OT: Video Game Talk (oh, also the Week before the All-Star Break Pre-Game Talk "archive")

[MacKaRtin]

Get ready to update your EA Sports NHL 25 coaching rosters:

 

[JWK]

Was able to get 5070ti for MSRP, which is going to lead to building a brand new PC My old rig isn't doing it justice

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Was able to get 5070ti for MSRP, which is going to lead to building a brand new PC My old rig isn't doing it justice

Oh man! I'm a bit envious. I have absolutely loved everything about building my last several PCs myself.

I mean there's no soldering required anymore. It's basically become an adult version of legos. Everything is plug and play. Heck the hardest part of most builds for me (other than financing the build) has been getting the start button and the rest of the front panel single pin connectors placed on the proper posts on the MOBO. Had a motherboard a couple generations ago that came with an adapter you could plug all the single pin connectors into it, and then that plug would snap into the motherboard. As I usually build in small form factors that was incredibly helpful. I think it was ASUS that made that board.

Anyways, I jealous... Picking all the parts on pcpartpicker to maximize your build, finding sales to get the stuff cheap and then that day comes where you got all the boxes gathered around the dining room table and you get to start putting it all together... So much damn fun.

The 5070ti looks to be an absolute beast. I'm lucky that I'm still gaming on a 1080p TN panel... my 2080S is still getting the job done with no sacrifices (other than playing at 1080p that is.) I'd like to upgrade my GPU, but I have a feeling I'll be building a new PC when I do and also updating my monitors to either 2K or 4K. Thinking 1440p will be my target rather than 4K.

What are you aiming for? Do you have a preference for AMD vs Intel for cpu?

 

[JWK]

Oh man! I'm a bit envious. I have absolutely loved everything about building my last several PCs myself.

I mean there's no soldering required anymore. It's basically become an adult version of legos. Everything is plug and play. Heck the hardest part of most builds for me (other than financing the build) has been getting the start button and the rest of the front panel single pin connectors placed on the proper posts on the MOBO. Had a motherboard a couple generations ago that came with an adapter you could plug all the single pin connectors into it, and then that plug would snap into the motherboard. As I usually build in small form factors that was incredibly helpful. I think it was ASUS that made that board.

Anyways, I jealous... Picking all the parts on pcpartpicker to maximize your build, finding sales to get the stuff cheap and then that day comes where you got all the boxes gathered around the dining room table and you get to start putting it all together... So much damn fun.

The 5070ti looks to be an absolute beast. I'm lucky that I'm still gaming on a 1080p TN panel... my 2080S is still getting the job done with no sacrifices (other than playing at 1080p that is.) I'd like to upgrade my GPU, but I have a feeling I'll be building a new PC when I do and also updating my monitors to either 2K or 4K. Thinking 1440p will be my target rather than 4K.

What are you aiming for? Do you have a preference for AMD vs Intel for cpu?

I prefer AMD, being going back and forth between 7800X3D and 9800X3D but leaning towards former.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I prefer AMD, being going back and forth between 7800X3D and 9800X3D but leaning towards former.

Yeah, I made a switch to a Ryzen 7 3700X many years ago. However, my MOBO had an issue and blew up (figuratively... not literally.. there was no spark or fire.. just a power surge and a dead mobo and CPU.)

Since I'm building in mITX cases, the cost of the MOBO becomes a deciding factor. Crazy, huh? But yeah, I moved back to Intel because the Gigabyte Z790i was such a great deal and the intel i7-13700K wasn't far off, so I went back to the intel platform.

Price to performance though, AMD is just killing Intel right now. I shouldn't have allowed my first bad experience with a motherboard to color my perception so much, but I've been playing with computers and gaming systems since the Atari 2600 in the mid/late 70s. I have never had a motherboard be a point of failure before (other than the original Xbox's RROD). And that just kinda freaked me out to going back to Intel for my immediate rebuild.

Do you do video editing or streaming? From what I've gleaned so far that is where you would see a real world increase between the two. But if just playing games, streaming videos and crusing the internet I can't possibly believe you'd notice a difference.

 

[JWK]

Yeah, I made a switch to a Ryzen 7 3700X many years ago. However, my MOBO had an issue and blew up (figuratively... not literally.. there was no spark or fire.. just a power surge and a dead mobo and CPU.)

Since I'm building in mITX cases, the cost of the MOBO becomes a deciding factor. Crazy, huh? But yeah, I moved back to Intel because the Gigabyte Z790i was such a great deal and the intel i7-13700K wasn't far off, so I went back to the intel platform.

Price to performance though, AMD is just killing Intel right now. I shouldn't have allowed my first bad experience with a motherboard to color my perception so much, but I've been playing with computers and gaming systems since the Atari 2600 in the mid/late 70s. I have never had a motherboard be a point of failure before (other than the original Xbox's RROD). And that just kinda freaked me out to going back to Intel for my immediate rebuild.

Do you do video editing or streaming? From what I've gleaned so far that is where you would see a real world increase between the two. But if just playing games, streaming videos and crusing the internet I can't possibly believe you'd notice a difference.

It's mainly for games, was going to get the 7800X3D and spend more on the monitor.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

It's mainly for games, was going to get the 7800X3D and spend more on the monitor.

Yeah, but could that beast run Counterstrike 1.6 on 101 FPS?

That's the only thing that matters in life.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Yeah, but could that beast run Counterstrike 1.6 on 101 FPS?

That's the only thing that matters in life.

Not sure... but if you can max out the settings on minecraft, does much else matter?

This is coming from a dude who still plays his old Commodore64 text based adventures (Zork, Planetfall, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) every three or so years. Talk about overkill. Like, how many FPS do I need for text based adventure games? Gotta have the crispest edges possible on that fixed-width bitmap font.

 

[sethro109]

Intel might actually release a competitive CPU if their rumored "Nova-Lake" specs are to be believed.

I'm sure an AIO will be required for these things. But that's not really a big deal anymore.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Intel might actually release a competitive CPU if their rumored "Nova-Lake" specs are to be believed.
View attachment 1052872


I'm sure an AIO will be required for these things. But that's not really a big deal anymore.

IN a larger case a Noctua NH-D15 chromax will silently cool that sucker better than most AIO.

I'm actually going back in favor of air cooling when at all possible. It's quiter, if given a large enough case it's more efficient and it doesn't demand that you look at it by flashing all sorts of neon colors at you. Just a big, huge black box of cooling fins. Massive, brutalist architecture in PCs at its finest.

 

[sethro109]

IN a larger case a Noctua NH-D15 chromax will silently cool that sucker better than most AIO.

I'm actually going back in favor of air cooling when at all possible. It's quiter, if given a large enough case it's more efficient and it doesn't demand that you look at it by flashing all sorts of neon colors at you. Just a big, huge black box of cooling fins. Massive, brutalist architecture in PCs at its finest.

I love when people make custom-builds and use wood cases with Noctua fans. It always looks so clean and retro.

I actually don't mind the look of most AIOs, but there are some, that look like they're made for raves. I saw one at CES that has a screen on the cover, and it let you put what ever image or gif you wanted on there. I haven't seen it for sale yet, but I might end up buying it.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I love when people make custom-builds and use wood cases with Noctua fans. It always looks so clean and retro.

I actually don't mind the look of most AIOs, but there are some, that look like they're made for raves. I saw one at CES that has a screen on the cover, and it let you put what ever image or gif you wanted on there. I haven't seen it for sale yet, but I might end up buying it.

Yeah, don't get me wrong... there is a place for tricked out PC's. The first PC I built I used an ASRock MOBO because they had blue heat sinks on everything. I had corsair dominator ram and installed the blue light bridges on it. CPU cooler was an AIO from Corsair that allowed me to change the color of the heat sink. Fans were all RPG as well and tied into the corsair's link program. It was a huge Corsair 450D case with only one GPU in it. I actually installed mini Tron figurines standing around inside the case and it was all lit up in blue and white. That was a fun build, but I kinda outgrew building for looks and started building for the smallest and quietest things I can, that are also capable of playing high end games.

You have to pay a premium for mITX sized components. But I love the fact that I have a Fractal Design mITX case that has an open window that allows you to see nothing more than a monster air cooled CPU covering pretty much the entire MOBO. I had to use low profile corsair ram to fit under the cpu cooler. The thing is dead quiet though. My old AIO was mounted as a front intake (because most small PC cases won't arrange themselves for a top exhaust cpu cooler. This caused so many issues because the front intake feeds the gpu as well. So my GPU's intake was the exhaust of my CPU cooler. This is the case in so many small cases, it's really a sin. You're cpu is nice and chilly but you've got a rocket engine ramping up in the GPU that is starved for cold air. I think this is the biggest reason I moved back to air cooling. Also... I never once heard of a computer getting ruined because of an air leak. I know a few folks who f'd up their liquid cooling though.

 

[sethro109]

Yeah, don't get me wrong... there is a place for tricked out PC's. The first PC I built I used an ASRock MOBO because they had blue heat sinks on everything. I had corsair dominator ram and installed the blue light bridges on it. CPU cooler was an AIO from Corsair that allowed me to change the color of the heat sink. Fans were all RPG as well and tied into the corsair's link program. It was a huge Corsair 450D case with only one GPU in it. I actually installed mini Tron figurines standing around inside the case and it was all lit up in blue and white. That was a fun build, but I kinda outgrew building for looks and started building for the smallest and quietest things I can, that are also capable of playing high end games.

You have to pay a premium for mITX sized components. But I love the fact that I have a Fractal Design mITX case that has an open window that allows you to see nothing more than a monster air cooled CPU covering pretty much the entire MOBO. I had to use low profile corsair ram to fit under the cpu cooler. The thing is dead quiet though. My old AIO was mounted as a front intake (because most small PC cases won't arrange themselves for a top exhaust cpu cooler. This caused so many issues because the front intake feeds the gpu as well. So my GPU's intake was the exhaust of my CPU cooler. This is the case in so many small cases, it's really a sin. You're cpu is nice and chilly but you've got a rocket engine ramping up in the GPU that is starved for cold air. I think this is the biggest reason I moved back to air cooling. Also... I never once heard of a computer getting ruined because of an air leak. I know a few folks who f'd up their liquid cooling though.

I'm definitely a fan of the big, gaudy builds, but not so much of the crazy led flashing everywhere. As for the noise, I never really notice my fans all that much, but years in construction and loud music/games has probably killed my hearing. When I do upgrade my case, the tree I really like are the HYTE Y70 Touch Infinite Dual Chamber ATX, AZZA Pyramid L PCIE 4.0 and the KEDIERS PC Case - ATX Tower.

I bought my current computer as a pre-built and just got the cheapest fish tank case they had. Over the last year, I've just been slowly upgrading it. One of these days I'll actually buy a case that I like, but I still want a few other things first. Mainly, I want to upgrade my CPU. It came with an i9 13900KF and since I updated the bios, I haven't had any issues with it, but just knowing that it could burn out at anytime still bothers me. So I would like to upgrade to an AMD, but that means a new motherboard and if I'm going to do that, that's probably when I should get the new case as well.

When I got it, it came with flashing LED fans, but I swapped those out with low profile matte black ones. Recently upgraded the RAM from 32GB to 64GB DDR5 6800MT/s. Also put a ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 in it, because it said it was compatible with my Asus motherboard, but no matter what I try, I still can't get that f***er to the 40GBs it advertises. I wanted it for lag free VR games, and it does do that, but it still bothers me that I can't get it to work like it supposed too.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I'm definitely a fan of the big, gaudy builds, but not so much of the crazy led flashing everywhere. As for the noise, I never really notice my fans all that much, but years in construction and loud music/games has probably killed my hearing. When I do upgrade my case, the tree I really like are the HYTE Y70 Touch Infinite Dual Chamber ATX, AZZA Pyramid L PCIE 4.0 and the KEDIERS PC Case - ATX Tower.

I bought my current computer as a pre-built and just got the cheapest fish tank case they had. Over the last year, I've just been slowly upgrading it. One of these days I'll actually buy a case that I like, but I still want a few other things first. Mainly, I want to upgrade my CPU. It came with an i9 13900KF and since I updated the bios, I haven't had any issues with it, but just knowing that it could burn out at anytime still bothers me. So I would like to upgrade to an AMD, but that means a new motherboard and if I'm going to do that, that's probably when I should get the new case as well.

When I got it, it came with flashing LED fans, but I swapped those out with low profile matte black ones. Recently upgraded the RAM from 32GB to 64GB DDR5 6800MT/s. Also put a ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 in it, because it said it was compatible with my Asus motherboard, but no matter what I try, I still can't get that f***er to the 40GBs it advertises. I wanted it for lag free VR games, and it does do that, but it still bothers me that I can't get it to work like it supposed too.

When you get around to looking at cases. I've recently found myself really digging Fractal Design's North case. Especially if you are looking at an ATX sized MOBO. They combine wood elements to give the case a distinct use.

North

North reimagines the gaming PC, introducing natural materials and bespoke details to make gaming a stylish addition to the living space. Fusing design and airflow engineering, the case features fine-patterned mesh ventilation and an open front with real walnut or oak panels. The design is...

www.fractal-design.com