Re: Computer Build

On Wed, 04 Dec 2024 13:59:03 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 4 Dec 2024 09:37:21 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>

On 02/12/2024 21:23, Justisaur wrote:

My son expressed an interest in upgrading his computer, he's waffling
though, as I told him he needs to pay for it himself.  He has the money,
but doesn't want to use it.  I would pay local taxes to help out.
 
My goal was to keep costs down, but make it at least as good as what I
have now. The one he has now is a handmedown from his grands,
unfortunately the case is a propriatary dell with a propriatary
motherboard, a normal ATX doesn't fit in it, so I can't use it.  I may
be able to use the PSU, but need to tear it apart to do so.  I'm only
planning on a 500W PSU as it seems power requirements have gone down
considerably.

>
My not so helpfully advice is don't overthink it too much as the reality
is unless you do something disastrous it's going to do the job for you.
My last upgrade, instead of doing my customary spending ages trying to
decide exactly what to get I went down the I don't need a 'god like' PC
so let's just spend a little bit of time online looking for recommended
budget gaming set-ups. Did I get the best value for money, almost
definitely not but I also didn't waste hours upon hours of 'research'
just to say feck it I'll go with that which I looked at two weeks ago.
>
The other problem I found is that what would seem a good place for
advice (real people online) turns out to be really problematic in that
it ranges from at worst bad advice and at best this is the system I
would want regardless of whether that would met your needs. Oh you want
a new PC for general day-to-day stuff as some light gaming. Well clearly
what you want is system built around a 4090!

>
If money is an issue and you aren't going for LATEST AND GREATEST AND
FASTEST AND OTHER -ESTS!, you may also wish to consider the Intel Arc
GPUs (although that may force you onto an Intel CPU). The Arc B580 is
reportedly as fast as an Nvidia 4060 and for $250 USD that's a pretty
good performance-to-price ratio.

There is much more importance than there used to be between the raw
computational speed of the GPU and the level of optimization of the
drivers for specific games.  It is no longer one setting fits all.  I
got a bit of a wake up call on this with my recent rig upgrade...
comparing what would happen default out of the box vs NVidia app
recommended optimizations vs spending time tweaking and twiddling
myself.  The difference can sometimes feel like two generations of PC
upgrades and/or make a big difference on the spectrum of
immersiveness.

On one hand I feel obligated toward a walk of shame that I've still
been gaming on 1080p all this time because I thought that was okay,
but at the same time have bemoaning the state of gaming when some of
them are quite entertaining once played on proper hardware.

Not only that, but I've been going back to some older ones like FC5
and FC6, and seeing them at 1440p at e-sports level frame rates and
refresh rates breathes new life into titles I already owned.

nVidia is till top of the pack when it comes to GPU.

Meanwhile I'm really enjoying gaming again.  Go figure, the more
things change the more they stay the same.