So my Turing Pi 2 board arrived the other day, and now I'm hunting a decent case for it.
The board is Mini ITX, and I'll need maybe 2" clearance above it, let's say 2.5" just in case. Pretty much just this, no other cards poking up from it. For power I'll probably grab a pico-PSU like in the picture.
I've been looking at HTPC cases, but nothing that really jumped out at me so far. The board also has four M.2 slots on the underside, so space for a case fan would be nice. Maybe enough space (with spacers as in the pic) for passive cooling on the nVME drives?
Anyone have some suggestions here? I've been scouring Amazon and found some low-quality candidates, emphasis "low".
+1
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
So my Turing Pi 2 board arrived the other day, and now I'm hunting a decent case for it.
The board is Mini ITX, and I'll need maybe 2" clearance above it, let's say 2.5" just in case. Pretty much just this, no other cards poking up from it. For power I'll probably grab a pico-PSU like in the picture.
I've been looking at HTPC cases, but nothing that really jumped out at me so far. The board also has four M.2 slots on the underside, so space for a case fan would be nice. Maybe enough space (with spacers as in the pic) for passive cooling on the nVME drives?
Anyone have some suggestions here? I've been scouring Amazon and found some low-quality candidates, emphasis "low".
This is the smallest I have reasonably seen, and there are some color options also.
SW-4158-3990-6116
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0
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited February 8
There's zero reason not to use USB over IP if you're planning on going that hardcore. Ethernet cable standards are long-lived and made to be stuck in walls and push signals over distance.
So I finally finished my tiny gaming box. Here it is as part of my card table battle station in my parents' guest bedroom:
No RGB, no tempered glass. Just a smol black monolith. CPU is a 5800X3D, GPU is a 3090FE.
Here's some workbench pics of its innards (spoilered for multiple images):
The 3090 (note that it's mounted upside down by design):
Bottom panel off to show off my "cable management" (note that you can just see the edge of the kapton tape with which I wrapped the vertical section of the PCIe riser cable in order to keep it from melting due to contact with the 3090):
Temps are surprisingly good: CPU hits the high 60s during gaming and the GPU, mid-60s. I did like syndalis and replaced the stock radiator fans with Noctuas, so it's almost quiet. I also installed Argus Monitor, which is a very nice software fan controller that allows you to set multiple fan curves (i.e. I've set it up to ramp my radiator fans based on the temps of both the CPU and the GPU). It's also actually native and not an Electron app.
Anyway, it was a fun build. The A4-H2O is kind of the platonic ideal of the no-frills SFF sammich case, and the way its front and bottom are designed so that you can easily install surprisingly large GPUs into it is genius. The whole build worked out to be very neat and tidy without much extra effort on my part. That being said, I never want to take it apart, except maybe to install a new GPU.
So my Turing Pi 2 board arrived the other day, and now I'm hunting a decent case for it.
The board is Mini ITX, and I'll need maybe 2" clearance above it, let's say 2.5" just in case. Pretty much just this, no other cards poking up from it. For power I'll probably grab a pico-PSU like in the picture.
I've been looking at HTPC cases, but nothing that really jumped out at me so far. The board also has four M.2 slots on the underside, so space for a case fan would be nice. Maybe enough space (with spacers as in the pic) for passive cooling on the nVME drives?
Anyone have some suggestions here? I've been scouring Amazon and found some low-quality candidates, emphasis "low".
I think Sliger is back in production now. Have you checked out their "Conswole" cases? Also Silverstone makes a lot of non-gamery cases in non-tower form factors.
0
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
But in truth, the 4090 has done it. You have a card that can convincingly hit 120fps on most titles at 4k. And it will probably do so for a while, considering the state of the console market and where developers are pointing their resources at.
So, I would be super happy with the next couple generations working on bringing 4090 performance down-market. The theoretical 6070/6060 should trade blows with the 4090, just as the 5080 should easily match the 4090 with the thermals of the 4080; and they could actually remove the 90 line from their consumer-oriented products in favor of aiming for 4080 thermals + whatever performance that affords for their 5080, and every couple generations make a titan for the compute market.
I mean, the thermals of the 4080 are abnormal since it has a cooler that was designed for literally double the load
I think Sliger is back in production now. Have you checked out their "Conswole" cases? Also Silverstone makes a lot of non-gamery cases in non-tower form factors.
I'll have a look!
During the original kickstarter campaign they had renders of some custom case, but that's been quietly dropped since. Too bad, it would obviously have been great.
edit: Oh, it was actually a stretch goal that was reached. Well, hoping they'll finish designing that some time soon.
My current like 11-year-old-and-wasn't-great-when-I-bought-it rig is randomly dying on me these days so I'm having to upgrade pretty soon. I'm a bit behind on what is going on with the industry these days other then GPUs are still stupidly expensive.I don't think there's anything changing about that in the near future? Unless y'all know something I'm missing I feel like now is as bad a time to buy a GPU as any time recently.
I don't have the budget for anything fancy. I also don't care about RGB or overclocking or the like. And I don't need anything for productivity or the like. Also I'm in Canada so if the prices seem high, that's why.
For the GPU I was thinking maybe around the 3060 ti or 6700XT or 6750XT level? I seem to be able to find any of those around the same price. I'm also seeing like 3060 and 6650XT cards for maybe $100 less. (like $500 vs $600) I'm kinda unclear how much more the extra money for the other cards is worth there.
Also, does the specific manufacturer matter here? Is there any specific GPU maker I should be looking out for or avoiding?
My current like 11-year-old-and-wasn't-great-when-I-bought-it rig is randomly dying on me these days so I'm having to upgrade pretty soon. I'm a bit behind on what is going on with the industry these days other then GPUs are still stupidly expensive.I don't think there's anything changing about that in the near future? Unless y'all know something I'm missing I feel like now is as bad a time to buy a GPU as any time recently.
I don't have the budget for anything fancy. I also don't care about RGB or overclocking or the like. And I don't need anything for productivity or the like. Also I'm in Canada so if the prices seem high, that's why.
For the GPU I was thinking maybe around the 3060 ti or 6700XT or 6750XT level? I seem to be able to find any of those around the same price. I'm also seeing like 3060 and 6650XT cards for maybe $100 less. (like $500 vs $600) I'm kinda unclear how much more the extra money for the other cards is worth there.
Also, does the specific manufacturer matter here? Is there any specific GPU maker I should be looking out for or avoiding?
for CPU/motherboard combo, you can find an AMD 5000 series, motherbaord, and ram for good pricing. Intel stuff in the 12th and 13th gen is also reasonably priced.
for GPU's, prices are definitley much more managable than they were a year ago. I'm not going to tell you you can buy a high end GPU for $500, but it's at least managable.
The big thing is what resolution are you targeting? if you want 1080p, those GPU's are bordering on affordable. if you want 1440p, then yes a 6750 XT class card is what you're looking at.
And mostly, budget. It's possible to build a gaming PC that can handle 1080p gaming for the $600 range, though if you can get it to $800 you'll get much better quality on a few components.
Not really a build question, but my aunt asked for some help buying a new PC since hers is like Windows XP-era old. One of her questions was if WordPerfect would work on a new one...
Basically they use it for taxes, pictures, basic internet browsing / email and will somewhat expect it to be usable for that for a decade. I recommended a laptop because even if they don't use the portability it'll be fine plugged into a monitor / mouse / keyboard for not much of a different price.
I'm figuring 16 GB RAM, 500+ GB SSD, and an i5 / Ryzen 5 CPU with integrated graphics should give them a solid system with enough future-proofing but not break the bank. There seem to be options starting around the $650-700 range. I'd prefer Microcenter but the closest one is far enough away from where they live I'll probably go with Best Buy.
This is one that I was looking at, anyone see anything wrong with it as a recommendation, my reasoning, or have any other thoughts to add?
To be frank, she's probably better of with a tablet that has a snap keyboard. Why would she need a high powered processor or 16GB of RAM for that use case?
If someone really only uses it for basic internet stuff, tax software, looking at pictures (I assume this is google photos not photoshop) then I would be seriously tempted by mini-pcs in the $200-$300 range.
A tablet would probably be good too, though I don't know if you can do taxes on them!
0
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
To be frank, she's probably better of with a tablet that has a snap keyboard. Why would she need a high powered processor or 16GB of RAM for that use case?
iPad. Get her an iPad.
Not the air or anything fancy, and she can use the free iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) along with the million options for taxes on there.
for under 500 bucks you will be able to get that along with a snap on keyboard and trackpad. Mice work also if they aren't down with the touch stuff.
These things are more or less bullet proof from a usability perspective, and support is an apple store away (which trust me, you don't want to be the guy who suggested the brand new PC to your aunt - there will be responsibilities around supporting the transition).
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I'd actually steer more towards a chromebook. All the benefits of a full on laptop with none of the windows headaches.
ehh; my only argument against that would be that native apps are almost always a better experience than web apps. Pages or even Microsoft word are full fat experiences on an iPad. Photo management also vastly better, etc.
And the iPad is stupid simple to use and make the most of, with very little fiddly stuff or battery life issues or whatever. Plus they are super powerful for their price, which is often an issue where the chromebooks feel like they are constantly struggling unless you overspend on one.
Chromebooks are great for bulk educational buys, but I don't really like them as a main machine. Meanwhile, both my parents in their 60s and 70s more or less do everything on their iPads.
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
+1
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Also they want something that will last a decade and anything lasting a decade at current Google is questionable
I'd actually steer more towards a chromebook. All the benefits of a full on laptop with none of the windows headaches.
ehh; my only argument against that would be that native apps are almost always a better experience than web apps. Pages or even Microsoft word are full fat experiences on an iPad. Photo management also vastly better, etc.
And the iPad is stupid simple to use and make the most of, with very little fiddly stuff or battery life issues or whatever. Plus they are super powerful for their price, which is often an issue where the chromebooks feel like they are constantly struggling unless you overspend on one.
Chromebooks are great for bulk educational buys, but I don't really like them as a main machine. Meanwhile, both my parents in their 60s and 70s more or less do everything on their iPads.
I tried moving my grandmother to an iPad only after her old Athlon II X3 machine died, and that was a spectacular failure. She loves the iPad for certain things, but it 100% did not replace a big screen device, or using is as an "internet device" for her. We ended up getting her a chromebook and she is significantly happier with that, while still using the iPad for netflix/facetime, etc.
EDIT: and just for clarificaiton, my mother is perfectly happy with an iPad only life. So to each their own. But personally, I like introducing an iPad as a secondary device first, then having them give up the traditional computer. Not going cold turkey.
If someone really only uses it for basic internet stuff, tax software, looking at pictures (I assume this is google photos not photoshop) then I would be seriously tempted by mini-pcs in the $200-$300 range.
A tablet would probably be good too, though I don't know if you can do taxes on them!
The web version of TurboTax is better than the cd one anyway
My current like 11-year-old-and-wasn't-great-when-I-bought-it rig is randomly dying on me these days so I'm having to upgrade pretty soon. I'm a bit behind on what is going on with the industry these days other then GPUs are still stupidly expensive.I don't think there's anything changing about that in the near future? Unless y'all know something I'm missing I feel like now is as bad a time to buy a GPU as any time recently.
I don't have the budget for anything fancy. I also don't care about RGB or overclocking or the like. And I don't need anything for productivity or the like. Also I'm in Canada so if the prices seem high, that's why.
For the GPU I was thinking maybe around the 3060 ti or 6700XT or 6750XT level? I seem to be able to find any of those around the same price. I'm also seeing like 3060 and 6650XT cards for maybe $100 less. (like $500 vs $600) I'm kinda unclear how much more the extra money for the other cards is worth there.
Also, does the specific manufacturer matter here? Is there any specific GPU maker I should be looking out for or avoiding?
those GPUs are the sweet spot still, unfortunately the sweet spot is still $600-$700 canadian yeah
To be frank, she's probably better of with a tablet that has a snap keyboard. Why would she need a high powered processor or 16GB of RAM for that use case?
I did consider tablets, but the main worry about the specs was my aunt and uncle want to use this for the better part of a decade, and iPad and maybe the higher end Surfaces aside I don't know of any tablets where that is a reasonable expectation near their price range.
A Chromebook is out for the same reason, and while $350 now, $350 in five years when it gets bogged down seems reasonable, I'm not sure they will go with it though. They are very late 70s and early 80s and have no experience with Apple or Chromebooks (my aunt can use her Galaxy phone for the basics) and can be...cranky...about change.
The ability to use a laptop with a keyboard and larger monitor are important to them, probably because of my uncles really poor eyesight. The choice was mostly between a new desktop or laptop, and if so what level of specs / manufacturers to avoid.
To be frank, she's probably better of with a tablet that has a snap keyboard. Why would she need a high powered processor or 16GB of RAM for that use case?
I did consider tablets, but the main worry about the specs was my aunt and uncle want to use this for the better part of a decade, and iPad and maybe the higher end Surfaces aside I don't know of any tablets where that is a reasonable expectation near their price range.
A Chromebook is out for the same reason, and while $350 now, $350 in five years when it gets bogged down seems reasonable, I'm not sure they will go with it though. They are very late 70s and early 80s and have no experience with Apple or Chromebooks (my aunt can use her Galaxy phone for the basics) and can be...cranky...about change.
The ability to use a laptop with a keyboard and larger monitor are important to them, probably because of my uncles really poor eyesight. The choice was mostly between a new desktop or laptop, and if so what level of specs / manufacturers to avoid.
Them asking for a decade of use is simply an unreasonable request. You shouldn't be basing any purchasing decision on that as there's nothing that can be expected to meet that criteria. Just ignore it and get them something that fits their other needs.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
and I'd say that spending $600 today on a decent computer and then spending another $600 on a decent computer 5 years from now is a more financially sound decision than trying to spend $1500 on a high end laptop and hoping you get 10 years out of it.
If you really want it to live 10 years then I can't imagine the battery will get you that far in almost any tablet or laptop, which leaves you in desktop land. That and it is less vulnerable to being dropped down the stairs... when my wife got a laptop my next purchase was a NAS to back it up to.
+2
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
worry less about the actual chipset on the motherboard, and look for features. if motherboard X has the features you want, get that.
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
worry less about the actual chipset on the motherboard, and look for features. if motherboard X has the features you want, get that.
I was hoping the chipset would be a useful sign of what those features were because otherwise it seems like sorting though a ridiculous number of different boards with insane labels trying to figure out what each one has.
Nobody seems to be interested in sensible labeling though.
You are correct that if you're going for an AM4 CPU then there's no point spending extra for a B570 board. All they bring is extra connectivity that I doubt your grandparents will need. If there comes a day when they call you complaining that they can't add a 3rd NVME SSD, I will apologise.
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
One thing I would check if you buy a B550 board is that the 2nd M.2 slot supports full PCIe Gen 3.0x4 speeds. Some are Gen 3.0x2 lanes instead of 4.
Other things to think about in board features:
Wifi: built in? add-in m.2 wifi card?
Ethernet: 2.5 gig?
USB-C header on the board
What are grandparents going to be doing that is significantly throttled by a second hard drive that tops out at a mere 2GB/s? Or that even needs a second hard drive?
I now long for the days or comparing GPUs. Wading into the world of CPUs and motherboards is fucking madness. Arcane numbering schemes abound and it seems a lot harder to figure out what the combination of motherboard and CPU ends up as in terms of pricing. And reviews of specific motherboards seem spotty.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
One thing I would check if you buy a B550 board is that the 2nd M.2 slot supports full PCIe Gen 3.0x4 speeds. Some are Gen 3.0x2 lanes instead of 4.
Other things to think about in board features:
Wifi: built in? add-in m.2 wifi card?
Ethernet: 2.5 gig?
USB-C header on the board
I don't need wifi at all so hopefully I can save some bucks on that. I'll double check the ethernet connection I guess. That's a good idea. A decent amount of USB connections is one of the main things I'm checking in terms of connections.
The thing I'm more wondering/worried about is any kind of problems with cheaper boards that leads to throttling. I don't even know if that's an issue or not honestly.
What are grandparents going to be doing that is significantly throttled by a second hard drive that tops out at a mere 2GB/s? Or that even needs a second hard drive?
I'm building a gaming PC. You are I think confusing me with another poster doing a different build.
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited February 10
I personally really like the ASUS Tuf mobos. They're fairly inexpensive, well built, they just don't have a ton of bells and whistles like CPU-less ROM flashing and RGB.
Pretty even no matter if you go Intel or AMD, which right now either one is good.
jungleroomx on
+2
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I would make the case for going to the 5800x ryzen 7 chip over the 5600, if only because the current consoles have more cores/threads than the 5600 and at some point this generation I am fairly sure that is going to matter.
The 9 series is extreme overkill unless you have a lot of multi-threaded workloads on the professional side, or you do other stuff while you game, like run OBS / stream / etc.
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Posts
The board is Mini ITX, and I'll need maybe 2" clearance above it, let's say 2.5" just in case. Pretty much just this, no other cards poking up from it. For power I'll probably grab a pico-PSU like in the picture.
I've been looking at HTPC cases, but nothing that really jumped out at me so far. The board also has four M.2 slots on the underside, so space for a case fan would be nice. Maybe enough space (with spacers as in the pic) for passive cooling on the nVME drives?
Anyone have some suggestions here? I've been scouring Amazon and found some low-quality candidates, emphasis "low".
This is the smallest I have reasonably seen, and there are some color options also.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GYP2TWC
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
No RGB, no tempered glass. Just a smol black monolith. CPU is a 5800X3D, GPU is a 3090FE.
Here's some workbench pics of its innards (spoilered for multiple images):
The 3090 (note that it's mounted upside down by design):
Bottom panel off to show off my "cable management" (note that you can just see the edge of the kapton tape with which I wrapped the vertical section of the PCIe riser cable in order to keep it from melting due to contact with the 3090):
Temps are surprisingly good: CPU hits the high 60s during gaming and the GPU, mid-60s. I did like syndalis and replaced the stock radiator fans with Noctuas, so it's almost quiet. I also installed Argus Monitor, which is a very nice software fan controller that allows you to set multiple fan curves (i.e. I've set it up to ramp my radiator fans based on the temps of both the CPU and the GPU). It's also actually native and not an Electron app.
Anyway, it was a fun build. The A4-H2O is kind of the platonic ideal of the no-frills SFF sammich case, and the way its front and bottom are designed so that you can easily install surprisingly large GPUs into it is genius. The whole build worked out to be very neat and tidy without much extra effort on my part. That being said, I never want to take it apart, except maybe to install a new GPU.
I think Sliger is back in production now. Have you checked out their "Conswole" cases? Also Silverstone makes a lot of non-gamery cases in non-tower form factors.
The Torrent is the air cooled case of champions.
The volume of air that gets moved through that absolute unit is impressive, especially with the noise it makes (not a lot)
The front panel catches all the dust, too, there's just a ton of positive pressure
I mean, the thermals of the 4080 are abnormal since it has a cooler that was designed for literally double the load
I'll have a look!
During the original kickstarter campaign they had renders of some custom case, but that's been quietly dropped since. Too bad, it would obviously have been great.
edit: Oh, it was actually a stretch goal that was reached. Well, hoping they'll finish designing that some time soon.
I don't have the budget for anything fancy. I also don't care about RGB or overclocking or the like. And I don't need anything for productivity or the like. Also I'm in Canada so if the prices seem high, that's why.
For the GPU I was thinking maybe around the 3060 ti or 6700XT or 6750XT level? I seem to be able to find any of those around the same price. I'm also seeing like 3060 and 6650XT cards for maybe $100 less. (like $500 vs $600) I'm kinda unclear how much more the extra money for the other cards is worth there.
Also, does the specific manufacturer matter here? Is there any specific GPU maker I should be looking out for or avoiding?
for CPU/motherboard combo, you can find an AMD 5000 series, motherbaord, and ram for good pricing. Intel stuff in the 12th and 13th gen is also reasonably priced.
for GPU's, prices are definitley much more managable than they were a year ago. I'm not going to tell you you can buy a high end GPU for $500, but it's at least managable.
The big thing is what resolution are you targeting? if you want 1080p, those GPU's are bordering on affordable. if you want 1440p, then yes a 6750 XT class card is what you're looking at.
And mostly, budget. It's possible to build a gaming PC that can handle 1080p gaming for the $600 range, though if you can get it to $800 you'll get much better quality on a few components.
Basically they use it for taxes, pictures, basic internet browsing / email and will somewhat expect it to be usable for that for a decade. I recommended a laptop because even if they don't use the portability it'll be fine plugged into a monitor / mouse / keyboard for not much of a different price.
I'm figuring 16 GB RAM, 500+ GB SSD, and an i5 / Ryzen 5 CPU with integrated graphics should give them a solid system with enough future-proofing but not break the bank. There seem to be options starting around the $650-700 range. I'd prefer Microcenter but the closest one is far enough away from where they live I'll probably go with Best Buy.
This is one that I was looking at, anyone see anything wrong with it as a recommendation, my reasoning, or have any other thoughts to add?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-16x-m1603-16-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-memory-512-gb-ssd-quiet-blue/6517434.p?skuId=6517434
A tablet would probably be good too, though I don't know if you can do taxes on them!
iPad. Get her an iPad.
Not the air or anything fancy, and she can use the free iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) along with the million options for taxes on there.
for under 500 bucks you will be able to get that along with a snap on keyboard and trackpad. Mice work also if they aren't down with the touch stuff.
These things are more or less bullet proof from a usability perspective, and support is an apple store away (which trust me, you don't want to be the guy who suggested the brand new PC to your aunt - there will be responsibilities around supporting the transition).
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
ehh; my only argument against that would be that native apps are almost always a better experience than web apps. Pages or even Microsoft word are full fat experiences on an iPad. Photo management also vastly better, etc.
And the iPad is stupid simple to use and make the most of, with very little fiddly stuff or battery life issues or whatever. Plus they are super powerful for their price, which is often an issue where the chromebooks feel like they are constantly struggling unless you overspend on one.
Chromebooks are great for bulk educational buys, but I don't really like them as a main machine. Meanwhile, both my parents in their 60s and 70s more or less do everything on their iPads.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I tried moving my grandmother to an iPad only after her old Athlon II X3 machine died, and that was a spectacular failure. She loves the iPad for certain things, but it 100% did not replace a big screen device, or using is as an "internet device" for her. We ended up getting her a chromebook and she is significantly happier with that, while still using the iPad for netflix/facetime, etc.
EDIT: and just for clarificaiton, my mother is perfectly happy with an iPad only life. So to each their own. But personally, I like introducing an iPad as a secondary device first, then having them give up the traditional computer. Not going cold turkey.
The web version of TurboTax is better than the cd one anyway
those GPUs are the sweet spot still, unfortunately the sweet spot is still $600-$700 canadian yeah
I did consider tablets, but the main worry about the specs was my aunt and uncle want to use this for the better part of a decade, and iPad and maybe the higher end Surfaces aside I don't know of any tablets where that is a reasonable expectation near their price range.
A Chromebook is out for the same reason, and while $350 now, $350 in five years when it gets bogged down seems reasonable, I'm not sure they will go with it though. They are very late 70s and early 80s and have no experience with Apple or Chromebooks (my aunt can use her Galaxy phone for the basics) and can be...cranky...about change.
The ability to use a laptop with a keyboard and larger monitor are important to them, probably because of my uncles really poor eyesight. The choice was mostly between a new desktop or laptop, and if so what level of specs / manufacturers to avoid.
Guess I need to get off my butt and decide on the rest of the hardware then.
Them asking for a decade of use is simply an unreasonable request. You shouldn't be basing any purchasing decision on that as there's nothing that can be expected to meet that criteria. Just ignore it and get them something that fits their other needs.
That's half price from where they were 1 year ago.
For CPUs I can find an i5-13400F for high $200s or a Ryzen 5 5600x for a bit over $200 or a Ryzen 5 5600 for a bit under $200. I haven't really looked at Ryzen 7 AMD stuff because it seems like everyone is saying it's not worth it.
On the motherboard side I don't need wifi or a crazy number of connections but I'm not sure where to even start looking for something here that doesn't have a ton of crap I don't need but is also still not gonna hold the whole system back. I just have no clue where to start on this front. Like I can find H770 or B760 or H670 or B660 motherboards from anywhere from sub-$200 to almost $500. AMD motherboards it seems like if you are sticking with the 5600(x) then a B550 is good enough and the X570 adds nothing I need?
worry less about the actual chipset on the motherboard, and look for features. if motherboard X has the features you want, get that.
You can get 4TB Crucial MX500s for quite a bit less if you look around.
I was hoping the chipset would be a useful sign of what those features were because otherwise it seems like sorting though a ridiculous number of different boards with insane labels trying to figure out what each one has.
Nobody seems to be interested in sensible labeling though.
Correct
One thing I would check if you buy a B550 board is that the 2nd M.2 slot supports full PCIe Gen 3.0x4 speeds. Some are Gen 3.0x2 lanes instead of 4.
Other things to think about in board features:
Wifi: built in? add-in m.2 wifi card?
Ethernet: 2.5 gig?
USB-C header on the board
I don't need wifi at all so hopefully I can save some bucks on that. I'll double check the ethernet connection I guess. That's a good idea. A decent amount of USB connections is one of the main things I'm checking in terms of connections.
The thing I'm more wondering/worried about is any kind of problems with cheaper boards that leads to throttling. I don't even know if that's an issue or not honestly.
I'm building a gaming PC. You are I think confusing me with another poster doing a different build.
Pretty even no matter if you go Intel or AMD, which right now either one is good.
The 9 series is extreme overkill unless you have a lot of multi-threaded workloads on the professional side, or you do other stuff while you game, like run OBS / stream / etc.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...