Any PC Gamers Around?

[weederr33]

Finally decided to do a full upgrade for my gaming system. I'll be jumping to AMD's AM5 platform. As well, I've been an Asus fan for a while but figured with this upgrade I'll try something else. I saw Gigabyte's new B850i Aorus boards and really liked them. I have no experience with Gigabyte so this should be a fun change. I'll post up the loot once I get all of the parts!

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Finally decided to do a full upgrade for my gaming system. I'll be jumping to AMD's AM5 platform. As well, I've been an Asus fan for a while but figured with this upgrade I'll try something else. I saw Gigabyte's new B850i Aorus boards and really liked them. I have no experience with Gigabyte so this should be a fun change. I'll post up the loot once I get all of the parts!

I've used Gigabyte boards before, always been happy with them. Also, don't think you'll regret the AMD platform. I've used them for CPU/GPU on almost all my builds. Never regretted it.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I've used Gigabyte boards before, always been happy with them. Also, don't think you'll regret the AMD platform. I've used them for CPU/GPU on almost all my builds. Never regretted it.

Ever since I moved away from prebuilts, I've stuck with AMD. I have had a good experience switching to team Red. Especially after seeing how Intel is doing this generation.



What I was most nervous about was switching to a different motherboard. I tried MSI but the board got bricked so I've used Asus every since. I also found their BIOS easy to understand.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Ever since I moved away from prebuilts, I've stuck with AMD. I have had a good experience switching to team Red. Especially after seeing how Intel is doing this generation.

I go back and forth between Intel and AMD for CPU, but have always used AMD for video all the way back to the EGA Wonder card that let you do EGA level graphics on an old monochrome monitor back in the day when you had to pick between monochrome monitors and very expensive color monitors.

I played hours and hours of Microprose Gunship on a green monitor.

[fredzy]

I finally pulled the trigger last week on an additional SSD for the PC. Lenovo Legion prebuilt, rock solid going on 3 years now. I barely use it, the kids are on it probably 20+ hrs/week. I am its custodian.

I haven't done a thing to it physically aside from blow dust out of it. It's been a struggle to maintain space on the 500 gig SSD C drive though. It also came with a 1TB HDD so unfortunately all games have been going to that. With Assetto Corsa EVO coming this week (for ME to play) I decided it needed more fast storage.

Turns out you really do need that little screw for keeping an m.2 SSD in place! And the drive I bought didn't include one! Fortunately my old gaming laptop had a spare inside to donate

Worth mentioning, WinDirStat is a lifesaver. The C drive has been getting filled up inexplicably and it looked like mostly beamNG Drive. Well I moved the game to the new drive and there was A TON of data left over on C. Turns out every time the game gets a major update it creates an entire new install and leaves all old ones in place! Between moving the install and clearing the "cache" of old installs I freed over 200 gigs on C!

[weederr33]

Upgraded the PC over the weekend! While I've done small upgrades, I haven't done a full upgrade/build in 5 years. AM4 served me very well and honestly, still probably would have for a few more years.



I originally opted for the Gigabyte B850i Aorus Pro because I wanted to try something new. Plus after all the complaints about Asus and AM5 and so-on, I figured why not. I kept my same case, the NZXT H1v2 as it works fine and I love the design. Well, immediately I discovered a problem. Gigabyte, in all their wisdom, changed where the audio port is located. It's high up on the VRM heatsink. When I go to close the AIO hatch, it clamps on the audio cable and makes it impossible to close without forcing it. This would lead to either the fan being impinged by the cable, or the cable tearing. I'm fairly confident if I just took a dremel to the board and cut the bracket off, It would have worked, but that's some ghetto shit I wasn't willing to try.



So, I had to ditch the gigabyte board and went with Asus. The board is really nice, has a lot of USB3 ports for a mini-ITX, and the BIOS is familiar. I did turn off the AI overclocker which was turned on by default. Additionally, Asus being Asus, had automatic updates for some "AsusHub". So it's good to know their new boards now come with bloatware on them. This did leave a bad taste in my mouth but after some tweaking, I got it all sorted out.



The Ryzen 5 9600x does run warmer than my Ryzen 7 5700X3D, but that's expected. The overall performance is roughly the same, but that's to be expected. The RAM speeds, however, are noticeable. At least it seems everything boots up quicker and operates more smoothly. Granted I did upgrade to the WD Black SN850X, too. I wanted to get a Gen5 SSD, but the price seem prohibitive and supposedly the performance isn't much better.



Overall, I'm happy with the upgrades. I'm also pleased to know Windows 11 allows RGB control without you having to download the garbage bloatware (such as Armoury Crate). I think I'll probably upgrade the case and such come the end of the year.

[fredzy]

^^funny you mention changing things up with new mobo setup etc, and the issues you dealt with.

As update to my post from the 15th..

I mentioned cleaning things up when I installed my SSD. I also took that time to make sure everything was up to date. Drivers etc, all mostly neglected. One of the things I updated was the Lenovo software that controls the fans, RGB etc. "Vantage." Immediately there were issues: all of the RGB control settings were gone from the app after the update. I figured I would deal with it later. Then when I shut down the PC the RGB all stayed lit. Ugh, later.

So Thursday was the big day. Assetto Corsa EVO early access! After finally getting it up and working with my wheel, I got maybe 5 good laps in with the GR86 before I decided I'd call it a night. But just before leaving it I decided to at least google my RGB issues. Lenovo's first step from where I was (and that everyone with the issue claims doesn't work but I would try anyway) says uninstall Vantage, reboot, reinstall.

So I did that, but when the PC attempted to start up it couldn't find a boot drive. I was able to get into the BIOS and all settings looked good there. Try after try, it just couldn't find any drives. One thing that I did find amiss was the clock in the BIOS was way off. I adjusted it and finally it booted up!

At this point all I could think to do was update the BIOS. Turns out I had the latest, which I recall updating in 2022 to solve network adapter issues. In the process of trying to figure all of that out I rebooted again and was not able to get it to come back to life. The time/date in the BIOS was reading gibberish and wouldn't accept changes. I concluded upon looking into it with a very knowledgeable buddy of mine that the mobo was toast. Digging deeper all of the RGB issues and even my previous network adapter issues that were solved by BIOS update were symptoms of bad hardware that are sadly common to this ONE model of Legion desktop (t5 26amr5.) By midnight I had a new mobo on order.

A day or two later I did get it to wake back up again by fiddling with the RGB settings, of all things, within the BIOS. I have simply left it on for now while I wait for new mobo + fan to come as it runs perfectly once booted up. New MSI mATX mobo will more or less drop right in, the fan and maybe some RGB crap is the only proprietary hiccup. A fresh windows install always feels good, not that it felt like it needed it

Originally Posted by fredzy

Lenovo Legion prebuilt, rock solid going on 3 years now.

I should not have said this haha

[weederr33]

NZXT H1 cooler is definitely working to keeping my Ryzen 5 9600x cool lol

[p1l0t]

I'm still on a 1080i I really need to step up my game.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[fredzy]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Well, immediately I discovered a problem. Gigabyte, in all their wisdom, changed where the audio port is located. It's high up on the VRM heatsink.

I installed the new mobo Thursday night and funny enough the only hiccup was the front audio connector. I didn't realize Lenovo used some proprietary (or at least not common) 11 pin deal there. I just left it unplugged, we never use those jacks.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by fredzy

I installed the new mobo Thursday night and funny enough the only hiccup was the front audio connector. I didn't realize Lenovo used some proprietary (or at least not common) 11 pin deal there. I just left it unplugged, we never use those jacks.

I ended up going with the Asus B850i and honestly, I love it. It's got a lot of IO ports and the BIOS is familiar to me.

[Captain Snooze]

[finch1750]

Anyone playing the new Tokyo Xtreme Racer?

I got a few hours into it and just seeing what people are moving to for a second car. Don't want to sink too much $$$ into the starter car this early but the MX-5 is already kinda capped out it seems

[weederr33]

So, I further upgraded my PC. My NZXT cooler just wasn't cutting it anymore but I found out its because so much of the water in the AIO had evaporated and the pump was dying. Pick up a Fractal Era 2 case with a 240mm AIO. WOW!! It's so much quieter and the system runs dummy cool. Very pleased with this! Granted I added higher pressure fans and the Cooler Master Atmos which is one of the best 240 out there.