Show us your rig!

[WanderingAries]

On 2/12/2021 at 10:16 PM, Hyperstrike said:

The waiting for the high end 5000 series Ryzen processors is starting to REALLY work a nerve...

Waiting in dread of my current 11 year old rig dropping out from under me.

 

Yeah, I finally decided to migrate to Win10 for the primary OS on my circa sunset rig as OneDrive is no longer supported as an app on Win7. It took me a while to decide between running Win10 vs the cracked Win11 as the primary OS. Both run just fine on the machine and I've moved the Win7 install to a smaller SSD on the rig (isolated multi-boot config) just in case I need it.

[WanderingAries]

1 hour ago, valdarious said:

Pi-Hole

 

I got through that Whole build nodding my head until this. And then I started snickering like a pre-teen. >.<

[Hyperstrike]

Had my main rig barf its BIOS back right before the new year.
RMA'ed the board.
Got it back last week.
Put it all back together.
Would power on.  Wouldn't boot.

Now, had this been a year or two ago, I'd have stopped everything to troubleshoot it for a while.
Unfortunately I no longer have the time for this.
And while running my work rig on my laptop MOSTLY works, it's driving me nuts.

So I schedule the local Micro Center to take a look at it.
$40 and I'll at least figure out what's wrong.

So I bring it in, and I have the techs staring at it in horror...
😁

So the tech opens it up.
After 20 minutes.  The verdict.

BENT
PIN...

 

Originally, the chip cost me $800...
Well, it cost me $1000 because the only way I could get it was in a bundle with a monitor I didn't need.

Tech comes back.
The 5950X is now $550 plus 80 in labor.  We have them in stock.

*SIGH* Okay, do it.  I need the machine back.

So he says "gimme 20 minutes".

I go and window shop.  Inspect the latrines (damn egg salad sandwich for dinner).

Come back and the tech asks me "Can I convince you to buy a $130 warranty?  We'll cover your computer for 2 years (and this is my self-built system).  And you just pay any labor costs.
Seeing as I somehow managed to *BLEEEEEEEP!* my CPU, I say "Sure.  Why not!"

So he goes to ring me up for $250.
...
"Uh..."
"We're going to cover your CPU under warranty."

Cue me needing to re-inspect the latrines...(damn shock).

On top of that, the original batches of Zen3 were...a bit squirrelly.
The more recent vintages are a lot more stable.

Because of this tech, (name and location remain unsaid because I want to make sure this doesn't get him in trouble), I'm going to be spending more money at Micro Center!

 

[Hyperstrike]

Note: Reloaded with my RTX 3070Ti FE. (I have the BEST friends!  One of them even works at NVIDIA.
And deliberately made the mistake of going Win11.
I'm starting to see LOTS of clients with new rigs with Win11 preloads on them.
And I was starting to have trouble finding stuff.  The interface is a mess.

You have to REGEDIT to move the taskbar!
And it breaks the Quickview when you do!
Also, no Task Manager in a menu off the taskbar anymore!
WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS SMART?
So I pinned Task Manager to the Taskbar instead.
I swear, if we research these programmer's family history, it'll be a straight line...and their parents will have been brothers...

And NVSurround.
It's kinda a mess on Win10.
It's a frackin' JOKE on WIn11.
But I have to deal with whibbly Windows taskbar.
Because the full-screen functions, instead of the "No NVSurround" "snap to screen" full-screen is invaluable to me.

[WanderingAries]

10 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

BENT
PIN...

 

Admit it, you let Linus build it. 😉

[WanderingAries]

10 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

You have to REGEDIT to move the taskbar!

 

You know about Start11 right? I haven't bothered with it Yet, but it exists.

*looks again* Hmm, not the package I meant to find, but somebody out there made something that allows you to adjust the shell quite a bit.

Edited March 15, 2022 by WanderingAries

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

 

Admit it, you let Linus build it. 😉

The only thing I had to be grateful for was that I hadn't dropped REAL cash on a Threadripper or EPYC setup...

And you may be thinking "Window Blinds"?  Maybe?

Edited March 15, 2022 by Hyperstrike

[WanderingAries]

32 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

And you may be thinking "Window Blinds"?  Maybe?

 

Maybe? IDK, but sounds like something I may have looked at.

[valdarious]

Stardock used to be something I used all the time. Not sure if they are still around or doing Win11 but i wouldn't doubt it.

[Hyperstrike]

On 3/15/2022 at 6:54 AM, WanderingAries said:

 

You know about Start11 right? I haven't bothered with it Yet, but it exists.

*looks again* Hmm, not the package I meant to find, but somebody out there made something that allows you to adjust the shell quite a bit.

Well, I had to go back to NVSurround because trying to full-"screen" windows was insanity.
And the taskbar in Win11 is ALMOST as stable as a pissed off Chuck Manson on an acid trip to Hell.

And I spent the money for Start11.

Hopefully it'll leave me with a working implementation.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Hyperstrike

[WanderingAries]

On 3/15/2022 at 3:07 PM, valdarious said:

Stardock used to be something I used all the time. Not sure if they are still around or doing Win11 but i wouldn't doubt it.

 

I think they're the ones doing the Start11 app

[WanderingAries]

Because I'll be linking this eventually, here's the newest Mac that's prepping to take over the VM tooling around I do for fun. Mind you it's 6 generations newer than the 2012 (and the PC for that matter), but it's quite a bit lighter, quieter, faster, and the looks/sounds are nicer of course. I actually got the darker grey unit and I think I like that almost as much as the M1 Dark Blue color. Partially because of the fact that you can't upgrade anything, I've decided to not run bootcamp on here. I'll still tool around with Windows in VM, but I've generally got my PC for real use. It's taking a bit of getting used to the touchbar. Well, mostly trying Not to touch the back button when in the browser, but I find it is somewhat intuitive. The touchPad, however, is WAY too big for what I'm used to. I swear they meant for you to use both hands on it as it's causing me to have to move my hand more to the right because I use right click a lot.

 

 

 

[kanga]

Well, bit of an update for me. We've moved, so my desk is different, and I got a free 4090 from nVidia just before christmas from their beyond fast competition (yes I am late lol).

 

My rig currently, which I am very lucky to have because most of it is hand me down hardware from a good friend of mine.

 

i9 10900k @ 5.5Ghz

MSI Z490 ACE MEG Motherboard

AORUS Waterforce X 360 (i hate gigabyte but it was free)

64Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4

RTX 4090 MSI gaming x Trio

Corsair RM1000x with advanced cabling kit.

Various 2 pcie gen 4 NVME's 2 SSD's and one HGST HDD.

Monitor is an odd one, Phillips 32 inch 1440p 75hz. Yeah I know not 4k or fast, just means that 4090 is going to have an easy time of it, until I put the VR headset on 🙂

 

The case is an interesting story. I had a cougar case as a Christmas present 2 years ago, one that I thought would make for a nice build, but it was quite mis-represented, and having had issues with Cougar in the past, I should have learned my lesson, shame on me I guess. So when the gpu came in, I decided to rebuild the whole thing in my now 7 year old Phanteks Enthoo Pro, the original one, with 2 plastic side windows, not the glass. It's a great case and still holds up, I removed the giant 200mm fan in front and went with 2 120mm. I also removed the bottom drive bay section, I only have 1 3.5inch HDD and don't need it.

My old desk (and a lot of our furniture before the move) was actually stuff I built with scrap particle board and mdf from my fathers garage. This place had quite a few flat packs that hadn't been used yet so I set myself up a neat desk.

[Hyperstrike]

Spoiler

7 hours ago, kanga said:

Well, bit of an update for me. We've moved, so my desk is different, and I got a free 4090 from nVidia just before christmas from their beyond fast competition (yes I am late lol).

 

My rig currently, which I am very lucky to have because most of it is hand me down hardware from a good friend of mine.

 

i9 10900k @ 5.5Ghz

MSI Z490 ACE MEG Motherboard

AORUS Waterforce X 360 (i hate gigabyte but it was free)

64Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4

RTX 4090 MSI gaming x Trio

Corsair RM1000x with advanced cabling kit.

Various 2 pcie gen 4 NVME's 2 SSD's and one HGST HDD.

Monitor is an odd one, Phillips 32 inch 1440p 75hz. Yeah I know not 4k or fast, just means that 4090 is going to have an easy time of it, until I put the VR headset on 🙂

 

The case is an interesting story. I had a cougar case as a Christmas present 2 years ago, one that I thought would make for a nice build, but it was quite mis-represented, and having had issues with Cougar in the past, I should have learned my lesson, shame on me I guess. So when the gpu came in, I decided to rebuild the whole thing in my now 7 year old Phanteks Enthoo Pro, the original one, with 2 plastic side windows, not the glass. It's a great case and still holds up, I removed the giant 200mm fan in front and went with 2 120mm. I also removed the bottom drive bay section, I only have 1 3.5inch HDD and don't need it.

My old desk (and a lot of our furniture before the move) was actually stuff I built with scrap particle board and mdf from my fathers garage. This place had quite a few flat packs that hadn't been used yet so I set myself up a neat desk.

 

 

 

Not shoo tabby.

For its heyday, the 10900K and that Meg board were GOOD kit.
You won't be seeing full throughput on the SSDs.  But that's okay.  What you're "missing" will be virtually indistinguishable without resorting to benchmarking software to tell.
You're right that you won't be taxing the 4090 on that dinky screen.  WHO CARES?  You got it FOR FREE.  I, personally, couldn't justify paying the sort of price a 4090 commands.  But whatever works man!  Also, you've got a large enough frame buffer on that card that you can crank up the FSAA ALL THE WAY.

I'm, not really a great lover of LED.
I have a high end keyboard (Apex Pro).  And I use the LED there for visibility.
Then again, my computer resides in my room.
But the rest of the case lighting, I turn all that crap off.
Personal preference.
The only thing you could probably improve is cable routing for the rear exhaust fan.  It's just kinda dangling there.
A bit of careful routing and a couple zip ties could clean that up and lock the cable down.
Other than that, your rig's cleanly and decently cabled.

Good job .

Edited February 17, 2023 by Hyperstrike

[kanga]

Yeah like i mentioned, lucky to have what I got. The last CPU i bought was my 4790k, so its been a number of years. had hand me downs since then. after saving a full year i was able to buy a 3080, before the price hikes, and fully expected it to be the last card I would ever buy, only to get exceptionally lucky with that competition. :) So I think with my old school pc knowledge and what I have been able to accumulate, I've knocked together an amazing rig :)

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, kanga said:

Yeah like i mentioned, lucky to have what I got. The last CPU i bought was my 4790k, so its been a number of years. had hand me downs since then. after saving a full year i was able to buy a 3080, before the price hikes, and fully expected it to be the last card I would ever buy, only to get exceptionally lucky with that competition. 🙂 So I think with my old school pc knowledge and what I have been able to accumulate, I've knocked together an amazing rig 🙂

Yeah my last CPU was an i7 970.  11 years old.
And the motherboard was on its last legs.
I had a nice 15K rpm SCSI drive in the thing and the drive controller for it died.

Needless to say, the Ryzen 9 5950X was a HUGE step up.
*cuddles his rig*

[WanderingAries]

On 2/16/2023 at 8:26 PM, kanga said:

 

 

 

Just make sure that power connector is good and tight on that 40! No bends, etc.

[WanderingAries]

37 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Yeah my last CPU was an i7 970.  11 years old.
And the motherboard was on its last legs.
I had a nice 15K rpm SCSI drive in the thing and the drive controller for it died.

Needless to say, the Ryzen 9 5950X was a HUGE step up.
*cuddles his rig*

 

What're your thoughts on the 7950X so far? Or is it too early to speculate?

Edited February 18, 2023 by WanderingAries

[Hyperstrike]

24 minutes ago, WanderingAries said:

 

What're your thoughts on the 7950X so far? Or is it too early to speculate?

 

7950X as a general workhorse is a monstrous butt-kicker.

But if you REALLY want something that can "do it all", give it about 2 weeks.
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D hits at the end of the month.
145MB of total cache!

Slightly lower base clock.  But top clocks are identical.

But if "gaming" is something you want to scream at, in addition to workstation horsepower...

And no compromises the way Intel's upcoming HEDT chips are going to be.

[kanga]

Yeah the CPU space is looking really interesting again.

[WanderingAries]

13 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

 

7950X as a general workhorse is a monstrous butt-kicker.

But if you REALLY want something that can "do it all", give it about 2 weeks.
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D hits at the end of the month.
145MB of total cache!

Slightly lower base clock.  But top clocks are identical.

But if "gaming" is something you want to scream at, in addition to workstation horsepower...

And no compromises the way Intel's upcoming HEDT chips are going to be.

 

Which is one reason I've been holding back this gen TBH.

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, WanderingAries said:

 

Which is one reason I've been holding back this gen TBH.

Well, if you're looking for "balls to the wall", the X3D should work nicely.

[Glacier Peak]

On 4/9/2021 at 4:05 PM, Glacier Peak said:

Repost from the Off Topic thread.

 

System Specs:

Case: Corsair Carbide 275R

Mainboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5

CPU: Intel i7-8700K

CPU Cooling: Corsair HYDRO SERIES H150i PRO RGB 360MM AIO

Hard Drives: Corsair Force MP500 120GB M.2-2280 NVME SSD & Western Digital Black 1TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB GAMING X 8G Video Card

Case Fans: Corsair ML 120MM x6

Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750W 80+ Gold

 

Peripherals

Monitors: (Left) LG 25UM56-P 25.0" 2560x1080 60 Hz Monitor

                 (Center) Acer Predator Gaming Z321QU bmiphzx Curved 31.5" WQHD (1440p x 144hz)

Mouse: CORSAIR Dark Core - RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse (Upgraded to a Pure Pwnage Ultra Light Custom)

Keyboard: CORSAIR K63 Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (Upgraded to a 65% TKL Ducky One 2 Mini)

Monitor Arm: WALI Premium Single LCD Monitor Desk Mount Fully Adjustable Gas Spring Stand for Display

 

Update:

 

Upgraded to an Xbox Series X

Added a third monitor, 27in 1080p Dell

Got another Ducky Mini keyboard

 

And lastly, I wired it up with a Cat5 ethernet cable so it's got much better packet sending and receiving! 😆 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Glacier Peak

[WanderingAries]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:12 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Well, if you're looking for "balls to the wall", the X3D should work nicely.

 

Based on current offerings, I'd settle for the 7950x, but with the way things are going, it'll be more like a 9750x by the time I can get it. >.<

[WanderingAries]

20 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Update:

 

Upgraded to an Xbox Series X

 

 

.

.

And lastly, I wired it up with a Cat5 ethernet cable so it's got much better packet sending and receiving! 😆 

 

Well if it's gonna be like That... 😛

 

My entertainment console currently houses the main i7 Rig (ok, so That's on the floor, but it's connected), my release edition Wii U, my release edition Switch (I kinda want to upgrade, but I don't really play portable), PS5 (w/ 3 layers of storage), and my Halo Edition XBsX (will be getting that 1-2 Tb custom upgrade drive when I can). The 2019 MBP is still here, but I'm prepping the PPC Mac G4 (heavily modded) and the 2012 MBP (also modded) for sale finally.

 

Oh and yes, I will be running Cat7/8 under the house to each room at some point with switches at the jacks so that I can hardwire everything possible. That should free up my Tri-Band wifi a bit.