popcorn_skollie

If you account for inflation the pricing seems much the same compared to last years launch. Well at least if you compare the 3950x to the 5950x. I usually look at the flagships because often its often indicative of the the lower end of the value scale. But at a solid $50 premium over last gen you definitely paying more for Ryzen 5 and 7 this time round. The real question is how much more you're getting. I think we're in the habit of holding AMD a standard of pricing where we expect greater value with every launch. Its really hard to quantify that right now. I also think that AMD are getting comfy in the pound seats. They can get away with less aggressive pricing until Intel has an answer. And by the looks of things that could take a year. My only fear is supply. I doubt AMD will starve the market to drive prices up but you just don't know. The demand could higher than expected. The good news is Ryzen 3000 will cost an average of $50 less than 2019s launch off the shelf moving forward. The value for prospective upgraders is really good now. Lisa also promised 400 series chipsets would get bios support for 5000 series chips in January 21. That was unexpected. It certainly holds a candle for existing 400 owners to consider chips upgrades without having to buy a new platform altogether. Offering value by staggering how much cash users need to fork out over a given time. I guess it hinges on partners and what degree of support we talking here. People with older machines? Just get a 500 series board and 3000 series chip. You're getting superb performance at a very good price and future support to boot. I really really hope Intel steps up soon. Don't let AMD get too comfortable. Or consumers will eventually end up paying.

When I cleaned my laaitie's blue lit keyboard it had this brown glow from all the flings and maries.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/laptops/news/154125-how-to-watch-the-amd-zen-3-reveal-on-8-october https://youtu.be/iuiO6rqYV4o Intel investors are gonna be like those podium sitters watching Minnaar do his run. Ryzen's new launch go's live later.

I'm not against it at all. Everyone has different tastes. I'd rather have the option because I could always turn it off. I've seen setups where lighting and rpm could be synced to thermals automatically. That's pretty useful. But I guess it narrows down compatibility options. As sleek as murdered out setups are a degree of case illumination is still useful. But you're right. They definitely went too far. They wont stop because people keep buying it. I see there are rgb chairs now too. And Razor just dropped some credit card that also illuminates.

Good to know. Guess I saved R700. Everything else is super pricey though

I have a question. I'm aware of all the options regarding integration with various rgb software. So I know they could sync up with the rest inside the case. But I'm more interested in its degree of functionality. Is Gamdias limited to aesthetic choices? Or can I use my board software to change lighting based on temps? I'd probably have a fairly muted scheme which isn't too distracting. But I would love the option of the case displaying an overall change in colour as temps go up. Ideally everything would be white on idle and slowly ramp to red when things get toasty. Is this possible?

Gamdias case fans?

Honestly these leaks are driving me nuts. Every other day something else is 'leaked' and quite frankly it seems the purpose is just to yield more media traffic. Most times various sources are just recycling the same information which further reinforces the assumption that specs are likely accurate. I mean its nice to get a glimpse of what's to come and indulge in the hype. But refrain from making any decisions regarding your upgrade. Here's my advice. When ever new tech is pending and you're thinking about upgrading. Wait for official release. 3rd party testing regarding stability and performance is a far more reliable source of data to make an informed decision. And once products drop there will be no shortage thereof for reference. Its worth noting that from a value perspective you could and should keep an eye on existing prices prior to launches. More often than most, especially if you're a few years behind the curve. The value sweetspot of upgrading your rig from a price to performance perspective wont lie with adopting new tech once its launched. But in upgrading to something just shy of the latest and greatest. It all hinges on what type of setup you have currently. But quite often, you could benefit from a significant performance bump at a much lower cost by going this route. For those who absolutely must have the latest and greatest. And by this I don't necessarily mean those who have more money than sense. I'm talking about users who absolutely benefit from a productivity perspective of being on the cutting edge of performance. Users who benefit from a stream of income based on their machines and relative specs. Often the value prospect here can go both ways. Where machines a year or so old are often sold to help fund a better machine which is new and expensive yes. But would provide a greater degree of efficiency for productivity. Making early adoption more viable.

Yoh bra you like halfway there!

Yeah. way out of my league. PC porn in my book. It may be a subjective thing but I don't think it gets better that proper hardline routing. If you do it right. Maintenance can be much easier. And lets be honest here. I've never seen a floppy loop that can rival the aesthetic nor ease of access to components as hard tubes. EK probably rule the roost when it comes to plates and fittings. I think Bykski is up there too so worth looking into especially since they have an official local retailer. A few of the mainstream component manufacturers have entered the market recently too. Corsair and Thermaltake's stuff seem decent. But if I could ever afford it and they had what I needed I'd probably go EK too. A threadripper with 2x 3090's in a hard custom loop is probably my dream setup. But then I'd probably want a pool guy who could do the maintenance. Anyone here who actually have a computer like that?

Correct Some b450 boards are capable of supporting gen 4 depending on traces and bios updates. While partners supported this feature quite early in adoption (Gigabyte rings a bell) AMD warned that they would not officially support gen4 on b450 moving forward since it hinges on too many variables inconsistent with so many b450 options. As a result AMD has themselves released Ryzen bios updates which blocks support for gen 4. But many older bios versions are available for many boards which end users can adopt at their own risk. Here's the thing though. For most of us its probably not worth the trouble. As mentioned before gpu performance gains with gen4 are almost non existent. They're certainly there. And hint at the possibility of expanding on this moving forward. But for now even the latest and greatest GPU's function on gen 4 and gen 3 slots with pretty much identical performance. Despite latest gpu's themselves having improved immensely. This scaling however seems to be irrelevant from the bandwidth difference between gen 3 and gen 4. For now at least. Then there's storage. There's no beating around the bush here. The performance gains with nvme gen4 over 3 is massive. Much, much faster read and right speeds. This is where gen 4 start to make a difference. And a big one at that. But... Lets look at it objectively. For that difference in speed to make a real difference to the everyday the end user. You're only really going to benefit from those speeds when you're doing large data transfers. At least enough to notice. And even then you'll be limited to the slowest speed you're transferring to and/or from. So lets say you have 1x gen 4 nvme drive. Its super fast. But you want to copy gigs of datas to a sata ssd or hdd. Unfortunately you're going to be limited to the maximum speed of the slowest device. If your board supports enough lanes for multiple gen 4 nvme storage drives then yes. You'll definitely benefit from the speeds. But how often are you going to be moving massive amounts of data? And are you prepared to fork out the kind of money required to benefit from such support? But skollie. What about games? Ah, you see. If you have your games stored on a gen3 nvme ssd. You already going to benefit from 5-10 times shorter loading speeds over a sata ssd. This you will definitely notice. But moving from gen3 to gen 4 nvme? Not so much. The amount of data required to be loaded from playing games is just too little for any of us to really tell a real world difference. Many times probably just fractions of seconds. Because you just not loading enough data at any single time to truly notice the performance gains

When liquid cooling and by extension AIO solutions were introduced. They had the type of performance gains light years ahead of what air cooling was capable at the time. Thermal headroom meant greater OC potential and back then if you wanted to overclock you'd want water or nothing at all. This mindset is still prevalent today despite air cooling solutions that have improved significantly to date. Today I really think the argument has to be made that there is no better. Not in terms of performance anyways. Certain setups will work better with air. Some better with water. I'm of the opinion that if you want to use a good AIO over a good air cooler. You will benefit from a cleaner overall setup. Better (subjective) aesthetics, possiblly better case airflow, and overall a nicer, cleaner setup. But not necessarily performance benefits. There are air solutions for CPU's which rival even the best AIO's from that perspective. At the expense of a huge slab taking up half your case. Possible ram clearance issues, and possibly extra cable management hurdles. I think if we want to talk water cooling as apposed to air cooling from a purely performance gains perspective. You're better off going all in with a full custom loop. They're pricey, you need to know what you're doing, and they require a greater degree of maintenance. GPU performance on water seems to benefit more in terms of thermal headroom than cpu's do. Its a general statement which kind of holds true in most scenarios. But there are exceptions of course. When you go custome loop however. Balls to the wall mobo, cpu, gpu slabs, pumps resevoirs and rads with fans. The overall performance gain is astounding. And beautiful as well. Its here where you see the real benefit of water over air. Go big or go home. If you're just someone looking for a decent cooling solution to your chip without breaking the bank. There are many many air solutions that can work as well (and in some cases even better) than an AIO.

Bonus points for superb cable management

Check on Carbonite. I suggest you wait a month though. Let the new stuff drop. Retail prices on previous gen will definitely come down and many early adopters will flog their stuff to fund new purchases.

Lekker. I see the 4000d is a popular choice. Post some picks of the build when you're done.

Thanks for the tip. Never knew about their automated functionality. I'll check it out.

Good old ssh is a big plus I'll admit. WD has its own encrypted file system with a windows explorer overlay. It is a bit wonky. Slower. But still easily accessible. I'm not overly concerned about user rights and encryption even on the server end. The data isn't exactly sensitive. Moving copying and updating is definitely slower over lan. Sure. A dedicated workstation would certainly handle this much quicker. But these days any new content I download goes to the nas by default. No matter where I get it from. And that's like one or 2 things a week. Plex scans the nas daily and pulls data pretty accurately from online databases. Usually I would que up some stuff and forget about it. Then when ever I kick back with the xbox or what ever it would recommend newly added titles. I like that. I'm still using the free service of Plex though. So I miss out on stuff like recommended titles, new episode notifications, trailer viewing and so on. I'm not the type to typically keep up to date with particular stuff unless I really, really like it. If something looks interesting. And a complete season is available. I'd probably que it up. But if something new is 3 episode in I don't bother. Too much trouble keeping up. Some exceptions. Now I'm not going to deny being a dirty little pirate when the mood strikes. But I tend avoid torrents for security reasons these days. If something is on Hulu, Amazon or HBO and I really want it. I'll ask around first. But if its fresh content its generally safer. An episode drops and seeds pop up quickly I generally find to be safe. Some of the local invite only wug groups do regular updates on tons of stuff. Especially if its popular. There's also discord groups with links to big ftp libraries.

Having previously used a workstation as a media server myself before moving to a nas. I find that personally the pro's outweigh the cons. For starters the smaller footprint is a big plus. With no need for additional desk space for another computer, monitor and peripherals. I find that a nas on the desk (which takes up about as much space as a book or 2) as a more convenient and economical use of space. It is also far more efficient in terms of power draw especially for something which is intended to be on 247. Any convenience of a workstation over a nas with regards to access and management can be overcome by using any computer on the lan with credentials. Or even using my phone. I've considered the option of a pie. Which is a far cheaper solution. But the pain of getting it setup physically (with enclosures, cables and multiple powered devices for 2 drives and the pie) as well as the software side of things. Well, it seems a tad inconvenient and frankly a bit out of my league. I really, really like the nas. I can be anywhere in the world and listen to music simply not found on spotify and soundcloud. Complete access to terabytes of my own personal music library without using up any space on my fone. Or paying any subscription fees to online music services. When visiting family abroad I have complete access to years and years of family photos. Which I can share with them on the fly again without having them physically stored on my fone. With no space limitations like free online cloud services and no subscription fees to the ones which offer enough space for my libraries. Then there's Plex. Having used Kodi and a few others. I find that Plex is simply the most universal platform for streaming. Nearly every smart TV has Plex preinstalled. Its also super easy for kids to navigate using tablets. It also saves bandwidth. So instead of the kids hogging the line rewatching the same crap over Netflix. They just watch Captain Underpants for the umpteenth time in 1080p without any internet usage at all. Kodi doesn't seem to be as prevalent or user friendly for those less than tech savvy. I just want something thats a little better than what I have and am willing to pay a little extra. But the home solutions from Qnap, WD and Synology just seem so expensive. If I consider the cost of a nas and 2 drives. I'm looking at around 10-12k all in. That's nuts. Why aren't there any 2 bays with included drives off the shelf? Why can't I get an easy, plug and play, all in one solution for say 5k or 6k. Why do I have to choose between buying the same thing again for the same price (R3,500) or leap towards triple the price for solutions that are more professional than I require. There has to be a middle solution here. I just can't find it.

My nas died. Kinda. It was non responsive for a week. At the time I wasn't too phased. I have numerous redundancies of important work files. And they're all all backed up to the cloud too. And decades of family photos are redundant across a few computers here at home. Then it mysteriously sprang back to life 2 nights ago. Going through the library, I realised how much of it I'll miss if this thing dies again. Remasters of old classics. Surf and mountain biking videos that are really hard to come by. Not to mention the music. Some of those mp3's I've literally had for more than 20 years and simply put. They would be impossible to get again. As a short term solution I bought a 4tb wd gold and am now I'm in the process of grabbing it all bit by bit. But I want need a new nas. So I'm looking for suggestions that wont break the bank. For home use. 2 bay so I can run them in raid 1. The most important feature to me would be native Plex support that can handle a bit of transcoding. 1080p local lan streaming is a must but would consider paying a little more if 4k was supported at minimal extra cost. But not essential. I'm not really interested in streaming from the device online. The primary function would be to act as a single library source to all tv's, smartphones and pc's here at home. Being away from home however I would like to access my photo and music library online. Which I'm sure any nas can do these days. I've asked around and this is one area of hardware most gamers aren't too familiar with. I've been running a WD My Cloud Home device for the last 3 years. This is a bottom of the barrel nas solution but it worked really well for us here at home. All smart devices connected to the home lan are able to stream through Plex. Which is a convenience that's really hard to let go of. I payed like R3,500 for it about 3 years ago. And that included the preinstalled 4tb drive. But the solutions I'm looking at now start at like R3k+ without any drives at all. Not everything has native support for Plex. And the ones that do seem a little more professional (and expensive) than what I require. Any network manne in here?

I'm struggling to find the video now but Playstation revealed some interesting things about the process of their collaboration with AMD. The general assumption that AMD slaps their existing technology to meet the requirements of the console space is misguided. Sony revealed that the process of AMD's APU development for consoles is a 2 way street. Its a bit of a crude oversimplification but an APU is the process where the CPU and GPU are integrated into a single die. This is done to mitigate high power requirements and by extension allow for far a greater degree of efficiency with regards to power consumption and by extension, thermal headroom and performance. Sony revealed that its not simply a case of going to processor manufacturers and asking who can make what they need for their new console at the best price to performance. AMD doesn't simply 'win the tender' because they make good stuff at a good price. Sony worked very closely with AMD to develop this technology. And while AMD may well benefit from a significant cash injection as a result. The relationship in terms of actual tech development is far more beneficial to AMD. Their achievements in the PC space is not just a reflection of what they are able to achieve on their own merits. But rather what they were able to learn from working with other companies. AMD's recent ability to develop an entirely new generation of standards in the pc space is as much a result of in house development as it is through collaboration. The ace AMD has up its sleeve as I mentioned before is that as a single company, they are able to understand the requirements of both the cpu and gpu space simultaneously. This is pivotal in creating APU design for consoles. Nvidia is still a predominantly gpu manufacturer. And their recent acquisition of ARM hints at their intentions to branch out into the cpu space and by extension...APU. Its no coincidence that Nvidia did this. Mindfull of AMD as always. Then Intel has been developing their discreet gpu for a few years now. So they too are thinking of the long game too.

Its such a shame they still have this reputation. These days its probably a result of the memes more than anything else. Personally I've had driver issues from both sides over the years. But the days of driver issues in general are long forgotten. Right now I have machines with cards from both. The funny thing is I struggled with Nvidia's turing drivers because of an outdated windows build. Thats was maybe 2 years back? Easily overcome with updates but Radeon never seemed to mind that at all. I also prefer the driver interface over Nvidias. Stats and OC options are easier to navigate and understand. And the Relive stuff makes streaming easy. Nvidia doesn't really lack anything. But the layout is certainly less intuitive. As for reliability I can't complain on either end. I can't remember the last time a game crashed with any card I have now. I doubt AMD will drop a card that can compete with Nvidia's top tier offerings. But I don't believe its a case of them unable to do so. I think they're perfectly capable of competing for the top spot. But its not a viable marketing strategy. Not when most enthusiasts are in the mid range. Its also where the value prospect of performance to dollar makes the most sense from a consumer perspective. They're a business. Their incentive is market share. They achieved this with Ryzen. Offer better value for money in the mid range. Make a product which is 90% as good as Intel's offering at half the price. Nvidia is clearly mindful of this if their latest offerings is anything to go by. I mean lets be clear. They quite literally offered a new line of gpus where the entry level card is more powerful than last generations flagship at half the price. We haven't seen such a drastic jump in performance to price between generations since what. 10 years ago? They knew that 2080ti owners would be fuming but its a risk they took because they anticipate an AMD response that would threaten market share. To add to that for them to msrp the 3090 at double the price of the 3080 means they're not looking to compete in that space. Just maintain the crown. For those who care about raw performance irrespective of price. Here's my prediction. AMD will slide in with 2 or 3 cards at launch. No card to compete with Nvidia's top tier 3090. Maybe? But probably not. The flagship will perform just shy of the 3080 but at a much better price and probably more ram. It might even compete head to head in some titles especially with devs using radeon for its optimization process. And this space has and continues to grow significantly. The second card will perform somewhere halfway between the 3070 and 3080. At a price that's slightly less than halfway between the 3070 and the 3080 msrps. Then maybe a 3rd card that's shy of the 3070 performance. But at a very good price. This is where they aim to sell the most cards. Then over the next 2 years both sides will pepper the market with cards at almost every $50 price increment and partners pcb's will follow suite. If AMD really is out for the crown they will have to fork so much money into rnd that the return on investment just wont make business sense. Not right now anyways. But if they continue on their current trajectory. Mark my words. In a few short years AMD will do to Nvidia what they've done to Intel. Its the long game they're playing. And Nvidia knows it. Ask yourself why Nvidia just bought ARM. They're taking AMD's threat seriously. Intel didn't see em coming. They got comfortable making the same crap year after year with small increments in performance at bigger increments in cost because they could. They got away with it because they weren't challenged. Now they're behind in rnd because they threw more money into exploiting their existing product stack for higher margins. Think of it this way. AMD is fighting a war on two fronts. They have been for a long time. Where as Intel and Nvidia have the same common adversary. For AMD to present such a great threat to Intel in such a short space of time says heaps about what they're truly capable of as a tech company. And they're pretty hot on Nvidia's heels too. These achievements speak volumes especially considering that they have far less at their disposal when compared to both Intel and Nvidia's resources respectively. Global GPU market share ending 2nd quarter 2020. I think its fair to say that Nvidia got a nice bump with its launch. But lets wait for Navi and see what happens

Some of the 10 series cards are able to ray trace despite a lack of rt cores due to some software wizardry with driver updates. They do come at a questionable performance drop that make them seem moot. But could make games like minecraft at 1080p worth the trouble. https://www.pcmag.com/news/nvidias-ray-tracing-for-gtx-10-series-cards-will-drag-down-fps

At this point the prospect of getting a previous gen card off the shelf doesn't seem like a bad idea. A 2080ti is still a beast. Its a waiting game now. Navi will drop end of next month. The 3060 and so forth might seem like a worthy option as well.

The distributor prices I've seen on partner cards for the 3080 are around R17k including vat. And from what I've heard the backlog on pre-orders is ridiculous. Either way you slice it. I've never seen a price disparity this huge between msrp and local. Look to be fair you're always going to pay a premium for any Strix, Aorus and the like over founders. And we will have to wait and see 3rd party benches to warrant whether those performance gains are worth spending on. Prices 'should' also even out once shelves are stocked. But at these prices I doubt many retailers will risk having that much cash tied up in their inventory. It feels like these early prices are indicitive of demand.

https://youtu.be/raNWOkG54VQ Check the size of this thing. I think it takes up 4 slots!