PC Hardware Talk Megathread

[PsYcNeT]

Newegg.ca has a few in Canada but they're pretty pricey.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Corsi, replying to one of your older posts. I’ve built all of gaming my pc‘s over the years, but the the eGPU thing you mentioned, is quite interesting. What’s your plan?

I have a 2019 Razer Blade 15 with a 1660ti. Which is just fine for most things, but frankly, I'd like to boost it when I'm at home, and be able to play modern games at ~120fps consistently. So I was thinking of buying an enclosure and sticking a 2080ti into it... on the assumption that once the next competitor cards come out the 2080ti will drop significantly in price. If it doesn't, or if the new cards compare favourably cost-wise, I'd just get one of them instead.

On my next build in a year or so, could I instead grab a top laptop (hopeful), and USB-c/thunderbolt, in my eGPU, for a consolidated system? No longer two work stations at home. Work/personal.

That's the benefit - no need for two machines. Also, reduced wear on your laptop. The thing is, it costs a lot for a compromise in performance. Basically everything I've read says you lose about 20% of your GPU's capabilities when it's in an eGPU setup, and because you're using laptop components to drive it. When you're paying over $1500 just for the eGPU portion of the setup, often you might as well just be buying a desktop, or buying a better laptop to begin with and hooking it straight up to your monitor.

Frankly I'm just going to try to assess where things are at once the cost becomes clearer. I won't be doing this until Black Friday at the earliest, regardless, as the games I'm interested in right now don't require anything close to a 2080ti.

Anyone explored this ?

I'd also be interested to hear if people have gone this route and what they think.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I have a 2019 Razer Blade 15 with a 1660ti. Which is just fine for most things, but frankly, I'd like to boost it when I'm at home, and be able to play modern games at ~120fps consistently. So I was thinking of buying an enclosure and sticking a 2080ti into it... on the assumption that once the next competitor cards come out the 2080ti will drop significantly in price. If it doesn't, or if the new cards compare favourably cost-wise, I'd just get one of them instead.

That's the benefit - no need for two machines. Also, reduced wear on your laptop. The thing is, it costs a lot for a compromise in performance. Basically everything I've read says you lose about 20% of your GPU's capabilities when it's in an eGPU setup, and because you're using laptop components to drive it. When you're paying over $1500 just for the eGPU portion of the setup, often you might as well just be buying a desktop, or buying a better laptop to begin with and hooking it straight up to your monitor.

Frankly I'm just going to try to assess where things are at once the cost becomes clearer. I won't be doing this until Black Friday at the earliest, regardless, as the games I'm interested in right now don't require anything close to a 2080ti.

I'd also be interested to hear if people have gone this route and what they think.

Thanks for this. I have a trusty old GTX1080, and could redeploy, but importantly, want an enclosure that isn’t bound to a single card. I do imagine you’d be hedging on either NVIDIA, or AMD.

20% loss on a $1,500 eGPU is significant. Been doing some light reading, and we’re still early in the curve with eGPU’s. With the advent of SSD’s, the enclosures footprint of the PSU & GPU is really what takes up the meat of desktops today, and similarly the eGPU.

Today, the Thunderbolt/USB3, are bottle necking the performance, @ 40gbps & 10gbps. Whereas PCIe is 100x faster. Wonder what latency is like, and if it’d affect FPS.

Seems we need an evolution in the laptops to develop an external PCIe port/adapter, to tie to the eGPU enclosures.

[Mass_nerder]

I suspect this is a dumb question, but I don't know a huge amount about hardware, so here we go:

I have a computer with a small SSD (250gb) and a big HDD, which I basically just use to store old files.
I use the SSD to install programs and add storage for working files, but it's starting to fill up.
I see that micro SD cards are super cheap, but if I want to switch my HDD for a second SSD, it's crazy expensive.
Can I use a micro SD as I would a SSD?
Or are they mostly just meant for tasks like a USB stick?

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Mass_nerder

I suspect this is a dumb question, but I don't know a huge amount about hardware, so here we go:

I have a computer with a small SSD (250gb) and a big HDD, which I basically just use to store old files.
I use the SSD to install programs and add storage for working files, but it's starting to fill up.
I see that micro SD cards are super cheap, but if I want to switch my HDD for a second SSD, it's crazy expensive.
Can I use a micro SD as I would a SSD?
Or are they mostly just meant for tasks like a USB stick?

It depends on how you're going to use the data. SD cards are meant for occasional reading and writing and portability while SSDs are more robust and can handle constant data access.

If you're just using the SD card for files that don't get accessed much you should be ok, but I would get another SSD or HDD as soon as you can. And as for any drive with important data, backup often!

[Fuzz]

I'm just curious what prices you are seeing, and what size you need? A 512GB SD card is around $100, a 1TB SSD is ~ $160. So how is an SD cheaper?

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'm just curious what prices you are seeing, and what size you need? A 512GB SD card is around $100, a 1TB SSD is ~ $160. So how is an SD cheaper?

Hopefully he's not looking at the fake SD cards on Amazon.

[White Out 403]

I think my current build is the last one to have a standard sata hdd. My original build before I added the new M2 drive was a sata 3 ssd 250 gig for Windows and programs, and, a 3 TB HDD.

With that said I just don't need that size of backup drive any longer. I think as it looks right now I'll do a 2 TB M2 with 2 partitions. Hoping that in 18 months a 3tb one is available at memex. I heard that having having m2s defeats the purpose and bottlenecks.. Otherwise I'd just do that.

[Mass_nerder]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'm just curious what prices you are seeing, and what size you need? A 512GB SD card is around $100, a 1TB SSD is ~ $160. So how is an SD cheaper?

Memory express had a 400 GB SD for $,80, and I have a laptop, so replacing my HDD is $$$. It's a three year old MSI so it's not worth the cost of replacing it.
It was primarily used for rhino, Revit, Photoshop, illustrator, InDesign stuff, but I'm done with school, so it's use is probably going to drop off dramatically anyway.

More just curious if you could use an SD in that way.

[Fuzz]

Ya, as downinflames mentioned, the controllers on them aren't really optimized for that sort of thing. And they can get really hot. Maybe just an external drive if you don't need access to a lot of it all the time? That is a good price though!

Also, if you want to cleanup space, these are my tips, Windows is a garbage collector:

Empty these folders:

c:\windows\temp
C:\%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp

You can also run disk cleanup by right clicking on your C drive and selecting properties. Click the "Disc Cleanup" button, select what you want to keep/delete, then click cleanup system files. Most stuff here is fine to delete, you my see something using loads of your hard drive space here. A warning if you click "Windows update cleanup", it is fine to do, but the next time Windows searches for updates it may take a really long time as it re-decides what stuff you need. Not a big deal, just give it time to do it.

If you want to see what else is using space, this is a great program:

https://windirstat.net/wds_current_setup.exe

If you still can't see what is using space, after installing this program right click and "run as administrator" and it will also find all your hidden files.

[Mass_nerder]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, as downinflames mentioned, the controllers on them aren't really optimized for that sort of thing. And they can get really hot. Maybe just an external drive if you don't need access to a lot of it all the time? That is a good price though!

Also, if you want to cleanup space, these are my tips, Windows is a garbage collector:

Empty these folders:

c:\windows\temp
C:\%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp

You can also run disk cleanup by right clicking on your C drive and selecting properties. Click the "Disc Cleanup" button, select what you want to keep/delete, then click cleanup system files. Most stuff here is fine to delete, you my see something using loads of your hard drive space here. A warning if you click "Windows update cleanup", it is fine to do, but the next time Windows searches for updates it may take a really long time as it re-decides what stuff you need. Not a big deal, just give it time to do it.

If you want to see what else is using space, this is a great program:

https://windirstat.net/wds_current_setup.exe

If you still can't see what is using space, after installing this program right click and "run as administrator" and it will also find all your hidden files.

Thanks!
Photoshop is a beast with temp files, so I had to learn to clear that folder every few days!

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Mass_nerder

Memory express had a 400 GB SD for $,80, and I have a laptop, so replacing my HDD is $$$. It's a three year old MSI so it's not worth the cost of replacing it.
It was primarily used for rhino, Revit, Photoshop, illustrator, InDesign stuff, but I'm done with school, so it's use is probably going to drop off dramatically anyway.

More just curious if you could use an SD in that way.

It's probably far safer to clone your 250GB drive to a 500-1TB SSD. The SD card would work fine for temp storage, but perhaps not regular access data as Fuzz mentioned.

The 250GB drive could be tossed into an enclosure to be used as storage or as a backup or even refurbed into a streaming device that uses a drive.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Ya, as downinflames mentioned, the controllers on them aren't really optimized for that sort of thing. And they can get really hot. Maybe just an external drive if you don't need access to a lot of it all the time? That is a good price though!

Also, if you want to cleanup space, these are my tips, Windows is a garbage collector:

Empty these folders:

c:\windows\temp
C:\%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp

You can also run disk cleanup by right clicking on your C drive and selecting properties. Click the "Disc Cleanup" button, select what you want to keep/delete, then click cleanup system files. Most stuff here is fine to delete, you my see something using loads of your hard drive space here. A warning if you click "Windows update cleanup", it is fine to do, but the next time Windows searches for updates it may take a really long time as it re-decides what stuff you need. Not a big deal, just give it time to do it.

If you want to see what else is using space, this is a great program:

https://windirstat.net/wds_current_setup.exe

If you still can't see what is using space, after installing this program right click and "run as administrator" and it will also find all your hidden files.

Fuzz
This lil app rules. Thanks.

Build update;
Just ordered myself, a bare Thermaltake LCGS, that I’ll wall mount in my den, and bought a 4th SSD, this time 2TB, to replace my last spinner. Love that bare naked look. I’ll get back some desk real estate too.

Gonna have a Coolermaster LAN cube case for sale for cheap, soon.

[TorqueDog]

Windows 10 Version 2004 was formally announced and -- along with it -- the list of deprecated features. My current PC was built in 2013-ish and I configured my 4 TB worth of SSHDs with dynamic disks because I didn't want to use the built-in RAID controller. Can't remember why.

Anyway, dynamic disks are among the features deprecated in this version and reading that prompted me to check and see how those 6-7 year old mechanical drives were holding up, and being Seagates I'm surprised to say one of them is still going strong... but the other has been found to have bad sectors... crap.

The arduous backup process has been completed and I have all my important data safely migrated to a USB 3.0 drive for the time being. But I decided that this was as good a time as any to build a new rig, so here it is:

Case: Cooler Master MasterCase SL600M
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 (Migrating from current build, have AM4 mount)
Memory: 32GB (4 x 8 GB) Team T-Force Delta RGB DDR4-3200
Storage: 2 TB Western Digital Black SN750 M.2 NVME SSD
Video card: Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition (Migrating from current build.)
Power Supply: Corsair TX850M

[zamler]

I assume you are planning on upgrading to a high end processor in the future?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by zamler

I assume you are planning on upgrading to a high end processor in the future?

If that's in reference to the super OP'd X570-E board, perhaps, but I bought it for two reasons:
1. The presence of the X570 chipset will hopefully future-proof the build somewhat.
2. I would have bought a far cheaper X570 board, but that was literally the last ASUS X570 board that MemX had in stock. I would have gone with a cheaper X570 board if there was stock.

[ComixZone]

...so you're the guy who bought the last X570-E at Mem Express?


...you son of a....

[TorqueDog]

Mwahaha. Man, the second I saw that thing was in stock, I put in a website order for store pickup. There was no way in hell I was going to keep looking at online vendors charging 250% markup for lesser boards.

[Deviaant]

I did ask a long time ago but I decided to just deal with my old tablet till it died. Well it died and I'm done fixing it.

I've never owned a desktop before, but that's what I'd like this time. I like the fact you can easily upgrade it and tune it to whatever.

I will be gaming on it (Destiny 2, cod...) As well as using it for work (word, excel)

I dont need the best I want to play on max settings and just not be disappointed. I'm sick and tired of making do.

I went to memory express today and went over a build with a budget of $1500 - $2000 monitor excluded. Sorry for the potato picture. It just feels like it's an ok computer and I'd be looking to upgrade the processor or vid card pretty soon.

Any thoughts?

[DownInFlames]

I made a list on PCPartPicker and it looks like MemEx has fair prices for all of the parts so that's a good start.

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

How much are they charging to assemble it and load Windows? I know they'll install the CPU and RAM and test them for free. Are you comfortable doing the rest? It's pretty straight forward.

Do you have any other storage? If the m.2 is just for the OS and productivity apps then 500GB is fine but if you want to put games on it so they load fast you'll probably want to upgrade to at least 1TB. The latest COD is over 100GB itself!

I would also suggest bumping up to at least an 80+ Gold power supply. Stay with Corsair though. They're solid.

You might consider this motherboard for futureproofing but it's quite a bit more so it might blow your budget.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/...gaming-edge-ac

Even if you don't do these upgrades it looks like a good build to me. Have fun!