Current Events > Welp, I think it's finally time for a new computer.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The desktop PC I built about 9 years ago isn't starting up and I don't really feel like fixing it. I think 9 years is a great life for a PC. It's not even displaying the motherboard startup screen. Just a black screen with the mouse cursor.

Probably won't be making a decision any time soon. I'll either be building a new windows PC or I'll get a Mac of some sort. Not sure.

Did you backup all your porn?

I blame RoHS, always.

Vegy posted...

Did you backup all your porn?

Lol, I have my important stuff on cloud storage. I'm thinking the hard drive itself is still good since it's pretty new. I just got it last year.

I've built many PCs if you have questions.

Consider a handheld PC. You can dock it and use it like a desktop including for non-gaming use*, but also go handheld for gaming. It won't have the same power as a gaming laptop, let alone a desktop, but one with a 6th or 7th gen Ryzen 7 CPU will still likely do everything you need it to, and probably will be an upgrade in every way over a 9 year old PC (except maybe on GPU if you had a really high-end one or if it was much newer than the rest of the PC).

*not as straightforward on a Steam Deck compared to other handhelds, still possible tho

bluezero posted...

I've built many PCs if you have questions.

I probably will have questions if I go that route. I remember my first attempt being disastrous because of my own idiocy. I decided to stay up all night putting it together. At the end, I realized I had the motherboard directly on the case instead of sitting on the screws. It was like 7am and I was super frustrated and had no sleep. I was trying to take the graphics card off but didn't open the little tabs on the PCI slow up in that moment. I ripped off the PCI slot, LOL.

Fortunately, Newegg let me buy the accidental damage insurance after the fact and they sent a replacement.

I think GPU prices are still wildly expensive but everything else should be ok for the most part

If you use it to game, Apple is out of the question.

FearlessMango posted...

I think GPU prices are still wildly expensive but everything else should be ok for the most part

The opposite really, prices keep coming down.

Only get a mac if you plan to use it for something work related. After 9 year its time for a new pc Id say. Going to have to budget like $1800 though for high end and maybe $1200 for low end. This would be for a completely new set up with a 30 or 40 series gpu, mobo, cpu, ram, psu, ssd, cooler, and a case.

I'm pricing out a "this is what I would want to max this thing out" build... I'm seeing a 10 Gbps ethernet card...

Very interesting... It doesn't have W-Fi 6E. I don't think I would need wifi on the desktop at all, but if it's gonna have it... might as well have 6E...

Is DisplayPort still the best video output?

If you have a Microcenter nearby, they good deals on CPU/Motherboard/Ram combos.

CableZL posted...

Is DisplayPort still the best video output?

Yes

Depending on your budget I'd consider the Intel GPU line.

I've been very happy with mine and the A750 goes for $220.

CableZL posted...

I probably will have questions if I go that route. I remember my first attempt being disastrous because of my own idiocy. I decided to stay up all night putting it together. At the end, I realized I had the motherboard directly on the case instead of sitting on the screws. It was like 7am and I was super frustrated and had no sleep. I was trying to take the graphics card off but didn't open the little tabs on the PCI slow up in that moment. I ripped off the PCI slot, LOL.

Fortunately, Newegg let me buy the accidental damage insurance after the fact and they sent a replacement.

my first time I built one I booted it up for the first test while on it's side with the cover off and a drop of sweat dripped off my forehead(no A/C at the time) and fried the motherboard. it was the worst feeling lol

I rma'd it and said it was DOA >_>

I bought this PC we have when Diablo 3 came out. We don't use it much, but it's our only PC

So I'm looking at $4,305.92 for the maxed out build. This is the high end of what I would get, but not sure where I'm actually gonna settle.

Case: Cooler Master HAF700 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 OC LGA 1700 DDR5 Intel Z690
GPU: Gigabyte Gaming GeForce RTX 4090
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF
Power supply: Corsair AXi Series AX1600i
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5
Storage: WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe M.2 2280 2TB
Optical: ASUS SATA 24X Internal Burner Drive (Probably won't end up actually getting this. I never put an optical drive in my old PC).

I would be likely to add a second GPU of the same model at some point like I did with this old PC, but that would be a later purchase.

CableZL posted...

I'm pricing out a "this is what I would want to max this thing out" build... I'm seeing a 10 Gbps ethernet card...

Those aren't too bad in price. The annoying part is finding a 10g router or a switch for a reasonable price in my experience.

I'd definitely add more hard drive space, but it depends how many games you want to install I guess. plus you can always add more later

I ordered a premade a couple years ago with a 1TB SSD and 4TB HDD and they're both almost full, but I did also install a ton of games on steam

Bass posted...

Those aren't too bad in price. The annoying part is finding a 10g router or a switch for a reasonable price in my experience.

I've got a Juniper 4100-F 12-port switch and a Fortigate 100E firewall for free from work, so I think I can make something work with that.

Did you try opening Task Manager while it was on the black screen? Mine did that, all it took was opening the Task Manger, using that to open the command prompt and viola- Screen was displayed

Lokison posted...

Did you try opening Task Manager while it was on the black screen? Mine did that, all it took was opening the Task Manger, using that to open the command prompt and viola- Screen was displayed

It's not even giving me the splash screen for the motherboard any more. I could probably try to disconnect stuff to see if it's just not booting because of a bad GPU or SSD, but... I no longer feel like troubleshooting this PC

Don't forget the cooler

I would just say that the latest 1700lga motherboards are z790s, not z690. Just check and make sure that it will support your RAM and/or consider whether you would want to upgrade your RAM in the future.

Yeah I think need a new one too. Nothing fancy just want to have internet, watch stuff and write stuff. This DELL Inspiron has served well enough.
Dude, I got a DELL.

CableZL posted...

I would be likely to add a second GPU of the same model at some point like I did with this old PC, but that would be a later purchase.

SLI is effectively dead, so I don't think there would be a reason to do this. Unless it's it's for non-gaming stuff and there's a use for a 2nd card.

Yeah SLI is dead, if you're going 4090 now and want to improve it, might as well just flat out buy a 5090 in a couple years. Just rumors now but they're supposed to be another generational leap over the 4000 series, just like the 3000 series compared to the 2000 series when you factor in MSRP (a cheaper 3070 at $500 MSRP outperformed a way more expensive 2080 Ti which was $1k+). The 4090 craps all over a more expensive 3090 Ti so it would be nice if the 5090 did the same

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-4090-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3090-Ti/4136vsm1818101

I think it's finally time for me to get a gaming PC. I have a MSI "gaming laptop" that's apparently so inferior that it doesn't even meet the requirements to run a 2D game like Sea of Stars (12 GB RAM; min. required is 16!!!).

Is it generally cheaper to build it yourself or just buy one? Cause I have never done this before.
I assume if I wait for Black Friday, there'll be good deals...
I don't want "top of the line", just "good value for the money" level. Ideally around $1000, definitely not $2000+, that's fucking crazy

streamofthesky posted...

Is it generally cheaper to build it yourself or just buy one? Cause I have never done this before.

Building yourself is always going to save money. But pre-builts have become a lot more reasonable.

streamofthesky posted...

I think it's finally time for me to get a gaming PC. I have a MSI "gaming laptop" that's apparently so inferior that it doesn't even meet the requirements to run a 2D game like Sea of Stars (12 GB RAM; min. required is 16!!!).

Is it generally cheaper to build it yourself or just buy one? Cause I have never done this before.
I assume if I wait for Black Friday, there'll be good deals...
I don't want "top of the line", just "good value for the money" level. Ideally around $1000, definitely not $2000+, that's fucking crazy

For $1000 you can build a quality rig that would probably cost $1500 as a prebuilt, and the prebuilt would have lesser quality components.

bluezero posted...

SLI is effectively dead, so I don't think there would be a reason to do this. Unless it's it's for non-gaming stuff and there's a use for a 2nd card.

Ah, ok, thanks for that

streamofthesky posted...

I think it's finally time for me to get a gaming PC. I have a MSI "gaming laptop" that's apparently so inferior that it doesn't even meet the requirements to run a 2D game like Sea of Stars (12 GB RAM; min. required is 16!!!).

Is it generally cheaper to build it yourself or just buy one? Cause I have never done this before.
I assume if I wait for Black Friday, there'll be good deals...
I don't want "top of the line", just "good value for the money" level. Ideally around $1000, definitely not $2000+, that's fucking crazy

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bQ3Hz6
$1000 build, I'm sure it's not perfect, but will get the job done.

bluezero posted...

I've built many PCs if you have questions.

I do. @bluezero Firstly, where do you start figuring out where to go/what to do? A guide for dummies if you will. I mostly have problems figuring out why pick this one part over another part. I don't know what the relative differences between them are, and part names being alphabet soup don't help.

GuerillaGorilla posted...

I do. @bluezero Firstly, where do you start figuring out where to go/what to do? A guide for dummies if you will. I mostly have problems figuring out why pick this one part over another part. I don't know what the relative differences between them are, and part names being alphabet soup don't help.

For people not familiar at all with parts, I would suggest going to https://www.logicalincrements.com/ first. This should give you an idea of what to expect for your budget, or maybe help you set a budget.
Next, if you have an idea of parts, you can go to https://pcpartpicker.com and start choosing parts, or a pre-build site to start customizing if you go that route. I don't have a personal recommendation for a good pre-build site, as I don't really use them. I'm sure Reddit or Google can help with site reviews.
For overall "which part is better", I like to use Passmark's benchmark lists as a guide. This is the GPU one: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
A youtuber I really like has a series called "boost my build", where he goes through and explains in detail the changes he makes to user submitted builds, and why: https://www.youtube.com/@PCBuilderChannel

Hope that helps.

bluezero posted...

For people not familiar at all with parts, I would suggest going to https://www.logicalincrements.com/ first. This should give you an idea of what to expect for your budget, or maybe help you set a budget.
Next, if you have an idea of parts, you can go to https://pcpartpicker.com and start choosing parts, or a pre-build site to start customizing if you go that route. I don't have a personal recommendation for a good pre-build site, as I don't really use them. I'm sure Reddit or Google can help with site reviews.
For overall "which part is better", I like to use Passmark's benchmark lists as a guide. This is the GPU one: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
A youtuber I really like has a series called "boost my build", where he goes through and explains in detail the changes he makes to user submitted builds, and why: https://www.youtube.com/@PCBuilderChannel

Hope that helps.

Gonna screenshot and get back to this when I'm ready to start. Thanks for your help.

voldothegr8 posted...

For $1000 you can build a quality rig that would probably cost $1500 as a prebuilt, and the prebuilt would have lesser quality components.

bullshit. prebuilts these days are very fucking good and priced incredibly competitively.

also, in the $1k price range you're literally probably better off buying a prebuilt. there's tons of discounts from many builders and their buying power often gives decent discounts.

building your own these days is a realm of people with budgets two to three times that.

Waxitron_Gazer posted...

also, in the $1k price range you're literally probably better off buying a prebuilt. there's tons of discounts from many builders and their buying power often gives decent discounts.

building your own these days is a realm of people with budgets two to three times that.

Last year I bought a pre built PC and incrementally upgraded it, selling the previous parts or moving them to a secondary PC.

A lot of prebuilt PCs will still only have a single stick or RAM or an insufficient power supply. The one I found last year was a deal, because building that exact same PC would have cost about the same, so reasonably priced prebuilt PCs do exist.

Prebuilts in the 1-2k range are pretty competitive with custom builds. They mainly skimp out on the PSU and give you shit for HDD/SSD space at that tier from what I've seen online. When you get into 2.5k+ territory, like any prebuilts with a 4090, it's scam city with things being hella overpriced. I saw one prebuilt go for ~4k but it could've been built for 1k cheaper with better parts and more storage

yeah storage is really what you lose or pay a lot more for when you buy a prebuilt from what i've noticed.

but here's the thing about storage. it's very easily (and cheaply, these days) upgradable even on prebuilts and *gasp* you can uninstall the games you are literally never going to play but bought anyways cuz they were on steam sale/humble bundle!

wowee!

Waxitron_Gazer posted...

bullshit. prebuilts these days are very fucking good and priced incredibly competitively.

Nope. The "competitively priced" ones you speak of will come with single channel RAM, some PSU brand you've never heard of before, cheap fans, off brand SSD.

the storage debate is one thing i really do not understand tbh.

maybe that's cuz i live in a place that gets gigabit fiber so like it's soooo fucking easy to just uninstall shit to make space. and if i decide i want to reinstall, even for massive games, it only take an episode of whatever your favorite tv show is to get it back.

voldothegr8 posted...

Nope. The "competitively priced" ones you speak of will come with single channel RAM, some PSU brand you've never heard of before, cheap fans, off brand SSD.

They can, but it's less the norm than you think these days. The market has changed.

Waxitron_Gazer posted...

yeah storage is really what you lose or pay a lot more for when you buy a prebuilt from what i've noticed.

but here's the thing about storage. it's very easily (and cheaply, these days) upgradable even on prebuilts and *gasp* you can uninstall the games you are literally never going to play but bought anyways cuz they were on steam sale/humble bundle!

I mean I said the same thing essentially, but if somebody was willing to open up the case and modify their build adding money on top of what they already paid then why not just go custom build from the start

bluezero posted...

They can, but it's less the norm than you think these days. The market has changed.

Asus (what I used as a base) and HP omen line are pretty decent now

CableZL posted...

So I'm looking at $4,305.92 for the maxed out build. This is the high end of what I would get, but not sure where I'm actually gonna settle.

Case: Cooler Master HAF700 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 OC LGA 1700 DDR5 Intel Z690
GPU: Gigabyte Gaming GeForce RTX 4090
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF
Power supply: Corsair AXi Series AX1600i
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5
Storage: WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe M.2 2280 2TB
Optical: ASUS SATA 24X Internal Burner Drive (Probably won't end up actually getting this. I never put an optical drive in my old PC).

I would be likely to add a second GPU of the same model at some point like I did with this old PC, but that would be a later purchase.

Don't do SLI. SLI is dead and is far more likely to cause performance issues than it is to be helpful.