PC gaming. - The Bear and Badger

SpaceGazelle

Yeah there's a lot to learn. It's good though.

regmcfly

I'm about to pull the trigger on a new Pc. here's the build. Please tell me if I'm missing anything massive.

Blue Swirl

8TB total storage? Nice.

GurtTractor

I'd go for an 8-core CPU as a baseline standard for a mid/high end PC these days, Xbox/PS are on 8 core chips. That SSD is just standard SATA, NVME SSDs are much faster and quite cheap these days, and the fact consoles use them means that some games might actually have a performance benefit from them.

A GPU 8GB VRAM is now not really ideal for a 'future proof' rig these days, particularly if you want to play at 4K. It's one of these annoying things that Nvidia doesn't seem in a hurry to move away from in their lower end GPUs. Last GPU I bought was a used 3070 and while it's fine I wish I'd tried to get a 3080 instead so I'd have more VRAM, even at 1080p I've got close to VRAM limits a couple of times, if I was trying to do 4K I'm quite sure I'd have issues.

See how many games use close to 8GB at 1080p here -

But the fact is, in the not too distant future 8GB of VRAM is going to be inadequate for a lot of new games, and of course we've started to see a bit of this already.

Unless you really need a large amount of cheap storage I might suggest avoiding spinning hard drives, they just kinda suck and contribute a lot to total system noise.

b0r1s

I’m running the i5 12400 and it’s bottlenecking my 3070 by about 17% so you’d have the same impact on the 4060. I’d definitely move up to an i7 if you can. Or check the i5 13 or 14 series as they have more cores for probably a similar price.

At this stage I’d also consider a DDR5 MB and ram.

Drop all the storage unless you are planning on downloading lots of porn you won’t need it for gaming. I’ve been running 2tb NVMe and never got close to filling it.

b0r1s

Checked the i5 prices. The 14’s are running at £275 which is about £100 more. Worth it imo.

regmcfly

Thank you!

GurtTractor

AMD CPUs are great too, particularly the X3D variants.

GurtTractor

Kow

I'd forget about normal hard drives at this point. They're slow and noisy. M.2 and SSD all the way.

Blue Swirl

Reg, what're the different storage drives for? I have two 2TB M.2 SSDs in my PC: one's for Windows 10 and all my data; the other is my back up drive. Kow probably has a point - maybe just one SSD (for your OS and data) and a HDD for backup, if you're keen on getting a mechanical drive.

Dark Soldier

I'm barely around at the moment but if you can get your build running a high end AMD CPU (significantly cheaper than Intel also) then do it. They're a fucking beast with far less power consumption. And as echoed, 8gb of VRam is essentially dead now. More power.

b0r1s

Have to agree on the AMD front. I didn't know anything about them and had always had intel in the past, so went with what I was comfortable with. Stuck with Intel until I change MB, which will be a long time.

Dark Soldier

Aye I've been an INTELBOY all my life but the 7800X3D has blown my miniscule mind. Ridiculous thing.

regmcfly

Someone go in chillbkast and build me a similar cost bad boy pls

SpaceGazelle

You want at least a 4070 if you're going well over a grand.

Blue Swirl

GurtTractor put together a stellar parts list for me, maybe reg can get the same favour?

Kow

Gurt made a list for every PC here.

Blue Swirl

This is Gurt's world, and we're just living in it.

GurtTractor

@reg Are you dead set on something from Chillblast or would you be up for another brand of prebuilt? I haven't had time to do a proper comparison but the prices and available parts seem a bit limiting, I could spec something better but it might end up being a little more to get a component setup that'll last a while and perform great in all games.

DIY is of course the best in terms of cost and flexibility, that would be my recommendation but I understand if you don't have the time or inclination for that.

SpaceGazelle

The thing about building your own, apart from it being cheaper, is that you can buy quality parts that last over several builds. Or more likely, you'll just gradually upgrade parts rather than doing it all in one go. Pre-built seem more wasteful and more likely to fail because they've skimped on things like the PSU.

Ed_Flanders

Off-topic given the PC building talk, but Steam Families sounds like a great idea.
BTW, I'm also starting to build a PC; bought the case (Cooler Master Q300L V2) already just to encourage myself. This is an expensive hobby, especially right now.

Blue Swirl

Ed_Flanders wrote:

... bought the case (Cooler Master Q300L V2) already just to encourage myself.

Ooh, I like that. Nice and simple.

SpaceGazelle

House of the dying sun is on sale on Steam. Short but very sweet, and there's plenty of reason to return.

Kernowgaz

Is it a demanding game for my pc i posted in the VR thread?

Also would it run Elite Dangerous easily enough in VR?

SpaceGazelle

Nah it's an old game and your PC is pretty good. Not so sure about ED in VR but it'll certainly run on medium settings. Landing in an interesting spot and going in a buggy to investigate is quite a thing in VR. The sense of scale is outrageous.

Blue Swirl

iCue weirdness continues; thought I'd just go ahead and reinstall it, but if I try that, the installer informs me I already have iCue. I can open it from the pop up. It also appears in Apps and Features in Windows 10's settings, but not in the Start menu. Using the installer, or the option in Apps and Features, to "repair" iCue does nothing.

Blue Swirl

The eventual aim is to get the fan controller stuff in iCue to appear. I can currently change my fans' colours, but they always spin at max RPM.

Blue Swirl

OK, help plz. I can hear a weird crackling noise coming from my PC. It sounds like an old HDD spinning up, but I've got two SSDs and no mechanical drives. I found this thread where someone has a similar noise, but for them it turned out to be air bubbles in their CPU water cooler... but I don't have a an AIO. I've tried stopping each fan gently with a finger to see if the noise stops (as someone in the link suggested), but it carries on, regardless of which fans are going. So it's not a bearing on the way out.

It sounds like it's coming from the back of the case, near the power supply - I guess it could be the fan in there? That'll be awkward to test. Other suggestions/ideas more than welcome. Cheers.

Ed_Flanders

It should be possible to turn on the psu outside the case with a jumper bridge or a simple paperclip.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories