Gaming Building a gaming PC

Massive Spanner

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Ah cheers, I had no idea that's what that actually stood for, learn something new every day.

After my heart attack over my mobo last night, here's it all actually running properly...

I need another AER RBG fan to go in the top so that the daisy chain cables will reach and the back exhaust will light up.
Look at that lovely cable management like a civilized human being would have @Bojan11
 

Sanchez7

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Ah cheers, I had no idea that's what that actually stood for, learn something new every day.

After my heart attack over my mobo last night, here's it all actually running properly...

I need another AER RBG fan to go in the top so that the daisy chain cables will reach and the back exhaust will light up.
Nice setup! you need a better mouse pad for that G502 though
 

Bojan11

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Look at that lovely cable management like a civilized human being would have @Bojan11
How dare you. His GPU is smaller and I installed a CPU cooler with 3 fans, which comes with a radiator and a lot of cables. Life would have been easier without the radiator and I just used case fans, but I don’t see the point of investing in the equipment that I have to not have decent cooling.


15 minutes, see how thick the cables are for the Cooler. That was a year ago when GPUS were civilised sizes before everyone started copying Sony and making huge things. I also can add a picture of @esmufc07 on the oled display. I would take all those wires just to see him and remember the good times of me owning him in 2020. He is starting to behave in 2021, but if he starts again then we going to have problems again.

I will get a riser cable in my own time. But for now let me finish the DLC for BoTW.
 

Turnip

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Nice setup! you need a better mouse pad for that G502 though
Thanks! Yeah, the £3 Pikachu mat isn't the best, I'll probably pick up something a bit better (and of course with a little more RBG), there are a few things I need to finish it off completely like a better CPU cooler and wifi card, but I kinda spent more than my budget already so better wait.

Look at that lovely cable management like a civilized human being would have @Bojan11
Don't worry, this is the first time I've ever bothered with cable management, the case made it real easy, look at the inside of my old PC, it's like a bomb went off...
 

2mufc0

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Thanks! Yeah, the £3 Pikachu mat isn't the best, I'll probably pick up something a bit better (and of course with a little more RBG), there are a few things I need to finish it off completely like a better CPU cooler and wifi card, but I kinda spent more than my budget already so better wait.


Don't worry, this is the first time I've ever bothered with cable management, the case made it real easy, look at the inside of my old PC, it's like a bomb went off...
This is hurting my eyes.

Although good cable management also depends on how good your case is at hiding cables.

Having so many fans isn't an excuse either I've got 6 and it doesn't look as bad as some posted here.
 

2mufc0

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I have an i7 4770k with an Aorus 3070 (with the little tamagochi screen :lol:) and the bottleneck isn't severe at all. You can fine tune each game to minimalise it further.

Good buy! Shouldn't have much issue installing it, hopefully you have a crowbar to bend the shit out of your case ;)
And I thought I was bottlenecking with a 6700k :lol:.

But the CPU and motherboard is my next upgrade then I'll be set for a while.
 

Turnip

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Does anyone else's Steam download queue suddenly swap things around? Apparently Steam just doesn't want to download Cyberpunk, I keep putting it to the top of the queue and it keeps dumping it back to the bottom again. I should have removed everything else to be fair to force it, but by god I started downloading it last night and it still hasn't finished (had to validate the files and it got another 9gb download somehow).
This is hurting my eyes.

Although good cable management also depends on how good your case is at hiding cables.

Having so many fans isn't an excuse either I've got 6 and it doesn't look as bad as some posted here.
In my defence you're right, I cheaped out on my old case and it was the stupidest thing I did on the build (other than fogetting to put the IO shield in). Don't get me wrong I totally could have done better had I tried, I just didn't try. The NZXT case I used this time was stupidly easy to cable manage with though.
 

Slevs

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It'll be quite a while I think. The production just isn't there in enough numbers.

Have you thought about getting an FE when they are available as that's the most obvious way of paying MSRP at the moment? You still have to be quick to buy, but they tend to last 10 minutes before selling out when they go up for sale.
I'm not from the US/UK so that's impossible for me.
 

Redlambs

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And I thought I was bottlenecking with a 6700k :lol:.

But the CPU and motherboard is my next upgrade then I'll be set for a while.
I do have it overclocked to 4.3mhz though :lol:

But bottlenecking is as much about the game as it is the machine. Which is why I'm holding off upgrading the rest now to see what's happening in the next month or two, as no games are going to be unplayable for me this entire generation anyway ;)
 

Dante

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I've just ordered a prebuilt with a 5900X and RTX3080. Don't expect to receive it for a couple of months, but at least I'm near the front of the queue.
 

Slevs

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How big a difference is the Zotac AMP Holo 3080 vs say the equivalent 3080 of Gigabyte, or MSI? I have the Zotac one available for a "relatively" acceptable price of around 800USD compared to the others (1100 USD)
 

Acheron

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Thanks! Yeah, the £3 Pikachu mat isn't the best, I'll probably pick up something a bit better (and of course with a little more RBG), there are a few things I need to finish it off completely like a better CPU cooler and wifi card, but I kinda spent more than my budget already so better wait.


Don't worry, this is the first time I've ever bothered with cable management, the case made it real easy, look at the inside of my old PC, it's like a bomb went off...
Wow, what a mess. It's almost as bad as the non existent cable management in that PC a guy from the verge built...

Anyway your current system looks very nice and clean :)
 

mazhar13

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How big a difference is the Zotac AMP Holo 3080 vs say the equivalent 3080 of Gigabyte, or MSI? I have the Zotac one available for a "relatively" acceptable price of around 800USD compared to the others (1100 USD)
Ultimately, the majority of the card is the same. The differences would lie in the build quality, cooling, temperature, and (minor) core clocks.

From what I've read, ZOTAC GPUs are typically quite noisy and require some fine tuning to make them run cooler. Gigabyte can also heat up, but their cards are designed to run just fine at higher temperatures. MSI GPUs tend to be decent in quality, overall. If you don't mind the fan noises and a bit of tinkering/care to ensure that the GPUs remain cool enough, then a ZOTAC would be adequate enough.
 

Igor Drefljak

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How big a difference is the Zotac AMP Holo 3080 vs say the equivalent 3080 of Gigabyte, or MSI? I have the Zotac one available for a "relatively" acceptable price of around 800USD compared to the others (1100 USD)
I honestly don't know the true answer but I think price vs performance, that Zotac is probably better.
You may get a few FPS more with the more expensive ones, but is it really worth $300 more.

Resale value, people do turn their noses up at Zotac and Palit, but I wouldn't let it put you off.
If anything, the £300 you save could go towards watercooling, more ram, better CPU and the performance would be better
 

2mufc0

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How big a difference is the Zotac AMP Holo 3080 vs say the equivalent 3080 of Gigabyte, or MSI? I have the Zotac one available for a "relatively" acceptable price of around 800USD compared to the others (1100 USD)
You can look up the benchmarks on YouTube, I would be very surprised if there's a noticeable difference, accross the board the FPS gain is limited. I think it mostly comes down to things like appearance and build quality.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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After having played on gaming x trio 3070 for a few days there's a some things I've noticed. First of all even using features like ray tracing and dlss the card runs cooler on average than the rx 570 (I'm aware amd cards run hotter in general), staying in the 50-60c's under load creaping to low 70c's after several hours of play which is impressive considering I've got just the one exhaust case fan at the back for the moment (waiting for some in the post).

Have only checked this on gears 5 but out of the box it's running 2010-2030mhz constant core clock speed in areas with a lot going on which is more than the 1830mhz it says on the box; thought that's pretty cool. Memory frequency is 7001 ddr as is typical, can anyone tell me what are safe increments and limits to overclock (particularly memory) without fecking anything up, also whether the gains would be worth it?
 

Balljy

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After having played on gaming x trio 3070 for a few days there's a some things I've noticed. First of all even using features like ray tracing and dlss the card runs cooler on average than the rx 570 (I'm aware amd cards run hotter in general), staying in the 50-60c's under load creaping to low 70c's after several hours of play which is impressive considering I've got just the one exhaust case fan at the back for the moment (waiting for some in the post).

Have only checked this on gears 5 but out of the box it's running 2010-2030mhz constant core clock speed in areas with a lot going on which is more than the 1830mhz it says on the box; thought that's pretty cool. Memory frequency is 7001 ddr as is typical, can anyone tell me what are safe increments and limits to overclock (particularly memory) without fecking anything up, also whether the gains would be worth it?
The box clock speeds don't mean anything on the 3xxx series as the Nvidia drivers will take it to what it thinks is the maximum frequency whilst keeping it within temp limits. 2010 to 2030 is pretty decent anyway but you can probably go a bit higher with a manual overclock in my experience with a 3080. I found it better going for an undervolted overclock anyway so I'm running 2050mhz (the 3070 should be similar) running less voltage than out of the box :lol:

I'd start at 7300 for the memory and then creep up 20 or 30 at a time. Personally I saw very little improvement from memory in terms of benchmarks so left it at a fairly safe level. That is where the 3080 does differ though as it has ECC memory so won't crash badly even if it fails due to an overclock. I think most 3070's can go +500 on memory.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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The box clock speeds don't mean anything on the 3xxx series as the Nvidia drivers will take it to what it thinks is the maximum frequency whilst keeping it within temp limits. 2010 to 2030 is pretty decent anyway but you can probably go a bit higher with a manual overclock in my experience with a 3080. I found it better going for an undervolted overclock anyway so I'm running 2050mhz (the 3070 should be similar) running less voltage than out of the box :lol:

I'd start at 7300 for the memory and then creep up 20 or 30 at a time. Personally I saw very little improvement from memory in terms of benchmarks so left it at a fairly safe level. That is where the 3080 does differ though as it has ECC memory so won't crash badly even if it fails due to an overclock. I think most 3070's can go +500 on memory.
Yeah the box seems to under-sell it but i guess better that than the other way around. Ahh I'll have a look at overclocking while undervolting, would be great to draw less power especially while I wait for the fan to arrive for the extra heat. Appreciate the tips!
 

Bosws87

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I've decided to upgrade my system,

AMD RYZEN 7 3800X
3080
32gb RAM

From i7-9700
2070 Super
16gb ram

I will restart cyberpunk and play it properly with raytracing enabled!

Thinking of upgrading my monitor is the jump from 144hz - 240hz worth the premium, i mainly play CS:GO and Valorant.
 

Bojan11

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GeForce RTX 3060 Launches Late February
The GeForce RTX 3060, the newest member of the GeForce RTX 3060 family of graphics cards, is an enticing upgrade for mid-range users looking to enjoy the latest games at great detail levels and frame rates.
For example, gamers still rocking the GeForce GTX 1060, the most-used GPU on Steam, will instantly supercharge their performance. They’ll be able to take on the latest games that are more stunning and graphically demanding. They’ll additionally get to experience ray-traced visuals for the first time, and have complete access to our latest game-changing technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Broadcast, and more.
The GeForce RTX 3060 will also support Resizable BAR, along with the rest of the GeForce RTX 30 Series on compatible motherboards. This advanced feature of PCI Express enables the CPU to access the GPU frame buffer, improving performance in many games. For more on this upcoming feature, head here.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-game-on-announcement-roundup/
 

Turnip

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I've decided to upgrade my system,

AMD RYZEN 7 3800X
3080
32gb RAM

From i7-9700
2070 Super
16gb ram

I will restart cyberpunk and play it properly with raytracing enabled!

Thinking of upgrading my monitor is the jump from 144hz - 240hz worth the premium, i mainly play CS:GO and Valorant.
Very nice, I would have been happy with your old system before my upgrade last week, but don't blame you.
Is this instead of the rumored 3080ti?
 

Bosws87

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Very nice, I would have been happy with your old system before my upgrade last week, but don't blame you.

Is this instead of the rumored 3080ti?
Yeh, my old setup was a freebie if i had bought it i probs would of stayed put!
 

Igor Drefljak

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Thinking of upgrading my monitor is the jump from 144hz - 240hz worth the premium, i mainly play CS:GO and Valorant.
To the eye, it's not worth it. The jump from this isn't big or very noticeable, although since having a 240hz monitor, I don't really want to drop back down.
But performance wise, you may do better in games without knowing just cause.

Linus did a test with some top gamers and even though they didn't know which was the 144 and the 240 by eye, they did perform better on a 240hz monitor
 

Igor Drefljak

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I'm currently destroying a room to make it a small dedicated gaming room.
For me, it's gonna look great, but it's still probably got a few weeks to go.

Still waiting on some EK stuff though anyway, so until that comes, this PC just lays dormant
 

Igor Drefljak

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Got this beauty today.
No idea where to start when I get round to it, but shit, it may be a dead 3080 before it gets to stretch it's legs the poor thing :lol:
 

Bosws87

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Been playing RDR2 4k Ultra 60fps on my tv that game is something else on a high end pc.
 

Slevs

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Don't mind me, I'm just sitting in this corner here looking at your builds while waiting for an imposed lockdown to end by next month to get the parts I need...
 

Badunk

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Seems the only way to get the latest GPUs is to buy a pre-built with substandard parts. I've seen a handful of 5600x/3070 combos for £1500 but they have lesser mobos or shitty cases or, in one build, only 8GB of ram!

So, for the meantime, I'm just chilling with my GTX970 and hoping that crypto starts to tank :lol:
 

mitChley

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My RMA'd 2080 has arrived back at Nvidia, just need them to ship my replacement. One week without my PC and I'm bored as anything, house is clean though.
 

YzWayne

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My current PC is dying and I am intending to get a new one. However I am a noob with building a PC and have no idea if i should get pre fixed PC or a custom one.

I am currently using a ROG Strix 32inch 144hertz monitor and would like to maximize it though.

Common games I am playing are:

1. Dota2
2. Overwatch
3. F1
4. Dying light
5. GTA
6. Cyberpunk in future maybe?

Anyone can advise me on what should I get? Thanks in advance.
 

Acheron

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My current PC is dying and I am intending to get a new one. However I am a noob with building a PC and have no idea if i should get pre fixed PC or a custom one.

I am currently using a ROG Strix 32inch 144hertz monitor and would like to maximize it though.

Common games I am playing are:

1. Dota2
2. Overwatch
3. F1
4. Dying light
5. GTA
6. Cyberpunk in future maybe?

Anyone can advise me on what should I get? Thanks in advance.
Most of those titles aren't super demanding so I think you have plenty of options in regards to choosing a video card for such a system. With that monitor you would want to play at 1440. I have a RTX 2060 super and I play similar titles and that card is enough to play at 1440p with 60fps monitor, so I think you would benefit from getting something above a 2060 Super. It would depend on princing but something like the RTX 2070 Super could be good for your system.

As for processors it's more straightforward and just get a Ryzen 5 either from this generation or the past one.
 
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iluvoursolskjær

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Wooo done my first bit if overclocking on the gaming x tro 3070 and have settled on +100 core (boosts to 2100+) and +1250* memory (8250) and temps still stay well below 50c playing gears 5.

(When i mentioned my gpu temp in a previous post the mug that i am was looking at cpu temp).

Happy with that :cool:

Building pc's and messing around with components is massively fun! What have i been doing all these years.

*Edit ok cyberpunk crashed it so just left it at +1050 to be on the safe side :wenger: upped core to +150 and it's all stable. The 7% core increase and 15% memory increase has made a small but noticeable difference for no extra power.
 
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Bosws87

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I’ve got the tuf gaming 3080 and it runs super cool all stock very impressed.

don’t think I’ve reached 65 degrees under load.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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I’ve got the tuf gaming 3080 and it runs super cool all stock very impressed.

don’t think I’ve reached 65 degrees under load.
The Tuf ones are known for their cool temps aren't they? For what the 30 series cards output some of the 3rd party manufacturers have done quite well on that front. But then the cards are also huge so that helps.
 

Bosws87

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The Tuf ones are known for their cool temps aren't they? For what the 30 series cards output some of the 3rd party manufacturers have done quite well on that front. But then the cards are also huge so that helps.
Yeh I believe so makes a little noise but I’m fine with that, fan noise has never bothered me.

The majority of games I’m putting time into basically don’t even touch the gpu it’s total overkill to have the 3080!

hooked up to the tv with the Xbox elite series 3 controller I do question why I still bother with consoles sometimes