PC Build Thread

[Kg810]

I always avoid reading these PC build threads cause it's so easy to get lured into buying new tech.

I'm still rocking a 12 year old build (X58) haha. Definitely seems like a great time to upgrade.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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I picked up 2 from Memory Express on Monday. They both had Iron Wolf Pros.

Which is great because I'm replacing my 4TB NAS drives with them!

Oh sweet, that's even better than the Barracuda Pros, especially for a NAS.

Seagate doesn't make any "low end" 10TB drives so I don't think you can really go wrong shucking those external drives. I hope there aren't too many people buying them bare at double the price.

[Xtrema]

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I've got a 1080Ti to use for now, but I will be buying a 3080Ti or 6800XT/6900XT - haven't had a chance to look at any reviews yet. Either way I'm waiting until the dust settles in 2021 and any driver/hardware issues are ironed out for both.

6800XT seems to fall flat against 3080. Especially with ray tracing on.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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6800XT seems to fall flat against 3080. Especially with ray tracing on.

I don't play any games with ray tracing, and there are only a small handful of games that even have it, so that's a moot point for me. I got a chance to watch the Hardware Unboxed review yesterday and their 18 game average at 1440P has the 6800XT just ahead of the 3080 and just behind the 3090, so they are all within a range that would be nearly identical for 'normal' gaming. A couple games have a disproportionately high FPS gain from SAM but I don't play those particular games and Nvidia is planning on adding it as well.

But as I mentioned earlier I am more worried about workstation performance since they are both 1440P monsters (I game at 1440P/144Hz). Ampere is a workstation architecture, Navi is not, and most creative software is optimized for OpenGL and CUDA cores which heavily favors Nvidia. I'm just hoping Nvidia doesn't price gouge too much with the 3080Ti as I do want the 20GB GDDR6X.

[spikerS]

I am going to run over to memory express shortly here, and before I left, i thought i would ask here first.

I need to wire up my office, wifi downloads speeds are crap and it's better to be wired for gaming. I have an ethernet connection from my TELUS router into the basement office, but it's just 1 connection. I have decided to wire it all up, but I need at least 3 connection points. (laptops and xbox)

Would I be better off getting a dedicated router for the office, or should I just get a $50 4 port unmanaged ethernet hub? product suggestions? Remember, I am not the techy I used to be.

[ExtraSlow]

Cheap gigabit switch and call it a day.

[pheoxs]

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I am going to run over to memory express shortly here, and before I left, i thought i would ask here first.

I need to wire up my office, wifi downloads speeds are crap and it's better to be wired for gaming. I have an ethernet connection from my TELUS router into the basement office, but it's just 1 connection. I have decided to wire it all up, but I need at least 3 connection points. (laptops and xbox)

Would I be better off getting a dedicated router for the office, or should I just get a $50 4 port unmanaged ethernet hub? product suggestions? Remember, I am not the techy I used to be.

I think a cheap 4 port switch would be best. You don't want a second router as that'll cause more headaches.

You could switch from using the Telus router to your own router in the office but having the wifi router in the basement might mean slower phones upstairs in the bedrooms (assuming your Telus box is on the main floor at the moment?

The stock isp boxes do suck but I also hate having the wifi router in the basement for coverage so idk if it's worth dropping 200$ on a router.

[spikerS]

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I think a cheap 4 port switch would be best. You don't want a second router as that'll cause more headaches.

You could switch from using the Telus router to your own router in the office but having the wifi router in the basement might mean slower phones upstairs in the bedrooms (assuming your Telus box is on the main floor at the moment?

The stock isp boxes do suck but I also hate having the wifi router in the basement for coverage so idk if it's worth dropping 200$ on a router.

I would be leaving the TELUS router on the mainfloor where it is now, and the office router would just be dedicated for the office, and maybe give it's wifi signal to the playroom for the kids gaming systems.

But, I will go with the consensus here, and just get a 4 port switch and call it a day. Thanks!

[ExtraSlow]

Just tell the salebro at MemEx you want a cheap unmanaged gigabit switch and you'll do good.

[pheoxs]

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I would be leaving the TELUS router on the mainfloor where it is now, and the office router would just be dedicated for the office, and maybe give it's wifi signal to the playroom for the kids gaming systems.

But, I will go with the consensus here, and just get a 4 port switch and call it a day. Thanks!

Definitely just a switch then. Otherwise you have to buy a nicer router that works as a access point and have to configure it as such. If a 20$ switch works then no point spending 150+ on a router.

Any of these:
https://www.memoryexpress.com/Catego...b-bef08696ed4b

[revelations]

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I always avoid reading these PC build threads cause it's so easy to get lured into buying new tech.

I'm still rocking a 12 year old build (X58) haha. Definitely seems like a great time to upgrade.

im the same way - 20+ years in IT and I stay far away from the latest and greatest tech (including software), unless there is a specific requirement or money to burn. I'm always 6-12 months behind so that most of the bugs and demand has settled out.

[2Legit2Quit]

Next generation of the zen chips and AM5 socket will be a better time to build for the sake of upgradability, we're on the tail end of AM4 right now. I couldn't/didn't want to wait another year so I built now although it makes more sense to wait for the next socket.

Although things could be pricier if you want to go latest greatest in multiple regards, DDR5 prob not gunna be cheap.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Next generation of the zen chips and AM5 socket will be a better time to build for the sake of upgradability, we're on the tail end of AM4 right now. I couldn't/didn't want to wait another year so I built now although it makes more sense to wait for the next socket.

Although things could be pricier if you want to go latest greatest in multiple regards, DDR5 prob not gunna be cheap.

DDR5 is going to take years to mature to the level DDR4 is at right now. At launch, good DDR4 kits will probably be better than DDR5. By the time DDR5 is both faster and the same price as current DDR4 kits, it will be a while. By the time DDR5 is matured and ready for primetime I will probably want a new PC anyway haha.

DDR4 was announced I think around 2011, and it took about 4 years to become a mature standard. I would assume a similar path for DDR5.

[Kg810]

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Next generation of the zen chips and AM5 socket will be a better time to build for the sake of upgradability, we're on the tail end of AM4 right now. I couldn't/didn't want to wait another year so I built now although it makes more sense to wait for the next socket.

Although things could be pricier if you want to go latest greatest in multiple regards, DDR5 prob not gunna be cheap.

Yeah I'm going to wait for the next gen.

I actually just picked up a dirt cheap Xeon x5675 and will tinker with it to see if I can push it over 4.5GHz.

Playing with the latest and greatest is always going to be an expensive game. I guess the upfront cost isn't too bad if you're getting years of use out of it (this is how I justify my spending ).

[spikerS]

Sales bro at MemX was pretty good. Got my ethernet switch, a USB port hub, and......

https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX79211

Lian Li 011D - XL in white.

First step of my gaming PC build. Doing it piecemeal as I go. Lets me build a better PC as I am spreading out the costs. From what I can tell it is a good case to build with. Should have lots of room for anything I decide to put in there down the road. Salesbro even pricematched it. Was super easy. Don't know my MemX gets the hate...

[Kg810]

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Sales bro at MemX was pretty good. Got my ethernet switch, a USB port hub, and......

https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX79211

Lian Li 011D - XL in white.

First step of my gaming PC build. Doing it piecemeal as I go. Lets me build a better PC as I am spreading out the costs. From what I can tell it is a good case to build with. Should have lots of room for anything I decide to put in there down the road. Salesbro even pricematched it. Was super easy. Don't know my MemX gets the hate...

That is a great looking case, nice choice!

I think the hate is because they are far from the MemEx they used to be 10+ years ago. Customer service and price beat isn't as good.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Don't know my MemX gets the hate...

It's impossible to paint every location or every salesperson with the same brush and I can only speak for myself, but every experience I have had in there at 3 of their locations over the last several years have always been disappointing. Trying to upsell me with straight up false information, eye rolls and whining like a 5 year old about price beats, high pressure scare tactics for IPR, etc.

Most recently with my CPU reservation, I got verbal and email confirmation I was first on the pre-order list and that he will contact me as soon as they arrive. Launch day comes, I don't hear a peep from the salesperson, and when I contact him I am told that "yeah sorry we sold them already". After a few more back & forth emails making sure I was now on the backorder list, I finally realized he thought the Ryzen CPU was a GPU I blame myself for trusting them with a task like that, and now I'm stuck with a pile of PC components and no CPU haha.

Building a PC for my dad a while ago I was told by the salesperson that the 8700K will not run unless it's water cooled, despite the fact I was buying a Noctua NH-D15 which outperformed the water cooler he was trying to sell me at half the price. That is clearly false information but his commission was probably higher on the water cooler.

Another time I took my PC to them to help diagnose an issue I was having that I just couldn't figure out on my own. They told me it was my SSD and sold me a new SSD. As soon as I got home the issue re-appeared, and I eventually discovered (by myself) that it was the PSU. EVGA over-nighted me a new PSU just days before Xmas and I returned the SSD to memex, but was still out $200 worth of completely wasted diagnostic fees. The SSD they told me was faulty is still working to this day and they clearly did not even re-test the PC after the "fix".

Their prices are usually on the higher side, but they do price beat so I guess that's OK. Just a bit of extra hassle every time you go in.

Their price beat program used to be better and you could get some ridiculous deals. Now they are really stingy with it and it's only 10% of the difference (used to be 20%) - they even deny price beats if the item is sold by a Canadian retailer but shipped from a USA warehouse (lots of stuff on Newegg, for instance).

IPR used to be a lot better. Now, it's not instant - they are allowed up to 5 days to diagnose the issue before offering replacement and on top of that they get to choose what replacement you get. So for example if you bought a specific GPU for a specific purpose and they couldn't replace it with the same one, they will give you something entirely at their discretion with a similar price but not necessarily the performance you paid for originally. It's also very expensive, I think around a 25% premium for 4 years and they still aggressively push IPR on things like cases.

Most recently, they have started making any popular product final sale only, something no other retailer seems to be doing.

The last good experience I had at Memex was when Hakkola worked there (he even looked up and did all the price beats for me ahead of time). I miss the good ol' days when it was a hole-in-the-wall store. Disallowing online sales for launch products and encouraging large gatherings of people outside their store in the middle of a pandemic is just the cherry on top.

So yeah, I think it's just the overall steady decline of both employee quality and store policies that have put people off over the years. They're the only game in town though if you can't get what you want online. As long as you do all your own research before going there and have a price beat lined up, it's fine. If anyone has a salesperson there that they're really happy with I would gladly try them out next time.

[rx7boi]

Last night, I tried to run Crysis Remastered on my i5 8400 GTX 1060 6GB and failed miserably

Low settings FTW.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Last night, I tried to run Crysis Remastered on my i5 8400 GTX 1060 6GB and failed miserably

Low settings FTW.

Fun fact: you can install and run Crysis entirely in the VRAM of a 3090 with a program called "VRAM Drive" haha.

[spikerS]

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*SNIP*.

Agreed, gonna be different with every person, however, my experience there today was great.

Only issue I had was he forgot to do the price match when I paid, so, they refunded me the difference.

I bought one of their more expensive cases, and he didn't even mention the IPR. And when I asked him to price match the case with Newegg, he just made sure they had inventory and then price matched it right away.

I dunno, YMMV, but today, I thought it was an overall great experience.