What did you do today?

[AlexTSG]

I'm using a 38" UW and can't imagine going back to 16:9. as I love the horizontal estate for side-by-side windows. Had a 32" before that and the vertical height was too much for me.

Before I purchased the Alienware AW3821DW I had planned to get a 32 inch 4K high refresh display, which would probably be a better fit for my desk.

Aside from the 32 inch monitors that check all those boxes not being available yet, I think the 38 inch at 3840x1600 will be easier to drive at reasonable framerates into the future, given that it's around 75% of the pixels of a 4K display. It will be hooked up to an RTX 3080.

I am a bit concerned that I'll find games that don't support the ultrawide format, compared to 16:9. I've checked the games I plan to play in the short term, and the only one that doesn't support ultrawide so far is Borderlands, which even in it's Enchanced form doesn't seem to support 21:9 (or 24:10 to be more accurate).

@thelaughingman How have you found the game support so far on your 38 inch?

 

[thelaughingman]

@thelaughingman How have you found the game support so far on your 38 inch?

it's really hit-or-miss, Hearthstone doesn't support it for example, but other games that I play a lot like Path of Exile or Civ do support 21:9

Aside from the 32 inch monitors that check all those boxes not being available yet, I think the 38 inch at 3840x1600 will be easier to drive at reasonable framerates into the future, given that it's around 75% of the pixels of a 4K display. It will be hooked up to an RTX 3080.

yeah, I also think of this resolution as not-quite-4K and I'm using a 2080 Ti right now. Agree that RTX 3080 would be the sweet spot but the current market situation is just awful.

 

[Valantar]

If I were to upgrade my U2415, I'd like to try a small ultrawide, like this 25 inch LG 25UM58.

Too bad it's already discontinued & that many current ultrawide monitors start at 29 inch.

If you're at 24" now, 25" ultrawide seems like a very, very bad idea. 34" 21:9 is the same height as 27" 16:9. 29" Ultrawide is the same height as 24" 16:9. 25" ultrawide would as such be equivalent to a wider 20-22" monitor. That would be a significant downgrade IMO.

29inch ultrawide is very vertically short. I have a 34 UWD, and it is about as small as I would go at 21:9.

Yep, same here. Which is ultimately why I've decided against going ultrawide - that, and the very variable game support, of course. But I'd never accept a main monitor shorter than my current 27" 16:9.

 

[Revenant]

Today I built up two SFF systems using spare parts.

1. A Custom Mod 3.2L with a I5-3550 and 750ti for Win Xp retro.

- This was one of Custom Mods early cases that I bought years ago, and it shows. Lots of design flaws.

2. A Cerberus X with a 7820X with a GTX 770.

- I upgraded my elderly fathers editing rig to a 10980X and I’m making him a back up rig with his old CPU. I would love something a bit more powerful than a GTX 770...

 

[Phuncz]

Today I built up two SFF systems using spare parts.

Similarly, I had to disassemble two SFF systems (Xigmatek Nebula C and Lazer3D LZ7) to make one work.

The board in the Nebula C, working as a backup NAS, died recently. Since my LZ7 build gets so little use the last half year, I decided to rob it of its inards (Core i5 4670K, 16GB RAM, ASUS Maximus VII Impact) and put it in the Nebula C along with the four 3.5" HDDs. Plonked TrueNAS on there and it's purring again without buying a new board.

 

[Revenant]

Well...screw these Custom Mod case and G-Unique modded Dell PSU. Gave me some nice sparks before frying the mainboard, CPU, and possibly the GPU (I'll test when I'm not angry anymore). I'll keep the cases and mod them one day. The PSUs are going straight to the recycler. I always thought the early stuff from G-Unique and Custom Mod was over ambitious. Thankfully I tested on a non-conductive surface that can't catch fire...

I have a second G-Unique and Custom Mod case that will not ever be more than recycled and a shelf decoration respectively. Once you try to light me on fire, I'm not particularly forgiving. I hope their newer stuff is better.

The one redeeming thing is that this was going to be an ITX WinXP rig so I only lost a i5-3550 and MSI B75 mainboard.

 

[Valantar]

Well...screw these Custom Mod case and G-Unique modded Dell PSU. Gave me some nice sparks before frying the mainboard, CPU, and possibly the GPU (I'll test when I'm not angry anymore). I'll keep the cases and mod them one day. The PSUs are going straight to the recycler. I always thought the early stuff from G-Unique and Custom Mod was over ambitious. Thankfully I tested on a non-conductive surface that can't catch fire...

I have a second G-Unique and Custom Mod case that will not ever be more than recycled and a shelf decoration respectively. Once you try to light me on fire, I'm not particularly forgiving. I hope their newer stuff is better.

The one redeeming thing is that this was going to be an ITX WinXP rig so I only lost a i5-3550 and MSI B75 mainboard.

Wow, that sucks. I've been very happy with my G-Unique DC-ATX units, but the modded Dell PSUs always seemed a bit too good to be true for me. Guess I might have been onto something, but in this case it's definitely not a good feeling. Good thing it was old spare parts of course, but it still sucks.

 

[confusis]

The one and only CustomMod experience I had was a 6 month wait on a Asrock Deskmini GTX case that arrived 5mm too small to fit the board. le sigh

 

[Revenant]

The one and only CustomMod experience I had was a 6 month wait on a Asrock Deskmini GTX case that arrived 5mm too small to fit the board. le sigh

Yeah. Neither case arrived as ordered. The guy was nice, but I think over ambitious.

 

[tinyitx]

Watched this Hardware Canucks video today. ''The ITX market is BROKEN"
Well said, Dmitry

 

[Skripka]

Watched this Hardware Canucks video today. ''The ITX market is BROKEN"
Well said, Dmitry

I like how he picks on the Z590i Gigabyte Vision D.....A $350 USD (in the US, nvm AUS pricing) motherboard...for not having crappy integrated HD audio headers. If you're nuts enough to buy a $350 motherboard in the first place, you all but certainly have a USB audio interface.

One bit of history he leaves out.....is how ITX went from nothing to taking over the MATX market and devouring it entirely. And, TBH, I'll wager in 5-10 years, STX will probably eat ITX the same way. With ARM taking off (no thanks to Microsoft), thanks Apple, it is tough to prognosticate such things. AMD may well have 'won' the most pointless pyrrhic victory in besting Intel at the x86 Wars--only for the world to go to ARM....and who knows what that bodes for SFF size parts standards.

 

[Revenant]

Watched this Hardware Canucks video today. ''The ITX market is BROKEN"
Well said, Dmitry

I have two big complaints about the current SFF market:

1. GPUs are needlessly large and thoughtlessly designed.

2. Integrated IO shields. I hate these. All they do is take up space. Half of the B550 boards are incompatible with the Noctua L12S because of these.

 

[tinyitx]

2. Integrated IO shields. I hate these. All they do is take up space. Half of the B550 boards are incompatible with the Noctua L12S because of these.

Quite true. And sometimes the IO shield has problem fitting into the IO cutout of a case as well.
I bet, the chief purpose of an integrated shield is to make the board looks nice, thus justifying a higher selling price.

 

[rfarmer]

I have two big complaints about the current SFF market:

1. GPUs are needlessly large and thoughtlessly designed.

2. Integrated IO shields. I hate these. All they do is take up space. Half of the B550 boards are incompatible with the Noctua L12S because of these.

You have some good points. Seems like the GPU market is just getting worse too, even on lower TDP cards like the 3060 you still see massive coolers on them. It seems incredible that the motherboard manufacturers don't seem to realize what type of cases and cooling setups are actually being used.

 

[Tonkatsu]

Today (well yesterday) I've thought about a fitting issue and so many possible solutions i've lost count, but I think I've found THE one. That's probably the most satisfying thing about SFFing.

I have two big complaints about the current SFF market:

1. GPUs are needlessly large and thoughtlessly designed.

2. Integrated IO shields. I hate these. All they do is take up space. Half of the B550 boards are incompatible with the Noctua L12S because of these.

4. too few options for VLP RAM

5. needlessly large and bulky heat spreaders~dissipators on gaming ITX boards that get in the way of large coolers

Meh.

Fancy case vendors/artisans unlike the more mainstream will actually update their products and design new ones thanks to user feedback, I can see that every time I visit here. What's really unfair are long distance shipping fees and customs/taxes but it's not their fault...
They're not the only SFF cases anyway, anyone can purchase at least a minimal selection in most parts of the world, from amazon or the likes, there's almost always several SilverStone, or Node 202, NR200 and a number of other classics that don't break the bank.
We can also go DIY, it's not impossible like we're supposed to build our own GPU from raw silicum or something...
Then lets be honest ATX has a lot of thoughtless design, compatibility issues happen too, and sometimes prices that are probably harder to justify.

I found the real difficulty with SFF happens even before pricing and compatibility, if these aspects become problems in the process it's because of the lack of sufficient information/data/advice/help.
Greater scarcity of that (specific to SFF building needs) and smaller community, is what makes planning more difficult and increases trial & error (therefore frustration and misspending)

If everyone especially newcomers had all the ideal info on a silver plate before starting a SFF build, it wouldn't cost significantly more, nor be more frustrating than an average ATX build, unless picking fancy expensive parts on purpose.

Information cannot be perfect, though the world of PC building - and SFF with closer attention - could really help some kind of '10 commandments' to present everyone, a list of starter advice that could save a non-negligible amount of trouble and useless purchases, providing precious initial directions and warnings against common pitfalls.

 

[confusis]

Painted a modified spoiler and rear bumper lip for my car. I have too many hobbies!

 

[thelaughingman]

Got a LONE L5 with G-Unique 1st thing after waking up. Then spent the entire morning transplanting my build over to the ZS OC v1 and now letting it leak testing for 24 hours with distilled water.

Busy as a bee can be!

 

[Revenant]

Quite true. And sometimes the IO shield has problem fitting into the IO cutout of a case as well.
I bet, the chief purpose of an integrated shield is to make the board looks nice, thus justifying a higher selling price.

The first time I ran into one was on a NCASE M1 build for a friend with an Asus mainboard. I had to take a Dremel to the backplate of an MSI GPU to make room for this stupid IO shield.

 

[tinyitx]

On this hot early summer afternoon, I treated myself one of these. Some people call it 'snow strip' or 'popsicle'. I call it 'ice cream lollipop'. Its officical name according to Haagen-Dazs is 'stickybar'.

 

[ignsvn]

Received my sandwich acrylic case for my Keycool84.

3D print soundbar leg.