PC Hardware Talk Megathread

[GoinAllTheWay]

Thanks!

I'm trying to make this rig as small as possible so looking at Micro ATX cases, I assume that's smaller than Mini ITX? And either case should be able to fit most video cards I think?

I wish I had paid more attention to that when building mine. I have a 1080GT and an M2 drive, it's comical how much wasted space is in there.

As small as possible is my focus going forward on any new PC's I put together.

[btimbit]

If you're alright buying used I have a whole bunch of stuff left over from my mini itx build. Only 2 years old but pretty dusty from sitting in my basement. All still worked great when I retired it this summer

Gigabyte z370n mini itx motherboard
Silverstone small form factor 600w power supply

Think I have two 8gb 2400mhz ram sticks left over as well. Have the case too but would have to double check I have all the hardware for it still like the gpu bracket

Would sell it all for really cheap and just give the case for free, not like it's doing me any good just sitting around

Edit: Best pic of the case I can find

Spoiler!

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Thanks!

I'm trying to make this rig as small as possible so looking at Micro ATX cases, I assume that's smaller than Mini ITX? And either case should be able to fit most video cards I think?

Mini-itx is quite a bit smaller than Micro ATX:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-I...X_mini-DTX.svg


The reduced depth of ITX may be a limiting factor if you're looking at the very high end video cards.

[Coys1882]

Put my name on the list for a 3070 at memory express. The guy I was dealing with said there's 5000 orders and delivered on around 400 of them. Guaranteed nothing until close to end of Q1

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Put my name on the list for a 3070 at memory express. The guy I was dealing with said there's 5000 orders and delivered on around 400 of them. Guaranteed nothing until close to end of Q1

That's insane.
####ing Nvidia man. I'll be shocked if I get my 3080 in 2020 at this point

[Inferno]

At this point I might as well just wait until the 40 series comes out and hope the prices are reasonable again.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Put my name on the list for a 3070 at memory express. The guy I was dealing with said there's 5000 orders and delivered on around 400 of them. Guaranteed nothing until close to end of Q1

Holy poop.

[CASe333]

Originally Posted by Inferno

At this point I might as well just wait until the 40 series comes out and hope the prices are reasonable again.

there is so much hype to upgrade gpus but for what point? other than cyberpunk is there any other games or applications that anyone would notice the difference?

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by CASe333

there is so much hype to upgrade gpus but for what point? other than cyberpunk is there any other games or applications that anyone would notice the difference?

I've heard Control is pretty demanding if you want to use RTX. I was going to buy it for $30 about a month ago but decided to hold off. I have an ultra-wide so that would make it even more demanding.

I can still get good performance on my 2070 Super on less demanding games but I'm not getting the performance I was lead to believe I would be getting. I was going to wait until this fall and do a new build but was talked into just upgrading early and now I regret that.

[PsYcNeT]

i5 9500 is on sale for $200 at memex right now, that's a great deal for a starter.

https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX81046

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Put my name on the list for a 3070 at memory express. The guy I was dealing with said there's 5000 orders and delivered on around 400 of them. Guaranteed nothing until close to end of Q1

If you're going for the TUF series cards (the cheap ones), the list is far far longer.

I put myself on the list for a 3080 Gaming X Trio last week and the guy said there were ~100 people ahead of me, and they were receiving 10-12 (of those) cards a week on average.

So I should get it mid to late January unless supply picks up.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Inferno

I've heard Control is pretty demanding if you want to use RTX. I was going to buy it for $30 about a month ago but decided to hold off. I have an ultra-wide so that would make it even more demanding.

I can still get good performance on my 2070 Super on less demanding games but I'm not getting the performance I was lead to believe I would be getting. I was going to wait until this fall and do a new build but was talked into just upgrading early and now I regret that.

I picked this up when it released on Steam and played through it with my 1080 @ 1440p and it certainly was a demanding game even without RTX. I was hoping to get a 3080 but who knows when that could happen at this point. But, yes, I've heard RTX in Control is pretty amazing.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CASe333

there is so much hype to upgrade gpus but for what point? other than cyberpunk is there any other games or applications that anyone would notice the difference?

For me it's mostly DCS, on my 1070ti at 1440p 30fps on medium settings is bleh, and having to turn every setting to low to use it in VR sucks

[chemgear]

3070 Preorder? Better than nothing I guess?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...644465&irgwc=1

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by chemgear

3070 Preorder? Better than nothing I guess?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...644465&irgwc=1

Microsoft is talking about switching to a deposit system where you can put a deposit down, and then they’ll provide you a shipment date. I hope the industry as a whole switches to this. Remove the guesswork, just put in the order and get a manufacturing and shipping date back. Wonderful change.

[btimbit]

I was reading about that this morning too. That'd be a much better way. What annoys me the most is I've paid my $1000, have no idea if I'll get my product tomorrow or in March

[curves2000]

I posted this in another thread for Covid but on reflection, I think this may be a better thread for my question.

Anyhow due to Covid I don't know how safe indoor cycling is for exercise so I decided I should get a real road bike for the spring and a smart trainer for the winter.

I have a new Tacx Smart Flow trainer so that I can connect to the training program Zwift.

How I am thinking of doing the set up as per several cycling friends is via my laptop and a HDMI cable to tv.

I have an older computer, a HP Probook 6550b that I use just for web surfing and email etc. I may have to upgrade the RAM to 8GB to run Zwift but I am not sure if the GPU on my computer is good enough for Zwift?

https://support.zwift.com/en_us/supp...wift-H1Cj9QbeB

I've posted the min requirements but I can't get an answer from some people if mine is sufficient. My computer is a Windows 10 with the i5 processor so it's a current midrange set up according to their site.

Anybody have an idea if it's upgradable? Is it worthwhile to spend the money on 4+G of RAM and an upgraded GPU for a 8+ year old machine? It works great other than the battery which is older.

Thanks!

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I have an older computer, a HP Probook 6550b that I use just for web surfing and email etc. I may have to upgrade the RAM to 8GB to run Zwift but I am not sure if the GPU on my computer is good enough for Zwift?

https://support.zwift.com/en_us/supp...wift-H1Cj9QbeB

I've posted the min requirements but I can't get an answer from some people if mine is sufficient. My computer is a Windows 10 with the i5 processor so it's a current midrange set up according to their site.

Anybody have an idea if it's upgradable? Is it worthwhile to spend the money on 4+G of RAM and an upgraded GPU for a 8+ year old machine? It works great other than the battery which is older.

Thanks!

Zwift's minimum requirements for onboard graphics (aka on the motherboard) is an Intel HD 4000 which came out in 2012. The HP Probook 6550b appears to have been released in 2010, so the onboard graphics probably aren't going to be good enough. If you try to output the laptop via HDMI it looks like you'll need a DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor, and you should be aware that it may struggle to output video to your TV at a decent framerate if your TV is a higher resolution than the laptop screen (1600x900).

There's unfortunately no way for you to upgrade the GPU on the laptop if it only has onboard video memory. You might be better off finding a used laptop that meets the "Better" Zwift requirements.

[chemgear]

So I'm catching up on the AMD releases and it seems like they were even worse than Nvidia's? That's pretty crazy.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by chemgear

So I'm catching up on the AMD releases and it seems like they were even worse than Nvidia's? That's pretty crazy.

Been trying to snag a decent price on a video card for two months now... guess its not happening this year or next at this rate

Maybe next generation