OS Neutral Your Gaming Setup Hardware

[Huntn]

You can see my current hardware in my signature, however I recently upgraded my Video card to an RTX 4070 and the biggest change I’ve noticed is in my Unreal Engine project, where the play speed within the project almost doubled the frame rate.

What really prompted me to start this thread, is that I have been experimenting with Star Citizen, and it’s performance is dismal as a rule of thumb and with the goal of improving performance I was told that placing the game on a solid state drive would help. I have a SSD for my C Drive which I like to keep isolated, then I discovered that my motherboard has a connection for a PCIe memory card. This is the type of RAM they put in laptops and it’s tiny a wafer about 1x3”, and easy way for me to add 2Tbs of SSD storage ($50-80, 1TB-2TB). I moved Star Citizen over, and will report any changes in the Star Citizen thread.

Based on the size of this memory, I’m wondering why this is not a standard in desktop comouters? What is the drawback of a PCIe memiry stick vs a dedicated SSD drive?🤔

 

[salamanderjuice]

PCIe M.2 storage absolutely is the standard in desktop PCs these days. Most motherboards have an M.2 slot or two. There's no real drawback except sometimes 2.5" SATA SSDs are a bit cheaper for the same storage and that PCIe drives use PCIe bandwidth obviously. However they are several times faster, even budget ones and prices have absolutely cratered recently.

They are also not RAM but storage.

 

[maflynn]

My desktop is a Core i7 11700K processor, 64GB of ram, 2TB of storage, and the uber powerful, RTX 2060

I'm considering upgrading the 2060, but, in building the machine one of the major tenets was that it had to be virtually silent. That's why I opted for overly large CPU cooler, I could have gotten away with a smaller unit, or a AIO but I prefer air cooling. I have the fans for the most setup in such a way that the desktop is dead silent, though from time to time GPU's fan ramps up. I have MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU and I use a custom fan curve to minimize the fans.

My CPU temps are high 40s at idle, and mid 70s under load and my GPU mimics that behavior was well

 

[Huntn]

PCIe M.2 storage absolutely is the standard in desktop PCs these days. Most motherboards have an M.2 slot or two. There's no real drawback except sometimes 2.5" SATA SSDs are a bit cheaper for the same storage and that PCIe drives use PCIe bandwidth obviously. However they are several times faster, even budget ones and prices have absolutely cratered recently.

They are also not RAM but storage.

I noticed the great prices. I’ll assume that a dedicated SSD in an enclosure has these kind of memory sticks in them. I guess the reason why they're not all over the motherboard, is because you have the space in a tower to stuff SSD drives.

 

[Huntn]

My desktop is a Core i7 11700K processor, 64GB of ram, 2TB of storage, and the uber powerful, RTX 2060

I'm considering upgrading the 2060, but, in building the machine one of the major tenets was that it had to be virtually silent. That's why I opted for overly large CPU cooler, I could have gotten away with a smaller unit, or a AIO but I prefer air cooling. I have the fans for the most setup in such a way that the desktop is dead silent, though from time to time GPU's fan ramps up. I have MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU and I use a custom fan curve to minimize the fans.

My CPU temps are high 40s at idle, and mid 70s under load and my GPU mimics that behavior was well
View attachment 2240972

I put a 9th Gen i5 in my computer in 2019 when I saw a savings and no great difference between frames in games. I’ve been considering upgrading it to an i7 on the same motherboard ,but wonder if it would be worth it? 🤔

 

[salamanderjuice]

I noticed the great prices. I’ll assume that a dedicated SSD in an enclosure has these kind of memory sticks in them. I guess the reason why they're not all over the motherboard, is because you have the space in a tower to stuff SSD drives.

They don't. The flash chips soldered onto the board of the M.2 SSDs can be similar to the ones in the 2.5" SATA SSDs but don't have M.2 drives in them.

M.2 PCIe drives are several times faster than the 2.5" SATA SSDs (like 500MB/s vs . 7000MB/s) but they come at the cost of PCIe bandwidth. There's only so much available. For example a Ryzen 7950X CPU + X670 motherboard has 44 total lanes of PCIe bandwidth. A good GPU will take 16, each PCIe M.2 SSD takes 4 so the number of slots is limited. You can use free PCIe slots you may have to add another M.2 PCIe SSD though with an adaptor you can get for $10-20. SATA drives don't need PCIe bandwidth so it's easy for a motherboard maker to add 6 SATA ports.

 

[Mackilroy]

I’ve got a 12700K, 32GB of memory, 4TB of NVME SSDs, and an RTX 4080. I bought the last long after everything else, GPU prices being what they are. It’s well worth it though.

 

[dmccloud]

Here's my setup:

Ryzen 9 5900x
GeForce 3060Ti videocard
MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Max WiFi
32GB DDR4-3600 RAM
2x 2TB Samsung 908 Pro M.2 SSDs
2x 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDDs
NZXT Kraken 280 Liquid Cooler
MSI MPG VELOX 100R Case

2x Asus 27" monitors (1440p, 165Hz refresh, GSync and AMD Freesync compatible)

* These first two photos are of the computer in its original case with a different liquid cooler). The third photo is from the current case*

 

[dmccloud]

They don't. The flash chips soldered onto the board of the M.2 SSDs can be similar to the ones in the 2.5" SATA SSDs but don't have M.2 drives in them.

M.2 PCIe drives are several times faster than the 2.5" SATA SSDs (like 500MB/s vs . 7000MB/s) but they come at the cost of PCIe bandwidth. There's only so much available. For example a Ryzen 7950X CPU + X670 motherboard has 44 total lanes of PCIe bandwidth. A good GPU will take 16, each PCIe M.2 SSD takes 4 so the number of slots is limited. You can use free PCIe slots you may have to add another M.2 PCIe SSD though with an adaptor you can get for $10-20. SATA drives don't need PCIe bandwidth so it's easy for a motherboard maker to add 6 SATA ports.

That does depend on the specific motherboard being used. For example, the PCI-E 1 slot on my motherboard gets its PCIE lanes from the CPU, so it has x16 dedicated, as does the first M.2 slot. But PCI-E 3 (the other x16 slot) shares its PCI-E lanes with the second M.2 slot and the two X1 slots. Fortunately, I can run two X1 devices along with the second M.2 drive and be okay.

There are motherboards that have even more PCI-E lanes (X570, X670, higher end Intel chipsets as well), so some of those limitations actually go away entirely.

 

[salamanderjuice]

That does depend on the specific motherboard being used. For example, the PCI-E 1 slot on my motherboard gets its PCIE lanes from the CPU, so it has x16 dedicated, as does the first M.2 slot. But PCI-E 3 (the other x16 slot) shares its PCI-E lanes with the second M.2 slot and the two X1 slots. Fortunately, I can run two X1 devices along with the second M.2 drive and be okay.

There are motherboards that have even more PCI-E lanes (X570, X670, higher end Intel chipsets as well), so some of those limitations actually go away entirely.

That's why I specified the motherboard.

Depends on the CPU too.

 

[Huntn]

With the modular design of a PC, you can slowly keep it upgraded, kinda. Eventually for an upgrade you’ll be looking at a motherboard, CPU and RAM upgrades as a package, as the primary upgrade, which I did 6 years after I initially built my computer, less than buying a complete new computer. That’s with an independent schedule to upgrade GPUs. Always a good idea to buy a larger power supply than what you initially need.

 

[Huntn]

I replaced the i5 on my PC with an i7 today, lots of fun. The computer was clearly screwed up for a while. Read on if this kind of stuff interests you or I'm ok if you pass.

• First I just replaced the i5 with the i7 and crossed my fingers. It was a 2019 motherboard, and a 2019 i5, so I was hoping something newer and compatible with this board would just work. Nope, computer was screwed up when I tried to start it.
• I might not have needed to, but I popped the i5 back to get a normal acting computer.
• Updating BIOS was required- bios was dated 2018, newest bios was 2021. I purchased the motherboard in 2019, initial processor was a 6 core i5 processor, new one was 8 core i7. Bios version F3 was installed, updated to version F10 with the i5 installed, but when I went to restart the computer, it would not start at all. Oh **** I muttered. What if I wanted to return to the i5?? On the download page, I saw no warning about updating your bios to the latest, in fact it was urgently recommended. This is why you don't update BIOS if you don't need to.
• But then I put the i7 in and it would start, Hurrah! 😗
• Something called MemTest86, a CPU test started to run automatically, it got to Test7 and 58% complete when it froze.
• Verified cooling- Of note as the test was running this was without the CPU cooler physically connected to the CPU and the CPU's temp was running 99C. but I connected the CPU cooler and it dropped to 68C. Many links online about this test freezing up: https://forums.passmark.com/memtest86/41299-computer-froze-running-memtest86
• Dark Monitors- Because the MemTest froze, I shut the computer down and restarted, Windows was showing on my secondary monitor, but I’ve seen this before. But on restart it nothing came back, both monitors black.
• On second restart, the primary monitor started working, but everything was at 860 resolution as in HUGE, and I suppose because of the CPU upgrade, windows was busy evaluating in the background and my computer was slow and wonky.
• My Graphics cared was not recognized- Nor were the Geforce Drivers recognized if they were still there. Checked Device manager and some default graphic driver was running the show. Using a default MS driver, can’t pull up anything bigger than 1k on monitor. Windows only saw one monitor, the 4k monitor it called Generic PnP Monitor. After reinstalling Geforce drivers via Geforce Experience got my 4k back.
• Second monitor not recognized- checked physical connection, Went to Setting>Displays, but Windows could not find the second display. Turns out when I updated the BIOS it made “Internal Graphics” auto, but I read if you have a GPU installed it may turn off integrated graphics… and this 2nd monitor is connected via HDMI to the motherboard. With another restart, to get at the BIOS, I changed the setting for Internal Graphics from Auto to Enabled, then I got my second Monitor, Hurrah again! 🥳
  • https://pcgrace.com/motherboard-hdmi-not-detecting-monitor/
  • https://www.technewstoday.com/gigabyte-integrated-graphics/
• Finally because the MemTest86 crapped out, I donwnloaded the Intel Processor Tool. It tested the CPU at 100%. Good to know than just assume. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15951/intel-processor-diagnostic-tool.html

 

[splifingate]

When I want to get my Steam on, I (slowly) dive-back into my Dell T5500.

Two Westmere X5675's, an absurdly-obnoxious amount of RAM, and a nVidia 980Ti

Three Dell P2715Q's: two of which are connected via DP to my MP, and one of which is connected via DP to the Dell.

I do not game on the MP

 

[Mackilroy]

I replace the i5 on my PC with an i7 today, lots of fun. <snip>

You'll have to update your signature one of these days. I've swapped out components myself a few times, but never had anything quite as wild as you did.

 

[erayser]

I replace the i5 on my PC with an i7 today, lots of fun. The computer was clearly screwed up for a while. Read on if this kind of stuff interests you or I'm ok if you pass.

• First I just replaced the i5 with the i7 and crossed my fingers. It was a 2019 motherboard, and a 2019 i5, so I was hoping something newer and compatible with this board would just work. Nope, computer was screwed up when I tried to start it.
• I might not have needed to, but I popped the i5 back to get a normal acting computer.
• Updating BIOS was required- bios was dated 2018, newest bios was 2021. I purchased the motherboard in 2019, initial processor was a 6 core i5 processor, new one was 8 core i7. Bios version F3 was installed, updated to version F10 with the i5 installed, but when I went to restart the computer, it would not start at all. Oh **** I muttered. What if I wanted to return to the i5?? On the download page, I saw no warning about updating your bios to the latest, in fact it was urgently recommended. This is why you don't update BIOS if you don't need to.
• But then I put the i7 in and it would start, Hurrah! 😗
• Something called MemTest86, a CPU test started to run automatically, it got to Test7 and 58% complete when it froze.
• Verified cooling- Of note as the test was running this was without the CPU cooler physically connected to the CPU and the CPU's temp was running 99C. but I connected the CPU cooler and it dropped to 68C. Many links online about this test freezing up: https://forums.passmark.com/memtest86/41299-computer-froze-running-memtest86
• Dark Monitors- Because the MemTest froze, I shut the computer down and restarted, Windows was showing on my secondary monitor, but I’ve seen this before. But on restart it nothing came back, both monitors black.
• On second restart, the primary monitor started working, but everything was at 860 resolution as in HUGE, and I suppose because of the CPU upgrade, windows was busy evaluating in the. background and my computer was slow and wonky.
• My Graphics cared was not recognized- Nor were the Geforce Drivers recognized if they were still there. Checked Device manager and some default graphic driver was running the show. Using a default MS driver, can’t pull up anything bigger than 1k on monitor. Windows only saw one monitor, the 4k monitor it called Generic PnP Monitor. After reinstalling Geforce drivers via Geforce Experience got my 4k back.
• Second monitor not recognized- checked physical connection, Went to Setting>Displays, but Windows could not find the second display. Turns out when I updated the BIOS it made “Internal Graphics” auto, but I read if you have a GPU installed it may turn off integrated graphics… and this 2nd monitor is connected via HDMI to the motherboard. With another restart, to get at the BIOS, I changed the setting for Internal Graphics from Auto to Enabled, then I got my second Monitor, Hurrah again! 🥳
  • https://pcgrace.com/motherboard-hdmi-not-detecting-monitor/
  • https://www.technewstoday.com/gigabyte-integrated-graphics/
• Finally because the MemTest86 crapped out, I donwnloaded the Intel Processor Tool. It tested the CPU at 100%. Good to know than just assume. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15951/intel-processor-diagnostic-tool.html

That was a fun read... I don't mind working through issues, I find if fun... but you can't help thinking... "what if?"... haha. Whenever I change hardware... especially a CPU or mobo, I'll boot straight into BIOS first. I'll check if the CPU and hardware is all recognized. Check to see if RAM XMP or DOCP on AMD is set for my ram profile.. If everything looks good in BIOS, then continue to boot to Windows. If my GPU drivers don't look like it's installed, I'll download the current the drivers, than disconnect the internet because windows tries to install generic gpu drivers automatically. To be sure I don't have the generic display drivers that windows auto installs, I'll run the DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) from guru3d, then install current drivers and install as new. I actually use DDU every time I update new GPU drivers... I'm pretty old school. LOL Last, I'll check if Windows is still Active... sometimes it will go inactive after installing new hardware.

Glad it worked out for you... I've always been in team blue, but my last build, I went team red. I'm really thinking about going back to team blue on my next build. But I'll make that decision when I'm close to buying parts.

 

[maflynn]

My desktop is a Core i7 11700K processor, 64GB of ram, 2TB of storage, and the uber powerful, RTX 2060

I switched over to my first desktop build - described here: Building a new desktop
AMD 3700X/RTX2060 (pulled from the other build) and 32GB of ram in a Lian Li TU-150 case. I was basically debating whether to stick with my intel build or this one (which was sitting in my corner waiting for some love). This post described why I was maybe switching over to the AMD but ultimately went back to the intel build but just recently flip/flopped back.

Basically, I needed to switch my home office from my spare bedroom to my bedroom, and the other PC being larger and full of RGB would be rather annoying to my wife as she slept. Also the motherboard in the AMD uses gen 4 PCIe, where as the intel is PCIe gen 3, and finally the power supply is 650 watts vs 600 in the intel.

I'm planning on buying a RTX 7800XT next week and the gen 4 PCIe, and power supply means this is a better option. We have family staying in the spare bedroom for a little while, and once they leave I'll have the other PC setup for the kids and wife to use and I'll keep this desktop upstairs in my bedroom.

 

[maflynn]

Something called MemTest86, a CPU test started to run automatically, it got to Test7 and 58% complete when it froze.

Looks like you may have some wonky ram

This is why you don't update BIOS if you don't need to.

Yep, I avoid this unless I absolutely have too. I updated my bios last month for similar reasons and its also fear inducing to be sure. Odd that your old processor won't work? That shouldn't be, they don't remove processors but add new ones to the bios.

 

[diamond.g]

Sometimes BIOS updates reset settings, so it is wise to check them before and after an update to make sure things didn't change. I wonder if in the update and new CPU it flipped back to wanting to use the iGPU instead of the dGPU.

 

[maflynn]

Sometimes BIOS updates reset settings,

I would say the settings are reset 100% of the time, back to factory settings. For instance most bios' default is to have XMP disabled, its up to you if you want the faster ram settings. Updating the bios turns this back off and you need to re-enable it.

For me, I have custom fan curves, and various underclocking/undervolting settings (as opposed to over-clocking) to lower the temps of my processor. I need to reapply all of those settings once the bios is updated.

 

[dmr727]

I've got a 3900x paired to a 4070. I would have preferred to not send Nvidia any of my money, but ended up selling out at the last minute, mainly because I have some nerdy CUDA tendencies.

Thinking I might drop a 5 series CPU in there at some point, but my needs are fairly tame - it'd really just be spending money for the sake of spending money.

 

[Huntn]

Looks like you may have some wonky ram


Yep, I avoid this unless I absolutely have too. I updated my bios last month for similar reasons and its also fear inducing to be sure. Odd that your old processor won't work? That shouldn't be, they don't remove processors but add new ones to the bios.

I’ll run a test on my RAM and see what it says. As I mentioned, online there are many posts about this test freezing. I would assume that if there was an issue, it would report it as a failed test…🤔

 

[Huntn]

I would say the settings are reset 100% of the time, back to factory settings. For instance most bios' default is to have XMP disabled, its up to you if you want the faster ram settings. Updating the bios turns this back off and you need to re-enable it.

For me, I have custom fan curves, and various underclocking/undervolting settings (as opposed to over-clocking) to lower the temps of my processor. I need to reapply all of those settings once the bios is updated.

Of interest when I first put this computer together with this motherboard, I don’t remember having to turn on integrated graphics, but we all know how my memory is. But it’s also possible that back then, that setting did not exist as my second monitor just worked when I originally plugged it in to my motherboard, but with the new BIOS, maybe it was added and default is off? Just speculating. 🤔

 

[maflynn]

I don’t remember having to turn on integrated graphics

I don't think you need too, if you want to use the igpu you plug the HDMI into the motherboard back panel instead of the discreet GPU that's in the PCIe slot

 

[Macalicious2011]

LG C1 55 inch
Samsung Q950T with rear speakers: Atmos, DTS-MA, 4k/60hz pass through.
Xbox Series X
Nintendo Switch

 

[dmccloud]

Sometimes BIOS updates reset settings, so it is wise to check them before and after an update to make sure things didn't change. I wonder if in the update and new CPU it flipped back to wanting to use the iGPU instead of the dGPU.

With current platforms, BIOS updates often add compatibility for newer models of CPUs as well as microcode updates for the CPUs themselves. The old guidance for only updating the BIOS if necessary is honestly outdated at this point, especially when the vast majority of motherboards (even in prebuilt machines) have some sort of BIOS flashback/rollback in case of an issue while updating.