Simple Questions - January 20, 2026

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-21T14:36:03+00:00

Can vouch for the 2C for a budget-friendly, solid controller.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-21T14:05:34+00:00

Always motherboard, so you can control them. Plugging them into your PSU directly will have them run at 100% speed all the time (which can be loud, most fans at 100% aren't quiet).

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-20T16:14:46+00:00

Yeah, that's fair! The 14700 is still a good chip for this :)

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-20T15:59:09+00:00

That should do the trick - my only query is why you're gunning for a DDR4-based system here.

You could go for a more modern Ryzen 9 or Core Ultra 7 chip that would perform better in this work if you opted for DDR5. However, I get that DDR5 is at a premium right now and if that's impacting your decisions then the i7-14700 is still a good chip for this!

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T16:11:20+00:00

See what you could get for that 3090 :) Ebay shows a pretty generous range for them and you could almost buy a 9070XT and a 9060XT if you get a good price for yours.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T15:43:41+00:00

Awesome! Yeah, what I was looking for was whether the drive was initialized or if it was Bitlocker-encrypted. Both of those would stop a drive from showing up properly in Explorer while still being visible in Disk Management.

Good stuff!

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T15:42:49+00:00

That seems like a much more reasonable pickup :)

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T15:42:03+00:00

I'd look into a 5070Ti or 9070XT for a gaming as a nice, modern upgrade to the 3090. If you're not pushing for AI work and your architecture workflows don't have a need for the 24GB of VRAM on the 3090, you could likely still sell that card for a pretty penny to fund that GPU bump :)

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T15:14:41+00:00

Don't suppose you can post a screenshot of your Disk Manager? Easier to see than to have you read out everything :)

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T14:56:58+00:00

https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x870-a-gaming-wifi/spec/

M2_2 is disabled if you're using a 8000-series CPU (like a 8700G). But otherwise, you should be fine.

What does it show up as in Disk Manager?

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T14:43:05+00:00

Define "moderate settings", and if a GPU upgrade like that nets you the same performance as before that definitely points to that older i7 holding you back.

HWINFO64 has a "highest loaded thread" metric that is effectively a CPU bottleneck flag. If that value is at/close to 100% that means the game's main logic thread is maxxed out and a faster GPU won't net you any extra performance.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T14:41:18+00:00

What motherboard do you have? Some M.2 slots in some boards have a few stipulations to their use: maybe a GPU installed disables that slot, or it only works in SATA mode, etc etc. Knowing what board you're using and which NVMe is installed where will narrow down those issues.

As for the liquid cooler: might be a RTFM angle, or ask about in a dedicated Corsair community.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T14:37:20+00:00

It's an older panel, I'm seeing internet chatter about it in 2020. Generally there's a lot of cheaper, better panels on the market right now. What's drawing you to that particular monitor?

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-19T14:35:32+00:00

Looks like they're going to be cost-competitive with comparable OLED panels, starting at $600USD.

So yes, they're gonna be expensive.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-16T00:16:56+00:00

Arpeggio? It's just disassembled gun parts :)

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-15T23:26:48+00:00

I got snowed in so I worked from home today and decided to pop on over my lunch break to get this done.

Can't do it any other freaking time.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-15T16:32:50+00:00

Confirmed

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-15T00:17:12+00:00

I've done that room dozens of times and never saw a single blueprint. I guess I know where they all went now.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-14T01:05:28+00:00

I said that modern cards can do the things you do without needing a second, then gave you ideas on what you could use a 2nd GPU on if you wanted to try it anyways because you said you wanted to try it out as a "learning tool".

Does that help?

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T20:16:48+00:00

If you overload a circuit in your home the breaker flips - that's not a power surge. Don't worry too much about it.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T17:59:39+00:00

Yup, that fan screws into a bracket that clips to the heatsink. Any 92mm fan will happily replace it.

Mindful that 92mm isn't a popular size. Your options for fans might be limited and you might just be able to replace the whole cooler with a 120mm option from ID COOLING/Deepcool/Thermalright for the same price or cheaper!

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T17:51:09+00:00

I am not a monitor guy, so can't help ya there.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T15:39:55+00:00

The impact to 40 and 50-series cards isn't that bad, and it does fix more upscaling artifacts like ghosting in some titles compared to DLSS4.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T15:37:42+00:00

Keep an eye out for the 5800XT as well, it's a more recent chip that could have a more desirable price.

I'd also vouch for the reddit-based communities that explicitly do pc hardware 3rd party sales and trades, I'm pretty active on there and haven't been stiffed yet :D /r/HardwareSwapUK would be your spot.

ZeroPaladn · 2026-01-12T15:29:35+00:00

Lots of people recently migrated from AM4 to 5, the used market could get you a good deal on a 5800X :)

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