Buying a Gaming PC

[one-armed dwarf]

Capture card is just for external systems. The gpu will capture stuff on its own at much higher quality than a console capture does (depending on settings)

 

I used elgato capture card for this ffvii stuff, does HDR also. Native capture on PS4/5 can't handle these particle effects like this can with the right settings. Tho youtube compresses it still. It uses the GPU to co-process it

 

Spoiler

 

 

edit but consoles have their own built in systems for streaming, if that' the use case I'm not sure of the point of a capture card cause twitch makes any stream look like shit anyway

[Maf]

When I was looking at the PC I assumed the capture card would be fitted in to the PC, and if I wanted to capture console footage through it like my Switch then I’d plug the HDMI from the Switch in to the PC instead of the TV. Or am I stupid?

[one-armed dwarf]

Does switch not stream by itself?

 

 

The switch hdmi would go into the 'in' HDMI port on the card and the 'out' hdmi would go into the TV from the PC. You need all these devices in the same room obviously, so I dunno how this fits with the whole 'buying a desk' thing unless you want to play switch on a monitor

 

You can also 'watch' the switch on a program on the PC but it will have a ton of input lag and most games would be unplayable unless they are menu driven turn based ones

[Maf]

Yeah I thought I would move the Switch over to the monitor and play it on that. Then have it stream to Twitch. Maybe I would use it for PS5 stuff as well at some point but my big thing right now is BotW2 and probably Pokemon

[one-armed dwarf]

So you will have your PC and Switch plugged into the monitor at the same time then, and you will need to switch inputs to get the 'native' switch. Or else play a really laggy stream on your capture utility program. You don't really want to do the second option unless you want BOTW2 to be a sucky experience

 

It's all a bit complicated imo, you really need dual monitor or monitor & TV setup for that to be worth it.

[Maf]

I thought I would plug the Switch in and play it on the monitor and then have my iPad just to check the stream was Ok. It’s what I do now when playing Guilty Gear except that all runs through the PS5

 

Why do I think this PC is going to need a shit tonne of HDMI and USB ports

[one-armed dwarf]

Well that would work, yeah.

 

My 3070 has like 6 inputs or something, a mix of HDMI and display port

[Maf]

Shit I just realised one of my viewers when playing Guilty Gear is me damn what a loser 

[Maf]

That PC I was going to buy is now gone so I need to find a new one. What is the difference between this and this I don’t understand

 

[one-armed dwarf]

If you want to run minecraft maxed out you need the bottom one, but the top one doubles as a boarding pass at heathrow

[Maf]

Jokes on you I’ve never been to Heathrow 

 

Why have I built the same PC from a different site but it’s a £1000 cheaper?

 

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-am4-overclocked/

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Maf could you list out every component on the PCs you're looking at, cause the link I'm looking at is a potato PC

[Maf]

Here you go. Bit small but best I could do [insert sex joke here]

 

 

I just started throwing shit at this PC and it’s still cheaper than the other one

[one-armed dwarf]

Multiple low capacity m2 drives doesn't make sense to me still, would make more sense to have one that's larger.

 

Also if you don't know what the m2. drive is please google it. NVME m.2 is what the PS5 and Series X use.

 

Remove the anti virus. Why is microsoft edge on that list lol. I actually deleted the directory of that the other day.

 

Nothing else stands out there but the 3080ti is a supercharged Lamborghini and the 3700x is a sensibly priced mid-range CPU which should last most of the generation.. but paired with a 3080ti it might be the cul de sac problem again. I actually don't know that for sure tho, again you really should watch some digital foundry videos on the extremely expensive components you're picking out. Don't just randomly click dropdowns

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2021-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-review

 

The reason the eurogamer review here is 3 stars isn't cause the card is bad, the card is incredible, but it's super expensive enthusiast stuff for people who money is no object

[one-armed dwarf]

edit I'll add this explanation, when looking at components you've got to consider not just compatibility but also suitability. There's always going to be a bottleneck in your system, that's normal. Usually it's the GPU, sometimes it's the Cpu. But with a very imbalanced system (eg, mid end CPU but future console destroyer GPU) you might be leaving lots of performance on the table and a hole in your bank account with nothing to show for it. A 3080 with a slightly better CPU could give more than the 80ti does in this build.

 

The reason is the GPU might be processing frames faster than the CPU can render them (this is a fuzzy explanation, but it's my own limited understanding of the interactions between them). Which we call a cpu bottleneck' Again, perfectly normal, the last gen consoles were very CPU bottlenecked. But this is something you don't want to be happening all the time either just cause it's not a good return on value

 

I had to double post, sorry, I didn't want to edit all the single quotes out of the comment again lol

[Maf]

Just checked and the antivirus thing doesn’t effect the price at all. I swapped Edge to Chrome I didn’t see that part. What about this memory set up then does this make more sense? The top 2 were preexisting I added the NVME thing on.

 

 

Still not as expensive as on that other site. Not that that’s an issue but I wonder what is missing. 
 

I’m thinking about the internet issue now and on here it has this

 

 

But I don’t know what that is. 
 

Where is the best place to find what CPU fits the GPU then? I don’t need a degree in this just a place to work out what would be most suitable

[one-armed dwarf]

That network card seems rubbish, only shows up 2.4ghz band. You want one that allows 2.4 and 5ghz as your router probably offers both. But I actually think that powerline adapter and ethernet is an even better idea, but for avoidance of doubt having a wifi card is good.

 

It would be a lot easier if you could find a way to make that site generate a URL that other people can click on, and they can maybe offer suggestions directly with the configurator. 

 

In fact I just checked there and there's a way to do that, there's literally a 'post to forum' button when you click through to proceed. Please do that, it'll make the thread a bit more productive I think cause it's hard to tell what you're looking at tbh

[Maf]

Ah, you’re right. Here you go. Configure away it would be really helpful

 

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-overclocked/dvyYF0jCEt/

[one-armed dwarf]

12 minutes ago, Maf said:

Where is the best place to find what CPU fits the GPU then? I don’t need a degree in this just a place to work out what would be most suitable

Yeah I know and I'm trying to help with that. This isn't really an elitist thing it's trying to point in the right direction. You don't need a degree in this but you should try and understand what the different tiers indicate a bit imo. Stuff like what does it mean if a CPU has multiple cores, or better concurrency. Like what is the first layer of understanding is what I'm talking about, not what a clock rate is or instruction cycle or stuff like that. 

 

I don't mean that to sound too cryptic, it just boils down to the fact that you want a CPU with at least 8 cores nowadays (cause that's what the consoles have) and are 'multi-threaded' which means it can multitask better (also important). You don't need to open a manual on electrical engineering but there's some weird tradeoffs to consider with CPUs that aren't super obvious at first. 

 

Or just get a 5800x, it seems great to me for a system like this

 

I'll look at that configurator but again IMO check out a digital foundry video on the 30-hundred series, the 80 and 80tis. See what they have to offer and make sure it's something you want. 

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I made very small changes other than CPU and motherboard, I think the motherboard you picked doesn't have pcie-4 which is a big feature upcoming on these cards (think of how Ratchet streams in levels). Which is why I picked something more high end, however I notice that it doesn't have pricing information for the mobo I picked. So I think you might want to check you're getting the full picture there.

 

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-overclocked/due5T3DZrH/

 

I changed the CPU to a 5800x, cause the 3080ti is so high end. That video I linked of DF above has them using a intel 10900k with the GPU. I can't say what that CPU is like but it's I think top of the current tier or whatever you want to call it. 

 

The network adapter is 2.4 and 5ghz and I added two cheapo case fans in 'case' they don't come as standard.

 

But no matter what this is going to put a serious dent in your skittles budget. Also I think this system is overkill for a 1440p monitor, but would be great on a 4K tv

 

Also uh maybe wait for someone else to take a look at that link before you click buy, cause I ain't accepting responsibility for his massive outlay lmao