Any PC Builders Out There?

I did check before making the switch, and took note that Google recommended using no more than 5 points, as it could have negative effects. That was definitely a reason I decided to run some speed tests with 3, 4, and then 5 points. The side of house opposite of garage trended downward (just very slightly) in speeds as each point was added, while the middle of house and garage side/garage itself drastically increased. And although 1-2 rooms slightly went down with the addition of extra points, the end results for those rooms were still much better than the original setup, so I felt it justified bettering the rest of the house/garage to run the 5th.

I'll definitely keep ping/packet loss in mind though and see if we run into any issues. Hopefully, once the house/garage is wired for ethernet in every other wall, I can really fine tune our wifi setup and experiment with moving points (or potentially get rid of if needed). As long as PC's and TV's can be wired direct and wifi works in the garage, I'm more than happy, and finally feel like I'm getting what I pay for (from ISP).

 

Anyone familiar with resizable BAR on a mobo?

I got this mobo cpu combo from work and was planning on doing some light/medium gaming with it (baldurs gate 3 will most likely be the heaviest game. maybe some 3d cad for 3d printing?).
https://www.advantech.com/en-us/pro...-277/mod_f7817bf8-8ffa-46aa-9980-48fe2e7e03ba

The new intel arc b580 looks like a good decent card for the price, but i keep seeing this resizable BAR requirement.

I've skimmed the user manual for bar and resizable but am not getting any hits.

This mobo is pretty new, 2021-2022 i think. My company bought a bunch but decided to not use them. I'm not sure how long they were sitting around.

am i over thinking this?

 

I looked at the manual and didn't see a specific option in the BIOS called out, but it might show up if other settings are compatible (see below). I didn't find anything specific on that graphics card that says it is required, but it *might* be required to get proper performance out of it. That board seems to be more of an industrial board than a performance/gaming board (but free is free, right?). I found this info on the Intel site:

Resizable BAR (Base Address Register) is a PCIe capability. This is a mechanism that allows the PCIe device, such as a discrete graphics card, to negotiate the BAR size to optimize system resources. Enabling this functionality can result in a performance improvement.

To enable Resizable BAR:

1. Enter the system’s BIOS/UEFI firmware configuration menu by pressing the DEL key during system start up. This key may vary between each system manufacturer, please check with your system manufacturer for specific instructions as necessary.
2. Compatibility Support Module (CSM) or Legacy Mode must be disabled and UEFI boot mode must be Enabled.
3. Ensure the following settings are set to Enabled (or Auto if the Enabled option is not present):
   • Above 4G Decoding
   • Re-Size BAR Support
4. Use the Intel® Driver and Support Assistant (Intel DSA) to confirm that Resizable BAR is enabled on your system.

The Resizable BAR option may be described as Re-Size BAR, Smart Access Memory, or Clever Access Memory. Contact the system manufacturer for specific details.

 

As noted above, it'll be in your BIOS.

If you have an Nvidia GPU already installed, their own software application can tell you if your mobo supports it or not

It will, unless it's a really old mobo

 

thanks for the reply. i saw the bar requirement in a linus tech tips video for the arc card.

sounds like the easiest way to confirm compatibility will be the support assistant tool.

there isn't a graphics card in there right now. the case is getting delivered tonight so i'll have everything besides the wifi card and gpu.

i'll give the intel tool a try.

 

The B series of Intel cards supports 10th Gen and newer processors. Hardware Unboxed released a video today, I haven't had a chance to watch it, but it's basically a warning not to pair the B series with chips Intel doesn't have listed as supported, basically anything older than 3rd Gen Ryzen and 10th Gen Intel shouldn't be used with the B series. You do need proper rebar support for the B series, but your MB should have that option if it's 10th Gen or newer. You're good to go with a 10th Gen processor, make sure rebar is enabled in the Bios and you'll be good to go.

 

Ive built the computer, got windows 11 installed, hopefully everything is updated.

I tried the intel tool to see if that intel arc b580 card is compatible with my mobo and the resizable bar thing. The tool says "unable to check resizableBAR status of this system".

I poked around the BIOS options looking for anything for compatibility mode, legacy mode, UEFI boot, but wasn't seeing anything. I downloaded a gpu-z tool.



im guessing that card isn't going to work.

anyone have any recommendations for something comparable? is it the 4060?

 

Names differ between manufacturers when it comes to your BIOS settings.

Also, that's your integrated GPU.

Can you snap pics of the settings in your BIOS?

 

I took some of the top menus.
https://imgur.com/a/qw6dQRn

Can grab more if anything looks interesting.

Looking around last night, a 3060, 6700/6650/6750, maybe a 4060, would all be fine performance wise and can handle whatever I want to play right now. Probably isn't super future proof, but that's ok

 

Any of you running Plex/Jellyfin servers?

we have a thread for that here.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/plex.562725/

 

Circling back to this MSI Costco build. I opted to pass. The 4080 super 16GB graphics card was the highlight, but most of the other components were compromises that I would want to swap. (750w power supply, bare bones motherboard, slow ssd, slow ram, ect.) I'd really prefer an AMD X3D chip with the extra L3 cache and the new RTX 5080/5090 cards will be releasing soon. I can only imagine the price of them.

I did upgrade my MacBook Pro last week to the newer 14" base model and performance wise it's a huge improvement over my last one that was about 3 years old. Neweggs website works great now.

This is the current build list I've been playing around with...

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
MSI Mag x870 Tomahawk
G.Skill Trident DDR5 6000 64gb (2x32gb) (32gb would probably work just fine)
MSI 4080 Super 16gb ventus 3x oc
Corsair 4000d case
Corsair RM1200x power supply
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
NZXT Kraken Elite 360mm
Windows 11 home
Creative SoundblasterX AE-5 Plus

The motherboard, case, cpu and gpu choices keep changing. I've also noticed a lot of components out of stock. Many prebuilt PC options are out of stock too. I'm going to give it a little more time until I can make up my mind. Higher tier GPU prices are nuts.

 

I'm personally not a fan of MSI. They are usually on the cheaper end, but sometimes that's for a reason. I know Asus has had some bad press and a few stinkers lately, but I've always found their quality to be at the top end of consumer boards. My second look would be Gigabyte, although I have had a failed board from them (it was a few years old, though).

I love the Corsair 4000D. Great quality case for the price.

Why add a sound card? Onboard audio has been at a pretty high level for many years. Are there particular features of the Soundblaster that you need or are missing from onboard audio? I'm honestly just wondering since I haven't had to add sound to any system in years. That would save $150.

 

I've been out of the build game for many years. Long ago I ran a creative xfi xtremegamer card with Logitech's z-5500 speakers and sub. It produced phenomenal and stunning sound quality. I suppose I could try the onboard audio before upgrading. Lately I've read MSI was preferred over Gigabyte. I haven't researched Asus boards. I honestly have no idea and I'm sure there's good and bad in all brands. Newegg has lists of top sellers in each category. If there's floods of good reviews it's good enough for me.

 

Yeah, MSI seems to have been stepping up their game, while the others I mentioned are stumbling at times. This seems to happen in this PC arena, and you are probably fine with MSI.

Yeah, I'd try using just the onboard audio first. Pretty sure they all support the latest stuff like Dolby, etc. It took me a while to stop buying Soundblasters even when they started adding it to motherboards (I had that same xfi card), but I don't think you'd notice a difference. They all seem to have 5-channel capability these days and decent software.

 

Well, its been a few days, and I'm afraid you hit the nail on the head. Running 5 points has been great for just about everything, and completely fixed my issues of no wifi in the garage. Unfortunately, its made gaming on our 2 PCs nearly impossible. Have had to just unplug 1-2 of the points (taking wifi away from garage) just to get things back to normal. Gaming will be normal for a bit, then out of nowhere insane ping spikes that disconnect us from the internet/lag out of games. Short term fix is to just plug in the extra points when needing garage wifi; long term fix is hardwire everything and go back to 3 points for wifi needs. I guess I'm thankful these mesh routers are fairly cheap, as it wasn't an expensive gamble to see if it'd work or not.

 

Which mesh routers are you running again? One option could be to move one of the mesh points near the computers, and then hardwire the PCs to the mesh point. Most good mesh networks support hardwiring to the mesh access points, which should help with this issue but no promises lol.

 

I might consider finding a used 3080 over buying a new 4060, should be around the same price I think

 

Did you update the Bios? It could be that the version on that system was never updated, and support was added to a lot of the 10th gen IIRC.

 

Is there a big used market that isn't craigslist or Facebook?
There are some "renewed" items on Amazon, I think that's used then repaired?

 

Didn’t they fist drop a 5k series that’s better than the 4090 and under a grand?