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The Power PC Thread [f*ck off consoles]



  Ph2 172, 106 Rallye
So from what I can gather, performance figures are similar to
1080ti = 2080
Titan V = 2080ti (obv without the ray tracing).

Too rich for my blood as a casual gamer anyway.
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
Finally set up the PC in my new home office and ready to start using it.

20180923_233227.jpg


Room to expand, too... ?

20180923_233322.jpg
 

Jonnio

ClioSport Club Member
  Punto HGT Abarth
Decided it's time to retire my 9 odd year old computer. Not paid any real attention to new hardware (computers in general!) in the same amount of time so if anyone can cast an eye over this I'd be grateful.

Have been browsing Scan any pretty much copied one of their systems with a couple of tweeks. Swapped to 1TB SSD only (I've got all my junk on external drives), 16GB RAM and changed the motherboard to a ASUS PRIME B450-PLUS (original specced mobo one was limited to 2666mhz RAM but the only option they give is 3000mhz) and stuck a soundcard in for the classic Z-5500s). Appreciate that my screen will be limiting (1080p at 75hz) but plan to upgrade eventually.

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 275R
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B450-PLUS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock - Quiet Air Cooler
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX - 3000MHz
Graphics Card: 8GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti SC
PSU: Corsair CX550M
SSD: 1TB Samsung 860 EVO
Soundcard: Asus STRIX SOAR


https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/shared/42f66e01-4ad0-4743-be6f-203c2f062cb3

Anything glaringly shite there? Chances are I'll run this as is for a similar amount of time again but would there be anything obvious holding me back for upgrading the CPU/GPU after a few years?

There are 2 other motherboard options on there priced similarly: ASUS TUF B450-PLUS GAMING and ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING but they just look like different styling options? Any other higher spec options (CPU/GPU/mobo) seem to be a fair jump cost wise and this is about right on price at the minute.

I was going to get it pre-built to save the hassle but leave the Windows installation to myself after reading on another thread that you can get it off eBay for crazy cheap?

Any help/advice appreciated!
 

Jonnio

ClioSport Club Member
  Punto HGT Abarth
Swapped the cooler, went for a 650 PSU, changed the motherboard to the ASUS TUF B450-PLUS GAMING, ditched the soundcard for one half the price and stuck Windows on it properly rather than cheaping out.

Job done. Can I stop playing on the lowest of all graphics now? :)
 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
Swapped the cooler, went for a 650 PSU, changed the motherboard to the ASUS TUF B450-PLUS GAMING, ditched the soundcard for one half the price and stuck Windows on it properly rather than cheaping out.

Job done. Can I stop playing on the lowest of all graphics now? :)
Seems like a good all-round spec, tbh. Wise move switching to the larger PSU - you can never really fail by getting a better power supply.

The 1070 'should' be good enough for quite a while yet. As there's continually more interest in cross-platform games, the limiting factor holding back the need of top-flight cards are what the current generation of XBox's and PlayStations are doing.

You mention upgrading the screen soon - if your budget can stretch to a GSync enabled one, you will never look back. I would happily use a 27" screen in front of me that used GSync instead a decent 4K TV on the wall - any day of the week. The smoothness and ability to adapt the performance on the fly when things get busy is amazing. 144hz @ 1440p is my standard and that's nowhere near the best that you can get these days.
 

Jonnio

ClioSport Club Member
  Punto HGT Abarth
Seems like a good all-round spec, tbh. Wise move switching to the larger PSU - you can never really fail by getting a better power supply.

The 1070 'should' be good enough for quite a while yet. As there's continually more interest in cross-platform games, the limiting factor holding back the need of top-flight cards are what the current generation of XBox's and PlayStations are doing.

You mention upgrading the screen soon - if your budget can stretch to a GSync enabled one, you will never look back. I would happily use a 27" screen in front of me that used GSync instead a decent 4K TV on the wall - any day of the week. The smoothness and ability to adapt the performance on the fly when things get busy is amazing. 144hz @ 1440p is my standard and that's nowhere near the best that you can get these days.

Cheers Darren, will definitely be keeping GSync in mind when I do!
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
Excellent purchase Andy!

I hope you dodge the overheating issues that a lot of 2080 owners are complaining about.

Now what were you saying about that 1080Ti for sale? £50 delivered, you said? :p
Thanks, D. I haven't had much chance to use it yet but a few 'test' runs shows just what a beast of a card it is! I know Doom is well optimised but I don't recall seeing it drop below 200fps yet (on ultra settings and ultra wide screen). It's a bit noisier than the 1080 Ti though.

Talking of the 1080 Ti, I'd already sold it for a [very] good price before I received the 2080. I had 5 friends who all wanted to buy it but I'd already promised one of them first dibs! :p I had to buy a temporary GPU for a week or so in-between selling the 1080 and receiving the 2080!
 

charltjr

ClioSport Club Member
Anyone got an Oculus Rift? Any thoughts on it?

A mate has just got one and is raving about it, seriously tempted. Oculus are apparently going to knock $50 off in the states for Black Friday so if they do the same in the UK that could be the tipping point for me......
 

Cookie

ClioSport Club Member
Anyone got an Oculus Rift? Any thoughts on it?

A mate has just got one and is raving about it, seriously tempted. Oculus are apparently going to knock $50 off in the states for Black Friday so if they do the same in the UK that could be the tipping point for me......
I had one last year, the tech is fantastic but the lenses were way too scratch prone and I don't think it lasted more than 3 weeks with me before I had to send it back

Also screen door effect is hard to ignore. I loved it for playing Elite Dangerous, think I spent most of my waking hours for a few weeks just sat in a virtual spaceship ?
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
I've decided against buying into VR at the moment, despite having been very close to pulling the trigger several times. It seems to be, dare I say it, dying. Or certainly losing its appeal. I know of several projects that have been cancelled and I hear on the grapevine that even Facebook has reduced the budget on Oculus-related development. Of all my friends who insisted it was the next big thing, not one of them (as far as I can recall) have even touched their Rift, Vive, PSVR in months. The novelty wore off and there's not really been much in the way of many great titles to keep the player engrossed in both the game and the VR tech driving it.

All in my opinion of course! :)
 

charltjr

ClioSport Club Member
IMO the hardware is too expensive to get mass market adoption and there’s no killer app, you need to be really interested in the concept to buy in at the moment. Plus it’s really not a good look.

On the other hand, Elite: Dangerous and Star Trek Bridge Crew? Yeah, gimme some of that. :D
 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
I've decided against buying into VR at the moment, despite having been very close to pulling the trigger several times. It seems to be, dare I say it, dying. Or certainly losing its appeal. I know of several projects that have been cancelled and I hear on the grapevine that even Facebook has reduced the budget on Oculus-related development. Of all my friends who insisted it was the next big thing, not one of them (as far as I can recall) have even touched their Rift, Vive, PSVR in months. The novelty wore off and there's not really been much in the way of many great titles to keep the player engrossed in both the game and the VR tech driving it.

All in my opinion of course! :)

I think the main issue with VR, is your clumsiness in the real world when using it. Sure, it's fine with a sit-down driving game behind a decent Logitech/Fanatec setup and chair in place. But that's about it.

The illusion of being immersed into what you're viewing works when you can physically grip the wheel and push those pedals. When you're blindly swinging a small controller about that is supposedly a large sword or shield of some type - the novelty quickly wears off. No one's brain is fooled for long enough to make it worthwhile.

Then you have the high cost of the kit in the first place. Followed by the cables. Followed by the space needed to move about. Possibly capped off with the motion sickness and headaches that many people have reported.

On paper, it seems great. In practice, far less so.
 

charltjr

ClioSport Club Member
Well, they have dropped the price of the rift to 350 until the 26th so that was enough of a push for me to give it a go.

One Marvel special edition set ordered......

If I don’t get on with it I ordered from Amazon so easy to return.
 

charltjr

ClioSport Club Member
I’m loving it. I’m so impressed with the sense of immersion, gives me a buzz but I haven’t had from games in years.

Yes, it’s a bit clunky and heavy, the screen door is visible if you look for it, generally it feels like a version 1.0. However, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it and I’m really interested to see where is going to go in future. Time will tell.

Having experienced it, I feel like it will be a real shame if VR dies out because of a lack of adoption and quality games at this point .
 

Jonnio

ClioSport Club Member
  Punto HGT Abarth
Having experienced it, I feel like it will be a real shame if VR dies out because of a lack of adoption and quality games at this point .

The library of decent games for PSVR seems to be growing slowly but surely so hopefully it will stick around!
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
I’m loving it. I’m so impressed with the sense of immersion, gives me a buzz but I haven’t had from games in years.

Yes, it’s a bit clunky and heavy, the screen door is visible if you look for it, generally it feels like a version 1.0. However, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it and I’m really interested to see where is going to go in future. Time will tell.

Having experienced it, I feel like it will be a real shame if VR dies out because of a lack of adoption and quality games at this point .
...that's what all of my mates said, too... :p

Seriously, I hope you do get some enjoyment and longevity out of it. :)
 

Daz...

ClioSport Club Member
  Inferno 182 Cup
Anyone in here interested in, or know someone who might be, an Asus Strix 970?
 

yeecup

ClioSport Club Member
  mk8Fiesta ST,172 cup
My son is desperate for a gaming pc. I literally have no clue about them. Anyone point me in the right direction that doesn't cost the earth?
 
My son is desperate for a gaming pc. I literally have no clue about them. Anyone point me in the right direction that doesn't cost the earth?

I'd recommend starting him off on a cheap used machine with something like a 3rd/4th gen Intel Core i5 or i7 cpu, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD (for Windows 10), 500GB HDD for storing the games, a quality power supply (400w or higher), and a decent used graphics card (the GTX 970 mentioned above would be ideal). A gaming monitor is also a must, and you can buy these for less than £100 with a 1m/s response time.

The above kit will only cost a few hundred quid, and will play most new games on high detail at 1080P. Of course, you can go all out and buy a top spec new machine but this will cost several thousands and is pointless as a starter PC.

There are quite a few ready built ones for sale on eBay but if your son wants a project he may enjoy building one himself.

Give me a shout if you have any questions.
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
I would argue that the listed PC is slightly under spec for a gaming rig (even a starter rig). 500GB isn't really enough these days sadly, unless you only ever have a few games installed. I'm not sure what sort of games your son is looking to play but with modern titles easily taking up 50GB+ I would probably look for a 1TB HDD. Additionally, I would also look for a GPU with slightly more oomph and memory. Even running on a 1080p HD screen I would want a 3GB GPU at the minimum given the resource hungry requirements of modern games.

All in my opinion of course, no disrespect intended! :)
 
I would argue that the listed PC is slightly under spec for a gaming rig (even a starter rig). 500GB isn't really enough these days sadly, unless you only ever have a few games installed. I'm not sure what sort of games your son is looking to play but with modern titles easily taking up 50GB+ I would probably look for a 1TB HDD. Additionally, I would also look for a GPU with slightly more oomph and memory. Even running on a 1080p HD screen I would want a 3GB GPU at the minimum given the resource hungry requirements of modern games.

All in my opinion of course, no disrespect intended! :)

I can see your point, and no offense taken :) however, I still maintain this sort of spec would be fine for starting off as a PC gamer. I have games myself that take up 50+GB, but some recent games take up less than 20GB. The cost of another 500GB HDD is peanuts (fiver off ebay) so an additional one can also be installed in seconds if the old disk fills up. Also, while I agree that a 2GB GTX960 (or similar) won't cut the mustard if you are looking to game in very high detail/ultra at 100+fps, it will still play the majority of modern games at playable frame rates if you run it at medium to high graphics settings. There are plenty of benchmarks online which confirm this.

Again, if the card becomes a hindrence in the future or he wanted to play in higher detail, he can upgrade to a better card.

What I was really getting at is that being a PC gamer is not just about switching it on and playing the games. Part of the fun is maintaining/upgrading the machine over time so I picked this sort of spec so he can learn about maintenance and upgrades, whilst also not breaking the bank for his dad. This is how I started off 25 years ago and my interest in it developed into a career in IT.
 

yeecup

ClioSport Club Member
  mk8Fiesta ST,172 cup
Cheers for replies. That one is miles away and no post. I'm in Edinburgh so ideally something closer that I could collect. There are quite a few listed locally on eBay
 

SharkyUK

ClioSport Club Member
I can see your point, and no offense taken :) however, I still maintain this sort of spec would be fine for starting off as a PC gamer. I have games myself that take up 50+GB, but some recent games take up less than 20GB. The cost of another 500GB HDD is peanuts (fiver off ebay) so an additional one can also be installed in seconds if the old disk fills up. Also, while I agree that a 2GB GTX960 (or similar) won't cut the mustard if you are looking to game in very high detail/ultra at 100+fps, it will still play the majority of modern games at playable frame rates if you run it at medium to high graphics settings. There are plenty of benchmarks online which confirm this.

Again, if the card becomes a hindrence in the future or he wanted to play in higher detail, he can upgrade to a better card.

What I was really getting at is that being a PC gamer is not just about switching it on and playing the games. Part of the fun is maintaining/upgrading the machine over time so I picked this sort of spec so he can learn about maintenance and upgrades, whilst also not breaking the bank for his dad. This is how I started off 25 years ago and my interest in it developed into a career in IT.
Fair points - I just find it hard to take my developer hat off sometimes and feel the minor cost increase would be worthwhile on a couple of those components.
 
Fair points - I just find it hard to take my developer hat off sometimes and feel the minor cost increase would be worthwhile on a couple of those components.

Ha, yeah it is admittedly harder to justify older tech. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) he would only want to spend a few hundred quid as a starter rig but if he wants to spend quite a bit more it would be good to spec something a lot beefier!

I'm still running a 4th gen i7 4790, Asus GTX 980 Strix, 16GB DDR3, 120GB SSD for W10pro + 500GB HDD. I sometimes think about building a new machine but this one still runs everything I can throw at it at 1080p in ultra so there's no point me getting rid of it yet.
 
Cheers for replies. That one is miles away and no post. I'm in Edinburgh so ideally something closer that I could collect. There are quite a few listed locally on eBay

I couldn't find many local to you but this one would be decent enough if you can get it a bit cheaper. You'll need to factor in the cost of a semi decent graphics card too though as the integrated APU isn't great. You could also stick an SSD in it to improve boot-up times and general responsiveness in Windows.

 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
I would argue that the listed PC is slightly under spec for a gaming rig (even a starter rig). 500GB isn't really enough these days sadly, unless you only ever have a few games installed. I'm not sure what sort of games your son is looking to play but with modern titles easily taking up 50GB+ I would probably look for a 1TB HDD. Additionally, I would also look for a GPU with slightly more oomph and memory. Even running on a 1080p HD screen I would want a 3GB GPU at the minimum given the resource hungry requirements of modern games.

All in my opinion of course, no disrespect intended! :)

I'd agree. 3GB is what I'd deem entry-level these days. Even three years ago, I was using a 2GB graphics card and it was taking a performance battering at times - in almost standard HD resolution - 1920x1200.

Also as @SharkyUK says - installed game sizes are going up significantly - some breaking the 100GB barrier now. My main two drives are 500GB SSDs and I do find that I have to chop & change installs on them, due to capacity issues. That said, I'd have a 500GB SSD over a 1TB SATA drive any day of the week.

Don’t buy your kid a gaming PC ffs. I reckon I’d be so much further in my career if I hadn’t got into games as a teen.

^^^ - this.

On a serious note - keep him in check with it or else school work might suffer.

In 1992 I managed to convince my parents that I needed a PC for my A-level Computing course. "It will help me do more coursework at home/I can do more coding away from the noisy classroom/I can work on it at the weekend..." All bullshit of course - I was a military plane g33k back then and I just wanted Aces of The Pacific pretty desperately.

In November of that year, I managed to get a PC ordered with a pickup for collection a week later. Pretty much minutes later, I was ordering AoTP from a mail order place and it arrived before my PC did.

I did do college work on my PC. I did do some extra bits that perhaps I wouldn't have done in class. But all of that was overshadowed by what this new gadget brought to me. If the time I used the PC for college work exceeded 10%, I'd be surprised. I can honestly say that that gaming PC was a detriment to my A-level results.
 


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