# Be grateful for what you have!



## Dreamliner

With all the new GPU & CPU launches I am seeing a lot of people itchy to upgrade systems that are still very capable. *Step back and take a breath.*

All of the tech youtubers you see are being sent all this stuff for FREE...but you have to buy it. I'd be super enthusiastic if companies sent me thousands of dollars of stuff for free all the time too.

Having a look at the Steam Hardware Survey will show that most people are using MUCH lower tier hardware than you expect.

Look at the hardware you have now, figure out how much money you'd put in your pocket if you'd sell it then divide that by the FPS you currently get in your favorite game. This will show your cost per frame. Now, do the same math with whatever you plan to buy. Guess what you find? Unless you're really really due for an upgrade, it doesn't make sense. Is an extra 10, 15, 20 FPS really worth $1000-2000?

I recently stumbled into some good deals but ONLY upgraded because it was obvious. I went from a 7820X/X299 chip/board to a 11900K/Z590 chip/board for less than $50 out of pocket after selling my old hardware. Would I have rather have had the 13900K? Sure! It would have cost me $650 more...see how dumb that sounds? (Even a 13700K would have been $500 more). It's easy to crap on something like the 11900K especially, because of what youtubers have told you when they reviewed it at launch when it cost $600. My net out the door cost from the store was $264 with the motherboard and I still have my old hardware to sell. Imagine what the reviews would look like at that price?!

The math on the 4090 over a 3080 is just as bad. Sure the 4090 is way better, but you can get a 3080 for under $500. I talked myself into a 4090 then looked at how dumb it would be to spend $1700+ (with tax) for a freaking video card and went back to a 3080 (I couldn't even justify spending double for a 3090Ti over a 3080).

If you've got extra money to burn, go for it. I have the money and I still think it's dumb. My 11900K & 3080 with $1900 on top the case looks way better to me than a 13900K & 4090 ever could.

I know everyone has different hobbies and priorities, but not long ago you thought the stuff you have now was amazing. That stuff hasn't changed. Anyone can buy performance.

Save your dollars....it makes sense.


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## Ichirou

FWIW, I still have a 2080 Super, lol. And I bought a new waterblock for it too.


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## maltamonk

I just got a new to me system. 6700k with gtx 960s in sli. Cost me £75. Billy bargain!


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## Jimbodiah

I came from an 8086K and 1080Ti, my upgrade path is about every 5 years. 4790K/650Ti before that. Generational upgrades are pointless, it's just blowing money for bragging rights.



Dreamliner said:


> but you can get a 3080 for under $500


Where???? Those are still €900 here. I keep seeing these ridiculous price claims. You mean 2nd hand?


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## Blameless

Dreamliner said:


> not long ago you thought the stuff you have now was amazing.


I've been disappointed in the performance of my current GPUs since before I bought them. They were just the best of what was available, something to settle for, because what I wanted didn't exist.


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## Slaughtahouse




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## sepol

I need to upgrade my CPU. The only game that I play this days is iRacing at almost 4K, Samsung 49'' G9. It's an old game that's been updated and upgraded since 2008, but still relies on 1 cpu core for the heavy lifting. I need more then 90 FPS minimum all the time and my 9900K isn't enough to feed my 3080. I think the 13600K will solve my problem. Will be my first i5. Also can't really spend 550€ on a CPU this time around.


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## CynicalUnicorn

Dreamliner said:


> Having a look at the Steam Hardware Survey will show that most people are using MUCH lower tier hardware than you expect.


At least 71% of Steam users have a better graphics card than my 750 Ti lol. But I've got more cores than 94% of em.


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## zzztopzzz

This whole thread sounds like a "down and outer's club". This is a hobby - not a way of life.


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## Cakewalk_S

GAS is real


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## Dreamliner

maltamonk said:


> I just got a new to me system. 6700k with gtx 960s in sli. Cost me £75. Billy bargain!


See if you can sell those two 960’s and get into a 10-series for the same money. It’ll be better to have one better GPU.



Jimbodiah said:


> I came from an 8086K and 1080Ti, my upgrade path is about every 5 years. 4790K/650Ti before that. Generational upgrades are pointless, it's just blowing money for bragging rights.


The 13600k with DDR4 is 100% the chip I’d recommend to anyone building today.



> Where???? Those are still €900 here. I keep seeing these ridiculous price claims. You mean 2nd hand?


It’s a long story but I sold my 1080Ti obtained during the first crypto crash and limped along on a 750Ti in hopes of getting a 3080. I eventually got one in January 2022. I sold it for $700 and went back to the 750Ti in hopes of getting 40-series. After seeing pricing and performance and questioning what I was doing, I started looking for a 3090Ti. I ended up finding someone who had an EVGA 3080 FTW3 they literally bought one month ago and never used it (zero dust on sticky side of plastic, verified Amazon invoice and warranty with EVGA directly). Paid $450 cash for an opened but unused 3080 with 1000+ days of warranty.



sepol said:


> I need to upgrade my CPU. The only game that I play this days is iRacing at almost 4K, Samsung 49'' G9. It's an old game that's been updated and upgraded since 2008, but still relies on 1 cpu core for the heavy lifting. I need more then 90 FPS minimum all the time and my 9900K isn't enough to feed my 3080. I think the 13600K will solve my problem. Will be my first i5. Also can't really spend 550€ on a CPU this time around.


13600K with DDR4 is where it’s at!



CynicalUnicorn said:


> At least 71% of Steam users have a better graphics card than my 750 Ti lol. But I've got more cores than 94% of em.


My 750Ti still works but even I’ll admit I was only using it to hold out for something better.



zzztopzzz said:


> This whole thread sounds like a "down and outer's club". This is a hobby - not a way of life.


You do you.


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## CynicalUnicorn

Dreamliner said:


> My 750Ti still works but even I’ll admit I was only using it to hold out for something better.


Yeah it's self inflicted. I sold my good graphics cards for a combined $450 last year. Broke even on a GTX 780 I bought for Folding, got twenty bucks out of an R9 280 I VBIOS modded slightly wrong, and profited sixty bucks on the RX 480 I bought launch day five years prior. But I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of this lil guy <3 (please pardon past-me being a cringey teenager)


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## xarot

I rarely sell my old cpu/mobo/memory combos unless I just want to get rid of them. I usually end up selling gpus though because they often have the shortest lifetime anyway. So I often test and change parts back and forth for the hobby, wish I had more room for parts. Of course I could do just fine with parts that are a few years old.


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## paulerxx1

maltamonk said:


> I just got a new to me system. 6700k with gtx 960s in sli. Cost me £75. Billy bargain!


I built my buddy's PC and he gave me a 6700k + whatever mobo he had for free lol. Then my other buddy sold me a RX580 for $50. Built my girlfriend a nice budget build.


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## bhav

13600k and DDR4 are indeed an incredible combination:









Well at least they tried, 4000CL14 GEAR 2 vs 6000CL36


https://overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_13600k_and_13900k_ddr4_vs_ddr5_showdown/1 Not much to say here other than if thats at gear 2, gear 1 would be beating the DDR5 in most tests, and gear 2 cranked up to 4800+ ... nobody knows :(




www.overclock.net





Even when the ram is 4000 Gear 2!


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## Aislini

indeed i still have my asus rampage V extreme,i75930k,evga 980ti classified,32gb ddr4 that i bough 8 years ago.I am well pleased that this build lasted me for all these years.And now it is time for me to upgrade build new machine


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## 1Kaz

This is the reason I've been running a 4790K and 970 for so long. I was going to add a 2nd 970 after a year or two, but SLI became less popular and the mining craze kept me from upgrading my GPU.

I'm due for an upgrade, some of the games I've bought aren't fun to play on such an old system.

Looking at a 13700K with DDR5 (since I don't own DDR4.) Still waiting for new graphics cards to drop, and the market to stabilize, probably Jan or Feb I will build. The 2nd hand market isn't that good for newish stuff around here, and saving a couple hundred isn't worth that much when I use the system every day for 7+ years.

I have to question steams CPU speed listing. Seems like it doesn't take boost/max clock into count. I have a hard time believing that the most common CPU speed is 2.3-2.7 Ghz when the most common core count is 6...


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## umeng2002

Zoomers with FOMO make companies a lot of money. I got into PC gaming back in the day TO SAVE money.

I already had a PC for school, so all you really needed to do was drop in a $200 to $300 video card and you were all set. All this modern day "gamer" marketing is just to inflate prices.

Also, if you have a large back catalogue of games to play, you don't need powerful hardware to run them. About 10 years ago, I sold my GTX 580 and went back to my GTX 260 for a few years and just played older games I missed and indie games that ran on a potato.


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## Dreamliner

1Kaz said:


> Looking at a 13700K with DDR5 (since I don't own DDR4.) Still waiting for new graphics cards to drop, and the market to stabilize, probably Jan or Feb I will build. The 2nd hand market isn't that good for newish stuff around here, and saving a couple hundred isn't worth that much when I use the system every day for 7+ years.


You’re the perfect candidate to skip right over DDR4. I’d keep your eye out for a local GPU. I wouldn’t necessarily want a two-year-old mining GPU, but I am just fine with a new one month old card like I got…it saved me big bucks. Though if you’ll truly hang onto it for a really long time, a DLSS3 card might be worth it.


umeng2002 said:


> Zoomers with FOMO make companies a lot of money. I got into PC gaming back in the day TO SAVE money.
> 
> I already had a PC for school, so all you really needed to do was drop in a $200 to $300 video card and you were all set. All this modern day "gamer" marketing is just to inflate prices.
> 
> Also, if you have a large back catalogue of games to play, you don't need powerful hardware to run them. About 10 years ago, I sold my GTX 580 and went back to my GTX 260 for a few years and just played older games I missed and indie games that ran on a potato.


Parts that say gaming and have LEDs are faster and better so they’re supposed to cost more. Everybody knows that!

The majority of my PC games were free or less than $10 so I’m positive my 3080 can chew through my entire catalog at 4K max settings without issue.

My biggest problem is finding the time to play my owned games.


I’m not against upgrading. Just do it wisely. Think of how the 2080Ti owners felt when the 3080 came out. Or how the 3090Ti owners felt after the price got slashed in almost half a couple months later. Or what a 7700X/DDR5 owner thinks of the 13600K/DDR4…


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## crastakippers

zzztopzzz said:


> This whole thread sounds like a "down and outer's club". This is a hobby - not a way of life.


I think the OP is just trying to convince himself that he did the right thing not getting the 4090.  

EDIT: He will probably buy it in 6 months anyway. And pm me to let me know I was correct. 

Double EDIT: Just poking fun OP.


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## 1Kaz

Dreamliner said:


> I talked myself into a 4090


Yeah man, your 3080 is looking a little old and slow. I know someone who can dispose of it for you.


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## CynicalUnicorn

umeng2002 said:


> Zoomers with FOMO make companies a lot of money. I got into PC gaming back in the day TO SAVE money.
> 
> I already had a PC for school, so all you really needed to do was drop in a $200 to $300 video card and you were all set. All this modern day "gamer" marketing is just to inflate prices.
> 
> Also, if you have a large back catalogue of games to play, you don't need powerful hardware to run them. About 10 years ago, I sold my GTX 580 and went back to my GTX 260 for a few years and just played older games I missed and indie games that ran on a potato.


I believe there's a laundry list of reasons why PC gaming is expensive: consumer electronics are increasingly becoming luxury products despite computers on the whole getting cheap, r/pcmasterrace turned PC gaming into a lifestyle, and the industry has reached a point where new nodes and new processor designs and whatnot are horribly expensive. Remember, when Apple announced the iPhone they were mocked for trying to sell a smartphone for $500; I _wish_ smartphones were still $500. Reddit accidentally cranked up the consumerism angle of PC gaming to 11, and Moore's Law is running up against a wall rather quickly.

So you've got consumer electronics as a whole becoming more expensive, you've got PC gamers buying more expensive parts at MSRP for further inflated prices due to shortages because they feel obligated to have the latest and greatest, and we've gone from TSMC offering bulk discounts for customers who get lots of wafers fabbed to auctioning off every wafer to the highest bidder.

It sucks! I'm still rocking the aforementioned 750 Ti because, while I can afford it, I am stubborn and cheap and refuse to spend a cent more than MSRP for a graphics card and I also refuse to buy a graphics card without more VRAM than my old RX 480.


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## t0bimaru

I try to live my life with basically this same mindset; be content with what you have and happiness is easy to find. I drive a 2004 car, a 2009 motorcycle, and I have a laptop from 2019 which still does everything I want excellently. I bought $300 3D printers and self upgraded them to outperform more expensive models. I rent a room in a friend's house for 1/3-1/4th the cost of my previous rent. I'm living a simple life and saving money regularly, no debt, low stress, etc. I enjoy new things as much as the next person but I do not put a lot of value in something just because it is new. It needs to be markedly different and perform it's function vastly better than what I already own for me to usually justify making a purchase. And even then, sometimes I step back and think, "That would be nice...but I'm fine with what I have for now. Maybe later."


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## bhav

crastakippers said:


> I think the OP is just trying to convince himself that he did the right thing not getting the 4090.
> 
> EDIT: He will probably buy it in 6 months anyway. And pm me to let me know I was correct.
> 
> Double EDIT: Just poking fun OP.


I mean I'd love one, but I already have a 3080 TI and while 4090 is way ahead, i'm not willing to dump £1600 on one, nor £1200 on a 4080.

I'll wait and see what the Ti versions bring, and if the prices come down later.

As for being grateful for what you have, everything is easy to sell on Ebay .... except for my 2 Gb sticks of DDR3 that people were only offering £10-15 per pair lol.

At that point they become decorations. And actually I might look into making a keyring or pendant thing out of my G4560, but not if it costs a lot.


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## ZealotKi11er

Only reason i get new HW is because that is what everyone is talking about atm. Its like watching tv shows and movies, playing games way after they come out.


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## xioaxi

You could also live in a garden shed instead of a big house or drive a run of the mill car instead of a top end Ferrari, (still can get you from A to B). Yeah who needs those things


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## Sir Beregond

My last PC lasted me 7 years just fine until I upgraded monitors/resolution. Finished this build earlier this year and got a non-scalped used 3080 Ti at a very reasonable price/trade and am perfectly happy with it for everything I am doing. 

While I agree with @Blameless that something like a 4090 will be what I am looking forward to from a performance standpoint (4k120), my current card is already a space-heater, and I am not going to contribute to Nvidia continuing to push the limits on what they think they can get away with charging for their full stack of gaming GPUs. When that 4k120 performance can be had for reasonable money (at or below $1k), _and_ can be done for 250-300W TDP, then I will consider upgrading.

Until then, I am happy with what I have.


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## matthew87

No, i won't and I blame my wife and kids. 

I use to have lots of money, no grey hair, and plenty of free time to game. They took all that away from me.


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## SpartanVXL

I've been playing on separate rigs lately aside from my main one. It still doesn't take much to still play modern games on low settings around 1080p60 or less given that you're fine with it not looking the greatest. Upscaling and AA helps in that regard, though I normally wouldn't stand much blur on a capable rig. 2013-2016 era kit is still viable for minimum requirements, unlike consoles of that time.

Main: 3700x with 2070s
Other: 3770k with 1070
Other: 4790 with 970

I played Gotham Knights on the 3770k/1070 rig and it could still hold 50-60fps in the linear parts of the game at medium settings and no upscaling, just TAA enabled. CPU struggled in open world, but it seems thats a problem for all hardware.

The 4790/970 struggles a bit but still meets 60fps targets with lower resolution, partly because of vram in modern titles and the locked cpu. It holds up well in MW2 MP beta, Cyberpunk and Halo Infinite.

I do find a lot of people now hitting the DX 12_1 wall, where they will have older, usually mobile, GPU's that don't have that feature level support. Probably a good idea to at least follow those as they often are a hard requirement as feature level gets adopted more. The 970 rig is great example, if it didn't have that then it would have been retired quite a bit ago.

My main rig has a different problem now, I bought a LG C1 for OLED and now suffer a performance target of 4k. This quickly requires higher tier cards which are far more expensive. I may revert when OLED monitors come out at lower res because without DLSS etc. it is still far too hard to keep up with 4k requirements vs 1080p/1440p.


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## bhav

I just can't go back to my 1440 screen after using 4k 55" daily, everything looks so tiny, its like I'm going blind when I try to use it.

3440x1440 Oled needed for desk PC but gah they still cost too much for a screen.

Can't play MMOs or dual box from the couch rig though, using kb and mouse on a sofa is so flimsy. Strategy and controller games though are just wow.

55" 4k Oled huumankind, anno, civ even rimworld is just incredible. LGC1 bought on sale after the C2 came out, £899 which is pricey but no other TV in that price range came close.

I was thinking of buying the 5120x1440 samsung VA screen some time ago, but ultrawide gaming forum basically told me its a bad idea cos oleds will be happening soon, and now they have!

Oledoledoled gimmeh oled!

Its still a 3080 Ti and 1080 Ti for the two rigs for now. Gonna stick to them for a while.


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## Sir Beregond

bhav said:


> Oledoledoled gimmeh oled!


Almost looked like you started yodeling. 😂


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## bhav

Sir Beregond said:


> Almost looked like you started yodeling. 😂


It did look like that to me too. God the new Asus and Dell 3440x1440s with the LGC2 panel still too much. SALES PLZ!

Will take at least 6 more months to save for one, or use paypal finance if a sale happens.

Or wait another year for better screens, but I just can't stand the 1440p anymore, it looks like a phone screen now


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## Dreamliner

matthew87 said:


> No, i won't and I blame my wife and kids.
> 
> I use to have lots of money, no grey hair, and plenty of free time to game. They took all that away from me.


Sounds like you got the best setup, tbh.


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## SpykeZ

Ichirou said:


> FWIW, I still have a 2080 Super, lol. And I bought a new waterblock for it too.


I just finally upgraded from a 1080ti/8700K to a 6900xt/5900x. Realistically the 8700K was just fine but I run a plex server that friends stream from so I needed a cpu that can transcode 4K down for those that need it while not messing up my gaming.


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## cssorkinman

Good advice no matter what you are talking about.


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## maltamonk

Also worth noting.....I surely don't want to be a beta tester when paying top dollar. Other ppl can pay to be testers. That way when it comes time for me to buy it, the flaws have been ironed out or outed.


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## Jimbodiah

Are oleds doing the 200+ fps thing yet on ultrawide?


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## Sir Beregond

bhav said:


> It did look like that to me too. God the new Asus and Dell 3440x1440s with the LGC2 panel still too much. SALES PLZ!
> 
> Will take at least 6 more months to save for one, or use paypal finance if a sale happens.
> 
> Or wait another year for better screens, but I just can't stand the 1440p anymore, it looks like a phone screen now


Yeah try next year for the C2. I only got my C1 when they were trying to clear them out this year for $790. The 42" C2 was probably a preferable size, but I couldn't justify the $1400+ asking price. They'll drop next year like the C1 did to clear out for the next year's model.


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## bhav

Sir Beregond said:


> Yeah try next year for the C2. I only got my C1 when they were trying to clear them out this year for $790. The 42" C2 was probably a preferable size, but I couldn't justify the $1400+ asking price. They'll drop next year like the C1 did to clear out for the next year's model.


I['d really prefer ultrawide for the desk PC, no point in 2 4K setups.

Don't feel like swapping the C1 to a C2, waste of cash for tiny improvement.


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## Sir Beregond

bhav said:


> I['d really prefer ultrawide for the desk PC, no point in 2 4K setups.
> 
> Don't feel like swapping the C1 to a C2, waste of cash for tiny improvement.


Ah, I misunderstood that you already had a C1.


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## doom26464

I like PC gaming as a hobby and having something too tinker with keeps me busy. 

I also work a very demanding job so I very much understand the value of money. I don't like blowing top dollar on new hardware(like the 4090) but always try to find the value where I can while still getting high end performance. Sometimes that's settling for something like a 3080 vrs 3090, or grabbing a second 980ti off the used market to SLi instead of jumping to a 1080 at the time. Or not going for the I9 part to chase down that 5% game performance delta. I watch reviewers and always pay attention to when they offer glowing reviews to good value products.

Life is short but you don't always need to over extended yourself. And trying to chase the top performance or the bragging rights of the best just leaves your ego heavy and wallet lighter.


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## xioaxi

There's a lot of things in life one can do without but wouldn't life be boring? This thread seems to disregard that a lot of people get enjoyment from new hardware and focuses on money value only.


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## Russell78

sepol said:


> I need to upgrade my CPU. The only game that I play this days is iRacing at almost 4K, Samsung 49'' G9. It's an old game that's been updated and upgraded since 2008, but still relies on 1 cpu core for the heavy lifting. I need more then 90 FPS minimum all the time and my 9900K isn't enough to feed my 3080. I think the 13600K will solve my problem. Will be my first i5. Also can't really spend 550€ on a CPU this time around.


IMO i5 13600k/kf is surely your best value bet currently and for quite some time. I would personally dare to wait for the 13400f and 13700f respectively and see benchmarks and if BCLK overclock is still a thing. They could be an even better value option.


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## Dreamliner

xioaxi said:


> There's a lot of things in life one can do without but wouldn't life be boring? This thread seems to disregard that a lot of people get enjoyment from new hardware and focuses on money value only.


It's about balance. There are a lot of young people here that are putting expensive hardware on a credit card because they can't afford to buy it. Buying stuff to numb the reality of being broke is a terrible place to be. You can see below I have no problem with people buying the new stuff, just trying to caution against chasing after new hardware because of reviewer and forum hype.

If you can't pay off your credit card each month, you can't afford what you are buying.





Dreamliner said:


> If you've got extra money to burn, go for it. I have the money and I still think it's dumb.





Dreamliner said:


> I know everyone has different hobbies and priorities, but not long ago you thought the stuff you have now was amazing. That stuff hasn't changed. Anyone can buy performance.
> 
> Save your dollars....it makes sense.





Dreamliner said:


> I’m not against upgrading. Just do it wisely. Think of how the 2080Ti owners felt when the 3080 came out. Or how the 3090Ti owners felt after the price got slashed in almost half a couple months later. Or what a 7700X/DDR5 owner thinks of the 13600K/DDR4…


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## Z32

The steam survey was sobering, thanks. 

RX580's have done a great job for just $120 used. But for VR racing, low framerates cause nausea quickly. Now im patiently waiting for a rtx 3070 for $300. Amazing how much the prices dropped, just a little bit longer to wait. 

Take care everyone, make sure you put some away for retirement, home repairs, etc etc ..


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## bhav

Sir Beregond said:


> Ah, I misunderstood that you already had a C1.


I posted more pics:









Post a pic of your setup :)







www.overclock.net


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## Rakanoth

Dreamliner said:


> With all the new GPU & CPU launches I am seeing a lot of people itchy to upgrade systems that are still very capable. *Step back and take a breath.*
> 
> All of the tech youtubers you see are being sent all this stuff for FREE...but you have to buy it. I'd be super enthusiastic if companies sent me thousands of dollars of stuff for free all the time too.
> 
> Having a look at the Steam Hardware Survey will show that most people are using MUCH lower tier hardware than you expect.
> 
> Look at the hardware you have now, figure out how much money you'd put in your pocket if you'd sell it then divide that by the FPS you currently get in your favorite game. This will show your cost per frame. Now, do the same math with whatever you plan to buy. Guess what you find? Unless you're really really due for an upgrade, it doesn't make sense. Is an extra 10, 15, 20 FPS really worth $1000-2000?
> 
> I recently stumbled into some good deals but ONLY upgraded because it was obvious. I went from a 7820X/X299 chip/board to a 11900K/Z590 chip/board for less than $50 out of pocket after selling my old hardware. Would I have rather have had the 13900K? Sure! It would have cost me $650 more...see how dumb that sounds? (Even a 13700K would have been $500 more). It's easy to crap on something like the 11900K especially, because of what youtubers have told you when they reviewed it at launch when it cost $600. My net out the door cost from the store was $264 with the motherboard and I still have my old hardware to sell. Imagine what the reviews would look like at that price?!
> 
> The math on the 4090 over a 3080 is just as bad. Sure the 4090 is way better, but you can get a 3080 for under $500. I talked myself into a 4090 then looked at how dumb it would be to spend $1700+ (with tax) for a freaking video card and went back to a 3080 (I couldn't even justify spending double for a 3090Ti over a 3080).
> 
> If you've got extra money to burn, go for it. I have the money and I still think it's dumb. My 11900K & 3080 with $1900 on top the case looks way better to me than a 13900K & 4090 ever could.
> 
> I know everyone has different hobbies and priorities, but not long ago you thought the stuff you have now was amazing. That stuff hasn't changed. Anyone can buy performance.
> 
> Save your dollars....it makes sense.


Your monitor, headphones, mouse, keyboard etc. define your experience with your computer. It's worth upgrading them too. Trying out LG Oled C2 and some other 240 Hz monitor was a huge change for me.


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## Forsaken1

HaHa some people make 30k US and some make mi


doom26464 said:


> I like PC gaming as a hobby and having something too tinker with keeps me busy.
> 
> I also work a very demanding job so I very much understand the value of money. I don't like blowing top dollar on new hardware(like the 4090) but always try to find the value where I can while still getting high end performance. Sometimes that's settling for something like a 3080 vrs 3090, or grabbing a second 980ti off the used market to SLi instead of jumping to a 1080 at the time. Or not going for the I9 part to chase down that 5% game performance delta. I watch reviewers and always pay attention to when they offer glowing reviews to good value products.
> 
> Life is short but you don't always need to over extended yourself. And trying to chase the top performance or the bragging rights of the best just leaves your ego heavy and wallet lighter.


Sorry, this is how p$$r people think.Balls out go for it all and you might make it.Then again maybe not.Worth the gamble.


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## BRE1979

I'm currently planning a new build in my final case I will own, going to a full custom loop is a strain on the budget but over time I will have all the parts needed my mid year or so. Prices are crazy and cant be quick to buy it all at once. I'm even looking for slightly used items to help keep cost down where in the past I would buy all new and never look twice at a used item. Times have changed for sure, stay humble.


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## Dreamliner

BRE1979 said:


> I'm currently planning a new build in my final case I will own, going to a full custom loop is a strain on the budget but over time I will have all the parts needed my mid year or so. Prices are crazy and cant be quick to buy it all at once. I'm even looking for slightly used items to help keep cost down where in the past I would buy all new and never look twice at a used item. Times have changed for sure, stay humble.


Water loops are something I love to look at online but would never want to own myself. Too much potential for failure and the cost could be spent on higher tier components instead. The only loop I've seen that could actually get me to buy is one where the radiator was in a different room. THAT was pretty COOL.

I'm just fine with my 11900k on a D15 & 3080 FTW3 for quite a while. It's more than enough for daily activity and my gaming backlog is so enormous it will be years until I bump into 3080 limits.


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## CynicalUnicorn

I considered getting wet for my most recent build, and then I priced out components and discovered that it would be about $700, maybe $500 if I found some deals and compromised on a few expensive bits, so I said screw it and got a Noctua D15 instead. 10850K set to 200W runs at 4.4GHz and 70°C all day long.


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