PC Tech Thread

This definitely feels more zen.

Stab #2, with a retailer website now... so it's getting more serious.

Am settled on the motherboard and CPU. The PSU looks good, I kinda like the case, the GPU looks good, adding in storage now.

It turns out I have 64GB DDR4 RAM laying around, so I'll recycle that in this build.

• 238.04 https://www.cclonline.com/product/358773/FD-C-TOR1A-04/Cases/Fractal-Design-Torrent-Mid-Tower-Case-in-Black-E-ATX-support-Light-Tint-Tempered-Glass-5-x-RGB-Fans/CAS4353/
  
• 416.99 https://www.cclonline.com/product/359350/90MB18Z0-M0EAY0/Motherboards/ASUS-ProArt-X570-Creator-WiFi-Motherboard-ATX-AMD-Socket-AM4-X570-Chipset/MBD3129/
  
• 679 https://www.cclonline.com/product/331768/100-100000059WOF/CPU-Processors/AMD-Ryzen-9-5950X-3-4GHz-Hexadeca-Core-Processor-with-16-Cores-32-Threads-105W-TDP-72MB-Cache-4-9GHz-Turbo-No-Cooler/CPU0682/
  
• 224 https://www.cclonline.com/product/345150/BN316/Power-Supplies/Be-Quiet-Dark-Power-12-Power-Supply-1000W-ATX-80-PLUS-Titanium-Certified-Fully-Modular/PSU1937/
  
• 1,699 https://www.cclonline.com/product/353196/90YV0GU1-M0NM00/Graphics-Cards/ASUS-TUF-Gaming-GeForce-RTX-3080-Ti-OC-12GB-Overclocked-Graphics-Card-TUF-RTX3080TI-O12G-GAMING-/VGA6206/
  
• 316.80 https://www.cclonline.com/product/354908/ZP2000GM3A013/Solid-State-Drives-SSDs-/Seagate-FireCuda-530-2TB-Internal-SSD-M-2-2280-PCIe-Gen4-x4-NVMe/SSD1445/
  
• 128.48 https://www.cclonline.com/product/301533/NH-D15-CH-BK/CPU-Coolers/Noctua-NH-D15-chromax-black-CPU-Cooler/CLR2046/
  
  

£3,702.31

I'm probably missing something... but this seems to be everything.

Am very tempted to drop the GPU a level to go for the Noctua edition one for extra silence https://noctua.at/en/asus-geforce-rtx-3070-noctua-edition-graphics-card https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Graphics-Cards/ASUS/RTX3070-8G-NOCTUA/ . I'm not sure I've ever fully utilised a GPU except when CUDA processing which is such a rare thing that I'm OK with fewer CUDA cores. The 12GB > 8GB sacrifice doesn't feel end of the world when everything else is super fast.

Alternatively, could defer the GPU purchase altogether and use the 2080 Super that I already have and that would make this around £2k.

How difficult is it to do? I did wonder if it was worth trying it on my (your old) 1080

Very straightforward once you get your head round what's going on. I had to watch a few videos, it was this one that made it click...

https://youtu.be/I9K4PSqxoYg

That noctua 3070 is dreamy. If it came in 3090 I'd definitely consider rebuilding from all white internals to all brown.

I have 64GB DDR4 RAM laying around, so I'll recycle that in this build.

That’s the spirit!
I love that mobo by the way.
Personally I’d hold off on the GPU and pick up a used 3 fan 3090. £1700ish on Facebook marketplace as and when one comes up. Happy to help you with re-padding and passive cooling tips if you need them

Did you use Unigine for the benchmarking? Didn't seem to be raising the temps enough on mine (12700k / 3080). First world problems...

Yeah. My Founders Edition was hitting 82C at default settings. Not sure if it makes any difference but are you hitting the 'benchmark' button top-left after starting it. Easy to miss if you've got the stats overlay on.

Also make sure you don't have v-sync forced on in nvidia control panel.

I've settled on 1800MHz @825mV for now. Was boosting to 1920 at stock and using over 1V, then throttling to ~1750. Modified settings seem like a much more sensible way to run it.

Yeah, had put settings on Extreme. Scoring ~6800 but temps not going above about 68C. Though I had let MSI Afterburner guess at an overclock with the OC Scanner when I first got the machine. Will dig into the settings a bit and see if I can tell what it's already done.

and discovering Windows 11's ability to run Linux...

Ah, I'm now expecting Wine to run Windows 11 soon.

I want to use this screen with a modern x1.

Is a dvi to hdmi converter cable going to be the best option?

Cheers

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yes DVI is a digital connection, the blue one is VGA which isnt.

Cheers. That's what I thought.

Just wasn't sure if there would be some benefit to using some sort of thunderbolt hub thingy. Or if that little square female socket next to the vga was something.

I guess a hub allows for a 2nd screen. But this screen is already a bit of a beast on a small desk.

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If you have a HDMI port already you could use that,its just one cable. The hub could be handy if you have a full desktop setup (2 screens / keyboard / mouse) which you want to leave in place if you regularly unplug the laptop and take it away - you could just leave the hub and unplug a single cable.

the right hand port looks to be USB 2.0 type B - right hand in this image

Would imply to me that the screen has a built in USB hub.

Think you need to make sure to get a DVI-D adapter/cable, although it looks like most are. DVI-I has extra pins which wouldn't physically fit in that socket.

for reference @hugo7
in my experience almost all cables commonly found on amazon etc, these days are DVI-D, hardly anything uses DVI-I any more.

The X1 has these ports:

We're (well my OH is) trying out a WFH setup in our bedroom. I'd if they'll want to move between the dining room and the bedroom.

The screen does have extra female usb sockets to run things from. But my OH's keyboard and mouse are dongles.

Just get a cheap DVI-D to HDMI unless you particually need a USB hub or to have other screens.

👍

A decent hub (the cheapo ones aren't great) will cost about fifty quid. Cable will cost about a tenner. The Amazon basics ones work fine.

Which tools did you use?

I just priced up a very similar build on PC specialist today, £500 quid less. They don't have fancy brown fans though. In fact I don't have a clue about cooling so just upgraded the CPU fan and added a couple of case fans.

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MSI Afterburner, Unigine Heaven and HWmonitor.

The usual suspects. I need to work on mine too. Cheers

I'm waiting for the next Noctua GPU (TBC), this one won't fit in my case, hopefully they can make the next iteration slightly smaller.