UltraMega

You have a cutting edge high end PC to the point that the only way to gain more performance is by tweaking. If you didn't have a 7000X3D chip and a 4090 already, then maybe it would be wasteful to spend a lot on a board if you could have otherwise got a better CPU or GPU, but you're not in that boat. It's totally valid to want the PC to look nice with RGB and all that as well. I like the look of that kind of stuff for the most part as well, I just wouldn't spend a lot towards that specifically myself. Sometimes in other places like on Imgur I see people post their newly built PC, and it will have $300-$500 or the budget going to things that don't affect performance while having like a 4070 or something around there and I just think to myself, they could have gotten a 4080 if they hadn't put so much towards a motherboard, frilly case, and huge AIO. That's the kind of scenarios I see that made me think about this whole topic.

Just a quick note, Intel didn't lock ram speeds at all until somewhere around the 7th gen I series, and they didn't lock speeds to 2133, I think it was 2933. That was what made me switch to AMD though. I had 3200mhz DDR4 ram already paired with an Intel CPU that I wasn't overclocking. No way was I going to be forced to buy a higher tier board just to keep using my ram at the proper speed.

I was thinking about this some more and I think I actually figured out why this trend is happening. It's because cases have gotten A LOT better, at least aesthetically, in recent years. It used to be that most cases did not have a window, and if it did it was usually foggy plastic that didn't look great anyway. But today, almost all custom cases have a nice-looking glass side panel, and there is a lot more incentive to build a PC that looks nice on the inside. That trend with cases and the incentive to make flashier looking PCs is why so much RGB has popped up (and because it's gotten really easy to manufacture LEDs), and why there are flashier and flashier looking motherboards today. While there are still a lot of really well priced quality boards today, there are a lot more boards designed to look flashy at a glance than there used to be, and this has given motherboard manufactures a reason to shift some of their focus to a higher price point. Not that these boards don't usually also come with other more high-end features, but what you actually gain in terms of actual performance differences today from a middle ground $120-$160 quality board vs a high end ~$300 board is virtually nothing, outside of user specific features like high end networking or USB4. There isn't any tweaking a $300 board can do that a $150 board can't do that will result in a significant enough performance difference to outshine what one could gain in performance from spending $150 more on a CPU or GPU, so it basically just results in worse performance overall on a fixed budget. People today, especially more novice PC buyers, care a lot more about the aesthetics of the PC than they used to, and I notice this trend among novice buyers/builders more than anywhere else. I'm not accusing anyone here of doing this, just pointing out a trend I notice more and more among less informed PC gamers.

Yes just to be clear, I'm definitely not suggesting anyone choose a low quality cheap board. Just that there is a point where the quality is good enough, and spending more beyond that (without specific feature in mind that could be relavent to a specific workflow) is wasteful spending.

A lot of good points. Most of your guys are not just doing gaming, and obviously there are other features on a mobo you might want. The way I look at it is like this: anyone buying a gaming PC with a reasonable budget in mind would be wasting money if they spent a lot on the motherboard because there is no performance to be gained from a $300 board vs a $150 board, and that $150 could be used to buy a better GPU/CPU or faster/more ram instead. If the goal is to max out performance on a fixed budget, an expensive motherboard is wasteful. I also don't ever see anyone consider the cost of cooling with a high TDP CPU vs a low one. This rant isn't really aimed at the people here so much. Kinda sparked by just browsing other sites online and seeing people post their new gaming PCs with $1500 worth of parts, with half of the cost coming from just the case, motherboard, and the AIO. Just an odd trend I've noticed lately. In the past, if someone not too knowledgeable about PCs was building their first gaming PC, you would expect them not to lean towards top dollar motherboards, but today it seems to be opposite. People who don't know the difference seem to be more likely to buy an expensive board.

More good points. What kind of I/O do you use that a cheaper board doesn't have? Are you using USB4? How relevant is 10Gb networking? Sorry if some of these are noob questions. I don't do heavy I/0 or heavy networking.

All good points. Part of the premise though, is if the cost is justifiable. Do you think you can get more performance out of an expensive board vs putting that cost toward better parts elsewhere? That is the real question. Are people over spending on boards to a point of performance detriment vs overall performance on a given budget?

I think most of us come from OCN, which means most of us were around when overclocking was meaningful. Does anyone think it's meaningful today? Does the tweaking you get from a ~$300 motherboard justify the cost? If your focus is gaming, I tend to think a cheaper motherboard is better. If the sky is the limit, then by all means get an expensive board, but on any budget at all, it always seems more logical to me to get for a ~$120-$150 board, CPU that doesn't need expensive cooling, then push the left over money from not going overboard on the motherboard and cooling on a faster GPU and/or ram. Maybe for intel, it's a little more justified (barely) since there is still a little bit of OC headroom there, but not for AMD. How do you guys see the trade off in cost between CPU, mobo, and cooling playing out today? I see it as, for example, something like a 7700X with a ~$150 cooler vs a 7700 and a $30 cooler. I'd rather spend the extra $150 somewhere else and lose a few % in CPU performance. How do you guys prioritize CPU, mobo, and cooling in a post overclocking era? Maybe this is the wrong crowd since a lot of people here like to setup exotic cooling just for fun, but on a budget, how would you prioritize these things with today's hardware?

https://www.guru3d.com/story/microsoft-delays-controversial-ai-feature-recall-in-windows-build/ This feels like the beginning of a way to sweep this whole thing under the rug. Delay it and limit it to preview versions before just quietly cancelling it. It's the right move. Recall is a terrible idea, and a PR nightmare for Microsoft’s AI ambitions.

I wouldn't say MSI is bad, but they make more cheap low quality boards than any other main brand. Your MSI board isn't a low quality one though, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. There's not usually much tweaking to do on AMD CPUs since they usually barely have any OC headroom. What kind of tweaks were you having issues with? The X3D chips are not made for overclocking at all, so if you do get an X3D chip you will have even less tweaking to think about. IMO, a good 16 thread CPU is ideal until a new console gen comes out. The difference between a CPU like the 5700X3D anything faster is very small, and with virtually all major games being cross platform now, they are always going to target console CPUs, so just having a CPU with the same number of threads is a good idea. Your CPU only has 12 threads, so you're a little behind where your CPU should be just for good PC performance in current gen games. A 5700X3D could easily last you until a new console with a more powerful CPU comes out and games start targeting higher CPU requirements.

I think you would have enjoyed tweaking AM4 more with a different motherboard. As a repair guy, I have more issued with MSI boards than any other brand. Dollar for dollar, you best upgrade is to move to a an AM4 X3D CPU.

If it were me, I would get a 5700X3D on ebay for $270 CAD, then sell the 5600X and get about $100 back. Going from a 5600X to a 5700X3D for $170 is pretty reasonable if you have the itch to upgrade. The 5700X3D is generally faster than a 7700X for gaming, and you wouldn't have to get a new mobo/ram. The difference between a 5700X3D and any CPUs that outperform it in games is very small. With your GPU, assuming you play at 1440p at least, the difference from a faster CPU would be pretty small in any games that are graphically demanding. The difference between a 5700X3D and anything faster would be basically non-existent with an RX6750XT.

Nvidia stock split happened. Split 10 to one.

A lot to show this year. Perhaps Xbox is finally starting to gain some momentum.

Microsoft Research scientist gives non-answer when asked about Windows Recall privacy concerns | TechSpot I tend to think of Microsoft as a company that's definitely not perfect but has generally good intentions. This Recall feature has me scratching my head as to why it even exists. After thinking about it, I have a few guesses: First and foremost, I think Microsoft is looking for more ways to market AI while also pitching the idea of people buying new hardware with NPUs built in. Maybe in part so they can push some of the processing they would be doing in the cloud to be more local. I think the second big reason is that most if not all of the data Recall collects is already collected by other various apps/programs/trackers on people's phones and PCs, so why not try to use that kind of data collection for something local on the machine that's potentially useful to the user. Even trying to give Microsoft the benefit of doubt, assuming that data collection is already so rampant that Recall is essentially just a drop in the bucket, they still need to be more open about how Recall deals with sensitive info like passwords and payment info. If it just stores that info in what is essentially a big log file, then it seems like a huge problem to me. I think Recall would work a lot better as something that was integrated into certain things, but not Windows itself. I could see it being very useful for Office/Word/Outlook kind of stuff, but no one is going to be warm to the idea of an "AI" logging all their activity in a way anyone with local or remote access could easily go through. No one asked for this, and if Microsoft wants to push this anyway, they need to be addressing these concerns in a satisfactory way or they should just ditch this whole idea entirely/rebrand it as a part of Office only. This is what CoPilot says about Recall storing sensitive information: Also, this exists now, which raises questions about if Recall really has much to do with AI or not.

Assuming Microsoft doesn't extend support for Windows 10, it makes sense just based on the timing. Does feel a little arbitrary though.

It happened today, Nvidia has overtaken Apple.

It's fooliah to expect these companies to self regulate. Governments need to setup regulations, and I have no doubt they will eventually but this tech is moving very quickly. Hopefully governments catch up sooner than later.

https://www.guru3d.com/story/intel-lunar-lake-architecture-overview-enhancements-and-no-more-hyper-threading/ Seems like Intel is shaking things up. Ram on the chip, will be interesting to see how that performs.

Onto a different hobby: cooking. I know there is a guy on here that has a pizza oven, and I am very jealous of that. I have a pizza stone and a pizza slate (ceramic vs steel). The steel slate works best. During covid I put a lot of effort into learning how to make pizza at home. I've kept up with that ever since. I make the dough and sauce from scratch. I'm getting pretty good at it.

So rare to be able to say this so I gotta take the opportunity: It's nice to see Nvidia finally catching up to AMD on this.

I actually prefer the 65w CPUs because the thermals are soooo much better. Top tier performance is obvious great for anyone who wants that, but IMO the X700 CPUs like the 5700x and 7700 are the real winners for AM4 and AM5 right now. All those prebuilds I made a while back had either 5700x or 7700 CPUs, all had standard $25 120mm coolers and all ran with great temps.

If there isn't a store near by that has plants you like, you can order them here: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/live-plants Be sure to post some pics once you get it setup

My tank just has sand, not substrate. My sand is expensive aquarium sand, but my gf has a tank too and we set that up with sand from a rock yard that was so cheap it was basically free. Both work equally well. Avoid small ground cover plants. Those never do well without extreme planning, but just about anything else will likely work just fine. I don't even use carbon filters in my tank. I just buy a big roll of filter medium, and cut it to fit in my filter. Vastly cheaper. The carbon in those pre-made filter cartridges is totally useless and it's purely a gimmick to get you to buy the expensive cartridges. I'll just add, be sure you want to commit to the nano tank before you set it up. I think a lot of the time people start small and quickly decided to go bigger. There are usually a lot of 10 and 20 gallon tanks for free on Craigslist around here, and if you get a standard size tank like that then you can probably also find a pretty cheap glass lid for it at petco or on Amazon, and then you will be able to get whatever kind of led strip you want and the plants will blow up.

https://www.guru3d.com/review/amd-announces-ryzen-9950x-9900x-9700x-9600x-processors-zen5/ Happy to see lower TDPs on some of these chips. The 9600x and 9700x will probably run fine on a standard 120mm air cooler.