Posts by Gregory Anderson34

Thanks for the help, everyone!!

Thanks for all the help, everyone!!

wanderingbison9 said:Does the GPU actually drop down to x8 when you have two M.2 drives running simultaneously, or does one of those drives just pull its bandwidth from the chipset instead? It’s surprisingly tricky to find a definitive answer online. Maybe you could just fire up GPU-Z and check if the graphics card actually hits x16 while you're putting it under a heavy load?

Thanks guys. I'll figure it out.

Just finished putting my build list together and decided to double-check if everything actually works together. Now I’m staring at this whole PCIe lanes thing, which is basically Greek to me. If I'm reading this right, my CPU doesn't have enough PCIe lanes to handle all the gear I picked out. Can someone tell me if I'm tripping? And if I am, is this actually a dealbreaker?

MOB:
ASRock X570 Creator:
3x PCIe 4.0 x16 (1x x16, 1x x8, 1x x4), 3x PCIe 2.0 x1, 1x M.2 / M-Key (PCIe 4.0 x4, 22110/2280/2260), 1x M.2 / M Type (PCIe 4.0 x4 / SATA, 22110/2280/2260/2242/2230), 1x M.2 / E-key (PCIe, 2230, with WiFi + BT module)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3900x:
24x PCIe 4.0 (16 + 4 + 4), 16x for GPU

SSD (two of them):
M.2/M-Key (PCIe 3.0 ×4)

GPU (2080 Ti):
PCIe 3.0 ×16

Someone told me the CPU has 24 lanes, but since the SSDs want 8, the GPU wants 16, and the chipset takes 4, the CPU is short by 4. I honestly thought the chipset had its own dedicated lanes and wouldn't be stealing from the CPU's stash.
Also, I'm assuming stuff like RAM doesn't really factor into the PCIe lane count.
Thanks.

wiredotter14 said:Just a heads up, if you're leaning toward AMD, Overclocking is basically mandatory to make that choice worth it. The OP should probably clarify if they actually plan on Overclocking the CPU or not.
The Stock Intel i7 with a Corsair CC 95 isn't terrible, but for actual gaming, a stock i5 is honestly better.

Personally, I’m still digging that first combo from crimsonstag84 plus an SSD.

I'm not planning on classic Overclocking—you know, trying to squeeze extra juice out of parts like bumping a CPU from 2.0 GHz to 2.5 GHz or whatever. I just want to crank every single game to max settings and play.

And if I grab another $333, does that mean $2333? Would that actually make a difference?
Reading through all your suggestions, I realized I’m seriously behind the times, so I've got a few questions. Is 8GB of RAM considered low-end or is that the sweet spot? And is an SSD basically just the modern version of an HDD? If so, is 120GB cutting it too close?

Thanks a ton for the advice, everyone! You guys are fast.

I picked up my last rig over six years ago, and I just realized the other day that it’s finally time to drop some cash on a brand-new build with all-new parts. Honestly, I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to tech specs and hardware these days, so I’m coming to you guys for help. What’s the best possible setup I can snag for $2000? Even just some basic guidance would be huge—should I go with Intel or AMD? Nvidia or ATI? DDR3 or DDR4? My main goal is smooth, headache-free gaming. I need a machine that can handle stuff like GTA 5 🙂
without breaking a sweat.
Thanks in advance for the help.