Building a new PC for Elite: Dangerous Odyssey (hardware discussion)

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

My only question would be: If you will only have one PC on at a time, why have two PCs at all? Surely you could just use the one PC for both purposes.

I try desperately to have one computer solely for gaming with as little superfluous apps / programs as possible on that computer...it hasn't worked out that way at the moment as I've only got this intel based one to use.
As soon as I get this AMD based computer built and up and running then this former scenario will be possible. The intel one will be then be used for more 'mundane' stuff, even so it's specs are a bit overkill for that. I have the option of upgrading it to a small degree in the future (this intel one's cpu, ram and main hard drive) but realistically I'd be better off concentrating my efforts and money on the AMD build in the near future and considering that AMD is still going to support the AM5 for at least the next two years? is another consideration...anyway that's the plan.
There is the added advantage though in having two computers, that if one computer decides to go ***'s up I've got another fairly modern computer to fall back on in the meantime, plus I've personally found it's quite handy sometimes to be able to use two computers at the same time in some situations.
I've pretty much solved the situation (after having a slight brainstorm! ) with the audio btw., the 7.1 speakers will be used for the 'gaming computer' and the 27" monitor's inbuilt speakers can be used for the intel comp. which I can then use either the monitors HDMi inputs or whatever...which also means I'll only need to hook up permanently one or two cables there, (either hooked up to the 27" or my spare 24").

Jack

 

[Morbad]

The main question is,what or how can I use the same speakers (I presume it's some form of switch box) to switch easily between the two computers?
Both motherboards have the more or less identical audio connections at the rear of the motherboard.
I've had a search for a switch box but quite frankly I'm not sure which type I'm looking for.
Any advice or links to the appropriate switch box?... would be most welcome, I'm not looking for anything wildly expensive, just something that will do the job. (something that's under £40 if possible).

No one makes eight-channel quad-port 3.5mm analog switches, given how niche this use case is.

Cheap solution is to just get four pairs of 3.5mm stereo y-cables and plug both PCs in simultaneously. Just mute the system you don't want to hear.

You could also make four of these:

Build a 3.5mm Audio Switch - Daniel Andrade

 

[nigeljk]

My present PC was built around 7/8yrs ago and I upgraded the GPU from the 1050Ti to the GTX1080 around 18mths ago. I am now 75 and my memory is not bad but certainly not as good anymore. I can certainly remember how to put all the parts together into the box, plug in all the cables, and set the BIOS etc. but it is the reinstalling Windows10 and my other programs including EDH/EDO where I would prefer to have a sort of walkthrough procedure for want of a better name written down as until I get Windows10 installed and up to date I won't have a PC to ask for online help. I would likely muddle through it okay just need a back up plan.

Do you use an MS Live account? IF you do, your devices and digital licenses are stored there. It's well worth setting up if you don't, as if you change any major component in your system, then at first login MS will sort it for you. I recently changed my MB, and it literally worked out of the box after logging in and updating.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi All

Just a question regarding Elite Odyssey and game / graphic card benchmarks.
For example, various web sites (tomshardware, Gamersnexus, Hardwarecanuks etc. etc.) when reviewing specific graphics cards use various games to test the GPU's specs.
I've had a browse about on the web but apart from the usual games in vogue I haven't seen any reviews as such that use Elite as part of the benchmarks. Are there any?
Just wondered.

Jack

 

[Morbad]

I've had a browse about on the web but apart from the usual games in vogue I haven't seen any reviews as such that use Elite as part of the benchmarks. Are there any?

Generally, professional reviews focus on mainstream titles that are likely to be representative of what their audience will be playing. Elite: Dangerous is pretty niche and I almost never see it featured in benchmark comparisons. Babletechreviews uses Elite in their VR comparisons, the most recent of which is nearly two years old at this point, but beyond that it's pretty much one-off Youtube stuff.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

Generally, professional reviews focus on mainstream titles that are likely to be representative of what their audience will be playing. Elite: Dangerous is pretty niche and I almost never see it featured in benchmark comparisons. Babletechreviews uses Elite in their VR comparisons, the most recent of which is nearly two years old at this point, but beyond that it's pretty much one-off Youtube stuff.

Yeah, that's what I've found so far.
I was also thinking though that this sort of thing would be a really useful item for this specific topic of @Alec's, maybe even for Frontier and it's game too in this sense. I do realise the testing process would have to contain very specific hardware, software and OS specifications though as a basic platform, and then there's the combinations of different types, models and a host of other GPU specs and variations to contend with....though I suppose GPU specs could be generally condensed into Nvidia, AMD and Intel Arc (basic card series).
Not something easy to do for someone without easy access to various hardware facility's and the general knowledge to go with it. I can see the overall benefits though...okay, thanks for the reply.

Edit...Just thought to add this as it might interest some people
I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a steady increase in price on the popular uk hardware sites, current prices here in the uk just shot up this week to around the £440 mark!

Recent AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D price action suggests stock is running low ahead of a possible 9800X3D launch

Global stock levels hint AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is coming out soon?

www.tomshardware.com

Jack

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi All

A question about System Panel headers (front of case to motherboard connections) please

Let me first just say that I've no problem as to where each connection plugs into on the motherboard (reset switch, power button etc) what I would like to know is there an adaptor plug (or 'block') available that you can connect all the cables to then plug that adaptor straight in to the motherboard?
I seem to remember many years ago I had an Asus Crosshair Formula 3 (AM3?) motherboard that had one of these adaptor plugs that came with the motherboard. It just meant that you could connect those terminal cables to the adaptor plug virtually outside of the case then feed the attached cable adaptor back into the case and just plug that adaptor (as one plug) in to the motherboards system panel header. It was a lot easier than plugging each individual cable into those headers when the motherboard was fitted inside of the case. Or is there no such animal nowadays?
I think the plug back then was called an 'Asus Q-connector kit'.

(The Motherboard I'm (going to use) is a Rog Strix B650E-F Gaming wi-fi btw.)

Jack

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

Hi All
... what I would like to know is there an adaptor plug (or 'block') available that you can connect all the cables to then plug that adaptor straight in to the motherboard?
Jack

I have looked for those previously and have not found them for sale as individual pieces. A few motherboards do include them, but not many

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

Thanks for the reply

I have looked for those previously and have not found them for sale as individual pieces. A few motherboards do include them, but not many

Yeah, I think I'm probably not going to find one, I'm going to use one of my (older) computer cases (Coolermaster Haf X) with this motherboard. I've also got a Montech King Pro case on my other computer and that comes with a single cable/s plug for the System panel header, it was so easy to fit, takes just a few seconds.
My eyesight is not what it once was, of course I can do it but it's probably going to be a pain
I'll keep looking though...you never know.

Jack

 

[Morbad]

I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a steady increase in price on the popular uk hardware sites, current prices here in the uk just shot up this week to around the £440 mark!

Recent AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D price action suggests stock is running low ahead of a possible 9800X3D launch

Global stock levels hint AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is coming out soon?

www.tomshardware.com

7800X3D stock is running low just about everywhere and prices are way up. Those who were planning on a 7800X3D build should probably be waiting for the 9800X3D instead, which should show up early November.

Or is there no such animal nowadays?

Since the layout of the front panel header isn't standardized, they are generally board specific and few modern boards include them. I don't think they ever took off.

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

7800X3D stock is running low just about everywhere and prices are way up. Those who were planning on a 7800X3D build should probably be waiting for the 9800X3D instead, which should show up early November.



Since the layout of the front panel header isn't standardized, they are generally board specific and few modern boards include them. I don't think they ever took off.

Also the previous gen AM4 has the 5600x3d and 5800x3d as supposedly being discontinued. 5700x3d is still around for now

 

[varonica]

7800X3D stock is running low just about everywhere and prices are way up. Those who were planning on a 7800X3D build should probably be waiting for the 9800X3D instead, which should show up early November.

So far the performance benchmarks of the 9xxx3d series that have been released have proven....dissapointing, so if you can still find a 7800X3D for a good price it may still be worth getting to save some money. Fortunately I got mine a while back and I am certainly not seeing anything in the 9000 series that will encourage me to upgrade.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

Since the layout of the front panel header isn't standardized, they are generally board specific and few modern boards include them. I don't think they ever took off.

Aha!...eventually...I think this might be what I'm looking for...

Power Reset SW Power HDD LED 10 Pin Internal Motherboard Cable

Buy Power Reset SW Power HDD LED 10 Pin Internal Motherboard Cable for $9.99 with Free Shipping Worldwide (In Stock)

www.moddiy.com

From Hong Kong?...hmm, I might give it a go for under a tenner. (Walks off giggling hysterically ).

Jack

 

[Alec Turner]

So far the performance benchmarks of the 9xxx3d series that have been released have proven....dissapointing, so if you can still find a 7800X3D for a good price it may still be worth getting to save some money. Fortunately I got mine a while back and I am certainly not seeing anything in the 9000 series that will encourage me to upgrade.

Is it wrong that I'm quite pleased to hear that!

 

[AlSki]

Hi All

A question about System Panel headers (front of case to motherboard connections) please

Let me first just say that I've no problem as to where each connection plugs into on the motherboard (reset switch, power button etc) what I would like to know is there an adaptor plug (or 'block') available that you can connect all the cables to then plug that adaptor straight in to the motherboard?
I seem to remember many years ago I had an Asus Crosshair Formula 3 (AM3?) motherboard that had one of these adaptor plugs that came with the motherboard. It just meant that you could connect those terminal cables to the adaptor plug virtually outside of the case then feed the attached cable adaptor back into the case and just plug that adaptor (as one plug) in to the motherboards system panel header. It was a lot easier than plugging each individual cable into those headers when the motherboard was fitted inside of the case. Or is there no such animal nowadays?
I think the plug back then was called an 'Asus Q-connector kit'.

(The Motherboard I'm (going to use) is a Rog Strix B650E-F Gaming wi-fi btw.)

Jack

I got this with my old Rog strix H370-i.

but it looks like only do them on the itx boards e.g.

ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi mini-ITX motherboard

ASUS ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi features 10 + 2 power stages, ROG Strix Hive, EZ mode PBO button, DDR5 support, PCIe® 5.0, onboard Wi-Fi 6E, two M.2 slots and M.2 Gen 5 & chipset heatsink, and two USB4® Type-C ports. It also features AI Cooling II, AI Networking, Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation...

rog.asus.com

I don't see the equivalent on yours

ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI | Motherboards | ROG United Kingdom

The ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi takes you to the future with 12 + 2 power stages, hyperspeed DDR5 memory, and next-gen PCIe® 5.0 connectivity. It is equipped with three M.2 slots with heatsinks, a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, WiFi 6E, AI Networking, Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation, and Aura Sync RGB...

rog.asus.com

 

[Morbad]

Also the previous gen AM4 has the 5600x3d and 5800x3d as supposedly being discontinued. 5700x3d is still around for now

5800X3Ds have been hard to find at sane prices for a few months. The 5700X3D isn't too badly priced, but it's clock speed is so low that if one has fast memory already the 5800X is probably the better deal (as it's cheaper and almost as fast in gaming with sufficiently quick memory to back it up).

So far the performance benchmarks of the 9xxx3d series that have been released have proven....dissapointing

This is a case of unfounded expectations more than anything.

Granite Ridge-X seems to perform pretty much exactly as it's clock speeds dictate vs. Raphael-X. The other improvements to Granite Ridge were never going to mean much for most games.

so if you can still find a 7800X3D for a good price it may still be worth getting to save some money. Fortunately I got mine a while back and I am certainly not seeing anything in the 9000 series that will encourage me to upgrade.

The problem is price. Right now, if you can find a 7800X3D it's generally going to cost as much or more than the launch price the 9800X3D is likely to be and the 9800X3D will be faster...not by a lot, but still faster.

Of course, if one does find a discounted 7800X3D then there is little reason to wait, unless one plans on overclocking significantly (the 9800X3D should be significantly less locked down) or using the part for something that Zen 5 is specifically good at.

 

[varonica]

Of course, if one does find a discounted 7800X3D then there is little reason to wait, unless one plans on overclocking significantly (the 9800X3D should be significantly less locked down) or using the part for something that Zen 5 is specifically good at.

Yeah that's the kicker isn't it, AMD certainly won't want a lot of cheap 7800X3D CPU's hanging around taking sales from the latest and greatest so price and availability may be the sticker, keep an eye out for people upgrading to the 9800X3D from the 7800X3D and wanting to part with their old gear, there's a always a few around who want the latest and greatest and just won't wait.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

Yeah that's the kicker isn't it, AMD certainly won't want a lot of cheap 7800X3D CPU's hanging around taking sales from the latest and greatest so price and availability may be the sticker, keep an eye out for people upgrading to the 9800X3D from the 7800X3D and wanting to part with their old gear, there's a always a few around who want the latest and greatest and just won't wait.

Talking of the latest and greatest, I've recently been looking at the new AMD and Intel motherboards (X870 & Z890), not that I'm thinking of buying one, just keeping an eye on current prices....
Are Asus for example trying to price themselves out of the gaming market? (or any market!).

Jack

 

[the100thmonkey]

There's certainly an element of "gamer premium" in play, but it's also more expensive to produce the more recent motherboards - they need more PCB layers, with higher quality traces and capacitors to meet the specifications of the latest standards.

 

[Morbad]

Talking of the latest and greatest, I've recently been looking at the new AMD and Intel motherboards (X870 & Z890), not that I'm thinking of buying one, just keeping an eye on current prices....
Are Asus for example trying to price themselves out of the gaming market? (or any market!).

The high-end is the usual target of new releases, because that's the most profitable segment and is least likely to cannibalize prior offerings. This launch is a marginal product refresh, mostly a bit of marketing synergy with the 9000 series, aimed at squeezing more money from gullible consumers.

The 800 series and 600 series both use the same Promontory 21 chips. The 800 series just mandates USB4 and some of top offerings have to at least pretend to support 8000+MT/s memory. In practice, 8000MT/s EXPO profiles have to have timings so loose to reliably work without any manual tuning that out-of-box performance is pretty bleh.

I'm not adverse to spending money money where it will make a difference (for example, I have an RTX 4090 that I built custom loop), but high-end motherboards are one of the biggest wastes of budget there is. A motherboard, from my perspective, has these main jobs: supply clean power to the CPU without melting, plus attach the memory and I/O I'm actually going to make use of to that CPU. Everything else is a distraction, if not an outright liability.

RGB headers? Just one more thing to disable.
Decorative heatsinks? An annoyance, unless they get in the way of cleaning the boad or swapping parts, then they are a liability.
Dubiously routed M.2 slots? Liability, if they eat PCI-E lanes something else might need.
Cooling fans on the board (as opposed to sensibly designed heatsinks)? Liability.
Extra Promontory chips (which are daisy chained to together and share the same 4x PCI-E lanes to the CPU)? Liability.
Bigger than needed board size? Liability.
More than two DIMM slots for a system that needs less than 128GiB of RAM? Huge liability.

There's certainly an element of "gamer premium" in play, but it's also more expensive to produce the more recent motherboards - they need more PCB layers, with higher quality traces and capacitors to meet the specifications of the latest standards.

I'm not sure who the target market is for a $500+ modern art nightmare with piles of RGB headers and a dozen USB-C ports, but I don't think it's gamers. Then again, I don't get out much.

Anyway, for those who don't need piles of (mostly redundant) I/O, sometimes less is more.

From HWU tests on a stack of boards that are nearly all more than twice what I plan on paying for any board for a mainstream socket:

What I'm doing on my $125, six-layer, B650 board (manual timings, five hours LINPACK, after an hour of y-cruncher, while running FurMark on the IGP for maximum memory/IMC/PHY load [single CCX parts don't have the Fabric bandwidth to max out the 1:2 ratios without help], testing for worst case temperature stability with insulation packed around my DIMMs in a 30C room...normal memory temps are full 20C lower in the same load):

If pure clock speed (rather than actual performance, which peaks at 6200-6400 1:1 or 8000-8100 1:2 with a single CCX part) is the goal, I can do 8200, or maybe even 8300 with bit of conductive tape for EMI shielding. I can't run GDM disabled or tighten primaries quite as far as I could with a better two-DIMM board, but overall, I want for very little when it comes to board performance or features.

Of course, the HWU editors don't know all that much about tuning memory and have to test a large number of boards (all with their own annoying quirks) in a short time. Most of these boards could do 8000-8200 with some work, but most would still fall short of the cheapest two-DIMM mATX budget boards, let alone the 10-12 layer iTX boards than can still be had for half the price of a full sized X870 board.

The rest of the advantages of these more expensive boards ultimately comes down to the number of USB ports they have and for what most of the people here might do with gobs of USB ports (all those controllers) almost none of these 800 series boards are especially suitable for that, because they have stupid controller routing and do not supply locally generated +5v, which makes a powered hub almost mandatory anyway. I spent a little extra on a good PSU with over spec, server-like, +5v output, which will do more for USB reliability than anything short of on-board DC-to-DC conversion (which a few boards actually have on a few ports).

I am rather impressed with the analog audio quality the ASUS 800 series boards seem to be producing...too bad it's twenty years too late for my ears to keep up.