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 16th August 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- Cooler Master MWE 850 Gold V2 Modular 850W Power Supply
- Intel i9 9900KF CPU
Cooler Master Liquid Lite 120 Liquid Cooling System- CORSAIR H100 RGB Liquid CPU Cooler – 240mm AIO Liquid Cooling System
MSI GeForce RTX 2080Ti GFX Card- ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 GFX Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card- XT-XINTE PCIe 3Ports 1394A Firewire Expansion Card (2 x 6Pin And 1 x 4Pin)
- 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- 5x Corsair SP120 RGB Elite 120mm Fans
- Corsair iCUE Lighting Node Core
- 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
- 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- Microsoft Xbox Series Wireless Headset
- 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…
UPDATES
June 2023
Bit the bullet and swapped out my 2080Ti for a 4070 so I could take advantage of DLSS3.0.
August 2024:
The Cooler Master AIO liquid cooler pump bearing were failing (making a lot of noise) so replaced it with a Corsair unit. The Cooler Master only had a 120mm radiator whereas the Corsair has one double that sizer. Much less fan noise now, even when CPU under heavy load. For reference the Cooler Master AIO lasted me for 5 years of pretty heavy use so I’ve no complaints. Hope the Corsair lasts just as long!
Took the opportunity to replace all the Antec Prizm fans with Corsairs so I could have a unified ARGB system all linked up to an iCUE Lighting Node. I control them (and all my other RGB) with SignalRGB so I don’t need to have all the Asus/Razer/Corsair lighting software loaded up on my PC and slowing it down.
Animated GIF of my PC’s RGB
Ditched the Sound Blaster ZxR card as it was taking up a slot that I needed to install a Firewire card. Wasn’t utilising the features it offered and when I switched to my motherboards on-board sound I couldn’t tell the difference anyway!
Ditched the 2 spinning hard drives too. Wasn’t really using them any more. They had an annoying propensity to spin up from time to time which annoyed me. May get some 2.5″ bay adapters and stick in a few more SSD’s at some point if I run short of space but nowhere near that point right now.