Topic of Discussion Any PC builders on here?

[TurboMinivan]

On a semi-related note, it looks like I did pretty good in December when I bought myself a new gaming** laptop computer (Acer model AN515-45-R92M). It has a Ryzen 7 5800 8-core processor, GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and so on. It was actually discounted at the time to $1099 direct from Acer--this was the lowest price Google could find, so I jumped on it. Due to this thread, I just went out to Acer's site to check on it. It now sells for $1329.

**: like every console I've ever purchased, I bought this laptop just so I could play one game--in this case, Gloomhaven.

 

[frieed]

if the price of graphics cards scare you, don't even look at DDR5 prices...

 

[DAA]

So, I had to look . They're giving that DDR5 shit away compared to the graphics cards?

- DAA

 

[shortstraw8]

Holy crap... This thread got me thinking it might be worth stuffing a better card in my current PC. So I started looking at them. Jeeezus... Prices are insane!

Probably not going to do anything for at least another year. Hope things eventually start to settle back down.

- DAA

Not sure if it would be an upgrade or compatible, but I have a Sapphire HD6970 that I will probably never use again in my tote of parts. Good card 2G gddr5 1080p I assume it still works and should have the manuals in the box.

 

[frieed]

I see my normal string of luck remains intact.
I built the new system with 64 GB of mem (4 x 16 GB crucial DDR mem sticks) and proceeded to get to get random blue screens.
This is not fast RAM. No overclocking, no nothing, it should just work, which is why I picked it.
I have always had really good luck with crucial mem (micron parts) so honestly thought MB problems.
Checked RAM with windows memory diagnostics.... it crashed... which could mean it was running in RAM.... the RAM it was supposed to be checking,
Found memcheck86 and tried again. (my guess is that the entire program fits in cache, so not running in the same memory it is checking)
with all 4 slots populated.... errors...
tested each DIMM separately in slot B2 and they all passed.
moved the last passing DIMM to slot A1 and it failed. Moved that same DIMM to A2 and it is fine....
Bad motherboard as I suspected...
Just my luck.
I've sent an trouble ticket to Gigabyte so lets see what happens.

 

[shortstraw8]

I see my normal string of luck remains intact.
I built the new system with 64 GB of mem (4 x 16 GB crucial DDR mem sticks) and proceeded to get to get random blue screens.
This is not fast RAM. No overclocking, no nothing, it should just work, which is why I picked it.
I have always had really good luck with crucial mem (micron parts) so honestly thought MB problems.
Checked RAM with windows memory diagnostics.... it crashed... which could mean it was running in RAM.... the RAM it was supposed to be checking,
Found memcheck86 and tried again. (my guess is that the entire program fits in cache, so not running in the same memory it is checking)
with all 4 slots populated.... errors...
tested each DIMM separately in slot B2 and they all passed.
moved the last passing DIMM to slot A1 and it failed. Moved that same DIMM to A2 and it is fine....
Bad motherboard as I suspected...
Just my luck.
I've sent an trouble ticket to Gigabyte so lets see what happens.

Dang, that sucks. I have heard from 3 people and read a bunch of reviews on the Aorus line from them that they love it.

Any odd bios settings?
Does the mem check feature work from bios?
Does bios even recognize all 64G?
Also does the firmware need to be flashed for it to use all 64, does sound like a bad dimm though

 

[frieed]

I don't get upset by this... I have broken really expensive software tools so many time and I understand that shit happens. Just curious how the customer service end of it plays out. I haven't run a memory test from BIOS but the de-facto memtest for the YouTube builders seems to be Memtest86.
All bios setting are auto/default... no over clocking, no nothing. Bios reports mem timing and available size correctly.
currently running with 32GB in the B1, B2 slots with no issue..

 

[nnnnnate]

That's exactly why I don't build computers. I'm glad someone is willing to do it though.

 

[shortstraw8]

I don't get upset by this... I have broken really expensive software tools so many time and I understand that shit happens. Just curious how the customer service end of it plays out. I haven't run a memory test from BIOS but the de-facto memtest for the YouTube builders seems to be Memtest86.
All bios setting are auto/default... no over clocking, no nothing. Bios reports mem timing and available size correctly.
currently running with 32GB in the B1, B2 slots with no issue..

My times coming, I suppose it will happen on my next build. Only had one graphics card that was DOA with all the parts I have ordered.

 

[frieed]

Update: I haven't heard boo from Gigabyte, but I made sure all the components I bought on amazon were sold by amazon. Yesterday morning I clicked on return the item, defective, identical replacement. The new board should arrive tomorrow. In the past few days I've been running with 2 DIMMs (32GB) in slots A2 and B2 and not a single hiccup.

 

[mbryson]

I needed a better computer for running Fusion360 design software. Did a bunch of research and just ordered this guy. I am not an IT guy at all, but the stats seem to be enough for my needs.
View attachment 146333

Looks like good specs but I wonder if the i5 will limit your drawing software a bit vs running an i7? The last I checked, (couple years ago or a little less) the i7 had some onboard video optimization vs the i5. Curious to see how it works out? I think it'll work just fine but wonder if the $100 difference in a CPU would give you $500-800 back in efficiency over the life of the machine?

For a basic web browsing, email, office machine, that's should work very well for 4-5 years?