PC, Build Or Buy?

gman said:
It's a Founders Edition, so Nvidia's own with software and hardware untouched/untweaked by third party companies. I don't think I could get to it directly on Scan but have to go through the Nvidia store to get access to it on Scan. There must be some arrangement in place I guess?

It will need a dedicated 6+2 pin from your PSU. If it's a modular PSU I would guess that you will have the cable in the original box? I'm not sure about the molex and adapter route with a high power GPU and if the molex would have the capacity to cope - possible overheating issue? I'm not sure.

I've never known a graphics card to come with a 6+2pin cable, but there's plenty on Amazon (so long as your PSU is modular) link

Just to add some confusion, the 3060Ti FE is actually 12 pins (as is the 3070, 3080 and 3090) but has an adapter for connecting the standard 6+2pin to it, so nothing to worry about but does cause a little confusion if like me you don't inspect the contents of the box carefully enough and then panic when your 6+2pin won't fit! lol
Click to expand...
Well, I have done some 'digging'......

I obviously removed the relevant cable but am unable to lay my hands on it :( EDIT ~ yay! I have found the original cable, it is a double 6+2 headed cable :)

I have also found my old order information about the parts..
I have the Corsair HX650W Modular SLi PSU and that tallies with my original GPU a TGS 450 Sonic Platinum that had a 6pin power connection = I used to use the cable but but not for as since upgraded the GPU at least twice and none of those needed the cable!

It seems I need, as you mention, a PSU modular with the 6+2 output end to fit what at this stage I surmise is 'standardised' PCIe cable i.e. the PSU end has and industry standard compliant wiring arrangment.

All this on the surmise I can find a budget worthy RTX 3060 :)

So, having sidetracked @Dale. thread I will keep looking :)
 
Last edited:
I have had my last three PC's from PCSpecialist. you build your spec on their site, they build it and post it out to you.

Cannot fault them at all
 
SpikeK6 said:
I have had my last three PC's from PCSpecialist. you build your spec on their site, they build it and post it out to you.

Cannot fault them at all
Click to expand...
We bought my daughters PC from them last year - while the order / specification process, and delivered PC, were both excellent, the period between order and delivery was a different matter.
Originally ordered almost a month ahead of her birthday, with an expected build time of 2 weeks, it eventually turned up 2 weeks after her birthday - and then only after several phone calls to them to get it sorted!
Partly to blame was a global parts shortage - however I had been careful to include only in stock components, and there was zero communication from them when these went out of stock in the period between ordering and them starting to build - some of the 'out of stock' parts were things I would happily have swapped to alternate in-stock items, but was not given the choice to do so.
 
Box Brownie said:
Well, I have done some 'digging'......

I obviously removed the relevant cable but am unable to lay my hands on it :( EDIT ~ yay! I have found the original cable, it is a double 6+2 headed cable :)

I have also found my old order information about the parts..
I have the Corsair HX650W Modular SLi PSU and that tallies with my original GPU a TGS 450 Sonic Platinum that had a 6pin power connection = I used to use the cable but but not for as since upgraded the GPU at least twice and none of those needed the cable!

It seems I need, as you mention, a PSU modular with the 6+2 output end to fit what at this stage I surmise is 'standardised' PCIe cable i.e. the PSU end has and industry standard compliant wiring arrangment.

All this on the surmise I can find a budget worthy RTX 3060 :)

So, having sidetracked @Dale. thread I will keep looking :)
Click to expand...

Nice one.

Yeah Nvidia stock issues is apparently being suggested as deliberate to manipulate demand and maintain the crazy high pricing. It may be worth pinging them an email and asking when they will come in stock?
 
Scan have some 'today' offers..... https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gpu-nvidia-gaming/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-graphics-cards#manufacturers=Gigabyte,ASUS,Zotac

Asus, Gigabyte and Zotac

All under £350 :) approx £20 difference across all three

Decisions, decisions........obviously as "integrators" the above brands do things a tad their way so is just 'on price' or does one stand out by comparison????

EDIT ~ I have ordered the Gigabyte version.......leaves a little more room in the case and frankly I have used Gigabyte for my MB and it was a good choice. NB I think this the same as @Dale. bought but I decided the "Todays" price was worth going for :D

PS and FWIW I always use the nVidia 'vanilla' drivers and not the integrators versions. Though no idea whether the Gigabyte Control Centre or Aurous Engine programs are any use or even beneficial on a non-gaming rig? And subject to checking my drivers are the most current ones ;)....so no need to even worry about having the correct drivers!

PPS only upgrading to get the best I can out of the likes of Topaz, Affinity and DxO PL6....all of which have increasing minimum hardware specs with higher spec'ed GPUs. I will keep my GTX 1050Ti as backup ;)
 
Last edited:
So a sleepless night and this happened. All went ok until about 6am, I was done in, so had a kip. Went back to it sporadically, had another kip until 2pm. Had some other things to do then but finalised the build late afternoon. It was actually all quite easy, a bit of thought is all it took, as well as a slow pace.

Excuse the cables and celaphane (as well as a phone video), it's that raw just now but it's all running well. I will be taming those LEDS down though.

View: https://youtu.be/A7wiVvkFVuM
 
Good to see you've got it up and running. When you're ready make sure you've got the MSI Center installed so that you can control your disco lighting (Mystic light). (You should be able to connect your RAM to it as well even though it's non MSI)
 
Dale. said:
So a sleepless night and this happened. All went ok until about 6am, I was done in, so had a kip. Went back to it sporadically, had another kip until 2pm. Had some other things to do then but finalised the build late afternoon. It was actually all quite easy, a bit of thought is all it took, as well as a slow pace.

Excuse the cables and celaphane (as well as a phone video), it's that raw just now but it's all running well. I will be taming those LEDS down though.

View: https://youtu.be/A7wiVvkFVuM
Click to expand...

Yayy check out "Disco Dale" Nice one (y)

Was that a well deserved beer I spotted on the side? :)
 
Dale. said:
So a sleepless night and this happened. All went ok until about 6am, I was done in, so had a kip. Went back to it sporadically, had another kip until 2pm. Had some other things to do then but finalised the build late afternoon. It was actually all quite easy, a bit of thought is all it took, as well as a slow pace.

Excuse the cables and celaphane (as well as a phone video), it's that raw just now but it's all running well. I will be taming those LEDS down though.

View: https://youtu.be/A7wiVvkFVuM
Click to expand...

Looks good and plenty of space for airflow as well. Seems very quiet!
 
Box Brownie said:
Scan have some 'today' offers..... https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gpu-nvidia-gaming/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-graphics-cards#manufacturers=Gigabyte,ASUS,Zotac

Asus, Gigabyte and Zotac

All under £350 :) approx £20 difference across all three

Decisions, decisions........obviously as "integrators" the above brands do things a tad their way so is just 'on price' or does one stand out by comparison????

EDIT ~ I have ordered the Gigabyte version.......leaves a little more room in the case and frankly I have used Gigabyte for my MB and it was a good choice. NB I think this the same as @Dale. bought but I decided the "Todays" price was worth going for :D

PS and FWIW I always use the nVidia 'vanilla' drivers and not the integrators versions. Though no idea whether the Gigabyte Control Centre or Aurous Engine programs are any use or even beneficial on a non-gaming rig? And subject to checking my drivers are the most current ones ;)....so no need to even worry about having the correct drivers!

PPS only upgrading to get the best I can out of the likes of Topaz, Affinity and DxO PL6....all of which have increasing minimum hardware specs with higher spec'ed GPUs. I will keep my GTX 1050Ti as backup ;)
Click to expand...

That was probably a better choice over the 3060Ti taking into account what you are going to use it for because whilst the 3060Ti is the more powerful card, I doubt it would be noticeable for you.

Where I think you will benefit is the larger capacity of VRAM - I remember asking specifically about the VRAM differences on other forums and although the 3060Ti does have a faster memory bus at 256-bit compared to the 3060's 198-bit, but apparently for creative applications the higher 12GB VRAM can be more useful despite the slower memory bus and I think slightly slight memory clock speed.

I think it may be something to do with these programs being able to make use of the extra VRAM rather than using the slower system RAM. With gaming I find it is often the case that I'm not even using the full 8GB, so the bus speed is more important for me. Unless doing 4k gaming, where 12GB is pretty much necessary, but the 3060 series isn't really a 4k gaming card.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Was John Travolta giving it what for in the background :)
Click to expand...

John didn't turn up although Donna Summer dropped in for a while, still no sign of Abba. Ahhh...Agnetha. :love:


I've come across my first problem. I use a Spyder 4 Pro to calibrate my monitor. My new PC has no DVD/CD drive so I downloaded a driver from the Datacolor website. After some head scratching, I think I have to admit defeat as it doesn't seem to be compatible with Windows 10.

That's a proper blow, I've maxed the budget.....and some, I can't really afford a calibration tool for a while yet.
 
Dale. said:
John didn't turn up although Donna Summer dropped in for a while, still no sign of Abba. Ahhh...Agnetha. :love:


I've come across my first problem. I use a Spyder 4 Pro to calibrate my monitor. My new PC has no DVD/CD drive so I downloaded a driver from the Datacolor website. After some head scratching, I think I have to admit defeat as it doesn't seem to be compatible with Windows 10.

That's a proper blow, I've maxed the budget.....and some, I can't really afford a calibration tool for a while yet.
Click to expand...
We really need to chat mate. Lot's to sort out lol
 
Try display cal .it's what I use.
 
Dale. said:
John didn't turn up although Donna Summer dropped in for a while, still no sign of Abba. Ahhh...Agnetha. :love:


I've come across my first problem. I use a Spyder 4 Pro to calibrate my monitor. My new PC has no DVD/CD drive so I downloaded a driver from the Datacolor website. After some head scratching, I think I have to admit defeat as it doesn't seem to be compatible with Windows 10.

That's a proper blow, I've maxed the budget.....and some, I can't really afford a calibration tool for a while yet.
Click to expand...

It says here that Windows 10 is compatible?

Spyder4Pro 4.5.9 Windows - Powered by Kayako https://support.datacolor.com/index.php? Help Desk Software

support.datacolor.com support.datacolor.com

1675350806696.png
 
Dale. said:
John didn't turn up although Donna Summer dropped in for a while, still no sign of Abba. Ahhh...Agnetha. :love:


I've come across my first problem. I use a Spyder 4 Pro to calibrate my monitor. My new PC has no DVD/CD drive so I downloaded a driver from the Datacolor website. After some head scratching, I think I have to admit defeat as it doesn't seem to be compatible with Windows 10.

That's a proper blow, I've maxed the budget.....and some, I can't really afford a calibration tool for a while yet.
Click to expand...
For future reference, you can pick up an external USB CD/DVD drive for under £20.

However, if you still have access to a PC with an optical drive you should be able to convert a CD or DVD to an .ISO file on that PC and then copy the .ISO file to the new PC & mount it there. If both PCs are networked you could just network share the optical drive and access it that way.
 
External CD/DVD drives are a useful thing to have access to, not quite useful enough for me to own one, but at least I know someone I can borrow it from if needed.
 
Thanks guys. I managed to get sorted. (y)

I have 2 DVD/CD drives here, from old computers plus the old PC has one too.

I need a lie down, although I may not wake up for a week if I do. :LOL:
 
Last edited:
Just as an aside, on my old PC, it would take almost a minute to open Topaz Denoise. I've just activated Topaz on the new PC and it opened in the blink of an eye.

Wow.

I'm going to try some de-noising now, it used to take an age, so this will be interesting.
 
I think it's time to crunch the numbers, as some of you may be wondering how much it all cost.

I'll save you the breakdown but the final total was..........

£1657.85


I am quietly pleased, that includes a new monitor, the NAS, keyboard, 2.1 speakers, the case and some cables etc (and of course, all the components). If I were to get this machine off the shelf, I'm sure it would be £2k plus.

All my components were new, everything. I could've saved more if I'd got used on some components. I'm not knocking used but for this build, I wanted peace of mind. I've bought some other bits and pieces but they were not specific to this PC, they can be used in other ways.

It's turned out to be a monster, there are better, faster machines out there for sure but this will see me right for a few years now and is upgradable too, it's certainly more of a beast than I set out to create. It's also lovely to look at.

One other thing, 3 months ago I was clueless. Now, I'm no expert but I have a much better understanding. That alone has made it worth it.

Again, not knocking it, but I am glad I was patient and went self built rather than pre built, which was the dilemma that started this thread off.

Thanks to everybody involved,

This isn't the end of the story, far from it. ;)
 
Last edited:
Great to hear the PC is working well and you're definitely right about it being worthwhile as a learning process, it will free you up in future to be able to repair and upgrade parts as you want. Aside from performance and being quiet, as you've mentioned it's a big advantage that desktops are upgradeable as well - I think the last time I bought/built a full desktop was back in the late 2000s and since then I've progressively upgraded each machine as I needed the parts so it's gradually morphed bit by bit into the machine it is now.,
 
@Dale.

I might have missed it but what about the operating system?

Why do I ask, well when I do go the whole hog with new motherboard and CPU that will have OS impacts. As in, my system is just how I like it and it has been ages since my last build so all the programs to be re-installed on the basis of the OS needing to be a fresh install......or does it???

This latter aspect is where my knowledge is out of date/not up to date. So, is your new build a vanilla fresh in regard to the OS being new and unsullied by programs?

I suppose my question should really be directed to our fellow TP ers such as @gman and @Compuwight ? When I am more awake I will have start a new thread and/or send a PM or two :thinking: especially in regard to method(s) I read of a long while back where a fresh OS install, even where the motherboard is changed, is not required ?
 
Box Brownie said:
This latter aspect is where my knowledge is out of date/not up to date. So, is your new build a vanilla fresh in regard to the OS being new and unsullied by programs?
Click to expand...

A new build should always have a fresh install - recycling is likely to be more trouble than reinstalling everything, and there may be issues over reusing the registration key.
 
Yes, it's fresh install of Windows 10, without any bloat. Windows 10 is supported until 2025 and I will evaluate then as to whether I go Windows 11, or not. I was advised that 10 is more stable than 11, I think it looks better too.

I was getting prompts from MS on start up to upgrade to 11 but I have disabled those, the boot process is literally seconds now.
 
ancient_mariner said:
A new build should always have a fresh install - recycling is likely to be more trouble than reinstalling everything, and there may be issues over reusing the registration key.
Click to expand...
Yes for sure fresh installs are a good idea. My W10 was a free upgrade from W7 and I still have the ISO file. Though as you say an unanswered question is whether the MS provided "digital license" allows for use when used on another hardware configuration......and to state the obvious there would not be two PCs with the same OS in use.
Dale. said:
Yes, it's fresh install of Windows 10, without any bloat. Windows 10 is supported until 2025 and I will evaluate then as to whether I go Windows 11, or not. I was advised that 10 is more stable than 11, I think it looks better too.

I was getting prompts from MS on start up to upgrade to 11 but I have disabled those, the boot process is literally seconds now.
Click to expand...
We will eventually all be nudged into W11 but like you, for now I am happy with W10. Though did you buy a new W10 (I did not think it was still for sale?) or have you reused the old one and it has phoned home and been accepted?
 
It was a new purchase, it's still available. I had Windows 8.1 on my old PC which it came with and tons of bloat. Support ended for 8.1 in January.
 
Box Brownie said:
We will eventually all be nudged into W11 but like you, for now I am happy with W10.
Click to expand...
I mentioned elsewhere awhile ago, I bought a W10 lap top, which wasn't a massive leap from W7.
But with each update, it installed a bit more and a bit more of W11.
Without being "asked"
Finally after the last update, turning it on, and it was almost like a different machine, barely recognisable.
Thankfully I hardly use it save for "important stuff".
W7 is still my day to day PC.
 
As I intend to do my new build in due course.....

It looks like as a precaution I should buy a retail box of W10 Pro in readiness. Just a case of where from....though the likes Scan should be OK:)

PS one incentive to update now(?) is that some AI based editing software has adopted the IIRC AV and AV2 CPU instructions set, my old i5 is SSE4.1 and cannot utilise some aspects such as masking in Topaz Sharpen AI. Thankfully DxO PL still has SSE as their accepted specs.

A real case of c'est la vie in regard to technology pulling you into upgrading ;)

PPS I am tempted to get an mATX motherboard (to retire my large Lian Li case) this time but last time I looked there were very few being made and IIRC at the time of looking they had one less expansion slots than I needed.
 
Last edited:
I looked recently and thought there were plenty of mATX motherboards but I only need two slots - one for the GPU and another for the 10Gb NIC. I priced up a gen13 CPU/mobo/RAM upgrade for my current PC and it came to around £750 (eek!) but one thing that stopped me for the moment was that there were no W10 drivers for the mobo, only W11, and I am not a fan of W11. I might have a look at AMD's offerings to see if W10 is still supported there. One self-inflicted problem is that I run the CPU passive so am limited to a maximum TPW of 65W and I think Intel is well ahead at that power rating.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top