UnknownPhilosopher

TL;DR I'm looking for suggestions and recommendations to help plan and build a new multi-purpose PC that supports AAA gaming optimized for PCVR on a Quest 3. Budget: $2500 USD Country: United States Workloads: PCVR, occasional AAA Gaming, heavy network usage to Unraid NAS, 10-20 Chrome tabs concurrent not uncommon, Adobe Suite, Heavy Database Processing If you don't want to read all of the particulars, I understand. I probably wouldn't either. Go ahead and just post your suggestion for "The best value gaming PC under $2500 USD". The rest is only intended for people interested in doing some part recommending and hunting for a bunch of price to performance optimization requirements: I'm starting a new project and welcome suggestions. Short and sweet, here is a big list of information, requirements, and preferences that come to mind. For individual components, I'll provide an italicized reference to the part it would be replacing in the existing system. Ideally for each component it should be as good as or better than what it is replacing. This acquisition will likely happen before the new year. I am not opposed to a pre-built if it makes sense, but usually doesn't. I'm comfortable building anything. Above almost anything else, I prioritize performance per dollar over anything. Expenses: Final out-of-pocket expense will be in the neighborhood of $2500 USD, shipped to Indiana, United States. The final total is flexible a few hundred if it is justified. Upgrades: This build is ground up, from case on through. Optimization: This system will occasionally be used for native AAA gaming at 1080p-1440p, but a primary factor when it comes to significant fork-in-the-road decisions should be to optimize the system for PCVR gaming/experience for Quest 3. Form Factor: This is not a rack mounted project. Noise: Noise is not a major consideration. Currently running a dozen Noctua case fans and a NH-DH15 inside an open mesh case and that level is fine. Anything reasonable is fine - doesn't need to be silent. Cooling: I don't mind air cooling, and generally prefer it. Performance over noise as reasonable. Case: Function over form. I do want it enclosed, and any reasonable front I/O would be nice. I love my current Cooler Master HAF XB EVO if it helps. Aesthetics: Aesthetics are not irrelevant, but the gain would have to significantly outweigh any performance loss. RGB: If I could I would dip the whole system in Vanta Black. I turn-off all accessible RGB, and manually extract some others. Functional RGB is a different story... Peripherals: Not necessary. Board: In order of importance: price to performance / necessary features, other features, size, RGB. OS: Windows 11 Professional CPU: I'm not opposed to either Blue or Red, though I suspect Blue is better for VR. Not interested in overclocking in particular for "bleeding edge", but will if it seems worth it. Onboard GPU is highly preferred as a failsafe for troubleshooting. replacing i7-12700K RAM: 32 GB minimum, but 64 GB or more really necessary. Any multi-channel performance gains to consider? Whatever is fast enough to make sense for price to performance with other requirements. replacing 2 x 16 GB Corsair DDR5-5200 CL40 Storage: Minimum 2TB drive that supports either Smart Access Memory or Resizable Bar. All components should take this into consideration. replacing Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus GPU: Like CPU, no team allegiance though I believe Green plays better in VR than Red. replacing EVGA 1080GTX FTW ACX3 (such an awesome card - RIP EVGA) Audio: Nothing special needed. Massdrop HD-6XX headphone with Schiit Magni/Modi. Thunderbolt: I do need at least Thunderbolt 3 support in some form. I often use a CalDigit TS4 hub with a 154ft optical TB3 cable and an ASUS TB3 PCIe Card to keep this system in a different room. I don't love the inconsistent connectivity issues with the dock overall, but unless I find something better it will continue to be used for this system. Wired Networking: At least 1 RJ45 10GB Ethernet port. replacing ASUS XG-C100C Wireless Networking: Strong wireless performance with Wi-Fi 6E support and latest Bluetooth is a requirement. replacing Ubit Wi-Fi 6 AX w/ BT 5.0 2x2 160MHz card Power: Hyper-efficiency is not a major concern, again anything reasonable. replacing Corsair RM850x 850W 80+ Gold Recently replaced router with TP-Link AXE7800 Tri-Band 6E and needing to replace existing TL-SG1024DE switch to something with at least 2 10 GB and 1 2.5 GB ports. I don't expect that to fit into this budget, but reccomendations are always accepted!

This is a cautionary tale for others because I do typically use RAID 5 with a 4 drive setup. I was only going to run RAID 0 for long enough to move files from my Plex server and then back after a format of it, which is also a 32TB unit. I literally only needed to run this as RAID 0 for 2-3 days, and that is when everything went down. Life lesson of the day: Murphy's law cannot be beaten. I also do just happen to have 40TB or so extra that I can setup, I've just been hesitant to try any real manual recovery efforts because every professional service says don't as it can further alter the configuration. Does anyone know what the real danger possibilities might be of any non-destructive consumer recovery attempts in regards to if I do need to then go to a pro service?

Question for those more knowledgeable than myself: I have a Western Digital PR4100 (32TB, 4x 8TB WD Red) MyCloud NAS that was running in RAID 0 when it got hung while doing a firmware update. When I eventually got it back up, my array was missing. After some checking, I ended up putting the drives in my Win10 machine (both directly and via a USB 4 drive enclosure) just to check their health, and it became clear that 1 of the 4 drives is having problems. 3 of the drives all show up with what appears to be all of the correct partition structures, but 1 of the drives appears unpartitioned. I tried a couple of simple RAID and partition recovery programs (I know you aren't really supposed to do so) to see if I might get lucky and the partition info could easily be restored, but I've not had any luck. Also, when that drive is plugged directly into a pc, the system just hangs while it tries to access the drive (which does have power) and I have to remove it to get the system to respond. I'm willing to accept that drive is toast. My question is actually regarding recovery services. I'm not super familiar with RAID technical details beyond the basics, and I'm looking into professional data recovery. Given my details, could I expect that this one drive might be able to be professionally recovered to a new drive that I could throw in with the other 3, or does the fact it was in RAID 0 mean recovery services would need to deal with all 4 drives? It is all flat-files (video, audio files, documents, etc.), and the recovery importance factor for me might be significantly different depending on if recovery is 1 drive for a few hundred, or all 4 for a few thousand dollars. This is my first post to the community I've been a huge fan of for 6+ years. Any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated.