(PCGT VI) It's not just about hardware

It’s harder to OC ram. I have a 2 slot board and have speed over capacity. 32Gb is all you need and mine if overclocked to 8000mhz. Brings the average FPS up and the 1%lows. 8200mhz and tight timings is a labour of love.

So you could spend £550 and buy a 4070 super. Good cards. But you then need more from upscalers like DLSS. It’s still more than the consoles. But you get more performance and options.

It’s all choice. ‘Next gen’ is a marketing term and means nothing. But, I enjoy a lot of the ray racing features and path tracing that comes with Nvidia. It’s a lot of money for pc gaming, but I love the options that comes with it.

Bertie wrote:What you need 64gb for? 32Gb plenty for gaming.

GPU prices still silly. 4080 super is a good card and now £950. Same price at 7900xtx. Digital foundry did a thing on PS5 vs 4080 and you can see the performance you get from a 4080 super. Mega. But so is the price, but you need a good screen to do it justices

32 GB RAM is steadily replacing 16GB as the recommended amount in game reqirements.

Memento Mori wrote:
Bertie wrote:What you need 64gb for? 32Gb plenty for gaming.

GPU prices still silly. 4080 super is a good card and now £950. Same price at 7900xtx. Digital foundry did a thing on PS5 vs 4080 and you can see the performance you get from a 4080 super. Mega. But so is the price, but you need a good screen to do it justices

32 GB RAM is steadily replacing 16GB as the recommended amount in game reqirements.

Yeah. But I wouldn’t be overspending on 2x 32s just yet. 32 plenty and will remain so for a while. Any resource monitor like afterburner will show 32 is fine and plenty with margin.

Xeno wrote:
Peter Crisp wrote:What's the most ram you can normally fit into a PC these days?
The consoles I think have 12gb so maybe 32gb?

Gaming machines 192 GB, a work station PC which you would probably use occasionally for gaming once and a while and really isn't something with gaming even in mind at all, Threadripper Pro can take 2TB on the WRX90 boards.

Is windows still a huge memory hog?

Peter Crisp wrote:
Xeno wrote:
Peter Crisp wrote:What's the most ram you can normally fit into a PC these days?
The consoles I think have 12gb so maybe 32gb?

Gaming machines 192 GB, a work station PC which you would probably use occasionally for gaming once and a while and really isn't something with gaming even in mind at all, Threadripper Pro can take 2TB on the WRX90 boards.

Is windows still a huge memory hog?

Not really, it can get slow with all the extra background tasks that seem to run if you have things like RGB controllers ect.

Well, tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Have my parts, I went with 48GB as it was £10 more than the 32GB when I bought them. 7800X3D, ROG STRIX B650E-I. I have a graphics card already as well as some SSD's.

I have the manual dexterity of a Goat trying to build in a tiny case.

Xeno wrote:Well, tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Have my parts, I went with 48GB as it was £10 more than the 32GB when I bought them. 7800X3D, ROG STRIX B650E-I. I have a graphics card already as well as some SSD's.

I have the manual dexterity of a Goat trying to build in a tiny case.

What GPU have you got?

I have an old 1080 TI and a 3080 TI. I am hoping to strawberry float to 3080 TI fits. It should do but....

Pairing a 7800X3D and 1080Ti would be a hilarious combo though.

I would be willing to do so as a temp measure if I absolutely have to.

Memento Mori wrote:Pairing a 7800X3D and 1080Ti would be a hilarious combo though.

Dewit.jpg

New pc bits :datass:

I'm so happy with my system, it just eats up anything I throw at it at the moment.

Thank Christ I can unregister my old machine from the windows account. No buying another cheap key.

Xeno wrote:Thank Christ I can unregister my old machine from the windows account. No buying another cheap key.

I didn't know that was possible.

Ironhide wrote:
Xeno wrote:Thank Christ I can unregister my old machine from the windows account. No buying another cheap key.

I didn't know that was possible.

I heard about it just before windows 11 was announced. Log on to you microsoft account and see what devices are registered to you. select it and there is an option to remove the device and unlink it from the account. If you have a retail key you can then activate the key on the new system you have, no mess.

I have to admit building in the case was really simple compared to the ball ache building in other SFF cases due to the integrated power supply and AIO. Expensive but a lot of the headache is taken care of for you. Worth the £350 tbh.

The case has some Tardis features. It can fit a 4 slot card.

I'm getting the itch to build a new PC, this time for for the living room and have come up with the below.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Jt8mvj

Although the prices are seemingly in line with inflation from my last big upgrade five years ago (I think I definitely over paid for the i7 9700K at the time), they're still pretty strawberry floating high!

I could definitely save a bit of money on the motherboard but I believe the B650 can be used for the next lot of Ryzen CPUs so I figured it is still a decent idea to keep that as an option.

I can also save a lot of money by just repurposing my 3070 instead of getting a new 4070 Super (or any graphics card), and waiting for either AMD's new releases this year, or more likely see if Nvidia's 5000 series will be any good next year. My 3070 is still less than three years old after all and I try to only upgrade a GPU after about four years of use.

My ultimate, money is ~~no object~~ a reasonable object aim might actually be to separate out what my desktop does into two separate, small devices - this gaming dedicated SFF build in the living room and a Mac Mini dedicated to documents, web browsing, and photo editing once Apple get around to putting the M3 chip into them.

I've been thinking about the living room gaming PC concept, but I just don't think windows is there yet.

When (if?) Valve open up Steam OS from the Deck and it becomes something you can put on a normal PC then I might dive in.

Have you looked at the steam link thing. They discontinued it, but you can still pick them up from CEX.

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?id= ... position=9

The Steam Link was a great but of kit, especially as they practically gave them away! I think both of mine cost a tenner.

Could you not boot a PC directly into Big Picture Mode? I found this on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments ... ure%20Mode.

Winckle wrote:I've been thinking about the living room gaming PC concept, but I just don't think windows is there yet.

When (if?) Valve open up Steam OS from the Deck and it becomes something you can put on a normal PC then I might dive in.

Yeah I think a desktop Steam OS is several years away if it exists at all. Big Picture mode should do a lot of the heavy lifting for using Windows though. Plus there is the potential secret weapon of using the Steam Deck as a controller to navigate any annoying menus. :shifty:

The bigger obstacle for me is definitely the overall cost. That build isn't far off what I might expect to spend on a very good desktop PC in 2024 considering what I spent previously, but I guess there is something a bit weird about spending potentially three to four times the cost of a PS5 for a dedicated gaming machine to sit within a TV cabinet.

Bertie wrote:Have you looked at the steam link thing. They discontinued it, but you can still pick them up from CEX.

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?id= ... position=9

I already have a Steam Deck and Dock that pretty much covers this! :slol:

I think the appeal of a decent machine right by the TV comes from streaming still having a few annoying quirks and things like the Steam Dock not supporting my racing wheel (last time I checked anyway), plus the fact that you can actually build something that looks half way acceptable for a living room these days.

(PCGT VI) It's not just about hardware

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