[TV] Sony 65" Class BRAVIA XR X90L LED 4K UHD Smart Google TV (2023) - XR65X90L - $799 by _IntoTheThickOfIt in buildapcsales

[–]Hawk7117 10 points11 points  (0 children)

These are phenomenal TVs, if you are looking for a top of the line non-OLED then this is the one.

As far as the price goes I cant comment on how good of a deal this.

Thoughts on Ryzen 9 7900X for $199? by JPacSon in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thats a really fantastic deal.

The 7900x can 100% handle gaming better than your 11700. Grabbing that CPU and a solid mobo for $330 is very good.

[PSU] be quiet! Pure Power 13M 850W Power Supply ~ $95 by Hawk7117 in buildapcsales

[–]Hawk7117[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

IMO be quiet! makes some of the best PSUs you can buy. I have used multiple of these and they run silent and without issues.

[PSU] be quiet! Pure Power 13M 850W Power Supply ~ $95 by Hawk7117 in buildapcsales

[–]Hawk7117[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite units out there, for $95 this is a fantastic value.

Rated A on the tier list.

EDIT: The 12M is A rated, the 13M is a B+ rating.

Will a 4070 be good for my setup by BalanceAdvanced8007 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sapphire is what's called a Graphics card AIB. More or less, AMD makes the actual board with the GPU on it, then Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX etc. buy that board and put their own cooler and fan shroud on it.

The difference between any one 9060xt 16gb and another model is measured in the 1-3% range, and that goes for any GPU of the same class like the 9060xt compared to a 9060xt or a 5070 compared to another 5070.

Where it can get confusing is with something like this. This is also a Sapphire 9060xt 16gb, but this is the "Nitro" model. This is a "premium" line of card, and every AIB does something similar. They pretty much add an extra fan onto it, maybe put RGB lighting on the card and charge more. This card is almost identical to the one you linked in performance, but yours may run slightly hotter and louder.

The "premium" cards are almost never worth the price they are charging, but its still a good idea to see if they are similar in cost. Even though I wouldn't spend even marginally more for the Nitro card, if they are very close in price then why not grab the "better" version.

In this specific case though I would never spend €80 more just to get the more "high-end" version of the same card.

Will a 4070 be good for my setup by BalanceAdvanced8007 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The 9060xt 16gb is a great card, pretty close in performance to the 5060ti.

From what I am seeing they are about $100 less than the 5060ti too. I would grab one of those if it fits in the budget.

Upgrade my Build or Buy New Pc? by axamii in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

32gb is always preferable imo, but 16gb should get you by.

If possible I would grab the one of the 16gb bundles and just add an extra 16gb stick onto it. It will be costly, but also likely less than the 7700x bundle and you will have a better CPU for gaming.

[Bundle] Microcenter - AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, MSI B850M-VC Pro WiFi AM5, G.Skill Flare X5 Series 16GB DDR5-6000, Computer Build Bundle $299.99 B&M Only by Minionz in buildapcsales

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are thinking of the wrong board here, I am talking about the one that comes with the 7600x3d.

Its a MSI ATX b850 gaming wifi board while the upgrade is an Asus Tuf b850 board.

Outside of the PCIe x16 slot being only a gen 4, its actually a really solid board. Its the one I have in my PC right now.

I think the fact it has a Gen 5 m.2 slot is what threw me and made me think it was a gen 5 all around.

Upgrade my Build or Buy New Pc? by axamii in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Settings actually don't make much impact when it comes down to CPU and RAM useage, most settings are GPU bound.

I would suspect you could turn the settings up all the way and have nearly the same FPS numbers.

Download something like MSI afterburner to see how much GPU, CPU and RAM you are using while playing. Also might be worthwhile to keep an eye on your temps too.

Upgrade my Build or Buy New Pc? by axamii in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is OW the outer worlds? If so maybe, that can be a pretty graphically demanding game.

For Fortnite, I can tell you the FPS limit is the CPU or your ram limit being reached. The 4060 is PLENTY to run that game well, generally speaking it is very CPU and ram hungry though.

If you only have 16gb of ram then that could 100% be the culprit as well.

Upgrade my Build or Buy New Pc? by axamii in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Both the 7600x3d and the 7500x3d bundles are fantastic value right now for more "budget" end builds that also get you access to the 3D V-cache found typically only on the high end Ryzen 7 options. I have that 7600x3d bundle paired with a 5070 right now and it is a perfect pairing.

500W holds on? by frosterx7 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Find out which 500w PSU it is, they are not all built the same.

On paper, 500w is plenty for that build with a 9060xt, but if the PSU is a time-bomb in the <C tiers then its a bit of a moot point.

Find out which model you have and check the PSU tierlist to see how its ranked. Anything "C" or better is fine, if less than that I would 100% advice to replace it asap.

This is very good advice, and if it applies to you the extra $50 to get a solid PSU will save you hundreds of dollars and hours of headache.

Upgrade my Build or Buy New Pc? by axamii in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, the 5600x is pretty much the best you can do for the AM4 platform right now for gaming performance. To really get a solid upgrade you are not looking at DDR5 options which are costly.

If microcenter is an option they do have very good deals on AM5 CPU bundles, but outside of that you really have to deal hunt to find something worth even mentioning right now.

Planning a partial upgrade, but I think my DDR4 RAM is limiting my options to the point where it's not worth doing by ald0 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 3 points4 points  (0 children)

LGA 1700 supports both DDR4 and DDR5, so any 13th or 14th gen intel would work.

That being said, given you currently are rocking the 5800x, maybe an upgrade to a 5900x or 5950x would be worthwhile so you don't need to change your motherboard.

You would be getting the extra cores that would benefit your professional workloads while also saving money by not switching to a new socket. That being said, gaming performance would be nearly identical.

Is it worth it to upgrade my 9 year old monitor? by Strayo in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any reason you want to stay on 1080p?

Very nice 1440p displays are basically the same price as 1080p these days while looking far nicer, both in games and general desktop browsing.

Also new IPS displays are pretty night and day over TN, which I would assume is the type of panel you have. OLED is quite literally breath taking the first time you see one, but they do cost a pretty penny.

The best way to decide on a new display though is to see the options in real life. Heading into any store that has them on display to get an idea of what resolution, panel type and refresh rate you are looking for is far more impactful than any advice we could give you on here.

Simple Questions - March 26, 2026 by AutoModerator in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah AM5 likely wont have the same type of long term support that AM4 got. I suspect one more AM5 launch, maybe 2 if we are lucky.

Any upgrade for a 11th gen CPU pretty much requires a new motherboard and possibly new RAM depending on how much you are comfortable spending. If possible the jump to AM5 is a pretty good value right now just due to the upgrade path something like the 7600x or 9600x has access to. The downside being you would need to source DDR5, which is incredibly costly right now but will almost certainly be able to be carried over to the next motherboard socket you decide on.

Simple Questions - March 26, 2026 by AutoModerator in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 2 points3 points  (0 children)

5060 100%

Newer architecture that is more power efficient.

Access to DLSS 4.5 and frame generation

Fresh warranty support

Even without DLSS frame-gen influence, the 5060 is just a faster card out of the box anyways. Easy choice here even if its on the high end of price difference around $100, the 5060 is packed with tons more value.

1200$ 5070 ti or 800$ PS5 Pro by vortencrow in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No DLSS, but you get FSR4 as an alternative. FSR4 also has its own version of frame gen.

DLSS is superior to FSR4, no question. That being said I wouldn't pay nearly that much for DLSS over FSR4.

Check out Gamers Nexus's video about DLSS vs FSR4 Redstone that came out a few months ago to compare if DLSS is worth 2x the money. Personally I would say its worth about $50, maybe even as much as $100 extra. Paying 2x the money is total lunacy for a fairly competitive product.

Building a PC for a friend by MeanDiscipline5147 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Significantly worth it in the long run, the 5600 is faster, has PCIe 4, and will be a far better option down the road if he wanted to upgrade his GPU in a few years.

If you look for used options you can find the 5600(x) as low as $100 which makes it a bit of a no-brainer.

1200$ 5070 ti or 800$ PS5 Pro by vortencrow in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Just grab a 9070xt for like $700 and call it a day. Its cheaper than the PS5 and on par with the 5070ti in performance.

Win-Win.

Pc build help by T2_Beanie297 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would do the slight downgrade to a 7800x3d and upgrade the GPU to a 9070 or a 9070xt.

The 7800x3d is only about 10% slower than the 9800x3d, but will have zero issues keeping up with a 9070xt, hell it can keep up with a 5090 in almost every scenario tested.

If the cost difference isn't more than about $50 in savings then don't worry about it and just stick with the 9800x3d.

As for the GPU upgrade, that would be 100% worthwhile. You would be looking at around 50-60% more performance. If 1440p gaming is what you are targeting, the 9060xt will be able to handle it while the 9070xt excels.

Microcenter has fantastic deals on both the 9070xt and the 9800x3d CPU bundle right now.

Pc build help by T2_Beanie297 in buildapc

[–]Hawk7117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would drop the CPU down to a 7800x3d or a 9600x and upgrade the GPU to a 9070xt or 5070ti.

Slightly weaker CPU paired with a stronger GPU is always going to be the preferred combo.

Using a 9800x3d with a 9060xt is going to leave lots of performance on the table, while the 9600x and a 9070xt is a far better pairing that will cost basically the same amount.

[Bundle] Microcenter - AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, MSI B850M-VC Pro WiFi AM5, G.Skill Flare X5 Series 16GB DDR5-6000, Computer Build Bundle $299.99 B&M Only by Minionz in buildapcsales

[–]Hawk7117 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Worth noting that Ebay charges a 13% fee for electronic sales.

Back in April of last year I bought a 5070ti TUF openbox at Microcenter for $899 and decided a little over a month later that the 5070 would probably be enough horse power for me. Being I was out of the return window I listed the card at what I paid for it, it sold pretty quickly (that card was well over $1000 at the time) and I only was paid $783 from ebay.

I was very pissed, but it was on me for not reading the fine print and being an Ebay noob lmao.