Tech Gaming Hardware discussion (& Hardware Sales) thread

My Spot said:
@Madmick What do you think of this prebuild?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/666624/powerspec-g516-gaming-pc

And that sure looks like a stock cooler to me...
Click to expand...
That's a phenomenal deal for those lucky enough to live near a Microcenter. That's $100 off the announced price from two weeks ago which was already killer. Yes, it's the stock cooler. It mentions in the description it's the Wraith Prism. That was an Achilles Heel for the 5600X all the way back when it was launched. You can get by with it, but it's not ideal. For those who know how it would be preferable to replace that with something like the scorching deal on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE 120 which is on sale for just $30 for Prime Day assuming it fits in that case (216mm width, so I assume it would):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NXPVH9D?th=1
 
Madmick said:
That's a phenomenal deal for those lucky enough to live near a Microcenter. That's $100 off the announced price from two weeks ago which was already killer. Yes, it's the stock cooler. It mentions in the description it's the Wraith Prism. That was an Achilles Heel for the 5600X all the way back when it was launched. You can get by with it, but it's not ideal. For those who know how it would be preferable to replace that with something like the scorching deal on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE 120 which is on sale for just $30 for Prime Day assuming it fits in that case (216mm width, so I assume it would):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NXPVH9D?th=1
Click to expand...
Jesus. The only store in California is in Tustin? Will they ship that? Because I may have to buy one.

edit: nope, no shipping. Dammit.
 
My Spot said:
For some reason, there are more Microcenters in north GA than in the entire state of CA.
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Maybe that’s where they were founded? IDK. I’ve never been a PC gamer just because I don’t want to have to deal with troubleshooting my PC, making sure I have the specs necessary to run the games I buy, etc.
But I’m tired of the console games running at less than 60FPS just so they can cram more polygons onto the characters and such. So I’m thinking about getting a gaming PC, and that looked like a great deal.
 
Jack Reacheround said:
Maybe that’s where they were founded? IDK. I’ve never been a PC gamer just because I don’t want to have to deal with troubleshooting my PC, making sure I have the specs necessary to run the games I buy, etc.
But I’m tired of the console games running at less than 60FPS just so they can cram more polygons onto the characters and such. So I’m thinking about getting a gaming PC, and that looked like a great deal.
Click to expand...
Best Buy has an absurd number of locations in California, even accounting for population. There also used to be Fry's, so there wasn't a lot of demand for MicroCenters up until fairly recently.
 
$800 is a good price for sure especially if you currently have nothing in you possession that can carry over (powersupply, case, SSD, windows license).

If you do have a few things that can carry over then that negates some of the value for sure. For example if you can carry over a windows license and a powersupply then you can probably do that same build with a 6700XT, double the ram, and a much larger SSD for overall same price.

The stock cooler it comes with (Wrath Prism) is actually pretty decent. I remember when it came out it tested almost identical to a CM 212 in terms of temps but the drawback was it was louder. Easy and cheap to swap it out but it's good enough to where most prebuilt buyers probably keep it (not exactly the crowd that is aggressive with overclocking and max boost )
 
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560ti said:
The stock cooler it comes with (Wrath Prism) is actually pretty decent. I remember when it came out it tested almost identical to a CM 212 in terms of temps but the drawback was it was louder. Easy and cheap to swap it out but it's good enough to where most prebuilt buyers probably keep it (not exactly the crowd that is aggressive with overclocking and max boost )
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One would hope. I've seen users report online that the 5600X runs between 75C-85C with PBO settings enabled when it's a good rule of thumb to stay under that. So one might be limited to stock settings. The 5600X ran cooler than the 3600X/3600 at stock, but it was PBO where the 5600X surged in temps. At the very least it's an improvement over the 5600X originally shipping with the Wraith Stealth. That was a rare blunder on AMD's part when historically it was Intel who skimped on stock coolers.
 
avenue94 said:
Best Buy has an absurd number of locations in California, even accounting for population. There also used to be Fry's, so there wasn't a lot of demand for MicroCenters up until fairly recently.
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Oh, absolutely. There are multiple Best Buy’s near me. Do they typically have good deals on gaming computers?
Because I don’t want to have to purchase a motherboard, power supply, graphics card, hard drive, and everything all separately. I just want a decent gaming computer that can run newish games at 60 FPS. And I’ll upgrade its parts piece by piece as needed in the future.
 
Jack Reacheround said:
Oh, absolutely. There are multiple Best Buy’s near me. Do they typically have good deals on gaming computers?
Because I don’t want to have to purchase a motherboard, power supply, graphics card, hard drive, and everything all separately. I just want a decent gaming computer that can run newish games at 60 FPS. And I’ll upgrade its parts piece by piece as needed in the future.
Click to expand...
Not as good as Microcenter's, but yes, there are solid deals via Best Buy. This is also true on Amazon or other places online. Examples:

Perhaps the most acclaimed brand for quality control that competes in the ultra-low margin end for prebuilds is Skytech, and they even have their own personal customizer, now, to compete with the likes of iBuypower or CyberpowerPC.
https://skytechgaming.com/custom-pc-builder/
 
Madmick said:
One would hope. I've seen users report online that the 5600X runs between 75C-85C with PBO settings enabled when it's a good rule of thumb to stay under that. So one might be limited to stock settings. The 5600X ran cooler than the 3600X/3600 at stock, but it was PBO where the 5600X surged in temps. At the very least it's an improvement over the 5600X originally shipping with the Wraith Stealth. That was a rare blunder on AMD's part when historically it was Intel who skimped on stock coolers.
Click to expand...
Yeah it should have originally come with the Prism. Prism would of been a much more appropriate match (it's anywhere from 8-10 degrees cooler than the Stealth in mid level loads and high level loads anywhere from 13-20 degrees cooler).
 
Jack Reacheround said:
Oh, absolutely. There are multiple Best Buy’s near me. Do they typically have good deals on gaming computers?
Because I don’t want to have to purchase a motherboard, power supply, graphics card, hard drive, and everything all separately. I just want a decent gaming computer that can run newish games at 60 FPS. And I’ll upgrade its parts piece by piece as needed in the future.
Click to expand...
Yeah pretty good as far as national chains go (there aren't that many tbh). I just got a good deal on a gaming laptop at best buy.

This won't affect your purchase choice that much, but a lot of retailers (especially Walmart) have been stuck with their portfolios and are only now substantially refreshing. So it's a pretty good time overall if you're looking for pre-builts.

Let me know if you need any pricing context. I work in the PC space, so I get a bit more data than usual.
 
Madmick said:
Perhaps the most acclaimed brand for quality control that competes in the ultra-low margin end for prebuilds is Skytech, and they even have their own personal customizer, now, to compete with the likes of iBuypower or CyberpowerPC.
https://skytechgaming.com/custom-pc-builder/
Click to expand...
Yeah Skytech is a big pain in the ass for the big OEMs atm cuz their pricing is quite aggressive.
IBY is finally refreshing and discounting, they've been slow this generation with rolling out new stuff. Cyberpower and cybertron are in a bit of a lull this quarter but overall always aggressive with pricing.
 
I still miss Comp USA and Computer City. And it's a shame B&H doesn't have national stores (please support them online if they have comparable prices to Amazon when you're buying stuff).
 
My Spot said:
I still miss Comp USA and Computer City. And it's a shame B&H doesn't have national stores (please support them online if they have comparable prices to Amazon when you're buying stuff).
Click to expand...
Ya unfortunately they're on the much smaller end (there unit sales last year are pretty small in a national context) and they've had a lot of trouble maintaining inventory levels this year. But a lot of stock and discounts on their 30 series desktops.
 
Madmick said:
Not as good as Microcenter's, but yes, there are solid deals via Best Buy. This is also true on Amazon or other places online. Examples:

Perhaps the most acclaimed brand for quality control that competes in the ultra-low margin end for prebuilds is Skytech, and they even have their own personal customizer, now, to compete with the likes of iBuypower or CyberpowerPC.
https://skytechgaming.com/custom-pc-builder/
Click to expand...
I can’t imagine an i5 and 8GB of RAM could run most modern games without sliding the graphics setting to zero. Could it?
 
Jack Reacheround said:
I can’t imagine an i5 and 8GB of RAM could run most modern games without sliding the graphics setting to zero. Could it?
Click to expand...
i5 is fine for most games, 8gb is doable but a bit tight. But RAM is among the cheapest and easiest DIY upgrades.
 
Buying any Intel CPU above an i5 is overkill for gaming.
 
Jack Reacheround said:
I can’t imagine an i5 and 8GB of RAM could run most modern games without sliding the graphics setting to zero. Could it?
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you mean i3, not i5, since the cheapest option there includes an i3 with 8GB of RAM. The thing to understand is that older i5's or i7's aren't necessarily more powerful than newer i3's, especially for gaming. The i3-13100F is actually a very respectable gaming processor. You can see it outperforms all of the non-3D Ryzen 5000 series CPUs including the R9-5950X in Techpowerup's testing. Here are two sources to reference for CPU gaming power:
1. 3DMark: Best Desktop CPUs
2. Techpowerup most recent CPU review gaming suite results, Apr-2023 (below)
relative-performance-games-1280-720.png



As for the RAM, even those with a phobia of building or upgrading PC hardware should know they can easily handle installing RAM. It's something that you literally just line up (there's a notch that helps you see this), and plug in. The most difficult part of this for frugal buyers is actually picking a compatible stick to the one that comes with the computer. Here is the spec sheet for that computer:
OMEN by HP 25L Gaming Desktop GT15-1104 Product Spec Sheet
From that sheet:
Memory • Kingston FURY 8 GB DDR5-5200 XMP RGB Heatsink RAM memory (1x8 GB) (expandable to 128 GB with 32 GB DIMMs)(3a)
Crucial fills in the gaps because they maintain RAM upgrade pages catering to this need for specific models:
https://eu.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp-compaq/omen-25l-gt15-1104
DDR5-5200 • CL=42 • Non-ECC • UDIMM • 288-pins • 1.1V • 1Rx8 based • PC5-41600

Those are the specs that matter to match, not the GB size of the stick. The RAM slots in its motherboard take up to 32GB sticks of RAM (there are also 4 slots). So you could actually buy a 32GB stick, and have 40GB of RAM with just two sticks (the 8GB that comes with the computer plus a max 32GB mate). You can use PCPP to shop. I've preselected the filters:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/m...8001&E=0&B=1100000000&L=420&sort=price&page=1

It's $29.99 for an 8GB mate. That would take you to 16GB RAM, and you'd be running in dual channel. Your new total is $629.
 
Madmick said:
I'm guessing you mean i3, not i5, since the cheapest option there includes an i3 with 8GB of RAM. The thing to understand is that older i5's or i7's aren't necessarily more powerful than newer i3's, especially for gaming. The i3-13100F is actually a very respectable gaming processor. You can see it actually outperforms all of the non-3D Ryzen 5000 series CPUs including the R9-5950X in Techpowerup's testing. Here are two sources to reference for CPU gaming power:
1. 3DMark: Best Desktop CPUs
2. Techpowerup most recent CPU review gaming suite results, Apr-2023 (below)
relative-performance-games-1280-720.png



As for the RAM, even those with a phobia of building or upgrading PC hardware should know they can easily handle installing RAM. It's something that you literally just line up (there's a notch that helps you see this), and plug in. The most difficult part of this for frugal buyers is actually picking a compatible stick to the one that comes with the computer. Here is the spec sheet for that computer:
OMEN by HP 25L Gaming Desktop GT15-1104 Product Spec Sheet
From that sheet:
Memory • Kingston FURY 8 GB DDR5-5200 XMP RGB Heatsink RAM memory (1x8 GB) (expandable to 128 GB with 32 GB DIMMs)(3a)
Crucial fills in the gaps because they maintain RAM upgrade pages catering to this need for specific models:
https://eu.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp-compaq/omen-25l-gt15-1104
DDR5-5200 • CL=42 • Non-ECC • UDIMM • 288-pins • 1.1V • 1Rx8 based • PC5-41600

Those are the specs that matter to match, not the GB size of the stick. The RAM slots in its motherboard take up to 32GB sticks of RAM (there are also 4 slots). So you could actually buy a 32GB stick, and have 40GB of RAM with just two sticks (the 8GB that comes with the computer plus a max 32GB mate). You can use PCPP to shop. I've preselected the filters:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/m...8001&E=0&B=1100000000&L=420&sort=price&page=1

It's $29.99 for an 8GB mate. That would take you to 16GB RAM, and you'd be running in dual channel. Your new total is $629.
Click to expand...
Yep, I meant the i3. I was thinking that I’m seeing computers with i5s these days that are having enough trouble just running Windows 10. But yeah, I guess it makes sense that there are ranges of processors for each generation.

Shit, I might have to buy that.
 
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