Re: #2 - Yes, Alder Lake (12th gen) is definitely worth $200 more. I'm even going to be upgrading from my Zen3 5950X to a 12900K. However, the hybrid architecture is tripping up DRM for some games, so validate your titles before executing. You can probably assume anything newish either will work OOB or will be patched though.
AMD is also going to be adopting a hybrid architecture with Zen 5. -----Original Message----- From: Hardware <hardware-boun...@lists.hardwaregroup.com> On Behalf Of Bino Gopal Sent: Monday, November 29, 2021 4:22 PM To: hardw...@lists.hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] New gaming PC specs/recommendation for Bino? Hey guys, hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! I wanted to get a new desktop gaming PC-I decided to split the laptop and gaming, so I got an LG Gram 17" laptop for work/mobility (still need the screen size and resolution for emails and browsing-but I love how light it is!) so now I want to build a decent gaming system that will last me a while... I wanted to spend like $2500 but the specs I'm coming up with for what seem like I decent system are coming out to more like $4k and I'm wondering if I really need to spend that much... I used xoticpc.com 4 years ago to buy my MSI GS73VR gaming laptop (that is still going strong and it's what I'm writing this email on-well, after lots of repairs at the local MSI repair shop, heh) and I spent about $3k on it in March 2017, and that was the last computer I'd bought until I got the Gram for $900 last month at Costco, so it's served me well. So here's the configs I came up with with the guy at xoticpc 12th gen: https://xoticpc.com/collections/gx18-torrent/products/xotic-gx18-torrent-z690-ddr5?conf=525726 11th gen: https://xoticpc.com/collections/gx18-torrent/products/xotic-gx18-torrent-z490-z590?conf=525722 They're basically the same system, using this Fractal Torrent glass case as the base: https://www.newegg.com/black-fractal-design-torrent-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811352148 which they call the GX18 Torrent model on the xoticpc site. I upgraded both systems with a GTX 3080, i7, MSI Carbon MBs, ASUS Thor 850W PS, 32GB Corsair RAM in 2x16, a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro Gen 4 (no other SSDs/HDs), kept the integrated sound, USB wireless dongle (no cost), upgraded the thermal paste, kept the AIO cooling loop, and upgraded to Win 10 Pro 64-bit. The difference b/w the two configs is the newer gen chipset/MB, CPU and faster RAM: Z690 vs Z590, 12th vs 11th gen Intel CPU, 5.2k vs 3.6k MHz RAM-and $200 more for the 12th gen stuff... So the main questions are: 1) Did I basically spec things out right for gaming and is this what a new gaming system should cost about now given parts shortages and GPU prices (damn, they're expensive!)? Are there any major things any of you would change/recommend? 2) If I stay with this config, is the extra $200 worth it to go from 11th gen to 12th gen and the new MB and smaller CPU die size worth it for future-proofing and upgrading? 3) Anything that I missed here? Any recs on better parts? Better place to buy from? I was going to get another MSI system but the tech (Eric F, same guy I spoke to over 4 years ago, which is cool) said that MSI generally uses the minimum spec parts and isn't as customizable and that building with xoticpc you can select better stuff (like the ASUS Thor PS, etc) so I went with the xoticpc custom build as I saw that to be the case... Any thoughts/help/feedback much appreciated! Cheers all! BINO
