PC build for Unreal/Blender
 

Budget is $6k-ish, requirements are Unreal/Blender/gaming, with two screens.

Pricing and links: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...7iM/edit#gid=0

Went cheaper on the second screen to upgrade the GPU. Going to do a walk around PB Tech Manukau to look at cases and screens, peripherals. But this is the general ballpark.

Don't want to wait for 4 months for new Video cards or a bit longer for the next CPUs??
DDR5 ram??

Nice kit tho for sure..

don't you already have a 2080 super that you bought a year ago or something?

wait for the next gen 4080

but go for the rest.

edit: without checking ensure you go IPS for monitor

Why.
At a desktop PC viewing angle generally isn't an issue.
Sure on paper IPS can have slightly better colour reproduction and brightness, but in practise the horrible backlighting of IPS can ruin that and cause horrible black consistency and backlight bleed in the dark.
VA on the other hand can be (on paper) slightly more dull - but generally more consistent and pleasing as long as you have a fixed viewpoint.

Moral of the story is - research your specific models and look at the rtings-esque stats for it - because both IPS and VA can have horrible drawbacks if you get a bad model. There is no general rule that one is better than the other. It's model specific and personal preference/use case specific.

I spec'd out a couple of systems with DDR4, but it's out of budget.

There's always some new tech around the corner you can wait for, and you know how it is when people pull the trigger on a purchase like this, they want it built yesterday.

It's not for me. But yes, and it is running very well. Need to upgrade cooling on the CPU tho, might be tempted by something while at the PBTech showroom today.

Nice system.

So this is what we've ended up with:


Not even $1k over budget! It will be about a week or so before we can actually pick up the parts to build it.

/thread hijack

I recently brought an LG C2 42" OLED TV as my main monitor and it is BEST fucken thing I've brought in a long time.
A PPI roughly the same as a 27" at 1440P for a nice crisp picture, full gaming specific options for consoles (or PC) 120hz and then you add true HDR.
Fucken mint.
All games just look awesome on it.

that's an insane rig, gg

fair comment, i did wonder if someone would slap me with the VA panel argument :D

I wasn't so much arguing than showing interest in your reasoning.
Just personal pref?

Hey as I hinted, those monitors have crap contrast ratio and black uniformity.

Make sure you check them in the dark once you get them to see if the backlight bleed is tolerable - if not you can return for a replacement.

Also note with the lower vertical viewing angle score, the backlight bleed severity will be sensitive to how high the monitor is compared to your head.
The monitor does not have a vertical angle adjust to compensate.

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/lg/27gp850-b

What are the colours like on those panels? I have the former model, the colour and contrast is fantastic.

Thanks for the advice, we'll definitely check it out.

Is there anything in particular you like?

According to those rtings tests the colour reproduction is quite decent for that price range.

I tend to watch media/game in the dark so the contrast and black levels are a bugbear for me.
It seems like most other panels in that same tier suffer similar issues - although that particular one is low even compared to them.
The only other VA panel I could find in the same range (MSI I think) also had the issue, which is unusual for a VA. I did not look very hard though.

Note; click on the black uniformity image for full screen view so you can see what I'm talking about.
It's particularly visible when you get non-widescreen content on a widescreen, because the left/right pad black bars are not uniform black and it's quite noticeable.
https://i.rtings.com/assets/products...mity-large.jpg

One other UTTERLY BONEHEADED thing that LG ultrawide monitors do (at least mine) is that if you set actual res to a non-ultrawide one - say you want to play a 1080p game at 1080p actual res, then the monitor will understandably pad the left and right with bars to make it fit.
The RETARDED thing is that it pads them with a rather bright GREY - NOT black!
This is unfixable - the only workaround is to use software scaling and keep res at monitors max res.

The MSI's seem to have better black levels (for an IPS)
However you take a hit on colour accuracy.
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/revie...x-mag274qrf-qd
https://i.rtings.com/assets/products...mity-large.jpg

Samsung Odyssey has great black levels. But pricey. (VA panel)
Also great colours.
(note this is the 32" as there was no review for the 27")
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/revie...ey-g7-lc32g75t

Without local dimming turned off - basically perfect
https://i.rtings.com/assets/products...mity-large.jpg

With local dimming turned on
https://i.rtings.com/assets/products...ming-large.jpg

Put those side by side with the black image for the monitors you had and you'll see the difference.

Obviously an excellent rig, but I don't think I would have gone NVMe for the higher capacity data drive. Sata SSD is extremely fast at a great price point these days.

Yeah, maybe you're right on that. The Intel drive was still a good price tho.

That's awful.

When doing a backbleed test on my screen, there are obvious places where it exists, during the test. But trying to perceive that during normal use is impossible, I have to get out of my chair to start to see where viewing angle limits are.

These are mostly going to be used from their sweet spot, I'm basically maxing out colour for the price.

4K with per-pixel dimming is the dream upgrade. We looked at 4k, but it blew the budget entirely.

On the topic of software scaling for ultrawide, Flawless Widescreen works exceptionally well with my 34". I'm amazed at how well it works.

Yeah.
It's most obvious when watching 16:9 content or other lower width content on an ultrawide in dim lighting, where it shows up in the black padding (even with perfect viewing angle).
You learn to ignore it but it's still an annoyance.

Also dark games etc, like Alien Isolation type games.

That Samsung Odyssey is only $200 more than the one you have listed.