PC builds

Haven't heard from HighFrequency since he posted his 3080 two weeks ago; I'm afraid we might have lost him to the black hole of 100+fps 1440p.

I love my PC that I built just over 6 months ago, but man I got the itch to build another and I want nothing more than to get my hands on a Ryzen 5800x and a Radeon 6800XT. It's times like these I wish options like BLD by NZXT and other companies doing the same weren't available. "Sure, I'll custom build you a PC this weekend; all I ask for is a modest assembly fee of $250." ?

Any of you guys got 240Hz monitors? Or 4k? Looking into an upgrade
Early Black Friday deal at Best Buy I upgraded from a single 8 year old 1080p 27" to dual 32" curved 1440p 165hz. Other than for photo and video editing, I don't think 4k for pc will be important for at least a couple years and was willing to take that gamble for the next 10 years with these monitors.

On the bright side, my wife now wants to get back into PC gaming so I hooked up my PS4 to my second monitor and we pull up a chair and I slide over. We get to game side by side from time to time now which is nice.
 
Haven't heard from HighFrequency since he posted his 3080 two weeks ago; I'm afraid we might have lost him to the black hole of 100+fps 1440p.

I love my PC that I built just over 6 months ago, but man I got the itch to build another and I want nothing more than to get my hands on a Ryzen 5800x and a Radeon 6800XT. It's times like these I wish options like BLD by NZXT and other companies doing the same weren't available. "Sure, I'll custom build you a PC this weekend; all I ask for is a modest assembly fee of $250." ?

Not gonna lie, it's been glorious. I've been using a 4K monitor to edit pictures and video for a while, but I might go back to 1440p with a high refresh rate to really take advantage of these frame gains. I ended up undervolting the 3080 and saw some huge improvements in temps and fan speed with a slight improvement in performance.
 
I just got a custom build from NZXT with a 3090 since they were sold out of the 3080, they charge MSRP for everything and only $99 to build it. 2 year warranty on everything. PC is crazy fast. RTX3090, i9-10900k, 32gb Ram
Have you had any problems keeping that i9 cool?
 
I just built mine a little over a month ago. Second build I've ever done for myself, felt like splurging a little on some components so that I wouldn't need to upgrade as much for several years.

Ryzen 9 3900XT
MSI Mag Core Liquid 240R Cooler w/Arctic Silver 5
MSI MEG X570 Unify
G.Skill Ripjaws V 64GB
MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Corsair RMx 850
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB M.2
8TB HDD
Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray Writer
2x MSI Optix G27C5 27" 165Hz Monitors

Had no problems whatsoever with the build, averages 35-40 degrees on temps when gaming on highest settings.

Total Cost was ~$2650
 
I just built mine a little over a month ago. Second build I've ever done for myself, felt like splurging a little on some components so that I wouldn't need to upgrade as much for several years.

Ryzen 9 3900XT
MSI Mag Core Liquid 240R Cooler w/Arctic Silver 5
MSI MEG X570 Unify
G.Skill Ripjaws V 64GB
MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Corsair RMx 850
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB M.2
8TB HDD
Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray Writer
2x MSI Optix G27C5 27" 165Hz Monitors

Had no problems whatsoever with the build, averages 35-40 degrees on temps when gaming on highest settings.

Total Cost was ~$2650
Nice build! I feel like more of us should be posting pics on here of our builds to both compliment each other on our builds as well as sh*t-talk each other for things like cable management and desk setup and what not.

What case did you go with, what speed is your RAM, why only 1080p monitors, and why the 3070 instead of the 3080? Unless it is an availability issue for the 3080 it seems like sinking that much money into the build would lend itself to the 3080 to ensure high fps at 1440p instead of making the GPU the bottleneck with the 3070.

Tell Me Omg GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine


Not gonna lie, it's been glorious. I've been using a 4K monitor to edit pictures and video for a while, but I might go back to 1440p with a high refresh rate to really take advantage of these frame gains. I ended up undervolting the 3080 and saw some huge improvements in temps and fan speed with a slight improvement in performance.
Well, it's happening. Picking up a 3090 FTW3 tomorrow at a $100 premium. Now I gotta buy the rest of the computer.
What CPUs are y'all using with those beasts? Any bottlenecking that you're aware of?
 
Nice build! I feel like more of us should be posting pics on here of our builds to both compliment each other on our builds as well as sh*t-talk each other for things like cable management and desk setup and what not.

What case did you go with, what speed is your RAM, why only 1080p monitors, and why the 3070 instead of the 3080? Unless it is an availability issue for the 3080 it seems like sinking that much money into the build would lend itself to the 3080 to ensure high fps at 1440p instead of making the GPU the bottleneck with the 3070.

Tell Me Omg GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine




What CPUs are y'all using with those beasts? Any bottlenecking that you're aware of?

i7 10700K, haven't really run into much if any bottlenecking in 99% of the stuff I'm playing. Cyberpunk in 4k with DLSS runs great, only issues are from the game itself being an awful buggy mess.

This thread doesn't show up in latest posts anymore so I didn't realize people were still commenting. Bummer.
 
Any super nerds here?
Purchased an M.2 2TB for boot and programs, but unsure what to do for my new secondary drive, which is currently a 6TB HDD 80% used.
Really, I want my picture folders to load thumbnails almost instantly (currently HEIC and RAW take a minute or so to load), I want to ensure 4K videos play without a hitch (currently choppy in VLC but ok in MPC-HC... though this is probably more Graphics Card related), and I want to be able to edit 4K video using software on the M.2 and the files on the secondary drive without any big compromise in speed..

Was considering a second 2 T.B SATA or M.2 Drive to load files onto when I need to edit, and then an 8TB standard HDD for storage... cost about $450
Or I could just get the 8TB HDD for $150
Or I could splurge on an 8TB SATA SSD at $900
Or I could splurge on an 8TB M.2 at $1300

Current P.C: i7-3930k, GTX680 4GB, 32GB 1866 RAM, 512GB SATA SSD, 6TB HDD.

New P.C
i9-10900K, RTX 3090, 64GB 3200MHZ RAM, 2 T.B M.2
 
Any super nerds here?
Purchased an M.2 2TB for boot and programs, but unsure what to do for my new secondary drive, which is currently a 6TB HDD 80% used.
Really, I want my picture folders to load thumbnails almost instantly (currently HEIC and RAW take a minute or so to load), I want to ensure 4K videos play without a hitch (currently choppy in VLC but ok in MPC-HC... though this is probably more Graphics Card related), and I want to be able to edit 4K video using software on the M.2 and the files on the secondary drive without any big compromise in speed..

Was considering a second 2 T.B SATA or M.2 Drive to load files onto when I need to edit, and then an 8TB standard HDD for storage... cost about $450
Or I could just get the 8TB HDD for $150
Or I could splurge on an 8TB SATA SSD at $900
Or I could splurge on an 8TB M.2 at $1300
If you need the capacity of a HDD for storage, that will forever be your bottleneck. SATA SSD, Gen 3 M.2, and Gen 4 M.2 are so comparable performance-wise that unless you are editing hundreds of gigs of 4K video on a daily basis I don't think it is worth the additional price of any M.2 from that of a SATA SSD.

If you keep your current M.2 sufficiently empty enough to handle your projects until you offload them to storage, then I'd say just opt for the extra HDD and save that money. Also, a 1TB SSD should only run you around $90; so you could opt for both SSD and HDD for about $250 total and treat those as your work mules and wear them out with impunity.

Does you current case have enough bays to handle 2 HDDs and a SSD? Same for your motherboard with SATA hookups? If so, that'd be the move I'd make.
 
You need to see what interfaces your mother board supports. Some disable or limit ports if certain other ports are in use. Building a raid array (or the windows storage spaces versions) is an option too depending on what you want to accomplish.

I would never use a mechanical drive again. SSDs have increased in speed, size, and reliability and decreased in price so much it just doesn’t make sense to not use them for the vast majority of use cases.
 
If you need the capacity of a HDD for storage, that will forever be your bottleneck. SATA SSD, Gen 3 M.2, and Gen 4 M.2 are so comparable performance-wise that unless you are editing hundreds of gigs of 4K video on a daily basis I don't think it is worth the additional price of any M.2 from that of a SATA SSD.

If you keep your current M.2 sufficiently empty enough to handle your projects until you offload them to storage, then I'd say just opt for the extra HDD and save that money. Also, a 1TB SSD should only run you around $90; so you could opt for both SSD and HDD for about $250 total and treat those as your work mules and wear them out with impunity.

Does you current case have enough bays to handle 2 HDDs and a SSD? Same for your motherboard with SATA hookups? If so, that'd be the move I'd make.
Haven't gotten the case yet, but I don't need more than 2 HDD/SATA SSD slots.
I was considering a secondary SSD for project files and moving them to storage when done, my biggest hesitation is having 3 types of drives (M.2, SATA SSD, and HDD) Frankly if I go the route of a second SSD, I'd rather have it be a M.2 2 T.B drive.
You need to see what interfaces your mother board supports. Some disable or limit ports if certain other ports are in use. Building a raid array (or the windows storage spaces versions) is an option too depending on what you want to accomplish.

I would never use a mechanical drive again. SSDs have increased in speed, size, and reliability and decreased in price so much it just doesn’t make sense to not use them for the vast majority of use cases.
The first paragraph is above my paygrade.
Purchased an MSI Z490 Gaming Carbon Motherboard. 2 M.2 slots and a whole bunch of SATA. That's all I know.

I want to agree with the second paragraph, but I already use 4.5TB of my 6TB HDD, so in order to upgrade that, it's either $150 for an 8 T.B HDD, $900 for an 8TB SATA SSD, or $1300 for an 8TB M.2.
 
Haven't gotten the case yet, but I don't need more than 2 HDD/SATA SSD slots.
I was considering a secondary SSD for project files and moving them to storage when done, my biggest hesitation is having 3 types of drives (M.2, SATA SSD, and HDD) Frankly if I go the route of a second SSD, I'd rather have it be a M.2 2 T.B drive.

The first paragraph is above my paygrade.
Purchased an MSI Z490 Gaming Carbon Motherboard. 2 M.2 slots and a whole bunch of SATA. That's all I know.

I want to agree with the second paragraph, but I already use 4.5TB of my 6TB HDD, so in order to upgrade that, it's either $150 for an 8 T.B HDD, $900 for an 8TB SATA SSD, or $1300 for an 8TB M.2.
That's a good motherboard: overall a great board setup with good looking thermals, but oddly enough for being a premium Z490 board its M.2 slots are only Gen 3 and not Gen 4. Just make sure if you get another M.2 drive that you don't pay the extra 5-10% or so for a Gen 4 over a Gen 3 since you won't be able to utilize it.

If you're already at 80% capacity on your 6TB, then whatever else you get should be in addition to your 6TB. My case is a cheap NZXT H510 case, but it still has 2 side panel mounts for SSDs and comes with a detachable HDD/SSD bay in the basement for up to 3 more. I have a 500GB M.2 and a 2TB SSD at the moment. If I started to do any serious form of content creation or video editing I wouldn't hesitate to throw a 4TB or 6TB HDD in the basement to be the archive.

Unless you're wanting to throw cash at a problem or just for bragging rights of saying you paid X amount for it, it would seem silly to pay the premium of M.2 and SSD for simple media storage when a second HDD should be more than sufficient. I mean, to each their own though, you know?

I would never use a mechanical drive again. SSDs have increased in speed, size, and reliability and decreased in price so much it just doesn’t make sense to not use them for the vast majority of use cases.
Up to the 1TB mark, SSDs and NVMEs are practically even in pricing at the moment and with the simplicity and form factor of NVME it is hard not to recommend at least one 500GB stick in a build. But if someone is creating content or editing on the regular and needs to maximize storage, spinning rust still absolutely has its place in the market. When you can get a 4-6 times the amount of storage on a HDD for the same price and it's just going to be your "vault" more or less, why wouldn't you opt to save the money? A dedicated storage HDD that doesn't have to worry about running an OS in the background is more than competent for everything up to and including viewing 4k video.
 
That's a good motherboard: overall a great board setup with good looking thermals, but oddly enough for being a premium Z490 board its M.2 slots are only Gen 3 and not Gen 4. Just make sure if you get another M.2 drive that you don't pay the extra 5-10% or so for a Gen 4 over a Gen 3 since you won't be able to utilize it.

If you're already at 80% capacity on your 6TB, then whatever else you get should be in addition to your 6TB. My case is a cheap NZXT H510 case, but it still has 2 side panel mounts for SSDs and comes with a detachable HDD/SSD bay in the basement for up to 3 more. I have a 500GB M.2 and a 2TB SSD at the moment. If I started to do any serious form of content creation or video editing I wouldn't hesitate to throw a 4TB or 6TB HDD in the basement to be the archive.

Unless you're wanting to throw cash at a problem or just for bragging rights of saying you paid X amount for it, it would seem silly to pay the premium of M.2 and SSD for simple media storage when a second HDD should be more than sufficient. I mean, to each their own though, you know?


Up to the 1TB mark, SSDs and NVMEs are practically even in pricing at the moment and with the simplicity and form factor of NVME it is hard not to recommend at least one 500GB stick in a build. But if someone is creating content or editing on the regular and needs to maximize storage, spinning rust still absolutely has its place in the market. When you can get a 4-6 times the amount of storage on a HDD for the same price and it's just going to be your "vault" more or less, why wouldn't you opt to save the money? A dedicated storage HDD that doesn't have to worry about running an OS in the background is more than competent for everything up to and including viewing 4k video.
The one I got is a Samsung 970 EVO 2 T.B. Appears to be Gen 3.

My only true reservation with a standard HDD as a secondary is how fast files load.
Example: Presently if I have a folder full of RAW files, and I open one up, and then I start going through them... often times a blurry image will show up on the screen, and then after 5 or so seconds it corrects.

Maybe I'll start with an 8TB HDD, and if it isn't up to my standards with the rest of the new Specs, I'll upgrade to an SSD.
 
The one I got is a Samsung 970 EVO 2 T.B. Appears to be Gen 3.

My only true reservation with a standard HDD as a secondary is how fast files load.
Example: Presently if I have a folder full of RAW files, and I open one up, and then I start going through them... often times a blurry image will show up on the screen, and then after 5 or so seconds it corrects.

Maybe I'll start with an 8TB HDD, and if it isn't up to my standards with the rest of the new Specs, I'll upgrade to an SSD.
What is your reservation about having a M.2, SSD, and HDD? Adding a 2TB SSD to your current setup might give you the overall expansion and speed you seek at minimal cost comparatively.
 
What is your reservation about having a M.2, SSD, and HDD? Adding a 2TB SSD to your current setup might give you the overall expansion and speed you seek at minimal cost comparatively.
OCD.
Would prefer 2 drives, or at most, 2 types of drives.
I may end up with a second M.2 2T.B. I can use both slots on the motherboard and have 1 sata hard drive while keeping the cords inside the computer to a minimum.
It'd be about $125-$150 more than having a 2T.B SATA SSD.
 
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