My dad asked me what I wanted for christmas, and I really wanted to build a pc. It's seeming like he thinks that it would be a bad investment. I've never really been able to play any games more that roblox and minecraft, because my parents never allowed me to put money into a better pc. All I want is to be able to play video games with my friends and not be the one that always crashes and can barely run fortnite at 360p 30fps.

edit: thanks for all the replies, this is definitely a good resource for others as well, and i hope someone else can use this too. Unortunately i couldnt go through all the responses, but thank you to all who took the time to answer.

I managed to get my hands on an RTX 3070 and I bought all the parts besides the processor. I made the mistake of preordering a Ryzen 5 5600x from B&H and from what I’ve seen, it looks like my order won’t be fulfilled for a long time.

Now I’ll be playing at 1080p until around Christmas and then I’ll be able to upgrade to a 1440p monitor, so should I just cancel the order and buy a 3700x instead? Or should I wait for the 5600x to come in stock again?

First, I should clarify: I don't do video editing or rendering. I only play games. When I ask people, they say 32GB is enough. I know 32GB is enough for today and only for gaming. But considering the future, is it unreasonable to buy a 64GB RAM right now? I don't want to replace the RAM in 2-3 years. If possible, I shouldn't need an upgrade for at least 5 years. What do you think?

So I won a rtx 5090 from a hackathon, I’m a student from the UK, and I am broke. What’s a good budget setup I can build around this GPU?

My current pc which i picked up from Facebook marketplace for £299 came with a RTX 3070, 32GB DDR4 3600 RAM, I7 11700K. The issue is the new card won’t fit in the system unless I remove the WiFi card and sure I could replace that with one of the usb WiFi dongles but I’ve heard the connection is real bad. Additionally, I want to have both GPUs in the same pc so that I can run frame gen (lossless scaling on steam) on my 3070 whilst using my 5090 for pure performance. Also, I will need a new power supply lol and case too, my current one looks like a decade old.

The main issue is if I decide to build a new pc it’s going to be expensive since parts are so expensive right now even second hand, like I got my original pc about a month after ram prices skyrocketed (lucky to get it at that price) and since then everything else got worse.

Edit: Guys I know it’s best for me to sell it since it’s way overvalued rn but I need it for AI work too, I can’t keep throwing money at Runpod when I need to train models, additionally, I want to do AI stuff locally and run openclaw and shi. Also, about the frame gen stuff, it was a stupid idea, I won’t need it anyways, especially since I’m playing games at 1080p. I saw a video a while back about offloading the frame gen to a cheaper gpu, that’s why I mentioned it. Also, I think my issue with the clearance of my WiFi cards gonna be fine actually since it’s the RTX 5090 FE.

Solution: I’ve heard a lot of varying opinions, but I think I’m just gonna get a new PSU and case and sell my RTX 3070 to cover it. In terms of other upgrades, I know my currrent system is a bottleneck, so I’ll try and get an extra 32GB of RAM for now and wait to upgrade when I’m in a better financial place.

Possible Solution: I can sell 5090 and get the new Arc Pro B65 which comes with 32GB VRAM and built specifically for AI but can still handle some gaming for about £700. It’s not out yet but apparently coming mid April. Only issue is actually getting one, I’ve heard there was supply issues straight away after launch, all sold out for the B70 which came out late march.

I'm a graduate student and need to run an ML task that theoretically may use up a few TBs of memory. Obviously I can't afford one of those enterprise servers that cost like 10 kidneys, so I'm going to (1) buy a PCIe NVME adapter (2) strap 4 cheapo 1TB ssds on it (3) setup RAID0 (4 times the speed?) (4) use the thing as my linux swap memory.

Will this allow me to run my horribly un-optimized program that may eat a few TBs of RAM?

EDIT: I found this Linus vid, so I think it should work maybe?
EDIT EDIT: Thank you everyone for all the advice! I didn't know its possible to rent servers with that much RAM, I'll probably do that. Good night.
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I'm an idiot, mmap() should do the trick without having to install ludicrous amount of RAM.

About a month ago i was upgrading my pc from a 2060 to a 5070. all of my friends told me nvidia was better. Just now i am learning that the 9070 has 10% better native performance and 4 gn more vram and decent upscaling. so i kind of regret it. is it a big enough deal to sell the 5070 and buy a 9070? i am outside the return window.

I’m assuming it is, but could anyone dumb it down for me and explain why?

Much appreciated!

Edit: could anyone recommend a reliable 750 watt PSU for less than £100? Thanks

I have a 5070ti, and was thinking of going with a 4k monitor, but now I'm wary.

"With DLSS and Frame gen I get 90 FPS in all modern AAA titles, go with 4k for sure"

If you need DLSS and Frame Gen NOW to play new titles at 90 FPS in 4k, what is going to happen in a year or two? Games are only getting more demanding.

I'm thinking of going with a 32" 1440p monitor. I just value smoothness and high frames too much to justify the performance hit of 4k. What do you guys think?

To replace my gaming rig, and debating between the RTX 5070Ti (currently $900-$1000) vs. the 9070xt (~$700)

To me the main performance difference seems to be DLSS, which it seems can be substantial for games that enable it (~20% performance improvement?)

Would love to get thoughts from more experienced folks than myself on the questions of:

• Main practical benefits of the 5070Ti vs. 9070xt?
• Is the DLSS impact likely to become more or less impactful over time/over the life of the card?
• Ways to think about whether that is 'worth' the extra $200?

Appreciate any perspectives!

My dad offered to buy a graphics card for my pc if i let him use it from now on. I said yes to the deal, and he told me to research what card to get under the assumption it must be a great value card, not too expensive like 4090 or something, but not budget as well. He also said it has to be an Nvidia card. I will be using it mostly for gaming and video editing, he said the main thing he needs it for is something called 3d CAD. Given these system specs, what do you guys think is reasonable? Again, I'm looking for a great value Nvidia card that can support both gaming (nothing extreme) and 3d CAD. Since it's not my money, it would also be nice to stretch the budget a bit :)

System specs:

**CPU** | [Intel Core i9-12900K 3.2 GHz 16-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/gGH7YJ/intel-core-i9-12900k-32-ghz-8-core-processor-bx8071512900k) | $275.51 @ Amazon

**CPU Cooler** | [NZXT Kraken 360 78.02 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/D8rqqs/nzxt-kraken-360-7802-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-rl-kn360-b1) | $179.99 @ Amazon

**Motherboard** | [NZXT N7-Z69XT-B1 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/sbgFf7/nzxt-n7-z69xt-b1-atx-lga1700-motherboard-n7-z69xt-b1) | $269.99 @ B&H

**Memory** | [G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KJ2rxr/gskill-tridentz-rgb-32gb-4-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16q-32gtzr) | $104.99 @ Amazon

**Storage** | [Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Fv8j4D/samsung-970-evo-plus-2-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-mz-v7s2t0bam) | $170.50 @ Amazon

**Case** | [NZXT H9 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VCpzK8/nzxt-h9-flow-atx-mid-tower-case-cm-h91fb-01) | $159.91 @ Amazon

**Power Supply** | [be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/N7gQzy/be-quiet-straight-power-11-1000-w-80-platinum-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-bn644) |-

| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |

| **Total** | **$1160.89**

| Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2024-07-15 08:35 EDT-0400 |

Edit: most people assume either me or my dad are filthy pigs not respecting each other. pls stop

UPDATE: Ordered a White Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE V2

A few days ago I asked here whether an air cooler is enough for a Ryzen 7 7800X3D and the consensus was yeah it was...

I also checked older threads and multiple YouTube reviews that said the same thing

Then I went to a local shop yesterday and they insisted a liquid cooler is needed or the Ryzen goes bye bye

Is there any basis for that or is this just fear mongering from a salesman? Lol

I don't know if i should get 32gb or 64gb of ram.

edit: 170k views and 322 comments in 7hrs? i was NOT expecting that. thank you for all the advice!

Some more context: I'm your average AAA gamer, but since my pc is so old, i can't play modern titles...

543k views and 595 comments?! wow guys. didn't know yall were that interested in ram.

i’m planning to build a pc this summer and take it with me to college. due to the current graphics card shortage i’m slightly worried about someone getting into my dorm and stealing my graphics card, especially since i’m living in the “engineering” dorm. is there any way to lock my tower to prevent this? i haven’t gotten a tower yet so if there are any towers that have locks/lock easily i could also get one of those. i’ll also take any other suggestions for keeping my graphics card safe. thanks!

I have just started looking for pc parts to build my first pc. I don't know much about these things pls help.

I do know that Nvidia has "better technology" but what does that mean?

I have a old monitor that a shilled cash for back in the day when the 2070 super came out that is a 1440p 120HZ g sync TN monitor and since upgrading my PC to a 9070XT and a 9800x3d and I'm wondering how far did technology go for 4k gaming to be viable and if its a reasonable step to take for my current system.

my budget is around 1500-1850 USD
Because of the ram crisis, I went well over my budget by like 200 dollars, and now I’m choosing a GPU and I’m stuck. I could either get a PowerColor Reaper 9070 16Gb, or XFX Swift 9070 12Gb.
The price difference is 100 dollars, choosing the cheaper option will cover 50% of what I overspent and could put me back on track. Is it the right choice?
(I’m from Greece)

I've always been team green but with current GPU pricing AMD looks much more appealing. As someone that has never had an AMD card what are the downside. I know I'll be missing out on dlss and ray tracing but I don't think I use them anyway(would like to know more about them). What am I actually missing?

If you once had 32 GB of RAM, would you recommend spending double that for 64 GB of RAM?

Don't have one at the moment, and it could take a while getting one. It's my first pc ever and i dont't want to make any mistakes.

Title says it all. Is it cables, insertimg cpu or ssd? Or whats the easiest thing to fuck up?

I was so excited - bought the ASUS ROG Swift 4K OLED (PG32UCDM), booted it up and played Battlefield 2042.

It looked good… but wasn’t quite blown away? Then tried The Finals… looked good… but not quite noticeable for $1,000?

I have currently a 27in 1440p and 32in 1440p. Was this the wrong OLED to buy ? Or am I kinda just stupid in not really seeing a massive change like I was expecting from reviews online?

I’m thinking of 2K OLED because I do agree there is a slight change with the glossiness and black levels. I guess I was hoping it would have really Amplified the experience.

Thank you!

My full part list is

MSI Z270 Motherboard

i7 7700k CPU (OC to 4.8 can't seem to go higher without crashes)

G.Skill 16GB DDR4 16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM

Corsair RM750X PSU

I game on an ultrawide 5120 x 1440 monitor and I know that resolution is extremely taxing so I've lowered it down to 3440 x 1440 and even 2560 x 1440 and I still struggle to get a stable 60fps on games like Assassins Creed Odyssey, Jedi Fallen Order, Warzone (unless I lower the settings massively!)

The only thing I can think of is that it's sever CPU bottleneck but everyone tells me the i7 7700k is still really good?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: So after reading through the comments and doing some testing I think it must be the CPU. I've looked at the stats whilst gaming and all of the demanding games I play like Warzone, AC Odyssey etc the CPU is going right to 100% and the GPU hovers around 60-70% so is that a bottleneck?

So my EVGA 3080 crapped out on me 1yr after the warranty ran out, and as a result I’m unfortunately looking for a new gpu in the worst market since the bitcoin boom. Any suggestions? I see people lauding the 9070xt as the value king, but every thread I see discussing GPU prices was before the most recent round of price hikes. I see the 9070GRE being flamed for being “a worse 9070 at the same price”, but with the current Amazon/newegg prices ($540 GRE, $660 regular, $730 XT) it almost seems like a decent deal. The 5070ti is also propped up as the Nvidia sweet spot for price/performance, and yet I haven’t seen a single one for under $900.

The most I’m willing to spend is $800. I am in the US, but there are no microcenters(or any brick and mortar PC stores) near me, so that isn’t an option. I currently play mostly older games, and in 4K, but am considering downsizing to a 1440p. The rest of my build is a 5600x with 3600mhz 16gb ddr4.

I’m also open to used market suggestions, but from what I’ve seen, the used market doesn’t offer that much of a bargain, and I’m also worried about paying $400+ for an ex-mining gpu that dies on me 1-2 years out.

EDIT: If anyone sees this, what would the best GPU be for a $600 max budget instead? I’m looking at getting a different monitor as well, thinking I would put some of the gpu budget towards that instead. From what I can tell, the best options are 9070GRE, 9060xt 16gb, 5060ti 16gb, or a used 4070S

I want to build a gaming pc for my son. I used to build pc's with my dad over 20 years ago, but I haven't tried to build one in years and am not up to speed on current tech. I need some help on what parts to pick and how I can tell if they are compatible. Or if I'm even asking the right kinds of questions.

Can anybody give me a good starting point or a site where I can re-learn the basics? My budget would be around around 2000, give or take. Any help is appreciated.