technology The Glorious PC master race thread

[Windseeker 546]

I'd say you missed out on the ultimate 1998 gaming PC, but the Voodoo3 wasn't 1998.

I just have this strange habit of hoarding old computer parts as "collectibles". If I got enough compatible parts, I'll construct a Frankenstein of a PC, then never I'll never use it to 'preserve' it.

 

It just bugs me that I won't have that 3dfx Voodoo 3 to my collection... maybe there is some on ebay?

[long gone 8,929]

I just have this strange habit of hoarding old computer parts as "collectibles". If I got enough compatible parts, I'll construct a Frankenstein of a PC, then never I'll never use it to 'preserve' it.

 

It just bugs me that I won't have that 3dfx Voodoo 3 to my collection... maybe there is some on ebay?

There should be plenty on eBay.

[Windseeker 546]

There should be plenty on eBay.

Oh thank god there is, I better grab one or two. One of these days, they are going to be very nonexistent.

 

While I'm at it, might as well buy a Amiga 500 before those cease to exist.

[long gone 8,929]

Oh thank god there is, I better grab one or two. One of these days, they are going to be very nonexistent.

 

While I'm at it, might as well buy a Amiga 500 before those cease to exist.

I'd say buy an Acorn Phoebe as that is a rare specimen, being canceled just before its September 1998 release, but there were only two known workable Phoebes in existence and both of them died.

[Judgement 445]

I love game consoles with a passion, but even I have to admit that PCs are better for video games. You may have to spend a little more to get a really high-end pc, but it's so much more worth it since developers will always make games for pc.

[long gone 8,929]

I love game consoles with a passion, but even I have to admit that PCs are better for video games. You may have to spend a little more to get a really high-end pc, but it's so much more worth it since developers will always make games for pc.

Well... Who says you have to spend $1000 or so on a high-end, 1080p/60FPS PC? And there's even lower than that, too.

[Windseeker 546]

I'd say buy an Acorn Phoebe as that is a rare specimen, being canceled just before its September 1998 release, but there were only two known workable Phoebes in existence and both of them died.

Well I should probably add RiscPC to the list...

 

I just looked into it, it's quite amazing that it held multi-CPU support on daughter cards in 1998. Did the Phoebe's motherboard contain Slot 1 on it?

[long gone 8,929]

Well I should probably add RiscPC to the list...

 

I just looked into it, it's quite amazing that it held multi-CPU support on daughter cards in 1998. Did the Phoebe's motherboard contain Slot 1 on it?

I'm not sure, I haven't seen any mobo pics of it.

[Judgement 445]

Well... Who says you have to spend $1000 or so on a high-end, 1080p/60FPS PC? And there's even lower than that, too.

I'm personally not a stickler when it comes to 1080p/60fps pcs, but a lot of console nerds I know are. My computer is pretty old and all I had to do was add more memory and change the graphics card for it to run to my liking.

[long gone 8,929]

I'm personally not a stickler when it comes to 1080p/60fps pcs, but a lot of console nerds I know are. My computer is pretty old and all I had to do was add more memory and change the graphics card for it to run to my liking.

Well, as long as you're happy, I suppose. It's not about the hardware you hold in your hands, but the software in your heart.

[Windseeker 546]

I'm not sure, I haven't seen any mobo pics of it.

The whole Risc PC business, it's a pretty interesting piece of computer history there. I'd have to obtain a piece of it....

[A Black Circle 1,586]

If it can run Morrowind, it's OK in my book

I'm going to play some Dark Forces: Inferior Edition Doom.

[VictiniStar101 214]

Soo, after GTA V crashed again for the third time in around 20 minutes, I decided to watch some Youtube and noticed that videos would go black at times, and that my desktop went black as well, I had to refresh it to get the wallpaper and icons to show up.  Is this a sign that I need a new graphics card?

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Well... Who says you have to spend $1000 or so on a high-end, 1080p/60FPS PC? And there's even lower than that, too.

You do realize having a SSD that small with no extra storage makes it near useless, right? That's like the OS and maybe one or two modern games.

 

By a damn HDD if want to go that cheap because capacity is more valuable than read/write speed at this point when you games that take up over 30-50GB on average starting to come out.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Shoboni

[long gone 8,929]

You do realize having a SSD that small with no extra storage makes it near useless, right? That's like the OS and maybe one or two modern games.

 

By a damn HDD if want to go that cheap because capacity is more valuable than read/write speed at this point when you games that take up over 30-50GB on average starting to come out.

"no extra storage" There's a 1TB WD Blue to go with the SSD...

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

annnnd I must be officially going blind because I didn't see that the first time.

[lomk 20,663]

I finally got my i5-4690K today. My very first order of business was to install it!

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the blurry image. I was excited and my hands were shaky because I really wanted to open this thing up and throw it in there as fast as I could.

 

I can't figure out why I smell something burning, though....

 

 

Okay, on a more serious note, I did see my performance increase a little bit. I ran 3DMark as soon as I got it on my old parts, and my scores were kind of what I expected with hardware that was 3 years old and kind of lower middle end at that time

 

 

 

 

That's when I broke and ordered a new graphics card and power supply (though a power supply wouldn't affect my scores, I got an R9 290 and I wanted to be sure I had plenty of wiggle room for other parts since it is a pretty power hungry card)

 

 

 

 

And I saw my score jump a lot. But I was still getting utterly massacred in any physics test and my CPU was a bottleneck so I decided to order an aftermarket cooler (I'd been running on stock for the whole 2½ years) and overclock just to see if I could get any more usefulness out of it. 

 

 

 

 

And I guess I did. But it wasn't all that much better and the thing was still getting really hot. And so I broke. 

 

I made the switch to Intel.

 

I also ordered a couple of Noctua case fans while I was at it because what the heck, why not?

 

 

 

 

And I guess I'm happy with it. I'm not quite sure yet. It's definitely better than the old AMD processor. But I don't know that it was worth the $350 I just spent to get 1,400 more points. I guess we'll just have to see how it runs lots of games in the time being. I was still only getting around 20 to 24 fps in the physics tests (whereas my old CPU was giving me 15-20 fps), and even though it was an improvement, I feel like I just shelled out a lot of money for a little improvement. But like I said, I'll just have to road test it and see how I like it. Regardless of what happens, I'm likely not switching to something else in the near future as I just threw about $900 into this thing. 

 

As for the CPU overclocking...am I going to overclock? I don't know yet. "But Woona, it sure is a waste of a K processor and a Z97 motherboard if you're not overclocking yet." Yes, I know. But I'm just getting a feel for the thing right now. So give it time and I'll get more comfortable with it. 

 

Besides, my case is just a standard ATX case and I had a really hard time fitting everything in there. Especially the CPU cooler and the GPU. You've got to have tweezers for hands to work in this thing because it is all such a tight fit. So do I really want to make that much heat with such little space? I don't know. So I'm just going to get a feel for what it's like and how it performs under normal conditions before I overclock.

 

Anyway, tl;dr version: I just put a lot of new and pretty badass shit into my machine. 

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Anyway, tl;dr version: I just put a lot of new and pretty badass shit into my machine. 

 

I'd say it was money well spent. 4690K is a much more appropriate match for the 290X. You'll see a definite improvement in real world performance. More than that 1400 point increase would have you believe, anyway.

[lomk 20,663]

I'd say it was money well spent. 4690K is a much more appropriate match for the 290X. You'll see a definite improvement in real world performance. More than that 1400 point increase would have you believe, anyway.

 

I've already run it with Wolfenstein and never dipped below 57 fps at 1080p High settings. So I do like it a lot so far. 

 

Oh and the graphics card isn't the X version. It's just a regular 290. 

[long gone 8,929]

Been thinking of getting a 980. Maybe if I win one of Jay's 980s that'll be my way of getting a 980.

[lomk 20,663]

Well it would be nice if I could have won the parts I've got in my machine. It would have been nice knowing I could have a badass machine that didn't cost half as much as my car is worth

 

My car is really old. 

[long gone 8,929]

My desktop is currently worth more than anything else I own. Yes. I also don't have $550 to spend right now.

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

My car is worth about 4x as much as my PC. lol.

[lomk 20,663]

I drive a 2000 Honda Prelude, and the odometer is about to roll over 200,000 miles (that's 322,000 km if you don't use Murica measurements)

[Azure Envy 1,092]

I drive a 2000 Honda Prelude, and the odometer is about to roll over 200,000 miles (that's 322,000 km if you don't use Murica measurements)

 

200,000 isn't too much for a Honda, I've been told.

 

Friend bought a Titan X.

 

It may have a busted fan controller.

 

Sucks.