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Everything posted by Kalm_Traveler
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'gaming' routers aren't necessarily as good as or better than a quality wifi/router that doesn't use that word on its advertising. That all being said, over the years I've found that you tend to get what you pay for with regard to product tiers in wifi routers. TPLink, Netgear, and Asus all offer good, mediocre, and bad routers. In 2020 I would try to look for one with good reviews that supports Wifi 6 (802.11AX) since devices will be supporting that moving forward and it is very fast. At bare minimum make sure it supports 802.11AC, has at least 2 (ideally 4) antennae, simultaneous dual band 2.4ghz and 5ghz. I had been using an ASUS RT-AC88U since 2016 when it came out but the power adapter blew up on me a few months ago, and ever since then (even after I replaced it with a better one) randomly anywhere from once a month to maybe once per week) it would just freeze up all internet access until I hard rebooted it so I finally gave up and went with separate devices for router / firewall / wifi / ethernet switch.
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What is some cool stuff I can do with pfsense?
Kalm_Traveler replied to mamamia88's topic in Networking
using mine for router, firewall, DHCP, VLAN management, IDS, IPS, and still need to finish setting up OpenVPN. Actually I need to tune the IDS/IPS stuff too (have Suricata running but haven't sat down to filter out useless-to-me alerts) -
Updated to the Intel i9 9900k and 32gb RAM
Kalm_Traveler replied to gabby131's topic in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
If I'm not mistaken the H150i Pro is a 360mm (3x 120mm) AIO? The best overall 120mm fans are the Noctua NF-A12x25 but they're about $30 USD each: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A12x25-PWM-Premium-Quality-Quiet/dp/B07C5VG64V If you wanted to waste spend a bunch to max out that AIO (and if your case has the space to do this), you could get 6 of those Noctuas for a push-pull config on the AIO radiator. Noctua also makes really good higher RPM industrial versions of their Axx and Fxx fans, so you could also go for some 2000rpm or 3000rpm NF-F12 iPPC fans, which thankfully are black instead of the traditional Noctua poop-brown colors. However, I will say from experience that those 3000rpm fans sound like jet engines at full speed... I had two 480mm thick radiators in my x99 rig, with 8 of the 3k RPM industrial NF-F12's and when it booted up it sounded like it was about to take off until the PWM kicked in and brought them down to bearable levels. If I were to go that route on your AIO, I wouldn't recommend faster than the 2000rpm versions (which I am using on my two main desktops currently). -
You're absolutely right... and actually if I can toss another idea out there; For the last month or so I've been having weird crashing on my HEDT somehow related to the RAM running at its XMP speed and finally got fed up enough to order a new CPU / MB / RAM to replace it all. Since all the components are fine, I'll be selling those which will probably recoup I'd imagine at least $1200 or so (Asus Rampage VI Extreme mb, core i9 7960x delidded, 4 x 16gb GSkill Trident Z RGB 3200mhz CL14 kit). I was thinking if I really wanted to be nice I could just use that money to buy cpu/mb/ram for my step brother and get him a really good setup that would definitely last him 10+ years. With say $1200 to spend on a mb/cpu/ram and a screen we have quite a few options, no? *EDIT* Just threw this together as an example (no screen but I'm not sure how much to allocate for that): PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DKNc4n CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor ($373.34 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($141.99 @ Amazon) Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($403.98 @ Newegg) Total: $1131.29 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-15 17:12 EST-0500
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best ram for 9700k
Kalm_Traveler replied to diabloinfinnity's topic in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
Generally 3200mhz CL14 is the sweet spot for Skylake-architecture-based CPUs in my experience. I went for 4000mhz CL17 on my new 9900ks rig mostly just for fun. Was running 3200mhz CL14 on a previous 9900k rig and honestly I can't tell any performance difference. I tested that 9900k rig with 2666mhz CL15 and could tell it was a bit slower than the 3200mhz CL14 though. -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
I don't think 2 cards with 3.0 x8 will give measurably different performance compared to them both having full x16 connection to the CPU, but that's partly because there's a lot of bandwidth going on over the NVLink or SLI bridge. Something tells me you're going to suggest moving my Titans into the 9900ks rig instead of its Kingpin card I could do that, but then its performance for 'most games' would go down. i've run a few things basically side by side on the same monitor and that combo really does net a pretty sizeable advantage over the 7960x @ 4.7ghz and effectively 1 of these power-modded Titans. It's embarrassing, honestly. ----- After scouring Threadripper reviews for the last few hours (and 5 minutes ago getting another nice shock of sound-blitzing system freezing) I think it makes the most sense to wait a few weeks for a 10980xe. I can get the motherboard and some faster RAM now and grab the next cpu that pops up (most of the shops seem to think they'll be getting restocked around end of this month or first week in February). Thanks again for the input and consideration points all of you. -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
FWIW friend, I don't disagree with you that cores will help keep it usable longer. No doubt they will since we can't seem to reliably push silicon beyond about 5ghz and even that takes the very best we can produce. That all being said, since about 25% of this rigs use is games... and currently most still only have maybe 2-6 threads at most, clock speed is still a concern over cores. The main dilemma I'm running into is not knowing how much longer I'd need to wait to get a 10980xe (which will definitely be at least slightly better in every way), VS I can have the 3970x in and...ripping...threads... by Friday (basically 2 days out at this point). Since this machine games on a relatively high-ish resolution screen I'm not sure if the dip from 4.7ghz of Skylake-X IPC to 4.2ghz of Zen 2 cores will matter, but that's kind of what I'm asking here - what do you guys think? -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
very good point - I actually didn't want to upgrade this thing at all for at least another 2 years but since this random freezing nonsense won't go away I'm willing to be broke again for a few months on better / newer hardware. Hmm... you're not helping me choose -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
yes exactly... while I admit the machine is supposed to be pointless overkill... I still use it for everything pretty much every day, so it needs to be 'good enough' at whatever task be it some VMs for school labs or just side projects, homework / browsing / content streaming, or gaming. Completely first world problem I understand... just having trouble deciding which route to go about to perma-fix it. *EDIT* I should add that I'm sure the problem is either the memory controller on the 7960x is weak and dying on me or there's something wrong with the RAM suddenly but FWIW I tried booting this thing with the 4 sticks of 4000mhz RAM I got for the gaming rig and it won't even POST with 4000mhz RAM which only further makes me think it's the IMC on the CPU. Super odd that this freezing started basically right when I redid the liquid metal and updated the BIOS but CPU temps are great, and I tried reverting to an older BIOS again to no change. All the exact same settings I've been running for the last ~ 2 ish years. -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
Haha yeah I think even that 3990x when it is out will be outside my comfort zone, and most likely even slower clocked with so many cores. As I mentioned, I like having the HEDT rig for SLI gaming because it really does outdo the 9900ks + 2080 Ti on anything that works with SLI (Jedi Fallen Order for example) even with a larger screen. I moved the 3440 x 1440 100hz Asus monitor to that new gaming rig but it can't hold 100 fps consistently, whereas with the two Titans (albeit slightly higher res screen) the HEDT rig is usually able to keep fps around the 144fps mark to match what I'm running this screen at (it'll do 175hz but you have to drop out of HDR support). Honestly if I could find a 10980xe I'd just grab it now because I know it would be directly an improvement, although probably not by a lot. The holdup here is that I'm sick of this thing freezing on me for the past month and am ready to consider AMD just to have it stable again so I'm not constantly computing in fear waiting for the sudden loud infinite sound blitz. -
pointless overkill upgrade dilemma
Kalm_Traveler replied to Kalm_Traveler's topic in New Builds and Planning
ahh I'm so sorry, I meant the cost between a 10980xe / Asus Rampage VI Extreme Omega and the Threadripper 3970x / Asus Zenith II Extreme. I have some money, but I'm not yet made of it. -
Hey guys, short version is my 7960x rig has been hard freezing up randomly anywhere between 1 minute after booting into Windows upwards of about 13 hours of heavy gaming + VMs running all day and it seems to be related to having the RAM running at its rated XMP 3200mhz profile (which has been totally fine for ~ 2 years). About a month ago I updated the BIOS and about the same time also redid the liquid metal under the IHS intending to finally really dial in the max daily overclock, but since doing that it's had this freezing going on. After a month of troubleshooting, I'm sick of it freezing on me and just want the thing to work so my first thought was to go the 'budget' route of a 10980xe, Asus Rampage VI Extreme Omega and some GSkill 3600 CL16 RAM but I can't find that CPU anywhere and on NowInStock the last time it was restocked was just after Christmas. That led me to look again at team red since Zen 2 seems to be just destroying Intel these days and really this rig's whole point of existing is just to be ridiculous overkill raw power so a 3970x seems appropriate. However, since I do game on this thing somewhat (I'd say 25% of its use time is gaming - mainly just on the handful of games that work with SLI now since I have a dedicated gaming rig again so this thing only out-FPS-s in SLI supported games) I'm concerned that the Threadripper would maybe be obviously worse in that aspect simply due to much lower clock speeds. Since this 7960x (16c/32t) does 4.7ghz all core just fine, but I'm not seeing anyone with a TR 3970x getting more than about 4.2ghz all core max it's giving me slight pause. --------- Now, minding that I don't "need" this thing to be 100% stable for any particular reason and can absolutely do my homework or whatever else on another machine... cost aside, should I just get the new x299 motherboard + RAM and wait for a 10980xe to come in stock somewhere, or go for the Threadripper? I'm afraid because I've never had an AMD rig, but as long as it doesn't end up seeming worse in any way I'm willing to give them a chance, and 32c/64t sounds amazing. This is on a 3840 x 1600 screen btw, so I know that even for games the CPU won't be as much of a factor for fps... just trying to figure out if I should wait for the Intel chip some unknown amount of time, or go for AMD since I can get it and be stable again on Friday if I order tonight. What would you guys suggest? (again cost is not really a concern here between the two options, I just want overkill HEDT that won't randomly freeze on me, ideally improving from the 7960x overall).
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just sneakily asked him what he's even doing with those two screens and he says he doesn't really use the VGA Samsung much at all, just throws other windows on it when watching movies on the main screen. I bet he'd be fine with one modern good monitor as long as it wasn't smaller than the 28" Viewsonic he has now. Time to do some digging
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For sure, I didn't mean that $270 would replace the workstation + upgrade parts, rather just that I would not spend any money upgrading that at all because for not much more you could simply build a brand new machine that is much much better. Taking into consideration the SSDs you already had, and the GTX 1060 you were fine with buying, this quick list I threw together would give you a full very capable system: PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pBLtWb CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($114.99 @ Amazon) Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon) Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon) Power Supply: EVGA 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($72.98 @ Newegg) Total: $476.92 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-12 16:26 EST-0500 So about 366 gbp + your 79 gbp GTX 1060 for a grand total of 445 gbp for basically a fully brand new modern PC that would be very solid.
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Best ram for 5.3ghz all core i9-9900ks???
Kalm_Traveler replied to HornyFurry's topic in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
The cards with 3 8-pin PCI-E power input connectors have much higher max TDP than cards with only 2, plus the companies who make them are binning the GPUs they receive from Nvidia and only putting the very best ones onto those graphics cards. Card cooling being equal, the Kingpin (or I'm sure Galax HOF as well) will maintain higher clocks overall than any of the 2 PCI-E power connector cards simply because it won't hit power limit as quickly. Nvidia limits how much power can be drawn per connector, so all the normal cards will end up running into the same power wall. EVGA and Galax get around this by adding a 3rd connector. That Gigabyte card you linked is a normal 2-pin card. -
tbh I wouldn't spend that much on this old platform. The big wrench in trying to make these old machines viable for mid-range gaming in 2020 is that you can get equal or much better performance with much lower power consumption (and in turn heat generation) with more modern platforms. I'm as guilty as anyone for not pumping AMD through the 2010's but honestly the performance value from even a 1st gen Ryzen chip compared to these old DDR3-based machines makes it a no-brainer. Spend a few hundred euro/pounds/dollars/whatever your currency is and invest in a very modest Ryzen setup and not only will you have likely better performance right out the gate than an older DDR3-based workstation, but it will likely run cooler and quieter as well as give you the option of upgrading to brand new much more powerful CPUs, nvme SSDs, etc should you so desire in the next few years. I get that free old workstations are tempting since they're free to acquire, but unfortunately at this point the reason they are free is because that's pretty much a reflection of their value - IE they are not really worth using anymore, hence why they're being discarded in the first place. *EDIT* My point is that I wouldn't spend any money at all trying to beef them up. If you need a computer for basic tasks like internet browsing, sure get by with whatever you can but certainly don't spend hundreds of euro/dollars into it.
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Best ram for 5.3ghz all core i9-9900ks???
Kalm_Traveler replied to HornyFurry's topic in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
anywho OP - to answer your question... Since the majority of games do not work with SLI, I would suggest buying an EVGA Kingpin 2080 Ti or the Galax HOF 2080 Ti (the one with 3 8-pin PCI-E power connectors) as they will outperform a Titan RTX for max gaming FPS. If you really want to max it out, full custom water cooling with at least a 360mm radiator for each CPU and graphics card (so 2x 360mm or larger radiators) and to incorporate the Kingpin card you'll need to put a full cover water block on it (it comes as a hybrid card with a VRM fan and a 240mm AIO attached for the GPU/memory) which right now can only be had with a Bykski block since EVGA only made a handful of their Hydro Copper blocks for the KP card and they all sold out last summer. You could, of course, wait for the 30-series cards later this summer if you want even more FPS. -
Best ram for 5.3ghz all core i9-9900ks???
Kalm_Traveler replied to HornyFurry's topic in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
For gaming, one of the high end 2080 Ti's will actually beat out even a power modded Titan RTX as far as max FPS. How do I know? because I have two power modded Titan RTXs in my HEDT rig, and a Kingpin 2080 Ti in the gaming rig. For games that don't work with SLI (aka most games), I get maybe 5% higher FPS on the single Kingpin card than on one of the power modded Titans (max TDP increased to ~ 434 watts, vs the Kingpins OC BIOS 520w tdp - remember 2080 Ti and Titan RTX are both the TU102 GPU, with ever so slightly more cores enabled on the Titan). Thankfully for my ego, some newer games are still getting SLI support so I play Jedi Fallen Order on the HEDT rig. *EDIT* Also, the Titan RTX 'not being intended for gaming' is irrelevant to someone's personal value though I agree that for gaming nobody should buy it now that I've learned my lesson with the Kingpin 2080 Ti. You're a little confused on your SLI though - most games forever ('most' here meaning more than not, so over 50%) have not worked with SLI. This has never been different. In general, if a game will run with SLI enabled, scaling is generally pretty good and 'recent games barely benefit from it anymore' is false. Jedi Fallen Order is giving me almost perfect scaling across two cards. Also, games don't "drop support" for SLI. They generally don't work with it enabled, and sometimes end up being updated later to allow it to work - and SLI working out of the box is done via Nvidia creating SLI profiles specifically for each game - the game developers do not create the SLI profiles. -
hey I've been thinking more about this after the case/PSU swap and I think it'd be sweet to go a little higher in and get him something really good that will actually last him another 10 years. What do you think about going with a decent B450 board and a 3700x or so, 16gb DDR4, and maybe a 2060 Super in case I can get him to start playing some games? As far as I know, he's running 2 monitors right now, my old Viewsonic 1920 x 1200 60hz 28" (IIRC it's the VX2835wm) over HDMI and a 1600 x 1200 Samsung 21 or 22" 60hz over VGA. Kind of want to replace both of those with a 34" ultrawide.