Tell me about building a PC
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@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.
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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
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Education is extremely important.
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@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
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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.
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@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.
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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.
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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
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@mark and others, I've been following this thread as I am upgrading my entire home office set up. To be clear (and perhaps to offend), I most likely will not be using my computer or monitor for gaming.
My current/previous desktop (Dell XPS 8700, with an i7-4770, 12GB RAM, and Nvidia GeForce GT 635, 256 SSD hard drive) has served me well for the past 7 years but I am looking for an overall upgraded experience. In addition, I want to start viewing/editing my iPhone 4K videos and wanted a graphics card and monitor that doesn't disappoint.
So I just purchased a Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition (in white!), you can view it here.
- Processor: i7-11700
- RAM: 16 GB
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB
- Hard Drive: 512 SSD, (plus 1 TB HDD, which I will probably swap out for a 2 TB SDD for file storage)
For my monitor, I am drawn in by the 1440p or 1600p ultrawide monitors. Looks like you're a fan of this LG 38" monitor, @mark ?
I haven't purchased a new monitor yet, but plan to this week.
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Oh, other home office upgrades include:
Purchased
- UpLift corner standing desk - link
- Printer (HP LaserJet, since I don't print often and InkJet always dries out) - link
- Shredder (Amazon Basics) - link text
Not Purchased Yet
- Monitor (see above post)
- Speakers
- Keyboard/Mouse upgrade
- Glass chair mat
- One of those floating globes via magnet lolz
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Congrats on the new PC!
The LG monitor you linked is excellent. I have it and love it.
And it's fine for gaming. It's 75Hz refresh rate is obviously better than a 60Hz but 120Hz+ is what serious gamers go for. You will love the 1600 pixels in the vertical and the width is perfect for "professional" / "business" use. It's also very easy on the eyes.
It should also be available in white, to match your tower.
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@89th Keyboard and Mouse.
I recently purchased EVGA's new Z20 keyboard, wired version. I really like it. It's mechanical, clicky, fast and comfortable. It has the required* G1-G5 (EVGA labels them E1-E5 lol) programmable function keys to the left of the `, TAB, CAPS, SHIFT CTRL keys. numeric keypad, Built-in volume and media controls, aluminum base, solid as a rock.
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=812-W1-20US-KR
I also picked up the X17 wired mouse from EVGA. It's comfortable, fast, and completely programmable. The scroll wheel scrolls of course, but, it is also a button when you press down on it and, it has a left and right button built-in for horizontal scrolling, or whatever you want to program it to do. It is, the most programmable mouse I have ever used.
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=903-W1-17BK-KR
*I require these keys on any keyboard. I program them using macros to do things in a variety of applications but mostly including games of course.
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@mark Good recommendations! Regarding the monitor, I may be leaning towards a 144hz so that everything (not just gaming, but browsing, mouse movement, etc) is just that much smoother. I know most videos I'll be editing are 60 fps, but still........
