General PC Help Thread 2

[Cuttooth]

I got bored during lockdown and doubled my RAM to 32GB because the price had plummeted from when I originally bought the 16GB kit.

[Sandy]

My question is If I was to spend approx £700 on a new Machine, maybe a Ryzen 7 3700 and 32GB DDR4 RAM, but stick with my old GTX1080 do you think I will see a good improvement? Or should I wait and then upgrade the whole lot to a new system and new GFX card?

Not sure if there are any sites I could use to test out a potential spec/performance?

Any help appreciated

Cheers

I guess it depends how long you're willing to wait for an upgrade. Zen 3 is due to launch this year which will give you the final CPU to support DDR4 RAM and probably the AM4 socket. The CPUs after that will support DDR5 RAM and will most likely require a new socket/motherboard but I'm speculating. There's a high chance that Zen 4 won't launch until 2022 for desktop CPUs so it would be quite a wait.

I think you'll get the most value for money from getting Zen 3 when it comes out later this year: DDR4 RAM will be cheap, it'll be compatible with all 500 series motherboards and some 400 series, the 400s will be cheap and you'll probably break even in about 3 days from electricity bill savings as your current CPU uses enough power to sustain a small town.

Your 1080 is fine for 1440@60 for now. There will be games where it doesn't manage it but this is normally on games that are notoriously badly optimised.

[Albear]

THanks Sandy. When you say Zen 3/4 is that a new Ryzen Chip coming? Was also looking at maybe an Intel Core i7-10700K

My Electricity bill has always been pretty high, I wonder if my PC is the culprit! I "obtained" it from work. Think it was meant to be a Server back in the day.

Are there any sites that let me buy a prebuilt machine to my spec but without the GFX card? Ive looked at Scan and Overclockers but they both seem to insist I buy a GFX card with their configurable systems.

[That's not a growth]

There should be options on both to go without a GPU. Which config you trying on?

[Albear]

Ive tried the custom PC configurator on both sites but it won't let me remove the GFX card. I'm becoming my dad.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-tech-labs-intel-10th-gen-comet-lake-midi-tower-gaming-pc-configurator-fs-01y-tl.html#t=a2b3e6g2j+o6p2q2

https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator/3xs-gamer-1660-super-intel

[Victor Mildew]

Albear I installed a Justin Timberlake screensaver and now the pc won't turn on can you come and help your dad x

[Albear]

"Ive tried clicking the link, and creating an account, but it won't let me join your Zoom"
Dad, you don't need to create an account, just click the link in the invite and you will connect
"But I don't have an account, Ive tried clicking the link, and creating but it won't let me join the Zoom"
Dad I'll call you
"It's asking if I want to install something, I've clicked yes"
give me a second and I'll call you
"It says I need Google installed, I thought I had google already"

[Victor Mildew]

My parents - we haven't seen you in ages!

Me - that's because when I visit all you do is ask me to fix your computers

Parents - that's not true, come around this evening!

*I go around*

Dad sticks a broken laptop in front of me an strawberry floats off yo the pub, mum sits at desktop pc asking me to 'download a dvd' with all her photos on (make a strawberry floating video slideshow she meant).

[Ironhide]

Are there any sites that let me buy a prebuilt machine to my spec but without the GFX card? Ive looked at Scan and Overclockers but they both seem to insist I buy a GFX card with their configurable systems.

Building your own is extremely relatively easy nowadays if you use https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ as it tells you about any compatibility issues with your selected parts.

I always bought prebuilds until getting my current machine earlier this year (I chose the parts, my brother built it) and don't think I will ever again.

[Albear]

My parents - we haven't seen you in ages!

Me - that's because when I visit all you do is ask me to fix your computers

Parents - that's not true, come around this evening!

*I go around*

Dad sticks a broken laptop in front of me an strawberry floats off yo the pub, mum sits at desktop pc asking me to 'download a dvd' with all her photos on (make a strawberry floating video slideshow she meant).

Yes!

I once drove from Yeovil to St Albans for a family gathering. 2.5 hours in the car, and immediatly on arrival I was asked to look at my Sister in law's locked Ipad and my dad's non connecting wireless speaker, whilst the rest of them sat around drinking and eating.

I pulled a proper strop that day and sulked for hours afterwards

Imagine what it must be like for a Doctor!

[Albear]

Corsair Obsidian 750D
1x ASUS PRIME A320M-K
1xAMD Ryzen 7 3700X, Zen 2, 8-core with SMT, 3.6GHz, 4.4GHz Turbo
1xbe quiet! Pure Rock 2 - Quiet Air Cooler
1x32GB (2x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX - 3200MHz
1xCorsair CV550, Non-Modular, 80PLUS - Single GPU
1x1TB Intel 660p NVMe PCIe 3.0, 1800MB/s Read, 1800MB/s Write, 150K IOPS
1xNo OS Required

= £1057.16

Crikey it's expensive still. Even without a GFX card.

[Albear]

Are there any sites that let me buy a prebuilt machine to my spec but without the GFX card? Ive looked at Scan and Overclockers but they both seem to insist I buy a GFX card with their configurable systems.

Building your own is extremely relatively easy nowadays if you use https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ as it tells you about any compatibility issues with your selected parts.

I always bought prebuilds until getting my current machine earlier this year (I chose the parts, my brother built it) and don't think I will ever again.

I might have to have a look at that, thanks Ironhide. Looks like there's about a £200 premium to build the thing.

Urgh, I hate building PCs

[Ironhide]

Are there any sites that let me buy a prebuilt machine to my spec but without the GFX card? Ive looked at Scan and Overclockers but they both seem to insist I buy a GFX card with their configurable systems.

Building your own is extremely relatively easy nowadays if you use https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ as it tells you about any compatibility issues with your selected parts.

I always bought prebuilds until getting my current machine earlier this year (I chose the parts, my brother built it) and don't think I will ever again.

I might have to have a look at that, thanks Ironhide. Looks like there's about a £200 premium to build the thing.

Urgh, I hate building PCs

The only real issue I had was getting sent a faulty motherboard which rather kindly destroyed every HDD connected to it (proper FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU moment that was).

[Jenuall]

Building PC's has been a doddle for years now, it really isn't that tricky at all. It's basically plug and play at this point - everything is pretty clearly labelled, most connectors will only fit in one place etc.

But with the levels of cash involved I can still understand why some folks don't want to take the risk!

[Winckle]

Albear, you can skip the cooler if you're choosing the 3700x, I have that CPU and the stock cooler is very good.

[Jenuall]

That's a good shout, stock coolers aren't half bad these days and if you aren't planning on playing it in the desert sun or overclocking it then you can probably stick with it.

[Albear]

Yeah, Just looking at the PCpartpicker site and things have certainly moved on a bit in the past 10 years!

A Modular PSU...what witchcraft is this?

[Albear]

Albear, you can skip the cooler if you're choosing the 3700x, I have that CPU and the stock cooler is very good.

Sweet, thanks, wasn't too sure if needed so included just incase. Will remove.

[Winckle]

Also the case you've chosen is a full tower huge thing, I'd look at midtowers. With the lack of optical drives these days you can save space by getting a smaller case.

[Ironhide]

I only went for a non stock cooler because I needed a low profile one to fit in my choice of case (Raijintek Metis Evo).

That plus I forgot the 9700K doesn't actually include one due to it being unlocked.