PC Pc Gaming/building thread

[Xtreme]

Buy only one version of each game you buy and you'll get that $5k in no time

Pwoar!! Lol thanks for the inspiration, only missing the Rocky music to fully inspire me.

It's interesting though I don't thumb my nose with spending money on some things (eg: the $8,000 on a 3 week holiday, importing new release movies for $100+ instead of waiting months for a sale/price drop and only spending $30).

Yet something like buying a new computer makes me procrastinate. What if I find a better/cheaper case later on, what if the price of video cards drop etc etc.

I only hesitated for 3 weeks before buying the first gaming laptop. The second laptop was gained in August/September last year, pounced when it dropped almost 600 in price. Of course 6+ months later I could have got an extra $300 off (I assume they're clearing the decks for the 2025 range).

 

[dwwaino]

https://www.newegg.com/abs-aeolian-m-aqua-gaming-desktop-pc-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-intel-core-ultra-7-265kf-32gb-ddr5-2tb-ssd/p/N82E16883360674?Item=N82E16883360674

Am considering upgrading my gaming laptop to a desktop. Question is will it be worth it. Something like the link to replace the attached image for gaming....any opinions?

PC building is in a horrible place right now. That link to Newegg is in USD and to build something equivalent locally would be about $3500-4000. You could shave nearly a grand off by swapping the 5070ti for a 9070xt if NVIDIA's tech isn't important and changing the 265k for something like a 9700x - though I think the 265k is a better part anyway for the sake of about $100. In terms of an upgrade it will definitely wipe the floor with the laptop because even though the laptop is a 4070 laptop GPUs are never the same thing to their desktop counterpart. But it's if worth spending that sort of coin to you.

 

[carn tigez]

PC building is in a horrible place right now. That link to Newegg is in USD and to build something equivalent locally would be about $3500-4000. You could shave nearly a grand off by swapping the 5070ti for a 9070xt if NVIDIA's tech isn't important and changing the 265k for something like a 9700x - though I think the 265k is a better part anyway for the sake of about $100. In terms of an upgrade it will definitely wipe the floor with the laptop because even though the laptop is a 4070 laptop GPUs are never the same thing to their desktop counterpart. But it's if worth spending that sort of coin to you.

Oh im actually based in the US currently, forgot to mention that bit.

Yeah was basically wanting to know if it was enough of a step up in performance to be truly noticeable or if I should wait and take a bigger step up in a couple of years for a similar price.

 

[dwwaino]

Oh im actually based in the US currently, forgot to mention that bit.

Yeah was basically wanting to know if it was enough of a step up in performance to be truly noticeable or if I should wait and take a bigger step up in a couple of years for a similar price.

Oh derp that makes sense then lol. In that case I've seen heaps of photos from places like Best Buy and Micro Center pretty well stocked with 5000 series so finding a (relatively) affordable pre build shouldn't be too bad there. I think it would be a meaningful step up. Desktops don't have the same thermal limitations as a laptop which is a big deal for gaming. Not only are laptop parts often "downgraded" versions of their desktop equivalents in terms of lower clocks and slower memory, they draw considerably less power so simply aren't as powerful. Going from a 4070 laptop to any desktop around a 5070ti will be coming from a 3000 series desktop.

 

[carn tigez]

Oh derp that makes sense then lol. In that case I've seen heaps of photos from places like Best Buy and Micro Center pretty well stocked with 5000 series so finding a (relatively) affordable pre build shouldn't be too bad there. I think it would be a meaningful step up. Desktops don't have the same thermal limitations as a laptop which is a big deal for gaming. Not only are laptop parts often "downgraded" versions of their desktop equivalents in terms of lower clocks and slower memory, they draw considerably less power so simply aren't as powerful. Going from a 4070 laptop to any desktop around a 5070ti will be coming from a 3000 series desktop.

Awesome thanks. I had a 5700xt desktop in Australia, guessing also a good step up from that?

That Newegg build seemed decent value from my searching but i don't spend much time in this space, you reckon I can find better?

 

[dwwaino]

Awesome thanks. I had a 5700xt desktop in Australia, guessing also a good step up from that?

That Newegg build seemed decent value from my searching but i don't spend much time in this space, you reckon I can find better?

Definitely a decent step up from the 5700xt. As you'll be using the US market it's hard to say if you can find better as prices are different. I know the ballpark of prices and brands of most things sold in Aus without having to look them up and know the reputable retailers. The US not so much. All I know is Micro Centre and Best Buy are popular to buy parts and the big US Youtubers tend to promote Falcon Northwest as a retailer of prebuilds (Google says they specialise in high end though?). Newegg is kind of the wild west. You can find just about everything on it but they use surge pricing for parts, they also sell stuff from third parties like Amazon (that one you linked says it's from somewhere called ABS) and I have absolutely no idea about the reputation of their prebuilds. Just having a closer inspection of that one you linked though it uses a shit motherboard and PSU and a pretty budget end SSD.

While technically fine I wouldn't be pairing a 750w with a 5070ti or even a 9070xt in 2025. Not only does it limit any future upgrades it says it's ATX2.0. I wouldn't be touching an ATX2.0 PSU for anything new. 3.0 is fine but most manufacturers are refreshing their ATX3.0 PSUs with 3.1. There is nothing wrong with that Kingston NV2 SSD either but it's a budget SSD and pcie 4.0 SSDs are considerably cheaper than they used to be and isn't a stretch for something decent. That price of that build is almost entirely taken up by the 5070ti and 265k and the rest has been compromised to make budget.

Have a look at some reviews of the 9070xt and then decide if you still want the 5070ti. The 5070ti is still better in ray tracing and as far as FSR has come DLSS is still superior, but in raw performance the 9070xt is as good and is like $600-800AUD cheaper. It's quite common for prebuilds to use shit motherboards and PSUs but if you can find somewhere local that builds custom to whatever specs you want you could easily build something around a 9070xt to the same budget as that Newegg machine, keeping the 265k and getting better parts for the rest of it. But like I said before, PC building is kind of horrible at the moment. Prices are absolutely stupid for stuff and it's hard to justify the cost for any of it unless it's something you really want.

 

[carn tigez]

Definitely a decent step up from the 5700xt. As you'll be using the US market it's hard to say if you can find better as prices are different. I know the ballpark of prices and brands of most things sold in Aus without having to look them up and know the reputable retailers. The US not so much. All I know is Micro Centre and Best Buy are popular to buy parts and the big US Youtubers tend to promote Falcon Northwest as a retailer of prebuilds (Google says they specialise in high end though?). Newegg is kind of the wild west. You can find just about everything on it but they use surge pricing for parts, they also sell stuff from third parties like Amazon (that one you linked says it's from somewhere called ABS) and I have absolutely no idea about the reputation of their prebuilds. Just having a closer inspection of that one you linked though it uses a shit motherboard and PSU and a pretty budget end SSD.

While technically fine I wouldn't be pairing a 750w with a 5070ti or even a 9070xt in 2025. Not only does it limit any future upgrades it says it's ATX2.0. I wouldn't be touching an ATX2.0 PSU for anything new. 3.0 is fine but most manufacturers are refreshing their ATX3.0 PSUs with 3.1. There is nothing wrong with that Kingston NV2 SSD either but it's a budget SSD and pcie 4.0 SSDs are considerably cheaper than they used to be and isn't a stretch for something decent. That price of that build is almost entirely taken up by the 5070ti and 265k and the rest has been compromised to make budget.

Have a look at some reviews of the 9070xt and then decide if you still want the 5070ti. The 5070ti is still better in ray tracing and as far as FSR has come DLSS is still superior, but in raw performance the 9070xt is as good and is like $600-800AUD cheaper. It's quite common for prebuilds to use shit motherboards and PSUs but if you can find somewhere local that builds custom to whatever specs you want you could easily build something around a 9070xt to the same budget as that Newegg machine, keeping the 265k and getting better parts for the rest of it. But like I said before, PC building is kind of horrible at the moment. Prices are absolutely stupid for stuff and it's hard to justify the cost for any of it unless it's something you really want.

This is great info, thanks. Will look into custom builds.

Interestingly I found Newegg through a PC parts review type site, think they used it for price comparisons or something, but previously have used Best Buy.

 

[carn tigez]

Looks like here at least the RTX 5070 Ti and the 9070XT are similar prices. But custom build seems a much better price on Best Buy, great call there.

 

[carn tigez]

How does this look? I'm 100% a noob in this department so any guidance greatly appreciated!

 

[dwwaino]

How does this look? I'm 100% a noob in this department so any guidance greatly appreciated!


View attachment 2269281

This is better. Look into Intel degradation issues with 13th and 14th gen though. I don't know if it was only a certain batch and has been corrected or only affects the top end 13900k/14900k. If you don't mind side stepping to AMD (Ryzen has taken over from Intel as the defacto standard anyway now) then check out local pricing on the 9700x with a b850 motherboard (there is a b850 Tomahawk if you like that motherboard). The 9700x consumes a lot less power too.

How much is tax there? I assume that's excluded from those prices. Even after tax the comparison to Aus pricing is sickening. That same 5070ti Gaming OC is $2k AUD when if I convert that one you listed and add GST it's only $1300-1400AUD.

 

[carn tigez]

This is better. Look into Intel degradation issues with 13th and 14th gen though. I don't know if it was only a certain batch and has been corrected or only affects the top end 13900k/14900k. If you don't mind side stepping to AMD (Ryzen has taken over from Intel as the defacto standard anyway now) then check out local pricing on the 9700x with a b850 motherboard (there is a b850 Tomahawk if you like that motherboard). The 9700x consumes a lot less power too.

How much is tax there? I assume that's excluded from those prices. Even after tax the comparison to Aus pricing is sickening. That same 5070ti Gaming OC is $2k AUD when if I convert that one you listed and add GST it's only $1300-1400AUD.

About 7%. Though I've realised today that a lot of these aren't in stock and are selling for much dumber prices used/marketplace etc. Pretty hard to find a decent GPU so might need to buy a pre built system after all.

I'll see what I can find and make sure I check with you before I pull the trigger

 

[carn tigez]

Now looking at this as the best option. Think it's ticked off most of what you said, how's the B650 for this rig? And everything else kosher? Price-wise it seems pretty competitive and same price as basically the same rig with a 9070XT

King 95

skytechgaming.com

 

[dwwaino]

Now looking at this as the best option. Think it's ticked off most of what you said, how's the B650 for this rig? And everything else kosher? Price-wise it seems pretty competitive and same price as basically the same rig with a 9070XT

King 95

skytechgaming.com

I wish pre builds told you the exact parts but that is more optimally spec'd with the 7800x3d. That's the same CPU I'm running. The x3d line of CPUs will basically brute force any un-optimised CPU limited game. Don't know what b650 it is but that chipset is forward compatible with Ryzen 9000 if you wanted to upgrade CPU later. I wonder if you can upgrade the SSD? I only say because 1tb doesn't go far these days. They aren't hard to add a second one if you wanted but usually with pre builds that would mean voiding your warranty to open it.

 

[carn tigez]

I wish pre builds told you the exact parts but that is more optimally spec'd with the 7800x3d. That's the same CPU I'm running. The x3d line of CPUs will basically brute force any un-optimised CPU limited game. Don't know what b650 it is but that chipset is forward compatible with Ryzen 9000 if you wanted to upgrade CPU later. I wonder if you can upgrade the SSD? I only say because 1tb doesn't go far these days. They aren't hard to add a second one if you wanted but usually with pre builds that would mean voiding your warranty to open it.

Not too fussed about 1tb, i tend to uninstall and reinstall pretty regularly anyway as laptop only has 1 or 2tb currently. Also not too fussed about the warranty, think it's only 12 months free anyway so can make do for 12 months and then expand if needed.

Yeah its annoying you don't get the exact specs. But alternative option doesn't seem to exist in terms of custom build, very few decent GPUs in stock at a reasonable price anywhere but can get them in the pre builds.

 

[Supersuns]

Was planning a fresh build from the ground up this year but the 8k+ price tag is making my eyes water a fair bit. Shame the market has got to the state its in

 

[dwwaino]

very few decent GPUs in stock at a reasonable price anywhere but can get them in the pre builds.

I'm assuming it's the same as what's happening here - limited supply and retailers are sticking them into pre builds. The handful that aren't are priced stupidly due to the laws of supply and demand.

 

[dwwaino]

Was planning a fresh build from the ground up this year but the 8k+ price tag is making my eyes water a fair bit. Shame the market has got to the state its in

It's horrible. I spread the cost of mine over about 5 or 6 months and I think it ended up around $6k. But that wasn't even for the best of the best. That's still "only" a build around a 7800x3d and 5080, not even a 9800x3d and 5090. This hobby will die if this sort of stupidity keeps up.

 

[Xtreme]

One of the things I've considered is paying for the guts of it first (motherboard, PSU, CPU, ram, ssds, case etc). Survive on the on board graphics for 1-2 months then get the video card after - still an expensive exercise but not as much money spent in one go.

 

[gaskin]

I'm assuming it's the same as what's happening here - limited supply and retailers are sticking them into pre builds. The handful that aren't are priced stupidly due to the laws of supply and demand.

That has been happening for a while now. I had to buy a pre-build to get my 3080. It came in less than 2 weeks whereas I probably would have been waiting a couple of months at least for the GPU if I was to build it myself.

 

[Supersuns]

That has been happening for a while now. I had to buy a pre-build to get my 3080. It came in less than 2 weeks whereas I probably would have been waiting a couple of months at least for the GPU if I was to build it myself.

I remember feeling a little foolish for spending $2700 on a 3090, how i wish that was still the case

 

[carn tigez]

I'm assuming it's the same as what's happening here - limited supply and retailers are sticking them into pre builds. The handful that aren't are priced stupidly due to the laws of supply and demand.

Ok - last one i promise. Managed to find these available and these prices. All make sense to you?

 

[dwwaino]

Ok - last one i promise. Managed to find these available and these prices. All make sense to you?

That's solid. The M in b850m though means small form factor and the H9 is a big fish tank case. Swap the motherboard for a full sized b850 and you're set. The Aorus Master is a hefty price increase over other models, I paid a premium for my 5080 Aorus Master. It's one of the best performers though in terms of cooling.

If you're sorting these parts yourself then I don't know if you knew or it was just accident Ryzen CPUs are more sensitive to RAM speeds than Intel. 6000mhz is the sweet spot for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 so you've got that right.

The last thing to do is after you find a motherboard you're set on is to go to the manufacturer's website, find the motherboard and look for what is called a QVL, memory QVL or something along those lines. If the motherboard manufacturer doesn't have it then Corsair might. What you want to do is actually grab the full SKU of the RAM and see if it's on the motherboard QVL (or if looking at Corsair see if they list the motherboard for that RAM). That RAM won't be 6000mhz out of the box, it will require the overclock profile to be enabled in BIOS and as long as it's listed on the QVL then it will work. Sometimes there will be different RAM for Intel or AMD motherboards. However I don't think this is as much an issue as it used to be and 99% of RAM will boost to its factory profile regardless.

 

[carn tigez]

That's solid. The M in b850m though means small form factor and the H9 is a big fish tank case. Swap the motherboard for a full sized b850 and you're set. The Aorus Master is a hefty price increase over other models, I paid a premium for my 5080 Aorus Master. It's one of the best performers though in terms of cooling.

If you're sorting these parts yourself then I don't know if you knew or it was just accident Ryzen CPUs are more sensitive to RAM speeds than Intel. 6000mhz is the sweet spot for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 so you've got that right.

The last thing to do is after you find a motherboard you're set on is to go to the manufacturer's website, find the motherboard and look for what is called a QVL, memory QVL or something along those lines. If the motherboard manufacturer doesn't have it then Corsair might. What you want to do is actually grab the full SKU of the RAM and see if it's on the motherboard QVL (or if looking at Corsair see if they list the motherboard for that RAM). That RAM won't be 6000mhz out of the box, it will require the overclock profile to be enabled in BIOS and as long as it's listed on the QVL then it will work. Sometimes there will be different RAM for Intel or AMD motherboards. However I don't think this is as much an issue as it used to be and 99% of RAM will boost to its factory profile regardless.

Awesome, thanks for all the help. Can definitely safely assume everything is accidental haha.

That was one of the few GPUs I could get here anytime soon in the preferred range so it'll do. Dont mind paying the bit extra.

 

[dwwaino]

I'm glad DF have covered this. I've noticed the NVIDIA driver situation go drastically downhill since around Blackwell launch and have experienced most of what they've said.

Interesting what John said about the coloured squares and screens flicking off an on. The coloured squares happened to me once after I woke the monitors from sleep and just assumed it was something to with auto HDR or something so turned the affected monitor off and on again and it was fine. A few times now just randomly cruising the web I've had the monitors turn off then on again and I assumed it was to do with Windows gremlins but John says it's a driver issues when running multiple monitors.

What Alex is describing about the weird frame rates with vsync on I assumed was something to do with Reflex as I'm still learning what settings auto enable which technologies. Everything else he says is correct though. My latest driver update actually turned both of my displays black and I had to hard restart as Alex mentioned. I've also noticed that with the latest drivers, especially in AC Shadows, it isn't very multiple monitor friendly and has caused me some problems if I alt tag too much.

We've criticised AMD for years about their driver situation and it has been a selling point for NVIDIA. I just need FSR to improve by next generation and maybe a more meaningful RT uplift and I'll seriously a Radeon card next time.

 

[biaseddustyfan]