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Forums - PC Discussion - [Project] [Complete] "Get all the stuff out of my gaming PC and put it somewhere else"

Ok, let's officially start project "Get all the shit out of my gaming PC and put it somewhere else". Or GATSOOMGPCAPISE for short.

For anyone who doesn't know, for this project I'm going to remove everything that is not needed for gaming from my giant gaming PC. I do not want any other shit on there that might impair its ability to give me maximum performance.

Steps are as follows:

1. Define & Design

2. Build a small PC that can take all of the abuse my current big rig takes

3. Move the shit to the new PC

4. Reinstall gaming rig

5. Enjoy Rocket League without drops

 

Let's begin with Step 1. Define & Design

What's the purpose of each of the PCs. Let's call them GPC (Gaming PC) and SPC (Small Shit PC).

GPC is naturally only for gaming. It will need 1 SSD for the OS and another SSD for gaming. The most important thing is that I need only one sound pipeline. The best way here is to tunnel the gaming sound through the SPC, where my headphones will be plugged in. For now I don't think I will need a sound card in the GPC unless I can see some benefit for it.
For software we will have the Windows 10 that's currently installed, which will be wiped completely and reinstalled. Games on my games SSD will remain untouched. Of course it'll need all the usual gaming clients. And 1 browser to download GPU updates, drivers and mods and patches and stuff. Probably not chrome, as that is synced and I don't need additional baggage from my SPC. Vivaldi will probably the browser of choice.

SPC is every other shit that is not core gaming. Surfing, videos, light gaming, communication. It's gonna have my side monitor for gaming and my TV at my couch attached to it. Due to the multi TV setup and high requirements for high quality video and light gaming it is gonna need a dedicated GPU as well as a dedicated sound card for various sound in- and outputs.
It'll also need plenty of room for storage. My current PC houses 4x3TB HDDs in a RAID5 as well as a 8TB on a single HDD as my active and main storage. I would like to use this opportunity to consolidate my storage once and for all into a 4x8TB or 4x10TB setup in a RAID10 for both speed and reliability. I'm open for suggestions here, since I don't know a lot about storage. 
Software it will basically need everything. My trusty Chrome, video player, Steam, Battle.net, download manager, teamviewer, office etc. I think this will give me the opportunity to finally be able to turn off my gaming PC when it's not used, saving me a lot of noise and electricity.

For hardware I still own my trusty little Lian Li ITX case from my old mini home server. It's cool and small and already comes with an awesome 4x 3.5" HDD bay that can be powered with only 2 Molex connectors. Perfect for my new RAID. It also has room for 2 PCIE slots. So that's what I'm going to build it on unless there is something better. I could keep the 350W PSU but I'm gonna check first if I can't score a neat little digital PSU. It still has an ITX board with an i3 on it but that shit's gotta go, I want new stuff. Aside from the big storage it'll need a new SSD, preferably M.2 if the board allows it.

So I basically need all new hardware for the SPC. I am open to suggestions.

 

I will keep this thread as sort of my diary for this project that's very dear to my heart. Feel free to pop in and leave some comments or suggestions.

Last edited by vivster - on 27 January 2018

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Step 2

Hardware considerations:

SPC

Case
Lian Li PC-Q

CPU
Intel i5 8600k

GPU
ASUS  GTX 1050ti

Board
ASUS ROG Strix Z370

Storage
Samsung EVO 960 M.2
4x WD Red 8TB

RAM
G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3000MHz

PSU
BeQuiet Straight Power 11 450W

Cooler
Noctua NH-L9x65

Buy list for SPC
https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-921980

Last edited by vivster - on 06 February 2018

If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Step 3

All prepared and boxed into a tiny little cube.

Everything snuggly packed. Almost no room left in there. Also there are no extraneous cables this time :)

Here he is next to his proud big brother. Lil bro will see to it that big bro is gonna lose all of his cancer inside.

Last edited by vivster - on 09 February 2018

If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Step 4 and 5



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

I think I know the answer, but have you considered the option to buy one of the upcoming Ryzen APUs to power the SPC?

They will have enough SATA and M.2 for all your needs, plus the Vega cores could make them powerful enough for your light gaming needs.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

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JEMC said:
I think I know the answer, but have you considered the option to buy one of the upcoming Ryzen APUs to power the SPC?

They will have enough SATA and M.2 for all your needs, plus the Vega cores could make them powerful enough for your light gaming needs.

Which socket are those? I am completely out of the loop with AMD stuff. I am not opposed to APUs but I am heavily biased against them, so it needs some solid convincing. It has the gigantic upside of not needing 2 PCIE slots, which is a rare commodity on mini ITX. 

Ok, scratch that. Apparently mini ITX with 2x PCIE doesn't even exist. That complicates things. I I will have to go either mATX or internal GPU. Or scratch the sound card. How "upcoming" are these APUs? Because I want to start building right now.

Ka-pi96 said:
Why not just toss it in the bin and get a new gaming PC? Start fresh and all that.

That defeats the purpose. Splitting gaming from everything else has more benefits than just eliminating interfering components. And even if, there is no hardware right now that would be a significant enough upgrade to warrant a new build.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

vivster said:
JEMC said:
I think I know the answer, but have you considered the option to buy one of the upcoming Ryzen APUs to power the SPC?

They will have enough SATA and M.2 for all your needs, plus the Vega cores could make them powerful enough for your light gaming needs.

Which socket are those? I am completely out of the loop with AMD stuff. I am not opposed to APUs but I am heavily biased against them, so it needs some solid convincing. It has the gigantic upside of not needing 2 PCIE slots, which is a rare commodity on mini ITX. 

Ok, scratch that. Apparently mini ITX with 2x PCIE doesn't even exist. That complicates things. I I will have to go either mATX or internal GPU. Or scratch the sound card. How "upcoming" are these APUs? Because I want to start building right now.

They'll be AM4, so you'll be able to use either existing mobos or the ones that will launch along them. And they should launch on Feb 12th.

https://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/CES-2018-AMD-Ryzen-Desktop-CPU-Ryzen-Graphics-Coming-Feb-12

Only two will be available at launch, and the 2400G is the best one:

11 Vega CUs are about 11x64 = 704 shaders, so it could be probably slower than an RX 550 (it will have more shaders based on Vega instead of Polaris, but it won't have GDDR5)



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

JEMC said:
vivster said:

Which socket are those? I am completely out of the loop with AMD stuff. I am not opposed to APUs but I am heavily biased against them, so it needs some solid convincing. It has the gigantic upside of not needing 2 PCIE slots, which is a rare commodity on mini ITX. 

Ok, scratch that. Apparently mini ITX with 2x PCIE doesn't even exist. That complicates things. I I will have to go either mATX or internal GPU. Or scratch the sound card. How "upcoming" are these APUs? Because I want to start building right now.

They'll be AM4, so you'll be able to use either existing mobos or the ones that will launch along them. And they should launch on Feb 12th.

https://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/CES-2018-AMD-Ryzen-Desktop-CPU-Ryzen-Graphics-Coming-Feb-12

Only two will be available at launch, and the 2400G is the best one:

11 Vega CUs are about 11x64 = 704 shaders, so it could be probably slower than an RX 550 (it will have more shaders based on Vega instead of Polaris, but it won't have GDDR5)

That could be fine. Gonna see how far I will progress. In the coming weeks. To see benches first would be cool since I don't trust AMD's CPUs just yet. Currently basically everything is up in the air, even my case. So I could still go for some mATX build.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Nice, are you going to use a KVM to switch between systems, or are you going to go the software route.

https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MX400-BEHRINGER-MICROMIX/dp/B000KGYAYQ
I've been meaning to get something like this for my setup, perhaps you may find a use for one too.

You could go with a sound card, use the inbuilt audio or use a DAC and AMP (or a DAC / AMP).
The latter two solutions won't take up any PCIe slots.
DAC / AMP:
https://www.schiit.com/products/fulla-2

As for APU vs Intel + dedicated GPU:
We will have to wait till we see the benchmarks, but the 2400G and 2200G look to be quite powerful.
And cheap too.
The Zen cores have performed very well for me so far, and a 4 core CPU with SMT should be able to destroy anything you will be doing with it (hopefully, and if not, you still have GPC).

What model case do you have?
It may limit the coolers you can fit in the PC.
Unless you want to stick with the Wrath Stealth that comes with the 2400G and 2200G.



caffeinade said:
Nice, are you going to use a KVM to switch between systems, or are you going to go the software route.

https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MX400-BEHRINGER-MICROMIX/dp/B000KGYAYQ
I've been meaning to get something like this for my setup, perhaps you may find a use for one too.

You could go with a sound card, use the inbuilt audio or use a DAC and AMP (or a DAC / AMP).
The latter two solutions won't take up any PCIe slots.
DAC / AMP:
https://www.schiit.com/products/fulla-2

As for APU vs Intel + dedicated GPU:
We will have to wait till we see the benchmarks, but the 2400G and 2200G look to be quite powerful.
And cheap too.
The Zen cores have performed very well for me so far, and a 4 core CPU with SMT should be able to destroy anything you will be doing with it (hopefully, and if not, you still have GPC).

What model case do you have?
It may limit the coolers you can fit in the PC.
Unless you want to stick with the Wrath Stealth that comes with the 2400G and 2200G.

I already have a nice Noctua cooler with a low profile. It's more than enough to cool whatever I put in there. It's not like there will ever be any load on it. I probably exaggerated when I said "light gaming". I mostly mean Hearthstone and visual novels with that^^

I don't think I will need any switching. Each PC will get its dedicated keyboard, mouse and monitor. An external audio mixer sounds like a good idea though. Probably the best solution. The reason why I need all the inputs is that I'm gonna plugin my consoles as well as my GPC and boards usually only come with one input that I already need for my mic.

It's not easy to decide all this stuff when there are so many possible solutions. Curse PC and its too many options.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.