Any PC Enthusiasts?

[Xenophylia]

Yeah- for those unaware, they offer at least one free game a week- sometimes two. You have to download their launcher (much like STEAM) which is no big deal. GTA V is by far the biggest title they've ever given away though, as most are indy titles. I've accumulated quite a library of free games from them. The "free" game(s) change every thursday at 11am EST so its worth checking out weekly.

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[Momus]

That price that weight might as well get a desktop.

I splurged and sold my old laptop for $1200 cash and got the Sager laptop above, comes with 2070 super, i7-10875H 8 cores for $1466 no tax. Great deal.

Some benchmark: Time Spy, Fire Strike, UserBenchmark
Cinebench R20 Multicore 4242 That's about the same as AMD 4800H Renoir! They said Intel is dead, clearly not if you are plugged in XD

Getting close to 2080 mobile performance or 2070 desktop, not too shabby.

 

[Xenophylia]

2070 Super in a laptop....wow...

 

[zNoodlez]

I splurged and sold my old laptop for $1200 cash and got the Sager laptop above, comes with 2070 super, i7-10875H 8 cores for $1466 no tax. Great deal.

Some benchmark: Time Spy, Fire Strike, UserBenchmark
Cinebench R20 Multicore 4242 That's about the same as AMD 4800H Renoir! They said Intel is dead, clearly not if you are plugged in XD

Getting close to 2080 mobile performance or 2070 desktop, not too shabby.

Must be hot as hell while running games.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

How long does the battery last when the 2070 is active? Like 15 minutes? lol.

 

[Momus]

Must be hot as hell while running games.

Not bad with liquid metal paste to CPU and icy diamond to GPU. 45 on idle. About 70C average on CPU stress test with undervolt.

How long does the battery last when the 2070 is active? Like 15 minutes? lol.

1h top running super throttled on battery lol. Power draw is set 55-150 watt on performance mode.

 

[lord999]

Not bad with liquid metal paste to CPU and icy diamond to GPU. 45 on idle. About 70C average on CPU stress test with undervolt.


1h top running super throttled on battery lol. Power draw is set 55-150 watt on performance mode.

Sager's are not a household name, but they definitely are a LAN name. They make machines that they don't cheap out on any of the components, they really do test their designs for power and heat management, and if you manage to screw one up, their support is excellent. My main work machine is a Puget Systems HPE box, but my very first and second performance laptops were Sagers. Only reason I got a EVGA the last go around was due to the government contract, which while good, were not as good as the Sager I had.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I owned a Sager back in 2001 through Rx school. It was a fantastic machine. The size of a briefcase, but fantastic.

If it weren't for the good deal I got on the Asus last year ($799 for a 1660ti w/ 16gb ram, 1Tb SSD), I may have considered one. They are freaking baller.

 

[Momus]

Tech upgrades in 2020

• $1460 Sager 10875H (8 cores) + RTX 2070 super laptop. (sold old laptop for $1200)
• $437 144hz 34 inch ultrawide AOC monitor, upgrading from 100hz monitor (sold for $320)
• $950 75 inch TCL 6 Series 2020 - mini LED, QLED - wow this thing gets super bright for HDR content, inky black with VA panel - forget OLED burn in risk and low brightness, I am super happy with this TV. I sold my 50 inch Vizio 1080p for $200 (that poor sucker...)

Upcoming purchase? $1200-1300 RTX 3080 PC in horizon? NVIDIA stocks gonna hit $650 for sure lol.

Who is on spending spree because stocks have done nothing but up?

 

[ValeRx]

Tech upgrades in 2020

• $1460 Sager 10875H (8 cores) + RTX 2070 super laptop. (sold old laptop for $1200)
• $437 144hz 34 inch ultrawide AOC monitor, upgrading from 100hz monitor (sold for $320)
• $950 75 inch TCL 6 Series 2020 - mini LED, QLED - wow this thing gets super bright for HDR content, inky black with VA panel - forget OLED burn in risk and low brightness, I am super happy with this TV. I sold my 50 inch Vizio 1080p for $200 (that poor sucker...)

Upcoming purchase? $1200-1300 RTX 3080 PC in horizon? NVIDIA stocks gonna hit $650 for sure lol.

Who is on spending spree because stocks have done nothing but up?

I'm going with the Ryzen Zen3. It's going to demolish the Nvidia 30xx series along with intel 10xxx processor.

 

[Momus]

I'm going with the Ryzen Zen3. It's going to demolish the Nvidia 30xx series along with intel 10xxx processor.

I'm just waiting until a deal is up. I don't think new AMD gpu can beat 3000 series 7nm Nvidia chip easily.

Games have been single core dependent and still are. So, even if you get Intel, it's still on par if not better vs. AMD performance for gaming. For productivity, such as video rendering, AMD kills it. Intel has been stuck at 10nm for so long.

 

[ValeRx]

I'm just waiting until a deal is up. I don't think new AMD gpu can beat 3000 series 7nm Nvidia chip easily.

Games have been single core dependent and still are. So, even if you get Intel, it's still on par if not better vs. AMD performance for gaming. For productivity, such as video rendering, AMD kills it. Intel has been stuck at 10nm for so long.

I'm still going to wait for actual comparison once the product comes out next month to see if they're ACTUALLY as much better as they claim.

 

[pezdispenser]

Oh yeah, I forgot about this thread and posted in the advice for new grads. I got:

$269 Ryzen 7 3700X
$360 MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X 8GB
$95 ASRock B550M Pro4 Motherboard
$130 G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB DDR4 3600 CL16 RAM
$108 ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD
$35 Corsair Carbide 175R Case and $53 EVGA BQ 500W PSU
====
$1050

No, I decided not to wait for Zen3 because the R5 5600X is going to be $299 and the R7 5800X $449 (and no cooler), so I didn't think it was worth it over the $269 R7 3700X I got. But hey, if the stock market keeps going up at this rate, maybe I'll just upgrade again to Zen3 since I already have a B550 motherboard.

Intel has been stuck at 10nm for so long.

I thought they were still on 14nm?

 

[Momus]

Oh yeah, I forgot about this thread and posted in the advice for new grads. I got:

$269 Ryzen 7 3700X
$360 MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X 8GB
$95 ASRock B550M Pro4 Motherboard
$130 G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB DDR4 3600 CL16 RAM
$108 ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD
$35 Corsair Carbide 175R Case and $53 EVGA BQ 500W PSU
====
$1050

No, I decided not to wait for Zen3 because the R5 5600X is going to be $299 and the R7 5800X $449 (and no cooler), so I didn't think it was worth it over the $269 R7 3700X I got. But hey, if the stock market keeps going up at this rate, maybe I'll just upgrade again to Zen3 since I already have a B550 motherboard.

I thought they were still on 14nm?

That's correct. 14nm... lmao. Imagine once they perfected 10 or 7nm, how much lead they will have over AMD. Right now, it's 14nm hot mess but it can still "compete" with Amd 7nm.

 

[pezdispenser]

Oh yeah, I forgot about this thread and posted in the advice for new grads. I got:

$269 Ryzen 7 3700X
$360 MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X 8GB
$95 ASRock B550M Pro4 Motherboard
$130 G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB DDR4 3600 CL16 RAM
$108 ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD
$35 Corsair Carbide 175R Case and $53 EVGA BQ 500W PSU
====
$1050

No, I decided not to wait for Zen3 because the R5 5600X is going to be $299 and the R7 5800X $449 (and no cooler), so I didn't think it was worth it over the $269 R7 3700X I got. But hey, if the stock market keeps going up at this rate, maybe I'll just upgrade again to Zen3 since I already have a B550 motherboard.

So I won the Newegg lottery for the 'privilege' of paying the full price of $300 for an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. Is it worth it to upgrade from my 3700X? I'm using it to play games like Flight Simulator 2020.

 

[ValeRx]

So I won the Newegg lottery for the 'privilege' of paying the full price of $300 for an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. Is it worth it to upgrade from my 3700X? I'm using it to play games like Flight Simulator 2020.

I bought a 5600X at my local Microcenter. So now I've completed my new build but I can't seem to get ahold of a 3080. So for now I'm going to be rocking the 1070 I bought five years ago.

 

[pezdispenser]

No Microcenter near me unfortunately. I saw a 3070 in the Newegg lottery for $780! Radeon RX 6800 for $900 and 6800 XT for $1,030! Damn tariffs and supply and demand.

 

[Momus]

You guys need to be rocking 144hz 2k monitor at the minimum. I got aoc 34 inch 144hz.

 

[Xenophylia]

Yeah 144hz 2k seems to be a sweet spot. Looks great and actually possible to hit 144 fps without obscene hardware....a good balance.

 

[pezdispenser]

Nah Flight Sim only hits around 40fps on my system. I tried recording videos but that probably makes it even slower.

 

[Momus]

Nah Flight Sim only hits around 40fps on my system. I tried recording videos but that probably makes it even slower.

Time for 3090

 

[confettiflyer]

Nah Flight Sim only hits around 40fps on my system. I tried recording videos but that probably makes it even slower.

You don’t even need 60 fps on a flight sim (blasphemy! lol)

I really wanted to build a new rig this year with that newly announced “$329” RTX 3060 card for February, but that’s literally the worst idea ever... and good luck ever finding it. Used 1660’s on eBay are like $300-$500 right now.

 

[Momus]

You don’t even need 60 fps on a flight sim (blasphemy! lol)

I really wanted to build a new rig this year with that newly announced “$329” RTX 3060 card for February, but that’s literally the worst idea ever... and good luck ever finding it. Used 1660’s on eBay are like $300-$500 right now.

60 fps is like the absolute minimum for me. Game feels stupidly slow below that.

 

[confettiflyer]

60 fps is like the absolute minimum for me. Game feels stupidly slow below that.

Flight sim? Maybe on final approach or low altitude maneuvers, but I’ll take the fps hit for high/ultra. Guess it just depends how you like to play. Granted at 1080p you can get close with a 2080, my ancient rig runs it at ~30fps.

 

[Momus]

Flight sim? Maybe on final approach or low altitude maneuvers, but I’ll take the fps hit for high/ultra. Guess it just depends how you like to play. Granted at 1080p you can get close with a 2080, my ancient rig runs it at ~30fps.

On anything

I mean even a sh1t iphone does 60hz. It bothers the heck out of me the jitters/lags.

 

[confettiflyer]

On anything

I mean even a sh1t iphone does 60hz. It bothers the heck out of me the jitters/lags.

Oh I agree, but flight sim cockpit controls don’t come at you like a mash of counter terrorists, lol.

Ugh crypto needs to die and GPU prices need to come back to earth.

 

[ValeRx]

Oh I agree, but flight sim cockpit controls don’t come at you like a mash of counter terrorists, lol.

Ugh crypto needs to die and GPU prices need to come back to earth.

Crypto is part of it, the other part is scalpers. Reseller market on 3080 GPUs are crazy. You can buy a ROG STRIX (or really any brand at this point) 3080 for 929 and turn around and resell it to someone else for $1500.

 

[confettiflyer]

Crypto is part of it, the other part is scalpers. Reseller market on 3080 GPUs are crazy. You can buy a ROG STRIX (or really any brand at this point) 3080 for 929 and turn around and resell it to someone else for $1500.

I think it was crypto boom 1, crypto boom 2, component/memory shortages, now tariffs (a little), and organic demand from gamers and other professionals who spent 2020 stuck at home...perfect storm, sucks.

I’m eyeing the new 3060 coming out next month for a budget+ rig build (for “$329” lol) and my working assumption is that I won’t be able to get my hands on it for 6-8 months.

Debating flea bay for a 1060 in the meantime but even those prices are ++ right now.

 

[Sparda29]

Nah Flight Sim only hits around 40fps on my system. I tried recording videos but that probably makes it even slower.

Oh my god, people actually follow the approach vectors in games? I just dive bomb at the airport then circle around with flaps down at 170 and land somewhere near the gate.

 

[Sparda29]

I play SC2, lez go.
Rank: Masters in 1s and teams, archon GM. Currently 3s and 4s Master.
Join the channel PharmD when you log on. I got a PharmD squad, there's a PharmD that is GM, ranked 1v1 top 5 GM in 1 season.

Can I play? I'm Silver.

 

[lord999]

I think it was crypto boom 1, crypto boom 2, component/memory shortages, now tariffs (a little), and organic demand from gamers and other professionals who spent 2020 stuck at home...perfect storm, sucks.

I’m eyeing the new 3060 coming out next month for a budget+ rig build (for “$329” lol) and my working assumption is that I won’t be able to get my hands on it for 6-8 months.

Debating flea bay for a 1060 in the meantime but even those prices are ++ right now.

Why sacrifice? You are not in a cash crunch. Just get decent parts (PSU and mono especially) otherwise then swap the card when inventory comes although price increases are guaranteed.

I skipped the 2000 generation so this is my time to buy. Not a big problem with Puget Systems given they literally flew someone to Taiwan and came home with suitcases of cards. You pay for it as an end consumer, but there's inventory.

 

[Momus]

Why sacrifice? You are not in a cash crunch. Just get decent parts (PSU and mono especially) otherwise then swap the card when inventory comes although price increases are guaranteed.

I skipped the 2000 generation so this is my time to buy. Not a big problem with Puget Systems given they literally flew someone to Taiwan and came home with suitcases of cards. You pay for it as an end consumer, but there's inventory.

3080 or nothing

 

[pezdispenser]

I think it was crypto boom 1, crypto boom 2, component/memory shortages, now tariffs (a little), and organic demand from gamers and other professionals who spent 2020 stuck at home...perfect storm, sucks.

I’m eyeing the new 3060 coming out next month for a budget+ rig build (for “$329” lol) and my working assumption is that I won’t be able to get my hands on it for 6-8 months.

Debating flea bay for a 1060 in the meantime but even those prices are ++ right now.

$329 3060 would've been sweet but looks like a unicorn now.

You made me curious to check prices on ebay. The Radeon RX 5700 XT that I got for $360 now going for $600 used. Even saw a sold listing that says "If you buy this you will be shipped a photo printed out on a piece of paper only!"

 

[confettiflyer]

Why sacrifice? You are not in a cash crunch. Just get decent parts (PSU and mono especially) otherwise then swap the card when inventory comes although price increases are guaranteed.

I skipped the 2000 generation so this is my time to buy. Not a big problem with Puget Systems given they literally flew someone to Taiwan and came home with suitcases of cards. You pay for it as an end consumer, but there's inventory.

You’re right (as usual), I don’t think I’ve properly wrapped my head around it. I wanted to go team red on this build, but if I had an extended period of time sans GPU, I would just build with an i7 and rely on the integrated graphics until then.

Or just build it with Ryzen and eBay an old card. Build is for a non-gamer interested in starting, but rig will be 80% for photo/light video editing (hence the i7 vs i5 request).

 

[confettiflyer]

$329 3060 would've been sweet but looks like a unicorn now.

You made me curious to check prices on ebay. The Radeon RX 5700 XT that I got for $360 now going for $600 used. Even saw a sold listing that says "If you buy this you will be shipped a photo printed out on a piece of paper only!"

Holy hell. I’m cheap, I can afford it, but I couldn’t pay it on principle, but I get it.

I’m just going to let the idea of a $329 3060 diffuse out of my brain now...

 

[lord999]

You’re right (as usual), I don’t think I’ve properly wrapped my head around it. I wanted to go team red on this build, but if I had an extended period of time sans GPU, I would just build with an i7 and rely on the integrated graphics until then.

Or just build it with Ryzen and eBay an old card. Build is for a non-gamer interested in starting, but rig will be 80% for photo/light video editing (hence the i7 vs i5 request).

It's really hard to get out of the "poor student" mentality and that while you're totally fine at the higher level, you're always a bit cash poor due to being a responsible person. I see many of my former students still eating substandard food when they certainly afford better. Figuring out how to spend more to get more versus conservativism is a balance. I was just pointing out that for the amount of time you're stressing over it, you can spend. My personal rule is that I don't spend more than a couple hours thinking about wants if the cost is less than a day of takehome pay. The only reason I thought about 80 vs 90 which both were in my means was the generally bad track record of the 90s in the past which I declined in favor of an 80.

Ok, so you're not a hardcore gamer, that's cool. Don't listen to those who push the 3080 as it's for the ultra AAA experience. (For Flight Simulator, you're actually better off with Quadro). The generality is to get a 60 series if you don't care about future proofing and a 70 if you want a generation future proof. The secret is that supercomputing then and now drives the version control. So, Summit like Titan drove the architecture more than anything else. That's why the ray tracing started. It's nice for games when they start, but it was a requirement for DoE blast modeling. Not necessary for what 99% of gamers "want" and no real AAA utilizes that part of the API yet. It's kind of funny how much gamers subsidize those cards for us.

Build over buy, but I really would future proof my motherboard for an open socket and PSU (really recommend EVGA Platinum as I've used the same one for eight years and still strong). As for me, it's Puget Sound's premium all the way, because it is for work, but even if not, what else is money for in my case?

Whatever you do, don't buy a used graphics card from the 9 or 10 series (and debatably 20 series) at this point. They all are suspects for mining, so you're basically buying an ex-rental car that was abused. My last system lasted from the 9 series and costed around $4,500 with 100% part warranty for 5 years (just expired necessitating a new system purchase). This one cost $6,000 (Puget Sound Peak 4) and it should last me 5 years without any issues and is constantly doing linear optimization work.

 

[pezdispenser]

You’re right (as usual), I don’t think I’ve properly wrapped my head around it. I wanted to go team red on this build, but if I had an extended period of time sans GPU, I would just build with an i7 and rely on the integrated graphics until then.

Or just build it with Ryzen and eBay an old card. Build is for a non-gamer interested in starting, but rig will be 80% for photo/light video editing (hence the i7 vs i5 request).

i5-10600K is $230 on Amazon right now which I think is pretty good for gaming, but it falls behind AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 for multicore workloads. What GPU do you have right now?

 

[Sparda29]

I'm actually considering the above suggestion.

I currently have:

Intel Core i7-3820 @ 3.6Ghz (8 CPUs)
16 GB DDR3 Ram
MOBO BIOs is from 2013
GPU is Nvidia gtx 1080

If I just buy a new case/fans, upgrade the MOBO/CPU, 16-32 GB DDR4 ram, and a M.2 ssd, it should all be had for under $800-900 and then continue to use the GTX 1080 until I can find a 3070 or 3080 at retail price.

 

[pezdispenser]

Oof, an i7-3820 will probably bottleneck a 1080, which is actually still a decent card even now. If you do get an i5-10600K you'll need a Z490 motherboard (not a B460) to overclock the CPU and the RAM over 2666 MHz, and a CPU cooler.

 

[ValeRx]

I'm running Ryzen 5600X CPU with a ASUS STRIX X570 mobo, 32G of DDR4 3600 RAM Samsung Evo 980 NVME and a RTX 1070. Good thing I'm still playing Witcher 3.

 

[confettiflyer]

i5-10600K is $230 on Amazon right now which I think is pretty good for gaming, but it falls behind AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 for multicore workloads. What GPU do you have right now?

I have a 1060, what I might do is just move the 1060 into this new budget build and then overhaul (rebuild) my own rig with the 10th gen i5 and try to score a card in the next few months without resorting to a scalper.

I’m on a deal alert discord server and I think I can, eventually, grab a 3070 with fast hands and buy it now enabled on the sites.

Honestly, every time I think about this, I change my mind re: timing and what I want in the rig.

 

[ValeRx]

I have a 1060, what I might do is just move the 1060 into this new budget build and then overhaul (rebuild) my own rig with the 10th gen i5 and try to score a card in the next few months without resorting to a scalper.

I’m on a deal alert discord server and I think I can, eventually, grab a 3070 with fast hands and buy it now enabled on the sites.

Honestly, every time I think about this, I change my mind re: timing and what I want in the rig.

I'm just holding out for a few more months for more 3080 availability. It's not worth it to pay $1800 for a 3080.

 

[ValeRx]

My local Microcenter has a few MSI Suprim 3090s for $2200 (MSRP) as well as a MSI Trio for 2100. NOPE. Not worth it unless you're mining or doing some major CGI/video editing, etc.

 

[Xenophylia]

3090 does kinda make me drool though...... 24MB Vram..... Would happily settle for a 3080 though if I could find one at retail price. Maybe when the "ti"s come out people will start unloading their used ones. Currently running 2080ti and debating adding a second (which I already have in a different system) and trying NV Link. If anyone out there is currently using NVLINK please let me know how it's working for you....

 

[ValeRx]

3090 does kinda make me drool though...... 24MB Vram..... Would happily settle for a 3080 though if I could find one at retail price. Maybe when the "ti"s come out people will start unloading their used ones. Currently running 2080ti and debating adding a second (which I already have in a different system) and trying NV Link. If anyone out there is currently using NVLINK please let me know how it's working for you....

I just don't know of any upcoming games that would need 24GB of VRAM.

 

[Xenophylia]

Yeah- LOL... But 24mb of VRAM.... I just love the ridiculousness of it.....

 

[confettiflyer]

I’m still gonna pin my hopes on the new RTX 3060 w/ 12GB RAM (the $329 MSRP one out at the end of the month). It’s got reduced memory bandwidth, so crappier mining performance, but maintains similar performance with the 3060 Ti. Hoping it won’t get scooped up by crypto miners as much.

 

[Momus]

I’m still gonna pin my hopes on the new RTX 3060 w/ 12GB RAM (the $329 MSRP one out at the end of the month). It’s got reduced memory bandwidth, so crappier mining performance, but maintains similar performance with the 3060 Ti. Hoping it won’t get scooped up by crypto miners as much.

Just drop $1800 or more brah. You can afford it. Good for 5 yrs 2k gaming. Not gonna make any difference to spend 1k more every 5 yrs.

https://store.hp.com/us/en/ConfigureView?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&catEntryId=3074457345619771820&urlLangId=&quantity=1

Use 10holidaygamer2020 for 10% discount

 

[Xenophylia]

I just bought an Alienware R11 with the 2080ti just before 3080s started appearing in Dell pcs so can't justify another system. Plus as far as I know there is no current 3080 that will fit my Alienware other than the Dell OEM one, which currently isn't available by itself. That's why I was considering NV link with the two 2080tis- already have all the hardware, even the link device itself. I refurbed my old 8700k though which is awaiting a video card and was also a beast prior to the original MOBO taking a dump (hence the need to buy the dell as I usually prefer to build myself). If performance with a 3080 and that processor (which easily oc'd to 5.0 ghz) was good enough it might come out of retirement and retake the lead as my main gaming pc. The dell is an i9 10900 though so might be tough to beat that....

 

[Momus]

It looks like you can just mine eth with 3080 and get $9/day. No reason to buy a sh1ttier card than 3080 when it will pay for it self in 3 months. If someone wants to buy a fake coin, why the hell not get a GPU for free as well.