Tell me about building a PC

jon-nyc · 12 Jan 2021, 15:32

We’ve reached Peak Markj.

lol

mark · 12 Jan 2021, 23:21

@jon-nyc said in Tell me about building a PC:

We’ve reached Peak Markj.

lol

lol, not yet!

Still waiting on the 16 core Ryzen 5950X. Of course the system will not look any different. It will just have double the cores and threads available.

I also still have an Nvidia 3080 GPU on backorder for the other build.

jon-nyc · M mark 12 Jan 2021, 15:32

@mark

mark · wrote on 28 Feb 2021, 23:04

This finally showed up.

Ordered it on release day, 11/05/2020. It arrived here on 02/27/2021.

Here is a shot of the Racing rig using the Samsung G9 49" Ultra-Wide and the Oculus Rift-S that I use on occassion. The monitor is so much better resolution than the Oculus Rift-S. Plus the VR headset gets very warm after about 10 minutes of racing. I probably use the monitor 95% of the time.

jon-nyc · wrote on 28 Feb 2021, 23:11

If I showed that picture to my son his heart would stop.

Rainman · 1 Mar 2021, 02:09

Mark, first off, you're just a big kid!
And I'm so jealous!!

Anyway. When our power was out for a week, I purchased 2 generators: a 4000 watt, and a 2200 watt. Fortunately because Amazon (and I hate Amazon), they both arrived in a couple of days.

Given you undoubtedly have the most powerful computer of any of us, do you have any idea how much current it draws? How many watts, amps.
We were running the 4000 watt generator, and had several lights plugged in, a space heater using 1500 wats, and then all of our penultimate stuff like modem, router, wireless. We used 1 laptop, as I was concerned we were taxing the system too much.

I figured an average computer and monitor doesn't require a lot of wattage, but frankly I have no idea. How much does a laptop require?

If I plugged in all of our computers, we have 7 that we use, which includes a couple of laptops, (we really don't use the Apple equipment), how big of a generator would I need for just the computers? Is there an "average" I could use, or are there specs somewhere in the settings that would give me an answer?

Sorry I'm stumbling around here, but I think you get the idea of what I am asking.

mark · wrote on 1 Mar 2021, 02:09

@rainman The power supply in the big computer is 1000 watt capacity. I have calculated the most I would ever need day to day could be handled by a 650 watt power supply, I like to to have overhead, and room to experiment with overclocking etc.

I just did a calculation for it at https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

I think I will start turning my computers off when I am not using them. lol That is a huge cost on a yearly basis, per computer.

I also have the processors and graphics cards overclocked. The CPU has a TDP (Thermal Design Power) max of 105 watts. It can spike to 135 watts or more for short periods of time. I am definitely going to start shutting down my computers at night. I have two of these monsters running 24/7, a server also running 24/7 and various other Macs, PCs, TVs . My god I am a power vampire! lol

Most business class computers and laptops take much less power.

I have a Generac Generator 5500 wat (8500 watt surge) and a Champion 3500 watt. I have run a rack of 5 servers a couple of PCs, Macs, a refrigerator, electric fans running on just the Generac.

I would like to install a whole house multi-fuel generator with auto-switch over. etc. Someday

Back to your question, I think a 3500 watt generator would have plenty of power and overhead to handle 7 average PCs even if there were a couple like my PC in the mix.

mark · 11 Mar 2021, 02:37

I backordered an ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 video card from BlackoutPC, back in January. It has yet to ship.

Yesterday I received an email from EVGA. I signed up on their notification list for every video card they make. I did so, when the 30 series NVIDIA GPUs were released last year.

EVGA pulled my name and I had the opportunity to purchase an RTX 3070 XC3 8GB ULTRA GAMING GPU at retail price direct from EVGA.

I don't think I have clicked a button faster in my life for anything. lol

I get there, sign in, add to cart, pay, and then I noticed that they gave me a $70 discount off of retail pricing. I think they gave me original pricing vs. the increase that recently happened.

I just looked on eBay and they are selling for $1,200 to $1,500. lol

Horace · 28 Apr 2021, 15:53

Awesome, mark. I accidentally overpaid for a gtx 1660 ti recently, not realizing the price crunch on graphics cards that was going on. I guess I should have read this thread. I'm so used to the market and amazon working to give reasonable prices.

mark · H Horace 28 Apr 2021, 15:19

@horace Ugh, Amazon and even Newegg are not doing anything to stop scalpers from selling stuff on their sites.

I have joined a few discord servers that provide "drop" information. It's a crapshoot there too but at least you can weed out the scalpers.

I am buying everything I can at this point. I know several people looking to build new PCs and I am going to have stuff to help them. Like my existing video card all of a sudden is actually worth something. lol

Rainman · 28 Apr 2021, 19:31

Why is the shortage occurring at this point in time?
My son just got a video card. It wasn't what he wanted, but was close.
I read that there are shortages for new cars, which I expect would make prices increase.

Where do these graphics cards originate? My guess would be China and Taiwan.

Is the shortage deliberate?

Yeah, I could spend time googling, but that would mean concentrating on something, and like, reading. There are experts here, so this I consider a shortcut.

Doctor Phibes · wrote on 28 Apr 2021, 19:31

@rainman said in Tell me about building a PC:

Why is the shortage occurring at this point in time?
My son just got a video card. It wasn't what he wanted, but was close.
I read that there are shortages for new cars, which I expect would make prices increase.

Where do these graphics cards originate? My guess would be China and Taiwan.

Is the shortage deliberate?

Yeah, I could spend time googling, but that would mean concentrating on something, and like, reading. There are experts here, so this I consider a shortcut.

There's been production problems due to Covid and a major drought, people using GPU's to do bitcoin data-mining, and a big uptick in gaming because everybody's stuck at home. Also, the two main game consoles have just released their next generation. So overall, demand exceeds supply by quite a lot, which has led to scalping.

mark · wrote on 28 Apr 2021, 20:10

The chip manufacturers started to ramp up production but, a production facility takes 2 years minimum to get up to speed on production. To build the new facilities, they need more robots that need more chips that they and other manufacturers make.

So, the ramp up gets delayed due to shortages and the shortages get worse because demand seems to be insatiable.

Rainman · wrote on 28 Apr 2021, 20:45

Thanks guys!
I wish I would have ordered a bunch of high end graphics cards right before the increase. Of course, don't we all.

mark · wrote on 4 May 2021, 20:22

LOL. Just scored another 30 series NVIDA GPU. And EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC GAMING, 12GB

Direct from EVGA with a $21 discount to boot.

mark · wrote on 25 Jun 2021, 01:21

And another high end GPU arrives...

I'm on every SKU notification list at EVGA.

Yesterday my number came up on a Liquid cooled NVIDIA RTX 3090 "Hybrid" They sent it overnight.

I did a 3DMark benchmark test. No overclocking performed here. All stock settings.

Getting 200+fps in WoW with all graphics settings maxed out.

Freaking card is drawing 409 watts of power. That's just under 50% the capacity of my power supply. I guess a bigger power supply will be heading this way sooner than later. lol

mark · wrote on 25 Jun 2021, 01:25

The GPU stats during the 3DMark run. It hit 419 watts peak power. Unreal.

Klaus · 25 Jun 2021, 16:33

jon-nyc · wrote on 25 Jun 2021, 15:55

Klaus -

mark · K Klaus 25 Jun 2021, 15:09

@klaus

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Tell me about building a PC