Desktop Computers

Denamian said:

My point was more to avoid big computer manufacturers and stick with companies that build PCs with off the shelf parts. That way it's easier to upgrade or just replace parts once it's out of warranty.

As far as CPU upgrades requiring a new mobo and ram, that depends. I doubt DDR5 will be replaced any time soon and AMD has a decent track record of not changing sockets frequently. If that holds, this would probably be a good time if you want to get the longest life out of an AMD build.

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You're entirely correct, I just don't think it lines up with what he was looking for. All he asked was to be pointed at something ready-made under 3k that he can comfortably use for a few years, he said he didn't want to mess around with building so he's probably not going to be interested in swapping parts out next year either. People seem to be entirely happy paying thousands for a non-upgradable laptop or tablet that they never take out of their house. Doesn't make any sense to me since I'd just get a more powerful desktop with a better screen for less money but people have their own reasons that don't line up with mine sometimes.

Out of warranty repair is a consideration although I think it's a pretty minor risk, generally computer stuff that isn't DOA will last well past their useful life. Only hardware failures I've had in the last 20 years was a PSU and an Asus mainboard during the capacitor plague era, ancient history now.

Ahoy to the more savvy than me. I am looking to buy a pre-built gaming PC. My goal is to run Baldur's Gate 3 (in August) and the new Harry Potter game on high settings. I imagine I don't need a 4090 to do so, so a 3080ti or whatever would be great. Hoping to spend under 2k (preferably $1100-1500), and definitely don't plan to run on 4k. If anyone sees a hot deal or something that jumps out to them in this range please tag me here so I can jump on it.

I was hoping to do something prior to that so I can play Hogwarts when it releases. Not too worried about 200-300 in savings if it means I don't get to game during the winter. Once it warms up my gaming time drops to nearly nothing.

Szeth said:

Ahoy to the more savvy than me. I am looking to buy a pre-built gaming PC. My goal is to run Baldur's Gate 3 (in August) and the new Harry Potter game on high settings. I imagine I don't need a 4090 to do so, so a 3080ti or whatever would be great. Hoping to spend under 2k (preferably $1100-1500), and definitely don't plan to run on 4k. If anyone sees a hot deal or something that jumps out to them in this range please tag me here so I can jump on it.

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if you go back a page or two (and pretty much every page or two), you'll see lots of similar requests for "best prebuilt PC"
We also tend to post when there are good deals available.

some examples

As noted, stay away from Dell and HP, as they often have proprietary and substandard components.

Honestly, you're best off spec'ing out your PC and going to Microcenter so they can build it for you with a parts and labor warranty.
Start with your monitor and planned resolution, and design accordingly. A decent monitor for current systems will run you $300-$1k depending on the size/frames/specs you're going for.

https://pcpartpicker.com/ is your friend

Most likely, a 3080 will do you just fine for anything 2k at 120FPS+, but YMMV if you get a 120" wraparound 3d smell-o-vision monitor like Brahma

I would expect the 7950X3d and 7900X3d to have some scheduling issues for a while given the cache differences per CCD. I know AMD is working with MIcrosoft on it, but it did take a while for Zen scheduling issues to be sorted out. Pricing is better than what I expected.

Xexx and other threadbros, I need some advice. I have a 3060 I got that came with my microcenter prebuilt pc. Would I be able to plop that in an egpu enclosure and go to town? New mini pc has been a beast so far, but the only thing that makes it start to heat up a bit is gaming. That would kill 2 birds with 1 stone since I am planning to ditch that old pc. Pop gpu and ssd out of it and donate the rest to goodwill. If that egpu solution works out, I doubt I will ever go back to a regular PC ever again.

out of nowhere, I'm getting ue4 error 0x887a0006 hung all the time while playing games.
hard freeze, cant even quit out of the game, have to reboot.

nothing has changed on my setup recently, that I can think of.
my nvidia drivers (and all others) are up to date...

5900x
Gbyte Vision D-P Mobo
3080 TUF FHR

stock clocks, and it's happening in steam, PC gamepass, EA, Epic, so it's not just like some settings are wonky in a single game

moonarchia said:

Xexx and other threadbros, I need some advice. I have a 3060 I got that came with my microcenter prebuilt pc. Would I be able to plop that in an egpu enclosure and go to town? New mini pc has been a beast so far, but the only thing that makes it start to heat up a bit is gaming. That would kill 2 birds with 1 stone since I am planning to ditch that old pc. Pop gpu and ssd out of it and donate the rest to goodwill. If that egpu solution works out, I doubt I will ever go back to a regular PC ever again.

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I just ordered an egpu enclosure, so we will see. Worse comes to worse I will just get a graphics card that works with it. This month is a big purge for me all around. Just wrapping up going through 30 years of stuff that has been in storage. Lots of comics and old gaming systems got to goodwill and a friend who likes that sort of stuff. Lots went to the dump. Part of this has been a decision to reduce the physical space all my shit takes up as well, so goodbye old towers, and hello mini pc and now maybe a modular bay for gpus going forward.

Otto said:

Have you tried rolling back to an older set of drivers? Shot in the dark here but how are your GPU temps? Looks to be a GPU driver issue but the hard lock is odd.

*edit* It's possible that this could be an AMD issue. Just a quick look around it seems the majority of people getting this error have an AMD system and either an AMD or Nvidia GPU. I'll run it by a buddy of mine who is way more knowledgeable than I am tomorrow.

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thanks for the recommendations, fellers.

GPU temps are fine. I fully removed and reinstalled the drivers last night to see if that'd do it (it didn't), and I was thinking about rolling back the drivers next

Edaw said:

Disable the nvidia in-game overlay if it's on. Since it's happening across the board, it's the likely culprit.

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good idea, I've turned off the overlay and will give some gaming a shot today

i have no f'in clue what it was... I've had a frustrating couple of weeks with my PC...

a case fan was screaming like a drowning rat, so I decided to take all my fans out, clean them, lube them, and reinstall them...
that same case fan kept squealing, so I just took it out... in the process, I realized that I was using 2+ year old Lian Li fan control software, so I updated that... then I lost all fan control and everything was stuck in quiet mode, no rpm adjustment for use/heat. Case got a bit hot, and CPU temps got to 95 C when gaming.
Took a week of trying everything I could think of (including fully rebuilding my PC, CPU thermal paste, PSU & Mobo connections and all) before realizing that the new fan control software wasn't recognizing the fan controller, and I could simply force a fan controller firmware update via different software.

finally get all that back up n running, everything at good temps, and I start getting this UE4 driver/hardware error a few days later.
My GPU has been reporting fine temps all along, or i'd be more suspicious that I had overheated it during this past week's cooling shenanigans.

Somewhere in there, there must have been a driver update (Windows, AMD Chipset, NVidia, something) that started locking me up.

I haven't played a ton today, but no crashes so far.
Big ups to EDAW for suggesting to remove the overlay. I hope that did it!

no crashes since disabling the NVidia Overlay!
no idea why that suddenly became a problem, but I suppose I don't need it...

in other news, Fractal is releasing a performance PC case for grownups!