Retired from PC Building? Here's why.

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WorldExclusive

[H]F Junkie
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Apr 26, 2009
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UPDATE: I'm back. A friend bought my Mac Pro, so I built a new PC.

It's a sad state of affairs in PC hardware/software currently. The most important components and games are either overpriced or underwhelming. Intel is stumbling and Nvidia/AMD has reaped the benefits of crypto.
There's a shift happening, a shift away from the gamer.

I'm more into cameras these days. Money I would use to buy a $250-$500 PC component now goes to a camera lens or accessory.
Nothing to do with age or finances, photography gives me more joy (and income) then playing some crappy console port on a $800-1000 mid-range GPU.
I decided to build a Classic Mac Pro dedicated for work.

I don't come here as often now as I did since 2009-2016. I don't comment, I don't check for the latest news or reviews.
I'm indifferent about the hobby of PC building and gaming. It's sad because this site inspired me to go into business.

Hopefully the fun and affordable days will return at some point.
 
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I can sort of understand where you're coming from...

The crypto craze has not only the GPU market completely jacked up, but it's even affecting PSU and RAM pricing. It's sucked the fun out of building a new from scratch machine. :(

I've sort of shifted to playing around with used stuff. GPUs from past generations, Sandy, Ivy, and Haswell based rigs with cheap used parts, etc. But I can totally see the current state of things pushing people towards cheap pre-builts for desktop use and consoles for gaming. :(
 
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I told the wife i'm ready to give up PC gaming and take up her hobby "watching tv". ;)
 
I've had the same pc for 5 years now ? Have not gamed on it in over a year. bought a ps4 pro at least there's some games that matter on it.
 
I wanted to build a new rig from the server rig i got, but when 32G of DDR4 memory is going to cost me my house...totally killed it for me...
 
MrGuvernment said:
I wanted to build a new rig from the server rig i got, but when 32G of DDR4 memory is going to cost me my house...totally killed it for me...
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Honestly, if I were going to build a "new" rig today and didn't already have DDR4, I'd seriously consider sticking with a DDR3 build.

Like, do one of those cheap Xeon builds with a generic Chinese X79 board. Maybe with a Xeon E5-2667 or 2670.

Right now you can grab a 2670 (8 core/16 thread) off Ebay for well under $150, and a cheap chinese x79 board for under $100. Sure, the per-core speed is kind of low but with multi-threaded stuff it would kick all kinds of ass. And of course there are lower core count higher speed options for processors.

The crypto shit has made new hardware so hard to get at a decent price it's just more fun and interesting to play with older stuff.
 
NoxTek said:
Honestly, if I were going to build a "new" rig today and didn't already have DDR4, I'd seriously consider sticking with a DDR3 build.

Like, do one of those cheap Xeon builds with a generic Chinese X79 board. Maybe with a Xeon E5-2667 or 2670.

Right now you can grab a 2670 (8 core/16 thread) off Ebay for well under $150, and a cheap chinese x79 board for under $100. Sure, the per-core speed is kind of low but with multi-threaded stuff it would kick all kinds of ass. And of course there are lower core count higher speed options for processors.

The crypto shit has made new hardware so hard to get at a decent price it's just more fun and interesting to play with older stuff.
Click to expand...

haswell and some fast ddr3 would still kick ass. id do that even.
 
My pc seems like it’s 1,000 years old! I used to upgrade my cpu/mb every generation or two, but now what’s the point? The newest stuff today isn’t much faster, plus like others have said, you get raped on ram.

I need a gpu, but get what? $500 rx 580? $700 1070? $1,000 1080? No thanks. My only hope is when something new comes out buy it day one at msrp.
 
Cannot blame you. We are a dying breed. World is shifting from bulky boxes to small mobile devices (smart phones, tablets). Read recently that in year 2017 PC gaming sales rose 4% to 28% of the market. While at same time mobile gaming rose by 23% to 42% of gaming industry's total revenue. And the trend very likely to keep accelerating.

594c3d11d084cc12098b4cd8-1136-852.png
 
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Jayy88 said:
haswell and some fast ddr3 would still kick ass. id do that even.
Click to expand...

My ivy bridge 3570k with 2400 DDR3 still kicks ass IMO! Also, for all those hopeless about GPu prices, I snagged a 1070ti directly from nvidia just last week for MSRP. Just have to stay on top of it!
 
NoxTek said:
Honestly, if I were going to build a "new" rig today and didn't already have DDR4, I'd seriously consider sticking with a DDR3 build.

Like, do one of those cheap Xeon builds with a generic Chinese X79 board. Maybe with a Xeon E5-2667 or 2670.

Right now you can grab a 2670 (8 core/16 thread) off Ebay for well under $150, and a cheap chinese x79 board for under $100. Sure, the per-core speed is kind of low but with multi-threaded stuff it would kick all kinds of ass. And of course there are lower core count higher speed options for processors.

The crypto shit has made new hardware so hard to get at a decent price it's just more fun and interesting to play with older stuff.
Click to expand...


That's the thing, already have a dual Xeon E5-2670 / 128G ECC DDR3 rig from Natex.us, but i am CPU limited to games, even team Fortress 2 , BF1 as well...and I am no longer using the rig for much of the power it has as I was before so wanted to down size..
 
WorldExclusive said:
It's a sad state of affairs in PC hardware/software currently. The most important components and games are either overpriced or underwhelming. Intel is stumbling and Nvidia/AMD has reaped the benefits of crypto.
There's a shift happening, a shift away from the gamer.

I'm more into cameras these days. Money I would use to buy a $250-$500 PC component now goes to a camera lens or accessory.
Nothing to do with age or finances, photography gives me more joy (and income) then playing some crappy console port on a $800-1000 mid-range GPU.
I decided to build a Classic Mac Pro dedicated for work.

I don't come here as often now as I did since 2009-2016. I don't comment, I don't check for the latest news or reviews.
I'm indifferent about the hobby of PC building and gaming. It's sad because this site inspired me to go into business.

Hopefully the fun and affordable days will return at some point.
Click to expand...


Goodbye. Have a good one.
 
WorldExclusive said:
It's a sad state of affairs in PC hardware/software currently. The most important components and games are either overpriced or underwhelming. Intel is stumbling and Nvidia/AMD has reaped the benefits of crypto.
There's a shift happening, a shift away from the gamer.

I'm more into cameras these days. Money I would use to buy a $250-$500 PC component now goes to a camera lens or accessory.
Nothing to do with age or finances, photography gives me more joy (and income) then playing some crappy console port on a $800-1000 mid-range GPU.
I decided to build a Classic Mac Pro dedicated for work.

I don't come here as often now as I did since 2009-2016. I don't comment, I don't check for the latest news or reviews.
I'm indifferent about the hobby of PC building and gaming. It's sad because this site inspired me to go into business.

Hopefully the fun and affordable days will return at some point.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, for now you're stuck between a rock and a hard place there. There is no such thing as a classic Mac Pro tower with updated parts these days. The last one made used components that dated way back to the first-generation Nehalem/Westmere CPU architecture. And even today's currently available "trashcan" Mac Pro is way overpriced for using components that dated back six years, and is now at the end of its useful production life. And DDR3 prices have increased nearly as much as DDR4 RAM. In fact, both DDR3 and DDR4 prices are now more than double what they were two years ago.

What's more, Apple is no longer paying as much attention to its computers as it is to its mobile devices. The newer releases of OSX have caused a lot more headaches than in the past.
 
NoxTek said:
I can sort of understand where you're coming from...

The crypto craze has not only the GPU market completely jacked up, but it's even affecting PSU and RAM pricing. It's sucked the fun out of building a new from scratch machine. :(

I've sort of shifted to playing around with used stuff. GPUs from past generations, Sandy, Ivy, and Haswell based rigs with cheap used parts, etc. But I can totally see the current state of things pushing people towards cheap pre-builts for desktop use and consoles for gaming. :(
Click to expand...


Or you know, you could have explored building a 8 or 12 card mining rig. If you enjoy PC hardware building it's plenty exciting to do exactly that. You didn't have to just quit building machines --- you just would have had to try building a different kind of machine. One that would have paid itself off completely in 4-6 months at anytime between last May and this January. I've built PCs for close to 20 years, and I enjoyed myself plenty these last 6-8 months - learning new stuff, and expanding into a new realm of knowledge and utility.
 
Weird turn of events.

One of my friends heard I had a maxed out Mac Pro and bought it. He's a real Apple fan.
New and used GPU prices are starting to come down (RAM is still high) I built an ITX PC from the cash.

I guess the PC gods heard my cries.
 
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Susquehannock said:
Cannot blame you. We are a dying breed. World is shifting from bulky boxes to small mobile devices (smart phones, tablets). Read recently that in year 2017 PC gaming sales rose 4% to 28% of the market. While at same time mobile gaming rose by 23% to 42% of gaming industry's total revenue. And the trend very likely to keep accelerating.

View attachment 58987
Click to expand...

That's a damn sad graph to read. I tend to believe it tho. Me and my boy have always played PC games together. I built him a PC that sits next to mine and we've played L4D, Borderlands 2 and Dead Space 3 together a lot. Then about 8 or 9 months ago he discovered Roblox and games like that and I cannot get him to fire up a PC game to save my life.

Kids today seem to eat these mobile games up like crazy and he's never begging for money to buy some new toy or game, he's wanting money to buy "robucks" or whatever they're called to be can buy new upgrades. Fortnight is another one. Not a real game, just something you have to buy stuff constantly in.

I'm worried that the days of Batman: Arkham, Mass Effect, Dead Space and other great single-player games like that are numbered and the future are games with graphics that literally look like ColecoVision!
 
The pay to win and customize mobile games are raking in cash for companies right now. My kids were constantly harassing me for Google Play gift cards so they could buy that junk. Finally made them understand that is a scam. They both got Nintendo 2DS's for Christmas and have been playing Mario Maker like crazy.
 
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