Tech Gaming Hardware discussion (& Hardware Sales) thread

[PEB]

I remember paying $90 for 960TB ADATA drive last year (Canadian). To me, prices are still too damn high.

True but GPU's like RTX 2070 or RTX 2080 are still hugely expensive as time passes and people are selling used ones for as much as new ones. I hear GPU problems is because of Apple sucking the air out of everyone else by paying top dollar to put them at the top of TSMC production. This is forcing people like Nvidia or AMD to wait or get dragged into paying higher prices. So fewer show up for sale and we pay top dollar.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

True but GPU's like RTX 2070 or RTX 2080 are still hugely expensive as time passes and people are selling used ones for as much as new ones. I hear GPU problems is because of Apple sucking the air out of everyone else by paying top dollar to put them at the top of TSMC production. This is forcing people like Nvidia or AMD to wait or get dragged into paying higher prices. So fewer show up for sale and we pay top dollar.

Yeah, I actually only recently checked out prices for new video cards and was shocked to see the GTX 2080 I purchased in October of 2018 was more now, than then. (I paid $979CAD, and it is going for $1099). The 5700XT really boggles my mind - I got it as part of a pre-build and I think at the time it was $400 in fall 2019, now it is well north of $500.

Prices as a whole are up. Power Supplies, SSDs - unless I absolutely had to, I would hold off on putting something together. What I really want is the LGA 2066 109XX series. I have an old 7820x that I want to upgrade, but there are literally no 10 series HEDT processors for sale. Sucks... because the MSRP on the 18 core was only $999.

 

[jefferz]

I remember paying $90 for 960TB ADATA drive last year (Canadian). To me, prices are still too damn high.

If you paid 90 Canadian rupees for a 960tb, you got the deal of the century that no one else got.

 

[Madmick]

I remember paying $90 for 960TB ADATA drive last year (Canadian). To me, prices are still too damn high.

If you paid 90 Canadian rupees for a 960tb, you got the deal of the century that no one else got.

Not only is that an incredible deal for a 1TB(ish) SSD, but sheesh, @PEB is right, and I haven't seen anyone complain about SSD prices in years because of how they've crashed.

Over the past year the NVMe Intel 660p 1TB has seen sale prices from $85-$95 numerous times. In 2012 a relatively snail-paced 128GB SATA SSD averaged around $125.

 

[PEB]

If you paid 90 Canadian rupees for a 960tb, you got the deal of the century that no one else got.

I just realized he put TB instead of GB lol because of this post nice catch.

 

[jefferz]

I just realized he put TB instead of GB lol because of this post nice catch.

I didn't even notice he said TB instead of GB and did it myself haha. If I would have known they were that cheap I would have ordered a bunch myself and had them sent to a Canadian friend.

Not only is that an incredible deal for a 1TB(ish) SSD, but sheesh, @PEB is right, and I haven't seen anyone complain about SSD prices in years because of how they've crashed.

Over the past year the NVMe Intel 660p 1TB has seen sale prices from $85-$95 numerous times. In 2012 a relatively snail-paced 128GB SATA SSD averaged around $125.

I went back and looked at my Tiger Direct orders. That drive is still in use every day in my htpc.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

I just realized he put TB instead of GB lol because of this post nice catch.

Lol, yes, definitely meant GB.

It seemed like sometime in 2019, the sweet spot for a 1TB SSD was around $100 CAD (dropping a bit lower on Amazon deal days). In the grand scheme of things, yes, I shouldn't complain about pricing. With that being said, I have stocked up on more SSD storage than I know what to do with. My main office computer has 4TB of SSD storage, and 1TB NVME boot drive. I have no more spinning hard drives in my computer unless you count an external drive.

Since I use primarily online cloud storage, I stopped storing most things locally - long gone are the days where I would fill up hard drives with random TV shows and movies from Pirate Bay.

 

[The Diplomat]

Just got my new PC today.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
nVidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
1TB SSD
16GB Ram

still planning on upgrading the RAM at some point, and getting another SSD. I also have a 27" ViewSonic 144hz monitor coming my way soon to complete the package.

 

[Madmick]

Just got my new PC today.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
nVidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
1TB SSD
16GB Ram

still planning on upgrading the RAM at some point, and getting another SSD. I also have a 27" ViewSonic 144hz monitor coming my way soon to complete the package.

How fast is your RAM and which SSD did you score?

 

[The Diplomat]

How fast is your RAM and which SSD did you score?

RAM: DDR4 SDRAM 3000 megahertz

SSD: NVMe

I got a 110% on all the benchmark tests. Just downloading some games I have on Steam like Fallout 76, Bannerlord, etc. to run. Bannerlord runs everything maxed flawlessly.

CyberpowerPC always sends cheap, broken mouses though. The middle button just falls right through.

 

[jefferz]

RAM: DDR4 SDRAM 3000 megahertz

SSD: NVMe

I got a 110% on all the benchmark tests. Just downloading some games I have on Steam like Fallout 76, Bannerlord, etc. to run. Bannerlord runs everything maxed flawlessly.

CyberpowerPC always sends cheap, broken mouses though. The middle button just falls right through.

If you have the money for that type of system, you have the money for good peripherals.
Congrats on the new system.

 

[jefferz]

Z Reviews covered the new Corsair Virtuoso wireless headphone and it wasn't good. TLDW: The build quality is better than $1000+ headphones but the sound quality is worse than $30 headphones.


Here's a video from the same guy talking about buying audiophile grade stuff for gaming. You'll get a much better bang for the buck with audiophile stuff vs "gaming" stuff.

TLDW: Philips SHP9500's,
V-MODA BoomPro Microphone, and a Syba Sonic DAC/AMP

Hardware Canucks talking about this combo

 

[Slobodan]

Z Reviews covered the new Corsair Virtuoso wireless headphone and it wasn't good. TLDW: The build quality is better than $1000+ headphones but the sound quality is worse than $30 headphones.


Here's a video from the same guy talking about buying audiophile grade stuff for gaming. You'll get a much better bang for the buck with audiophile stuff vs "gaming" stuff.

TLDW: Philips SHP9500's,
V-MODA BoomPro Microphone, and a Syba Sonic DAC/AMP

Hardware Canucks talking about this combo

I have a Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro, it's pretty amazing.

I had a DT-770 Pro but I err broke it lol

 

[jefferz]

I have a Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro, it's pretty amazing.

I had a DT-770 Pro but I err broke it lol

are you running a DAC or amp with them?

 

[Slobodan]

are you running a DAC or amp with them?

No I feel like it's "good enough" already with the onboard audio

But I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading to a DAC or amp

I wouldn't know where to start though

 

[Madmick]

RAM: DDR4 SDRAM 3000 megahertz

SSD: NVMe

I got a 110% on all the benchmark tests. Just downloading some games I have on Steam like Fallout 76, Bannerlord, etc. to run. Bannerlord runs everything maxed flawlessly.

CyberpowerPC always sends cheap, broken mouses though. The middle button just falls right through.

Awesome, a CPPC build. So you're one more Sherdogger who can provide us feedback on them. Not surprised to hear the standard mouse has build quality issues. I'm more forcefully suggest the Elite Pro M1 mouse they offer at the top as a substitution for this. Just checked, and now that M1 is $9, when before it was $5, so it's +$6 instead of +$2 vs. the Standard mouse which buyers can deselect. Around the Holidays they usually offer it for free, though.

 

[jefferz]

No I feel like it's "good enough" already with the onboard audio

But I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading to a DAC or amp

I wouldn't know where to start though

To get into a decent headphone amp you're looking at about $100. Something like the JDS Labs Atom, Schiit Magni, or the Monoprice Liquid Spark are all good options at that price point.

 

[Madmick]

Those are strong suggestions, but it should be noted there's no need to procure a headphone amp unless you're using a high impedance audiophile-class headphone, Slob.

The simplest way to determine if this might be suitable for you is very straightforward. It requires two questions; one a paper question, the other with the ears.
(1) Is the impedance spec for your headphones high?
(2) If yes, with your current headphones, are you unable to achieve a sufficient volume without hearing distortion or white noise?

If the answer to either of those questions is no, then don't waste money on an amp.

 

[Slobodan]

Those are strong suggestions, but it should be noted there's no need to procure a headphone amp unless you're using a high impedance audiophile-class headphone, Slob.

The simplest way to determine if this might be suitable for you is simple. It requires two questions; one a paper question, the other with the ears.
(1) Is the impedance spec for your headphones high?
(2) If yes, with your current headphones, are you unable to achieve a sufficient volume without hearing distortion or white noise?

If the answer to either of those questions is no, then don't waste money on an amp.

Yeah it's 250 ohms

I have it set to 60% volume, I can go all the way up to 100% and there is no distortion or anything of the sort. I find 60% to be the most comfortable when playing games.

 

[PEB]

Back a few years ago lol I was playing with the idea of buying a headphone tube amp. Not reallly thinking to much about quality just coolness factor.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07L4GL63N/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01EWLCB3G/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-Amp...ed-Headphone/dp/B073ZXZ3Z5?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0851HGH73/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1