OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
@BahamutZERO: One detail for RAM on the QVL if you decide to go down that road: if a kit is on the QVL, that doesn't mean a pair of them is on the QVL.
For example: if the QVL lists some Corsair 2x8 gig kit, you can't simply buy two of those kits and treat it like it's on the QVL. The QVL may or may not have the same Corsair parts as a 4x8 gig kit--and if you wanted 32 gigs from Corsair with those timings, you'd want the kit specifically on the QVL.
edit - you know, before I even realized I'd done it, I was fine with my OS speed. I might just leave Windows on my SATA drive.
I’m planning on putting a 2tb PCIE4 SSD in relatively soon. When I do that I’ll clone Windows over, since my games will all move over to the 2tb drive, leaving it empty.
Oh one heads up, Reflect will not change partition size when cloning. I think I was able to tweak it after the fact with partition magic free but it was kind of a hassle when I cloned from a 250 to a 500 GB.
So I'm taking a look at various Black... entire November... deals to see about possible upgrades for my new computer, mostly I'm going to grab some extra hard drive space. I then realized I'm not actually certain how many places I can put stuff on the motherboard of the machine I ordered.
So I think I delimited this properly: MSI PRO Z690-A | DDR4 | ATX | ARGB | 2.5GbE LAN | 3 PCIE X16, 1PCIE X1 | 6 SATA3 | 3X M.2 SATA/PCIE
I have one hard drive included in the build that I plan to use for just the System/non-game-related stuff, which is NVMe. How many more can I mount? I know NVMe drives are PCIE but I don't know what the varieties of PCIE mean here.
And speaking of that, any strong opinions about good SSDs? I was going to go with the Samsung Evo 970 Plus because it's $230 right now for 2TB, which seems like a lot of space for a reasonable price.
edit - you know, before I even realized I'd done it, I was fine with my OS speed. I might just leave Windows on my SATA drive.
I’m planning on putting a 2tb PCIE4 SSD in relatively soon. When I do that I’ll clone Windows over, since my games will all move over to the 2tb drive, leaving it empty.
Oh one heads up, Reflect will not change partition size when cloning. I think I was able to tweak it after the fact with partition magic free but it was kind of a hassle when I cloned from a 250 to a 500 GB.
When I get me second NVME, I’ll be moving Windows from a 1tb SATA to an empty 1tb NVME, so it should be fine.
So my Gigabyte x570 MoBo still has the AMD USB disconnect bug... *sigh*.
But I found out it only effects the USB 2.0 ports, so at least now all of my peripherals are off a hub connected to a 3.0 port and they don't disconnect when it happens!
Unfortunately my fan hub, for the Lian-Li AL120's I have in my build, uses the internal USB 2.0 port on the MoBo, to get power. Is there an adapter cable that would let me plug it into one of the 19-pin USB 3.0 headers? I've certainly seen plenty that go the other way.
I guess at this point the only annoyance is that I get that damn Windows new peripheral is disconnected/plugged in sound. And I guess my cooling is interrupted for a fraction of a second.
I've never had such a bug persist across so many supposed fixes.
So I'm taking a look at various Black... entire November... deals to see about possible upgrades for my new computer, mostly I'm going to grab some extra hard drive space. I then realized I'm not actually certain how many places I can put stuff on the motherboard of the machine I ordered.
So I think I delimited this properly: MSI PRO Z690-A | DDR4 | ATX | ARGB | 2.5GbE LAN | 3 PCIE X16, 1PCIE X1 | 6 SATA3 | 3X M.2 SATA/PCIE
I have one hard drive included in the build that I plan to use for just the System/non-game-related stuff, which is NVMe. How many more can I mount? I know NVMe drives are PCIE but I don't know what the varieties of PCIE mean here.
And speaking of that, any strong opinions about good SSDs? I was going to go with the Samsung Evo 970 Plus because it's $230 right now for 2TB, which seems like a lot of space for a reasonable price.
The Z690-A has four M.2 slots. All 4 are M-Keyed (single slot on right) for use with NVME M.2 drives. That means you cannot put B-Keyed SATA M.2 drives in these slots. The M2_1 slot is the fastest and a direct connection to the CPU and is the one located closest to the CPU socket under the heat spreader. The M2_2 and M2_4 slots would be slightly slower as they are connected to the motherboard chipset and are PCIE 4.0. The M2_3 slot is the slowest and is only PCIE 3.0. The manual has a labeled diagram where all these slots are located.
Older, non-M.2 format SATA drives can connect via cables to the six SATA3 ports.
The slots labeled PCIE X16 and X1 are expansion slots for use with add on cards. Video cards would go in the X16 slot(s), but the fastest to use is the slot closest to the CPU socket.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
So I've been working on my Retro LAN these days. Ordered a smattering of 3COM cards. Threw a 3C500B into a Pentium III rig. Have an ISA 3C509B-TPO coming for the K6-2+ rig. And another 3C905C-TXM for my precious P233MMX/Riva128 rig.
Only one of them got here so far, and it's for the PIII rig. Luckily I had a bunch of spare Athlon 64 mobos lying around I'd practiced recapping on, that have integrated networking. Threw spawned copies of Diablo on one of them, and made sure they could both join a game. So far so good. You know something it reminded me of?
Fucking IPX/SPX protocol. More or less every game before 2000 supported LAN play over IPX. Hell, IPX basically was LAN play, and TCP/IP was reserved entirely for internet play. Windows 10 doesn't even support IPX. I hear tell there are wrappers you can install. But a part of me feels like that way lies madness. Anything goes wrong, and is it the wrapper? The game? Windows 10? DirectX? Speed sensitivity? Some other vagary? You'll never know! Such is the frustration in trying to play old games on new hardware. So vintage or bust.
Soon, very soon, I'll have an old highschool buddy or two over, and we're going to LAN party like it's 1999. Can't wait to fire up Skibi's Tower Defense or something.
The B450 Tomahawk is currently on sale for $50 US in a few places. If you need a solid board (even on a slightly dated chipset that can run 3xxx and.....I think 5xxx too), it's a fantastic price.
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
The fan on my MSI X570 Unify has rarely if ever come on during normal use and gaming. It has come on during stress testing and during the hotter summer months when the ambient was at or over 30 degrees.
Went into my bios settings to make sure I had everything set up for an eventual Windows 11 install. Found that my CPU cooler setting was defaulted to a water cooler on bios instead of air cooler. I hadn't noticed any heat issues with my CPU, but I switched it over to the right settings anyway.
I did the Win11 upgrade last week. Took some time to find the TPM setting in Bios but eventually got it flipped over. The PC Health Checker recognized it right away but Windows Update still kept saying I wasn't eligible so I had to download and run the msi.
It's...fine? Other than the softer corners and the Start menu being in the middle I really don't notice much of a difference at all. I did decide to finally make the switch to Edge from Chrome, which again is...fine?
I also found that my XMP configuration was somehow switched off and my RAM was running at like 2133mhz. Honestly haven't noticed any big difference since changing it back to 3600mhz, maybe a 10% change in FPS but that could just be normal fluctuations. I was expecting it to make a bigger difference.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I did the Win11 upgrade last week. Took some time to find the TPM setting in Bios but eventually got it flipped over. The PC Health Checker recognized it right away but Windows Update still kept saying I wasn't eligible so I had to download and run the msi.
It's...fine? Other than the softer corners and the Start menu being in the middle I really don't notice much of a difference at all. I did decide to finally make the switch to Edge from Chrome, which again is...fine?
I also found that my XMP configuration was somehow switched off and my RAM was running at like 2133mhz. Honestly haven't noticed any big difference since changing it back to 3600mhz, maybe a 10% change in FPS but that could just be normal fluctuations. I was expecting it to make a bigger difference.
Yeah, Win 11 is largely like buying the same shoes again.
You get that new shoe feel for a bit but after that it's kind of the same ol shit.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Having used Win 11 on my laptop for a week while on vacation, I've come to appreciate some of the smaller changes. The only one that regularly still annoys me is the Task Manager not being available on task bar right click. That one baffles me.
Aside from that, once I know the AMD patch is fully pushed out, live and working I plan to do a fresh install of Windows 11 on my main PC. Probably won't do my sim racing PC for a while since it's just a huge pain in the ass to set up, with a lot of exotic hardware that worries me.
On the course of this week my 4.5 year-old laptop died (something fried on the motherboard and electricity was going places it shouldn't have been going. Removed the battery for safety, smelled of smoked circuit whenever I plugged it in and would not turn on.)
Didn't have enough money on-hand to buy something equally monstrous to replace it (it was a nice i7 6700HQ, GTX 1070, 15" 4K Display, 16GB RAM that I got at a stupidly bargain price back then) so I opted for an "interim" laptop that would still let me play and let me ride out the chipset shortage until at least the end of 2022.
I ended up getting an MSI GF66, i5 11400H, RTX 3060, 16GB of RAM. Nice machine with a 1080p, 144Hz panel that has handled everything I've been throwing at it. My only complaint is that I could underclock/undervolt the GPU to improve thermals (barely any performance hit I've noticed so far) but since this CPU is not "overclockable", I also cannot dial it back.
Oh, Intel...
( < . . .
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Completely unrelated to Windows 11, my GN coasters and glasses arrived while I was on vacation. Finally got to grab the package this morning. Going to go great with the new lift top coffee table I just bought.
after doing some research on X570 boards I realized the only reason I was even looking at them over a B550 was that some of them would be able to support the USB 3.1 gen 2 type A port on the front of the case I want to get, and then I remembered I don't have any actual use for that port. So lmao.
So my Gigabyte x570 MoBo still has the AMD USB disconnect bug... *sigh*.
But I found out it only effects the USB 2.0 ports, so at least now all of my peripherals are off a hub connected to a 3.0 port and they don't disconnect when it happens!
Unfortunately my fan hub, for the Lian-Li AL120's I have in my build, uses the internal USB 2.0 port on the MoBo, to get power. Is there an adapter cable that would let me plug it into one of the 19-pin USB 3.0 headers? I've certainly seen plenty that go the other way.
I guess at this point the only annoyance is that I get that damn Windows new peripheral is disconnected/plugged in sound. And I guess my cooling is interrupted for a fraction of a second.
I've never had such a bug persist across so many supposed fixes.
There are internal USB3 header to USB A socket adapter or USB3 header to USB2 header adapter. I have used both to either connect internal peripherals or to connect a old USB2 front panel to a newer main board.
So my Gigabyte x570 MoBo still has the AMD USB disconnect bug... *sigh*.
But I found out it only effects the USB 2.0 ports, so at least now all of my peripherals are off a hub connected to a 3.0 port and they don't disconnect when it happens!
Unfortunately my fan hub, for the Lian-Li AL120's I have in my build, uses the internal USB 2.0 port on the MoBo, to get power. Is there an adapter cable that would let me plug it into one of the 19-pin USB 3.0 headers? I've certainly seen plenty that go the other way.
I guess at this point the only annoyance is that I get that damn Windows new peripheral is disconnected/plugged in sound. And I guess my cooling is interrupted for a fraction of a second.
I've never had such a bug persist across so many supposed fixes.
There are internal USB3 header to USB A socket adapter or USB3 header to USB2 header adapter. I have used both to either connect internal peripherals or to connect a old USB2 front panel to a newer main board.
Ah thanks for that! What I needed tho was a 19(20) pin USB 3.0 Female to 8 pin USB 2.0 male, and weirdly I was able to find it goin from your search terms.
*fingers crossed* Hopefully it works. That dang peripheral disconnect noise that Windows makes is sooo annoying.
So I'm trying to design a desktop PC with some gaming capabilities for the first time ever (I particularly want to be able to play Baldur's Gate 3 without any major issues). I haven't really used a desktop PC much in a decade, mostly relying on either a Surface Pro tablet or a laptop. I've been using PCPartPicker to put together a build and would like some feedback on it so far.
Does anything stick out as obviously wrong or undesirable? Also, does anyone have any advice on case fans, monitors, or peripherals? I'd like to keep the build under $1500 if possible.
Thanks in advance!
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
The only thing jumping out at me is that if you can spring a little extra, I'd recommend going for DDR 3600.
If you plan on upgrading to a high end GPU you might go another 100 watts on the PSU (your budget suggests you probably won't do this). If you don't I wouldn't bother.
If you want better noise/thermals you could get a tower air cooler for your CPU, but that isn't a requirement.
For a bit more future-proofing you could consider 32 gigs of RAM, but again, your budget suggests that would largely be wasted and you can always add more later given you're going for a 2x8 pair.
Also jesus fucking christ, a GTX 1650 is going for ~$500 on Amazon? Goddamn.
If you plan on upgrading to a high end GPU you might go another 100 watts on the PSU (your budget suggests you probably won't do this). If you don't I wouldn't bother.
This is good to hear as I was a bit worried that I had gone overboard with the PSU. PCPartPicker.com is estimating that the system as I have it now requires 273 watts, while the PSU I've selected is rated for 550 watts. Hearing that, if anything, it might not be high enough makes me feel better. I'll look into it in a bit, though.
you generally want a healthy buffer between average load and the maximum your PSU is rated for, to account for spikes in power draw and because power supplies are most efficient at around half load.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
If you plan on upgrading to a high end GPU you might go another 100 watts on the PSU (your budget suggests you probably won't do this). If you don't I wouldn't bother.
This is good to hear as I was a bit worried that I had gone overboard with the PSU. PCPartPicker.com is estimating that the system as I have it now requires 273 watts, while the PSU I've selected is rated for 550 watts. Hearing that, if anything, it might not be high enough makes me feel better. I'll look into it in a bit, though.
550 watts is plenty for what you have. If you were going to shove a 300 watt 3070 or something in there, that's when a 650 might make sense.
550 is about at the breakpoint for where generally speaking you'll end up with the higher quality parts as well. Again, if you don't explicitly plan on shoving $1000 worth of GPU into your system in the next two years, what you have right now is more than fine. You could back it off a little, but below IIRC around 500 watts the quality tends to take a nosedive.
Oh, here's another thing I was going to ask that I just remembered: Is there any reason I would want a motherboard with built-in WiFi for a desktop PC? I'd assume I would always be using an Ethernet connection rather than rely on WiFi, but there must be some reason that's an option.
Thanks for the responses so far, by the way!
Hexmage-PA on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Flexibility. If available, ethernet is always superior to wifi. But some folks can't just drop cables on the ground or route them around their door-frames.
I've got wifi on my motherboard and since I have ethernet I don't use it.
If you do get a wifi-equipped motherboard and decide to use it, make sure you use the antenna otherwise you'll get jack and also shit for your range and speed.
Oh, here's another thing I was going to ask that I just remembered: Is there any reason I would want a motherboard with built-in WiFi for a desktop PC? I'd assume I would always be using an Ethernet connection rather than rely on WiFi, but there must be some reason that's an option.
Thanks for the responses so far, by the way!
I’d only get it if the board you want doesn’t come without it.
Onboard WiFi is a nice to have and it’s usually a better idea to get WiFi on the mobo, as any competitive discrete option will cost more. You may never use it or you may end up tethering to your phone because your internet went out who knows
yeah I use wifi on my desktop because it isn't practical to run a wire to where it is. I don't play games competitively online anymore so it is t a big deal to me.
Oh, here's another thing I was going to ask that I just remembered: Is there any reason I would want a motherboard with built-in WiFi for a desktop PC? I'd assume I would always be using an Ethernet connection rather than rely on WiFi, but there must be some reason that's an option.
Thanks for the responses so far, by the way!
It also frees one of your PCIe 1x connection you had to sacrifice if you use a WLAN PCIe card. That’s even more important if you have a small system like mITX or mini ATX. Most mainboard manufacturers use decent Wi-Fi modules which are usually notebook OEM parts und not available as stand-alone / new on the free market (except used or as replacement). Most of the decent Intel ones also include recent versions of Bluetooth.
I often replace the included desk-antenna with antennas from broken routers or broken Wi-Fi equipment, in order to save space on the desk.
Edit: Yeah, Wi-Fi is for the folks who can‘t run Ethernet to their PC. Equipment like certain trash tier LTE router or portable hotspots, or certain dlan devices don’t even have Ethernet ports nowadays. It’s also great to have the option to switch to a mobile hotspot on the fly if the internet provider shits the bed. (although lots of mobile phones can provide these via USB too). It’s also a good solution if you have lots of different devices and don’t want to wire everything up. For example I have a couple of Win 98 retro PCs I use sparingly, so I connect a usb powered ethernet-wlan bridge to it if I need to transfer data.
Edit2: It’s not inherent that WLAN adds a huge negative to latency for online gaming. It’s mostly the 2.4 GHz trash that most internet provider ship which gets flaky connection if it has to mange more than a couple of devices or if it is in a saturated neighborhood. Most customers try to fix this with stand alone wireless consumer gear, which is also trash in most cases. I switched to a Ubiquiti access point and never looked back. My internet router - which I can’t switch - is only providing wired connection and has no other duties nowadays.
Posts
For example: if the QVL lists some Corsair 2x8 gig kit, you can't simply buy two of those kits and treat it like it's on the QVL. The QVL may or may not have the same Corsair parts as a 4x8 gig kit--and if you wanted 32 gigs from Corsair with those timings, you'd want the kit specifically on the QVL.
Oh one heads up, Reflect will not change partition size when cloning. I think I was able to tweak it after the fact with partition magic free but it was kind of a hassle when I cloned from a 250 to a 500 GB.
Steam ID: Good Life
Odd, I just looked at the manual ( https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/PRO-Z690-A-DDR4#down-manual ) and it shows 4 slots for m.2 drives.
Is this the correct motherboard?
Steam: betsuni7
When I get me second NVME, I’ll be moving Windows from a 1tb SATA to an empty 1tb NVME, so it should be fine.
But I found out it only effects the USB 2.0 ports, so at least now all of my peripherals are off a hub connected to a 3.0 port and they don't disconnect when it happens!
Unfortunately my fan hub, for the Lian-Li AL120's I have in my build, uses the internal USB 2.0 port on the MoBo, to get power. Is there an adapter cable that would let me plug it into one of the 19-pin USB 3.0 headers? I've certainly seen plenty that go the other way.
I guess at this point the only annoyance is that I get that damn Windows new peripheral is disconnected/plugged in sound. And I guess my cooling is interrupted for a fraction of a second.
I've never had such a bug persist across so many supposed fixes.
The Z690-A has four M.2 slots. All 4 are M-Keyed (single slot on right) for use with NVME M.2 drives. That means you cannot put B-Keyed SATA M.2 drives in these slots. The M2_1 slot is the fastest and a direct connection to the CPU and is the one located closest to the CPU socket under the heat spreader. The M2_2 and M2_4 slots would be slightly slower as they are connected to the motherboard chipset and are PCIE 4.0. The M2_3 slot is the slowest and is only PCIE 3.0. The manual has a labeled diagram where all these slots are located.
Older, non-M.2 format SATA drives can connect via cables to the six SATA3 ports.
The slots labeled PCIE X16 and X1 are expansion slots for use with add on cards. Video cards would go in the X16 slot(s), but the fastest to use is the slot closest to the CPU socket.
It's nothing like the whiny little fans I remember back in the day.
Only one of them got here so far, and it's for the PIII rig. Luckily I had a bunch of spare Athlon 64 mobos lying around I'd practiced recapping on, that have integrated networking. Threw spawned copies of Diablo on one of them, and made sure they could both join a game. So far so good. You know something it reminded me of?
Fucking IPX/SPX protocol. More or less every game before 2000 supported LAN play over IPX. Hell, IPX basically was LAN play, and TCP/IP was reserved entirely for internet play. Windows 10 doesn't even support IPX. I hear tell there are wrappers you can install. But a part of me feels like that way lies madness. Anything goes wrong, and is it the wrapper? The game? Windows 10? DirectX? Speed sensitivity? Some other vagary? You'll never know! Such is the frustration in trying to play old games on new hardware. So vintage or bust.
Soon, very soon, I'll have an old highschool buddy or two over, and we're going to LAN party like it's 1999. Can't wait to fire up Skibi's Tower Defense or something.
I've got an MSI X570S Tomahawk which is the new fanless model. There's a few reviews of it around, and it's good.
There's a bunch, all listed as X570S, https://techbeezer.com/switzerlandeng/amd-ryzen-5000-fanless-x570-motherboards-for-life/
The fan on my MSI X570 Unify has rarely if ever come on during normal use and gaming. It has come on during stress testing and during the hotter summer months when the ambient was at or over 30 degrees.
STOP YELLING!!
It's...fine? Other than the softer corners and the Start menu being in the middle I really don't notice much of a difference at all. I did decide to finally make the switch to Edge from Chrome, which again is...fine?
I also found that my XMP configuration was somehow switched off and my RAM was running at like 2133mhz. Honestly haven't noticed any big difference since changing it back to 3600mhz, maybe a 10% change in FPS but that could just be normal fluctuations. I was expecting it to make a bigger difference.
Yeah, Win 11 is largely like buying the same shoes again.
You get that new shoe feel for a bit but after that it's kind of the same ol shit.
Aside from that, once I know the AMD patch is fully pushed out, live and working I plan to do a fresh install of Windows 11 on my main PC. Probably won't do my sim racing PC for a while since it's just a huge pain in the ass to set up, with a lot of exotic hardware that worries me.
Didn't have enough money on-hand to buy something equally monstrous to replace it (it was a nice i7 6700HQ, GTX 1070, 15" 4K Display, 16GB RAM that I got at a stupidly bargain price back then) so I opted for an "interim" laptop that would still let me play and let me ride out the chipset shortage until at least the end of 2022.
I ended up getting an MSI GF66, i5 11400H, RTX 3060, 16GB of RAM. Nice machine with a 1080p, 144Hz panel that has handled everything I've been throwing at it. My only complaint is that I could underclock/undervolt the GPU to improve thermals (barely any performance hit I've noticed so far) but since this CPU is not "overclockable", I also cannot dial it back.
Oh, Intel...
There are internal USB3 header to USB A socket adapter or USB3 header to USB2 header adapter. I have used both to either connect internal peripherals or to connect a old USB2 front panel to a newer main board.
This for example: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B00L2O0I5K/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=usb+3.0+header+adapter&qid=1636756040&sr=8-8
which is not something I need or care about
I have NO idea what you're talking about.
Ah thanks for that! What I needed tho was a 19(20) pin USB 3.0 Female to 8 pin USB 2.0 male, and weirdly I was able to find it goin from your search terms.
*fingers crossed* Hopefully it works. That dang peripheral disconnect noise that Windows makes is sooo annoying.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Wraith Stealth Cooler (bundled with AMD Ryzen 5 5600X)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB TUF GAMING OC Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
Does anything stick out as obviously wrong or undesirable? Also, does anyone have any advice on case fans, monitors, or peripherals? I'd like to keep the build under $1500 if possible.
Thanks in advance!
If you plan on upgrading to a high end GPU you might go another 100 watts on the PSU (your budget suggests you probably won't do this). If you don't I wouldn't bother.
If you want better noise/thermals you could get a tower air cooler for your CPU, but that isn't a requirement.
For a bit more future-proofing you could consider 32 gigs of RAM, but again, your budget suggests that would largely be wasted and you can always add more later given you're going for a 2x8 pair.
Also jesus fucking christ, a GTX 1650 is going for ~$500 on Amazon? Goddamn.
Just checked this and saw that, weirdly, the DDR4 3600 version of Corsair Vengeance is listed as cheaper than the 3200. I wonder why that would be?
This is good to hear as I was a bit worried that I had gone overboard with the PSU. PCPartPicker.com is estimating that the system as I have it now requires 273 watts, while the PSU I've selected is rated for 550 watts. Hearing that, if anything, it might not be high enough makes me feel better. I'll look into it in a bit, though.
550 watts is plenty for what you have. If you were going to shove a 300 watt 3070 or something in there, that's when a 650 might make sense.
550 is about at the breakpoint for where generally speaking you'll end up with the higher quality parts as well. Again, if you don't explicitly plan on shoving $1000 worth of GPU into your system in the next two years, what you have right now is more than fine. You could back it off a little, but below IIRC around 500 watts the quality tends to take a nosedive.
Thanks for the responses so far, by the way!
I've got wifi on my motherboard and since I have ethernet I don't use it.
If you do get a wifi-equipped motherboard and decide to use it, make sure you use the antenna otherwise you'll get jack and also shit for your range and speed.
Honestly I have only used that for my Surface, but it is good to know I have Wifi on my desktop if I needed it.
Steam: betsuni7
I’d only get it if the board you want doesn’t come without it.
Onboard WiFi is a nice to have and it’s usually a better idea to get WiFi on the mobo, as any competitive discrete option will cost more. You may never use it or you may end up tethering to your phone because your internet went out who knows
It also frees one of your PCIe 1x connection you had to sacrifice if you use a WLAN PCIe card. That’s even more important if you have a small system like mITX or mini ATX. Most mainboard manufacturers use decent Wi-Fi modules which are usually notebook OEM parts und not available as stand-alone / new on the free market (except used or as replacement). Most of the decent Intel ones also include recent versions of Bluetooth.
I often replace the included desk-antenna with antennas from broken routers or broken Wi-Fi equipment, in order to save space on the desk.
Edit: Yeah, Wi-Fi is for the folks who can‘t run Ethernet to their PC. Equipment like certain trash tier LTE router or portable hotspots, or certain dlan devices don’t even have Ethernet ports nowadays. It’s also great to have the option to switch to a mobile hotspot on the fly if the internet provider shits the bed. (although lots of mobile phones can provide these via USB too). It’s also a good solution if you have lots of different devices and don’t want to wire everything up. For example I have a couple of Win 98 retro PCs I use sparingly, so I connect a usb powered ethernet-wlan bridge to it if I need to transfer data.
Edit2: It’s not inherent that WLAN adds a huge negative to latency for online gaming. It’s mostly the 2.4 GHz trash that most internet provider ship which gets flaky connection if it has to mange more than a couple of devices or if it is in a saturated neighborhood. Most customers try to fix this with stand alone wireless consumer gear, which is also trash in most cases. I switched to a Ubiquiti access point and never looked back. My internet router - which I can’t switch - is only providing wired connection and has no other duties nowadays.