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Tacitus

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Everything posted by Tacitus

  1. Thanks - the OLED is 240hz but I'm never going to take full advantage of it - I mainly play Elden Ring which is locked to 60hz. Agree that I'd need to be careful to avoid image burn
  2. I have the chance to get a 32" 4k IPS 144hz display, or, for about the same price, a 27" oled 1440p screen. Use case is a mix of games (typically RPGs, no need for super high frame rates), photo editing (hobbyist) and occasionally working from home (think Microsoft office type applications). Which would you go for and why? Should I just wait for 4k oled to come down in price?
  3. Thanks - I did look at it, but I didn't feel I was getting a lot more performance for the extra £100 or so it would have cost.
  4. Hey all Currently building my new pc. I have 2 CPU fans, but my motherboard only has 1 CPU fan connector. It's a 2A connector. I also have a pump fan connector (3A, PWM), and a system fan connector (1A, DC). Am I fine to plug the second CPU fan into the Pump fan connector and do I then need to do anything in the bios to get the two fans to run in sync? Thanks all
  5. I did, but settled on the DA2 for it's aesthetics. It's for the living room so it needs to not look unsightly. Thanks
  6. Hi everyone Think I've got my parts list nailed down now. I've not built a PC in about 7 or 8 years, so would someone mind sense-checking my parts list for any obvious omissions or incompatibilites? Open to sensible suggestions. Main purpose of this machine is living room gaming, probably at 4k on a 50hz panel. I've got the GPU already. Thanks all! https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/fVZZ8r CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor (£116.98 @ CCL Computers) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: MSI MPG B560I GAMING EDGE WIFI Mini ITX LGA1200 Motherboard (£171.48 @ Scan.co.uk) Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£54.99 @ Box Limited) Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£69.98 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB Founders Edition Video Card Case: Streacom DA2 V2 Mini ITX Desktop Case (£211.49 @ Scan.co.uk) Power Supply: Corsair SF 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply (£89.00 @ Ebuyer) Case Fan: Noctua A9 PWM chromax.black.swap 46.44 CFM 92 mm Fan (£19.98 @ Amazon UK) Total: £796.89 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-02-19 19:42 GMT+0000
  7. Thanks for getting back to me. The plan would be to pounce as soon as stock comes up but until and unless I go to 4k I think the 980ti is good enough. I just don't fancy paying £650+ for a 3060... If I moved away from 1080p 60hz I'd be going either 4k 60hz or 1440p at 120/144hz.
  8. Hi all I'm looking to slim down my current PC from an ATX mid tower to an ITX build. I don't have room for my current PC to sit on a desk, so the goal is either to get something small enough for the desk, or for it to be plugged into the TV and hidden away somewhere. Primary use is gaming (currently 1080p but may get a 4k TV). Depending on circumstance (ie desk Vs TV) may also use for editing photos in lightroom/PS, but only casually and periodically. My options are either stick with my 4670k and buy a second hand mobo to fit, or upgrade to something more modern. For gaming (at both 1080p and 4k) is upgrading actually worthwhile? If the CPU bottleneck is only minor then it doesn't seem sensible to spend £400-500 on an upgrade. GPU-wise I currently have a 980ti and will upgrade that when I can to whatever I can get at RRP (looking at anything from 3060-3080 and have text alert things set up). Would be good to get an idea of what the minimum CPU I'd need to not bottleneck these cards. Thanks everyone
  9. It's not very high up my list of priorities.
  10. I'd say the XPS (circa 2kg I understand) is probably about the maximum weight I would tolerate but ideally I'd like it to be a little lighter. I'm not too concerned about battery life as I'm rarely without access to a plug socket. Enough to get a few hours of browsing/typing or watch a film should suffice. The more the merrier though, of course.
  11. Hi all I'm in the market for a new laptop just now as I've moved house and no longer have space for a desk (desktop going behind the TV for gaming). I need a laptop for general day-to-day use which for me is primarily web surfing, film/TV and photo editing in Lightroom/Photoshop. I therefore want something with a good screen and powerful enough to smoothly edit photos. I also want good portability as the last laptop I had was a tank and as a result never really moved. I went to a shop and the thing I was (to my surprise) most keen on was a Surface Laptop 2. I also didn't like the 13.3" 16:9 laptops - they feel too small. My absolute maximum budget is around £1,300 for which I could get a Huawei Matebook X Pro (8th gen i5, 8gb ram, 256gb SSD), a Surface Laptop 2 (same spec as Huawei) or a refurb Dell XPS 15 with a 7th gen i7, 512gb SSD, 4k display (from Dell outlet) or a new XPS 15 with 8th gen i5, 8gb ram and 256gb SSD. I'd probably rather not spend so much if I could though, and for around £930 I can get a Surface Laptop 2 with a 128gb SSD, but I'm not convinced that's sufficient storage really. I don't know how capable cloud storage is to supplement physical storage but I'm rarely without internet. Am I mad for looking at the Surface over the Huawei, and mad for considering the Huawei over the Dell? Any other suggestions welcome.
  12. Hi all My old laptop has stopped booting up, with the image below showing the text on screen when I try to. I haven't changed any hardware on the laptop, so not sure what's causing it. Suspect the SSD boot drive might have died. Can anyone say for certain what this issue relates to and suggest some fixes before I go replacing the SSD? Thanks in advance Chris
  13. Hi all To save some cash I was considering a second hand calibration tool from Spyder or xRite. Is this a bad idea? I can't figure out if they need a unique serial code or not for making a basic profile. If so, am I just buying an expensive paperweight. I had hoped to calibrate my screens and sell it on again. Chris
  14. Hi all I recently bought a 34" 1440p 21:9 monitor. It has a VA panel which is a noticeable step down from the Samsung PLS display I had before in terms of the colours. I know it will never be as good, but since it was the cheapest 1440p ultrawide I can find I suspect they haven't given much thought to calibration. Would it be worthwhile getting a calibration tool to improve the colours? I don't do any colour critical work, but I do lightly edit travel photos etc. I also don't like the stand it came with. Can anyone recommend a good, cheap free standing stand with height adjustment that I could replace the current one with? Slightly concerned about getting something sturdy enough since it's a large display. I'm in the UK. Thanks Chris
  15. As I understand it, a 34" 21:9 monitor is the same size, vertically, as a 27" 16:9 monitor.
  16. Clearly you bought a 580 because in your mind that made sense. Why not send it back and get another one? It's a perfectly competent 1080p card, especially if you're willing to drop a few settings to high.
  17. Hi everyone I'm looking at second hand 980Tis and see a lot of Zotac Amp Extreme versions, which seem to be a good choice. Problem is, card is 328mm and Corsair specs say max length is 320mm. I used to have a 290x Vapour-X which was a big card and I'm not convinced the Zotac wouldn't fit. Has anyone seen (or using) a build with this combination to confirm compatibility? Thanks Chris
  18. Disabled iGPU and told bios to look PCIE slot 2 first but nothing appears on screen. Can only get display back by moving the GPU back to PCIE slot one.
  19. I'll need to swap the GPU and check but I would assume not since I've played games for over a year having not touched the PC internals or settings at all, and was running my 2 monitors off of the GPU. The games were graphically intensive so no way they were being powered by the iGPU. I'll post back how that goes.
  20. Hi all I'm trying to put my GPU in the second PCIE slot as part of a troubleshooting exercise. When I do this nothing appears on the monitors. Is there a way I can resolve this? The GPU lights up and the rest of the system fans are running. Motherboard is a Gigabyte Z97X-SLI and GPU is an R9 290x. The PCIE lane has worked in the past when running crossfire, so not sure why it would not run on its own. Thanks Chris
  21. Tried both sticks of RAM individually in each slot and had artifacting with each stick in every slot which I can induce by turning the monitor on and off with the button on the front of it. Interestingly it only happens on my primary monitor and not the second one (but turning the second monitor on and off can cause the artifacting on the primary display). I have swapped my GPU to my second PCIE slot but nothing shows up on either monitor when I do this. Can anyone help me out with this? The attached video shows the type of artifacting I get on my primary display, with the screen often flickering off all together (as at the start of the clip). VID_20171117_215846.mp4
  22. Did DDU and reinstallation of drivers a couple days back to no avail. Will try and swap around ram slots today and see if that impacts on anything, and if not I'll move the GPU to the second slot. Using the secondary slot will decrease performance though, won't it? Or not, perhaps, since it's an SLI compatible board?
  23. Updated the mobo bios today. Seemed steady but turning my monitor on and off a few times made the PC return to instability. Had severe artifacting and flickering on my main display, which is consistent with what I experienced before. Have not yet tested the PSU, RAM or RAM slits, bit I think I'm getting closer to ruling software out.
  24. Ran Memtest last night for about an hour and no errors showed up, used DDU and installed GPU drivers fresh. Freezes keep coming. Surely if it was the PSU it would be worst while drawing a lot of power rather than while idling? Another thing I've noticed is the screen at the bottom of the panel sometimes flickers a bit like subtle ststic signals and can do this for a split second multiple times. The PC sometimes freezes and sometimes does not. I'm also a bit concerned about the SSD, which is 256gb and for a while was the only drive in my PC when I first built it in 2014.
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