|OT| The PC Hardware Thread -- Buy/Upgrade/Ask/Answer

[didamangi]

Mouse companies hate this one little trick, well except this one company I guess.

Hotswappable mouse switches. Dang, to think a mouse switch costs less than $1 and most mouse issues are double-clicking.
I change mine to a huano silent switch for my silent build.

 

[Kvik]

Not having a good morning at all since my desktop rig refused to POST. Can't even go to the BIOS. Even after BIOS clear jumper salvo.

I think it's time to let this one go. This rig was a Haswell-E/X99 i7-5930K circa 2015. It had several upgrades since then, so I guess the new system I'm building to replace it will be a mix of old and new.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU
ASRock X870 Pro RS Mobo
G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB DDR5-5600 CL36

Keeping the case (FD Meshify C), Corsair HX 860W PSU, RTX 3070, 1TB Samsung 850 Pro NVME and 4x SATA SSDs.

Maybe I'll post build logs once I've got started on this.

 

[didamangi]

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU
ASRock X870 Pro RS Mobo
G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB DDR5-5600 CL36

Keeping the case (FD Meshify C), Corsair HX 860W PSU, RTX 3070, 1TB Samsung 850 Pro NVME and 4x SATA SSDs.

Maybe I'll post build logs once I've got started on this.

Maybe get a better ddr5 kit? like 6000 mhz cl30? You might leave performance on the table with that one. Altough the difference for x3d it's not as big as non x3d.

 

[Kvik]

Maybe get a better ddr5 kit? like 6000 mhz cl30?

Ah, the desktop rig is primarily for work, and the CL36 kit was on special. The couch gaming rig has a much faster kit.

 

[spindoctor]

I could use a little bit of help for a friend who is looking to buy a prebuilt PC in the USA. Since I'm not from there I figured I'd ask folks here for some opinions.

He was looking at this particular model - Legion Tower 5 Gen 8 (AMD) | AMD Ryzen™-powered gaming rig with future-ready graphics | 90UX0013US - and he said he could get it for about $1250 plus tax. So that's his budget give or take I guess.

My first instinct was to tell him to just build a PC instead of buying a prebuilt. He has done it before so doing it is not an issue, but he said that you cannot get the components you get in a prebuilt at a comparable price if you buy them separately. This is the part I don't know about. In my country there are no prebuilts but you can get one custom made which always means parts at roughly MSRP plus charges for actually building them. My apprehension with prebuilts is that they will use subpar components without the average person knowing it. So for example they'll say it has a Gen 4 SSD but what they hide is that it uses a subpar controller or they advertise DDR5 memory but hide that is has very poor CAS latencies. Things like that which people don't normally look for.

Another minor contradiction is that he's in no hurry and I told him to wait for Black Friday deals to kick in but at the same time he linked a deal on slickdeals a couple of days ago and then he was slightly unhappy that he missed it when it expired because of FOMO.

So I guess my question is... Can you build a PC with your own, good quality components and reasonably match prebuilt prices? Is there a generally accepted good company for prebuilt PCs? Perhaps even a specific model that you guys can link to if possible. Waiting for Black Friday deals makes sense right or should he just go ahead and get a good deal if he sees one?

 

[Copons]

Hi friends!
I've just changed case from an old rattling Cooler Master N400 to a NZXT H6 Flow. It doesn't rattle anymore which is good, but it's quite noisy even when it's not doing anything special and the inside of the case is freezing.

I wonder if I could adjust the fans to spin slower, but I've never quite understood how the various curves work and what would happen if I turned them all down.

These are the fans:

• Front: 3x NZXT 120mm PWM
• Back: 1x Cooler Master 120mm DC (taken from the old case - currently mounted incorrectly to get air in instead of out; will address soon).
• CPU: stock Ryzen 3600 fan.

The board:
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max.

I've also installed the MSI Center + Cooling Wizard crapware, so I should be able to adjust fan curves without rebooting to BIOS.

Can anyone recommend a nice childproof tutorial for this stuff?

 

[didamangi]

Hi friends!
I've just changed case from an old rattling Cooler Master N400 to a NZXT H6 Flow. It doesn't rattle anymore which is good, but it's quite noisy even when it's not doing anything special and the inside of the case is freezing.

I wonder if I could adjust the fans to spin slower, but I've never quite understood how the various curves work and what would happen if I turned them all down.

These are the fans:

• Front: 3x NZXT 120mm PWM
• Back: 1x Cooler Master 120mm DC (taken from the old case - currently mounted incorrectly to get air in instead of out; will address soon).
• CPU: stock Ryzen 3600 fan.

The board:
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max.

I've also installed the MSI Center + Cooling Wizard crapware, so I should be able to adjust fan curves without rebooting to BIOS.

Can anyone recommend a nice childproof tutorial for this stuff?

So I guess my question is... Can you build a PC with your own, good quality components and reasonably match prebuilt prices? Is there a generally accepted good company for prebuilt PCs? Perhaps even a specific model that you guys can link to if possible. Waiting for Black Friday deals makes sense right or should he just go ahead and get a good deal if he sees one?

Not from US but he can try pcpartpicker.com for building/comparing prices. And from watching tech tubers, it looks like micro center have some good deals for pc parts for US. Waiting for Black Friday is also a good idea.

I'm trying to match the legion specs and came up to almost $1500 atm. So $1250 is cheaper. But reading the bad reviews on lenovo's page, seems like the psu is not of the highest quality., so that's one red flag I can think of.

 

[Parsnip]

Can anyone recommend a nice childproof tutorial for this stuff?

I don't know about child proof tutorial, but GitHub - Rem0o/FanControl.Releases: This is the release repository for Fan Control, a highly customizable fan controlling software for Windows. is your best friend.
It's more powerful than mobo tools typically are because it sees your GPU stuff too.

Just as an example, I have a pretty basic setup here that I think I've optimized for silence fairly well.
I have two curves, one for CPU temps and one for GPU temps. But I leave the GPU control alone and let the GPU BIOS do whatever it does. The GPU temp based curve is actually for my case fans.
So CPU fans follow the CPU curve, and case fans follow the GPU curve.
So on idle it typically means that my CPU fan is at approx 20%/500RPM, in other words silent. Case fans never spin up..
If I do CPU only, heavy stuff it will spin the CPU fan up according to the curve I've set. Case fans never spin up.
And then when I'm gaming or doing other GPU stuff like rendering on Blender, case fans will react to the GPU temp curve and once GPU temps reach 65C, the case fans will also start working.

 

[Copons]

Thank you didamangi and Parsnip, I learned a lot!

However, it turned out that NZXT was kind of at fault.

The fans included in the case didn't have any specifications, just a name: "F120Q Airflow (Case Version)".
The regular (non-case?) version is PWM, which is the setting I was using.
Turned out the case version is DC.

So, yeah, no wonder it was loud, and my adjustments weren't working.

I've switched to DC, and now they are reasonably quiet, and the case is not freezing my legs anymore.

 

[MegaApple]

My wrists are thanking me for getting an ergonomic mouse

 

[BaoLunia]

I'm eying a desktop pc pre-build with
Ryzen 7 8700F, Radeon RX 6750 XT, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD
thoughts? My plan is to put a Linux distro on it as long as i get Moonlight working perfectly.

 

[didamangi]

I'm eying a desktop pc pre-build with
Ryzen 7 8700F, Radeon RX 6750 XT, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD
thoughts? My plan is to put a Linux distro on it as long as i get Moonlight working perfectly.

Depends on the price, but that cpu is slower than even a ryzen 7600 for games in general.

 

[BaoLunia]

Depends on the price, but that cpu is slower than even a ryzen 7600 for games in general.

Good to know. its 13499 nok.
im so out of the loop with computer hardware.

My wrists are thanking me for getting an ergonomic mouse

Iv been using the MX Vertical for a few years. yeah ergo mouse ftw.
Also holy crap the battery lasts long. i think mine lasted half a year.

 

[didamangi]

I'm eying a desktop pc pre-build with
Ryzen 7 8700F, Radeon RX 6750 XT, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD
thoughts? My plan is to put a Linux distro on it as long as i get Moonlight working perfectly.

If it's this one https://www.komplett.no/product/1312358/gaming/gaming-pc/gaming-pc-stasjonaer/komplett-pc-advanced-gaming-a161-rgb

I don't see major red flag in the components other than maybe the cpu is a bit slow, and the power supply is a bit on the low side if you want to upgrade to a more power hungry gpu in the future.

If you have a bit more budget and can customize the prebuild, I'd go with a ryzen 7700, 32gb ddr5 6000mhz cl30 and at least a 750w gold power supply.

 

[Stevey]

One of my front case fans started making noise, think the bearing had gone. Replaced them both with 2 Noctua NF-A14 fans.

 

[LEANIJA]

My current PC is from 2018 and I'm considering a new PC build as well; and currently have this setup in mind:

Tower: BE QUIET! Shadow Base 800
I'm using a Be quiet! tower right now and very much like it. I'm not really picky either. It should be functional, black and bland.

Mainboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI
This seems like a good choice with good ports, built-in Wifi and three M2-slots. I plan to use two of them for now; one with a new NVME - see below - and one existing)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 8C/16T, 4.20-5.00GHz or Ryzen 7 9800
I'll wait for reviews for the upcoming Ryzen 7 9800 (should come out on November 7) but the 7800 is supposed to be currently the best CPU for gaming

CPU cooler: ENDORFY Fortis 5
Dont know too much about coolers, this seems to do the trick.
As for other cooling: I'll see how the build-in stuff works and will purchase additional coolers as needed.

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
I've already purchased this ahead of the build (to spread out the budget); I'm using it in my current PC – having swapped out my old GTX 1070 Ti.
I'm happy with this GPU so far – and think with a newer CPU performance should get even better.

RAM: KINGSTON FURY Beast schwarz DIMM Kit 64GB, DDR5-6000, CL30-36-36, on-die ECC
I'm currently at 32 GB RAM (but its DDR4), and figure I wanna use this PC for the new 5-7 or more years (like my current one); so 64GB are probably a good bet.

NVME: SAMSUNG SSD 990 PRO 4TB, M.2
Im using Samsung SSDs now and they are reliable in my experience. As mentioned, I'll also reuse my current 2TB NVME alongside this one.

PSU: MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 850W ATX 3.0
I would assume its a good PSU but couldnt really tell My knowledge about PSU is limited to "it has enough power" and "it has all the ports/cables you need"


Most of these come from this article: ComputerBase – Der Ideale Gaming-PC; which has updated builds for various budgets. Ive followed gaming and build Youtube channels but its a bit hard to keep up to date, and while I enjoy building PCs (even 5-7 years, anyway ) I'll most likely check reviews for each component and how well they do with Linux (as this is gonna be a Linux-only (gaming/surfing/multimedia) machine, almost definitely Arch-based (again, like my current setup)...but if any of you has any notes, let me know

Sorry all the links are in German the component links go to Ditech, an Austrian retailer. The article link goes to ComputerBase, a German gaming & tech focused website.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I have taken to checking my case etc on PC Parts Picker to see what other people have used for their builds. It's been useful to see people using the same case and GPU or CPU Cooler so i know it would all fit together etc.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/builds/

 

[didamangi]

My current PC is from 2018 and I'm considering a new PC build as well; and currently have this setup in mind:

My suggestion:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/mMLKHW

I change the cooler to thermalright peerless assassin. (Or Phantom Spirit. It's a bit better but a little more expensive)
It's cheaper and one of the best performer for AM5. At least according to this review.

Motherboard. The E variant has one more nvme slot and a debug post code. Price is the same?

PSU: I pick the best from hardware busters site. The reviewer (Aris) is the modern PSU Guru and the man behind the Cybenetics Certification.

 

[LEANIJA]

I have taken to checking my case etc on PC Parts Picker to see what other people have used for their builds. It's been useful to see people using the same case and GPU or CPU Cooler so i know it would all fit together etc.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/builds/

I used this site as well for research Its quite useful (the only downside is that they dont have convenient links to DiTech, which is my preferred retailer)

My suggestion:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/mMLKHW

I change the cooler to thermalright peerless assassin. (Or Phantom Spirit. It's a bit better but a little more expensive)
It's cheaper and one of the best performer for AM5. At least according to this review.

Motherboard. The E variant has one more nvme slot and a debug post code. Price is the same?

PSU: I pick the best from hardware busters site. The reviewer (Aris) is the modern PSU Guru and the man behind the Cybenetics Certification.

Thank you for the feedback, I'll definiltely will check the recommendations out and do comparisons I'll need to check what the difference between the motherboards is.

 

[LEANIJA]

The Ryzen 9800X3D seems to be reviewing amazingly across the board, so I'll go with that as soon as its available

LTT • Gamer Nexus • Digital Foundry • der 8auer (DE • EN) • Hardware unboxed

 

[d00d3n]

It seems like it is time to build a 9800x3d PC in anticipation of the upcoming 5090.

What about this build?
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor ($739.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC 91.58 CFM CPU Cooler ($149.94 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B650E Taichi Lite EATX AM5 Motherboard ($400.84 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design North XL ATX Full Tower Case ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x SHIFT 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular Side Interface ATX Power Supply ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Retail - Download 64-bit ($199.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM 91.6 CFM 140 mm Fan ($39.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM 91.6 CFM 140 mm Fan ($39.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM 91.6 CFM 140 mm Fan ($39.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM 91.6 CFM 140 mm Fan ($39.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $2800.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-09 11:09 EST-0500

 

[Li Kao]

I’m beginning to workshop the idea of an upgrade myself, but going from a 5800x3d to a better CPU would mean refreshing nearly the whole PC

 

[Parsnip]

I've been thinking about getting one last hurrah out of AM4 and getting a 5700X3D. It's about 200€ at the moment, who knows how long that's going to last though, given recent developments.
Planning to basically skip AM5 entirely and then maybe do a bigger system overhaul with AM6, and a 5700X3D should definitely get me there.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I’m beginning to workshop the idea of an upgrade myself, but going from a 5800x3d to a better CPU would mean refreshing nearly the whole PC

I'm in the same situation but if i'm honest with myself i don't really need to upgrade yet. I can easily wait for all the new CPUs and GPUs to come out, settle down and then i can make a better decision. I'm still getting decent performance at 1440p and i'll probably upgrade my monitor before i upgrade my PC.

 

[fearthedawn]

I'm in the same boat, itching for a cpu upgrade this winter but with frame generation everything is still very playable so the smart move would be to skip this gen.

 

[Parsnip]

Yeah my main reason to think about an upgrade now is the potential tariffs and whatever jacking up the prices come Janyary, but also the availability of AM4 stuff longterm is a bit of a question mark.

I'm not typically CPU bottlenecked right now tbh, but I'm also not sure how long I need to make this platform last. 5600X is what I have now and it might be just fine in couple of years too, but it's another question mark.

 

[d00d3n]

It seems like it is time to build a 9800x3d PC in anticipation of the upcoming 5090.

What about this build?
PCPartPicker Part List

I just bought these components, although I switched the PSU from the rm1000x shift to the rm1000x 2024 version (can connect to Nvidia GPU with a single 12v-2x6 cable), and added a third SSD drive of the same type.

 

[LEANIJA]

my reason for a full rebuild is also the motherboard CPU socket, my current motherboard is a MSi Z370-A-PRO and has a Intel 1151 socket, which supports Intel CPUs up Coffee Lake (2017). So I dont have an upgrade path here ... I could keep the case, PSU, GPU, cables, SSDs etc, but I feel like keeping the PC intact to give away or as a backup is better. I could also use it in the living room for couch gaming...? but then again, I never do that since I dont like playing with controllers...

I might have to wait a bit now though since the Ryzen 9800x3D is sold out everywhere, seemingly. But, with the GPU (the aforementioned Radeon RX 7800 XT) and RAM (its DDR4 RAM, mind you) upgrades from this year. most stuff still works fine so I dont really mind waiting a bit longer. I have been meaning to do this upgrade for a while, however, as I usually mull over these things for a long time.

 

[didamangi]

my reason for a full rebuild is also the motherboard CPU socket, my current motherboard is a MSi Z370-A-PRO and has a Intel 1151 socket, which supports Intel CPUs up Coffee Lake (2017). So I dont have an upgrade path here ... I could keep the case, PSU, GPU, cables, SSDs etc, but I feel like keeping the PC intact to give away or as a backup is better. I could also use it in the living room for couch gaming...? but then again, I never do that since I dont like playing with controllers...

I might have to wait a bit now though since the Ryzen 9800x3D is sold out everywhere, seemingly. But, with the GPU (the aforementioned Radeon RX 7800 XT) and RAM (its DDR4 RAM, mind you) upgrades from this year. most stuff still works fine so I dont really mind waiting a bit longer. I have been meaning to do this upgrade for a while, however, as I usually mull over these things for a long time.

Actually went from my 8700k (OC 4.8 GHz) to 7500f myself and it's been great. Now my bottleneck is almost always my 3080 when previously it can drop to the 50s in heavy cpu scenes. Like in cyberpunk, ghostrunner 2, metro exodus to name a few. I imagine it'll be very much faster for you with the 9800x3d.

 

[Parsnip]

I think I've decided to bite on the 5700X3D, just waiting a bit to see if it gets any good black friday deals.

 

[low-G]

Yeah my main reason to think about an upgrade now is the potential tariffs and whatever jacking up the prices come Janyary, but also the availability of AM4 stuff longterm is a bit of a question mark.

I'm not typically CPU bottlenecked right now tbh, but I'm also not sure how long I need to make this platform last. 5600X is what I have now and it might be just fine in couple of years too, but it's another question mark.

I am also in this mindset but if I were playing modern video games I would be CPU bottlenecked on my i9-9900k (presumably). But it's so rough these days when I look at benchmarks and games are running maybe twice as fast (which can be important in a new game when you're talking about 30fps to 60fps) but I still strongly feel the sting of a time that I clearly remember when waiting >5 years meant many times the performance boost. Very, very hard to rationalize.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Now you've all got me back into thinking about upgrading a few months before i was planning on starting to think about it.
I've even spec'd up an AM5 build but is it worth buying components now as i don't think many of them will be in Black Friday deals but i want to avoid the Post-Black-Friday stock glut too.

I figure if i start buying now i may spend a little more but it will probably still be less than potential global price uplifts due to Trump Tariffs in a few months.

 

[d00d3n]

I just bought these components, although I switched the PSU from the rm1000x shift to the rm1000x 2024 version (can connect to Nvidia GPU with a single 12v-2x6 cable), and added a third SSD drive of the same type.

The build is finished! (well, hopefully, booting it up will have to wait until tomorrow ...)