Computer Nerds - What are you running?

[MegaChar]

On 1/21/2019 at 8:19 AM, DailyDi said:

Gamers and tech nerds unite! What hardware are you running?

 

I'm using:

Intel Core i7-8700K 7th Gen Processor.
32 GB Ballistix Tactical Gaming Ram.
Samsung 970 Pro NVME SSD drive.
EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Graphics.
 

I think your the only one thats got better specs then my laptop does. Though i could upgrads the CPU into a Intel I-9 or a Intel Xeon E3 using the same watage as the current CPU. Not ready to shell out 700-900 bucks yet. Everything else is maxed out other then the harddrive.

 

[gmcchamp99]

Right now I'm running with an AMX FX 6100 six core processor, 32GB of ram, Two GTX 1060 6GB graphics cards in SLI and a 500GB Samsung SSD drive with Windows 7 Ultimate all housed in a really old Rocket Fish brand Server style ATX case that i bought from Best Buy probably 10+ years ago!  

[KyleABDL]

i try to keep a modest rig of 1080p 60fps with upgrades available, dont like swapping for the latest and greatest everytime something better comes along. 

i5 8400, 16GB ram, RX580, 1TB HD 7200 rpm 6gb write. 

garbo 1080p 60hz monitor, doesnt even have an hdmi plug. 

i know my next two upgrades will probably be an external ssd and a newer monitor but im not up for paying more than 100 ea, so ill stick with what i have for now and wait for both to drop in price. 

im super jelly of people with 1080s or rtxs, but at the same time im like "is it worth it" i guess if you game at 4k.

[julio]

Xeon E5-2650v3, 64GB DDR4 ECC RAM, GTX 1080, 3TB SSD space, 6TB HDD space.  This is my home workstation. ???

[dl_ashlee]

I7-4790, 16GB, R290, 512GB SSD OS Drive, 2TB SSD for Games (grabbed it when they were normally going for $450, got it for $300), 512GB SSD for extras (was my games drive previously). It's in a Corsair Air 240 case. LG 29" Freesync ultrawide and a 27" Viewsonic secondary monitor (also Freesync, got it before the ultrawides were the thing to have), both mounted to the wall. Had a Logitech Brown Mech Keyboard, but it died on me, found an "AZIO" Mech keyboard on sale, gave it a chance and its been in use now about 6 months. Been through both a G700 and a G700S wireless mice, both lasted about 1.5 years before the middle click stopped working. Getting another G700/S was to expensive (got the previous 2 at ~$50 on sale), found the G602 on sale, so grabbed it, hoping this one doesn't have the same middle click failure. Just replaced my Corsair Vegance 2000 wireless headset as they were well worn.  Got the Steelseries Arctis 7 on sale for $99, if you want all day/night wireless gaming headset, these are it as I haven't actually tested them in a single session, but they claim 24hr battery.  They have yet to die on me in a single night gaming session (longest session is probably about 8 hours). 

12U rack, that houses my 4U Unraid NAS (18TB and an external 8TB backup drive, most my TV/Movie media I don't consider important enough to backup), my main computer and a Cisco 24 port PoE managed gigabit switch (got 2x of them free from work), a PieHole, need to run cabling up to my room to move the ER-X and modem to the rack (also the modem specific UPS that allows me 4 hours of internet when the power goes out). Also need to reorganize the rack, so I can fit the UPS on it. Our townhouse is only 1000sqft, so a single UAP-AC-LR covers the house (mounted in coat closet as its pretty much dead center of the house.

The Unraid NAS houses dockers that include Plex, SABNZBd, Sonarr, UniFi controller, Crashplan Pro, OpenVPN server and several others I don't keep always running, use them as needed.  It also runs some VMs for testing purposes.  

Last tech thing I can think of right now is I have a Pixel 2 XL.  

[julio]

dl_ashlee - your home IT setup sounds a lot like mine.  I don't have the racks or 24 port PoE switches, but I do have a 10 port PoE switch, probably from the same line.  My home network runs in tiers at 1Gb and 10Gb, with VLAN segmentation, multiple routers, and a dedicated WiFi network for security.

[id0ntknow]

I just got my vacuum from amazon this week, and intend to get all the dust out of my computer. Other than using an anti-static wristband, is there anything I need to do for preventing damage to components?

I am also thinking of trying to build a better gaming pc from the ground up, since my current one is a little old. Does anyone here know of a resource that can assist in this process? I've messed up my current build years ago due to bad eyesight, and plugging something into the wrong space on the old motherboard. I also don't know how to go about moving all the files from the old pc to the new one either. I saw a program at Bestbuy called PC Mover, but was told that it isn't good for moving game files, which I'd like to keep if at all possible.

Here are my thoughts for what I want in this new computer, if anyone is interested.
1) Either a midsize or fullsize case with a see through side plate (I would like LED lighting as well)
2) A SSD for Windows, and possibly for some of my games too (current main drive is 2TB HDD w/ 2TB HDD backup)
3) 16GB minimum DDR4 RAM (for faster speed than my current DDR3)
4) An AMD processor at least 4.2Ghz with 8 eight cores (similar to my current at least)
5) Some type of water cooler (can these be mounted with everything inside the case? My current one has the fans on the outside, which looks ugly as heck to me.)

I can't think of anything else right now, but if anyone has questions or info for me, feel free to PM me. Thanks a bunch to all the people who are smarter than me about this stuff.

[Mars.inDiapers]

On 2/16/2019 at 10:17 PM, id0ntknow said:

 

It could very well be the dust preventing proper cooling. The FX series CPUs are known to run hot, especially the one you have, with its 220 watts of TDP (one test that I've seen presented power consumption measurement of an FX-9590 based machine; results were 62 watts at idle, 291 watts with CPU only load, no overclock... ouch), and as per AMD specs, maximum core temperature allowed is 57°C (134.6°F) , so not only you need a monster of a power supply and VRMs, but beefy cooling as well, and if your case is anything but pristine, lack of airflow and hence CPU thermal throttling sure is a possibility.

Now, if you want to transfer to new hardware without having to reinstall everything, there are a few options and things to consider.

First one depends on what sort of OS are you running:

1) If you're running linux distro or hackintosh.... well I doubt that's the case. If it was, you'd need not ask here for advice

2) If you're running windows 7, you need to get Windows 10, because a) microsoft support for 7 is about to end, b) while it's not impossible to install Windows 7 on new AMD Zen or Intel Lake platforms, its is necessary to jump through some hoops to do that, and I doubt you'd want to be going through that. In which case you'll need to be reinstalling your games anyway.

3) If you're running windows 8/8.1, you need to get Windows 10, because 8/8.1 is just rubbish. Ditto on the games reinstalling.

4) If you're running windows 10, it may be as simple as unplugging your boot drive from your old computer and plugging it into the new one AND transferring your Windows license, because, and someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but from what I know, it's tied to the motherboard. How to Transfer Windows 10 License . If you have an OEM license, it may not be possible and you might need a new one. I'd suggest retail version, not OEM.

Transferring boot drive from HDD to SSD may be more tricky. There are tools to clone drives, one I've just google is EaseUs free partition software which claims is compatible with windows 10 (GPT and all that) and can clone from bigger HDD to smaller SSD (provided the used space on all the partitions relevant for windows OS is less than the SSD capacity), but I have no experience with it so I can't recommend or not recommned it. I will be probably trying it soon; will come back with more info then. I've used clonezilla with success, but it was from smaller drive to a bigger one, on an MBR table and with windows 7, so none of that applies here.

It may very well be less painful to simply do a fresh windows installation on a new machine with the new ssd already in it, transfer the license, and then just  reinstall the games and transfer the save files and other irreplacable data. Unless you have a very specific reason for wanting to transfer complete game installations to a new machine.

 

As for your hardware requirements,
RAM: all new desktop platforms use DDR4, the only differences are 1) number of RAM channels, dual channel on mainstream platforms, quad channel on High-End Dektop (HEDT) platforms (Intel Skylake-X or AMD Threadripper). You want a gaming PC, so don't bother with HEDT, there's no benefit; quite the contrary. 2) Supported RAM frequencies and RAM overclock capabilities. Unless you know what you're doing, I would leave that well alone, just see what kind of DDR4 frequency the CPU you pick supports and leave it at that, and of course get RAM that supports that frequency or maybe a step or two higher. Don't spend too much on superfast RAM, especially if you're not going to do a manual overclock.

SSD: Get a motherboard that has an M.2 slot and an M.2 SSD. Less cable management to bother with. For games it's not really necessary for the M.2 SSD to be NVMe and SATA3 will do just fine (and be cheaper as well), but make sure the board you pick does support SATA3 on the M.2 slot(s). Some do, some don't. If you don't mind spending extra, might as well go with NVMe. Can't go wrong with Samsung 970 EVO, or 970 PRO if you absolutely have to have the extra lifespan of MLC flash, which double the lifespan of equal size 970 EVO, which uses TLC flash. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

CPU: This is where there's a kind of a problem, since there is currently no AMD chip that would match your requirements. Only one that comes closest is the most expensive mainstream platform AMD chip, the Ryzen 7 2700X with 8 cores @ 3.7GHz and maximum boost of 4.2 GHz. (Note: this may change when 3rd generation Ryzen is released). But the problem is rather with your requirements than with what AMD offers.

You see, the architectures (bulldozer / piledriver) on which the AMD FX CPUs were based are vastly different from the Zen, Zen+ and the upcoming Zen2 architectures that are (or will be) the basis of the first, respectively second and third generation of Ryzen CPUs.

First issue is the core count. AMD has been a bit misleading with the core count of the FX chips (there's even a class action lawsuit against AMD regarding core count). The FX chips had two, three or four modules, rather than discrete cores, and each module had two integer cores (for processing, you guessed it, integers), but only one floating point core per module, and a shared level 2 cache per module. This unusual architecture meant that where floating point performance mattered, they had effectively half the core count than advertised, and many applications saw the FX quad, hexa and octa core chips as being 2core/4thread, 3core/6thread or 4core/8thread chips respectively.

AMD claimed this architecture was good for high clock speeds (which it inarguably is; with the FX-8350/ FX-8370 currently holding the world record in overclocking at 8794.33 MHz or 8722.78 MHz respectively, depending who you ask: https://valid.x86.fr/records.html , https://hwbot.org/benchmark/cpu_frequency/halloffame. There's also the one with Celeron 352 in the top 10, which is not a coincidence; I'll get to that later), but they had very poor IPC (instructions per cycle), which resulted in overall poor performance compared to contemporary Intel processors. And it's super ironic, because in the early 2000s, Intel had the exact same problems with their Netburst architecture - high clock speeds, rubbish IPC, shitty performance, completely got rekt by contemporary AMD chips with much lower clocks (and lower TDP and heat output), but waaay superior IPC. That Celeron 352, figuring on the top 10 overclock list, clocked at 8543.7MHz, was based on this Netburst architecture. Why would AMD make the exact same mistake with the bulldozer and piledriver? Beats me, but they did.

But that's all gone with the brand new Zen architectures, so going from "eight core", 4.7-5GHz FX-9590 to, say, a Ryzen 5 2500x, with "only" 6cores (12 thread with simultaneous multithreading on) and a stock clock speed at "mere" 3.6 GHz (and a 4.0GHz boost clock) may not seem like an upgrade, but the benchmarks don't lie; the Ryzen 2500x will absolutely destroy the FX, and it will do it while drawing third of the power. That brings us to your next demand, water cooler, and that is that you don't need one. If you can afford the luxury, sure, go for it, but if you look at tests done by reputable tech channels such as jayztwocents, linus tech tips, bitwit, and many others (except The Verge - please avoid any "advice" they give like plague; also spread the word), you'll see that CPU liquid cooling, especially closed loop coolers (AIOs) don't offer much better thermal performance compared to quality air coolers such as Noctua. I have a noctua cooler on my CPU. They're excellent. The main advantage of liquid I'd say is the flexibility of radiator placement. Most AIOs use Asetek pump/block combo. Don't buy AIO liquid coolers that use 4th generation Asetek unit or older; I have one and the pump noise is unbearable. To my bad luck, the one I have is on a hybrid graphics card that I can't RMA and I can't replace the cooling as easily as it would be to replace a CPU cooler (but I'm going to have to). 

As for the fan placement on a radiator, if you want to, you can either mount the radiator on an air exhaust port and install fans from the inside (to push air through the rad), or install the radiator at the intake port on a case, typically the front, and have the fans mounted from inside to pull the air through the rad. In that scenario it would be in your interest to make sure there's no gap between the fan frame and the radiator frame through which the fan could suck in air, partially bypassing the radiator and lowering its cooling efficinecy. This obviously also applies to a scenario where fans push air through the radiator, but to a lesser degree. That should take care of the 'ugly visible fans' problem, but be wary that when mounting a rad on exhaust (typically case top) would also require you also install some intake fans (that would usually be on the front, but it depends on what type of case layout and size you want; there are many, you would need to specify what you want to get any advice), and mounting a radiator (for a CPU) at the front (intake) would mean higher ambient temperature inside the case and as a result, higher GPU temps, which will affect its ability to boost its clock and thereby affect graphics performance. If you buy a hybrid graphics cards and install both CPU and GPU radiators at the front/intake of the case with properly fitted pull fans, you'll be fine, as long as you have a case with separate chamber for the power supply (so it doesn't have to breathe the warm air from the CPU and GPU. I don't see how having a radiator in plain sight, instead of a fan, is prettier, but its your taste, not mine ... If that's what you do, consider buying a motherboard that has proper heatsinks on the chipset and more importantly, on the voltage regulator modules (VRMs) for the CPU. 

 

[WetDad]

Nobody has mentioned the need for a great graphics card if you are gaming. That is essential! All the Ghz & GB won't matter if you are using a lowly Intel graphics chip that comes on the motherboard. AMD has a new high end card they are pushing- it's worth a look. NVIDIA has been around for a long time and their cards are well respected in the gaming world. Forget the knock offs- they cost almost as much, and have a greater risk.

A great place to look for reviews on coolers, cases, SSD and all that other stuff is http://tomshardware.com. It will be worth your time.

[id0ntknow]

I thought I'd give a little update of some things that I'm looking at so far. Haven't bought anything yet, just trying to find some stuff and price check.
1) MOBO - Asus PRIME B350-PLUS
2) CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 8 Core, 16 thread 4350 Mhz
3) PSU - Thermaltake SP- 850W
4) RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 (2 sticks)
5) Memory - Samsung 500GB SSD, WD 2 or 3 TB HDD
6) Case - Thermaltake View 31 Mid Tower
7) GPU - Gigabyte GEFORCE RTX 2060
8) Cooling - ThermalTake FN CL-W157-PL12SW-A FLOE RIING RGB 240

[Mars.inDiapers]

1) MB: there are better options for that price, one, boards with newer B450 chipset are almost the same price and will support Zen2, so that's a better option for future upgrades

Anyway, board you picked is a full-size ATX. Do you need that? Wouldn't Micro-ATX size be enough? How many PCIe cards do you plan to install, this board is supporting 2-way CrossFire which you don't need, (EDITED, my bad, posted info about different board before), no SLI, but the graphics card you picked doesn't support SLI anyway. Not to mention, SLI doesn't always scale up very well, and unless you're going for the absolute pinnacle performance, it's far better and cheaper to just get a GPU that's one tier higher.

Also this board has two conventional PCI slots (have a specific need for that?), no analog audio 7.1 output, no USB type C, M.2 supports both SATA and NVMe which is nice, only four fan headers ...

For the similar price, I'd pick , ASRock Fatal1ty B450 gaming K4 or better yet, ASRock B450 Steel Legend (available sizes either a full size ATX, or microATX), beefier VRMs (if you get into overclocking later, although if you want to get more serious about that, an X470 board would be more suitable option - but also more expensive), more fan headers, four of which support up to 24 watt fans or pumps, two M.2 slots, one supporting PCIe x4 NVMe, other supoorting SATA 3 and PCIe x2 NVMe, USB type C, reinforced PCIe slots, 7.1 audio with the Steel Legend. If you're getting a high-end CPU sku, might as well get a proper board.

 

2) CPU - highest AMD mainstream platform SKU at the moment, can't really say anything bad about it. Do you plan on overclocking? If so, see what I had to say about getting a board with more VRM phases.

 

7) I'll jump to GPU, this is a mid-range GPU that you're pairing here with a high-end CPU. That doesn't make a lot of sense for gaming. Going down a tier with a CPU, to a Ryzen 5 2600x, and one tier up with the GPU, to RTX 2070, would make a more balanced system.

 

3) PSU you picked is quality unit, but 850 watts is total overkill for this configuration. Even 750 watts is an overkill. 650 watts is still way more than necessary for 2700x and 2060 at stock speeds. Your CPU has 105 watts TDP, and your picked GPU has 150 watts TDP (2070 has 185 watts TDP). With some overclocking headroom and other components power consumption in mind, I'd get either a 650 watt 80+ platinum certified, or a 750 watt 80+ Gold certified power supply. This power supply is only 80 Plus Bronze certified and it's not fully modular (fully modular power supply is of course not necessary, but it's nice-to-have, and saves  a lot of work if, for example you need to RMA you power supply, or you go a tier higher with the same brand. I've recently upgraded my power supply and because it was fully modular and the new one I bought from the same brand, I didn't have to re-do any of the cabling, just unplugged the old and plugged in the new.

https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator When I put the parts you picked in here, added some LED strips, bit of overclock and overvolt on both CPU and GPU, and set the usage on 24/7 gaming, result was 529 watts at load, 650 watts recommended. Even if you keep the 2700X and go for RTX2070 and overclock and overvolt, 650watts is still good with some headrom, although then you might as well get a 750. Remember, that's with 24/7 usage in games and overclocking + overvolting, which does increase power draw. Are you going to do that? 

The reason why you don't want to go absolutely over the top for a PSU is that they are most efficient when utilized between 20 to 90 percent load. An 850 watt power supply will be below 20 percent load when your computer is at idle. 

4) RAM - nothing wrong with that, just make sure it's 3000MHz or higher, but not way too much higher - again, planning on overclocking the memory? If not, 3000 MHz will be plenty. Personally I wouldn't memory overclocking, it has diminishing returns, so as I said, don't spend too much on memory that can clock way higher than normal memory controller frequency (on 2700X that's , i believe 2933 MHz - or is it 2666 MHz? - someone please correct me if im wrong here). 

5) Storage - samsung and WD have many product lines, so .. a brand and capacity doesn't say much. Samsung 970 EVO will be great for OS, productivity apps and projects, perhaps some more demanding games or games you play most often (can't think of any that would come close to utiliting even SATA SSD speed, let alone NVMe SSD speed, but it will reduce load times compared to HDD), WD Blue HDD for everything else.

6) have no experience with that, so.. from the looks of it, where the dust filter is, there is only a signle-sided front intake, I'd be worried about restricted airflow. It does have a bottom intake as well though, which kinda makes one wonder what even is the purpose of the front fan slots ...

That's the thing I hate about PC cases is they always go with what's trendy, so in the mid to late 2000s there were all these crazy gimmicky case designs, like these god awful abominations:

 

(no idea why they call the first one iCute, it wasn't cute at all, it was actually super cringy.
I fucking hated these, whenever I saw one of these severe cases of uglies, I wanted to smash 'em with a baseball bat)

... then few years later after that, case manufactures got a little more sensible for a while again and we got some good, functional desings, with decent airflow.

And now everybody is crazy again.

This time, it's tempered glass EVERYWHERE.

Because hey, screw the airflow! Who gives a damn about the case allowing good amount of air through.

What matters is that it allows good amount of  LIGHT through! Because....

 

 

 RGB!!!! 

If you don't have RGB now, you're nobody. If your computer case has less light sources than an average Las Vegas casino, throw it in the dumpster and go sit in the corner of shame for a few days. And once you've done that, keep your head down whenever you're in public, and pretend that you don't exist.

It's just pure cancer... like, is this a computer, or a christmas tree now? All those color shifting lights, what good for is it anyway? It's distracting, it's annoying, it adds power consumption and a heat source inside the case, as if there wasn't enough of it already... 

One place where RGB makes sense is keyboard, as long as you can configure specific colors to specific keys, which may be advantageous when you're looking for like specific function bound keys while gaming in a dark room. But other than that ... ugh.

8.)  this cooler will be more than enough for the ryzen. I can't find what generation pump it uses (it's definitely Asetek though, as most AIOs are). I'd just get the newest NZXT Kraken of appropriate size.

 

[id0ntknow]

4 hours ago, DiapersOfTheStorm said:

1) MB - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144189

2) CPU - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819113497

3) PSU - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139233

4) RAM - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820236165

5) Storage - SSD https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147674
HDD https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822235011
(What's the difference in WD colors? I've seen Black, Green, Blue, and Red before)

6) Case - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119367&ignorebbr=1
(Where are you supposed to put optical drives? I want a CD ROM & Blu-Ray Drive, but don't see where to put them)

7) GPU - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487415

8) Cooling - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106505

If you don't have RGB now, you're nobody. If your computer case has less light sources than an average Las Vegas casino, throw it in the dumpster and go sit in the corner of shame for a few days. And once you've done that, keep your head down whenever you're in public, and pretend that you don't exist.

Thanks for the laugh. Hopefully I've chosen more compatible parts this time.

Edit: I've done a little bit more looking around, and have seen that many case manufactures are doing away with 5.25" bays for optical drives. Would it be better to just go with a case with more airflow/ cooling potential, and get a USB DVD & Blu-Ray drive instead?

[Mars.inDiapers]

That's a very good config now and should give you good gaming performance at 1440p resolution. Rmx power supplies are of great quality and 750 watts is more than plenty with a generous headroom for any single AM4 or LGA1151 CPU & single GPU system with overclocking. 

Board is nice too, unless you find yourself needing more usb rear ports, but there are extenders for that which  plug into board headers, EVGA makes top quality nvidia graphics cards, for overclocking I would perhaps pick one that has EVGA's iCX technology to keep temperatures in check (not an issue without oc, especially if you have a good airflow case). 

Selection of cases with an optical drive bay is growing thinner by day, it's a dying format, optical disc backups aren't worth it - normal discs degrade over time and archival grade discs are more expensive per GB than hard drives, films are on Netflix and operating systems, games and apps are pretty much all distributed online or on flash with it being dirt cheap. Unless you have a collection of music and movies on CDs, DVD and Blu-ray, you may as well leave the optical drive out completely. 

 

[id0ntknow]

10 minutes ago, DiapersOfTheStorm said:

That's a very good config now and should give you good gaming performance at 1440p resolution. Rmx power supplies are of great quality and 750 watts is more than plenty with a generous headroom for any single AM4 or LGA1151 CPU & single GPU system with overclocking. 

Board is nice too, unless you find yourself needing more usb rear ports, but there are extenders for that which  plug into board headers, EVGA makes top quality nvidia graphics cards, for overclocking I would perhaps pick one that has EVGA's iCX technology to keep temperatures in check (not an issue without oc, especially if you have a good airflow case). 

Selection of cases with an optical drive bay is growing thinner by day, it's a dying format, optical disc backups aren't worth it - normal discs degrade over time and archival grade discs are more expensive per GB than hard drives, films are on Netflix and operating systems, games and apps are pretty much all distributed online or on flash with it being dirt cheap. Unless you have a collection of music and movies on CDs, DVD and Blu-ray, you may as well leave the optical drive out completely. 

 

Thanks again for all the info. I think I might just grab a USB Blu-Ray drive so I can watch my movies, and just in case I need to install software from disc like my current Mobo. Hopefully soon I can start getting parts, and building. As for the case, I'm looking at this now: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811173034