My New PC

 Look at it glow!

I've been rocking an Intel i5 2500k based pc since 2012. While playing Black Mesa, a very good conversion of Half Life to the Source engine, I noticed that the graphical options defaulted to potato. At that point, I finally committed to building a new system. I used Rock Paper Shotgun's excellent hardware coverage to build a high end system capable of lasting several years, although I don't know if it'll last the seven that my old i5 did. 

For the case I picked a Fractal Design ATX with a tapered glass window so all my expensive components are viewable tucked away beneath my desk. This is a pretty sweet case, complete with dust filters and a bay for your power supply, and all the other niceties modern cases come with. I don't think I'll be making a streaming channel on Youtube, but if I did, my PC looks cool enough.

I went with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8 core processor because that's what Rock Paper Shotgun recommended for a high end AMD processor. AMD has always been just a little bit behind Intel in performance, but much more affordable when it comes to price. Also, Ryzen processors are all AM4 architecture, which means it's a lot simpler figuring out what motherboard to purchase, whereas Intel is a bit more complicated. When you only build a computer every five years or so, simpler is better. I'm an English major, for chrissakes.

For the motherboard, I picked an MSI x570 Gaming Edge, mostly because it has built in Wi-Fi and it was under 200 bucks. Memory was two 8 Gig sticks of DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 3200. I also went with a Corsair cx650 power supply, since 650 watts is enough for a single GPU system.

I initially chose a GeForce GTX1660 ti (there should be a law abolishing the ridiculous numerical schemes utilized by graphics card manufacturers), but since I went with a MSI Optix 1440p monitor, I upgraded to an AMD RX 5700 XT, which is a better 1440p card. So far, it runs Metro Exodus excellently on Ultra, which is the hardest thing I have to throw at it, but goddamn is it a noisy bugger. Graphics cards are also the size of a bar of gold now. I spent 400 bucks on the motherfucker, which is the most I've ever spent on a graphics card, but hey, who doesn't have money to burn during a pandemic that is almost certainly going to lead to a second great depression? Better to have something to pawn! Also, the MSI version of the 5700xt came with Resident Evil 3 and Monster Hunter: World, two games that I wouldn't have purchased otherwise, yet a great deal regardless. Newegg also gave me a three month subscription to Xbox Game Pass, which has a decent selection of games, such as Metro Exodus and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Lastly, I should mention my Razer RZ03 Chroma keyboard. It beats the hell outta the twenty plus year old Compaq Presario keyboard I was using. This one's spacebar works! Also, it has all these pretty lights. Who doesn't like pretty lights?

The full setup.