The Power PC Thread [f*ck off consoles]

[Darren S]

@charltjr - no worries at all - thanks for letting me know!

Andy @SharkyUK - I’ll be in touch later today! 😊

 

[-Jamie-]

Looking for some advice from the PC experts


Potentially looking at getting a decent PC for sim racing mainly, Iracing etc


Doesn't need to be super amazing spec, On a budget and been looking at something second hand tbh


What sort of basic spec would one require, Not touched a PC in about 10 years due to macbook so pretty clueless [emoji23]


Haply with older stuff if it works

 

[Darren S]

Looking for some advice from the PC experts


Potentially looking at getting a decent PC for sim racing mainly, Iracing etc


Doesn't need to be super amazing spec, On a budget and been looking at something second hand tbh


What sort of basic spec would one require, Not touched a PC in about 10 years due to macbook so pretty clueless [emoji23]


Haply with older stuff if it works

The first question I'd ask would be with regards to the monitor/TV and the resolution that you'll be outputting to. What you pick here will go a lot towards your requirements for a graphics card and from that, the CPU and memory to do it justice. It's quite easy to get a cheap CPU being a bottleneck for a comparatively much more powerful graphics card. The likes of Assetto Corsa Competizione are quite CPU demanding and with a low-spec processor, you'll be reducing the overall quality of the game just to maintain a smooth experience.

I've long been an Intel & nVidia combo user. But these days I'd be very open minded to some of the Ryzen & Radeon pairings - especially if you weren't looking for top-level kit.

Have you got a wheel & pedals setup as well? Mainstream, you could do a lot worse than the Logitech G920/G29 kit - think of it as the Ford Focus of the steering wheel world. Does everything well enough, not particularly expensive and is well known and established. A lot of racing games out there have built-in profiles from the G920/G29 from the get-go, too. The G920 is what I currently use with a few Fanatec bits attached.

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

Far from a power PC, but I got my PC out of the loft earlier to try and get some files off the hard drives. It's been up there 10 years and was probably 5 years old when it went up, maybe older.
PC turned on but no power to any USB ports, nor would the monitor pick anything up.
Everything works fine when connected to my laptop so I'm assuming the Motherboard is fucked.
Pulled the hard drive caddy out and this is the back of them (I put the odd one in as it was in another slot, it was a massive 32gb Samsung one 😂)

Can I get a lead to connect them to my laptop? I've got tons of photos and music on there, as well as some programs (which I'm not sure would work now anyway)

Back of said hard drives.

Cheers.

 

[Darren S]

Probably worth getting one of these? We've got similar at work and it does a great job of access old hard drives that we don't know what's on them.

2.5″ 3.5″ Dual Hard Drive HDD Docking Station USB Dock Card Reader IDE SATA HUB | eBay

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[Ay Ay Ron]

Cheers. Just found a similar one on Prime for delivery tomorrow (same colour, different brand but more than likely the same thing)

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

It arrived today and managed to get into 2 hard drives (full of absolute shite)
The 3rd just clicks really loud, pings on my laptop as F then disappears. If I click on it when it's up it crashes the folder and then comes up with Parameter not accessible. Is it fucked then? Or is there any way of changing parts over from the one that works with them being mechanical drives?

 

[TRB182]

Started on iRacing tonight, tried it many moons ago and I don't think I got out of rookie. Following the advice of some YouTube channels I've had 2 races so far and have done qualifying, then just started from the pits to make sure nobody ruins my safety rating thing

First race I finished 4th.. was carnage. Second race I think I was 10th out of 11th and didn't see anyone aside from 1-9 maybe who all came past me

It's pretty fun though, even finishing near enough last. Qualified 7th then 8th. My lines are all wrong on some of the corners but I'm getting there. Still trying to get a feel for the MX-5 and the track, and my wheel isn't the best (Still rocking a Driving Force GT!)

What sort of money is iracing? Hear mixed reports online. Currently enjoy Assetto Corsa. Just bought a new PC to benefit from the extra DLC as opposed to xbox content.

 

[Darren S]

It arrived today and managed to get into 2 hard drives (full of absolute shite)
The 3rd just clicks really loud, pings on my laptop as F then disappears. If I click on it when it's up it crashes the folder and then comes up with Parameter not accessible. Is it fucked then? Or is there any way of changing parts over from the one that works with them being mechanical drives?

Sounds dead - could even be that the heads are scraping away at the disc platters as you're trying to access them. You can send drives off for professional recovery - but they are extremely expensive - the last one we used was over £1k for one corrupted hard drive. That said, there was only three JPG images from the entire hard drive that they couldn't recover.

Depends on just how valuable the drive contents are to you, I guess?

 

[Darren S]

What sort of money is iracing? Hear mixed reports online. Currently enjoy Assetto Corsa. Just bought a new PC to benefit from the extra DLC as opposed to xbox content.

If you're happy to focus more on the 'racing' part of well, erm... racing - I'd definitely recommend checking out Assetto Corsa Competizione. It lacks cars with it being focused on one racing series and as a knock-on, circuits also.

But what it has in there is brilliant - the audio especially. With a wheel & pedal set and a decent headset on, it sounds epic. Certainly my current favourite racing experience on the PC anyway.

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

Sounds dead - could even be that the heads are scraping away at the disc platters as you're trying to access them. You can send drives off for professional recovery - but they are extremely expensive - the last one we used was over £1k for one corrupted hard drive. That said, there was only three JPG images from the entire hard drive that they couldn't recover.

Depends on just how valuable the drive contents are to you, I guess?

I can't even remember what was on them. Not sure if it's just the OS drive which could possibly explain why it wasn't booting up when I set it up the other day.
Definitely not a grands worth of stuff on there.

 

[SharkyUK]

The home office is almost complete. I'm just awaiting the arrival of my new chair (thanks @Darren S) and, once the ceiling has dried following the recent leak, the new lighting system and repainting of said ceiling.

I'm really happy with how this room has turned out and the sofa/bed means I hardly ever have to leave now! It's an arrangement that suits both myself and my good lady! The section of the room behind the double doors is currently housing filing cabinets, books and goodness knows what else but the plan is to potentially make that into a dedicated sim/vr area. Maybe.

 

[djp66]

In an amazing piece of pre-lockdown luck, I gave my study a once over and went for the twin desk wide setup too. In common with SharkyUK, I also have a sofa bed, TV and FreeSat so I really can just let wife/daughters have the run of the rest of the house and live in here

I went for a few kitchen wall units to give me storage and the G29 steering wheel / stand fold down and slot under the desk in front of the radiator to keep it tidy. I have a laptop dock so can easily switch work laptop to monitor and my power PC sits on the tressle under the desk.

However, I do need to sort out lighting and after seeing the post above I definitely need a bigger monitor and a new chair.

 

[seb]

Noob question pros!

getting the little’uns play room sorted but with a cheeky PC desk area.

The last time i built my PC (with some help from CS.) around 2008 ish.

this time i just want to buy a PC made and ready to go.

gaming wise I only really play(ed) RTS or city building/FM so nothing mega graphic heavy. Main thing will prob be the C&C remastered (mega C&C geek here)

i only wanted one screen at the moment due to space and nothing massive.

can anyone recommend a reputable PC supplier i can have a look at?

budget wise i don’t want to spend crazy money as the mrs is already raising her eyebrows. £600-800 ish then say a cheaper monitor for around £100?

any advice much appreciated.

Oh one last thing... don’t really want a massive tower, something a bit more compact would be great as space not great. Appreciate this might be tricky though.

 

[charltjr]

Look at those home setups, so neat, do you ever actually use them? 😂

 

[SharkyUK]

In an amazing piece of pre-lockdown luck, I gave my study a once over and went for the twin desk wide setup too. In common with SharkyUK, I also have a sofa bed, TV and FreeSat so I really can just let wife/daughters have the run of the rest of the house and live in here

Love it mate - real nice setup.

can anyone recommend a reputable PC supplier i can have a look at?

I do prefer to spec and build my own but have used both of these without issue on behalf of family and friends...

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They do a range of pre-built systems that are ready to go - across a range of budgets.

Look at those home setups, so neat, do you ever actually use them? 😂

Every day and night pretty much. I do like to keep it tidy though as it helps me concentrate. Too much clutter and it winds me up!

 

[TRB182]

Noob question pros!

getting the little’uns play room sorted but with a cheeky PC desk area.

The last time i built my PC (with some help from CS.) around 2008 ish.

this time i just want to buy a PC made and ready to go.

gaming wise I only really play(ed) RTS or city building/FM so nothing mega graphic heavy. Main thing will prob be the C&C remastered (mega C&C geek here)

i only wanted one screen at the moment due to space and nothing massive.

can anyone recommend a reputable PC supplier i can have a look at?

budget wise i don’t want to spend crazy money as the mrs is already raising her eyebrows. £600-800 ish then say a cheaper monitor for around £100?

any advice much appreciated.

Oh one last thing... don’t really want a massive tower, something a bit more compact would be great as space not great. Appreciate this might be tricky though.

Hi, I recently bought a setup from box.co.uk. I found it to be cheaper than anywhere else.

 

[Wilkeh]

The home office is almost complete. I'm just awaiting the arrival of my new chair (thanks @Darren S) and, once the ceiling has dried following the recent leak, the new lighting system and repainting of said ceiling.

View attachment 1471003
View attachment 1471004
View attachment 1471005

I'm really happy with how this room has turned out and the sofa/bed means I hardly ever have to leave now! It's an arrangement that suits both myself and my good lady! The section of the room behind the double doors is currently housing filing cabinets, books and goodness knows what else but the plan is to potentially make that into a dedicated sim/vr area. Maybe.

Is that a cheeky intelli mouse I see?

 

[ChrisR]

Look at those home setups, so neat, do you ever actually use them? 😂

Mine's a bit messier and needs a tidy, will get a picture up when it's a bit more presentable

 

[SharkyUK]

Is that a cheeky intelli mouse I see?

Absolutely correct, sir. I have a few as they never seem to breakdown or fail. The one in the photo is about 19 years old!

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Back when Microsoft could make hardware that wasn't total guff. I say that, I do swear by the Microsoft Ergo wireless mouse these days.

 

[charltjr]

Love an intellimouse, they were great.

These days I use a Logitech MX which I really rate as I have large hands, but used the intellimouse for years.

 

[Willo40]

Noob question pros!

getting the little’uns play room sorted but with a cheeky PC desk area.

The last time i built my PC (with some help from CS.) around 2008 ish.

this time i just want to buy a PC made and ready to go.

gaming wise I only really play(ed) RTS or city building/FM so nothing mega graphic heavy. Main thing will prob be the C&C remastered (mega C&C geek here)

i only wanted one screen at the moment due to space and nothing massive.

can anyone recommend a reputable PC supplier i can have a look at?

budget wise i don’t want to spend crazy money as the mrs is already raising her eyebrows. £600-800 ish then say a cheaper monitor for around £100?

any advice much appreciated.

Oh one last thing... don’t really want a massive tower, something a bit more compact would be great as space not great. Appreciate this might be tricky though.

I bought my lad one for Xmas from these, pretty good service, and had a good range to choose from :-

https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk

 

[Rojer]

Think @Typhoon is selling his setup which could be good for you?

I'm almost done on mine, some parts i did end up changing. I have only fired it up just to make sure fans and lighting worked, I'm still waiting for RAM which will be this week! I have never done RGB, in fact it's the first PC build in ages and tidying the additional wires was a bit of a pain. Apart from that its reasonably tidy, but I would like some custom cables and to re do it at some point. I will post better pictures once it's up and running fully


Full spec list

AMD Ryzen 3700x
Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600mhz CL18
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
Coolermaster ML360R
3 x Coolermaster MF120
Lian Li O11 Dynamic
1TB Samsung 970 Evo nvme ssd
4TB WD Black 7200 HDD
Seasonic Focus 750 GX PSU
Gigabyte Gaming OC 2070 Super

Asus ROG Strix XG279Q
Logitech G502 Hero wired
Corsair K70 MK2 RGB
Steel series thick desk mat

Will need a new desk and a chair next and I'm sure there will be tweaks as we go. Will be OC the GPU and look at the memory and CPU as well once I'm familiar. Let me know what you think!

 

[Pistachio]

No dust protection?

 

[Rojer]

It has top and bottom dust filters will move them around if needs be.

EDIT has dust protection all round just the back cover was off.

 

[Pistachio]

Ahh gotcha. Cool build

 

[Typhoon]

Think @Typhoon is selling his setup which could be good for you?

I'm almost done on mine, some parts i did end up changing. I have only fired it up just to make sure fans and lighting worked, I'm still waiting for RAM which will be this week! I have never done RGB, in fact it's the first PC build in ages and tidying the additional wires was a bit of a pain. Apart from that its reasonably tidy, but I would like some custom cables and to re do it at some point. I will post better pictures once it's up and running fully


Full spec list

AMD Ryzen 3700x
Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600mhz CL18
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
Coolermaster ML360R
3 x Coolermaster MF120
Lian Li O11 Dynamic
1TB Samsung 970 Evo nvme ssd
4TB WD Black 7200 HDD
Seasonic Focus 750 GX PSU
Gigabyte Gaming OC 2070 Super

Asus ROG Strix XG279Q
Logitech G502 Hero wired
Corsair K70 MK2 RGB
Steel series thick desk mat

Will need a new desk and a chair next and I'm sure there will be tweaks as we go. Will be OC the GPU and look at the memory and CPU as well once I'm familiar. Let me know what you think!

View attachment 1471551View attachment 1471552View attachment 1471553View attachment 1471554View attachment 1471556

Be 3x what is wanting to be spent. Lol.

Your build is looking nice though!

Specs for thread purposes:

i7-5820k 6 Core CPU
64GB DDR4 RAM
2TB HDD
2x 512GB SSD
GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB DDR5

 

[Darren S]

Think @Typhoon is selling his setup which could be good for you?

I'm almost done on mine, some parts i did end up changing. I have only fired it up just to make sure fans and lighting worked, I'm still waiting for RAM which will be this week! I have never done RGB, in fact it's the first PC build in ages and tidying the additional wires was a bit of a pain. Apart from that its reasonably tidy, but I would like some custom cables and to re do it at some point. I will post better pictures once it's up and running fully


Full spec list

AMD Ryzen 3700x
Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600mhz CL18
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
Coolermaster ML360R
3 x Coolermaster MF120
Lian Li O11 Dynamic
1TB Samsung 970 Evo nvme ssd
4TB WD Black 7200 HDD
Seasonic Focus 750 GX PSU
Gigabyte Gaming OC 2070 Super

Asus ROG Strix XG279Q
Logitech G502 Hero wired
Corsair K70 MK2 RGB
Steel series thick desk mat

Will need a new desk and a chair next and I'm sure there will be tweaks as we go. Will be OC the GPU and look at the memory and CPU as well once I'm familiar. Let me know what you think!

Lian Li - nice!

 

[Rojer]

Having some software issues on the build...

Ram is the only thing picked up by MSI RGB which is fine. Downloaded the cooler master software and it detects no products connected...

Pump is plugged into the pump header and then the rgb cable goes into the controller, i then have the 3 fans on the aio going to the cpu header. No idea why its not working i blame the shitty CM software.

 

[adamlstr]

wouldn't it need to be plugged into a usb header to talk to the OS?

 

[Rojer]

Yer the rbg controller is plugged into the mb via the USB 2.0 header and windows detects it and I have updated the firmware etc but still no joy. I set the pump to pwm and it's about 2400 in the bios so hopefully that's alright. Other fans are around 1300 rpm

 

[Rojer]

Fixed the coolermaster issue so I can control the colours finally. The pass through to mb doesnt work tho, well mystic light doesnt detect so I will reinstall and see if that sorts it.

Not sure if anyone else has ryzen, but even idle temps are high on these chips! Might need to mess with voltages

 

[djp66]

Not sure if anyone else has ryzen, but even idle temps are high on these chips! Might need to mess with voltages

What temps are you getting? I’ve never looked too closely but will check them out this afternoon when I’m doing a bit of gaming.

 

[Rojer]

What temps are you getting? I’ve never looked too closely but will check them out this afternoon when I’m doing a bit of gaming.

Idling you can get 45 degrees easy, but AMD say the monitoring software is causing this. So I'm not using it and set to amd ryzen balanced and using ryzen master atm.

 

[djp66]

Idling you can get 45 degrees easy, but AMD say the monitoring software is causing this. So I'm not using it and set to amd ryzen balanced and using ryzen master atm.

OK mine is showing similar, but after 90 minutes F1 2019 racing which is pretty demanding it was sitting around 62. That was mesaured using corsair icue.

Interestingly ryzen master is showing consistently 4 degree lower

 

[Rojer]

OK mine is showing similar, but after 90 minutes F1 2019 racing which is pretty demanding it was sitting around 62. That was mesaured using corsair icue.

Interestingly ryzen master is showing consistently 4 degree lower

Interesting!

They say that any monitoring software apart from ryzen master keeps polling the cpu and it treats it as a workload that's why it ramps up! Mine on idle/light work load is around 40-45. I played COD warzone and cpu was low 50s and gpu was mid 60s with a slight OC so overall I think I'm happy with that.

Fixed another issue with the aio fans and now I have pwm controller and it's nice and quiet. Only issue is the pump is 3 pin so it runs full speed all the time.

 

[Steven103]

MSI Afterburner reckons my 2600 idles at 39 and games at 63 on the standard Wraith cooler on a hot day. Not overclocked nor undervolted. All cores boost to 3.8GHz.

During much lighter gaming the temp plateaus at 41 and curiously all cores boost to 3.9GHz. So it seems that 63 degC under load is potentially holding back some performance.

Caveat on the above is that I'm capped at 60 FPS with v-sync (remember that lol?!) so neither CPU or GPU is fully utilised. Updated BIOS & chipset drivers recently in the hope that the Ryzen 3000 temp/turbo fix also worked on 2000 series but no change.

CPUs have been so capable in gaming relative to GPUs for the past 5/6/7/8 years that I don't really think about temperatures any more. It's not like 15 years ago when you had to overclock a circa 100w TDP CPU to stop it bottlenecking a £200 graphics card.

 

[seb]

Cheers for the suggestions guys.

amex have offered me £100 off a Dell alienware PC.

worth it maybe?

 

[Steven103]

Conventional wisdom says no, as it’ll be several hundred quid more expensive in the first place than the same spec at a smaller boutique system builder.

Though if there’s a particular one you’ve been looking at, post it and I’m sure it can be proven/disproven/similar spec suggested for less.