PC Building Guide and Discussion #12

[mouser]

Looking for a cheap portable PC solution. Anyway I can make a mini-PC that can run things like League of Legends (well) and Dota Auto Chess? Don't wanna spend much because it's only for a few times a month. I have a pre-built mini-PC now and it can run League, but it's not great. 40 FPS and the menu lags like crazy. I'd prefer to use something a little better, maybe even with a small dedicated gpu. Or at least maybe a Ryzen APU. Problem is, I want it as small as possible. At the VERY BIGGEST the size of a PS4, but I'd prefer smaller.

There are a lot of NUC options out there, including many with dedicated GPU's. I have a Gigabyte BRIX myself that I use as a pocket server, don't have the dedicated gpu on that model. They are super compact, and the lower end models are quite cheap. If you want a model with a discrete GPU the prices tend to climb, and because the memory and drives are the same as laptop components they usually cost more on average then a comparable desktop component.

Another option to consider is just getting a gaming laptop. Also gonna be a little more expensive then a cheap portable PC, but also a lot more versatile.

 

[Theosis]

Looking to build a new PC some time this year.

What do you guys think of this?

System Builder - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC, COSMOS II 25th Anniversary Edition ATX Full Tower - PCPartPicker

Any suggestions?

 

[SniperHF]

What do you guys think of this?

There's not really much to suggest when it's a 2080 Ti and anything i7 It's about as good as you can do. Make sure to have a good monitor to go with it.

If you aren't going to overclock the H110i is overkill.
And the 850W platinum PSU is probably overkill in any circumstance.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Looking to build a new PC some time this year.

What do you guys think of this?

System Builder - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC, COSMOS II 25th Anniversary Edition ATX Full Tower - PCPartPicker

Any suggestions?

Delicious, delicious overkill. I love it.

My only suggestion would be maybe a monitor upgrade to handle all that raw power.

 

[Theosis]

There's not really much to suggest when it's a 2080 Ti and anything i7 It's about as good as you can do. Make sure to have a good monitor to go with it.

If you aren't going to overclock the H110i is overkill.
And the 850W platinum PSU is probably overkill in any circumstance.

Delicious, delicious overkill. I love it.

My only suggestion would be maybe a monitor upgrade to handle all that raw power.

I currently have this: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0173PEX20/

Would this setup be able to handle 4K gaming at a decent FPS rate? If so, I guess I'll have to get a new monitor lol.

Also, any suggestions on a better case? After seeing a few videos of the one I chose, I don't think I'm a fan of it. I have not kept up at all with cases and suggestions are definitely welcomed. My only need is something that can hold a decent amount of storage drives.

 

[SniperHF]

Would this setup be able to handle 4K gaming at a decent FPS rate? If so, I guess I'll have to get a new monitor lol.

@ 4K you're always chasing something. Metro Exodus is a pig even with a 2080 ti. But the vast majority of games you can beat 60FPS @ 4K. That might not be true in another year of course.

I'd probably rather be at 1440p with a higher frame rate than 4k anyway. I think 4k is generally overrated.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I currently have this: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0173PEX20/

Would this setup be able to handle 4K gaming at a decent FPS rate? If so, I guess I'll have to get a new monitor lol.

Also, any suggestions on a better case? After seeing a few videos of the one I chose, I don't think I'm a fan of it. I have not kept up at all with cases and suggestions are definitely welcomed. My only need is something that can hold a decent amount of storage drives.

4K is tough but doable at 60, except, as Sniper mentioned, perhaps in the latest AAA open world titles such as Metro.

That monitor you have is great, though. No need to upgrade.


....although there is always ultra widescreen.......

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

I haven't made my mind up yet, but let's just say my ultimate goal is VR with a Vive.

I'm still running a 3570K, and I wanted to know if I could get away with heavy overclocking, or if I should just look at upgrading my motherboard and CPU.

Right now, I have some hideous Cooler Master cooler and I'm overclocked to 4Ghz. Two immediate upgrade options would be water cooling and delidding, however, neither of those are exactly simple tasks.

I mean, if I'm pulling my motherboard to mount a different CPU cooler, it's makes me question if I should just upgrade and be set for a longer time.

 

[SniperHF]

I haven't made my mind up yet, but let's just say my ultimate goal is VR with a Vive.

I'm still running a 3570K, and I wanted to know if I could get away with heavy overclocking, or if I should just look at upgrading my motherboard and CPU.

Right now, I have some ugly Cooler Master thing on my CPU and I'm overclocked to 4Ghz. Two immediate upgrade options would be water cooling and delidding, however, neither of those are exactly simple.

I mean, if I'm pulling my motherboard to mount a different CPU cooler, it's makes me question if I should just upgrade and be done with it.

VR benchmarking isn't that good still. I'd be surprised if going over 4ghz helped all that much though. My ivy bridge (3770k) struggles hard to go over 4.3ghz and the volts required starts getting nutty.

I wouldn't bother deliding/watercooling a quad core either.


I would probably get the GPU/VR headset you want and try it as is, knowing full well you might need to get something like and 8600k if it's not good enough with your current CPU.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

A couple months ago, I bought a 1440p monitor and my 670s really starting showing their age.

I had ordered a 2070 the other day, but it's backordered for a couple weeks, so I figured I have a good opportunity to either upgrade or start anew.

However, part of me wants to just keep my 2012 gaming rig as close to original as possible. Almost like a time capsule, keep everything as 2012 tech.

Of course, what I would like to do would be the most expensive option.

 

[SniperHF]

670s really starting showing their age.

Yeah those would be pretty crusty now. And SLI support is arguably getting worse not better.

I had a 2008 tech type time capsule machine. I never used it so I just turned it into a CentOS server

Of course, what I would like to do would be the most expensive option.

In that case just add the system Theosis posted to your cart and press buy

 

[Natey]

There are a lot of NUC options out there, including many with dedicated GPU's. I have a Gigabyte BRIX myself that I use as a pocket server, don't have the dedicated gpu on that model. They are super compact, and the lower end models are quite cheap. If you want a model with a discrete GPU the prices tend to climb, and because the memory and drives are the same as laptop components they usually cost more on average then a comparable desktop component.

Another option to consider is just getting a gaming laptop. Also gonna be a little more expensive then a cheap portable PC, but also a lot more versatile.

Yeah, I just went for a gaming Laptop. Found a Y700 on Kijiji for $560 Canadian (listed @ $700).

Seems decent. The reviews range from bad to great, so they weren't really helpful. Seems great for the little I've used it. Speakers are incredible. For only using it a few times a month, I think it'll do the trick!

This is what I got (mine is the cheaper model he talks about - only difference is the previous owner upgraded the HD to a 250GB SSD instead of a 500 GB regular HD);

 

[SeidoN]

so my ongoing battle with my RX480 continues. Vermintide 2 has been particularly bad. especially since the GPU usage just drops constantly (sorry for large image)

 

[SeidoN]

when you got them HYPER ULTRA Texture Packs

 

[SniperHF]

Wait DX12 is coming to Windows 7?


I should go google whatever nonsense reason MS said they weren't going to do that back in 2014.

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Decided to upgrade my graphics card from a GTX 1050 Ti to a 1660 Ti. The price is pretty reasonable. It also runs cool and quiet and which I'm happy with. I have an i5-6400 so I'm hoping it doesn't bottleneck too much.

Also upgrading my PSU and I'm thinking while I'm at it I'm going to put a 500GB SSD on there too

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Looking to build a new PC some time this year.

What do you guys think of this?

System Builder - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC, COSMOS II 25th Anniversary Edition ATX Full Tower - PCPartPicker

Any suggestions?

 

[Smoke]

Something tells me NVIDIA wishes they unveiled RT in a different way...

 

[RandV]

So kind of an obscure question, but do they still make mice anymore that are easy to disassemble?

I'm currently using this guy, which has been a perfect low price wired mouse for me, but the problem is my long hair cats start walking across my desk and a furball nests nevitably build up inside the scroll wheel causing it to go wonky. To disassemble I have to peel back the pads on the bottom first which I can probably only do so many times before they're worn out, then once I snap it apart and am inside there's 3-4 other disassembly steps with little screws to get at all the built up fluff.

Maybe it's never been a thing with optical mouses but I remember with the old trackballs mice you could pull those things apart in like 5 seconds. When I was in college and they were still column I'd always be a bit ocd about cleaning the insides out whenever I sat at a computer... I kind of miss that.

 

[SniperHF]

I'm currently using this guy, which has been a perfect low price wired mouse for me, but the problem is my long hair cats start walking across my desk and a furball nests nevitably build up inside the scroll wheel causing it to go wonky. To disassemble I have to peel back the pads on the bottom first which I can probably only do so many times before they're worn out, then once I snap it apart and am inside there's 3-4 other disassembly steps with little screws to get at all the built up fluff.

I dunno about the mouse construction in terms of taking them apart. But if you need to remove the feet there are companies that sell replacement feet fit to match for popular mice.
I used them once on a Logitech G5 and they worked great.

Personally I think the feet are useless for serious tracking if taken off even once. But I'm persnickety that way.

 

[RandV]

I dunno about the mouse construction in terms of taking them apart. But if you need to remove the feet there are companies that sell replacement feet fit to match for popular mice.
I used them once on a Logitech G5 and they worked great.

Personally I think the feet are useless for serious tracking if taken off even once. But I'm persnickety that way.

Yeah I was worried about the feet but I've done it two or three times now and luckily they're still okay. But the fundamental problem is that I just gave it a thorough cleaning in December and now I'm already starting to feel a degradation in the scroll wheel. I can deal with it for now but it's only going to get progressively worse as the months so eventually I'll have to clean it again. I'm really not sure how so much cat fur gets in their so quickly, my cats don't shed that much and while one often sits in my lap they don't actually go on my desk too often.

Looking into it a bit more though a trackball mouse isn't what I was thinking, I'm sure one of those would probably be even more of a problem. I was thinking about one of these bad boys:

Can easily get at the rollerball to keep it clean, and more importantly for my situation a nice single unobstructed screw to take the rest of it apart.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

In that case just add the system Theosis posted to your cart and press buy

That's way too much computer for me.

I picked up a deal through Newegg. It was a bundle with a Ryzen 2700, a Gigabyte mobo, and a 250gb M.2 stick for $300.

With all the spare parts I have, all I need is ram and a CPU cooler to finish that build. Then, I'm going to rehome my 2012 build, which will only need a psu.

 

[Unholy]

After 6 years or so I decided it was time to finally get my PC gaming fix.

Definitely out of the loop on products ans unfortunately I got a RTX 2080 Ti which apparently has issues for some people and mine was artifacting.. waiting on my replacement.

 

[Bocephus86]

I was over my mother's the other day visiting and needed to do something on her computer; it was incredibly slow & I think the disk is on it's last legs. I'm looking at trying to get her a replacement under the 400 range, really want to get into an SSD. From a task standpoint, she does normal financial stuff/spreadsheets (not work on it, personal & she manages my grandmothers bills), email, general web-browsing and she likes doing some smaller tech projects, nothing major. In short, nothing too intensive: her current computer was a sub-400 dollar Toshiba from 4 years ago and she's been able to make that work.

Cheap laptops have become a blind spot to me since I switched to Chromebooks for basic browsing (then have a more powerful laptop for work & a custom desktop for gaming). Any thoughts on the better of the two below? I'd prefer to get her into the larger SSD but neither will allow her to migrate all her pictures over anyway so an external drive for picture storage is probably inevitable. My other thought is to go cheaper w/ an HDD and install a larger SSD myself, but it'd be hard to stay under the 400 dollar target going that route...

Acer Aspire 3 A315 15.6" LED HD Notebook, AMD Dual-Core A9-9420 Upto 3.4GHz, 8GB DDR4, 128GB SSD, 1 x HDMI, 1 x 3.0 USB, 2 x 2.0 USB, Card Reader, AMD Radeon R5, WiFi, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Pro - Newegg.com

Lenovo V110 Notebook, 15.6" HD Display, Intel Dual-Core Celeron N3350 Upto 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, DVD-RW, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Pro - Newegg.com

Last note: I'm leaning Lenovo as it has an optical drive and she still has some physical media content. An external optical drive is an option if the Acer is much better overall but I'm think the optical drive & larger SSD are really winning the argument... I'm just unfamiliar with Lenovo's rep (I've been an acer guy on laptops/chromebooks for years now).

 

[Osprey]

Have you thought about looking into boosting the RAM on the laptop that she currently has? Four years old isn't that old, and my guess is that it's so slow because it's low on RAM. You'd have to see how much RAM it has, how much it can take, what type it takes and how many sticks it can take. You might be able to give the laptop a second life for around $50, which is about what an 8GB DDR4 SODIMM goes for on eBay.

If you decide to go for a new laptop, instead, what I would do is do some research and buy one that has a RAM compartment and, preferably, two RAM slots. Either just after purchase or sometime down the road, I would buy another 8GB RAM stick to boost the laptop to 16GB. 8GB is considered a minimum and is liable to end you up in the same situation in a few years, where the computer is slowing down because it's low on RAM. Doubling the laptop's RAM, yourself, is usually quite a bit cheaper than simply buying an upgraded model of the laptop that ships with that amount.