The gaming thread

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
While i have zero understanding of anyone's personal circumstances, many people often underestimate the value of actually borrowing money to build a shit hot computer. Sounds stupid (and if you are a good saver, it is a little stupid) but to put it in perspective 6k would built you something that would last +5 years

A 5 year loan for 6 k at 7.99% works out to ~138 bucks a month. 138 per month for entertainment for +5 years is pretty freaking good IMO given most would spend that or more on a sesh at the pub. And that doesnt mean you cant pay it of faster if you have spare cash. Total interest 2322 so its not really a stupid amount of interest you get stung for compared to a house, car or not paying off your credit cards.

Something to consider
 

gippyz

Likes Dirt
Normally, I would agree building a PC is the way to go, but this time, I kind of need it to be reasonably portable as I want to take it overseas in the near future (if everything goes to plan with my work contract that is). I have a mac air that is brilliant for work, but complete useless for gaming, especially with the M1 chip - thanks Apple.

I never once thought a gaming laptop is any better than dedicated personalised PC. The latter was always better and cheaper. Maybe I should look into a mini ff case, and build one up from there. The current one is a small ff, and too bulky to take away when I need to.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
Normally, I would agree building a PC is the way to go, but this time, I kind of need it to be reasonably portable as I want to take it overseas in the near future (if everything goes to plan with my work contract that is). I have a mac air that is brilliant for work, but complete useless for gaming, especially with the M1 chip - thanks Apple.

I never once thought a gaming laptop is any better than dedicated personalised PC. The latter was always better and cheaper. Maybe I should look into a mini ff case, and build one up from there. The current one is a small ff, and too bulky to take away when I need to.
Nucs are nice and small but are expensive for what they are. The economies of scale actually work in the laptops favour compared to them. Case in point, see the Gigabyte A5, https://www.mwave.com.au/product/gi...laptop-r75800h-16gb-1tb-rtx3060p-w11h-ac52687

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Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Normally, I would agree building a PC is the way to go, but this time, I kind of need it to be reasonably portable as I want to take it overseas in the near future (if everything goes to plan with my work contract that is). I have a mac air that is brilliant for work, but complete useless for gaming, especially with the M1 chip - thanks Apple.

I never once thought a gaming laptop is any better than dedicated personalised PC. The latter was always better and cheaper. Maybe I should look into a mini ff case, and build one up from there. The current one is a small ff, and too bulky to take away when I need to.
may as well just wait for the steam deck then. Or if you end up OS, steam deck may be available in that market.
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
gaming on a laptop sounds great, until you game on a laptop.

IMO go balls to the wall and build your own desktop set up. Will usually be solid for several years. Over time, it works out pretty well. Wifey's last build completed 4 years ago still plays current titles on max settings. Not something you could hope to do with a low spec laptop.
Disagree entirely, the gap isn't half as huge as you seem to be saying.

My last lappy was an i7 with a 1070 graphics card. 4 years old and chugging along nicely at high on a 1080 monitor when I upgraded, was a mid range laptop that set me back $2500ish from memory. My latest one is a 3060 based model, lower tier but happily games at 1440, and is lighter and runs much cooler because it's using newer tech. My kids are still gaming at 1080 on 970 based laptops that are probably 6 years old and definitely didn't cost 6k.

If your goal is top tier performance, then yeah the laptop is never going to come close.

But if moderate performance is fine and portability is a factor, then the laptop is definitely not a poor choice.

Finally, you can't compare a $1000 laptop to a 6k gaming rig. Just like you don't hold an anaconda bike to the same standards as a YT

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ForkinGreat

Knows his Brassica oleracea
While i have zero understanding of anyone's personal circumstances, many people often underestimate the value of actually borrowing money to build a shit hot computer. Sounds stupid (and if you are a good saver, it is a little stupid) but to put it in perspective 6k would built you something that would last +5 years

A 5 year loan for 6 k at 7.99% works out to ~138 bucks a month. 138 per month for entertainment for +5 years is pretty freaking good IMO given most would spend that or more on a sesh at the pub. And that doesnt mean you cant pay it of faster if you have spare cash. Total interest 2322 so its not really a stupid amount of interest you get stung for compared to a house, car or not paying off your credit cards.

Something to consider
I'm more of a user than a builder of PCs. I see most online retailers have gaming tower/desk tops at varying price points. anything up to 7-11k depending on the retailer. is there a goldilocks-ish bang for the buck price point ?(depending on the spec, of course)
I know what I'm looking at with complete bikes, what components tend to indicate quality, but I'm all at sea with PCs. I could see a Raydon quantum inverse wankonium modulator 8000 series CPU on an exxy gaming rig and have NFI whether its any good.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Disagree entirely, the gap isn't half as huge as you seem to be saying.

My last lappy was an i7 with a 1070 graphics card. 4 years old and chugging along nicely at high on a 1080 monitor when I upgraded, was a mid range laptop that set me back $2500ish from memory. My latest one is a 3060 based model, lower tier but happily games at 1440, and is lighter and runs much cooler because it's using newer tech. My kids are still gaming at 1080 on 970 based laptops that are probably 6 years old and definitely didn't cost 6k.

If your goal is top tier performance, then yeah the laptop is never going to come close.

But if moderate performance is fine and portability is a factor, then the laptop is definitely not a poor choice.

Finally, you can't compare a $1000 laptop to a 6k gaming rig. Just like you don't hold an anaconda bike to the same standards as a YT

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All depends on what you're playing. I don't think your or your kids lappys will be playing warhammer total war 3 at any reasonable settings that would present the game how its meant to look while maintaining high frames. Fortnight, CS Go, overwatch, yeah sure. No drama.

1080 is largely dead now for a good 2 years. Most current titles can be played at 4k with ray tracing at high frame rates. The new 3090Ti (out of reach for most) supports 8k (forget that you'd need the monitor too for this argument though). If you want to play games at 1080 on high or lower, sure, can do so on a laptop and again comes down to what you want to play. I just don't see the point when the premium to enjoy top tier isn't actually that unreasonable. if you were in the market for a new TV, chances are you wouldn't be buying a 55 inch 1080p screen, right?

the ONLY thing a laptop has going for it is the portability, but unless you're traveling, i don't see the point. For traveling, the bette roption for pur egaming will eventually be the steam deck IMO
 

tubby74

Likes Bikes and Dirt
is there a goldilocks-ish bang for the buck price point ?
depends a lot on what you are hoping to do with it. triple 1440, 200mhs monitors then yeah you need the horsepower. i think like boikes most people over spec things. head over to whirlpool and look up their recommended builds. they are constantly updated and have entry/mid/top end recommendation for work or gaming which is a good point to start.

Seeing prices on prebuilts now are coming well down, 3070 equipped desktops for low-mid 2K range that will be plenty for all but fussy gamers.
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
All depends on what you're playing. I don't think your or your kids lappys will be playing warhammer total war 3 at any reasonable settings that would present the game how its meant to look while maintaining high frames. Fortnight, CS Go, overwatch, yeah sure. No drama.

1080 is largely dead now for a good 2 years. Most current titles can be played at 4k with ray tracing at high frame rates. The new 3090Ti (out of reach for most) supports 8k (forget that you'd need the monitor too for this argument though). If you want to play games at 1080 on high or lower, sure, can do so on a laptop and again comes down to what you want to play. I just don't see the point when the premium to enjoy top tier isn't actually that unreasonable. if you were in the market for a new TV, chances are you wouldn't be buying a 55 inch 1080p screen, right?

the ONLY thing a laptop has going for it is the portability, but unless you're traveling, i don't see the point. For traveling, the bette roption for pur egaming will eventually be the steam deck IMO
See this is where things get really muddy. Not everyone needs to ray trace at 8k, that's getting towards some pretty niche requirements there.

For me 1440 gaming is more than enough. Shit I can barely tell the difference between 1080 and 1440 anyway on my puny 27" monitor, I just use that resolution because I have it. I'm not a massive gamer, and usually stick to stuff that suits my limited attention span so it's primarily FPS and arcade racing for me.

I don't think I'm the exception to the rule here either, most people I know are doing similar stuff with similar machines. I'd love to sink 6k into a gaming rig, but at the end of the day it'll be playing doom2016 and riders republic - absolute waste and probably a more offensive proposition to a hardcore gamer than my purchase of a mid tier laptop

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Squidfayce

Eats Squid
I'm more of a user than a builder of PCs. I see most online retailers have gaming tower/desk tops at varying price points. anything up to 7-11k depending on the retailer. is there a goldilocks-ish bang for the buck price point ?(depending on the spec, of course)
I know what I'm looking at with complete bikes, what components tend to indicate quality, but I'm all at sea with PCs. I could see a Raydon quantum inverse wankonium modulator 8000 series CPU on an exxy gaming rig and have NFI whether its any good.
Thats the funny thing. The range is wide and not consistent across retailers.

first point would be dont buy a prebuilt system from the likes of Harevey Norman oetc. EVER. Go to a proper computer store that builds gaming PCs. Centercom springs to mind.

Things to look for is current gen CPU and GPUs at a minimum. Quick google will tell you which i5/i7/i9 is current. GPU wise theres a few things to consider. RTX series cards are the current flavour. the higher the number the better. ie 3090 is WAY way better than 3060 (but the price ramp is exponential) Though there are some caveats - The prior series top end has generally out performed the entry level of the newer series - and the prices tend to reflect that

So you may find good prices on prebuilt older systems that thave a 2080Ti that will be great value.

In short you should be able to find a goo value n ranges between 2.5-3.5K if you do some comparisons.

though when you start getting to DIY 6K figure, you can pretty much build whatever the fuck you want. You can put in the best cards, the best processor, on the best Mobo with stupid amounts of ram and water-cooling. Personally i think the premium is worth it and the barrier to learning how to put it all together is really low. Maybe a week of reading articles and a couple youtube videos.

You can always check with the store youre buying parts from whether the parts are compatible. OR you can choose one of their top tier systems, go to the specs and then just buy all the parts it lists separately from wherever the price is best.

I would say learning how to build a bike was more complicated and the need for specialist tools is a hurdle you dont have with putting together a PC.
 
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Dangals

Likes Dirt
I would say learning how to build a bike was more complicated.
Still is for me...

I have built my own pc's for 20+ yrs now and love it. Currently itching for a new build which is happening later this year once the new CPU/GPU releases happen. First full pc rebuild in a few years and going all out.

Agree though that for the majority of people spending that kind of dosh of a pc is overkill and something with a reasonable CPU + 3070 in it is going to be amazing but I have always erred on the side of going as powerful as you can afford each time to ensure the best experience.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
I'm more of a user than a builder of PCs. I see most online retailers have gaming tower/desk tops at varying price points. anything up to 7-11k depending on the retailer. is there a goldilocks-ish bang for the buck price point ?(depending on the spec, of course)
I know what I'm looking at with complete bikes, what components tend to indicate quality, but I'm all at sea with PCs. I could see a Raydon quantum inverse wankonium modulator 8000 series CPU on an exxy gaming rig and have NFI whether its any good.
I built an almost top end gaming pc for about $4k 18 months ago. And it's still pretty close to the top now: Ryzen 7 5800X, 32gb 3600mhz Ram, GTX 3080, 2x 2tb SSDs. It happily runs just about everything on ultra on my 34:9 49inch Samsung Odyssey monitor.

The key back then was to get a pre-built system from Techfast with most of the things I wanted (CPU, motherboard, power supply, GPU) in order to get the economies of scale. Then judiciously upgrade bits (ram, ssd, case, watercooling) when it came up on sale at end of year or black Friday sales.

Centrecom and Techfast still have some ok deals (https://techfast.com.au/products/AMD-Ryzen-5-3600-RTX-3080-8GB-Gaming-Desktop-PC) but you can actually get some GPUs below MSRP now, so it if you're a little bit handy, you're better off buying parts separately and assembling yourself. E.g. RTX 3080 cards are now available from Amazon for $1269, and you can get a Ryzen 5 5600x/B550 combo for $698.


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Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
nice custom loop. but you cant just show it off in daylight like this. where's the RGB?!
No RGB on the inside, it encourages algal growth in the cooling liquid. Also my case has lots of sound insulation so you can't really see much when it's running. I have some lit up fans for the outside though.

If you're running watercooling you can actually recycle a lot of the kit if you get the high quality stuff. Those radiators, fans, water pump and CPU block are 10 years old and onto their third system.

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Squidfayce

Eats Squid
No RGB on the inside, it encourages algal growth in the cooling liquid. Also my case has lots of sound insulation so you can't really see much when it's running. I have some lit up fans for the outside though.

If you're running watercooling you can actually recycle a lot of the kit if you get the high quality stuff. Those radiators, fans, water pump and CPU block are 10 years old and onto their third system.

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Ah the good old eat breakfast from the chopping board and leave it by the computer trick.
 

smaj

Likes Dirt
No RGB on the inside, it encourages algal growth in the cooling liquid.
There's something I didn't know :D

Those radiators, fans, water pump and CPU block are 10 years old and onto their third system.
Not a water cooler setup, but my PC case is onto it's third build. I find speccing up a build much easier these days with sites like PC Parts Picker.
 

teK--

Eats Squid
Haha loving this thread. Takes me right back to the 90s, when it was so hardcore (but easy) to run a Celeron 300A at 450mhz.

Peltier cooling pads were the norm at that level, and water cooling was the most ghetto DIY jobs you could imagine...
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Haha loving this thread. Takes me right back to the 90s, when it was so hardcore (but easy) to run a Celeron 300A at 450mhz.

Peltier cooling pads were the norm at that level, and water cooling was the most ghetto DIY jobs you could imagine...
Fish tanks were raided and leaks were fashionable.

I also had a 300A that ran solid at 450Mhz for a long time. They couldn't have made it better if they planned it.
 

smaj

Likes Dirt
Fish tanks were raided and leaks were fashionable.

I also had a 300A that ran solid at 450Mhz for a long time. They couldn't have made it better if they planned it.
I remember a few horror stories on OcAU about leaks. :) Was the Celeron the one that you "cut" (or joined?) the traces on the CPU using a pencil?

Anyone remember that SMP-capable mobo that was super-cheap? I just did a quick search for it, but turned up the old P3 "Slot1" -- that takes me back.
 
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