Help me build my PC 2020 Catch All

Yes RGB is a giant mess! There are some companies out there who have started creating RGB fans that link together without each of them having to have their own cables and so you just end up with two cables for a group of two to three fans for example. But those fans are hard to find and sell out very quickly.

Even then, like you mentioned every company has their own software and or their own proprietary plugs which can make using RGB from different manufacturers in one build a nightmare.

Looks awesome! I agree that RGB is always the biggest pain in the ass but am also pleased at how pleasant it is to build in new cases. I also wish we could send the the USB 3 cable to oblivion. I hate it.

I have a p500a myself and was thinking you should run the GPU power through that trap door on the bottom and up rather than through the sliding back panels. Like this in mine:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/vbyTM5j.jpg)

Yeah, I think I'm going to do that as well. I have the power going to my 1080 coming from the side door, but I just sorta slapped it in together knowing I wasn't going to finalize the build until I could get the new GPU.

I also have RGB RAM and the NZXT AIO just doing their default color flashing, like a blinking "12:00" on a VCR.

Edgar_Newt wrote:
Gaald wrote:

Get in the EVGA cue for whatever card you want and just wait for the e-mail. It's the easiest way to get a card. You may just have to wait a while. It will save you a lot of aggravation.

Here is the current state of the North American EVGA queues. Best of luck hunting for your GPU!

I can't make heads nor tails of what you linked. What takeaway should I have from it?

It's the last reported queue times of people who received cards. So for example the 3080 FTW Ultra, someone reported they recieved an email to purchase and their queue time was 9/18/2020 11:36:58. So newt noted that the queue time has moved 48 min and 57 sec since the last report.

It's all just to calculate when you might receive your card. With my queue times I calculate I will get my card from somewhere else before I get it from EVGA or Q4 2021.

my earliest queue time:
3070 XC3 Black 10/29/2020 19:09:06 --- last time reported 10/29/2020 06:09:41

and just to keep it in perspective this time was reported on launch day no queue movement on the black skus since then.

I would like to get some nicer power cables. The ones that came with the power supply don't look great, especially since I've got an extra eight pin plug on each of the two GPU power cables. If I had nice looking ones, I'd definitely bring them up through the trap door.

Is there a good source for sleeved cables that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I really just need the two motherboard cables and a pair of GPU cables, but cablemod ones seem like they cost something like $70 for just those four.

Right, thanks for the clarification.

Chaz wrote:

I would like to get some nicer power cables. The ones that came with the power supply don't look great, especially since I've got an extra eight pin plug on each of the two GPU power cables. If I had nice looking ones, I'd definitely bring them up through the trap door.

Is there a good source for sleeved cables that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I really just need the two motherboard cables and a pair of GPU cables, but cablemod ones seem like they cost something like $70 for just those four.

Maybe extensions and not replacements?

Newegg

Chaz wrote:

Is there a good source for sleeved cables that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I really just need the two motherboard cables and a pair of GPU cables, but cablemod ones seem like they cost something like $70 for just those four.

I bought a sleeved extension kit off of Amazon from a company named ASIAHORSE. It was about $30 for a set that covers everything.

Obviously going with extensions rather than modular cable replacements means some extra cable slack to manage away, but I didn't buy a nice big case for nothing. I had planned to go with CableMod, but had a hard time justifying the price. And even if I do change my mind and grab a CableMod set later, I can reuse this extension kit in any other build.

Chaz wrote:

I would like to get some nicer power cables. The ones that came with the power supply don't look great, especially since I've got an extra eight pin plug on each of the two GPU power cables. If I had nice looking ones, I'd definitely bring them up through the trap door.

Is there a good source for sleeved cables that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I really just need the two motherboard cables and a pair of GPU cables, but cablemod ones seem like they cost something like $70 for just those four.

The ones I have are AsiaHorse as well. I highly recommend them. They look fantastic and are great quality. I do wish it came with an extra 4 pin cable for the cpu though. You can see I had to use the regular cable at the top left corner of the pic.

I was also disappointed to see that Seasonic got rid of the sleeved power cables. They say it was because they wanted to save the fabric material for masks, which is admirable but still a bummer. They of course still have it on their 900w + models though....

So thanks to the help of many here, I cloned my 2013 iMac HD with a new crucial external SSD and things are obviously much better. So easy! My Epic games load just as they did before. However, my Steam games now query me where to install. The message says "Install under /Users/Natus/Application Support/Steam" or there's a choice to "Create a new Steam library on drive /Volumes/Macintosh HD". If the new SSD is cloned from the Macintosh HD, shouldn't it just save it as normal? Clearly, I think I want to go with the first choice, since it seems the second choice is to save to the original Mac HD, but I thought I'd check with you all. Thank you!

If you cloned the drive, the clone will have the same name as your original drive (Macintosh HD is the default name for MacOS formatted drives)

Chaz wrote:

The case I got came with three RGB fans, plus some built in LED strips, so I figured I may as well commit to doing RGB.

Ha! That's the same sort of reasoning that made me go with RGB for my last build. The case had a transparent side-panel and half the components I bought were also RGB. I couldn't have cared less before I started, but it seemed like it was harder to find non-RGB components. So I thought f* it, I'll go all-in and got the RGB RAM, etc. as well.

Your build looks great!

Natus wrote:

So thanks to the help of many here, I cloned my 2013 iMac HD with a new crucial external SSD and things are obviously much better. So easy! My Epic games load just as they did before. However, my Steam games now query me where to install. The message says "Install under /Users/Natus/Application Support/Steam" or there's a choice to "Create a new Steam library on drive /Volumes/Macintosh HD". If the new SSD is cloned from the Macintosh HD, shouldn't it just save it as normal? Clearly, I think I want to go with the first choice, since it seems the second choice is to save to the original Mac HD, but I thought I'd check with you all. Thank you!

Are you actually booting from that drive? Probably the first thing you should do is rename it from the disk management tool, and then verify that your system did boot from the new name and that all your links are pointing there.

Ideally, you'd want to remove the HD completely to be absolutely certain that there was no confusion, but I know many Macs now have built-in, nonremovable drives, so that may not be an option.

Once the disk is renamed and you're sure it's working on its own, then you'd reconnect the old drive and, ideally, reformat it to be certain that it wasn't serving as your system disk.

After you've got all that straightened out, if Steam prompts you to install under /Volumes/NewHDName, you'll know that's the hard disk, and that you may not want to put games there. If they're at all substantial, they'll load a lot faster from the SSD.

Malor wrote:
Natus wrote:

So thanks to the help of many here, I cloned my 2013 iMac HD with a new crucial external SSD and things are obviously much better. So easy! My Epic games load just as they did before. However, my Steam games now query me where to install. The message says "Install under /Users/Natus/Application Support/Steam" or there's a choice to "Create a new Steam library on drive /Volumes/Macintosh HD". If the new SSD is cloned from the Macintosh HD, shouldn't it just save it as normal? Clearly, I think I want to go with the first choice, since it seems the second choice is to save to the original Mac HD, but I thought I'd check with you all. Thank you!

Are you actually booting from that drive? Probably the first thing you should do is rename it from the disk management tool, and then verify that your system did boot from the new name and that all your links are pointing there.

Ideally, you'd want to remove the HD completely to be absolutely certain that there was no confusion, but I know many Macs now have built-in, nonremovable drives, so that may not be an option.

Once the disk is renamed and you're sure it's working on its own, then you'd reconnect the old drive and, ideally, reformat it to be certain that it wasn't serving as your system disk.

After you've got all that straightened out, if Steam prompts you to install under /Volumes/NewHDName, you'll know that's the hard disk, and that you may not want to put games there. If they're at all substantial, they'll load a lot faster from the SSD.

Yes, I renamed the new drive, which is why I was confused, and yes, I booted up from the Crucial SSD. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know how to wipe my Macintosh HD (I was just going to delete games and files manually) but that's a great idea.

Almost finished my new build, minus the GPU. GTX 1080’s gonna have to put off its retirement date for a while longer it seems. Need to resist fear of missing out or I'll be stuck with buyer's regret.

Natus wrote:

Yes, I renamed the new drive, which is why I was confused, and yes, I booted up from the Crucial SSD. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know how to wipe my Macintosh HD (I was just going to delete games and files manually) but that's a great idea.

Use Disk Utility. Apple has a howto on their Disk Utility support page. What you probably want is the "Erase a Disk Partition" option... assuming that you presently have one partition, that will just prompt you to reformat it. If you've been using Boot Camp, you may need to remove a Windows partition, which, per Apple, is best done with the Boot Camp utility instead.

When choosing the filesystem, you probably want the older HFS+ instead of the newer APFS. APFS will work, but it's really tuned for SSDs, so it runs slower on a hard drive than the older HFS+ does. APFS is very, very seek-heavy, and spinning drives are bad at seeks, where SSDs are effectively instant.

(HFS+ also bottlenecks on seeks, and improves a ton on SSDs, but the impact there is much less severe.)

*Legion* wrote:

I managed to order a 3070 today! Best Buy restocked a bunch of 3070 and 3060ti cards very briefly this morning, and I managed to snag one of the 3070s.

They also restocked a much smaller quantity of 3080s and I was sadly unable to get my hands on one of them. But at least I can cross the 3070 off my list. One card down, one to go.

What specific 3070 did you get? I'm trying to pick one up and Best Buy has a handful listed. I'd like to keep my searching focused.

Thanks!

That Evga queue people are talking about, is that the "Auto Notify" button on their product pages?

Reaper81 wrote:

What specific 3070 did you get? I'm trying to pick one up and Best Buy has a handful listed. I'd like to keep my searching focused.

The Gigabyte Gaming OC.

My first choice would have been one of the EVGA cards or ASUS. The Gigabyte is what was available. But my GTX 1080 is a Gigabyte Windforce OC (the predecessor to the "Gaming OC" line) and it is still working perfectly and has given me no issues, so I didn't mind going with another card from essentially the same line.

Vargen wrote:

That Evga queue people are talking about, is that the "Auto Notify" button on their product pages?

Yes.

While I wait to get a GTX 3080, I'm currently redoing the office room which will have a very long desk. I currently have a 1440p 27" Samsung display that's designed for doing photography. I want to get a 4K monitor that will do 120 Hz (preferably Gsync) and HDR. I'm not a fan of ultrawide or odd aspect ratios because it can be a pain. I just want to stick with the standard 16:9 for gaming.

I found this Techspot article on various options right now, and it seems PC monitors aren't there yet. However, there is the LG OLED48CXPUB for about $1500 that has a width of 42.2" and height of 25.8" I tape measured that out, and it's kinda awesome. I would easily have room for that and my current monitor. Would I be crazy for going that route?

I imagine there will be some monitors announced at CES that will check all my boxes, but I don't want to have to fight people online to get my hands on one.

I’m using the LG 48” OLED for my main PC monitor. It works great. Basically about as close to a perfect screen as you can buy right now.

TheGameguru wrote:

I’m using the LG 48” OLED for my main PC monitor. It works great. Basically about as close to a perfect screen as you can buy right now.

Welp... I guess I'll go that route.

I'm already spending too much on new PC gear this year, or else I would be tempted to do the same.

*Legion* wrote:

I'm already spending too much on new PC gear this year, or else I would be tempted to do the same.

I'm not thankfully! Just need to get a 3080. My CPU is gonna last awhile still. Also, it'll be a long time before we can put money into a living room "theater" because we are renovating the house.

TheGameguru wrote:

I’m using the LG 48” OLED for my main PC monitor. It works great. Basically about as close to a perfect screen as you can buy right now.

How far away from the screen are you thou? I used to have a 40'' Samsung tv/monitor as my main but using it for anything other than gaming was taking a toll on my neck/arm. I had the screen mounted on the wall above a desk with another screen next to it over a different desk and I sat about a meter/ 3 feet away from the main screen so I was forced to lean back and keep my neck further away which lead to heavy muscle fatigue/stiffness and nerve issues.

The new ryzen 5000 apus look like absolute beasts. Apple M who?

fangblackbone wrote:

The new ryzen 5000 apus look like absolute beasts. Apple M who?

Bit confused, it’s not the same kind of processor as the m1 right? Just that it has cpu and gpu cores on the same chip? I assume the power efficiency wouldn’t be the same.

According to the googles, I learned and is still still using 86 architecture but still very comparable in performance to apple. I’m under the impression that ARM CPU’s are the future though so I would be curious what an m2 chip looks like compared to everything else then.

AMD just gut punched ARM cpu's being the future. Their new APU's are full fledged cpus with 17-20+ hours of battery life.
I am not 100% sure but I think they also showed them playing Horizon Zero Dawn @1080p with high settings @100+ fps. They also claimed that the apus would do 4K.

I definitely want to see more benchmarks. It could be that AMD's apus have better graphics capabilities than my current desktop's rx 580. Which would be astounding with all day battery life.

They could have been playing mix up marketing where the U series apus had ~20 hours of battery life and the HS line had the gaming performance. But I am unclear.