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Posted
7 hours ago, Captainant said:

Tbh 32 gigs of memory is gonna put it into the "workstation" or other specialist category for computer and make it at least a grand for what you're looking for. 16GB of memory and you're cooking at that price point

Get the right ThinkPad and upgrade the RAM yourself.

Posted

My wife has been itching to play The Sims again and didn't want to deal with a desktop computer, but surprise surprise her M2 backbook air runs those games like a CHAMP! It's pretty amazing how much a "basic" computer can play if you're looking to play games that are 10+yrs old

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

This GPU market is wild...again of course.  I bought a used 6700xt off eBay in Sept last year for 230.  Now they are going for 300+ for a fairly mid-tier card.  

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 3/2/2025 at 7:46 AM, MadTrapper said:

This GPU market is wild...again of course.  I bought a used 6700xt off eBay in Sept last year for 230.  Now they are going for 300+ for a fairly mid-tier card.  

I've been getting the itch to build a new rig, but the current GPU market is keeping that on hold.  I'm looking through the Tom's Hardware build guides, and all of them cost hundreds more than when they were written.  It's crazy.  

Posted (edited)

Just bought some upgraded ram

 

Went from Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000 CL36 12ns 1st world latency and 36-36-36-76 timing

to TeamGroup T-Force Delta DDR5 6400 CL 32 10ns 1st world latency and 32-39-39-84 timing($80 on Newegg - sale)

 

Only major upgrade that is worth the money for my current rig

Going to a 14900k/14900ks from my 13700k isn't worth the $450-650 for 5-8% performance

I sure as hell am not going to spend $3000-5000 to upgrade from my 4080 to a 4090, 5080, or 5090.

On 4/24/2025 at 8:32 AM, idigTexas said:

I've been getting the itch to build a new rig, but the current GPU market is keeping that on hold.  I'm looking through the Tom's Hardware build guides, and all of them cost hundreds more than when they were written.  It's crazy.  

What would be your budget? AMD or Intel? What's your current GPU? What color theme? RGB or no? 

Edited by BurntOrange&White
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Posted
6 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Just bought some upgraded ram

 

Went from Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000 CL36 12ns 1st world latency and 36-36-36-76 timing

to TeamGroup T-Force Delta DDR5 6400 CL 32 10ns 1st world latency and 32-39-39-84 timing($80 on Newegg - sale)

 

Only major upgrade that is worth the money for my current rig

Going to a 14900k/14900ks from my 13700k isn't worth the $450-650 for 5-8% performance

I sure as hell am not going to spend $3000-5000 to upgrade from my 4080 to a 4090, 5080, or 5090.

What would be your budget? AMD or Intel? What's your current GPU? What color theme? RGB or no? 

I would prefer to stay under $2.5k for everything.  I'm essentially looking at the $2k build from Tom's.  AMD CPU.  Icy white everything.  RGB yes.  Current rig is showing its age, but I've shifted most of my gaming to xbox, so I haven't had a pressing need to upgrade.  My pitiful 2070 was low end of the top tier when I bought it, which tells you how old this thing is.  It's essentially a surly reading box at this point.    

image.png.e04ad8dd2b35b5e89eb0187e7a0a93c9.png

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, idigTexas said:

I would prefer to stay under $2.5k for everything.  I'm essentially looking at the $2k build from Tom's.  AMD CPU.  Icy white everything.  RGB yes.  Current rig is showing its age, but I've shifted most of my gaming to xbox, so I haven't had a pressing need to upgrade.  My pitiful 2070 was low end of the top tier when I bought it, which tells you how old this thing is.  It's essentially a surly reading box at this point.    

image.png.e04ad8dd2b35b5e89eb0187e7a0a93c9.png

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2nGPGJ

5070ti and 9070xt are fairly close in performance with the 5070ti being marginally better within 3-5% of gaming performance. White GPU's are hard to come by!

The case comes with 7 RGB fans preinstalled. Thermalight has come in and crushed the aio scene with pricing, quality, and performance according to people lately.

You're aright around 2500 with that setup with a better CPU, MoBo, RAM, and similar storage. If you decided on the 9070xt that would save you $220 that you could use to go with 2 more tb of storage. I included both storage sizes and both GPUs. I think I’d personally go with the 5070ti for the slight performance because it’s always cheap to add another m.2 later on than buy a new GPU. 
You're RGB'd as fuck and white as fuck with that setup.

Edited by BurntOrange&White
Posted
4 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2nGPGJ

5070ti and 9070xt are fairly close in performance with the 5070ti being marginally better within 3-5% of gaming performance. White GPU's are hard to come by!

The case comes with 7 RGB fans preinstalled. Thermalight has come in and crushed the aio scene with pricing, quality, and performance according to people lately.

You're aright around 2500 with that setup with a better CPU, MoBo, RAM, and similar storage. If you decided on the 9070xt that would save you $220 that you could use to go with 2 more tb of storage. I included both storage sizes and both GPUs. I think I’d personally go with the 5070ti for the slight performance because it’s always cheap to add another m.2 later on than buy a new GPU. 
You're RGB'd as fuck and white as fuck with that setup.

That's a good build.  I'm not sure I want to drop $1k on a GPU, but I could always compromise and get the regular 5070 and save a few hundred.  Thanks.

Posted
1 minute ago, idigTexas said:

That's a good build.  I'm not sure I want to drop $1k on a GPU, but I could always compromise and get the regular 5070 and save a few hundred.  Thanks.

I will build this for you. 

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Posted
6 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

That's a good build.  I'm not sure I want to drop $1k on a GPU, but I could always compromise and get the regular 5070 and save a few hundred.  Thanks.

Kind of is what it is right now with GPU prices....just insane.

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Posted
1 minute ago, immamac said:

I will build this for you. 

I appreciate it, but I've been building my own for over 30years.  My first build had an i386.  Putting it together is the fun part.  I'm just a little in shock at the current GPU market.  

1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Kind of is what it is right now with GPU prices....just insane.

Yep.  

Posted

I upgraded to a 5070ti and it fuckin rips. It can play everything at at least 4k60 on high, and if I turn on the DLSS and framegen it hits 4k120 on most games on ultra. My desktop monitor is 1440p so its ultra across the board. It's a TON of GPU acceleration for compute too which is nice

Posted
34 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I upgraded to a 5070ti and it fuckin rips. It can play everything at at least 4k60 on high, and if I turn on the DLSS and framegen it hits 4k120 on most games on ultra. My desktop monitor is 1440p so its ultra across the board. It's a TON of GPU acceleration for compute too which is nice

What did you upgrade from? 

Posted

I have a 4070 8 gig and not sure why I'd need anything above that. I've been playing battlefield 1 (admittedly an older game) and stay well above 100 fps on 200% resolution scaling on 1080 (effective 4k).

Posted
54 minutes ago, immamac said:

What did you upgrade from? 

Slight upgrade from a 3080 12GB - my wife wanted to upgrade her 1070 so she could play Inzoi, so she gets the hand-me-down 3080

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Posted (edited)

After sitting on the fence for a couple of months, I went ahead and bit the bullet.  I changed my aesthetic and decided that this will be a minimal RGB build, but gave myself the option on some components.  I also scaled back slightly on the GPU, while splurging a little bit in other places.  I wish I had bought the 5070ti a couple of months ago, but the RX 9070 XT isn't that much of a downgrade, and is the best value going right now.  For my use, it will be more than adequate.  I don't need a lot of storage, so the one drive should be fine, and I have two Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TBs in my current rig that I can use for rotating backups.  Everything should arrive by next weekend.  

image.thumb.png.64d91308ac4c777d727e45c672767118.png

Edited by idigTexas
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Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, idigTexas said:

After sitting on the fence for a couple of months, I went ahead and bit the bullet.  I changed my aesthetic and decided that this will be a minimal RGB build, but gave myself the option on some components.  I also scaled back slightly on the GPU, while splurging a little bit in other places.  I wish I had bought the 5070ti a couple of months ago, but the RX 9070 XT isn't that much of a downgrade, and is the best value going right now.  For my use, it will be more than adequate.  I don't need a lot of storage, so the one drive should be fine, and I have two Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TBs in my current rig that I can use for rotating backups.  Everything should arrive by next weekend.  

image.thumb.png.64d91308ac4c777d727e45c672767118.png

 

13 hours ago, Dr Fear said:

I've bought Windows keys off Kinguin in the last few years and never had any issues. They have Windows 11 Pro for like $30.

I'd do what Dr Fear suggest and then upgrade your RAM to this https://www.newegg.com/corsair-vengeance-64gb-ddr5-6000-cas-latency-cl30-desktop-memory-black/p/N82E16820982031?nm_mc=AFC-RAN-COM&cm_mmc=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=afc-ran-com-_-PCPartPicker&utm_source=afc-PCPartPicker&AFFID=2558510&AFFNAME=PCPartPicker&ACRID=1&ASUBID=&ASID=https%3A%2F%2Fpcpartpicker.com%2Fproduct%2F8ZQKHx%2Fcorsair-vengeance-64-gb-2-x-32-gb-ddr5-6000-cl30-memory-cmk64gx5m2b6000c30&ranMID=44583&ranEAID=2558510&ranSiteID=8BacdVP0GFs-t7rYbFz9vl83FDNlrng5Zg

 

 

Edited by BurntOrange&White
Posted
3 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

In real world practical use, the difference between CL30 and CL36 DDR isn't noticeable, and I did not feel that it was worth the added expense.  I prefer the look of Corsair Vengeance but it wouldn't really be visible once it is installed. 

Posted (edited)

I haven't used my "main" desktop in about 5 years or so. I got back into photography and the monitor array that's hooked up to that machine makes editing pics a joy, so I decided to dust the machine off (and man was there dust) and fire it up. It fired up on the second pull and made sounds like the car from the Ghostbusters cartoon, but eventually came to life. I couldn't even remember the specs! So I poked around the hard drives (it has some mechanicals because it's from a time when multi-terrabyte SSDs were sold almost exclusively to sultans) and updated everything (which took an eon) and found and reacquainted myself with all the incriminating stuff. It was like a pre-covid timecapsule! lol

 

It has a 6950X (remember that badass? I bought it with the trepidation that it would consume so much more electricity. What a sweet summer child I was.), 64GB of DDR4 across 8 slots (X99 holla!) and a 1080Ti (making it the lowest grade GPU, by a considerable margin, in the entire house, which contains 5 laptops and 2 other desktops! Poor, venerable titanium.). I've only replaced the image library drive, swapping in a 4TB Samsung 870 Evo. (Note: do not mount a drive on the USB bus, set it up, and then expect it to work on AHCI. Zzzzz) 

 

Now I'm at a crossroad. Do I replace the GPU (for a 2080ti) and the rest of the mechanicals or take it down to the studs (I guess I can keep the 1000W Seasonic PS? Power headers can be adapted if needed, no?) and go with something from this era? I don't need a burner (besides, so much of editing images is gated like PDFs, you can only go so fast regardless of how much horsepower you throw at it), this will only be for image editing, gaming is done elsewhere. I'm not necessarily looking for an answer, just thinking out loud. I'll mess around on it and see if the slowness bothers me. It probably will and I will find a reason to upgrade to whole damn thing without much effort, you watch.

 

In other news, the new main laptop is here: Alienware 16 Area 51 with all the sliders pushed to the right (except for the CherryMX keyboard - where I use the machine isn't conducive to loud clicky-clack mechanical keys and real talk, membrane keyboard are nice nice anyway.)

 

TimeSpy.thumb.png.ab0916a8394d642c47559b476b0be11c.png

 

I need to get Port Royal like all the cool kids, but alas. (Time Spy Extreme dropped an 11786)

 

Now, off to see what people are getting for lightly used, never OC'd EVGA 2080Ti's. Only recently found out EVGA isn't even in the GPU business anymore, that's how out of it I am.

 

EDIT: Holy shit, still like $300+?! I thought it was going to be one of those "I'll pay you to take it off my hands kind of thing!"

Edited by BoomMF
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Posted
In real world practical use, the difference between CL30 and CL36 DDR isn't noticeable, and I did not feel that it was worth the added expense.  I prefer the look of Corsair Vengeance but it wouldn't really be visible once it is installed. 
Then spend more on case lights.
ab75ccb144367cece3e3586f5772dd83.gif
Posted
28 minutes ago, BoomMF said:

EDIT: Holy shit, still like $300+?! I thought it was going to be one of those "I'll pay you to take it off my hands kind of thing!"

There is no such thing in the GPU marketplace.  

You can kick around the idea of upgrading piecemeal versus building anew, but we all know how this is going to end.  On something that old, everything is a chokepoint, which means you'll never get the full benefit of any upgrades.  

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Posted
On 6/22/2025 at 7:13 PM, Dr Fear said:

I've bought Windows keys off Kinguin in the last few years and never had any issues. They have Windows 11 Pro for like $30.

I got a W11 pro key for $11 on Groupon lol - the company had to send me four before it actually worked, but it eventually worked so I'm happy

Posted

So I just finished my old system (coffee lake i7) to a Lian Li A3 case. I've also put together a budget Ryzen build for a friend. And that has gotten me in the building mood. I've decided I want my next build to be SFF. Cases I have my eye on are the Ncase M2, Lian Li A4 H2O, and the Fractal Design Terra. While I'm tempted by a top of line AM5 build, the prices on the Intel 265K are getting hard to ignore (even if the gaming performance isn't the absolute best). $225 for a very strong multi tasking chip with still plenty of a gaming muscle is very intriguing. I'm never upgrading often enough to actual be on the same platform by the time I upgrade, so I'm not worried about that. I'm thinking maybe a 4080? Just have to make sure the card fits. Oh the fun!

 

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Posted
12 hours ago, Dahobbs said:

So I just finished my old system (coffee lake i7) to a Lian Li A3 case. I've also put together a budget Ryzen build for a friend. And that has gotten me in the building mood. I've decided I want my next build to be SFF. Cases I have my eye on are the Ncase M2, Lian Li A4 H2O, and the Fractal Design Terra. While I'm tempted by a top of line AM5 build, the prices on the Intel 265K are getting hard to ignore (even if the gaming performance isn't the absolute best). $225 for a very strong multi tasking chip with still plenty of a gaming muscle is very intriguing. I'm never upgrading often enough to actual be on the same platform by the time I upgrade, so I'm not worried about that. I'm thinking maybe a 4080? Just have to make sure the card fits. Oh the fun!

 

I've got a 3 slot 3080 crammed into a Lian Li A3, along with a microATX B650M mobo running a 7600X CPU. 32 gigs of memory plus a nice right-angle 750W 80+ gold PSU is a nice SFF home theatre PC. My wife has been enjoying playing Oblivion on it, and we've been playing through Split Fiction together on it. 

The 3 slot card took some creative cable management and case bracket repositioning to make fit, but by golly it all fits in there just fine. If you buy a few case fans it even has pretty good airflow and I haven't had any temp or performance issues

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Posted
14 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I've got a 3 slot 3080 crammed into a Lian Li A3, along with a microATX B650M mobo running a 7600X CPU. 32 gigs of memory plus a nice right-angle 750W 80+ gold PSU is a nice SFF home theatre PC. My wife has been enjoying playing Oblivion on it, and we've been playing through Split Fiction together on it. 

The 3 slot card took some creative cable management and case bracket repositioning to make fit, but by golly it all fits in there just fine. If you buy a few case fans it even has pretty good airflow and I haven't had any temp or performance issues

Nice. The A3 is nice design with plenty of room to work in. It lacks cable management, but otherwise works well. Mine has a 8700, RTX 2070, 650W PSU (ATX), with Peerless Assassin 120 SE for CPU cooling (complete overkill, but cheap and quiet for the 8700). I just put in 3 120 fans for exhaust at the top and one 120 fan for intake at the bottom in a negative pressure setup. CPU draws cool air from the back of the case and GPU draws cool air from the bottom. Both exhaust to towards the center. The exhaust fans are positioned forward in the case so as to focus the exhaust there where warm air accumulates. I have it setup as a streaming gaming setup with Sunshine/Moonlight. We stream it to the big screens in the house for family gaming nights (things like Overcooked that can do 4+ players). My son and I have also been playing Space Marine 2 and No Man's Sky. And we use it for streaming PC VR games.   

I do want the next build to be a true SFF at 20L or under. I just saw the Lian Li Era 2 and I'm adding to my list of potentials. Bit more expensive than the others, but a very nice looking case with good thermals apparently. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

I do want the next build to be a true SFF at 20L or under. I just saw the Lian Li Era 2 and I'm adding to my list of potentials. Bit more expensive than the others, but a very nice looking case with good thermals apparently. 

I assume you meant Fractal Era 2?  

All this SFF talk makes me wonder if I should have gone in that direction.  My highest priority other than an acceptable level of performance is near silent operation, and I've always assumed SFF would run hotter, and thus louder.  

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Posted
38 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

I assume you meant Fractal Era 2?  

All this SFF talk makes me wonder if I should have gone in that direction.  My highest priority other than an acceptable level of performance is near silent operation, and I've always assumed SFF would run hotter, and thus louder.  

Yes, that is what I meant. Brain fart. SFF can definitely run louder, but thermals aren't usually that bad with well designed cases. Everything is ventilated and components are closer to the edge, so you end up with everything actually having easier access to cool to air from outside the case. Many are also specifically designed with AIO in mind, which can help keep noise down as well. Basically, you can get fairly quiet operation, but you'll likely have to get more expensive cooling components to make it happen. 

Posted

Way back in the late 80s/early 90s... I wanna say 1991? There was a comment in a review article by the author that said, more or less: "The computer you want to buy is always $3000."

In the intervening years I've found this to be a great guideline that remains true today. If you set that as your budget, you will be very happy with what you get for a long time, without spending money on things you won't need or use.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Way back in the late 80s/early 90s... I wanna say 1991? There was a comment in a review article by the author that said, more or less: "The computer you want to buy is always $3000."

In the intervening years I've found this to be a great guideline that remains true today. If you set that as your budget, you will be very happy with what you get for a long time, without spending money on things you won't need or use.

I agree with that, though unless I need peripherals, I'm usually closer to $2000-$2500.  

Posted
45 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

I agree with that, though unless I need peripherals, I'm usually closer to $2000-$2500.  

Yeah, I usually included monitor/mouse/etc in that price.

Of course, for a laptop, that's the price tag for the laptop, since screen, keyboard, trackpad are all included.

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