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

Swenhir

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Apr 18, 2019
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I have a 2060 with 1440p/144Hz and it's fine.
Yes, I don't really reach 144Hz in demanding games but even at 6o or slightly above (or below) it's a massive improvement over a display without VRR.
The display will also last you for a long time, and by the time you upgrade your graphics card you'll get more power for less money than today (ideally) and will likely still be using the display for a long time.
Even if you do end up upgrading your display to 4k or whatever, you can keep using it as a great secondary monitor.
Is 1440p really worth it? There's no longer the choice to use 1080p and I'm not sure the IQ is really worth the price in power you pay.

VRR though, totally behind it.
 

Li Kao

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The first 3060 to drop on Amazon.fr is some third party seller (sclaper ?) shit.
This is going to be a shitshow.

edit
Yeah, I can't believe a Zotac 2-fan is 600 euros.

edit
another one for 1000 euros.
 
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Ascheroth

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Is 1440p really worth it? There's no longer the choice to use 1080p and I'm not sure the IQ is really worth the price in power you pay.

VRR though, totally behind it.
Personally I'd say so. But I'm obviously biased since I now have one :p
It's absolutely true that it does require beefier hardware to run compared to 1080p, but the increase in pixels and pixel density (I went from 24 inch 1080p to 27 inch 1440p) makes everything more crisp, even regular browsing and stuff.

But again, sticking to 1080p does mean you can get by longer with a graphics card or get more fps with the same graphics card in gpu-bound scenarios, so it will always be a case by case basis.
 
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Li Kao

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Ok. The cards were available for 14 minutes. But with sites crashing, accounts backends crashing, the whole enchilada of shit.
Now, well, like the hole, they werrreee there, yeah.

I had the FE in my cart before everything went down the drain. A little salty.
 

Li Kao

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checks price of monitor Holy shit, what is $700 good about this monitor?
Uh no, it is 400 euros discounted from 500.
You mixed monitor ref or looked at a third party seller there.

edit -
Maybe the GN, which is new and far pricier.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Dec 8, 2018
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Li Kao Nice! Welcome to the 1440p/144hz Club. It's always worth getting a good monitor as it's the part of the PC you end up staring at the most.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good X570 motherboard? Probably Mid-Range as budget won't have what i want and High-End ( > £300 ) is just too much for me to justify unless it's a totally awesome board. I'm not looking to Overclock either, not that it's really worth it with AMD CPUs anyway.
I'm still getting random BSOD so i figure i'll upgrade the mobo next as i already bought new RAM. I'd like a bunch of USB 3/C Ports and a few RGB headers and AIO Pump header. There's so many motherboards out there at the moment i'm looking for some recommendations to help me narrow my choice down.
 

Li Kao

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GN850 is just feature sripped version of GL850, it shouldn't cost more.
GN950, is actual new version which has HDR600 + 4K. (but expensive). Doesn't really seem to be available yet.
Yeah I meant the new one, sorry to add to the confusion :sweaty-blob:
 

ISee

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Mar 1, 2019
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Li Kao Nice! Welcome to the 1440p/144hz Club. It's always worth getting a good monitor as it's the part of the PC you end up staring at the most.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good X570 motherboard? Probably Mid-Range as budget won't have what i want and High-End ( > £300 ) is just too much for me to justify unless it's a totally awesome board. I'm not looking to Overclock either, not that it's really worth it with AMD CPUs anyway.
I'm still getting random BSOD so i figure i'll upgrade the mobo next as i already bought new RAM. I'd like a bunch of USB 3/C Ports and a few RGB headers and AIO Pump header. There's so many motherboards out there at the moment i'm looking for some recommendations to help me narrow my choice down.

Sounds like a job for the Asus X570-E.
Really good board and should match all your criteria.

  • 7x usb 3.2 A (back)
  • 1x usb 3.2 C (back)
  • 2.5G LAN
  • AIO Pump header
  • Water Pump header
  • Total of 4 RGB headers (though two are Asus Aurora)

  • Bios Flashback
  • Q-LED for troubleshooting
  • Great VRM
  • Wifi 6
  • Bluetooth 5

In short: it's a slightly tuned down, high end X570 Crosshair 8 Wifi. But this time Asus didn't remove anything important.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Thanks, ISee i'll have a closer look at that one.

edit: Well, i went for it. I was playing Fenyx at lunch and had a CTD then BSOD. Hopefully i can just unplug cables and CPU/Ram/Swap out mobo and plug everything back in without too much hassle when it arrives. I've fiddled with everything else and i still get CTD/BSOD and memtest said i had bad RAM on 4 sticks of RAM from two different batches so unless i'm fatally unlucky that sounds like the motherboard is dying.
 
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BlackRainbowFT

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Apr 17, 2019
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My TUF 3080 is still nowhere to be seen but I finally received my 5900x.

I was also lucky enough to find an Asus GT-AX11000 for 130$ in perfect condition (I would've never bought it at full price... Which retails for something like 400$).

[UWSL]Currently my favorite thing about my new PC is that it supports wifi 6 and... boy is it fast!!![/UWSL]
 
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Li Kao

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Ok, I'm lost, as always. So, uh, help ?
My main interrogation right now is, now that I have a Gsync monitor, I'm supposed to deactivate vsync, right ?
But then Hades pulls 500+ fps, my temp goes near 80 and the fans are becoming a nuisance.
Am I wrong in thinking vsync should go ? Or is this just a matter of being back in fan hell ?
 

didamangi

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No, you want your fps to be below your max refresh rate so gsync will turn on. if your fps is equal or above the maximum refresh rate, gsync will not activate.

open your nvidia control panel, go to manage 3d settings and find the max frame rate options and set that to 140 fps since your max refresh rate is 144 hz.

essential reading:G-SYNC 101: Optimal G-SYNC Settings & Conclusion | Blur Busters
 

Li Kao

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Oh, I see we are back to exclusive fullscreen. I will miss alt tabing to the net, but I sure as fuck won’t miss windows sound in the background of my games.

Btw didamangi did you change your LG settings ? I just lowered brightness to 23 like tftcentral did, and didn’t touch the RGB setting, but man, those reds are hardcore.
 
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didamangi

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Oh, I see we are back to exclusive fullscreen. I will miss alt tabing to the net, but I sure as fuck won’t miss windows sound in the background of my games.

Btw didamangi did you change your LG settings ? I just lowered brightness to 23 like tftcentral did, and didn’t touch the RGB setting, but man, those reds are hardcore.
Brightness to 23 and color temp to manual 6500k, that's about it. For a few days the very vibrant colors is a shock (try playing hades) and I change the "game mode" from gamer 1 to srgb, but in the end I kinda like the more vibrant color and get used to it and prefer it to srgb tbh.
 
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Blu

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For $20 more is getting a i9-10850K over a i7-10700K worth? I read that the i9-10900k has heating issues, is that still a thing for the 10850k?

I know that AMD is essentially the hot purchase right not but everything just seems out of stock right now. Just looking at the alternative as an option.

I'm essentially looking at these builds (Build 1, Build 2) and seeing what can be removed and changed. Thoughts? Maybe overkill?

I'm going for just gaming and potentially streaming.
 

didamangi

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For $20 more is getting a i9-10850K over a i7-10700K worth? I read that the i9-10900k has heating issues, is that still a thing for the 10850k?

I know that AMD is essentially the hot purchase right not but everything just seems out of stock right now. Just looking at the alternative as an option.

I'm essentially looking at these builds (Build 1, Build 2) and seeing what can be removed and changed. Thoughts? Maybe overkill?

I'm going for just gaming and potentially streaming.
For me it's worth it for $20. Every positive and negative thing about 10900k applies to 10850k since it's just a cheaper 10900k with a 100mhz lower clock on boost. For gaming and streaming, the nhd15 will do just fine cooling it.

You should add 2 more 120mm fan in front for a 3x120mm intake setup if you're planning on going with the Meshify C though, for this high end build you're going to need it. Or you can go 2x140mm fan in front.

The builds are fine. maybe invest in a good 3600mhz memory or higher since it does make a difference on these current platform.

Also don't go cheap on your psu. buy a high quality seasonic, be quiet or corsair high end model if you can.
 

SkyStarblaze

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You should also be able to enable G-sync for windowed (and thus borderless fullscreen) games. This might cause issues with a specific subset of applications but those can be blacklisted.
I wish we could easily blacklist UWP apps :(
 

Blu

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For me it's worth it for $20. Every positive and negative thing about 10900k applies to 10850k since it's just a cheaper 10900k with a 100mhz lower clock on boost. For gaming and streaming, the nhd15 will do just fine cooling it.

You should add 2 more 120mm fan in front for a 3x120mm intake setup if you're planning on going with the Meshify C though, for this high end build you're going to need it. Or you can go 2x140mm fan in front.

The builds are fine. maybe invest in a good 3600mhz memory or higher since it does make a difference on these current platform.

Also don't go cheap on your psu. buy a high quality seasonic, be quiet or corsair high end model if you can.
Do you recommend two more fans because of the i9 or because the case doesn't have the best air flow/temp? Is there a case you would recommend that wouldn't require extra fans? The i9 seems to be out now and i7 is the only current option if I were to order now. Does that change anything in terms of thermal requirement? A mid tower seems like a good size but I don't know I'll need more to put everything in and manage the cables.
 

didamangi

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Do you recommend two more fans because of the i9 or because the case doesn't have the best air flow/temp? Is there a case you would recommend that wouldn't require extra fans? The i9 seems to be out now and i7 is the only current option if I were to order now. Does that change anything in terms of thermal requirement? A mid tower seems like a good size but I don't know I'll need more to put everything in and manage the cables.
About 7C of difference for cpu load temp between stock vs 2x140mm front fans on meshify c. You could always use it as is and see what temps you get, adding fans is easy enough.

Another recommendation is the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh. Check out the reviews see if you like it more than meshify c. Meshify C is more compact though.


Nhd15 is a 165mm height cooler, you'd probably need more height clearance than that if your ram is one of more the tall ones to put the front fan in. So a 170-175mm clearance or more is what you want to check in the case specs.
 
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ISee

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Some DX12 games needed G-Sync in windowed mode activated in the past. I do not recall which ones, but I recall having to activate it to be able to use GSync in some games in the past.
 

Li Kao

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Some DX12 games needed G-Sync in windowed mode activated in the past. I do not recall which ones, but I recall having to activate it to be able to use GSync in some games in the past.
Oh, that lead me to another idiotic question :photoblobheart:
How do you know GSync is working or not ?
 

didamangi

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Oh, that lead me to another idiotic question :photoblobheart:
How do you know GSync is working or not ?
Click your monitor button and go to settings. the refresh rate shown there should match your fps in game. if it's staying still at 144hz then g-sync is not active.

Some gsync monitor do have an osd to show refresh rate on screen. the gl850 doesn't have it unfortunately.
 

Li Kao

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Click your monitor button and go to settings. the refresh rate shown there should match your fps in game. if it's staying still at 144hz then g-sync is not active.

Some gsync monitor do have an osd to show refresh rate on screen. the gl850 doesn't have it unfortunately.
So on the LG there is no way to know if GSync is working ? Major issues like tearing excepted obviously.


Edit
Did the recommended set up on

Nvidia Control Panel Settings:
Set up G-SYNC > Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible > Enable for full screen mode.
Manage 3D settings > Vertical sync > On

Nvidia “Max Frame Rate” Settings*: 140

Windows “Power Options” : set to “High performance”

Mouse's polling rate : already set to 1000Hz

Maximum Pre-rendered Frames (Low Latency mode) not set

Did I goof ? Should I use Low Latency mode ?
 
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Li Kao

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Click your physical monitor button and go to settings. the refresh rate shown there will change and match your fps in game if g-sync is active.
Oof sorry, I misunderstood the second sentence in your answer :cryblob:
 
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Copons

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If any of you followed my latest hardware misadventures, you'll remember that one of my RAM sticks died, so now I'm running a single stick of this set, waiting for some good deals to fill the gap (of course I missed the black friday sales 😤).

Although, I'm not very familiar with how RAM works.

The set is advertised as 3200MHz but now, according to my BIOS, the single stick runs at 1600.
(I'm assuming it's correct as it's now running as single-channel instead of dual — or something like that)

Now: as far as I can see, single sticks of the exact same RAM (hopefully? stores generally don't clearly show the timing?) seem to be prohibitively expensive.
So I guess I'm stuck at buying a full 2x set.

I wonder: what should I do with the old stick?
Like, does it make sense to have 3 sticks, or they would end up picking up the slowest frequency (the 1600 of the odd stick)?

Also, I've seen that the faster 3600 version is slightly cheaper than my 3200.
If I went with the 3600 set, I would also remove the 3200 stick left.
But: could I still use as a back up, if one of the 3600 stopped working? :thinking-blob:
 
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Also, I've seen that the faster 3600 version is slightly cheaper than my 3200.
If I went with the 3600 set, I would also remove the 3200 stick left.
But: could I still use as a back up, if one of the 3600 stopped working?
By default, ram will always downclock to the slowest one (althought i suspect the base speed with the same).
And using xmp with differently clocked ram is not a great idea (you'd have to manually set them at a stable speed).

But if that is not a problem for you, you'd be fine.
 
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Stevey

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I always thought you should only install RAM that comes tested as a set.
 

C-Dub

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Just a quick question to test if my understanding of RAM errors is correct. I'm trying to work out some issues with my Unraid server crashing when writing large files.

If I have two sticks of RAM (A & B for argument's sake) and 4 slots (numbered 1-4) and I'm getting errors in memtest86+, the first thing to do is determine which stick is faulty by removing one and running the test again.

I removed Stick B from Slot 3 and left Stick A in Slot 1 and ran memtest86+, which within seconds showed errors.

So I removed Stick A from Slot 1 and put Stick B in Slot 1 instead. Exactly the same errors.

So I moved Stick B to Slot 2, and now I'm not getting any errors at all.

I'm about to test Stick A in Slot 2 too, but if that one works too, it's fair to assume my RAM is fine but at least one of my RAM slots (Slot 1) is busted or dirty, correct?

Obviously I'm going to extensively test each stick in each RAM slot to see what happens, but am I on the right track here?
 

C-Dub

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This is what I'm suspecting too, but I'm gonna be thorough with the testing to be sure I'm not missing something.

If it is just the slot, and the others work fine then I'm going to be pretty relaxed about this. I have no plans to upgrade this server and is basically my old gaming PC being recycled to something useful.
 

TheTrain

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Alright so, I'm looking to upgrade my pc during the Q1 of the 2021 and I was looking at what it's available on the market. Specifically I saw the Ryzen 9 5900x, it seems a really good beast. But what about the availability? It was another of that paper fake launch thing?
Also it would be an AMD CPU after 15 years of Intel, what I should EXPECT (BIOS side specifically, is it stable enough?)?
Last thing, what would be a good mobo for this cpu?
 

ISee

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Alright so, I'm looking to upgrade my pc during the Q1 of the 2021 and I was looking at what it's available on the market. Specifically I saw the Ryzen 9 5900x, it seems a really good beast. But what about the availability? It was another of that paper fake launch thing?
Also it would be an AMD CPU after 15 years of Intel, what I should EXPECT (BIOS side specifically, is it stable enough?)?
Last thing, what would be a good mobo for this cpu?
1.) Not a paper launch but availability is a problem. Got a 5900x on preorder since release, don't think I'll get it this year. :shrugblob:
2.) BIOS is fine now, took them long enough but it's on paar.
3.) Depends on your budget and if you want two NVMe gen 4.0 devices or even more.
 
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TheTrain

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1.) Not a paper launch but availability is a problem. Got a 5900x on preorder since release, don't think I'll get it this year. :shrugblob:
2.) BIOS is fine now, took them long enough but it's on paar.
3.) Depends on your budget and if you want two NVMe gen 4.0 devices or even more.
1) ouch
2) good to hear
3) I'd say 2 at least (Even tho I only have 1 nvme 3.0 right now). I want to finally get rid of my HDD, even if I only use it for storage purpose right now.
 

ISee

Oh_no!
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3) I'd say 2 at least (Even tho I only have 1 nvme 3.0 right now). I want to finally get rid of my HDD, even if I only use it for storage purpose right now.
Than you'll need an X570 board, as B550 doesn't support gen 4.0 through the chipset.

~200€
Asus X570 TUF or MSI X570 Tomahawk.

~300€
Asus X570-E, MSI X570 Unify, Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra

300€+
Asus X570 Crosshair 8 (WiFi), MSI X570 ACE (similar to the Unify), Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master
 
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C-Dub

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Got a 5900x on preorder since release, don't think I'll get it this year. :shrugblob:
I don't know who you ordered from, but the company I ordered from are getting over 1000 5900X CPUs before the year is out, so maybe AMD has made one big concerted push to get as many out as possible before New Year. Hopefully your supplier gets one for you.

My 5800X is hopefully shipping this week. Scan are saying they have 300 coming in this week, and I'm 14 in the queue at last check, so hopefully I have my new gaming PC up and running this weekend.

In an update on the Unraid server for anyone interested, 3/4 RAM slots completed one pass in memtest86+ without errors, both sticks passed individually, and then both sticks in two of the working slots went all night with multiple passes and no errors. I set up a huge file transfer yesterday which completed, I moved the last hard drive into the array (totalling 14TB of storage) and the server has been going for about 18 hours without any issues. Since before it'd barely stay stable for an hour, I'd consider that problem solved.

Next step is to grab a decent 256/512gb NVMe to run as a cache drive and grab a fourth hard drive to use as parity, not to mention pay the £50-odd for an Unraid license as I have 26 days left in my free trial.

I also setup all the different apps (Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Jackett, Deluge-VPN and Ombi) which, while I had working on my old Mac mini, required learning how different Docker containers communicate between each other. It was quite the learning experience but I got there.

Next I'm going to move Home Assistant to the Unraid server and retire my Pi 3 Model B+ (or recycle it as a RetroPie system), which should make all my home automation stuff a lot snappier.
 
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ISee

Oh_no!
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I don't know who you ordered from, but the company I ordered from are getting over 1000 5900X CPUs before the year is out
Alternate(.de)

It's one of the biggest suppliers in mainland europe. :sweaty-blob:
 

C-Dub

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Alternate(.de)

It's one of the biggest suppliers in mainland europe. :sweaty-blob:
I'm sure they can get lots of supplies in. Scan, while not exactly small, aren't the biggest here. eBuyer and Overclockers are much bigger, yet Scan are getting 100s in each week.

They've just confirmed that my CPU is going to ship this week whenever their batch of 120 or 300 arrives. itshappening.gif
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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I'm still waiting for my new motherboard and RAM to ship from Overclockers. Ordered last Thursday and i can wait but my existing motherboard is dying fast. The onboard wifi is DOA and I get random BSODs every day or two and now apps have started crashing randomly. I just hope it's the RAM slots on my board and the new mobo will fix the issues.
If it's the GPU or PSU then i'm boned as they are low stock pretty much everywhere i've checked. Come on, OCUK! I need my new mobo!
 
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Ascheroth

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Well, I've already come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be able to do an upgrade this year anymore, with everything being out of stock...

I'm also increasingly tempted to get a new case as well - if I'm already getting a new CPU, which needs a new motherboard and new RAM and new storage (NVMe), might as well go the whole way and get a new case too, and just move my graphics card over and keep the old one around. :thinking-face:
 
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