PC Building Guide and Discussion #13

[Papa Francouz]

I went ahead and got in on the backorder for the PSU I was eyeing on Amazon. One of the SSDs I ordered I also had to backorder, which kind of sucks, but not as much as not having a PSU available to test the rest of my parts as they come in.

Luckily the GPU I got for this build was in stock at my local Micro Center, so at least I can pick that up after work today and stare at the box lovingly while I wait for the rest of my parts to ship.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Report: AMD And NVIDIA Launching Next Generation Flagships In September

This is the kind of competition the GPU market desperately needed.

 

[Papa Francouz]

Report: AMD And NVIDIA Launching Next Generation Flagships In September

This is the kind of competition the GPU market desperately needed.

Oh. Whoops.

 

[Osprey]

Oh. Whoops.

There's always something better on the horizon and, most of the time, it ends up being so expensive that we probably wouldn't have bought it, anyways. After all, who buys flagship GPUs upon release unless they just have money to burn or a burning desire for bragging rights? Most of us wait for cheaper, lesser models or until the flagships become discounted because they're no longer flagships. If you had waited, you probably would've still gotten a current generation GPU like you did, only for $30-50 cheaper. You might rationalize to yourself that that extra $30-50 is worth the 4 or 5 months use out of it that you'll get between now and then.

 

[Papa Francouz]

There's always something better on the horizon and, most of the time, it ends up being so expensive that we probably wouldn't have bought it, anyways. If you had waited, you probably would've still gotten a current generation GPU like you did, only for $30-50 cheaper. You might rationalize to yourself that that extra $30-50 is worth the 4 or 5 months use out of it that you'll get between now and then.

My post was more of a joke than anything. I’m happy with my choice and know it’ll last me for at least 5 years. Like you said, there’s always something new coming out. Plus I’m not interested in 4K and I think when ray tracing is more optimized on the dev side the 2000 series cards won’t be as strained as they are now with ray tracing on (or maybe that’s just wishful thinking).

Although that article does drive home the fact that if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

AMD Ryzen 4000 'Renoir' Desktop APU Specs & Models Leak Out

Looking good! Apparently it may be out in July?

 

[Osprey]

AMD Ryzen 4000 'Renoir' Desktop APU Specs & Models Leak Out

Looking good! Apparently it may be out in July?

Just so that there's no confusion, these are not the Zen 3-based flagship CPUs (that will also be called Ryzen 4000) that most people are waiting for and which won't be released until later this year. These are APUs, or CPUs with integrated graphics, which are intended for systems without dedicated GPUs, such as super-low-cost computers and devices. In fact, I was reading earlier that they likely won't support PCIe 4.0 and will support only 8-lane (instead of standard 16-lane) PCIe slots, so you wouldn't even want to add a GPU because it would receive significantly less bandwidth than it's capable of. Basically, these are not CPUs that most people looking to build PCs, especially gaming PCs, will want to put into their systems.

I don't know why AMD is calling them Ryzen 4000, since they're Zen 2-based and, thus, Ryzen 3000 technology. At least it is and will be easy to tell these models from the others because they have a 'G' (for "graphics") at the end of the model numbers. The CPUs with no letter or an 'X' at the end should be the ones that most of us here are waiting for.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I hate that I would have to wait longer for the X CPUs.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Ive always wondered this, why do the display settings (and some in-game settings) have an option for 59 as well as 60 hz (and 74 hz and 75 hz, etc). What is the point of that? Does it have something to do with monitors being 59.97 and some people notice a stutter when set to 60? Thats the only thing I can guess.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

Purchased an Acer Nitro 5 a few days ago. Best Buy had it on sale for $729.99 and BJs had it for 599.99(!!!) so I got the price match guarantee and BB refunded me $141.37. And now that exact model is back to 829.99 on Best Buy.com


I absolutely am in love with this laptop. The model I got was the 2019 one with the higher end specs, 128GB SSD+1 TB HDD. A 9th gen i5 processor. A GTX 1650 and 8GB ram. Expandable to 32 GB of ram and also an extra 2.5 inch slot for another HD. Eventually will likely expand the ram to 16GB and add a 500 GB SSD but no rush. The audio is very good, the display is above average IMO and it is lightning fast.

Obviously there are way more powerful laptops out there but one that costs ~660 AFTER tax? Highly doubtful. If anyone can find/build me a noticeably more powerful laptop then the one I got with those specs listed I would def like to hear it because if there is one for the same price I would gift my father this one then...he is still playing CoD2 with his clan on his 2014 MSI.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Just so that there's no confusion, these are not the Zen 3-based flagship CPUs (that will also be called Ryzen 4000) that most people are waiting for and which won't be released until later this year. These are APUs, or CPUs with integrated graphics, which are intended for systems without dedicated GPUs, such as super-low-cost computers and devices. In fact, I was reading earlier that they likely won't support PCIe 4.0 and will support only 8-lane (instead of standard 16-lane) PCIe slots, so you wouldn't even want to add a GPU because it would receive significantly less bandwidth than it's capable of. Basically, these are not CPUs that most people looking to build PCs, especially gaming PCs, will want to put into their systems.

I don't know why AMD is calling them Ryzen 4000, since they're Zen 2-based and, thus, Ryzen 3000 technology. At least it is and will be easy to tell these models from the others because they have a 'G' (for "graphics") at the end of the model numbers. The CPUs with no letter or an 'X' at the end should be the ones that most of us here are waiting for.

Actually, the Vermeer ones could still be out in September.

Engineering samples of Ryzen 4000 "Vermeer" processors clocked up to 4.6GHz | KitGuru

 

[Osprey]

Actually, the Vermeer ones could still be out in September.

Engineering samples of Ryzen 4000 "Vermeer" processors clocked up to 4.6GHz | KitGuru

Yeah, that's what I meant by "later this year." That's the first that I've heard about September, though. Until now, AMD had just said "by the end of the year."

 

[guinness]

I almost pulled the trigger on an 3900x partial build (mobo, RAM, CPU) last week, but now I am waiting to see what the new 4900x offers.

The nomenclature is confusing then, as if the new laptops are also the Renoir-based, they are then Zen 2, and yet 4000 branded...super confusing. I was thinking about getting one of those as well, as I could replace both my desktop and laptop with a gaming one, but it's a struggle to find laptops color accurate screens, and if I had to get near MBP 16" prices, I'll just get a 16" MBP with an i9, which are currently going for about $2k - not that I want to spend that much, but it would check several boxes for me (photography use over games).

 

[Knave]

There's always something better on the horizon and, most of the time, it ends up being so expensive that we probably wouldn't have bought it, anyways. After all, who buys flagship GPUs upon release unless they just have money to burn or a burning desire for bragging rights? Most of us wait for cheaper, lesser models or until the flagships become discounted because they're no longer flagships. If you had waited, you probably would've still gotten a current generation GPU like you did, only for $30-50 cheaper. You might rationalize to yourself that that extra $30-50 is worth the 4 or 5 months use out of it that you'll get between now and then.

So this was actually my plan. What do you mean for cheaper lesser models? Like the RTX 1660 and those ones? I don't have a ton of money to burn but it's not like I have to choose where to spend my money and forego anything.

I figured it's time for an upgrade to my GPU and RAM given my overall computer performance over the past couple of months (I cheaped out on the RAM, we've now been through a couple release cycles on new GPUs and I want to get something state of the art for the next several years).

 

[Osprey]

So this was actually my plan. What do you mean for cheaper lesser models? Like the RTX 1660 and those ones? I don't have a ton of money to burn but it's not like I have to choose where to spend my money and forego anything.

Right now, the RTX 1660 is the budget alternative to the RTX 2080, yes. What I was saying, though, is that the release of the RTX 3080 this Fall is probably when a lot of people will be upgrading to the RTX 2080, since that'll probably drop below $500 and become the budget alternative to the new flagship. If you have $1000 to burn on a GPU, sure, go for the RTX 3080, but I imagine that most people will weigh that against the RTX 2080 that'll be about half the price and maybe only 25% slower and choose the latter (or just wait an extra 6 months for an RTX 2660 to be released).

 

[Osprey]

AMD is going to be "refreshing" the Ryzen 3600X, 3800X and 3900X next month. The new 3600XT, 3800XT and 3900XT will replace the 'X' models, feature clocks 200-300 MHz higher and cost the same. That should, in turn, lower the prices of the 'X' models and the non-'X' models (like the 3600). If you can wait a little bit, they're expected to be for sale on July 7th, coinciding with the availability of the new B550 motherboards.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, Ryzen 5 3600XT Matisse Refresh Desktop CPUs Confirmed

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

AMD is going to be "refreshing" the Ryzen 3600X, 3800X and 3900X next month. The new 3600XT, 3800XT and 3900XT will replace the 'X' models and feature clocks 200-300 MHz higher. That should lower the prices of the 'X' models and the non-X models (like the 3600). If you can wait a little bit, they're expected to go on sale in early July, coinciding with the availability of the new B550 motherboards.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, Ryzen 5 3600XT Matisse Refresh Desktop CPUs Confirmed

Depending if I can wait or not, I may get one of these. But f*** do I want a Ryzen 4000 so badly.

 

[Osprey]

Depending if I can wait or not, I may get one of these. But f*** do I want a Ryzen 4000 so badly.

If you can't wait, the 3300X is a good choice at only $120 and available in just two weeks. It's about as good in games as the 3600. It's cheap enough that you might not feel bad about replacing it with a 4000 in the future (since the motherboard socket is the same).

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core AM4 Processor

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

If you can't wait, the 3300X is a good choice at only $120 and available in just two weeks. It's about as good in games as the 3600. It's cheap enough that you might not feel bad about replacing it with a 4000 in the future (since the motherboard socket is the same).

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core AM4 Processor

This is about what my current build is right now, but I'm waiting for prices to level out and things to be in stock:

System Builder

I have 3 140mm fans from a friend, so I have enough for the whole case. Going to make it black and white inside, with orange LEDs... Flyers colors baby!

And keep in mind, I'll be getting one of the new Nvidia/AMD cards when they come out. I'll be selling basically my old machine as a whole.

 

[Osprey]

This is about what my current build is right now, but I'm waiting for prices to level out and things to be in stock:

System Builder

I hate you.

Seriously, you have enough money to burn that you're willing to spend $159 on a CPU fan (especially when the CPU comes with a decent one)?

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I hate you.

Seriously, you have enough money to burn that you're willing to spend $159 on a CPU fan (especially when the CPU comes with a decent one)?

No no it's normally $60, but prices have been shit .

But basically, this is going to be the first time in over a decade that this is going to be a full new build... outside of my 4TB storage drive, which is coming from my current machine to the new one.

It's gonna feel good .

 

[aleshemsky83]

minor ryzen 3000 refreshes coming, clock speed rumors:

3600XT - 4.0 GHz (4.7 boost) was 3.8 and 4.4
3800XT - 4.2 GHz (4.7 boost) was 3.9 and 4.5
3900XT - 4.1 GHz (4.8 boost) was 3.8 and 4.6

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Definitely starting to look like Ryzen 4000 comes out next year. It's a rumor of course, but still. It gives more credence as to why the XT CPUs exist.

AMD Ryzen 4000 'Vermeer' Zen 3 Based Desktop CPUs To Utilize TSMC's 5nm Process Node, Launching at CES 2021

Yeah I'll probably get the 3800XT.

 

[Osprey]

Definitely starting to look like Ryzen 4000 comes out next year. It's a rumor of course, but still. It gives more credence as to why the XT CPUs exist.

AMD Ryzen 4000 'Vermeer' Zen 3 Based Desktop CPUs To Utilize TSMC's 5nm Process Node, Launching at CES 2021

Yeah I'll probably get the 3800XT.

That surprise move to the 5nm process node is probably the cause for the delay and will be worth the wait, IMO. That's exciting news. That said, it stands to reason that that could lead to them being priced a little higher, so that may give budget buyers a little extra incentive to just upgrade in the coming months.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

I have a few.....questions for you punks.

GTX 2070 Super

1. Does this look like a sound deal? A bit over my price range, but it looks pretty good and I do want an upgrade from the GTX 970 in time for Cyberpunk 2077.
2. If not, or even if, would it be better to wait a bit longer? I keep hearing new cards will drop this year and thus figure prices will drop on the 2000 models, but I haven't tracked past trends at all.

Thanks in advance!