Let's make a gaming PC - The Bear and Badger

GurtTractor

Hmm not familiar with VR stuff, but I would try to test it out on another system if possible, and perhaps Windows got borked (likely). Also see if there's some hardware reset button on the thing. Ah maybe this would help? - https://support.oculus.com/298586437740040/

b0r1s

Yeah I think testing in another machine is the only real way to find out. The link is for the Quest which won’t work on the Rift. Everything is just powered and controlled by the PC. It’s a dumb terminal effectively so nothing to reset in it. Think I’ll test on another PC.

I really don’t want to do a windows reinstall if I can help it.

GurtTractor

Does it receive power when plugged in?

b0r1s

Nope. Light doesn’t come on. Nothing. But then it only normally activated once Oculus app kicks in on the PC. I’m thinking it’s just died.

Blue Swirl

Random question. Say you're building a PC. Your motherboard has four RAM slots. Is it better, all other things being equal, to have four 8GB sticks, or two 16GB sticks?

LivDiv

I've always gone for filling half the slots, that way it is easy to upgrade later.
I dont know if there is a noticable difference in performance.

hunk

Theoretically, using all 4 slots simultaneously is better than using just 2. It has to do with utilising all the memory bandwidth the system has to offer. Although for upgrade purposes going for 2 slots Of ram with the intention of upgrading later is understandable.

https://youtu.be/ki6sZj-4eZI

Dark Soldier

I have four 8gb sticks and its rapid as fuck.so.doubt.its.any discernible difference

GurtTractor

Basically it depends on if you have a board that supports quad channel memory, which tend to be the higher end 'HEDT' or workstation boards. Most boards are just dual channel, so it won't matter whether you have 2 or 4. In a dual channel setup I would probably go for the best two sticks you can find, you won't necessarily get more performance with more sticks. With RAM if you aren't maxing it out in normal usage then you can generally stay with what you have, more RAM = more performance is a little bit of a myth.

Intel's X series of boards are usually quad channel, the Z series and others are just dual channel. On AMD's side the Threadripper boards have quad channel, and the X and B series are dual channel. If in doubt check the board's specs page.

You always want to have at least 2 sticks though, otherwise you are missing out on a lot of bandwidth.

Dark Soldier

I will say we are getting very close to the day of 16 gig ram being the bare minimum for gaming. Division 2 in 4k max uses 12-13 gig in my system and Borderlands 3 uses just under 15.

Dinostar77

This modular Panasonic toughbook is nuts

https://youtu.be/x7rt6BZYscs

Linus tech tips goes to town on it

GurtTractor

Dark Soldier wrote:

I will say we are getting very close to the day of 16 gig ram being the bare minimum for gaming. Division 2 in 4k max uses 12-13 gig in my system and Borderlands 3 uses just under 15.

Yep I would very strongly recommend 16GB now for all new builds.

Blue Swirl

Cheers guys. I've been watching a lot of build logs on YouTube recently.

Speedhaak

Who wants the fun project of building a mid-range system for me on PC Specialist? Preferably a small form-factor PC as well. This is what I mangled together myself: https://www.pcspecialist.ie/misc/forum.php
I should say I don't want to go over 1500/1600 Euro.

Speedhaak

That link appears to go nowhere... Here is the build:

https://imgur.com/9LyzijK

n0face

https://www.aldi.co.uk/medion-gaming-desktop-pc/p/700959312887900?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrrXtBRCKARIsAMbU6bGbyUW7DD_VzDykB77oSm-WROyxxaHA-FY7db0hZ7XInOTUmehm_2caApY8EALw_wcB

GurtTractor

That pic is a little blurry for me.. But I can make out most of it. Seems fine, dunno about the value, will have a proper look later tonight when I have time. Of course I would always recommend building your own spec out yourself for best value and optimal configuration, but I get why a prebuilt is a good option too.

If the case will take a bigger cooler then I would swap that out for something better, the little Noctua will probably be adequate but not ideal. Ditch the preinstalled bloat software you don't need too, the antivirus at least. Windows defender should be fine.

GurtTractor

Keep in mind that if a really quiet machine is something you desire then more nuance in picking parts is probably required. Things like the choice of PSU become important. I can put a proper custom part list together if you like.

Speedhaak

We're moving house and have a baby on the way so I literally don't have the time or energy to build one myself. Just looking for something off PC Specialist or a similar company within the €1500 range and preferably an ATX or ITX ( I forget what the names of these are)

Dark Soldier

That should knock out 1080 and 1440 for fun mate. Just ditch any bloatware if you can as Gurt said.

Or leave the house.move and get a 2080ti.

SpaceGazelle

Just bought a 2070 Super for Minecraft.

GurtTractor

Speedhaak wrote:

We're moving house and have a baby on the way so I literally don't have the time or energy to build one myself. Just looking for something off PC Specialist or a similar company within the €1500 range and preferably an ATX or ITX ( I forget what the names of these are)

Yeah that's very understandable.

Just looking at the PC Specialist config for you now, in the mini-PC section as I guess that's what you want. That case isn't ideal as the PSU sits right above the CPU socket, limiting you to dinky little coolers. The Fractal Define S Nano is a better alternative. The Corsair 280X is probably good if you want a bigger case, or the Fractal Node 202 is a small slim case, but both of those are a bit expensive. The Nano seems fine to me.

Here you go -

GurtTractor

Three games plus game pass included there apparently, which is nice. You could tweak things around there a bit, like with storage. At this point though I recommend getting a fast NVME as the boot drive, with enough capacity for a few games. We're very much getting to the point where fast storage becomes important for smooth experience, already I've come across a good number of games that noticeably benefit from being installed on my NVME drive, and that will continue once the new consoles are out as they are equipped with super fast storage also. So have the latest and greatest on the Samsung NVME there and older or lighter stuff on the SATA or an HDD if you put one in there, Steam makes it easy to move games back and forth between drives.

That should be a slick little machine.

GooberTheHat

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Just bought a 2070 Super for Minecraft.

Gazelle's back! Hope you're well mate.

SpaceGazelle

GooberTheHat wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Just bought a 2070 Super for Minecraft.

Gazelle's back! Hope you're well mate.

And you! I still owe you and Yoss pints.

SpaceGazelle

Also, I'm trying to send a spare Valve Index back to Valve. Bit of a long story but my first headset had sparkle artifacts everywhere so they sent me another straight away (after shipping a spare cable first) and a shipping label link to send the other one back when I had time. This had the same issues as the first one so I contacted Steam support and reached out to reddit to see if anyone else could help isolating the cause, which was presumably something to do with my PC.

Steam support were giving me various suggestions but also a Valve employee got in touch via my reddit post and he/she was giving me more detailed support via email. I know I'm a bit of a Valve fanboy but the customer service here was way beyond the call of duty. The reddit Valve employee personally went round Valve engineers with my Steam reports trying to tease out what the issue was. Anyway, the Valve reddit person gradually superceded the Steam support people and I was mainly dealing with him/her. Reddit person advised me to keep both headsets for testing and Steam Support just sort of left us to it.

Anyway, it turned out my PC was gubbed in a very particular way that gave me problems only with The Index and one PC game (Elite Dangerous not in VR mode). All other games and the Vive hmd worked fine. So, the issue is now resolved after buying new PC parts and I guess Valve has learned something new but I'm left with this additional headset. The Steam Support ticket was closed weeks ago and the Valve email person (whom I now want to marry and would never give me their name) just said I could start another ticket again with the Support lot if I really wanted to send it back. I actually felt they'd been so nice about everything I'd make the effort and get back in touch and do the right thing. They haven't replied to my new ticket which was to ask for a new return label link as the old one has expired.

bad_hair_day

Welcome back SG!

SpaceGazelle

Thanks! How's The Quest?

bad_hair_day

Unlike myself, never off my face!

SpaceGazelle

I haven't been following it lately but I'll catch up in The Quest thread. I hope you're still trying to convert everyone to the wonders of VR!

Howdy, Stranger!

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