Any PC Gamers Around?

[Stang70Fastback]

Originally Posted by 86TOYO2k17

My only two suggestions would be a faster clocked ram your mobo can handle 4000 or 4133.

I always struggle to understand which is better. For example, the ram I selected is 3200 with timing of 14-14-14-34. If I bump up to, say, 4000, the timing also jumps up to 19-23-23-45. What's more critical? Higher speed, or faster timings?

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

I always struggle to understand which is better. For example, the ram I selected is 3200 with timing of 14-14-14-34. If I bump up to, say, 4000, the timing also jumps up to 19-23-23-45. What's more critical? Higher speed, or faster timings?

The faster ram will be helpful in some rare situations where you're actually memory bandwidth limited. Are you using an IGPU? That's mainly the kind of situation I'm talking about. Otherwise there will be little to no performance improvement. If your CPU is fast enough to feed your GPU, and your hard drive is fast enough to feed your CPU, you'll be fine.

[Stang70Fastback]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

The faster ram will be helpful in some rare situations where you're actually memory bandwidth limited. Are you using an IGPU? That's mainly the kind of situation I'm talking about. Otherwise there will be little to no performance improvement. If your CPU is fast enough to feed your GPU, and your hard drive is fast enough to feed your CPU, you'll be fine.

No IGPU. Going to have a 2080 Ti. I've done some more reading, and it sounds like faster RAM is useful for benchmarks, and some specific things, but generally speaking, isn't going to make a very meaningful difference...?

In the process of researching, I also discovered that Corsair's Dominator series is really for people who will be overclocking the shit out of things, and want exceptionally stable RAM. I don't plan to do any overclocking, and so it sounds like the cheaper Vengeance RAM would be more appropriate for me. Given that, and given that all-out speed apparently isn't a HUGE issue, what about something like this? The timings are *relatively* low, and it also doubles my RAM, in order to throw @Cole a bone... all while actually being slightly cheaper than the 16 Gb of Dominator RAM I had previously selected.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Catego...2GX4M2C3333C16

(For the record, I'm sticking with Corsair because I have no desire to install yet another piece of software just to play with colors on my RAM sticks, lol. Didn't even know about this RGB craze until I got back into this stuff a month ago. I'd actually be perfectly happy with NON-RGB RAM, but RGB doesn't seem to cost much more these days, so f**k it, lol. Otherwise, I'd probably be looking at other brands, such as G.Skill, which I remember I used to use almost exclusively back in the day.)

[00NissanNinja]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Catego...2GX4M2C3333C16

I run 32GB of that in my machine works great. I also game, do software development, and computer graphics stuff as well on my computer. Also some motherboards will let you mess with the LEDs on the memory without installing corsair iCUE you just won't have as much control over it. If I recall correctly I remember a the memory timings becomes more important on AMD Ryzen machines since they can take better advantage than intel.

[86TOYO2k17]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

I always struggle to understand which is better. For example, the ram I selected is 3200 with timing of 14-14-14-34. If I bump up to, say, 4000, the timing also jumps up to 19-23-23-45. What's more critical? Higher speed, or faster timings?

They are both equally as important. You can find true ram speed calculators to see what one is truly faster. To over simplify it it’s basically speed divided by latency. 20/4 or 10/2 both equal 5. Or 21/3 vs 12/2 first would be better. The other numbers do matter but not as much. It does get complicated without a comparison calculator.

But I will say with the money your spending on gpu and cpu etc.. why skimp on the ram. As long as you have 16gbs you can add another stick later. Sure cheaper ram might work “fine” just like a 1070 ti for 1/2 the price might work “fine” but from the rest of your parts list and your no compromise build id look at getting the best ram you can use. I haven’t looked at everything available but maybe some 3600 with 15-15-15-35 or 3733/3800 would have the best ratio. Or maybe the one you chose does I havnt looked closely enough. But I’d play around with the ratios available.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Cole

Seems like some odd compromises in your build, then. Not quite enough RAM for those productivity tasks, and a Radeon VII would probably suit you a bit better if it's going to be a "do it all" system.

Also, max settings for screenshots, high settings for game play

Hi ya @Cole -

When is the big (wedding) day ?


humfrz

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

No IGPU. Going to have a 2080 Ti. I've done some more reading, and it sounds like faster RAM is useful for benchmarks, and some specific things, but generally speaking, isn't going to make a very meaningful difference...?

In the process of researching, I also discovered that Corsair's Dominator series is really for people who will be overclocking the shit out of things, and want exceptionally stable RAM. I don't plan to do any overclocking, and so it sounds like the cheaper Vengeance RAM would be more appropriate for me. Given that, and given that all-out speed apparently isn't a HUGE issue, what about something like this? The timings are *relatively* low, and it also doubles my RAM, in order to throw @Cole a bone... all while actually being slightly cheaper than the 16 Gb of Dominator RAM I had previously selected.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Catego...2GX4M2C3333C16

(For the record, I'm sticking with Corsair because I have no desire to install yet another piece of software just to play with colors on my RAM sticks, lol. Didn't even know about this RGB craze until I got back into this stuff a month ago. I'd actually be perfectly happy with NON-RGB RAM, but RGB doesn't seem to cost much more these days, so f**k it, lol. Otherwise, I'd probably be looking at other brands, such as G.Skill, which I remember I used to use almost exclusively back in the day.)

Botique RAM is a scam. Get whatever is cheapest and then do some memory testing. If it can pass the testing, you're fine. The last time I bought desktop RAM, I ended up with flashing lights because it was cheaper. No other reason. The box was closed, so it didn't bother me.

I used to write about this shit for a living. I now use an Alienware laptop with an upgraded SSD. 16GB of RAM is plenty for me, as is a 1060GTX. I'd rather have a better screen than a faster CPU, and I'd rather have a faster hard driver than a faster GPU or CPU. Most importantly, I want a shit ton of storage, which I have. 4TB of SSD for a laptop.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I've played Rage 2 for a couple of hours and already I'm looking forward to the next game to buy. I'm finding Rage 2 to be uninspiring, it seems like a generic hodgepodge of other games I have played. It is not bad, just ordinary. *sigh* I don't even know when the next game I'm interested in gets released (and there aren't that many).

I've heard that from others, and is part of the reason they've already patched out DRM (plus the whole, DRM on Steam not on other platforms thing).

I think I'll hold off until its on sale later in the year before looking at picking it up.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Cole

All I see is a lot of ways to bring the overall price down. Do you need the absolute best of the best?

Pretty much how I see it although I can't really argue with any any of the choices given "unlimited funds". I'd probably scale back the video card one notch, but I've never been a fan of buying top level cards. There never seems to be the performance/cost ratio there.

Originally Posted by Spuds

..If you want to save money, consider an unlocked I5, and a slightly lower spec mobo...

I've been building my own PCs for over 30 years, and have ALWAYS found it better to go as high a processor as you can afford, and in the past 20 years, the second highest tier video card. With the processor, today's highest level processor is probably going to last you 5 to 7 years (easy) of business use and up to 5 years for gaming applications. A video card is usually good for 3 years.

In general I've found I upgrade my video card mid CPU cycle. (if I keep a CPU 6 years, I've likely had 2 or maybe 3 video cards).

My son wanted to build a new gaming computer for his college graduation present so we are in the process of putting that list together. There is an "under $2,000" limit on it based on our gift contribution and what he was able to put into it. This is our list (missing a couple of components that we plan to pick up locally either at Fry's or Micro Center.)

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JKLsdX

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I've been building my own PCs for over 30 years, and have ALWAYS found it better to go as high a processor as you can afford, and in the past 20 years, the second highest tier video card. With the processor, today's highest level processor is probably going to last you 5 to 7 years (easy) of business use and up to 5 years for gaming applications. A video card is usually good for 3 years.

In general I've found I upgrade my video card mid CPU cycle. (if I keep a CPU 6 years, I've likely had 2 or maybe 3 video cards).

My son wanted to build a new gaming computer for his college graduation present so we are in the process of putting that list together. There is an "under $2,000" limit on it based on our gift contribution and what he was able to put into it. This is our list (missing a couple of components that we plan to pick up locally either at Fry's or Micro Center.)

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JKLsdX

I typically go for the greatest value target. I didn't think processors were a bottleneck for most gaming since they are relatively efficient with back-end calculations. If you also want to do other cpu-intensive stuff or multitask like a boss then I can see your point, but an i7 or even i5 gets you everything you need for gaming for less money.

I'm going on 7 years with a Haswell i5 (now OC'ed), which is worse than any of these options. I haven't really done much in terms of stressing it recently though, so it might get interesting if I start doing modeling for my 3d printer...

I'm with you on the GPU. The top of the line stuff is not worth the premium price.

I definitely like those Corsair all-in-one coolers. Both me and my wife have them. I couldn't fit an h100 in my case so I stuffed an h80 in the external drive bay lol.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Spuds

I definitely like those Corsair all-in-one coolers. Both me and my wife have them. I couldn't fit an h100 in my case so I stuffed an h80 in the external drive bay lol.

We put this together last night, and I definitely like the cooler (first time I've used it). Only problem is we had to take the fans off twice to plug in things we didn't think about first. Once to get the memory in and once to plug in the processor power.

We also didn't realize the case we purchased didn't have a front DVD/Bluray opening in it! Geez, I didn't even think to look. Not a big deal for this build and he decided to live with it, or get an external if it ever became a problem but now I know to look. The world keeps on moving. Those couple of things reminded me how rusty I am at this.

The good news is that when we hit the switch everything worked!

[BlueSTaR]

I run watercooled i7 8700k, evga 1080ti, 32gb 3400 ddr4, 1tb XPG NVME, on a gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 mobo and it seems to run league of legends just fine which is what I need it for.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by BlueSTaR

I run watercooled i7 8700k, evga 1080ti, 32gb 3400 ddr4, 1tb XPG NVME, on a gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 mobo and it seems to run league of legends just fine which is what I need it for.

I'm fairly certain that is the epitome of overkill...

It's like using a gyrostabilized 120mm cannon with an integrated ballistics computer, auto tracking gimbal system and loaded with high explosive smart munitions to shoot a chipmunk that's eating your garden.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Spuds

I'm fairly certain that is the epitome of overkill...

It's like using a gyrostabilized 120mm cannon with an integrated ballistics computer, auto tracking gimbal system and loaded with high explosive smart munitions to shoot a chipmunk that's eating your garden.

Yea, but the damn chipmunk deserves it (says a guy who has about 90 of them living under my deck).