It’s perfectly possible to go full-blown overclocking with watercooling whilst not buying top of the range parts (which tend to be “twice the price for an extra 10% performance” deals) and not spending a cent in decorative elements such as turning your PC box into a lightshow.
In fact it absolutelly makes sense to get well selected parts from the high middle end of the consumer segment using knowledge about performance bottlenecks to select the right stuff to get more bang for the buck and pumping up performance further with overclocking using the right self-assembled cooling and tweaks to things like voltage supplied to the CPU.
I like to call it Intelligent Performance Aware PC Builder but calling it Tight-fisted Old Gamer would work too ;)
There is a 3rd type.
Those with the “dark horse”.
It’s a smallish black box PC, no RGB, mini-itx sized, sits under the desk, mostly out of sight.
Quiet, well cooled.
Has the latest gen CPU & GPU, oodles of ram and nvme storage.
In the same vein, the ancient Beige Box with the same specs as the Dark Horse. It might not have as good of cooling and might be significantly louder, but it’ll keep up just as well. I had to use two 13,000RPM 80mm server fans for intake and exhaust in mine to cool an i9-12900k
It’s what I have.
Case choice for mini-itx is pretty limited, but it’s getting better. There are group buyins for small run manufacturing, like mechanical keyboards - but I’ve never been involved in one of those.
Not sure if there are any that would fit a 4090, tho!
But I love em!
I have a clean desk, nothing flashing, no risk of a glass side panel exploding.
The builds are a little more challenging and more expensive, but I quite enjoy it. Have to make sure parts fit, cable management has to be spot on, you need decent fans because there are less of them
I’m about to build my first PC, and I’m planning to be in the middle.
I don’t need all the fancy shit I just want to build something (without RGB bullshit) that will last me a long time and run linux flawlessly (so AMD everything?).
I know there are sites that will help with parts/linux compatability but I lost all my bookmarks last week, and I haven’t been able to find it again yet.
If anyone has advice for me or knows that site, I’m all eyes! (Would be “all ears” but this is text lol).
AMD has solid Linux support for most stuff, but if you want reviews of hardware from Linux systems, you can check out Phoronix. If you’re hoping to game, you can also check ProtonDB for crowdsourced reviews and tips on how well specific games designed for Windows work on Linux with Steam’s compatibility layer.
Also I would definitely recommend getting an IDE to CF or an IDE to SD adapter and backing up the hard drive to an SD/CF card so you don’t lose that data.
…and one thing I neglected to mention is that I no longer have an old enough monitor to go with it, so it’s been a while since I made sure it’s still runnning. Might be gone by now =/
I haven’t had a monitor with a vga port for a long time now (ever since I decided the old crt one I had connected to this old monster was just too bulky). I’m keeping the PC though. It’s my first one (Theseus approved). Haven’t looked to see if any sort of convertor to vga input is remotely viable and it’s not really a priority.
The case is an old extra-tall full tower that doubles as a mouse table. It even sits under an L desk. I just prefer that height when leaning back in my chair.
If you count an old hard drive I’ve always had that going, easiest to use your old app drives any reinstalls may go more quickly plus any media files on there. Though my media is mostly on my NAS, pictures tend to be on a local drive. I’m not sure I’ve ever done a new computer without an old drive and I’ve been doing this for like 25 years. Though I tend to move the old files to a newer drive before the next upgrade so not a true ship of thesus. Though most times the GPU upgrade is done at different times than the CPU/mobo/ram to keep it cheaper.
At this point I replaced my oldest original hard drive. I rebuilt another computer using entirely the parts I replaced. Literal ship of Theseus dilemma right there lol.
My pc looks like the first one (clear panel, same LED colors) but I most certainly feel like the second one with my rattling case fan that I never bothered to fix
I don’t know anymore what are we exactly talking about…
I’ve self taught myself how to build and repair PCs since I was about 15-16, I got my first IT job at 19 and I still work in IT 15 years later, so this is my thing, it’s vocational, although now I work more in software than hardware.
IDK if you’re talking about running of money for a good build, getting tired of building my own computers or something else…
Just joking because it happened to me. I was finally able to make a current build with all the bells and whistles after years of being the bottom pic. Then it didn’t take long for the new PC to be a little outdated, and I reverted to making less sophisticated solutions to keep it current.
Ah, I see. I’ve always had PCs without top tier components and I’ve still used them for many years as is, by only upgrading to SSDs and installing higher capacity HDDs when the old ones died. For instance, half of my last PC since circa 2014 was half of giveaway parts with an Intel Quad CPU (not even i series), 8GB of RAM and a GTS250.
I hope that this one I built with flagship AMD CPU and GPU and 64GB or RAM remains as my main PC as long as its parts last, with minimal ugrades, if any. Although I have to admit that I chose the AM5 socket with upgradability in mind.
I usualy settle for little regarding computers but maybe now I get hooked up to running videogame at ultra settings, but I don’t even have o want a 4K display, so who knows. Time will tell.
Yes, I’m aware I’m doing a long serious reply to a joke, lol.
It’s such fucking bullshit, when I built my first from scratch pc and wanted something utilitarian without glass panels my options were cheap Chinese garbage, tiny ITX/microATX case, Fractal Design, or overpriced designer garbage… I’m now all in on Fractal Design, everything I’ve built or recommended since has been Fractal Design.
I work on multimedia art installations so the PCs I build get transported and put in various places. Glass adds weight and is always in danger of shattering.
I think real is ok so long as it’s got a frame all around it. The single panels of glass seem like madness to me. I do prefer plexiglass personally. I also definitely have my pc on the floor and can see inside it at a glance. (Better than when I was briefly obliged to have it on my desk). It’s not stashed under the desk though TBF.
These days, the top. Pretty close to it, too–other than the hardline tubing, that’s about what my gaming setup looks like.
I’ve also ran systems in the past where the “case” is the box the motherboard came in, and you started it by tripping the switch header with whatever piece of metal was handy. Good times.
I was the bottom, but finally going to be the top this week! Just purchased everything to build my first new one since 2016. The 2016 one was me buying decent stuff but mostly mid range. This time I feel like I went mostly top tier outside some things (although some stuff says mid range which I don’t get). Although I still don’t care how the pc looks, I am one of the few that hates RGB and purchased everything I could without it. I took it so far that I got myself Noctua fans. Yes, I really don’t care that my pc will look brown beige inside, at least I know it will be quiet and cool which is all that really should matter!
Thanks! Been eyeing up AMD CPUs for years, but didn’t want to get involved with the GPU shortage price nonsense. After the news broke for last week’s new GPU drop I figured it’s about as good as it will get until next year. Got everything and waiting on the new rx 7800 xt to come in 2 days.
Should be a huge leap coming from my last build which revolved around an rx 480. I did love that card and it still runs great non stop since 2016. Handing it down to my son which will be his first pc.
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