiple drives and almost everything else is stored on those so i only lost superficial things.

It's still a couple of hours wasted getting up to date to where i was only because of some obtuse security feature that will lock you out even if you type in the right password.

That sounds like the very reason that I haven't updated my BIOS in over a year. One of the releases in late 2023 updated the TPM version and I read on Reddit that it was causing several people problems with logging into Windows afterward, so I decided not to risk it.

 

[cjm502]

I had to deal with some Windows 11 stupidity today.

I decided to flash the latest BIOS update for my motherboard because i had not done so in years. I am not the type to update to every new revision unless necessary or it has been years since i last updated. The process gets completed without any problem.

But then when i try to log in into Windows, it says that my password is no longer available because of a change to the security settings. I can try typing my password as many times as i want but the operating system just keeps rejecting it saying that it's the "wrong" password.

I tried many solutions that i found on the internet but none of them worked. The only way i found was to reinstall Windows 11 and erase the drive that has Windows on it. It's not that big of a deal since i have multiple drives and almost everything else is stored on those so i only lost superficial things.

It's still a couple of hours wasted getting up to date to where i was only because of some obtuse security feature that will lock you out even if you type in the right password.

I have used Lazesoft Recover My Password many times over the years and it has never let me down. I actually had to go to my moms and use it on her laptop yesterday due to a random TPM issue. I keep two USBs on hand, one with the windows 10 version and one with the windows 11 version on it. Using software like this can often be a security risk but I've used this one program enough with no issue to trust it enough if its needed.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I believe that the settings in the "Tweaker" tab override the same settings on the Main tab. I leave them on Auto on the Main tab and configure them only on the Tweaker tab. That seems to work.

That sounds like the very reason that I haven't updated my BIOS in over a year. One of the releases in late 2023 updated the TPM version and I read on Reddit that it was causing several people problems with logging into Windows afterward, so I decided not to risk it.

I am only going to update the BIOS when i make hardware changes that will basically force me into reinstalling Windows.

It's all incredibly stupid and could really set back someone who only uses one drive. This really puts an emphasis on not storing everything on the Windows install drive and having multiple back ups.

 

[Osprey]

I keep two USBs on hand, one with the windows 10 version and one with the windows 11 version on it.

Have you heard of Ventoy? It's a free program that allows you to boot multiple ISOs from a single USB drive. You format the drive once with Ventoy, then simply copy ISO files to it and they all show up in a menu when you boot from the drive.