New gaming rig advice

I’ll look at it when it arrives. I’m an IT guy myself. I’ll know right away when I open it. If I need to jump on newegg and buy a coolermaster PSU I will.

Thank you.

I am concerned about power supply. This is going to sound weird, but I now live in an ancient 1978 mobile home. My sister does too. She does more research than me and that’s a lot. (Runs in the family.) She told me because our electrical lines in the house are old and both homes are covered in aluminum that both effect our internet. We can’t get fiber optics or anything like that, it’s all through the air, lol, wifi I guess. I’m guessing very old electrical lines might make a difference in the power that gets to the router and computer, but aluminum? I guess it could interfere with the signal. ???

What kind of internet service do you have? Usually routers provided by your internet provider are terrible. I always buy my own router. Any decent router (example: netgear,asus) should be ok with regards to your house.

my rule of thumb is to upgrade every 5-6 years.

Sounds about right…I’m usually 5-7 years.

1: If you live near a Microcenter or a similar tech store that will part out and assemble a computer for you, that is almost always the best value buy you can make in terms of bang for your buck. The problem with buying pre-built desktops is that manufacturers always cut corners- it’s how they make their profit margins after all- so they’ll find places to cut corners on things that people don’t typically think to ask about like chassis design (IE: airflow. Dell desktops were notorious for bad heat management in the 00’s) and coolers. This is in contrast to a computer built locally- because you’re buying each component part individually a brand is actually staking their reputation on it. No one cares about an unbranded fan but when it’s Noctua, Thermaltake or a similar brand, suddenly they have to actually pay attention because that’s their business.

If you walk into the store and give them a budget and expectations, they’d describe a parts list and after signing some agreements and payment they’d have the thing built for you. The ~100-200 USD price tag for such services is absolutely worth it. Although they’re a relic of another era, the 6 year old desktop I had built by Fry’s (RIP in pepperoni) is still running fine and the 10 year old desktop I had built by Fry’s is also running fine, just old.

2: Some major names in gaming have their own PC brands. Regardless of what you think of the personalities behind such brands, companies like StarForged PC’s deliver quality product. Linus Tech Tips did a thorough audit-quality review of their PC’s and while he did offer some valid criticism, the build overall was solid, and was a much better value, even with the third party mark-ups, relative to what established brands like Acer, Dell and HP have on offer.

3: Name brands aren’t necessarily terrible, but it’s usually bad money for reasons mentioned up above. Nine times out of ten the warranties and support they offer just isn’t worth it.

The problem with aged electrical infrastructure tends to be the regularity of power being received at the outlet. Computers are machines when you get down to it, and when the output coming from your outlet is prone to jumps in power it’s kind of like putting a bit of nitro glycerin in your car’s gas tank. Computer components are extremely fragile and don’t handle surges in power very well, which is why something called a ‘power cleaner’ used to be fairly common.

I would take the time to understand how your internet actually works though. Especially if it’s not provided to you and instead something you’re paying for- what you’re describing could be a wifi service but it could also be satellite internet. That said, surrounding your computer’s wireless receiver with a metal box (regardless of material) will obstruct wireless frequencies, and I could see why internet providers might be trigger shy about running internet to such a house. You would get the same effect by lining a paper bag with tinfoil and leaving your cell phone in it.

Hard Drive Disks are old hardware and are mostly being phased out since even the niche they occupied for the past decade- dollar per dollar they offered superior storage- has been taken by SSD’s. There just isn’t a good reason to pay for a traditional HDD.

PSU stands for Power Supply Unit. Basically it takes your wall outlet power and distributes it to the various components in your computer to both power them and regulate that output so you don’t short the components.

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You’ll want to ideally add another 16 to that.

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Router is netgear, changing to Asus AC6000 RT-AX88U
Overkill, but that’s what I seem to need. Not sure if its the right kind. Will ask tomorrow.

The internet is a WiFi network provider. The phone lines in the mobile home park only provide 5m and can get 50m from – a stationary provider. I’ve honestly never been sure what they are. Wifi I think. Definitely not satellite. They started out for rv parks, but now provide for other stuff

Ps, think I’m saying that right about speed. I’ll check right now

37.5 mbps download 21.7 upload
I don’t think that’s what I’m paying for…

Nah, 32 is still overkill

and ddr5 is super expensive if that’s what it is

You sound like me at one time. I was hardcore convinced that those advocating for 32 were just being silly. Overkill!

I will never again have less than 32 in my rig.

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My wife has 32 gigs, doesn’t really do all that much for me.

Her cpu is better though, freaking non-hyperthread intel cpu doesn’t let me multitask much

Thank you all so much for the advice. I had someone ask where I saw it, and it is on sale at Best Buy right now. Unfortunately, that is about the only local option I have outside a couple small independent stores whose reputation is not stellar.

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Thank you Very much.

Asus AC6000 RT-AX88U is an awesome router. Very good range and fast. I use the exact same router. If your the only one using that connection that isn’t terrible but could be better. Wait and see how things are after you get the Asus router setup.

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Okay. There’s just two of us, 5 devices including tv. I guess they can set it up for each device separately kinda thing. We’re both in the living room 5-20 feet away. The computer is connected via ethernet 6 feet away. So… I’m hoping. I shouldn’t have to wait 4 to 7 minutes to change areas in game.

Thank you too, and OP/ Druzillà, and Penumbrae! These guys are coming tomorrow so this info is perfect timing.

There is a reason why it is expensive:

While DDR4 DIMMs top out at 3.2 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) at a clock rate of 1.6 gigahertz (GHz), initial DDR5 DIMMs deliver a 50% bandwidth increase to 4.8 GT/s . DDR5 memory will ultimately scale to a data rate of 8.4 GT/s

But that also depends what kind of DDR5 you buy…

Totally agree 32 minimum.

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I’ve been thinking about this for a while:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-34-curved-qd-oled-gaming-monitor-aw3423dw/apd/210-bcye/monitors-monitor-accessories
34" curved 3440 x 1440 (DisplayPort: 175 Hz) Alienware :slight_smile:

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Sweet! Are curved monitors really better? I have great peripheral vision so looking at this one is practically intoxicating!! :heart_eyes:

I have 2 side by side and love them but I have the older models. One is 120hz and the other is 100hz. This one is is OLED and 175hz!

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