Personal Computer enthusiasts

Are there any other PC enthusiasts here? PC gamers, people who have awesome rigs for CAD or whatever, etc.

 

Instead of getting any dolls this year, I built myself a new PC. I finished it last Friday, and I'm so happy with it!

 

My Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced case. It's big, but I like it! It came with loads of fans, including a fan on the top of the case, so airflow's not going to be a problem.

 

I could have done without the window, though. And the LED on the CPU heatsink fan...

 

Here it is with the side popped off. I went with an Intel Core i7-6700K 4GHz CPU, the ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH Z170 S motherboard, an EVGA SuperNOVA 750W power supply, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM.

 

It wasn't cheap, but I'm glad I went with the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB GDDR5X. It's an amazing graphics card!

 

This rear panel compartment has a spot for a small 40mm fan. I bought one for that spot, but the screws it came with won't work with it. I'll have to go to the hardware store and buy some nuts and bolts.

 

My cabling has never looked this clean. There's a big compartment in the other side of the case just for routing your cables through. About the only cable with a large travel that I wasn't able to put back there was the power cable for the graphics card, but I was able to snake that through some unused hard drive bays.

 

I have been playing a bunch of games on it recently. Everything runs great! I can max everything out at 1080p and consistently get smooth 60FPS framerates. Forza Motorsport 6 Apex has been a pleasant surprise since building this computer and upgrading to Windows 10. It's free to start, and I've been unlocking cars like crazy which is saving me real world money.

 

Racing through Rio is breathtaking! Here I am with my Pontiac Trans Am.

 

Why didn't anyone tell me that car bowling is a thing? I want to do this!

 

Here I am burning rubber in Abu Dhabi with my Ferrari California. It handles great!

 

I have more photos here: I'll be uploading more photos in the future, for sure!

Impressive. I haven't built a gaming rig in over a decade. That's mostly due to my not playing as many games anymore, that and I jumped when I finally had a chance to buy a Mac Pro at a really good price. And running Windows 7 Ultimate on my Mac Pro has been more than enough to play the games I can't play on OS X. It also runs SolidWorks better than my work computer. But I am thinking about upgrading it next year, adding more RAM, upgrading to a better GPU, and going from single CPU to dual. At that point the Mac Pro should last me another decade (Which is what I got out of a G4 Mac after I upgraded it. I'm one of those power users that Apple hates because instead of getting a new Mac, I upgrade mine, and go in and mess with the OS to make it more my style.).

Nice! That's a monster machine.

I'm not an avid PC gamer but I try to keep my machine above average for Photoshop, animation, etc. I just got a 1060 so I could run VR and start messing around more in Zbrush. I'll probably give the Skyrim remaster a whirl too

But I hate the tendency to put LED lights on everything, ugh. I have relatives with epilepsy so I have to pull out/cover lights or I worry for their health.

Thanks guys

 

Sinclair, can you upgrade your current Mac? I know they've been doing stuff like soldering RAM into the motherboard. And two CPUs? Not great for gaming but if you do things that need it then good

 

I keep telling my Mac friends to use boot camp and get Windows on their machines so they can at least do some gaming.

 

Jadepixel, I already put electrical tape over the power and hard drive access LEDs because they're bright enough to light up the room. Ugh. I wouldn't mind the heatsink fan so much if the case didn't have a window. It's like looking at a light bulb. I generally like a comfortable blue glow. My older rig had lots of blue but none of the LEDs were directly visible.

I built my PC! It's been awhile since it has had upgrading, and I'm not sure where to start with it. I recently bought a new video card because I had a GTX660. Mine is now a GTX970!

 

I plan on getting more RAM and a new power supply - probably a modular one because my cable management needs some work. And I need some new LEDs. I like the magnetic ones that are being offered now.

 

Here's a picture where my PC is in the background. I don't have any better pictures right now. I think I might end up having to get a new case which makes me sad. I really like this orange one! Here it is!

 

I also really want to try watercooling..

Looking cool from what I can see, Serisu

 

Water cooling... Like I tell everyone, if you're not doing extreme overclocking, don't even worry about it. I talk to people who are daunted about building their own computers because of it, and I have to explain to them that it's a nonissue after they tell me that they don't plan on overclocking at all.

 

A modular power supply sure can help with the cable management. My new power supply is great about that. I only have the cables I need! Here's the one I got for my new rig: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017 I've only been using it for about half a week, but I have no complaints so far.

That's a really good power supply, and decently priced too.

 

As for my Mac, it's a 2010 Mac Pro, so the last of the aluminum towers, so very upgradable. To go from one CPU to dual CPUs all I have to do is swap the CPU daughter card. The video card upgrade will be a flashed card, and I'll up the RAM to 24 GB if I stay single CPU, or double that if I go double CPUs. I'll probably upgrade my 2 TB hard drives for 5 TB while I'm at it. As long as you are comfortable building PCs, upgrading older Macs is no issue. My PowerMac G4 that the Mac Pro replaced (In 2012 and my PowerMac went to my brother who is still using it.) was a 2001 466Mhz Mac that I put a 1.44Ghz CPU in, maxed the RAM to 1.5GB, flashed a NVIDIA 6800GS for video (Which made it better than the GPU in my gaming rig, a 6600.), installed a Firewire/USB2/ATA controller card and put two 500GB hard drives raided to a 1TB hard drive in it. The thing was a beast, and was good enough to be my main desktop PC to get me through college. I even had a newer version of OS X on it than Apple supported. Like I said, I'm the kind of power user Apple doesn't like. But I've been in the ecosystem since my dad brought home our family's first PC, the original Macintosh computer, in 1984.

I used to be into computers modding until I realised the money isn't worth it. So I spent it all on my girls and haven't look back since. heh

 

IF I were to build a computer now, I want it small. Looking at the Razer core + Intel Skull Canyon NUC

Sinclair, I have had no complaints about the power supply so far! Everything's powered up, and I haven't noticed it. In fact, I haven't even thought about it. That's a good power supply in my book

 

Oy, the aluminum towers I've had to lug a couple of those around. They're heavier than any PC I ever built, and I've used big cases. Well, that's pretty cool that you're still able to upgrade a Mac from 2010 like that. I hope you do get more years out of it! And I can see why they'd hate you I didn't even know what a flashed graphics card was until I googled it. Well, ain't that something. I've got to recommend that to my Mac friends.

 

I remember my family getting an Apple Plus in the very early 90s. We ended up mostly just playing games on it. Eventually we couldn't do anything but have it say "syntax error" when we typed anything into it. I think everybody in the family simply forgot how to use it. Then my mom threw it out

 

AntElitist, the money's worth it if you derive value from it I agree that it's a detriment to the girls, though. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get any new girls this year, but at least I was able to spoil my girls with some clothes throughout the year

Used to be more into PC building, but slowly stopped when I moved into PVC figures and now DD's. When I can upload pics I will update this post .

 

I built the PC I'm using now when the 5820k was released so I was pretty happy about it. I planned to get a GTX 1080 but I bought a DD instead

Taisetsu187, the 5820k will probably keep you happy for a long time. But passing up the GTX 1080? Oh no! Well, I'm sure your new DD will make you happy

 

I've been doing a lot of PC gaming and PC tweaking lately, though I've not taken many photos and screenshots. There's not a lot to look at with the build anymore, and Steam doesn't play nice when taking screenshots of the new Doom in Vulkan mode. Anyway, I have begun using Steam's uncompressed screenshot option. My screenshots should be a lot better now than they used to be! On the tweaking end of things, I've been trying my hardest to get Windows 10 to behave like I got Windows 7 to behave which was my attempt at getting Windows 7 to behave like Windows which was my attempt at getting Windows to behave like Windows 9x. I feel like I'm succeeding on that front. Some things simply won't behave like they used to, but many of the regular operational interactions are like old Windows 9x. That's how I like it. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker has always helped me tremendously, and it continues to be a blessing in Windows 10. I've also been working on reducing Windows 10's annoyances. I just disabled notifications today after a bout of annoying notifications. I gave them a chance, but I didn't need them before Windows 10, and I don't need them now.

 

This is hard to see, but that's kind of the point. I snipped the LEDs on the CPU heatsink fan because I didn't like them. I also turned off the graphics card light. My computer's not lighting up very brightly anymore. While I was at it, I moved the CPU heatsink fan. It's now blowing towards the back through the heatsink which is closer to the way I wanted it. Finally, I installed the tiny 40mm fan. That one's completely tucked away, so don't bother looking for it.

 

This is the original Daytona USA 2 running on the latest SVN version of the Supermodel emulator, version 494. I had to disable the new 3D engine because it was crashing this game often, but it runs fine in the old 3D engine. Some extra lighting effects work in the old engine, and textures have been fixed since the last time I downloaded a Supermodel emulator build. It's looking and running great!

 

One strange thing to note is that I had to right click on the executable and disable scaling when running two mirrored screens or else the emulator would not display correctly. It was not a problem on a single screen.

 

Here are my launch options for this game: daytona2.zip -res=1920,1080 -fullscreen -wide-screen -no-throttle -ppc-frequency=50 -input-system=xinput

 

Virtua Fighter 3tb runs in Supermodel's new 3D engine without crashes as far as I have seen. It's a good thing, too. The game has gameplay-affecting geometry problems in the old 3D engine. Like Daytona USA 2, I had to disable display scaling to get this running on mirrored screens. This is important for me so I can play on my TV. It seems to be a Windows 10 thing because I ran an older version of the emulator I'd used in the past under Windows 7 on my new PC, and the same scaling problem happened. I also had to set this to run at 1440x1080 because the background graphic doesn't display properly in widescreen mode, and putting it in pillarboxed 1920x1080 causes visual problems in Steam's big picture mode.

 

If you're going to put more than one more Supermodel game in your Steam game list, you'll need to have multiple folders set up with multiple copies of the Supermodel EXE and the appropriate ROMs or else Steam won't be able to remember multiple launch options. You're going to want to set them up in Steam's launch options because Supermodel is a command line program.

 

These are my launch options for Virtua Fighter 3tb. You can put them in Steam's launch options or create a batch file with these options: vf3tb.zip -res=1440,1080 -fullscreen -no-throttle -ppc-frequency=50 -input-system=xinput -new3d

I can max everything out at 1080p

The 1080 is overkilled for 1080p You could have saved money and go with 1060 instead, unless you plan to upgrade monitor or go into VR later.

 

I told myself I don't need any new DD or camera lenses, then swallow up my urge as I build my first desktop. It's been painful using laptop so the upgrade is nice

 

I really want to get an In Win 904 but it's so expensive, so I have to settle with NZXT H440. I want hexacore so I go with 5820k (currently running @4.5GHz), and pick the cheapest X99 motherboard I could find so that's Asus Deluxe X99-A II. After that it's just a matter of picking the right color theme components The rest are Asus GTX 1080, 64GB TridentZ GSkill, NZXT Kraken x61, 1TB SS 850 Evo and a couple Seagate Barracudas.

 

For my usage the 1080 is not worth the hype. I brought a 4k monitor so I can have more space to work with 3D modelling and game design; but the fps is disappointing. Even with the Rift it doesn't hold up to 90fps. Maybe I just need to cough up more blood to get 2 more 1080

Nice rig, Mei! I considered going hexacore myself, but I decided against it. It wouldn't have been a good match for my needs. If you did need it, however, good going!

 

Eh, with the 1080 at 1080p, I've got loads of extra horsepower for the future and plenty of peace of mind for now. The 1060's not going to be able to max out everything at 1080p as long as the 1080 will.

 

In other news, I re-enabled notifications. I was hoping that Windows 10 would give me Windows 7 style "this device can be safely removed" dialog things, but that never happened. I split the difference in enabling the notifications again by disabling the sound. The sound was what mostly drove me batty anyway.

 

I've been doing a lot of MAME gaming lately. I got a full set of ROMs. I've been using the 64-bit 0.178 version of MAME. It's the one that's getting a lot of hype for fixing the bug in Sunset Riders that has been plaguing MAME running it for nearly 20 years. I've been using a years-old MAME for years, and I'm a little disappointed by how little it has improved. Things that always ran generally run better, but I wonder if that's less MAME and more my hardware. Sega Model 1 games are moderately better. Playstation-based arcade hardware is meh. Soul Calibur still seems to have issues. NES-based hardware like Vs. is better handled, though. Vs. Excitebike no longer has graphical glitches.

 

The current MAME version has a nice little GUI, too. It works decently with Steam Big Picture once you add a bunch of games to favorites. It looks like the old MAME32/MAMEUI is gone. The current version has a few less options, but things generally seem to make more sense. One thing I wish is that they disabled bilinear filtering. by default. I had it on for a while, and then I went looking for options that would clear up the graphics, and things look so much clearer with bilinear filtering off. I have some early screenshots with it on...

 

 

And here are some later screenshots with bilinear filtering off.

 

 

And one more because Speed Buggy is one of my favorite childhood games. I used to play the three screen version at Carousel Arcade in Seaside Park, NJ.

 

 

In case you're wondering what's up with the black bars, I'm running these on a 1920x1080 display. The black bars keep the actual game display at the right aspect ratio. Yes, Speed Buggy is super wide!

No longer gaming as much as I used to. This was originally 5820k 980 machine in 2014 but upgraded to 1080. I do use VR frequently so no other choice.

 

that is one sexy piece of hardware..

Another 1080 fan! Awesome! I'm really loving my 1080. I'm so happy with it.

 

I've been doing a lot of Sega Model 2 and Model 3 emulation recently.

 

I've liked the Model 2 emulator for a long time. It's a nice emulator. It could do with a bit more modern Xinput support, but it's not bad. The 1.1a version performs well. The old Virtua Fighter 2 Jacky hair bug is no longer present, among other fixes.

 

 

In celebration of the Daytona USA 3 announcement, I went back to Daytona USA 1 for the Sega Model 2. I had to resort to a program called Durazno to get a deadzone on my Xbox 360 controller so I could control my car properly.

 

Fighting Vipers is a game I discovered as a gift on the Sega Saturn back in 1999, and I've been a fan ever since. This is the Model 2 arcade version.

 

 

The style is bizarre, and I love it! It's like an amped up version of Virtua Fighter 2 with armor mechanics. Very fun!

 

 

Don't call it Afterburner, it's Sky Target for the Sega Model 2! I had to use Durazno's antideadzone feature to help mitigate a control bug in the game. I think I can tweak it to make it work better, but it's plenty playable now.

 

I've also been experimenting with the options in the Supermodel Sega Model 3 emulator SVN494 version. Here's Fighting Vipers 2.

 

 

I've been a fan of Candy since I was a teenager. Anyway, I'm now using these options when playing the game.

 

-res=1440,1080 -fullscreen -ppc-frequency=130 -input-system=xinput

 

Fighting Vipers really seems to require extra PowerPC cycles to run right. To run at a playable framerate, you've got to set it to 70, up from the default 50, but you still get some texture problems. I think I can get the frequency higher than 130, which is giving me less texture problems, but I know that if I run it at the full 166 as in the actual hardware, overall speed seems to drop. There may be no way to get it to run 100% accurately with the state the emulator's in right now, but I'm stepping the PPC frequency up by 10 each time I play the game.

 

I also removed the throttle option and upped the PPC frequency to at least 70 in all of the Model 3 games. Even Daytona USA 2 seems to run a bit smoother this way. I no longer get framerate issues when drifting through turns. An advantage of the original Model 3 hardware was that it had a hardware lock to 60FPS. This can be defeated in emulation with the throttle option, but I've got good enough hardware that I don't need to use it in conjunction with frequency trickery to make games playable.

Nanananananana-Batman! I've been playing Arkham Knight lately. I like it. I don't understand why it's got such a bad rap. The older Arkham gameplay is there in spades. The Batmobile's pretty good, and sometimes it feels like you're playing Burnout Paradise mixed with Mario Kart and F-Zero. The Bat-Tank takes a few missions to pick up steam, but it starts to remind me of old-school Robotron 2084 later on in the game.

 

I'm playing on my new monster of a PC, and I'm not experiencing any huge problems with the PC version now that the big problems have been long since patched out. It's said it takes hardware like mine to get it to run this well, though.

 

Wow, that does look impressive. I wonder how FO4 looks.