These are my old PC spare parts. I wanna build a new PC. What's the best I can do with those? (details in the post)
So I disassembled my old PC, and there are a few spare parts that I believe are still good. According to the technician, the motherboard is fried. I have no way to test this, so I'm believing him for now.
I wish to use those parts on a new desktop PC, but I have no idea where to begin... what do I need to buy new? Of what kind/brand/specification/pricepoint?
So here's what I got:
- AMD Ryzen 5 2400G processor
- with the AMD cooler that came with it
- 1TB 7200RPM non-SSD hard-drive
- 1 Ballistix by Micron 16GB 2400MHz RAM stick
- 1 240GB WD Green Sata SSD M.2 2280
I may have access to another 8GB RAM stick of unknown origins from my partner's old PC, but she's a bit protective of those things so I'll way for her to be home to open it in front of her :P
There's a power source attached to the case, which reads ATX-600W. Image1, image2.
The computer case itself is a little beat up but I don't care about looks at all. Its external dimensions are 34.5cm by 35cm, with a width of 16cm. Here's how it looks (Xbox controller for scale).
I wanna build a new machine with the goals of:
- video editing
- so Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, some audio work, and maybe streaming.
- gaming
- nothing super high-end, I'll probably get one or two 1080p 24" monitors because 4K reduces my options quite a bit. But here are some of the games I'm looking forward to playing (all MMOs): World of Warcraft Classic and Retail, FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, and the upcoming Ashes of Creation (which I believe is an Unreal 5 game).
My budget (including the monitor or monitors) is roughly 1400 US dollars. I understand that is not a lot of money for the majority of Tildes users, but that is just my reality. My 1400 US dollars PC is very much a luxury around here.
If needed for budget purposes I can get just one monitor now, and another down the road.
So, what's the best I can do?
Thanks! ;)
First off, this website is a great resource.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/
Put your existing parts in there and then it will help with compatibility. You can get a sharable link and then post it for people to review. I've also found the r/buildapc community pretty helpful.
You'll need a motherboard with an am4 socket. You'll most likely be able to find a good one for about 100. This will also allow for a minor cpu upgrade in the future. Look for one that supports what you have plus a Ryzen 5000 series cpu for an upgrade later.
GPU is where you'll have the biggest decision to make. A Nvidia rtx 3060 ti will do what you want, but you may have to watch out for physical dimensions. The 3000 cards can get a little big.
For monitors, this channel provides great information. They have a recent overview and top picks.
https://youtu.be/WFfxOfZ8T_U
More memory is nice if you're doing a ton of editing, but 16 is enough for most casual use.
1400 should be easy since you already have quite a few parts.
Lol I wish I had $1,400 USD to spend on a PC upgrade at the moment. But here's some generalities.
Since the 2400G has a half-decent integrated GPU, if you get a motherboard, you've got a bootable PC. It's an older CPU, but is far from fully needing replaced unless you're trying to go ultra-high end. I'd reccomend getting the newest AM4 socket mobo you can get, allowing a good bit of headroom for incremental upgrades. I like my ASRock mobo better than my previous ASUS or Gigabyte boards.
Next up, replace that power supply. If your motherboard fried, and you weren't doing any bonkers overclocks, that's probably what fried it. I've had good luck with Corsair power supplies. Semi or fully modular is nicer to work with. You want to be roughly at 50-60% of rated wattage, it's where efficiency is highest and gives some headroom for future growth. I'd suggest somewhere on the order of 800W to 1200W for new builds. If your power quality is questionable, a power conditioner and/or small battery UPS is a good idea to think about as well.
You should get a second stick of RAM. Both sticks should be the same size and speed so you can configure dual-channel memory. You'll get better performance out of 2x8 than 1x16. IIRC some of the later AM4 CPUs perform even better with 4 sticks, but my memory there is hazy. For gaming you don't really need more than 16GB still, but for video editing "the more the merrier" applies. Getting 16GB of dual-channal memory is priority 3, but after that I'd make sure to get a good GPU and a large NVME drive first.
GPU comes down to personal preference and availability. I'm personally in the "Fuck NVIDIA" camp because of their hostility to Linux. AMD fits my use case better now that they opened their drivers. I am far enough removed from both purchasing a dedicated GPU and your personal shopping options, so I don't think I can offer better advice there.
Don't skimp on case fans, cpu coolers. A hot PC is a sad PC.
Your storage is just fine for starters, especially for gaming and non-video work. I'd hold off on upgrading till you work out everything else.
Is this a case where the higher the wattage the better?
The power here is okay, but there are outages, maybe once a month. I'll have to research that... it seems that those things are generally expensive and/or sold mostly for companies around here.
PC power supplies are most efficient at around 60-80% load. So if you had a total of 500 W of parts, you’d want a 650 W power supply.
Newegg has a good power consumption calculator that should at least give you a rough estimate.
It's reporting a usage of
500 - 599 Watts. So 850W should do?That seems reasonable. I will say that a power supply is definitely not a part you should cheap out on. A bad one can blow up your whole system. Not saying you need a top of the line one, just that buying a cheap Ali Express or unknown brand is probably not worth the risk to save a few bucks.
You can get a decent, name brand 850W power supply for around $130 USD.
I have an older model of this thing. It's not gonna keep you online forever, but should cover blips well.
If nothing else it's great to keep modem/wifi online if my power gets knocked out but not net (they come in off different poles).
Your budget seems plenty(EDIT: Oops you also need to buy the monitor, that's not so good), but I don't know the costs where you are, so I wont' try to do the math there. If I were you, I would buy:A new motherboard, of course. You're going to need a socket AM4 motherboard, but watch out for the generation as well (after some searching your CPU seems to be 2nd gen?) I got burned before when I bought a 4th gen CPU and my motherboard only supported 2nd gen (later 3rd gen with a firmware upgrade).
More RAM. Ideally you want to have your RAM modules in pairs of the same capacity and speed. Also note that your RAM stick's access speed is a bit low by modern standards. It might be good enough for most people, but you want to do video editing and streaming, which is very RAM intensive. I'd aim for at least 32gb in total running Windows 10 and at least 3ghz. (Note: I'm not sure about exact thresholds, but if you're streaming, you're likely running something else at the same time.)
You will need a PSU. At least 700W for a modern computer, but check the power use of your components and leave a margin for futureproofing. Note that many brands are just Seasonic rebrands, so get a Seasonic PSU if you can. Get something modular so you can detach all the cables you don't need and keep your case free of clutter. Note: Failing old PSUs can and will fry your hardware, this has happened to me a couple times before.
A graphics card. This is going to be your main expense by far. I'm told AMD currently offers better bang for the buck, but as I'm still on an nvidia I'll leave it to those more familiar with the subject to talk about AMD. The situation when I bought an nvidia card about a year and a half ago was that the GTX2000 series was no longer being made and ethereum miners were buying all the RTX3000 ones, plus there was a semiconductor shortage making prices insanely high. The specifics depend on your country though. Ethereum mining no longer exists, but in Portugal it's still impossible to get RTX3000 now that the RTX4000 series is out, and RTX4000, being new, is still very expensive. The bare minimum you should aim for in my opinion is a GTX2080 or equivalent.
I would buy a new, better case if the budget permits; this can make assembly, cleaning and maintenance way easier and extend the life if your hardware if there's better airflow and dust filtering in there. Also make sure to check carefully (beforehand) if the hardware you buy fits on the inside of the case - especially the motherboard and the graphics card, graphics cards are massive nowadays.
@lou see a previous comment of mine regarding performance per dollar in AMD vs NVidia GPUs - https://tildes.net/~tech/1303/unlaunching_the_12gb_4080#comment-7iy7 - Just watch the power requirements on what you choose vs the PSU you have. PCPartPicker is pretty good for doing that calculation.
Thank you so much for answering. I generally avoid sharing certain information online. But the 1400 USD is a real estimation of my budget, you can make assumptions from there and I will convert and adapt whatever you say to my reality. You gave me a lot of good information, I will research all of that locally soon. Thanks a bunch ;)
If you are in the EU maybe I can send you my old gen2/3 AM4 motherboard, which I'm not using, for just the cost of shipping. It's a MSI X370 Gaming Pro. MSI hardware is usually excellent! I can't guarantee that it all still works properly (there were no issues at the time I stopped using it) or that it wouldn't break in transit but it would be a relatively small gamble.
I'm always amazed and moved by the generosity of random people over the internet. You are now in the group of the awesome. However, a quick mental calculation of the shipping costs, as well as the risk of damage during shipping, makes me think that this would not be a good idea.
But I will actually look into it. Maybe it is possible? I don't know.
Anyway, you're awesome ;)
Re: The case, I just measured and my current gfx card is about 34cm long.
Keep your CPU and stock cooler:
Micro-ATX Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 Aorus M $80 + shipping (on sale)
Note: backordered on newegg; your order will be canceled should they not secure enough inventory
Cons:
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz $80 + shipping (on sale)
NVMe SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB $90 (on sale)
Cons: random write speed
Other Storage:
Your HDD of course, but video editing will probably eat space so consider an extra 4 or 8 TB HDD (it could even be an external) when they go on sale in the future.
PSU: Seasonic Focus 650W 80 PLUS Gold $120
Note: optional
Micro-ATX Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 $57
Note: optional; alternatively, the SAMA IM01
Monitor: Gigabyte M32Q ~$355
Note: sold out while I was writing this up so I'll do some more digging, but I'll touch on some of the reasons to splurge over your choice of 1 or 2 1080p monitors
Pros:
GPU:
Excluding shipping, assuming you can get comparable pricing, this build is $700~$800, hopefully leaving room for a nice GPU and you can come in under budget. However, I don't know what pricing and availability is like for you, so I won't suggest a particular part.
However, I do recommend Nvidia for better video editing software support. Ideally, 6GB VRAM and a 3060 or better. I don't particularly recommend going past a 3070 regardless.
Keep in mind your physical case dimensions and you should be set. Picking up an extra case fan or two would improve temps but it isn't urgent or necessary.
It's alive!
I am now typing from my new desktop computer! It's basically this machine with a different case and only a 256GB M2 SSD (I'll get the new high capacity one later). I also had my old 1tb 7200rpm SATA hard drive installed.
The only thing bothering me right now is that my 32" screen wobbles noticeably when I type more vigorously, but my table was already due to replacement and the new one will be here within the week.
I ended up with a NVIDIA GTX 2060 12GB and whopping 64GB of 3200mhz RAM. I always dreamed with having more RAM than Microsoft can possibly eat :P (but I do have an actual reason for that...).
I booted up from the old SSD to a 3-year-old Kubuntu install and
apt-get updatesimply won't work. I don't know if it's worth fixing or if I should simply replace it with something new. I'm considering keeping Linux for a while and see if I can do everything within it. I anticipate two things to be a bother: video editing (which would entail leaving the comfort of Adobe, learning something new from scratch, and possibly dealing with the complications of not using the same software as my employers) and Game Pass. I have Game Pass Ultimate and it comes with PC games, but, unlike Steam, I don't expect that to work nicely on Linux. On the other hand, Windows sucks balls.For today, I have a blazing fast aging Kubuntu that I can't really update :P
Thanks everyone!
Down the list, it's probably using a bad mirror or your Kubuntu version has aged out.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1376656/apt-get-update-is-unable-to-connect-to-mirror
For Video Editing, OBS Studio is available and through Kubuntu, you have access to Kdenlive or try to roll the bones with Wine/Adobe Cloud.
https://kdenlive.org/en/
Speaking of Cloud, Game Pass ultimate does come with Streaming Capabilities, if you use Chrome or Edge, both of which have Linux versions, you should be able to still access the cloud streaming version of available games. Granted, PC only games won't have a streaming version, since it's mostly running off of the console versions, but the vast majority of games are available.
https://xbox.com/play
Yes I don't believe I can stream PC only games (not sure). In my experience, gaming streaming is more than good enough, but is not optimal either. I don't imagine that I can use mods on these games. And at the very moment PC games are everything I wanna play, since I've been limited to consoles for many years at this point :P
Thanks!
Do you need wifi? Was the cpu sufficient for your video editing projects or do you need more?
Thanks for answering! I never edited video on this CPU before, but I believe it's good enough and I don't mind a little render time. I won't be in a hurry, it just needs need to perform edits comfortably. I don't need WiFi, my connection is wired.
Good question about the CPU. lou should investigate whether GPU encoding is enough or the CPU will be a limitation. Then again, for asynchronous rendering you can always just take longer...
Adobe Premiere and After Effects are generally GPU-heavy instead of CPU-heavy. So the GPU should have CUDA support. At least that's what I used 8 years ago when I was working as an editor, maybe nowadays there are some other kinds of instruction they rely on. I've been out of the game for a long time.
Video editing and encoding is usually a heavy cpu workload now afaik. Streaming is a little different, where you might use a gpu's hardware encoders for speed (quality suffers).
correction: it seems premier supports hardware encoding exports too.
Yeah, I believe the GPU is/was more heavily used for rendering. But I don't know, really. I'd have to research, maybe on a forum specific for video editors.
After Effects is another business entirely, it probably hits everything to the max, all the time. Easiest way to make any machine look like a 2010 Celeron laptop. I'd use it only for the most basic compositions.
What people say about video editing is that you need lots of RAM and fast storage. Especially if you wanna work in 4K (which I won't... 4K is for exporting only).
I need to eat but i'll get back to you with a build keeping the cpu and a build replacing the cpu in an hour or two. Hopefully one of them will be helpful.
Your budget will certainly cover your needs.
PC Part Picker got mentionned; Logical Increments do the same job. But I do like its tierlist like presentation.
UPDATE: I have a motherboard!
I was able to test my motherboard with a technician I trust[1], and it is totally functioning! Image. It's a
Gigabyte B450M DS3H.For convenience, here are the other specs:
A friend suggested me this GPU:
Converting from my currency, it's around 340 USD.
What do you guys think?
[1] Confirming that the first technician was trying to bamboozle me...
Nice work getting the motherboard tested! Is the power supply toast then, or was there no issue? Perhaps a sata cable went?
I would at least get a matching stick of RAM to have 32GB dual channel. As for the GPU, I don't know what pricing and availability is like for you. But used 3080s were selling on ebay sub $800 here, so I think $340 for a 2060 is a little painful. Admittedly, midrange GPUs have not seen quite the same price drops.
The 2060 GPU is actually at a 30% discount at the cheapest store I could find lol.
The power supply will have to be replaced, it's probably toast but it's not sufficient anyway.
Thanks for the tips on the memory!
How does that work? Must the memory sticks have all the same specs? Does it matter if they're from different brands? Are 2400mhz memories outdated? Should I get 2666mhz memory instead? And does "dual" mean pairs? For example, if I get three sticks of the same specs, will they work tandem, or will the third stick be left all alone?
Ideally you use the exact same memory in a PC. So you buy a pack with multiple sticks, or you buy multiple of the same stick.
Ryzen 2000 series definitely benefits from faster memory, 3200MHz is a sweet spot and doesn't require any O.C. (you can buy memory rated for 3200 and it should run that by default, although adjusting ram timings might help anyway).
Ryzen 2000 series supports dual channel memory, which improves perf. This requires two sticks in the correct sockets, or multiples of two in the correct sockets. Consumer motherboards generally only go up to four. Three will not work.
Use identical ram sticks or things will probably get weird.
Edit: you might be able to O.C. your current memory to a more reasonable speed. There are tools and guides to adjust memory settings for Ryzen processors.
Can I get 2 sticks of a faster speed, and also have my old slow speed on the same board?
No. Three will not work.
What do you think is better? Getting a bunch of 2400MHz[1] sticks and keep using my current memory, or get rid of my 2400HZ and get maybe a lesser amount of 3200MHz?
What does memory speed "do", exactly? Will I notice any difference?
[1] If I can find the same exact brand and model...
Another stick of 2400MHz is good, 32GB of 3200MHz is better.
(edit: 16GB of 3200MHz is totally sufficient except for production workloads including video editing, sorry)
Memory speed is effectively how frequently it can be accessed by the CPU. Off the cuff I'd estimate 5% improvement going to dual channel, 5% going to 3200MHz?
Memory performance is also influenced by RAM timings however which are not as cut and dry, so I wouldn't worry about it but in general lower is better. 16-18's are good, 12-14's get expensive. Again, I wouldn't worry about this part.
I actually found a place selling RAM at a price that will allow me to get 64GB of 3200MHz RAM memory for 210 US dollars. Pretty good, I think! Adobe After Effects eats memory, it would be awesome to be able to use it comfortably -- something that I never did, even as a professional in company-owned machines :P
Yeah, you can edit video with 16GB, absolutely, the problem is composition and other fancy stuff.
You can even run After Effects and the like on 16GB or 32GB, but 64GB is the spot for buttery smoothness (and the ability to keep all the Creative Suite open at the same time). Example.
Depends on what supply is like where you're at, but I imagine you could save a lot of money by getting an RX 5600 or 6600 and end up with an equivalent or more powerful card. $340 is way more than I paid for my 5600 brand new, and it sells for like $100-150 on eBay these days. 2060 can't really do ray tracing anyway, so I dunno that there's anything that recommends it over the 5/6600. Maybe RAM quantity on that particular model but I dunno that it'll really make use of it.
There's an equivalent to ebay that I can use, but I wouldn't buy anything used, I just don't feel confident enough. If something like that breaks, I won't have the money to replace. I need a warranty.
I found a
6500 XT MECH 2X 4G OC MSI AMD Radeon, 4GB GDDR6for cheaper, but it only has 4GB RAM. I think a 12GB GPU is best for After Effects.Also only found a RX 5600 XT with 4GB RAM. RX 6600 is more expensive, and also low RAM.
Oh wow, I didn't even know they made 4GB 5600s, I thought they were all 6GB. 4GB is definitely pretty bad these days. And I'd for sure say to avoid any *500 series cards from AMD, they're pretty crap. Too bad then, but I'm sure the 2060 will do the job fine if you can't find anything decent for cheaper.
The 2060 I found has 12GB RAM. I think it's good for what I need, After Effects uses a lot of memory.
So another update... my partner decided to get a new television for her mother, which means that I would get my mother-in-law's current 43" 4K Samsung TV. The TV is about 1 year old and is working fine.
I have used large televisions as monitors before and that is not an issue. The problem: I have already purchased an NVIDIA GTX 2060 12GB. Which is a decent card (with a lot of memory for it's price) that I only bought on the assumption that I would be using it for 1080p.
So here's the question: should I accept the 4K TV, or just keep with my plan of getting a smaller 1080p monitor? If I accept the TV, should I return/swap the card (which would be a drag...) for something more powerful and significantly more expensive, possibly sacrificing on other areas, such as storage or the quality and amount of RAM)?
Another downside of a 43" TV is that I would probably not want to transport it to the other side of country, which I may need to do.
Follow-up questions:
Why not both? Use the 1080p monitor for content creation, web browsing, etc at your desk, and use the 43" TV for couch gaming, browsing the net, and watching/editing 4K video content (which even the 2060 should be able to handle). I personally wouldn't start sacrificing others PC parts for a more powerful GPU though, especially since you can always upgrade later when you save up a bit more cash, and 4k gaming capable cards come down in price a bit more.
No worse than it would on a regular 1080p screen of comparable size. And I still regularly watch content, browse the net, couch game on my 1080p 60hz 47" TV. It obviously doesn't look as good as doing the same on my 35" 3440×1440 100hz monitor, but it's still good enough that I haven't bothered to upgrade my TV, nor am I planning to anytime soon. I am even replying to you right now while sitting on my couch looking at my TV using a wireless keyboard+mouse. ;)
IMO, not very, but it depends on what you're doing. For competitive FPSs and action games, the higher refresh rate is noticeable. However, for the vast majority of things you're likely going to be doing on a computer it makes very little difference.
Thanks for answering!
Finances? lol. We can only really justify one purchase, either a new TV for the mother-in-law (in which case I'll get the older one) or the monitor. And if were to get a monitor, the wife would definitely want the 43" back in the living room. To which I'd agree, TBH.
Yeah... not my kind of game anyway. But I might wanna play on occasion.
I'm looking at some options for 29" to 32" 1080p monitors -- 4K would be too much of an expense. I'm seeing a lot of curved monitors, and I'm thinking: do curved screens make a lot of difference, and will I adapt? Is it equally good for games, working, and watching videos? I literally never looked at a curved monitor in real life, will I find it weird? Is it bad for graphical work?
Ah, I misunderstood. If it's one or the other, I say go for the 4K TV. 43" is a bit too big for having on your desk right in front of you, as it will probably be uncomfortable to look at that close up, so you might have to mount it a bit further back from where you sit. But it should still serve you well, even with the 2060.
IMO, it makes a difference, especially on larger ultrawide screens. My 35" 3440x1440 is a curved Ultrawide. It's great, and allows me to sit a bit closer to the monitor than I otherwise would on a comparably sized flat panel. The only downside to it is that I love it so much that I will probably never be able to go back to a flat panel. :P
Yep.
That depends on the curve level. 1000R curved monitors are reeeeally curved (e.g. Samsung Odyssey) and would probably feel weird (even to me), but standard curve monitors (like mine) are actually pretty subtle, and you only really notice the curve when you look at them from above.
It's hard for me to find larger monitors that are not curved and "gamer".
I may choose to purchase a monitor just because the TV I would get is Samsung and out of warranty, and we've been having many problems with those in my country. They basically break down within 1 to 2 years and the repair is roughly the same price as a new one (what a coincidence!). Many people are bringing Samsung to court and winning, but that is not something I would do. I actually lost my previous TV in precisely that way, but a judicial affair of any kind would most certainly drive me into a nervous breakdown.
So I might choose to purchase a monitor (with an extended warranty) largely for peace of mind. These are the top options right now (with reasonable prices in my location): LG (ultrawide) and Acer (widescreen).
Hmmm, odd. I've never actually had a TV or monitor fail on me, but that could just be luck of the draw. If you're concerned about that though, IMO the best thing you can do to help prevent it is buy a really good surge protector (Anker or Belkin), or even an APC Uninterruptible Power Supply for your monitor, peripherals, and PC. Since I suspect most electronics failures are due to surges, power fluctuations, and sudden outages than anything else.
And if you do end up buying a monitor instead of swapping for the TV, I would highly recommend getting an ultrawide. The additional screen space makes a huge difference for productivity, and for gaming it makes for a much more immersive experience too.
That sounds so cool.
Video editors are generally against curved monitors for work, one of them cited the need to keep straight lines. However, it seems that most of the people saying that never used a curved monitor for work. And I just saw a YouTuber/editor showing their setup. So IDK ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I could see that potentially being an issue for one of those 1000R monitors, but a regular curved monitor is so subtle I honestly don't see how that could be of legitimate concern. And software isn't effected by the curve of the monitor anyways, so drawing or determining a straight line shouldn't really be a problem no matter how curved it is. I think those video editors are probably being overly paranoid. :P
Yeah... IDK, I agree it doesn't make a difference for the software, but the curved screen does introduce a slight distortion that may be significant for the human doing the work. I saw another video of an editor that tested 3 different curved screens... he's pretty persuasive.
It's a bummer, but I may be unable to get the monitor that would be best for gaming.
The problem is just the curve, ultrawidescreen is actually good for editing since you can see a lot more of your timeline at all times.
I've never once had an issue with my monitor's slight curve, and I regularly do graphical work (web and graphic design), semi-professionally. ;) But if you're genuinely concerned about that, there is no real major downsides in going with a flat panel. I would definitely still recommend going with an ultrawide though.
If you're curious, here's one guy commenting that he puts the video in the center to mitigate distortion. Overall it's a positive review, though.
And he's another guy saying that curved monitors are unsuitable for video work.
Is it possible that the software you use the most already provides things like rulers and other kinds of references, workflows, and baselines that prevent distortion from becoming an issue? I mean, things that are not readily available in video editing software?
Because the distortion does exist, but it will affect users in different ways. And some monitors are more curved than others, of course.
Yeah, I mean, the Odyssey in the top video is a 1000R monitor so that's no surprise there. As I said, I could see that being an issue on those type of ridiculously curved monitors. But most (like mine) are 1800R or higher, which is really quite subtle.
And as for the second video, I think the dude is really over exaggerating the effect the curve has. Especially since the way we see isn't flat to begin with, so a large flat panel has its own distortion effect regarding "straight" lines due to perspective. But much like with a curved monitor, our brains simply adjust to account for that. And ultimately, when it comes to graphic design, and even video editing, contrast ratio, gamut, and color accuracy (which the panel type and manufacturer effects most) matters way way wayyyyyyy more than anything else, IMO.
I choose to believe you because by believing you I get closer to playing Elite Dangerous on a curved monitor.
LOL. You don't necessarily have to take my word for it though. Is there nowhere close to you that sells monitors so you can go see for yourself? Spend 20min in front of a curved monitor there and see for yourself how quickly your brain adjusts. It might be that some people don't adjust as quickly, or even at all, and maybe that's where the discrepancy in opinions is coming from. And where you land on that spectrum may be different than me.
You know what's funny? What I'm actually thinking? I'm thinking "all that screen state will be great for playing MUDs" :P
I'm buying an NVIDIA GPU to play text games :P
Yeah, but with a nice, big, ultrawide monitor (or multiple monitors like I have) you can always keep a browser open beside your MUD so you don't have to keep alt-tabbing to look at command references. :)
The monitor is not actually ultrawide (it's a curved 32" 1080p), but look at how much MUD fits in one screen! Literally enough to waste, I'm feeling fancy!
Now I'm just showing off...
I seem to be adapting well to the curve. But an ultrawide might spook me[1].
The monitor bounces quite a bit on the stand. I'll have to find a way to solve this, as I hit the keyboard with force. My table is not as stable as I wish. Maybe there's some screws I can squeeze.
[1] EDIT: it seems that ultrawides are not great for RTS interfaces, and that is a genre I intend to play a lot...
Nice! And I'm glad to hear your adjusting just fine. I think you would do fine with an ultrawide too though, TBH. Which make/model did you end up getting?
As for the wobbling, you could always buy a higher quality, heavier weight stand for it. Most monitors have standardized VESA mounting interfaces on the back for exactly that reason. All my monitors are mounted on VIVO brand ones, which have metal arms that can be locked into place once oriented, and a quite heavy, solid metal base. PITA to move from one place to another, since they're so heavy, but I'd rather that then have them wobble or fall over at a touch.
I should definitely get a better stand for it. In the meantime, I'm concocting a duck tape monstrosity to improve the stability of my table.
I got a curved 32" 165hz 1080p Acer ED320QR. The reason why I bought Acer is that I am slightly more confident in the brand in comparison to other alternatives. I understand that the higher framerate is not really important for most of my activities, but I can't find monitors in that size that are not "gamerized". In any case, the box says its got a 1ms response, while the website says 5ms. I don't know what's up.
Yeah, Acer is a really reputable brand, so that's probably a safer choice. And weird, the website says 1ms response time for me.
Edit: Oh, it says 5ms in text at the top, but 1ms in the tech specs. So it's probably just a mistake in the copy at the top.
Maybe it's some localization shenanigans? Image.
But it does say 1ms below, so I guess that's the correct value.
(if these bumps are annoying, please ignore this thread. I have further questions, but it wouldn't make sense to create a new thread for each one. Sorry if that's a bother!)
I added my provisory configuration to pcpartpicker. The SSD is just one of many possibilities. The case is for completion since my actual computer case is not listed.
The GPU arrived! I will order the RAM, the power source, and the monitor tomorrow.
So now I'm looking into SSDs, and thinking: what speeds are good for gaming and video editing? Is 3600mb/s (read and write) good enough?
Because I found two 2TB SSDs for cheap.
The first is a PNY M.2 2280 NVMe Gen3x4 SSD (about 150 USD). It reads at a rate of 3600mb/s and writes at 3200mb/s.
The next in line has 7400mb/s read and 6400mb/s write speeds. It's a XPG GAMMIX S70 PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280 Solid State Drive. It's basically double the price.
Between those in terms of price, there's a 2TB Western Digital with a "sequential Read Performance" of 545MB/s.
Lots of fast storage is great for video. But will those even fit in my
Gigabyte B450M DS3H?What should I have in mind when getting an SSD?
Motherboard page:
1x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 PCIe 3.0 x4)
There is a single M.2 slot. It has the full x4 lanes, so that's good. It is only PCIe 3.0, so PCIe 4.0 SSDs won't match their rated perf.
It fits sizes 2242, 2260, 2280, and 22110 SSDs. Most you will see are probably 2280s.
Fast SSDs are NVMe and not SATA.
You need to decide if you need sequential read/write or random read/write.
Random is important for OS and most tasks. Sequential is good for media playback. That might serve you well in video editing? But I'm not sure.
You want to make a note of rated write endurance/lifespan.
Ideally check benchmarks because rated speeds almost never match speeds under a sustained load. Maybe Anandtech or similar sites have what you need to know.
Ultimately the most important thing is probably an SSD of suitable size, that doesn't tank immediately into a sustained load, and has good $/GB value.
So, playback in video editing is generally not linear. I mean it is, but it's erratic, sometimes frenetic. I am at least. It's not like watching a movie. I'm always changing speed and direction and jumping to different points of the timeline. There is also rendering.
So I'm really not sure what should be my priority in that regard. I may need to do some research. Thanks ;)