Paul, I did use your guides. I am old guy who just once wanted to say I built it. It was not easy with tremors and poor eyesight. You would think what you do is simply about media and engineering, but you improved my life. Thank you and best of luck.
@@MySqueezingArm I watched quite a few general guides starting with Paul's 1-3; and a few specific guides for my mobo & case. I would not have built without RU-vid.
@@mahakleung6992 I'm proud of you dude! Paul's Hardware was definitely what helped me build my first computer a while back. I'm glad to see he's still helping out people get into the hobby. Have a great day!
For the PC guide, it would probably be helpful to give it a year in the title "PC Building Guide 2023" for instance. That way people know it is up to date (and just update it/release new version once a year.)
Congrats Paul! You're definitely the best media outlet in my eyes.. But be careful, you may have become a target for other tech youtubers who don't like their position of primacy being challenged lol.. Especially since you're sponsored AND also receiving awards from tech hardware companies, you clearly can't be trusted to remain independent and neutral lol.
Their gpus are great, but their precision software can cause certain gpus to freeze on the firmware update, causing the fans to run forever at 100% and requiring an rma.
Doubling down or obfuscating a product issue is a redder flag than having a production issue. Response to an issue is key. Sometimes something systemic happens whether or not the company contributed to it. Are they owning it? Are they providing a solution? Are they doing right by the customers? If they're doing bad stuff, I put them at the bottom of the priority list. Doing nothing that gets you put on bottom slowly brings you up as other companies SNAFU themselves over time. I remember eras where every single storage manufacturer was on the "Do Not Buy" list at different times. Time is a circle, given enough of it.
Some companies have failed customers too many times consistently though, with zero interest in apologizing/improving/etc. Like Gigatrash. Can't ever count on one brand to be perfectly consistently good (especially now that EVGA is dead :( ), but some are consistently bad. It is sad that Asus has been on a downward trend culminating in the recent fiascos. They were pretty solid for a while there. You pretty much have to re-evaluate and familiarise yourself every time you need something with the current least crap brand for the part you need.
@@BeardedFrog That last statement... BAM. It's why I tend to run out a lot of hardware until it's useful end. Every time I have to dip in I end up researching a part for two days. Admittedly my last video card is a Gigabyte and it hasn't let me down in any way. My last two motherboards are old Z170 and Z270 boards from Gigabyte. Suppose I'm lucky. But EVGA video cards aside I feel lucky these days if I buy anything that works for over a year.
Congratulations on the Thermaltake award. It's very nice looking, Paul, and you and Joe definitely deserve it. I can't wait for you to get back to making videos in the garage. I miss watching your home videos that weren't 100% tech related, or some that were not tech related at all.
I learned how to build PCs watching Paul's videos. They really are the best guides on RU-vid IMHO. After I built one, I built one for my son. Then the wife. Then a HTPC. And then I sat still for a while, wondering what I could do to justify builting another one... And then it hit me: I'll build *and sell* a PC. And then another. And less than a year after starting, I'm at almost 100 built/sold, and have people messaging all day to do builds. Can't thank Paul enough for pointing me down this road of addiction.🤣
1:25 I'd add one bit of advice: go on a product-by-specific-product basis, when choosing components. Look for those in depth reviews and overall quality / value for the consumer. Brand "A" might drop the ball hard in one area, but hit a home run in another. At the end of the day, as a consumer we gottah put the effort in to ensuring we get / support good products that benefit us.
I keep trying to tell people the same thing. Even though a company may have even made a bad product, and perhaps even handled the way they dealt with those issues really badly, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should never trust them, because most if not all of these big brands have done some really bad things, and you shouldn't let that stop you from getting the best product for your needs at a future date... though it IS a good reason to avoid them UNLESS they offer clearly the BEST option for you at some point in the future. It's mostly only smaller companies which might have something close to a spotless record and unusually good customer service, but they will often usually still at least have some very over-priced products, even if everything they make is good quality, or recalled or fixed promptly and properly if/when there ever is a problem.
To the question about separating your OS & Games between drives: While it won't be very noticeable with pcie4 vs pcie5, I would highly suggest you put both games & your OS on your fastest drive, then separate them via partition. Reason being that games store their save games on your local user data (AKA wherever the OS is). Most store in the app data folder, while a few will use documents/saved games/my games. So if the comparison is a little more extreme, like an older SATA based SSD combined with a pcie4 or 5 drive, your loading time for games can be impaired comparatively if the OS is on the slower drive. Some games worse than others, (some store cache there too). While you can natively in windows re-route your documents and some save locations to the other drive, you can't with app data which is where most games save to. There are some ways around that, but its dirty/annoying (ie symbolic links). Additionally, your GPU drivers will store your cache in app data as well. Further slowing you down, and making a noticeable difference comparatively. TLDR: Games, and GPU drivers will store stuff where your OS is installed, so it's best to keep them both on your fastest drives (separated by a partition preferably).
It feels like you just moved in to the office! Hope everything out great back at home, Paul. Looking forward to that and the build series on the updated home space. Cheers mate!
When I researched and built my first PC back in 2011, I was following your videos on Newegg. So you are my go to guy. Have been since way back then. Thanks and good luck with the move.
G'day Paul & Joe, Q2: Totally agree with instead of being lazy find a new home for your old PC components when you upgrade, Q3: I also have my OS on a seperate drive to my Games Library, I generally do a fresh Windows install once a year & it makes it so much easier to just relink the Steam & GOG Libraries, Either way Epic is a 💩, but what you can do so you don't need to download the whole game again is rename the Library to Old, Start the dl of each game & stop it after about 50-100mb to create the Game Folder then exit Epic you can copy the rest of the Game Files from the old into the new library & when you go back to Epic dls it will update the folders instead of continuing the dl.
I now use PNY video cards exclusively. I've never heard of any issues from them and have been extremely happy with the 2 cards I've bought from them. Motherboards, I go with ASRock or MSI and have not had any real problems. Especially with the higher end ASRock boards, they are very underrated.
Asrock used to be meh for boards. Really hit and miss. I've built 2 new rigs with Asrock boards and they work fine. One Asrock board replaced a DOA gigabyte board. Gigabyte and Asus used to be the good ol standby 5+ years ago, but now they are the hit and miss brands.
Thank you, Paul, for this mail time. Ozzy's coffee is from Project Farm. I didn't realize that you (Paul) liked coffee as well. I can send you some as well. Just ask Joe. I sent him some for his first mail time. And he said he likes it. I know I promised beer, don't judge. I'll get it there.
Question: Why don't higher spec RAM modules support multiple XMP profiles? If a higher spec module is capable of running advertised speeds, then theoretically it should be able to run at speeds equivalent to lower specs modules. For examples; I have 4 GSKILL 6000 CL36 modules, why isn't there an XMP profile for those sticks that would match GSKILL 5600 CL28 memory XMP profile?
Hey Paul, We got one of those Awards for the work we do in the UK media, it is actually Crystal and makes a great weapon for home security if guns aren't your thing! Congrats on the award and hope you never need to use it.
Out of nowhere: Received an award Paul: "yeah yeah you suck Linus, Jay, Kyle and all of the Steves!" lol it has that energy when you got the highest score among your friends in a test!
I am doing nvme's in raid 0 and pretty much beat the speeds of the new 5.0 drives . Pcie 4.0 drives are much cheaper now and don't have the heat issues so I will stick with them for the time being . Everything is so fast nowadays that even a 3 year old build kicks socks compared to the older machines years ago . Software companies like pc mechanic and such were really raking in the cash years ago and now hardly anything will slow a system down . I love it !!
MSI. I had bought a motherboard from Microcenter. Returned it it was DOA. GOt a new one and DOA so I submit an RMA. MSI turns it down. Post on social media and got RMA number. I had thrown out the MSI Box to RMA. Since I purchased a Gigabyte box I used that to ship the MSI board. Got it back and said it worked. Gave the part to a relative for a build and it was DOA. I had to buy another one to replace. NVIDIA - at one point sold bad GPU with faulty capacitors. 7000GT series If I remember right. MSI - Has terrible RMA and Void warranty easy on upgrading laptops. Since they put void stickers on the last screw on the bottom. TP-Link - Access Points worn out within under a year. Great with their KASA. I only buy Asrock, Gigabyte, Asus (network), Intel, Acer, AMD, Netgear so far the list can change.
I used to buy EVGA (and recently bought a Sapphire) video cards due to having a shred of faith that they could honor a warranty without inflicting massive psychic damage
@@BeardedFrog Thier PSU's have seriously gone on a downward spiral in quality lately. Their Supernova series of PSU's (GA, P2 and G2) where plagued by a whole host of issues (DOA, unexpected shutdowns, overheating ect). In fact they even had to recall a whole bunch of them at one point, due to a major manufacturing defect (insufficient insulation on thier thermal pads).
I agree with "@SpaceMyName who said, "Been following your videos since the Newegg days, you've earned the best media award! " Kudos to you guys. There is so much scam and sham out there, sometimes it's hard to detect. But, you and your team are the real deal, in my humble opinion. Since I discovered you, Paul, back in the days you were with newegg, I've built at least 10 PCs. All of those builds have been completed using your guides and with info from your online commentaries. You and your team are an asset to the PC community. Thank you for your professional and well presented info for us PC gamers. Best wishes to you guys.
The only parts I have that I haven't reused in some way are an FX-8350 and the motherboard and RAM I had paired with it, I plan on framing it all as it composes the first PC I built myself. The GPU, power supply, storage and case were all donated to my friends and siblings to use in their own builds.
Don’t read to much into read/write speeds. That max read/write speed that’s advertised is between 2 SSD with the same read/write speed. Random IOPs is a better way to measure. That will help tell you how fast it retrieves random data when asked. That’s how we at my company determine what SSD we use/suggest for our customers. I say this for OS performance and random programs/software. Strictly gaming, get what you can afford and/or want!
Well deserved award Paul & team, congrats - check that it's not second hand/used, like the HD I won in a TT comp, that they sent me lol, i kid you not, they then passed the buck to the manufacturer of the HDD when I emailed them about it, the manufacturer not only sent me a new HD but upgraded it considerably too, Well done to Seagate. I promptly sold the HDD and bought a water block for my EVGA 1080Ti SC2, at the time I believe it was one of the last (new) water blocks left available world wide, I had to mod the block as it was made for the Titan GPU and I believe I own one of the only (maybe the only one) water cooled EVGA 1080 Ti SC2's in the world.......... 'excellent!'
When I built my first computer back in the late 90's, I went with a couple of Western Digital 13.6 GB HDD's. One died within the warranty period, and when I called them to get it replaced, they told me it only had a 1 year warranty, despite the paper warranty in the package saying 2 years. Being my senior year in high school, I wasn't about to hire a lawyer to fight them, so I swore I would never by WD drives ever again. It took a while... but eventually I started buying their drives again. Now I have several WD/HGST drives.
As always... You're the best. I always look forward to your posts. I wish you the best on your move. Hope it all works out better than you ever imagined.
The only brands that I would recommend to other people and fully stand behind would be Arctic and Fractal Design. Those two companies have given me the best experience anytime I've used their products or contacted them for help. The likes of msi/asus/powercolor/amd/nvidia etc etc have all been utter utter garbage. Once they have your money.. any support/help etc goes out the window.
@@anthonylong5870 Cases and fans are components of a computer. And even if I agreed that they do not fall under the component category.. it just bolsters my point even more that I couldn't even name a brand under that category 😂
Couldn't agree more. So much so that with my latest build I opted for a Fractual Design Meshify 2 ATX case and a Artic Freezer 34 Duo eSports CPU cooler. I honestly can't fault either of them. Also, Noctua, Sabrent and Corsair are decent companies that offer good support and always seem to produce good quality products.
@@fafski1199 Another brand to consider for a case is Phanteks. They make outstanding cases and cost a lot less than fractal (sometimes) the P300 and P400 are hard to beat for the money
Can you give your current take on DDR5, now that it has had some time to mature, and for prices to come down? Some suggestions for best bang for the buck speed/latency, versus ideal speeds and latencies for AMD or Intel platforms, respectively. Now that the stuff is actually reasonable, I’m not sure if the original mantras of speed are still true, or if there should be higher numbers in our sights. Thanks!
GN works with a refurbisher / recycler in N.C. that tries to reuse all parts to help the needy before turning them into actual e-waste. Also, Patrick Stone teaches high school kids electronics. Both are avenues to help reduce e-waste. There are GN video's on these people.
Goodbye office! Can't wait for the studio vlogs :) Also... Paul! (And Joe and Kyle): my friend finally opened his own brewery in rancho Cucamonga. If you're ever in the area (especially since Top Golf is near it), look up Mars Brewing! You'll love their brews. I guess not really a question but more of a comment. My friend is also a fan of yours if that helps lol
I have a Fractal Meshify C.. white.. nice case. It has a screen on top held to the frame by magnets. that cracked.. the cat jumping on it/the small fan I keep on it to blow cool air over my gamer's belly w/e... I wrote them and asked for a new one if it wasn't stupid expensive. Got a prompt response saying they weren't set up to sell me one but they'd GIVE me one if I paid the priority mail shipping. I did and they did. Fractal doesn't suck.
Honestly the way Fractal handled the Torrent issue made me love them more. I have the Focus G and it's a good cheap case. Might get the North for my next build.
Used server grade towers are a good investment. Im using stuff that ebays for 20% of it's original cost. They last longer because of their superior longevity. I upreade them to top spec and still use them daily. A 24 core dual cpu X58 platform can still game and 64 gigs of ram is dirt cheap. Add a GTX 1080 and game.
Craigslist free is a good place for E-Waste. A lot of folks who would be happy to have something. Growing up my grandparents (grandfather retired cop) got into computers, grandfather and grandmother where always on them. I'm 32 I have memories dating back like 28 years where both grandparents just on computers all day. Even as an adult they stayed on them 24/7. When I was 12 my grandfather built me a desktop, grandmother has past since, but I don't think they really spent anything on their computers. It was all just old stuff they where happy to have. I mean seriously every memory I have of my grandparents at their home was either them on their computers, or sleeping.
I have gone the opposite direction with my pc. I use my fast ssd for my OS, to ensure it is as fast and responsive as possible, while my game library, games which can take up a lot of space, are stored on an affordable hdd
Even on modern games, it doesn't seem like SSD speeds are a significant bottleneck yet. Not until direct storage is really implemented will those big sequential speeds really matter. I didn't notice much or any difference when I recently moved my game library from a 512GB NVME to a 1TB SATA SSD.
When it comes to shitty brands, having spent many years in the automobile manufacturing industry, it also comes down to who is currently employed that's making those parts, and who is employed in quality control. So what is _that_ individual person producing. Then if their manager or quality control finds badly produced parts.
Hope the move goes well! And if you had to choose one part of a PC to become the only thing you talk about, and only one, which would you choose? Or which fascinates you the most?
To answer the question posted in the video-title: I can only think of one: Noctua. I used to think logitech was great, until i lost the dongle for my G915 and had to order a new dongle.. Except you can't. They do not sell replacement parts, and they do not supply their vendors with them either.
EVGA was a great brand. One brand I don’t think I’ll buy much anymore is gigabyte. Which is sad because they used to be a go to. A friend of mine bought a 7900xtx from gigabyte a few months back. For a while it worked great but he started getting artifacts. He opened up an rma and sent the card in. From what he said they sent him a scratched up refurbished or used card. If you knew the person I’m talking about, he’s a pretty good pc tech and is very meticulous about his build. He tested the replacement card, which had more issues than his original card. He ended up going to microcenter and bought another 7900xtx from a competing brand since he was tired of dealing with gigabyte. The new card works great. He contacted gigabyte asking for a refund. He messaged me today, gigabyte just mailed out another card. Props for that I suppose but he’s been without a $1000 dollar card for going on a month or more. I used to buy gigabyte stuff quite a bit but after seeing how they did in that case I think I’ll be buying from their competitors.
I'm on the fence with Gigabyte. My GTX 970 was an awesome card, overclocked like hell and was always cool and quiet. My RTX 2080Ti on the other hand, was a serious POS and I ended up getting a refund and replaced it with an MSI unit. Like another commenter said, sometimes companies just shit the bed on certain products but absolutely excel with others. I guess you just have to keep watching reviews and do your due diligence before purchasing.
@@ChipsNeeson for me when I would build systems, gigabyte was a go to for motherboards for systems for myself and others. Even their low end stuff was great. But just seeing the way they treated my friend with a 1000 dollar 7900xtx, not enthusiastic on how they handled his situation.
You always have great content Paul. Although I normally agree with you, I also think we as consumers should hold companies accountable for the quality of their products especially when safety is concerned.
Jay recently described himself as "the Wallmart greeter if tech youtubers" and GN Steve as the warehouse manager or something like that. I would agree Paul is definitely the "gateway drug" in that analogy
@@BeardedFrog Ah! So you are one of the ones who actually notices the thumbnails!!! I never pay enough attension to notice it, and I honestly couldn't care less what they are or say... First of - what's too much? Can you give an example or two, maybe from Jay? Second - is the thumbnail a significant factor when you choose to watch a video or not? ... I always have to watch 30-40 seconds to find out if I'm bothered to watch it...
I've had nothing but issues from ASUS. I'm done with them. ASUS mobo had 1 sata controller die (dead sata ports) after a year of raid 10. ASUS 980ti sli couldn't oc passed 100mhz When I'm buying top of the line, I expect no quality issues. But had only issues. It's fully custom water cooled by me and I maintain it. I know about thermal pads and thickness. So it's not that. Just bad hardware. 1 gpu is dead now. The 4790k was hitting 100c stock on water... I had to delid it and apply my own thermal paste to the die and got 1ghz oc, it's stable under 70c. Was my first and onliest dream pc. Still using it...
Hey Paul! Thanks for the awesome content, hope the move goes smooth. I’m really wanting to incorporate an ASUS Strix RTX4090 into my new gaming build, but I’m so apprehensive in regards to the whole melting cable issue! 1.) Is this still even an issue? 2.) Has the new 12VHPWR cable connection standard fixed the melting issues? Should I simply get a 4080 instead? 🤷♂️ Help! Keep up the great work guys 👌
Regarding e-waste. As long as the hardware is working it can be used for something. If it’s too old for modern programs then most likely it’s starting to become retro. For example Pentium 4 is obsolete but is perfectly useful for a retro build.
PSA: Your local Best Buy should take in e-waste for no cost! They’ll take pretty much anything electronic except for small appliances or anything that has been food-contaminated. They should also take flat screen TVs up to 50” 🤙🏽
Gonna miss the office, but kinda miss the garage also. I guess I'm torn, one might say. I'm sure the quality will continue to maintain it's excellent status, hinging on exquisite. Here's to moving on! Cheers!
Well deserved award! Why is Paul moving out the office? Feels like wasn't that long ago he uploaded videos of when they first moved into the office and kitted it out
Any suggestions on water cooled (AIO) GPU’s? My ITX case limits me to ~2-2.5 slots width, and I figure that style would let me get into a higher gpu tier. Pairing with a 13600k, and currently use a 1440p ultrawide monitor (may upgrade to 4K down the road). Thanks!
I have had great experiences with Asus -XFX- Corsair and AMD . I have a love hate relationship with Seagate as their mechanical drives have had issues and their Nvme's have been really solid . Corsair and XFX have given me the best RMA experiences and TeamGroup probably the worst . Taking a month to return defective ram is ridiculous in my opinion . You basically have to buy more ram if you want to use the machine . Corsair had me destroy the defective Ram sticks and email the picture of it and had new sticks out in a few days time . I will remember these experiences anytime I make a purchase in the future and I hope someone from Teamgroup reads the survey about my experience .
Outside of everything that apple does the LGA socket is the biggest anti consumer move in recent times. The motherboard pins are so vulnerable and easy to break even if you do install everything correctly and the motherboard manufactures take great pleasure in refusing warranty on these items.
I don't typically enjoy these as much as your other content, but hearing you thank ThermalTake for giving you an award and all the other media outlets for "sucking enough" for you to earn it made this a great "laugh out loud" moment. Keep up the great work! 😀
While I am happy that you are moving on with a new chapter in your life, I am sad that you were not able to keep the office. As someone who has had to combine a lot of my personal life with my work, I know the importance of keeping things separate. However, if this is what you feel that you need to do to keep your sanity, then I am all for it. Good luck with the move, I look forward to seeing the videos, and I wish you continued success with all of your endeavors. Also, hello Joe, you are awesome
I have a couple of old systems that don't handle modern games too well but both run great as retro arcade systems. One is a core 2 duo system with a Radeon HD 5850 gpu and the other is an i-7 920 with 12gb ddr3 ram in triple channel with a GTX 760. Great for running mame games and console games from the early 2000s and earlier.
I think im the only person i know irl thats played the very first final fantasy on the NES. Paul is only like the 4th or 5th other person that i know that played the original too. Cool thing to know. Final fantasy 3 on the SNES was always fantastic. 1st game with the moogles. Of course FF7 on ps1 i think is most people's favorite, but FF3 on SNES and FF10 on ps2 were my absolute favorites
Hey Paul! Build my computer using your guide 18 months ago. Thanks for your help! I'm looking to upgrade my GPU and I just don't know what the difference between cards from Gigabite or Sapphire other than price. What should I look for when buying? Boost clock, memory, all of the above? Thanks for your help.
