As much as I love my retro computer systems I still enjoying tinkering with PC’s as well. I did try to make do with a pretty decent gaming laptop for a couple of years but it aged quickly and I couldn’t expand it so decided to build myself a new desktop PC. As well as being able to do the normal office-type stuff, photo and video editing etc., I really wanted one that would be capable of playing the new games that support ray tracing.
Here’s a rundown of my system, which I’ll keep updated whenever I change something: (last updated 3rd April 2024).
- In-Win 101 Mid Tower High Air Flow Gaming Case
- Asus Prime Z370-P II Motherboard
- Cooler Master Masterwatt 750W Bronze Modular Power Supply
- Intel i9 9900KF CPU
- Cooler Master Liquid Lite 120 Liquid Cooling System
- ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 GFX Card
- 2x BEYIMEI PCIE 5 Port USB 3.0 Card
- 2x Samsung 970 EVO 2TB M.2 SSD’s
- 2x Samsung 870 QVO 8TB SSD’s
- 2x Seagate IronWolf 10TB HD’s (Striped)
- 32GB (4x 8GB) G-Skill Trident-Z DDR4 4000Mhz RAM
- 5x Antec Prizm ARGB 120mm Fans
- 2x Antec Prizm ARGB LED lighting strips
- UGREEN Nano USB Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter
- BenQ EW3270U 32″ Inch 4K HDR Computer Monitor
- BenQ ScreenBar Halo LED Monitor Light
- Invision Gas Powered Monitor Arm
- Tobii Eye Tracker 5
- Pioneer BDR-XD07TB Blu-Ray Writer
- HP DS8A3L Lightscribe CD/DVD Writer
- Kadlun CD/DVD Writer
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card
- Edifier R1280DB Active Bookshelf Studio Bluetooth Speakers
- ASUS ROG Strix Flare II Animate Mechanical Keyboard
- Razer Basilisk Ultimate RGB Chroma Mouse
- Razer Goliathus Extended RGB Chroma Mouse Mat
- Edifier R1280DB Active Bookshelf Studio Speakers
- Razer Kraken Ultimate RGB Chroma Headphones
- Razer Base Station RGB Chroma Headset Stand
- Razer Tartarus V2
- Elgato Stream Deck MK.2
- Epson ET-2710 Printer Scanner
- Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner
- Dymo LabelWriter Duo Printer
- Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS Joystick and TWCS Throttle
- Xbox Elite 2 Controller
- Logitech G29 Driving Force Racing Wheel, Pedals & Gear Stick
- Logitech Brio Ultra 4K Webcam
- Oculus Rift S VR Headset
- Zoom H2n Microphone/PCM Recorder
- Netgear Nighthawk RAX200 Router
- Numerous TRENDnet 5-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switches
- CyberPower 1300VA UPS
NAS
- Synology DS220+ NAS
- 2x Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB HDD’s
- Crucial 8GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
- APC Back-UPS 700VA
- Western Digital 8TB Elements External USB3.0 Hard Drive
3D Printing Machines
- Bambu Labs P1s + AMS
- Bambu Labs P1P + AMS + P1S Conversion
I have to say I’m really happy with this system and hope it will give me a good few years of top-end gaming. It boots in seconds and most benchmarks put it in the top 1 or 2% of PC’s around at the moment. Despite this it is also very quiet, even though it sits on my desk right next to me.
As I would have hoped given the specs it certainly plays every game out there with all settings on ultra with stupidly high frame-rates. It’s early days with ray-tracing though as only a handful of games support this feature at the moment.
One of the things I find somewhat ironic (and slightly saddening if I’m honest) is how good my PC is at emulating other systems. Back in the day I used to emulate both the Apple Mac (using ShapeShifter) and PC (using PCTask) on my Amiga 4000. It was an amazing feat at the time which never failed to impress, even if Windows 3.1 was pretty sluggish. PC’s at the time simply could not compete with this.
However, the tables have truly turned now. Now my PC can not only emulate the Amiga, but can actually become a far more powerful Amiga than I could ever have dreamed of back in the day. It can also emulate the Apple Mac, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo and Sega consoles and much more. It can run Virtual Machines running older versions of Windows, or completely different operating systems like Linux all without breaking a sweat. The sad thing is that the Amiga was well ahead of the PC when it launched… who knows how powerful it might have become today if Commodore hadn’t made such a mess of things.
It’s not perfect though and I do have a few niggles with it. For one, I wish I’d picked a case with a couple of 5.25″ drive bays so I could mount optical drives inside it. It seems drive bays are becoming a thing of the past now though as very few cases still include them. So instead I’ve got a couple of USB 3 external drives sat on top of the case to allow me burn discs, create lightscribe labels and play my original disc copies of Diablo and Starcraft etc.
My other niggle is closely related to this. Even though my PC has 8 USB ports (6 on the back, 2 on top) that’s nowhere near enough. I tried running with a 7 port USB hub perched on top of the case for a while but got fed up of the mess of wires that entailed. I’ve since added two 5 port PCIE expansion cards giving me an additional 10 USB ports on my PC. Combined with the 3 ports on the Razer Base Station and the single Port on the back of my I now have a grand total of 22 which I feel is just about enough for the time being…
As any PC enthusiast will know – your build is never complete. That ‘must-have’ upgrade is always just around the corner calling to you like a siren of the sea. But for now I am content…