Off Topic: So slow I'm ashamed...

[Unobtanium]

Very nice! I am still rocking my setup from years past and slaying games on max settings.

-Dell 165hz 23.8"
-Intel i7-7700K liquid cooled
-32mb 2400MS ram
-240SSD system, 2TB 7200 storage
-1080Ti
-850W Gold rated PSU

 

[7eregrine]

How timely.
Apparently my build is now: ON.
I signed up for the EVGA Video Card queue. Oh, probably 10 months ago. Check my email the other day and Holy S! .. I got notified I was next in line to buy a 3070. Felt like I won the damn lottery. Annnd... I missed my window. You get 20 hours to reply and I was a few days past. s***!
I emailed them, y'know the queue has been closed for like 8 months.
I emailed them and just asked "Can I PLEASE get put back at least at the end of the queue?" To my shock and surprise, dude emailed me back and said "Hey, I am sending you another notice right now!"
Bam. Got it. Bought it. I did NOT realize I signed up to buy... a 3070 TI. *gulp* Holy crap. $850!
So... yea, here starts my new build.
The Ti requires a 750W hard drive... can you guess what mine is?
700.
Of course.
So....

VIDEO CARD: EVGA Geforce 3070 Ti FTW3 $829
PSU: EVGA B5 80+ Bronze 850W Fully Modular $65
+All my current hardware.

Motherboard does not support PCIe4, but Video card is backwards compatible of course, to PCIe3.
So there will eventually be a Mobo upgrade, and processor and hell, RAM eventually. Maybe even a new 4K 144Mhz monitor.

Re: Mobo's. I like Asus for a lot of stuff. Asus and EVGA are my 2 favorite brands. But current mobo is an ASUS. MSI or ASUS next. There aren't a lot of mainstream brands I don't like. Never had many mobo issues.

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[ruthrj]

Deciding if I want to get a new PSU or reuse my 10 or 11 year old AX850.

I’d spring for a new PSU with all of the effort you’re putting in. I really like how clean my build looks due to the modular power supply cables. With Murphy’s law, I could see the old PSU crapping out and causing a headache.

 

[ruthrj]

Bam. Got it. Bought it. I did NOT realize I signed up to buy... a 3070 TI. *gulp* Holy crap. $850!

That’s a slick card though. I still can’t believe how expensive and scarce GPUs are. I’ve never seen something like those trade like a commodity for as long as they have!

 

[Unobtanium]

That’s a slick card though. I still can’t believe how expensive and scarce GPUs are. I’ve never seen something like those trade like a commodity for as long as they have!

Inflation + chip shortage + crypto explosion.

Perfect storm for this exact item. I got my 1080ti used from a miner for $450, about 2 years ago, amd sold my 1080gtx for $275. Best swap ever. 1080ti isnt king anymore, but it still slaps.

UserBenchmark: Nvidia GTX 1080-Ti vs RTX 3070-Ti

Based on 1,482,452 user benchmarks for the Nvidia GTX 1080-Ti and the RTX 3070-Ti, we rank them both on effective speed and value for money against the best 451 GPUs.

gpu.userbenchmark.com

 

[7eregrine]

I’d spring for a new PSU with all of the effort you’re putting in. I really like how clean my build looks due to the modular power supply cables. With Murphy’s law, I could see the old PSU crapping out and causing a headache.

I might have an EVGA 700W for sale soon.
Cheap to you buddy.

I was upgrading ##70's and then selling my old ones to make up the difference. So I haven't been paying full price either. Can sell my 2070 for probably $600 at this point!
I'll probably offer it cheaper because I am anti scalper bulls***.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

I have heard lots of reports of similar deals with the EVGA notify queue as what you had 7. Lots of people missing it and EVGA letting them get it. Someone on a tech forum missed it by like a year and they let him have a spot.

I am still to this day signed up for 3080s and 3070's on there but have yet to ever get a notify to this day. Also, the FTW3 versions won't fit in my case and EVGA doesn't seem to be doing any volume on the XC3's sadly. The FTW3 queues seem to be the ones that are moving.

As much as I am not a fan of Zotac, at least it fits in my build with my reservoir and side panel and had a waterblock made for it. Also it seems to be MSRP-ing for $870 now. When I bought it, it was $660 + shipping. Which was still more than I wanted to spend. Oh well.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

I’d spring for a new PSU with all of the effort you’re putting in. I really like how clean my build looks due to the modular power supply cables. With Murphy’s law, I could see the old PSU crapping out and causing a headache.

The AX850 is a modular PSU with 80 plus gold. My concern is at that age may no longer supply what it is rated for. Think I bought it in 2011. I'll probably go ahead and replace it with a Seasonic unit or similar. I need to do some PSU research as there is a lot of crap out there and most brands do not make their own PSU units so gotta research the OEMs.

 

[7eregrine]

Wow, this thing is massive!

 

[theblooms]

Bam. Got it. Bought it. I did NOT realize I signed up to buy... a 3070 TI. *gulp* Holy crap. $850!

$850 is more than I spent on my entire rig.

I always go for 2-3 year old hardware, because it still runs 99% of the software out there, and it's dirt cheap. It's that perfect spot where you get the most bang for the buck.

i7 4790
16 gigs ram
AMD Radeon RX 580 8 gig
2TB Samsung 860 EVO
6TB WD HDD

 

[ruthrj]

Wow, this thing is massive!

Tee hee!

I was a little worried about the weight against the motherboard. I couldn’t figure out a way to have the case support the front end, but the rear seemed to be supported well enough by the bracket. It’s one of those things though where if I’m moving my desktop in a vehicle, I might remove the graphics card. I could totally see a speed bump jarring that card downward too much for comfort.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Wow, this thing is massive!

Yeah it is. Those EVGA cards with the FTW3 coolers definitely don't fit in my case lol. I totally want a see a pic of that bad boy when you get it installed.

$850 is more than I spent on my entire rig.

I always go for 2-3 year old hardware, because it still runs 99% of the software out there, and it's dirt cheap. It's that perfect spot where you get the most bang for the buck.

i7 4790
16 gigs ram
AMD Radeon RX 580 8 gig
2TB Samsung 860 EVO
6TB WD HDD

This isn't far out from the computer I built in 2014-2015.

i7-4790k
was oringinally 16GB DDR3, upgraded to 32GB
GTX 980
512GB Crucial SSD
2x 3TB WD Black HDD

It would frankly still be fine if I was still running on 1080p, but is inadequate for 1440p and 4k gaming.

Secondarily, if you've taken a look at the market for PC hardware which includes pre-builts, they have just gone through the roof. I've never spent more than $500 for a graphics card in my life, yet here we are.

My prediction for next gen MSRP's. I think it's going to be ugly.

RTX 4070 - $999
RTX 4080 - $1199 or $1299
RTX 4090 - $2999 minimum

Tee hee!

I was a little worried about the weight against the motherboard. I couldn’t figure out a way to have the case support the front end, but the rear seemed to be supported well enough by the bracket. It’s one of those things though where if I’m moving my desktop in a vehicle, I might remove the graphics card. I could totally see a speed bump jarring that card downward too much for comfort.

Oh 100% a card like that gets taken out for transportation. I am not a proponent of air cooled cards being vertically mounted, but I almost think that might be a good idea for some of them if you have the room to do it.

As for my resurrected build, I order two radiators yesterday and should be here Friday. Hardware Labs GTX360 and GTS360. One is thin and the other thick. I wanted to order more parts but they were out of stock of the tubing and fluid I wanted for the watercooling. I also have not decided on fittings yet.

 

[7eregrine]

Literally just fired it up.
More later.
It's ALIVE!

 

[theblooms]

Secondarily, if you've taken a look at the market for PC hardware which includes pre-builts, they have just gone through the roof.

Everything is through the roof. And there's exactly one reason for that, and we all know who is to blame, so I won't say anything more.

 

[concept]

For my favorite Game (Forza Horizons 4) I bought a last gen XBOX (4K capable) with 1 TB SSD, a racing setup with steering wheel, pedals, shifter, and separate racing seat, along with the nicest monitor I could find (1 year ago), an LG 77-inch OLED TV.

I've been spending about 3-5 hours per week playing Forza and there is still much to accomplish. Eventually I'll get Forza Horizons 5.

 

[theblooms]

For my favorite Game (Forza Horizons 4) I bought a last gen XBOX (4K capable) with 1 TB SSD, a racing setup with steering wheel, pedals, shifter, and separate racing seat, along with the nicest monitor I could find (1 year ago), an LG 77-inch OLED TV.

I've been spending about 3-5 hours per week playing Forza and there is still much to accomplish. Eventually I'll get Forza Horizons 5.

Don't laugh, but I still think the single greatest racing game ever made was Mario Kart 64!

To this day, that game is still absolutely a blast to play!

 

[7eregrine]

Purring like a kitten.
I replaced the 700W with a 750W. I was going to replace that, make sure it fired up, then replace the 2070 with the 3070. Once I got the PC open I remembered I actually routed some power cables under the GPU so I pulled that out and put the new one in.
I love my case BTW. It has top, front and a rear fan, with dials up front that control the speed, it has the HD lights on top of the case and a port on top that lets you plug and play physical hard drives. It's also H U G E.
Rerouting the cable around the newer GPU was easier even though it's like a half inch thicker. I think that's a testament that the modular cables were slightly easier to reroute.
Wouldn't fire up at first, so I started disconnecting stuff little by little to see if I missed something. I did miss something. New PSU had an extra connection I just didn't make on the Mobo power lead. Connected that and it spun right up.
Played a few games to try it out. Everything is good. I don't really have a game that CAN push it right now though. I mean I replaced a 2070...not like I was struggling with anything.
I'll have to try MS FLIGHT SIM. I hear that's pretty punishing.
I'll add pics from my phone here in a bit.
I'll be stopping the build here for now. I'll ask for a really high end monitor for my birthday and this still leaves me a great upgrade later.

For my favorite Game (Forza Horizons 4) I bought a last gen XBOX (4K capable) with 1 TB SSD, a racing setup with steering wheel, pedals, shifter, and separate racing seat, along with the nicest monitor I could find (1 year ago), an LG 77-inch OLED TV.

#MadRespect Doing all that for your favorite game.

 

[7eregrine]

More pics. Had to rearrange some cards in there.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

More pics. Had to rearrange some cards in there.

Thing of beauty. Good thing the 5.25" bays stop where they do!

Question, does your CPU overheat at all with just the stock cooler on it? Not sure which CPU you are running, but I built a few i7-4790k systems back in the day and they would thermal throttle like a mofo on that thing. I would honestly be shocked if it was adequate and I will keep shaming the hell out of Intel for cheapening out on those after Bloomfield/Nehalem/Westmere era which had a nice tall heatsink and copper core on the cold plate.

As long as it clears the RAM an excellent upgrade but is only like $30ish is a Cooler Master Hyper 212.

Edit: huh, I guess like everything else, those coolers went up in price too. Sigh.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Everything is through the roof. And there's exactly one reason for that, and we all know who is to blame, so I won't say anything more.

Well at least in this space, been problems since 2020, but have certainly gotten worse.

• Inflation certainly a factor (to what I assume your point is somewhat inferring)
• Ethereum and other crypto mining
• Supply chain
• Chip fabrication
• Super high demand
• And chip companies like Nvidia testing the waters on how high they can sell stuff given the above

To the last bullet point, you only have to look at the recent release of the 3080 12GB (original is a 10GB). Nvidia never announced an MSRP and as such, they were listed at higher prices then the 3080 Ti MSRP'd for. Yes MSRP doesn't exist now, but it still provides some baseline, so reading into this, it is Nvidia's way to maximize profits while testing the market for how much it can bear for price. If you see a 16GB 3070 or 3070 Ti show up later, it'll be the same deal.

This is why I am not hopeful for 40-series being any better pricing wise