Build Thread 3.0

[Malcador]

Okay, so sticking with the 5600 and with the MSI MAG-b550 Tomahawk (I've liked MSI in past and seems popular).  Still not too sure on the case though, probably do need ssome 3.5 bays.

[Humanoid]

That's a good motherboard, although your earlier build had a WiFi + Bluetooth enabled motherboard, so is that something you actually needed? If so, the MSI B550 Gaming Edge is (somewhat confusingly) the WiFi version of the Tomahawk, and it's the board I personally run. The Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro ax is slightly better specced though, shame it didn't exist back when I shopped. Minor at best, the advantages being ALC1220 audio vs ALC1200, and more USB ports.

Mesh cases are commonly recommended these days unless you have a specific reason to avoid them, but probably not such a big deal in your situation as your chosen parts are pretty efficient. Front runners are probably the Corsair 4000D, be quiet! Pure Base 500DX, Fractal Design Meshify 2 (or Compact variant), Lian-Li Meshify II USB-C, Phanteks P500A, NZXT H510 Flow.

 

EDIT: And in terms of SSDs, it tends to be a decision between older, formerly high-end PCI-E 3.0 drives and the new PCI-E 4.0 drives.

Popular examples of the former include the Samsung 970 Evo Plus, as well as the WD SN750, Crucial P5 and Kingston KC2500. The latter is represented by the Samsung 980 Pro, WD SN770 / SN850, Crucial P5 Plus, and Kingston KC3000. Personally I'd choose whether I want a 3.0 or 4.0 drive then choose the cheapest of these drives in that category. I have an SN750 and KC2500 currently for what it's worth.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Humanoid

[Malcador]

Nope, no need for Wi-Fi, definitely none for BT, have a sound card already so that matters less (my old Realtek bigotry runs deep).  Just means I need a motherboard with a couple PCIe ports, I guess.   The Fractal Torrent looks nice, will have to look at that.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Malcador

[Sarex]

Either way you can pick up an Intel ax210 kit from aliexpress and get the best wifi/bt available, which is what I'm considering doing for my board (minus the kit), but I would need to completely remove it and remove the heatsinks to get access to the old wifi card.

[Humanoid]

You'd need some kind of adapter if you motherboard doesn't have an E-key M.2 slot though, which most don't.

[Sarex]

5 hours ago, Humanoid said:

You'd need some kind of adapter if you motherboard doesn't have an E-key M.2 slot though, which most don't.

Yeah they sell a whole kit.

[majestic]

EVGA released a new bare bone, the E1

https://www.evga.com/products/E1-bare-bones/

5k USD for the case, a water cooled RXT 3090, a 1200W PSU and a mainboard.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

EVGA released a new bare bone, the E1

https://www.evga.com/products/E1-bare-bones/

5k USD for the case, a water cooled RXT 3090, a 1200W PSU and a mainboard.

It's so bare bones it's missing a CPU... I really dislike these open concept PCs. It's noisy, fragile and a dust magnet.

[Bartimaeus]

It's a very niche product. My preferred aesthetic for a PC is usually a small black box with no lights or decoration. The most "flashy" I've ever done is my current case, the Fractal Design Blackout Meshify C...and that's still relatively modest, especially given that I have no LEDs on the inside. So "spaceship" cases always get a laugh out of me, but I'm not really sure what to make of this one...but as I have no application for such an extremely light case, well, it's obviously not for me in the first place. At $1600 for just the case, that'd be a pretty tough sell without actually needing it, .

Edited August 8, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

I must admit it would be really funny to go for the full kit and then simply stick an i9 with a stock fan on it. With the weight, it could double as leave blower, or whatever else you want.

Not going to lie, I kinda like the analog gauges, but everything else? No thanks, and especially not for the price.

Edited August 8, 2022 by majestic

[Humanoid]

It's all set up for the end user to tie some rope to the top bars and suspend the whole assembly in a vat of oil.

[Sarex]

16 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

It's all set up for the end user to tie some rope to the top bars and suspend the whole assembly in a vat of oil.

Wow, that gave me such a blast from the past.

[Malcador]

21 hours ago, majestic said:

EVGA released a new bare bone, the E1

https://www.evga.com/products/E1-bare-bones/

5k USD for the case, a water cooled RXT 3090, a 1200W PSU and a mainboard.

Nice space heater.

[majestic]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

Wow, that gave me such a blast from the past.

Past? Mineral oil cooling ist still alive and kicking.

Relatively speaking, that is...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

21 hours ago, majestic said:

EVGA released a new bare bone, the E1

https://www.evga.com/products/E1-bare-bones/

5k USD for the case, a water cooled RXT 3090, a 1200W PSU and a mainboard.

 

[Sarex]

21 minutes ago, majestic said:

Past? Mineral oil cooling ist still alive and kicking.

I remembered a fairly old video from my childhood. Haven't seen any of the newer iterations.

[Sarex]

Very probably will get this as soon as it's available https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gr95qe-b

[Humanoid]

I want three of them!

But realistically I'll probably have to settle for one to start with, and progressively replace my other two monitors as OLED pricing drops.

[Keyrock]

I've decided to get a new modem and router. They both still function relatively well, I only have to reboot one of them once a month on average, but my Motorola SB6121 modem is quite outdated and my Linksys WRT54G router is positively ANCIENT. Seriously, I think the Byzantine Empire was still around when that router was made. I went with the Arris SB8200 modem and Archer AX55 router. That future proofs me up to Gigabit internet, though I doubt I'll get internet quite that fast when I get faster internet in the very near future (read: right after I receive the new modem and router).

Edited December 2, 2022 by Keyrock

[Sarex]

8 hours ago, Keyrock said:

I've decided to get a new modem and router. They both still function relatively well, I only have to reboot one of them once a month on average, but my Motorola SB6121 modem is quite outdated and my Linksys WRT54G router is positively ANCIENT. Seriously, I think the Byzantine Empire was still around when that router was made. I went with the Arris SB8200 modem and Archer AX55 router. That future proofs me up to Gigabit internet, though I doubt I'll get internet quite that fast when I get faster internet in the very near future (read: right after I receive the new modem and router).

So nice that you can buy your own modem, over here we are limited to the crap we get from our providers. Which is usually a modem+wifi combo, which sucks at both jobs.

[Keyrock]

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

So nice that you can buy your own modem, over here we are limited to the crap we get from our providers. Which is usually a modem+wifi combo, which sucks at both jobs.

Spectrum (they can change their name but I know they're still Time Warner, I'm not fooled) has a list of compatible modems, which includes both modems and modem/router combos. It's not the longest list in the world but it's definitely better than take what we give you and like it.

Side note: I'm also replacing all my old cat 5e cables with cat 6a. Cat 6a is overkill, since none of the cables are more than 7', but the difference in price between cat 6 and cat 6a was so small that I just got the better cables. Cat 7 would DEFINITELY have been overkill and that was a significant step up in price.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Keyrock

[Humanoid]

I want to replace my modem-router but we're sort of in limbo here with the current connection being VDSL2 (100Mbit down 40 up). My Netgear D7000 drops out more than I'd like, but there are no suitable all-in-one replacements and truthfully I don't know where the problem with it lies, the modem bit or the router bit. Therefore I don't know if running it in modem-only mode and adding a new, modern WiFi 6 router would resolve the problem, or whether it'd just be a huge waste of money. The current government would like to eventually upgrade the infrastructure around here to proper fibre (no modem required), but who knows how many years that'll take.

_______________

In the meantime, I've picked up a pair of discontinued LG 27GN880 monitors. These displays are fairly standard 27" 1440p 144Hz IPS monitors and the actual panels have no particular special properties that would make them a better buy than competing products. It may seem a very weird time for me to buy new IPS monitors with the new LG 27" OLEDs about a month away from release (in the US at least), and indeed I thought I was done buying LCD monitors for the rest of my life. But this was never about the displays themselves.

So yes, besides the fact that I got them for about 10% less than the generally-accepted entry level for this type of monitor (such as the Gigabyte G27Q), this product's party trick is the LG Ergo stand. I'm in a bit of a spring cleaning mood, despite summer now being upon us, and I figured it would be a great time to declutter my desk. And while I'm only midway through the process, these progress pictures show the improvement.

 

Shame I can't do anything about the huge DIY speaker stands, although I really should have painted them. Note also the rogue cable in the second picture, which is unfortunately because the standard length DisplayPort cables - both the ones I already own and those included with the monitor - are too short if I route them through the monitor pillar as intended. Still a very good design overall and neater looking than if I had bought one of those VESA standard adjustable monitor arms, which would probably also have cost me another $50AUD at least.  For context I got these for a little over $350AUD each. A new gaming monitor with separate VESA arm would add up to $450+.

In contrast, the MSRP of the new OLED monitors is expected to come to, oh, about $1600AUD. As a result, it was very easy to justify buying two of these and maybe run one OLED in the middle initially. Which brings me to my dilemma: I still have to install the second new monitor. Do I install it in the middle for now, given that it's theoretically a bit better than the existing Asus MG279 pictured? The Asus still a 1440p display and running at 144Hz (it's technically overclocked) but it has annoyingly thick bezels and is just a generally inferior panel, the design being around six years older than the LG. However I would then have to move it aside once I buy the new OLED in 1-12 months time. If I instead install the new monitor on the left, it would be an easy straight swap of the old Asus to the OLED in the future.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Humanoid

[majestic]

Rogue cable? My first (and only) reaction was: wireless 'ergonomic' multi button mouse? No thanks.

I can relate, the display port cable is the only rogue cable on my desk too. Those things really are too short. That is a relatively new development as I cleaned out my desk with the new computer and threw out the old Dolby Digital speaker setup, that instantly removed 13 cables and a gigantic power adapter that never fit anywhere, plus I never truly had the space for proper speaker placement anyway. Still plenty of cable chaos under the desk, but who gives a damn about that.

Anyway, I'm using this mouse:

And I actually bought a couple just in case, because they're out of stock almost everywhere, and buying stuff on eBay, dunno... going to have to try the Logitech M110 eventually to see if that works for me too, but they're a bit longer than the LS1.

Ah, to not be so limited with preferences would be nice. Alas.

[Humanoid]

Yeah. these monitors have an external power brick, the first such monitors I've owned. Slimmer display but more clutter, unfortunately. But I'm going to tape the bricks to the underside of my desk, so the final result should be fine.

The big brick that's visible in the first photo is for the G920 wheel though. I'd give it similar treatment, but a wheel is a device that's more likely to be removed entirely at times, so not sure. The brick-like thing at the left edge of the screen is not a power brick, but my Loxjie A30 amp.

Anyway, I ended up installing the other new monitor in the centre. This is because after seeing the old and new displays side by side for an hour or so, I do feel that there's a significant improvement in both colour and sharpness in the new ones, so yeah, the Asus gets shunted out to the left, which is my least-viewed monitor. Frankly, if I didn't want to try out 144Hz on multi-monitor Euro Truck Sim, I'd have used the even older Dell U2715 as the left monitor, because while it's only 60Hz, at least the picture is fantastic and the design is far sleeker and less obstrusive.

 

(To be honest I've never really been happy with the purchase of the Asus monitor, but it came at a time I'd bought a brand spanking new i7-6700K + R9 290X system and wanted to try out adaptive sync for the first time. And the damn thing cost me almost $800 back then, ugh.)

Edited December 3, 2022 by Humanoid

[Keyrock]

Do they make monitors with no bezel? I'm not talking a really really thin bezel, I know those monitors exist, I'm talking ZERO bezel. Phones exist with no bezel and while scaling that up to 27" or whatever does present some technical challenges, it should be completely doable, albeit expensive. Anyway, the reason I ask is were I ever to do a multi-monitor setup, I'd want no bezels so that I could potentially run it as a single screen without that ugly and distracting line where the monitors meet.