PC Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

[El Che]

The problem isn't the amount of RAM. It's the speed of the RAM. If you bought more, faster RAM you'd just be replacing this RAM because otherwise you'd be forced to downclock that RAM to run at this RAM's speed. Nothing is being bottlenecked, per se, but slower RAM depresses performance. Otherwise, it's good, I doubt the CPU would throttle, but you can actually beat this right now with their customizer. Check it out:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1LQ170

The total on the above build is $2064, but use code SPRING0410 for a 5% discount. This brings it down to $1961. UPS Ground shipping is also free from them directly. Ships in 5-10 days.

More importantly, there's a very good chance you dodge tax on the entire unit (this would save me $138 in California vs. the Amazon prebuild, but unfortunately we pay tax to either). That's impossible with Amazon since every state pays sales tax to them (unless you live in one of the five states that don't charge sales tax in which case it's a wash).

Advantages to this custom build:

• Superior RAM (2x8GB 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX vs. nondescript DDR4-2400)
• Superior Case (Corsair Carbide 275R w/Tempered Glass Window vs. CyberpowerPC Onyxia)
  
• Superior CPU Cooler (240mm CPPC vs. 120mm CPPC)
• Superior Motherboard (Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X vs. ASRock Z390 Phantom 4)
• Superior GPU (EVGA Black RTX 2080 Super vs. Generic/Reference RTX 2080 Super)
• Superior PSU (Thermaltake Grand RGB 750W Gold vs. Standard CPPC 800W Bronze)
• Probably a superior SSD (WD Blue SN500 500GB vs. nondescript NVME 512GB SSD-- my suspicion is it's the Intel 660p)
• More storage (3TB HDD vs. 2TB HDD)
  
• Superior WiFi (Intel 2x2 WiFi 6 + BT 5.0 card vs. 1x1 WiFi 5 adapter, no bluetooth)
• Superior Mouse & Keyboard (CyberpowerPC Elite M1 Gaming Mouse & Skorpion K1 Mechanical Keyboard vs. their cheap generic gaming mouse & membrane keyboard)
• Free Gaming Mousepad
• Free NVIDIA Games >>> Super Wolfenstein: Youngblood & Control (not seeing this guaranteed with Amazon prebuild)
• 3-year Service Plan Tech Support (it comes with the same 1-year warranty as the prebuild)

I even included the Professional Wiring care so that they install everything cleanly. Other service luxuries you could opt to take are the Ultra Care Packaging (+$19) where they fill the system with foam before shipping, and the Premium Warranty (+$19) that covers the cost of shipping both ways if you have a failure covered by the warranty in that first year.

This is what I mean by the power of knowledge when using these custom builder websites (CyberpowerPC, iBuypower, CLX, etc).

Awesome, that is a big difference at an almost negligible price. Will give this a look in a bit. Thank you for all the information and effort you've put in. I appreciate it.

 

[Ice That Jaw]

Chiming in to say that the RTX series is on par with the x500 series in terms of usefulness in comparison to the demands of current games. I'm glad I skipped this shitty gen. I haven't done it since the 500 series. lol

 

[PEB]

 

[ROKKO]

I'm looking to stop using the cracked version of windows 7 and thinking of just buying windows 10. Amazon has it for $130. PC market online has it for $26.50.

My bro recommended Kinguin.com and CDKEYS.com.

Any insight on going the cheaper route.

As a side note I'm not a computer guy but I'm not a moron. Let's not get too technical....So Madmick you can sit this one out.

I'm just kidding. Let me know any advantages or disadvantages of those cheaper sites. Thanks everyone.

Edit: spelling

 

[jefferz]

I'm looking to stop using the cracked version of windows 7 and thinking of just buying windows 10. Amazon has it for $130. PC market online has it for $26.50.

My bro recommended Kinguin.com and CDKEYS.com.

Any insight on going the cheaper route.

As a side note I'm not a computer guy but I'm not a moron. Let's not get too technical....So Madmick you can sit this one out.

I'm just kidding. Let me know any advantages or disadvantages of those cheaper sites. Thanks everyone.

Edit: spelling

I've bought keys from both sites and have no problems.
When looking at those sites, there's 2 types of keys. OEM keys will tie the key to your motherboard, retail keys are tied to your Microsoft account so the key can be moved to a different system.

 

[Lubaolong]

All my parts arrived.

I saw an ad today for Corsairs Hydro X series and went to their website and entered all my configuration info. No cooling options for my GPU, but it looks super sick. I'm just not sure how much of a performance increase it would be over the h115i pro or if it's worth it @ $600.

I tried to look for some testing to compare the two. One blog said his system with identical stats and stock cooling had load temp of 89C for cpu and after that $600 Hydro X, cpu temp dropped to 74C.

A dude on reddit with same system stats as mine but who overclocked his CPU to 5ghz + using the h115i pro said his usually runs at 75C for the most demanding tasks but was able to get it to upper 80s after running benchmark software for a solid 8 hours. Lots of other people reported overclock temps mostly 50c for gaming up to low 60's in cpu heavy games e.g. battlefield 5 and up to 75C while compiling if using all the cores.

So I'm not sure if this super cool looking setup would vastly change my temps. It's so expensive. I'll probably stick with the $130 option. It does look super cool though.

 

[Madmick]

All my parts arrived.

I saw an ad today for Corsairs Hydro X series and went to their website and entered all my configuration info. No cooling options for my GPU, but it looks super sick. I'm just not sure how much of a performance increase it would be over the h115i pro or if it's worth it @ $600.

I tried to look for some testing to compare the two. One blog said his system with identical stats and stock cooling had load temp of 89C for cpu and after that $600 Hydro X, cpu temp dropped to 74C.

A dude on reddit with same system stats as mine but who overclocked his CPU to 5ghz + using the h115i pro said his usually runs at 75C for the most demanding tasks but was able to get it to upper 80s after running benchmark software for a solid 8 hours. Lots of other people reported overclock temps mostly 50c for gaming up to low 60's in cpu heavy games e.g. battlefield 5 and up to 75C while compiling if using all the cores.

So I'm not sure if this super cool looking setup would vastly change my temps. It's so expensive. I'll probably stick with the $130 option. It does look super cool though.

Don't waste the money. It's impractical. Overclocking is almost entirely fruitless on both platforms, now. It's a little more relevant on Intel, still, and you have all the firepower you need for that relevance. Custom cooling kits were always on shaky ground from a utilitarian point of view. Today they are fully realized as a niche component catering to:

(a) Silicon monkey tinkerers who just love to shine and polish every part of their builds

(b) Guys who want to make vanity builds no matter how financially ridiculous that is. See the build in the recent thread flagged by @GearSolidMetal where the custom builder invested probably around $500-$800 in CPU cooling to cool a 6-core Ryzen CPU that is worth between $100-$200 depending on what generation it is, and won't overclock beyond 4.4 GHz regardless of which generation it is unless one disables the power limits that keep the chip operating within its specified parameters; when you could get to that same threshold comfortably at reasonable temperatures with a $100 AIO kit. In other words, beyond that voltage limit, if the chip blows up at any time, no matter how cold you keep it, don't be surprised, because that is the game you were playing. This is the territory of competitive overclockers with their liquid gas cooling who don't flinch at losing chips in their pursuits so long as they personally did nothing wrong to blow up the chip. Of course, inevitably, even with those cooling systems, they use so many powerful fans pointed at the motherboard & CPU that it sounds like an airplane engine.

Here's a bit more about #2:
https://www.extremetech.com/computi...n-pushes-ryzen-7-2700x-up-to-an-all-core-6ghz

Six years ago, I wrote a story called “Physics, Ivy Bridge, and the Slow Death of Overclocking.” Back then, we could already see how each successive generation of CPUs was struggling to match the overclocking potential of the previous. Today, the trends are even more stark. At 1.0v and 3.75GHz, the 2700X is a relatively svelte chip, drawing just 73W of power with a Cinebench 15 score of 1696. At 4.3GHz all-core boost, the Ryzen 7 2700X is pulling 185W and turning in a Cinebench score of 1937. Performance went up 1.14x, while power consumption went up 2.53x.

In the case of Intel, Silicon Lottery is our guide. They offer updated statistics (8/12/19) on binning:
https://siliconlottery.com/collections/coffeelake-r
i9-9900K binning

• 5.1GHz = Top 5%
• 5.0GHz = Top 30%
• 4.9GHz = Top 91%
• 4.8GHz = Top 100%

Thus, we know you are guaranteed to hit 4.8GHz across all cores if you overclock your 9900K. This is a +100MHz boost since at stock it will hit 4.7GHz across all cores. Of course, that overclock almost certainly wouldn't be desirable in games because the stock turbo won't just take up all the cores to 4.7GHz, but will boost the front two to 5.1GHz on demand as required when the games demand it. It isn't until you get around the 5.0GHz mark across all cores that you see the overclocked 9900K beat the stock 9900K routinely in benchmarks, and even that is selectively sampling the graphical beasts or more sophisticated recent titles that tend to harness more cores.

This is why, from a practical point of view, in 2019, the guys who spring for custom cooling would often be better served by the strategy of grabbing the EVGA CLC 360 I highlighted, or another top-performing AIO cooler, and then spend all of that reserve cash on one of Silicon Lottery's CPUs that is verified to reach 5.1GHz stably. Of course, those are hard to find in stock for a reason. Further, it would behoove them to pay SL to inherit the risk of delidding the chip (unless they're really confident in their abilities or tool).

The most practical benefit to custom cooling at this point is that you can reach the lowest noise output possible, or improve your performance-to-noise ratio, but you already have one of the absolute best AIO coolers towards that end. It gives the builder more control. It also enables you to replace any individual part rather than replacing the whole unit if any part breaks, but of course, philosophically, the most appealing aspect of interchangeable parts (as in Ford's assembly line) was always that it made things cheaper, so this kills the patient before the disease has even manifested.

************

If you are itching to improve your setup in some other way it isn't here. It's almost certainly your display. I almost posted this video earlier today, and tagged you in it:

Spoiler: BFGD!!!

Asus ROG Swift PG65UQ BFGD ($6,599)

https://www.asus.com/Monitors/ROG-Swift-PG65UQ/
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/LCD Monitors/PG65UQ/PG65U_English_0805.pdf

• 65" Quantum Dot Anti-Glare AMVA Panel
• 3840 x 2160 Resolution
• 144Hz Refresh Rate
• 4ms Response Time
• G-Sync Ultimate + VRR-compliance for Xbox One
• HDR1000 (i.e. true HDR) w/384 Dimming Zones
• 95% DCI-P3 Color Gamut w/16.7m colors
• 4000:1 Contrast Ratio
  
• 178° Viewing Angles
• Ports:
  • 4 x HDMI 2.0
  • 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
  • 2 x USB 3.0
• Built-in FPS counter (toggle mode)
• Internal Power Supply (no external brick required)
• VESA Wall Mounting supported

Of course, that is the custom cooling kit of the display world at $6,599. The only other BFGD released so far, the HP Omen Emperium 65, is $4,999. Neither is worth it. But the point Jay raises early in his video is the one to notice: TV response times suck. 98% of them won't even come close to keeping up with 120Hz+ framerates even if that is their refresh rate (or faster). I speculate that you intend to anchor this PC to a big screen TV based on your Couchmaster Cycon accessory. So what you should probably be looking at is a large OLED display by LG, Samsung, or Sony.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/video-gaming
This is the table you're after:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/table/5147

If you click on any individual review you should hone in on the "Motion" category, broadly, and the "Response Time" specifically. If that 100% Response Time isn't below 16ms it's trash for gaming, and if it isn't below 8ms, it won't keep up with 120Hz or faster rendered framerates (presuming it can operate at those refresh rates).

In particular, those LG series OLED displays are the gold standard: the B, C, or E series (>2ms 100% response times). Lovely, logical model naming, too. The "C9" is that because it is the 2019 model. C8 is 2018's model. IIRC, the B & C are identical panels, and the E is nearly identical. So it makes sense to go with the cheapest unless you're obsessed with the framing. You might be able to find a previous year's model on the cheap. You should be able to find a 65" model from within the past two years around $1500. If brand new:

• ($2,299) LG B9 65" [OLED65B9PUA]
• ($2,499) LG C9 65" [OLED65C9PUA]
• ($3,299) LG E9 65" [OLED65E9PUA]

Samsung and Sony tend to be more pricey. The principle advantage they offer is that their best lines reach even higher sizes (80"+) if you prize that.

 

[Lubaolong]

I have a Vizio P-series, 120hz hardware refresh, and I am not sure of the response time because I can't remember my exact model. Looks like it would be somewhere between 9 and 12 maybe. Seems good enough for now. @Madmick

 

[Lubaolong]

Re: overclocking, it's a small boost in performance, probably not even noticeable, but it's free performance, so why not? It would feel lame to buy all this cool shit and not push it to the edge just a little bit. Nothing crazy. Gotta get those benchmark scores up.

 

[Madmick]

I have a Vizio P-series, 120hz hardware refresh, and I am not sure of the response time because I can't remember my exact model. Looks like it would be somewhere between 9 and 12 maybe. Seems good enough for now. @Madmick

You're already on one of the strongest gaming TVs out there. If you visit the table I linked it's #9 on Rtings Gaming TV rankings-- the 2018 version, anyway. You should know that quoted response times rarely match real world performance (with monitors, too, not just TVs). Rtings is a godsend for this:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/p-series-quantum-2018

As good as it is the 100% response time for the Vizio P series is 9.5ms, and keep in mind this is the average, so there is a delta. At that response time the frames can't keep up with a 120Hz framerate (8.3ms maximum allowed for any frame).

Re: overclocking, it's a small boost in performance, probably not even noticeable, but it's free performance, so why not? It would feel lame to buy all this cool shit and not push it to the edge just a little bit. Nothing crazy. Gotta get those benchmark scores up.

Exactly, yeah, I'm all for overclocking when it's practical (it does void your warranty, FYI).

However, my primary point there was precisely that it isn't free performance if you are spending $800 on a custom CPU cooler to achieve more aggressive overclocks: overclocks with severely diminishing returns for the most recent CPUs. Your own CPU cooler came at a premium, but one well worth it. It's at the peak of the value curve among AIOs nearing the highest end of performance. Up there at the top the kings of value are the EVGA CLC units, but many opt for Corsair or NZXT based on customer service reputation, software, lighting, or other modifications that they make to the core Asetek or CoolIT designs.

Boosted to 4.7GHz across all cores, the i9-9900K needs a CPU cooler that is rated to 210W heat dissipation. Everyone has moved away from watt ratings for CPU coolers, because manufacturers are so dishonest with them, but Cooler Master still offers an interesting chart with "true" TDP dissipation figures for their various coolers by socket:
https://landing.coolermaster.com/pages/tdp-and-socket-compatibility/
Notice that even their flagship air cooler on the Intel platform, the MasterAir Maker 8, is only rated up to 180W. Interestingly, a much cheaper offering, the MasterAir MA620P, is rated up to 200W. Still not enough. While neither cooler is quite as strong as the very best among air coolers, like the Noctua NH-D15, what that chart suggests is that Intel did not truly intend the 9900K for air cooling.

My secondary point was that, depending your luck of the draw with the CPU cooler, and the game itself, it actually might not improve performance. The above point about how demanding the CPU is at stock should convey why that makes sense. So it depends on how high you can go.

The last seven years, coupled with the core expansion of CPUs, have radically changed the world of overclocking. This has formed the seat of my prediction for the future. BIOS software has already advanced just as radically in that time, particularly with regard to overclocking, so I expect the future will see Intel begin to offer better support for pseudo-dynamic overclocking similar to their own turbo boosts. What I mean is that I think it's going to become much easier to set independent frequencies by core. This will allow you to set the overclocks on the first two cores to a much higher frequency than the rest of the cores, and still keep the voltage/temps reasonable. That's going to become the new playground for overclockers. They're going to all compete to find which specific stepping of frequencies along the cores produces the best, actual performance output in games.

This will be awesome because it means casual overclockers will stop competing to win meaningless synthetic benchmarks, and focus on overall game performance across an ever-changing suite of games as their baseline reference. This will be a big win for gamers. I don't give a damn what anyone's all-core Cinebench score is. It's stupid. It's mostly meaningless to me.

 

[Madmick]

Damn, I'm glad you prompted that last post, Luba. I hadn't looked at that Cooler Master chart since it's been updated, or I wasn't paying attention. That's fascinating that the MA620P is rated as a stronger cooler than their flagship by Cooler Master themselves.

($40) Cooler Master MasterAir MA620P TUF Gaming Edition [200W]
vs.
($115) Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8 [180W]
&
($110) Cooler Master V8 GTS [180W]
What a phenomenal price for that beastly cooler:
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/cpu-air-coolers/masterair-ma620p/#Specifications
Dual, staggered 120mm fans (up to 1800RPM) with 6 x heat pipes in direct contact for a finned 1.87lb chunk of cooler. At that price point it probably usurps the mantle from the Thermalright Macho Direct (140mm fan + 5 x heat pipes) and Scythe Mugen Rev. B (120mm fans in push/pull + 6 x heat pipes) as the premier mid-range air cooler value on the market. At least it's in the running.

Looks like it's a bit more hit & miss on the reviews, though, like its MA610P little brother:
https://www.techspot.com/products/cooling/cooler-master-masterair-ma620p.180564/

 

[jefferz]

Damn, I'm glad you prompted that last post, Luba. I hadn't looked at that Cooler Master chart since it's been updated, or I wasn't paying attention. That's fascinating that the MA620P is rated as a stronger cooler than their flagship by Cooler Master themselves.

($40) Cooler Master MasterAir MA620P TUF Gaming Edition [200W]
vs.
($115) Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8 [180W]
&
($110) Cooler Master V8 GTS [180W]
What a phenomenal price for that beastly cooler:
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/cpu-air-coolers/masterair-ma620p/#Specifications
Dual, staggered 120mm fans (up to 1800RPM) with 6 x heat pipes in direct contact for a finned 1.87lb chunk of cooler. At that price point it probably usurps the mantle from the Thermalright Macho Direct (140mm fan + 5 x heat pipes) and Scythe Mugen Rev. B (120mm fans in push/pull + 6 x heat pipes) as the premier mid-range air cooler value on the market. At least it's in the running.

Looks like it's a big more hit & miss on the reviews, though, like its MA610P little brother:
https://www.techspot.com/products/cooling/cooler-master-masterair-ma620p.180564/

Good lord that thing's ugly.

Here's a chart for the FSP Windale 6 which is $42 on Amazon..

 

[ROKKO]

I've bought keys from both sites and have no problems.
When looking at those sites, there's 2 types of keys. OEM keys will tie the key to your motherboard, retail keys are tied to your Microsoft account so the key can be moved to a different system.

Excellent. Thank you for the advice sir.

 

[Gregolian]

I have like a 2 year old tower I bought (yeah I bought a PC, sue me) from iBUYPOWER and am going to kinda sorta low key look to upgrade it slowly. Need to take a picture through the glass pane of what is actually IN the box to see where I should start though.

Also, this is probably a pipe dream but is there an affordable monitor that I could use for gaming and is wide enough/set up in a way I could use it like it's dual monitors or is that an impossibility?

 

[Madmick]

I have like a 2 year old tower I bought (yeah I bought a PC, sue me) from iBUYPOWER and am going to kinda sorta low key look to upgrade it slowly. Need to take a picture through the glass pane of what is actually IN the box to see where I should start though.

GPU upgrade?

Also, this is probably a pipe dream but is there an affordable monitor that I could use for gaming and is wide enough/set up in a way I could use it like it's dual monitors or is that an impossibility?

You can get Ultrawides for starting around $150 (21:9 aspect ratio), but true Superwides (32:9 aspect ratio) are really expensive. They start around $900. It would be way cheaper to just buy two monitors and set up a literal dual monitor setup. There are "Ultra Thin Bezel Monitors" now with nearly no edges framing the display itself, so you can put two together, and nearly achieve an uninterrupted singular desktop, but it sounds like you want to have two desktops, anyway, like a split image. Game on one monitor, surf the internet on the other.

 

[Gregolian]

GPU upgrade?

You can get Ultrawides for starting around $150 (21:9 aspect ratio), but true Superwides (32:9 aspect ratio) are really expensive. They start around $900. It would be way cheaper to just buy two monitors and set up a literal dual monitor setup. There are "Ultra Thin Bezel Monitors" now with nearly no edges framing the display itself, so you can put two together, and nearly achieve an uninterrupted singular desktop, but it sounds like you want to have two desktops, anyway, like a split image. Game on one monitor, surf the internet on the other.

I think I have some of these:
I have some Ripjaws still in the damn blisterpack from when I bought the computer (I've moved like 3 times since I bought this computer so who fucking knows where the damn things are now in my boxes). I'll try to get a picture of the inside of it today or tomorrow. There probably isn't MUCH to upgrade since it isn't super old yet admittedly and I don't need to run brand new games at like ultra settings.

Yeah, I just want like a dedicated monitor for games and then the other one for like surfing the internet/having Spotify running quietly or something while playing. There's a part of me that wants to run my Xbox through said gaming monitor as well and leave my TV just for TV stuff.

 

[Madmick]

I think I have some of these:
I have some Ripjaws still in the damn blisterpack from when I bought the computer (I've moved like 3 times since I bought this computer so who fucking knows where the damn things are now in my boxes). I'll try to get a picture of the inside of it today or tomorrow. There probably isn't MUCH to upgrade since it isn't super old yet admittedly and I don't need to run brand new games at like ultra settings.

Is that RAM faster than what you bought? If not, and you haven't been crashing games due to a shortage of RAM, you won't see any performance benefit from installing the G. Skill kit. Still, it's better installed than not installed. GPUs tend to age faster than any other component, but that's been slowing down. If you bought your comp two years ago you probably got an RX 500 (or RX 400) series GPU if AMD; a GTX 10 series GPU if NVIDIA. There hasn't been a ton of movement, there, but you could definitely improve; how much depends on what you got, and how much you're willing to spend. After that you might want to install an m.2 SSD, but you almost certainly have Windows 10 Home, so you can't move it the new drive, and cloning won't work either. So that will be a project to freshly install Windows to a new drive like that. Not sure what else you want to do.

Yeah, I just want like a dedicated monitor for games and then the other one for like surfing the internet/having Spotify running quietly or something while playing. There's a part of me that wants to run my Xbox through said gaming monitor as well and leave my TV just for TV stuff.

Then multiple monitors is definitely cheaper. The key here is to mind the inputs on your GPU, and on the monitors. Just make sure everything has a mate. For example, if your GPU only has 1xHDMI, then you'll have to use DVI or Displayport for the other monitor, and you need to be sure it can take that. The Xbox outputs over HDMI, so you can hook it into other of these two monitors, but you'll want to be sure that the gaming monitor either has 2xHDMI, or if it only has one, then it should have some other port which can hook up to your PC.

Hopefully you can then switch inputs on that gaming monitor between the PC and Xbox without the computer trying to slingshot the dual-display output over to the single remaining monitor displaying the PC (which would warp the image). Dual monitor setups can be tricky with troubleshoots. Of course, running games on half a superwide monitor in windowed mode sounds like a potentially hazardous undertaking to me, too.

 

[Gregolian]

Is that RAM faster than what you bought? If not, and you haven't been crashing games due to a shortage of RAM, you won't see any performance benefit from installing the G. Skill kit. Still, it's better installed than not installed. GPUs tend to age faster than any other component, but that's been slowing down. If you bought your comp two years ago you probably got an RX 500 (or RX 400) series GPU if AMD; a GTX 10 series GPU if NVIDIA. There hasn't been a ton of movement, there, but you could definitely improve; how much depends on what you got, and how much you're willing to spend. After that you might want to install an m.2 SSD, but you almost certainly have Windows 10 Home, so you can't move it the new drive, and cloning won't work either. So that will be a project to freshly install Windows to a new drive like that. Not sure what else you want to do.

Then multiple monitors is definitely cheaper. The key here is to mind the inputs on your GPU, and on the monitors. Just make sure everything has a mate. For example, if your GPU only has 1xHDMI, then you'll have to use DVI or Displayport for the other monitor, and you need to be sure it can take that. The Xbox outputs over HDMI, so you can hook it into other of these two monitors, but you'll want to be sure that the gaming monitor either has 2xHDMI, or if it only has one, then it should have some other port which can hook up to your PC.

Hopefully you can then switch inputs on that gaming monitor between the PC and Xbox without the computer trying to slingshot the dual-display output over to the single remaining monitor displaying the PC (which would warp the image). Dual monitor setups can be tricky with troubleshoots. Of course, running games on half a superwide monitor in windowed mode sounds like a potentially hazardous undertaking to me, too.

Yeah this is all pretty new to me so I'm taking it slowly. All I would probably play for now is like Civ VI and maybe Siege for the lols of a console guy getting wrecked while trying to get used to M/K again.

 

[jefferz]

I have like a 2 year old tower I bought (yeah I bought a PC, sue me) from iBUYPOWER and am going to kinda sorta low key look to upgrade it slowly. Need to take a picture through the glass pane of what is actually IN the box to see where I should start though.

Also, this is probably a pipe dream but is there an affordable monitor that I could use for gaming and is wide enough/set up in a way I could use it like it's dual monitors or is that an impossibility?

I don't know what you consider affordable for a monitor, but you can get something like this which is 34" 1440p 100hz Freesync for $430

 

[Gregolian]

I don't know what you consider affordable for a monitor, but you can get something like this which is 34" 1440p 100hz Freesync for $430

I figured the gaming monitor I'd want under $500. I'm still making truck payments and such so I don't want to drop like $1000 on it, PLUS I would PROBABLY try to hit the NewEgg Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales when I go to do this (still in the process of trying to find/get the parts for a desk). The non gaming monitor portion? Just some random cheap Dell or something cause all I'll do on that monitor would be like watch YouTube/surf internet.