PC Hardware Talk Megathread

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

First, what's your budget?

Secondly, don't get an i3, you can step up to an i5 for not much more and the i5 comes with the new Intel Iris Xe onboard graphics while the i3 is still stuck with the legacy Intel HD Graphics. If you want this new laptop to last anything like seven years without slowing down to an infuriating crawl near the end of it, skip the i3.

How does the Iris Xe compare to Ryzen Vega for gaming performance?

[TorqueDog]

As far as I've seen, Iris Xe seems to have the upper hand over the Vega 8 4000, though that isn't saying much.

However, in the context of what Izzle was asking, I didn't really see any Ryzen 5 laptops that were cheaper than a comparable 11th generation Intel Core i5 in their price range, so I didn't focus on Team Red.

[gvitaly]

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on a pretty sweet deal Gigabyte B550M Aours Pro with a Ryzen 5 5600X for $400CAD from Canada computers.

Link to the MB, just need to bundle it with the 5600X to save $170

I ordered mine today!

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on a pretty sweet deal Gigabyte B550M Aours Pro with a Ryzen 5 5600X for $400CAD from Canada computers.



Link to the MB, just need to bundle it with the 5600X to save $170



I ordered mine today!

Is this a good price?

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Is this a good price?

Well I thought it was. Usually the 5600X goes for around $375-400. It is one of the best options for gaming, and general productivity. That combo on newegg with discounts right now will cost you $545(instead of $400, or $410(they upped their price already)).

That motherboard is actually a very good value board, with a few nice features like good VRMs that would support decent power delivery for over clocking. It also has very good audio, bios flashback(updating bios without a cpu), and plenty of connectivity. AMD’s support of the AM4 socket will likely make it upgradable as soon as the new cpus come out.

As for some things that are missing: the board doesn’t have wifi, if that’s important you’ll need a network card. It also has only 1Gbit lan which is less than 2.5Gbit more premium boards offer. Finally it doesn’t have a front usb-c header, so if your case has one in the front you won’t be able to use it.

Back to the price question I do expect the Ryzen 5000 series to drop more in pricing, due to intel outperforming them a little. That said, I think this will be a good price until next year’s black Friday. in which case if you decide to upgrade you will lose $100 at most.

[Inferno]

So I'm looking into maybe building a new computer. It would be used for gaming and 3D Modeling/Rendering(mostly real-time). I'll also be getting an Oculus Quest 2 delivered sometime next week and I'll probably end up playing more PCVR games than games on the headset itself.

What I don't need is an OS and I'm going to keep all of my drives except a 500 GB drive I use for autosaves and replace it with an M.2. drive to use as my main drive.

Here's my current build which will be 7 years old in March:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/bqM2gJ

Here's what someone on PCPartPicker recommended a few hours ago:

They messed up though and took out the 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO when they should have took out the the 500 GB Western Digital. Also, I would probably get a new case.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/XXGwGq

Is there anything different I should be looking at that was recommended?

The reason I upped the RAM to 64 GB is I've found that sometimes 32 isn't enough when I have multiple programs open and I can afford it. Eventually I want a 3080/90 or the 40 Series but as we all know it's pretty much impossible to get them right now so I'd stick with my 2070 Super until then.

My budget is tricky because I'd like to keep it between $2000-$3000 but with graphics cards being so expensive I might have to go over a bit which is fine if it's worth it in the end.

Thanks in advance.

[Izzle]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on a pretty sweet deal Gigabyte B550M Aours Pro with a Ryzen 5 5600X for $400CAD from Canada computers.



Link to the MB, just need to bundle it with the 5600X to save $170



I ordered mine today!

Thanks for the link. I browsed the website and found this:

https://www.canadacomputers.com/prod...item_id=189796

Seems like a very good deal. What's the catch??

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Izzle

Thanks for the link. I browsed the website and found this:

https://www.canadacomputers.com/prod...item_id=189796

Seems like a very good deal. What's the catch??

Canada computers had a lot of good deals, but I wouldn’t recommend that laptop to anyone as a daily driver. 8gb of ram seems to be on the low side if you’re planning on doing any multitasking and 256gb would run out rather quickly in terms of storage. I haven’t used that processor so I can’t say anything about it. It also doesn’t have any dedicated gpu so don’t expect much performance in games.

I got my 5600x and mb and pretty happy with them, so no problems with canada computers from my end.

[kcin]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but can anyone recommend a local wifi guru who will come to your house and troubleshoot/fix spotty wifi access throughout? I've tried a few things including wifi mesh and upgrading internet but still getting crummy speeds. Need a solid connection for work and can't have internet cutting in our out during conference calls etc.

Thanks in advance

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by kcin

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but can anyone recommend a local wifi guru who will come to your house and troubleshoot/fix spotty wifi access throughout? I've tried a few things including wifi mesh and upgrading internet but still getting crummy speeds. Need a solid connection for work and can't have internet cutting in our out during conference calls etc.

Thanks in advance

In what year was the house built?

[kcin]

Originally Posted by torquedog

in what year was the house built?

2007

[calumniate]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

In what year was the house built?

Good question there. Sometimes wiring to the house / building can be limited. At that point you can asses which is faster at your place: cable / dsl / neither. May have to switch providers / delivery method

Edit: have you tried switching wifi bands? 5ghz vs normal 2.4? If you're in a condo there can be interference. Can call your provider too to play with the channels

[kcin]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Good question there. Sometimes wiring to the house / building can be limited. At that point you can asses which is faster at your place: cable / dsl / neither. May have to switch providers / delivery method

Edit: have you tried switching wifi bands? 5ghz vs normal 2.4? If you're in a condo there can be interference. Can call your provider too to play with the channels

Yeah have tried changing bands to limited success. One other thing to note is this includes a third floor loft so the office spaces are actually quite far away from the modem.

[Galakanokis]

Probably any sized IT company will come in and do a wifi assessment nowadays. I know Microserve out here in Vancouver will do that. More for businesses and AP placement but I am sure they have a scaled down version.

But, in a house if you cannot physically run wires to your desired location a good repeater or mesh system should work. Or try one of those gadgets that lets you send your connection down the electrical lines. Never used one but I have heard they work fairly well.

[TorqueDog]

You have a PM, kcin.

[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by kcin

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but can anyone recommend a local wifi guru who will come to your house and troubleshoot/fix spotty wifi access throughout? I've tried a few things including wifi mesh and upgrading internet but still getting crummy speeds. Need a solid connection for work and can't have internet cutting in our out during conference calls etc.

Thanks in advance

You can either use Powerline Networking which uses devices that plug into an outlet and uses your powerlines as network cables, won't be as fast as a regular network cable but is more stable than wireless by a lot.

https://www.amazon.ca/Netgear-Powerl...s%2C262&sr=8-6

The other option I have used is most houses built in the 2000's use network cable for all of their phone lines, if thats the case with a little rewiring you could use phone jacks as network jacks if you have a phone jack in the office.

[CaptainReboot]

Originally Posted by kcin

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but can anyone recommend a local wifi guru who will come to your house and troubleshoot/fix spotty wifi access throughout? I've tried a few things including wifi mesh and upgrading internet but still getting crummy speeds. Need a solid connection for work and can't have internet cutting in our out during conference calls etc.

Thanks in advance

If you have a cable outlet in the room, you could try a Moca adapter. They work like power line adapters but you get much better speeds as it users coax instead.

[Mathgod]

Still rocking my 2010 system, but it's showing signs that it's close to the end of its life. Needing a new system soon, but due to the chip shortage causing a supply crisis, I may not be able to get one for years.

Not willing to pay scalpers exorbant amounts for parts. Rough situation right now for buyers. Graphics cards have become the new toilet paper.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

Still rocking my 2010 system, but it's showing signs that it's close to the end of its life. Needing a new system soon, but due to the chip shortage causing a supply crisis, I may not be able to get one for years.

Not willing to pay scalpers exorbant amounts for parts. Rough situation right now for buyers. Graphics cards have become the new toilet paper.

Your best option may be to get a pre-built system (or even a gaming laptop) from a large OEM where pricing hasn't gotten too out of whack.

[chemgear]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1468748380889305094