Hard Commit
To celebrate the 5th birthday of Wimpy V2, I cleaned (reverse-vacuumed) the computer.
But for this post, I wanted to share some major hardware upgrades that I have bought in and since February 2024. I briefly mentioned them in my Stats for 2024-Q1, so I would like to discuss them in a bit more detail here, and in the format similar to my Wimpy V2 post 5 years ago.
There are couple more new components, like additional storage (an additional SSD, which I placed on a PCIe to m.2 slot, and is getting slower speeds due to the PCI slot's... inherent speed) but I think that's it for now.
I don't plan anything else in the near future, except probably to do proper cable management once I get the SATA power extensions. I was thinking of upgrading my RAM to 32GB. My 16GB memory is actually perfectly fine, but my usage sometimes reach 16GB when I play Destiny 2 and have the many Destiny 2 browser-based apps open. It doesn't happen that often, so it's not an immediate concern. Also, I would prefer my upgrade to be buying the same RAM model that I have, but I don't see them at all, even in the used market.
But for this post, I wanted to share some major hardware upgrades that I have bought in and since February 2024. I briefly mentioned them in my Stats for 2024-Q1, so I would like to discuss them in a bit more detail here, and in the format similar to my Wimpy V2 post 5 years ago.
- Monitor: Gigabyte M27Q
Date of Acquisition: February 08, 2024
Condition: Brand new
Acquired as planned: Yes
The upgrade has jumped my gaming experience to 1440p 170hz, and it is... life-changing. The main objective of my upgrade was to increase my gaming refresh rate to at least 144hz, and had Apex Legends in mind. It's funny to think that I actually spent more time playing Destiny 2 instead. I am not complaining, though.
This was the one with very good reviews and a decent price. As of now, I do see a dead pixel though.
Pumping my gaming experience to those specs need supplementary upgrades, so... below are the other upgrades.
- CPU - Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Date of Acquisition: February 12, 2024
Condition: Brand new
Acquired as planned: Yes
Getting an AM4 motherboard five years ago was an unplanned Godsend - this new PC is a huge upgrade from my previous Ryzen 5 2600, and I didn't even need to get a new motherboard and memory. Also, I was juggling between this and the Ryzen 7 5700X3D which was actually a new CPU that released about 2 weeks from the time I bought my CPU, but since I was being greedy, I decided to stick with this instead.
- GPU - MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X Trio
Date of Acquisition: February 05, 2024
Condition: Second hand. Unknown age
Acquired as planned: Yes
I decided to go for the AMD route instead of the Nvidia route purely for gaming/rasterization performance. Surprisingly it was kind of difficult to find RX 6800XT's. Luckily I found one at what I think is a good price, and from what appears to be a legitimate store.
- PSU: Corsair RM1000x Shift
Date of Acquisition: July 27, 2024
Condition: Second Hand. About 7 months old
Acquired as planned: Yes
Back in May/June, Wimpy was starting to die on its own. And after removing components one by one in order to attempt to isolate which component was failing me, I've managed to narrow it down to the PSU, motherboard, and CPU. I did not think that the CPU was the problem since it was rather new (new components can still fail, of course,) and I had hoped that it was just the PSU.
I borrowed Roel's PSU (he actually lent me so many components, they were almost enough for an entirely new computer, save a motherboard), tested it for about 45 days, and the problem didn't occur again. So I made the conclusion that it was the PSU that was the problem. I have been using it for only
I don't need a 1000-watt PSU An 850-watt one would be adequate. I just thought that if this PSU is going to last for 10 years, I might want to give myself the wattage allowance in case I decide to upgrade again in the distant future.
- Keyboard: FL CMMK 870
Date of Acquisition: March 25, 2024
Acquired as planned: uhhh...
My goal was to get a TKL mechanical keyboard and get a separate keypad, so I can easily swap between TKL when playing most games, and full-size keyboard whenever I need to type numbers or something. So I bought a TKL keyboard and keypad.
The FL CMMK 870 has south-facing RGB. Apparently this has the unfortunate consequence of not having that many shine-through keycaps that are made for south-facing RGB keyboards. Considering that Migs' old Rakk Kimat XT-2 had south-facing RGBs, I don't remember if if... I made the decision to just reuse the Rakk Kimat's keycaps, hence, stick to getting the FL CMMK. So far I've been having trouble looking for keycaps - I want to get some pink ones for a Bocchi-themed keyboard. But I think I have to settle for non shine-through keycaps, so... I will have to look again. I think I've found some, so I will see.
- Keypad: Motospeed K24 Pro
Date of Acquisition: February 03, 2024
Acquired as planned: Yes
It's a nifty keypad, with an additional row of keys that I haven't really useed. But it's nice. And funny enough, the RGB of the keypad is significantly brighter than the keyboard.
There are couple more new components, like additional storage (an additional SSD, which I placed on a PCIe to m.2 slot, and is getting slower speeds due to the PCI slot's... inherent speed) but I think that's it for now.
I don't plan anything else in the near future, except probably to do proper cable management once I get the SATA power extensions. I was thinking of upgrading my RAM to 32GB. My 16GB memory is actually perfectly fine, but my usage sometimes reach 16GB when I play Destiny 2 and have the many Destiny 2 browser-based apps open. It doesn't happen that often, so it's not an immediate concern. Also, I would prefer my upgrade to be buying the same RAM model that I have, but I don't see them at all, even in the used market.