PC Builds Megathread

Kitsune · Sep 2, 2022

curious, is the RTX 2070 Super a good choice for a used video card and an upgrade from the GTX 980? I have seem some prices on eBay for used cards that seem relatively reasonable. As well, is a 650 watt Gold EVGA PS good enough for the RTX 2070 Super with the Ryzen?

MrCogmor · Sep 2, 2022

A used card could be a horribly burnt out mining rig card that will only work a short time before failing. There is a bit of a The Market for Lemons - Wikipedia situation.

Wootius · Sep 2, 2022

New card prices are flooring atm.

A new 2060 for 220-240 USD at EVGA's website right now. That a pretty good upgrade and won't mind a 650w PSU.

Kitsune · Sep 2, 2022

Wootius said:
New card prices are flooring atm.

A new 2060 for 220-240 USD at EVGA's website right now. That a pretty good upgrade and won't mind a 650w PSU.

Looking at the RTX 2060 Super, it is about the same new as I am seeing used prices for the RTX 2070 Super.
Requires less power as well by far. Performance appears fairly marginal as well. Thanks for pointing out looking at that.

How much more do you expect to see video cards bottom? What time frame do you think until things bottom out?

One item I was told years ago is that as soon as you purchase or build a system, you will immediately find something cheaper.
Back when I bought my first i286 computer (Yes, I date that far back), I immediately found an i386SX for cheaper.

Wootius · Sep 2, 2022

Kitsune said:
Looking at the RTX 2060 Super, it is about the same new as I am seeing used prices for the RTX 2070 Super.
Requires less power as well by far. Performance appears fairly marginal as well. Thanks for pointing out looking at that.

How much more do you expect to see video cards bottom? What time frame do you think until things bottom out?

One item I was told years ago is that as soon as you purchase or build a system, you will immediately find something cheaper.
Back when I bought my first i286 computer (Yes, I date that far back), I immediately found an i386SX for cheaper.

Like you said, it's hard to judge. The 4000 cards are due in ~3 months, but with the way prices are falling out of the bottom on Nvidia cards they must have a horrendous oversupply problem and I can feel the launch delay coming.

Cloak&Dagger · Sep 2, 2022

Does SV think that an RTX 3060 12gb, RX 6700 10gb, RX 6700 XT, RX 6750 XT, or waiting for the next gen are the best option for building a new PC?

I've been waiting to make a new PC since covid started and have a nice 144hz 2k screen.

Kitsune · Sep 2, 2022

Wootius said:
Like you said, it's hard to judge. The 4000 cards are due in ~3 months, but with the way prices are falling out of the bottom on Nvidia cards they must have a horrendous oversupply problem and I can feel the launch delay coming.

I can easily wait 3, 4, or even 6 month. I was given a pair of GTX 980 for free but before that was running a GTX 970 as an upgrade from an HD 7850. At least PassMark gives about double the performance marks for the 970 vs the HD 7850 and the 980 has about triple the performance marks. I might be best waiting for the 3060 or 3070 to come down. I suspect that the 3080 will still be expensive and I think it is a power hog.

Absum · Sep 15, 2022

If I buy now, how long will a 3060 vs a 3070 last me? My 970 is starting to be below min specs so I think it lasted me ~7 years (idr when I bought it so it could be 8 or 6) but that was ~€300 at the time. Even a 3060 would cost me €500.

Kitsune · Sep 15, 2022

Absum said:
If I buy now, how long will a 3060 vs a 3070 last me? My 970 is starting to be below min specs so I think it lasted me ~7 years (idr when I bought it so it could be 8 or 6) but that was ~€300 at the time. Even a 3060 would cost me €500.

I would try to wait 3 to 6 months if possible. the Zotec 4090 has been "seen" so we likely will start getting 4xxx card soon. I too am likely looking at a 3070 in 3 to 6 months.

The anouncement for the RTX 4xxx series may be as early as September 20 according to the Article.

Squishy · Sep 15, 2022

Frankly, I have a GTX 1070 from early 2016 and it still serves me fine; if you've got a 970 and are just looking at replacing it, I would expect a 3070 to probably last even longer?

The only potential exception is if you want to do something with a lot of VRAM. I am eying a 3090 when the 4090s come out specifically for that (over going for like, a 4070 or 4080).

Kitsune · Sep 15, 2022

Squishy said:
Frankly, I have a GTX 1070 from early 2016 and it still serves me fine; if you've got a 970 and are just looking at replacing it, I would expect a 3070 to probably last even longer?

The only potential exception is if you want to do something with a lot of VRAM. I am eying a 3090 when the 4090s come out specifically for that (over going for like, a 4070 or 4080).

The one issue I have with the RTX 3090 is the massive power draw. . . .450 watts

Squishy · Sep 15, 2022

Kitsune said:
The one issue I have with the RTX 3090 is the massive power draw. . . .450 watts

Sadly it looks like that will only continue to be a problem with the Nvidia cards.

Kitsune · Sep 15, 2022

Squishy said:
Sadly it looks like that will only continue to be a problem with the Nvidia cards.

I was thinking of the 3070 as an upgrade from the 980 because it only goes from around 180 to 220 watts

dhasenan · Sep 18, 2022

I'm doing some PC upgrades for my spouse.

New motherboard: MSI B550 Tomahawk
New RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V (F4-3200C16D-32GVR), 4x16GB
And a new power supply and CPU.

The DRAM debug light is on. Apparently the motherboard is only compatible with two sticks of this RAM at a time. But when I take two out, the DRAM light is still on. I'm guessing one of the DIMMs is bad. Just hoping I didn't fry them all.

The graphics card also has some error lights, probably related to the new power supply. I'm hoping that's not so hard to figure out.

Carrington · Sep 18, 2022

dhasenan said:
I'm doing some PC upgrades for my spouse.

New motherboard: MSI B550 Tomahawk
New RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V (F4-3200C16D-32GVR), 4x16GB
And a new power supply and CPU.

The DRAM debug light is on. Apparently the motherboard is only compatible with two sticks of this RAM at a time. But when I take two out, the DRAM light is still on. I'm guessing one of the DIMMs is bad. Just hoping I didn't fry them all.

The graphics card also has some error lights, probably related to the new power supply. I'm hoping that's not so hard to figure out.

As the board has 4 RAM slots, it should take 4 sticks. The maximum RAM it apparently supports is 128GB, so you should be save there as well.
Did you overclock the RAM to 3200MT/s? Some boards have problems if you run 4 sticks and set the speed to the one the sticks are rated for. They might work at 3000MT/s.

What you probably should do now it to test each stick individually and also each slot individually. That is only put one stick in the first slot. If the PC can see the stick, turn off the PC and try that stick in the next slot. If the first stick is recognized in each slot, remove that stick and try the second stick. Since all slots are working, you only need to test it in one slot. If all sticks make it, you should try adding sticks one by one.

What kind of PSU is it?

Edit: Since I made the mistake myself, are you sure you put in all sticks completely? Reseating the four sticks should probably be the first thing you try, as it is an easy fix and also an easy mistake to make.

dhasenan · Sep 18, 2022

Carrington said:
As the board has 4 RAM slots, it should take 4 sticks.

It looks like it should, but the compatibility guide says it doesn't.

Carrington said:
Edit: Since I made the mistake myself, are you sure you put in all sticks completely? Reseating the four sticks should probably be the first thing you try, as it is an easy fix and also an easy mistake to make.

That was the problem. Now the motherboard's diagnostic LEDs are complaining about the CPU, which makes me unhappy because I don't want to have to pull out the heat sink.

Baughn · Sep 18, 2022

dhasenan said:
It looks like it should, but the compatibility guide says it doesn't.

RAM boards come in single-sided and dual-sided variants. Or, more accurately, single and dual-rank; that usually but not always corresponds to how many sides are in use.

Some motherboards can only handle 4 ranks total, in which case you can't use more than 2 dual-rank boards.

Kitsune · Sep 20, 2022

What are thoughts on the RX6800? Was looking at techspot and there are a handful of games where the RTX 3070 does better. PC World is similar. User benchmarks rates the RTX 3070 as better however and so does video card benchmarks. One item is that I note that the RX6800 has twice the ram.

Do you know what gives?

MrCogmor · Sep 20, 2022

Kitsune said:
What are thoughts on the RX6800? Was looking at techspot and there are a handful of games where the RTX 3070 does better. PC World is similar. User benchmarks rates the RTX 3070 as better however and so does video card benchmarks. One item is that I note that the RX6800 has twice the ram.

Do you know what gives?

The additional GPU RAM isn't an advantage unless it actually gets used e.g with higher resolutions or multi-monitor setups.

~~Have a look through UserBenchmark: AMD RX 6800 vs Nvidia RTX 3070~~

Edit: Not an accurate or reliable site

Kitsune · Sep 20, 2022

MrCogmor said:
The additional GPU RAM isn't advantage unless it actually gets used e.g with higher resolutions or multi-monitor setups.

Have a look through UserBenchmark: AMD RX 6800 vs Nvidia RTX 3070

I looked at that but on the other side are these:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9mS0JaRe1I

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6800: Which GPU should you buy?

We compare Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 and AMD's Radeon RX 6800 across a wide range of metrics. Performance matters—but the price may matter even more.

www.pcworld.com

GeForce RTX 3070 vs. Radeon RX 6800

It's time for a GPU shootout to see how the GeForce RTX 3070 and Radeon RX 6800 compare by benchmarking them head to head in 41 games....

www.techspot.com

Your link does not compare any games as far as performance.

MrCogmor · Sep 20, 2022

Kitsune said:
I looked at that but on the other side are these:

1440p and higher resolutions are going to use more video RAM. I think on AAA titles with ultra settings then high resolution textures would also be using up video RAM.

If you care about high framerates then make sure you have a monitor that can keep up and can sync with your video card (G-sync for Nvidia, FreeSync for AMD.) There is certainly no point in getting 120 frames per second if your monitor can only refresh 60 frames per second.

Kitsune · Sep 20, 2022

MrCogmor said:
1440p and higher resolutions are going to use more video RAM. I think on AAA titles with ultra settings then high resolution textures would also be using up video RAM.

If you care about high framerates then make sure you have a monitor that can keep up and can sync with your video card (G-sync for Nvidia, FreeSync for AMD.) There is certainly no point in getting 120 frames per second if your monitor can only refresh 60 frames per second.

My current monitor is only 60 htz but is a 1440p. I likely will not replace it unless / until it breaks. What I am trying to figure out is, assuming prices around the same realm, which is likely to remain useful longer? No matter what, I am waiting for the 4xxx cards to start dropping to see what it does to prices.

Wootius · Sep 20, 2022

Kitsune said:
My current monitor is only 60 htz but is a 1440p. I likely will not replace it unless / until it breaks. What I am trying to figure out is, assuming prices around the same realm, which is likely to remain useful longer? No matter what, I am waiting for the 4xxx cards to start dropping to see what it does to prices.

RX 6800 will likely be more useful long term. More VRAM so you can push texture settings later and FSR 2.0 is getting more support vs DLSS which Nvidia really looks like they're just gonna reset every generation to push new cards instead of uplift old ones.

Cloak&Dagger · Sep 29, 2022

So with the release of Zen 4 CPUs, I'm finally ready to start building my new PC, and am set on buying the Ryzen 7 7700X (and later an AMD graphics card).

My question is, uh, what motherboard should I buy? I have absolutely no idea which one to get. I mean, I know that the new CPUs use the new AM5 motherboards, but of the AM5 motherboards, what am I looking for? Costs and features vary wildly.

Kitsune · Sep 30, 2022

Cloak&Dagger said:
So with the release of Zen 4 CPUs, I'm finally ready to start building my new PC, and am set on buying the Ryzen 7 7700X (and later an AMD graphics card).

My question is, uh, what motherboard should I buy? I have absolutely no idea which one to get. I mean, I know that the new CPUs use the new AM5 motherboards, but of the AM5 motherboards, what am I looking for? Costs and features vary wildly.

I got a Asus B550M-A. Only complaints I have is that I wish it had more SATA ports and the ram is really close to the CPU, which means I to be cautious installing the cooling fan tower. I think the B**** are suppose to be considered decent.

PC Builds Megathread

mumblemumblePokemon

mumblemumblePokemon

Definitely Insane

Merciful Director

Merciful Director

always lowercase

always lowercase

Healing-type writer

mumblemumblePokemon

Definitely Insane