Help me build my PC 2020 Catch All

Ok, so my pc has problems. It restarts every second. I tried a bunch of troubleshooting but it really reinforces my desire to upgrade. So that's what I'm gonna do. I've got over 3 grand set aside already. This time I want to replace as much as I can. I can wait on hard drives, but eventually I'd like to replace those as well. Can you guys and gals help me out with some suggestions?

Sent from my phone.

Video cards are nearly impossible to find for MSRP. You may want to consider a pre-built system if you actually want a new video card. Or be ready to spend double or triple to get one to go with your own build.

It would make things easier.

Yeah prebuilt is the way to go. If you are looking for high end graphics there is no point in going higher then a 3080 at the moment for NVIDIA, the prices for the 3080ti and the 3090 are stupid.

Then you have to decide if you want to go with AMD or Intel for the CPU.

And even with a prebuilt you can expect a wait. Maybe as much as a month.

So pre-built seems to be the order of the day. I prefer NVIDIA and Intel myself, but that's really just brand loyalty at this point.

Nvidia would be the way to go right now.

AMD is almost entirely preferable at the price point you're talking about.

Note the AMD cards are very competitive right now. I wouldn’t feel that much pressure to go Nvidia over AMD. But the reality is get what you can get given how hard the GPU market is.

Also, don't forget that Intel's gpu looks competitive so if you have a hold over, things may get more interesting in 6 months.

And AMD is releasing FSR, its DLSS competitor, that is easier to implement and works on everything (even older generation AMD and Nvidia gpus like rx 580 and gtx 1060) So that adds another point that things may be more interesting in 6 months.

The initial impressions for FSR is that the quality isn't as good as DLSS, but FSR can increase frame rates from 60% to triple. And while it may not look as good as DLSS, (we don't really know this based on one game tested) all it has to do is look better than the game at 1440p to be worth it. With 4 quality settings, I find it hard to believe that more than one setting will look great and markedly better than 1440p. Plus, again it would work on an AMD or Nvidia toaster if they existed.

For myself I have vendor lock in given that my monitor is GSync only.

This might be a dumb question. If I get a pre-built PC, I'm not getting locked into the build, right? I can add/replace RAM or a hard drive? I'm not getting a "special" version of a specific motherboard that doesn't allow that?

depends on where you get it from. If you are getting an alienware I believe it is all custom. But if you can find someone that will build your system from the parts you specify, then you can choose. My local computer store is selling GPUs with system builds but they will build whatever you want.

Grenn wrote:

This might be a dumb question. If I get a pre-built PC, I'm not getting locked into the build, right? I can add/replace RAM or a hard drive? I'm not getting a "special" version of a specific motherboard that doesn't allow that?

As kazar said, it really depends on where you buy. For example, here's a Dell prebuilt that GN reviewed that's full of custom parts. That means if you have a part failure, you might have to buy from Dell at whatever price they choose and you can't repurpose a lot of the parts for other builds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMg...

Nearly a decade back I experienced this with my wife's Dell. She had a MB failure and due to the custom MB, we ended up purchasing an aftermarket case, a PSU, and a MB to get the system working again. This was cheaper than trying to purchase a replacement MB from Dell. The reviewed system went the extra mile and managed to make the cooler nonstandard as well.

Generally the CPU, RAM, and storage are reuseable, though I imagine a creative mind could make custom interfaces for those as well. Also of note, the GPU from the GN review ended up being a custom part with a very poor cooling solution, which led to inferior performance compared to other GPUs using the same NVidia chip. Just because a GTX/RTX 20XX or 30XX is listed doesn't mean it's as good as the Nvidia Founder's Edition or better.

Not trying to scare anybody off a prebuilt, but make sure you know what you're getting into. Unless the parts are compatible with aftermarket replacements, a single part failure can mean repurchasing a significant portion of the system.

Dell is famous for custom motherboards and short changing you on non standard and under powered PSUs.

I’m having flashbacks to the summer job I had in 1996. On more than one occasion, HP‘s or Dell’s use of proprietary parts meant that “fixing” or “upgrading” somebody’s computer meant building a whole new box and putting the old hard drive into it.

Quote is still not edit. Oh, and in retrospect, I’m a little bit surprised that HP didn’t come up with a proprietary connector for hard drives and completely block small shops like the one I worked for from being able to help their customers at all.

meant building a whole new box and putting the old hard drive into it.

Or using that external ide to usb adaptor and copying the files off said hard drive onto the new computer...
(or just attaching it as a secondary drive and calling it a day)

misplacedbravado wrote:

I’m having flashbacks to the summer job I had in 1996. On more than one occasion, HP‘s or Dell’s use of proprietary parts meant that “fixing” or “upgrading” somebody’s computer meant building a whole new box and putting the old hard drive into it.

I had a similar thought. I used to edit for a guy (Scott Mueller) who was a fairly big-time hardware guru in the 90s/2000s, and good lord did he hate Dell for their use of proprietary connectors between the PSU and motherboard. I still have fond memories of him ranting about how no one should ever buy Dell systems (and I still wouldn't).

I wasn't really considering it, but that's still a nail in the coffin for Dell.

I work on Dell Optiplex machines everyday and that was all that gaming model that GamersNexus reviewed was basically. Except for that weird little bump out for the IO, that was a whole new level of stupid BS even for Dell.

Do Alienware suffer the same psu, etc, issues?

The ones I have worked on in the past were mostly standard components or at least standard component form factors. This teardown from a few months ago looks like a pretty standard PC components:

That hinge on the power supply mount takes me back to the old clamshell PowerMacs except not good like the PowerMac design was.

I’m confused I would assume Dell would have spare parts for pretty much everything except the truly ancient. I know I’ve gotten replacement motherboards for Dell workstations that were over a decade old. Why would a part failure involve a whole new system??

In terms of prebuilts I have purchased Omen, Alienware, the company HP bought, and Newegg’s ABS line. No issues with them except Newegg uses Rosewill cases and PSU which I’m not generally a fan of but at least they are 100% ATX standard.

Um. Random question but does anyone have a suggestion for pcie USB gen 3 cards? I sorta don't want to go USB hub for an old system that doesnt warrant it.

TheGameguru wrote:

Why would a part failure involve a whole new system??

peanut3141 wrote:

Nearly a decade back I experienced this with my wife's Dell. She had a MB failure and due to the custom MB, we ended up purchasing an aftermarket case, a PSU, and a MB to get the system working again. This was cheaper than trying to purchase a replacement MB from Dell.

That's why. A new replacement nonstandard part would've cost more than replacing all the nonstandard parts with standard components. I'm sure they had the part because they offered to sell it for a ridiculous price, which I suppose you can get away with if you're the only supplier.

peanut3141 wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Why would a part failure involve a whole new system??

peanut3141 wrote:

Nearly a decade back I experienced this with my wife's Dell. She had a MB failure and due to the custom MB, we ended up purchasing an aftermarket case, a PSU, and a MB to get the system working again. This was cheaper than trying to purchase a replacement MB from Dell.

That's why. A new replacement nonstandard part would've cost more than replacing all the nonstandard parts with standard components. I'm sure they had the part because they offered to sell it for a ridiculous price, which I suppose you can get away with if you're the only supplier.

I thought I chimed in on this but my post is missing so maybe I forgot hit post.

I have had to order (at work not with my own money thankfully) a $300 motherboard for a discontinued Dell system that could have been replaced completely for $600-700 just because the software on that system was impossible to run on a new system. In that case $300 for a new motherboard was way cheaper than than replacing the old MICR printer/PoS/billing system they were using.

I bet if Dell could get their suppliers to make Dell specific HDDs/SSDs/RAM/CPUs without charging them significantly more for them they would.

Not a PC Specific Problem but man I had a weird one this week.

I've had an eero mesh network for a couple of months now and have generally been happy with it. Our previous ISP had horrific, intermittent, and generally awful interrupts and weird service (1Gbps Download but only 30-100 Mbps Upload!?!? on a fibre line!?!?!?) so made the switch to the other overpriced Canadian fibre provider that is generally more reliable.

But then I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out why the new router (HH3k) wouldn't play nice with the eero and was giving me some rather ridiculous ping spikes (1000ms to 3700ms every 30-45 seconds). Now I'm not sure if it was spurious correlation or not, but I decided to unplug the eero that is in our living room and the issues were fixed. My thinking was if the computer that's hard wired in to the upstairs eero was trying to reach the base station but also then relaying through the living room eero it could be the cause of my latency issues. Now I'm back to getting full upload/download and low latency (40ms or so in game). I'm still not sure if my theory is correct or not.

Now that it seems more stable I am going to try and force the HH3k into it's version of bridge mode (which involves some advanced DMZ things I don't fully understand)

I'm surprised anyone has the choice between multiple fiber providers. You Canucks are lucky. I live in the slum called America.

garion333 wrote:

I'm surprised anyone has the choice between multiple fiber providers. You Canucks are lucky. I live in the slum called America.

If I tell you it’s north of $170USD for a bundled Internet/TV/Phone plan would you no longer consider us lucky? Our prices are whack

staygold wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I'm surprised anyone has the choice between multiple fiber providers. You Canucks are lucky. I live in the slum called America.

If I tell you it’s north of $170USD for a bundled Internet/TV/Phone plan would you no longer consider us lucky? Our prices are whack

I was paying over $200 USD (closer to $220 with fees and taxes) for bundled 100Mb/TV/Phone from Verizon (FIOS). Most of that was the TV service and idiotic DVR boxes. I finally ditched TV and Phone, upgraded to gigabit fiber, and now I'm paying $79.99.

My wife's uncle was paying over $300 to Verizon FIOS (mostly due to the top-tier TV package) until I got him to do the same thing.

I pay $48 for 100Mbps symmetrical. I ditched cable and now use an antennae for local channels. Don't think I can ever go back to cable as a TV provider. It is the biggest legal scam out there.