I’ve seen shit like gaming chairs, headsets, and even gaming PCs turning out to be absolute horseshit compared to even shit used in offices.

I’m curious to know your thoughts on this. My theory is that the focus on gaming was so extreme the others that actually IMPROVE gaming like less bottlenecks get fucked over.

  • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Essentially anything labeled “gamer” is just there to increase the price, with no actual improvement of quality. Compare a gaming chair and an office chair; sure the gaming one looks cool and whatnot but it’s not ergonomic at all, no support for the back and hips, and is incredibly uncomfortable to sit in. Office chairs were designed for longer hours of sitting and therefore have a suitable build. Same goes for other things labeled “gamer”, gaming headphones look cool but quality headphones are designed much differently (sennheiser headphones for example), gaming computers are not worth the money considering you can build a pc that performs better and is more affordable (though not currently due to the price of GPUs). Because of the shit quality that means you have to keep re-buying the items to replace which leads to wasting money. Honestly it’s a good example of capitalism, style and labels over function and quality.

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    It does. Especially keyboards are shit, worse than the normal office. Mouses are the same, Aliexpress sell better mouses for 3 bucks than you can buy from some trash brand like Razer for 100.

  • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    yeah like gamer RAM lol. They started putting RGB and heatsinks on RAM to sexify it, but I guarantee you this ugly, puke green, barebones ram stick works just as well and maybe even better:

    There’s also a lot of bs circulating around proper beefy setups, and the reason for that is most people buy their computers pre-made and just believe whatever the manufacturer tells them. I’ve been AMD for CPU, Nvidia for GPUs for more than a decade now, relying on CPU over GPU (although the gap is closing quickly) and I can run current games on high or ultra at maybe not 60fps (don’t know, don’t care as long as it looks good) but fluid enough that I prefer the ultra settings over the medium.

    • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      I think this is the one exception to that. Gaming RAM is basically the only RAM you can buy if you want higher frequency, which can improve performance, especially with modern CPUs.

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        2 years ago

        I’ve never been able to get any frequency higher than 1333 to work with Windows. There’s a setting you can switch in the BIOS, which I did, but it still runs at the same frequency (all of my sticks should have the same frequency)

        edit: but regardless, the old ugly green sticks can get to high frequencies too, you don’t need to look at “gaming” brands like Corsair or ROG particularly.

        • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          That is why I said modern. For example, my PC is running at, 3600MHz. In the past, RAM frequency didn’t really matter anyway.

          Technically yes, but for example if I look at my country largest electronics retailer if you want anything above 3200MHz for DDR4 you literally don’t have any other options than Kingston, Corsair etc. I don’t even think you can really buy “ugly green sticks” other than for notebooks or for servers, at least not in regular consumer stores.

          • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 years ago

            Windows caps ram at 1333 mhz (even on windows 11) because of some legacy thing, to unlock it you have to go into the bios and switch on a setting. Apparently mine doesn’t do anything. I’m not sure ram frequency is as important as people say it is, although I’ve never had it faster than the legacy 1333 lol

            • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 years ago

              It depends, with older processors like before Intel gen 8 and Zen it didn’t really matter. Today, it can give you about ~10% performance boost on average. Scaling

              These are the results for Linux, but it should be pretty comparable to Windows.

            • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 years ago

              Its not Windows capping RAM frequency. One of your RAM sticks is 1333 and the other, despite being higher frequencies, all have to operate at 1333. The lowest RAM frequency stick determines the RAM frequency of all sticks. I had a preinstalled 2133 MHz in my ThinkPad, and I checked beforehand and bought a 2133 stick. Even with XP on Pentium 4, 1600 MHz sticks were used.

              • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                Aaah, you’re right. When I bought the sticks they said 2666mHz on the website, but this prompted me to look it up and I confirmed DDR4 ram reads data twice, so it technically runs at 1333mHz but does double the calculations per second.

  • Capitalist Tears@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    In my experience, gaming mouse or keyboard are expensive but the quality is better(ergonomics, endurance etc.)

    But the two most unbelievably bad gears marketed towards gamers are chairs and headsets.

    Gaming chairs are the absolute worst for my back and they generally lack good thigh support, both of which are absolutely necessary for long sitting hours.

    On the other side, once I got into audiophile stuff I realized how bad these gaming headsets are. They are tuned to be shrill af so that you can hear footsteps better which you can achieve with an EQ(there isn’t any need of it anyways). Plus, their mics are absolute dogshit, and can be replaced by a cheap $50-100 standalone mic that will perform exponentially better with an added bonus of you not looking like a dork. Just buy an entry level headphones like the Meze 99 Neo and you would have a much more comfortable sesh because they are not bulky as gaming headphones tend to be and you’ll be salivating over good music after.

    /rant

    • Quite the nuance tbh.

      Really the only good gaming gear is keyboards and mouse, even then this doesn’t change the fact other gaming gear sucks.

      Honestly, the reason why I asked is because I’m gonna make a custom pc soon and I’m gonna make sure I don’t get shitty items marked as “Gamer” like RAM sticks, mics, etc.

      I’d also go water cooling because I don’t trust mainstream air coolers with handling modern games.

      • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        Get everything Noctua if you have the money for it. I’ve been using them for my CPU heatsink for almost a decade now, and have yet to replace it. Super easy to install compared to other coolers. Only “problem” with my Noctua heatsink is that it’s so beefy it blocks one RAM slot lol, so I can only have three sticks.

        For overall air ergonomics, you want air to come in from the bottom and front of the case, and out to the top and back of the case (you decide where the fans blow air by the direction they face when you mount them). My goal is to make my PC as quiet as possible even under load, so for those I went for some cheap I think coolermaster fans that they said were quiet. And yes, they are.

        My CPU realistically hangs around 30-40C, and these things are made to handle 80C no problem (maybe not 24 hours a day but realistically for a gaming session it’s not a problem).

          • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 years ago

            Noctua heatsink fans, more case fans (I was missing a few for proper airflow), and of course de-dust your PC once in a while, it makes a world of difference.

            I haven’t really looked at the temperatures under stress (games on ultra) but it should be around 60, maybe 70C at most.

            with that said I don’t play games as much so it hangs around a 5-10% load most of the time. But even compared to before I had this sort of setup (especially replacing the shitty stock heatsinks with a noctua), I easily dropped 10-15C on idle temperatures.

              • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                I’m constrained to having 2 8gb rams and 1 16gb stick because I can’t use my fourth slot with the huge heatsink (I also add to get a barebones stick like the one I showed because the useless heatsinks on RAM add too much mass for them to fit under my CPU fans lol).

                They work just as good, they’re just individually more expensive. Also if the stick breaks (although this has never happened to me ever), you’ll have to replace the whole 16 gigs instead of one cheaper 8 gigs.

                There’s also a weird thing with RAM where you have to double each stick for maximum effectiveness. You can get away with just 1 16 gigs stick if you want, but if you want 2 sticks, you have to buy the exact same one and put one on the first slots, and the other on the third slot (sometimes they’re colored differently on motherboards). I don’t remember why this happens but essentially it lets you use the second stick to maximum effectiveness.

                But you can totally go for 16 gigs x 2 instead of 8 gigs x 4 for the same overall ram. I think anything above 32 gigs is a bit overkill, I don’t think I’ve ever maxed out my RAM, I’m usually limited by the CPU or the SSD before that happens.

                • I’m going to go for 32GB x 8 for the final PC build in the future (assuming I save enough money in this capitalist hellhole). Obviously overkill but fuck it because 1) the fake answer is I’m going to dabble in not just ultra-high-end gaming but 3D animation high-end editing and automated economic planning; plus 2) the real answer is I would take increased RAM capacity any day over RGB on RAM sticks because RGB fans and keyboard are enough RGB imo.

          • StugStig@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 years ago

            The 10nm Intel CPUs run pretty cool. I get temps in 30s at night and 40s midday with a ₱600 Snowman T4 cooler.

            My case doesn’t even have mesh front panel.

      • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        I wouldn’t bother with water cooling, except if you want to do it as a project. A good air cooler (e.g., Noctua) will almost always outperform water cooling. Except if you are doing some overkill custom water cooling, which will be really expensive.

        • CannotSleep420@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          I second this. I built a water cooled PC a few years ago (custom loop) and while I haven’t had any issues so far, part of maintaining a water cooled PC involves removing the radiators, washing them out with a cleaning liquid, putting the radiators back in, then running another cleaning solution through the loop for about several hours, then running water though it to rinse for several hours, then finally putting in the new fluid. It’s a time consuming process that will be more difficult if your build is set up in a way that’s hard to drain or remove the radiators from (like mine unfortunately). This maintenance is supposed be done at least once a year. It’s been longer than that since I’ve last done it, so I’m in a situation where I can either bite the bullet and perform the pain in the ass PC surgery or have a sword of Damocles hang over my machine.

          There’s also the upfront pain in the ass in building the system. In my case the place I planned to put my pump is more awkward to reach and drain than I anticipated and there’s no room in the case for it anywhere else. There’s also installing the waterblock on your GPU. This requires removing the stock cooler and attaching the waterblock. The brand of waterblock I ordered didn’t have instructions on how to install so I had to find the instruction manual for a different brand of waterblock for the same GPU and wing it when the instructions didn’t apply. If you can figure out the instructions, you better hope one of the tiny delicate screws you need to remove doesn’t lose its threads while you’re unscrewing it and become stuck. This happened to me and I spent hours trying different ways to get the screw out, all of which were a pain in the ass and several of which could damage the chip with an easy to make fuckup. Did I mention that doing this delicate task that can easily fuck up your several hundred dollar hardware voids the warranty (a warranty sticker breaks when you remove the stock cooler)?

          The only benefits you get from all this is the cool factor and maybe less fan noise.

        • Hold on, how come air coolers outperform water coolers?

          The reason why I opted for water cooling is for longer sessions, something I doubt air coolers can maintain, also it’s quieter and the aesthetics more than make up for the lack of RGB.

          One more thing, electricity is expensive here in the Philippines so I’d go water cooling since it draws less power.

          • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 years ago

            In most cases, yes. It is counterintuitive, but unless you create a big custom water loop it does. For example, interesting video here: video, where you can see comparison of AIOs and air coolers. It is usually quieter as well.

            You can certainly create a custom loop that will be more performant and quieter, but it will be lots of work and much more expensive. So unless you want to do it for the fun of it, I wouldn’t do it. Plus, you have to maintain water cooling.

            Regarding the electricity I don’t really have any numbers, but I would assume that water cooling would be worse, you still need to operate fans same as with air cooling, but you also need pump. But overall, that is such a small amount of power compared to the rest of the system that I wouldn’t worry about it that much. If you really want to save some power look into things like undervolting you can usually lower your power consumption without sacrificing performance.

            • Noted but I am still skeptical in terms of air-coolers being able to keep the CPU and GPU cool for longer hours, especially since I would do more things other than gaming at ultra-high settings like 3d animation.

              How does undervolting work btw?

              • Prologue7642@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                Water cooling doesn’t really have any advantages in that. Basically air cooling and water cooling works almost the same way, both in the end use radiator/fins with fans to transfer heat of the case. With water cooling one advantage you have is, that the system has some water in it, meaning that it takes some time for it to heat up (usually something like 30 min) which can be advantageous for shorter tasks. But after the water is heated up, it is only matter of how much heat can the system dissipate. And for that there is basically no difference in how air coolers work and water coolers work, they both will transfer heat at some rate. So basically except for shorter loads (where water cooling has some advantages) there is no difference in long duration cooling performance of the two.

                The only advantage I can think of is if you have a GPU with really shitty cooling, then adding water cooling to it may help you, but typically that is not really an issue. Modern GPUs overclock themselves anyway and will try to push themselves to the highest temperature they deem safe. So in the worst case scenario, you might lose a few percent of your GPU’s performance. Plus, you probably want to restrict your GPU power draw anyway if you care about power consumption.

                Undervolting is when you run your hardware below its default voltage. Basically it is the same as overclocking but in the opposite direction. Quite often, you can lower voltage of your CPU without losing any performance. It really depends on your chip, it can be able to run on lower voltage, or it can be unstable, the only way to know is to try it. But if it works, you can save some power. But it is quite involved process, and it can turn out you won’t save anything. Modern CPUs are pretty good at doing it by themselves.

                But overall, you probably won’t save that much in the grand scheme of things. Probably the most significant thing you could do is lowering the power target for your GPU. This will lower the performance of your GPU, but it can save quite a bit of power. With modern GPUs and CPUs, it is not unusual to draw 500W while gaming. Most of that is GPU, so if you lower your power target to like 50% you will probably lose about ~20% performance but save like 150W of power (those are just numbers I think make sense, no sources). It really depends on if you want to get into it, it will take a lot of time, and it might not be worth it for you.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        don’t get shitty items marked as “Gamer” like RAM

        Anything internal labeled as “gaming” is immediately sus as fuck although it will probably be soon normalized as in every thing will be “gaming” with a price tag rise.

  • Baffone@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    i just do a list of what my gear needs to be and why and try to find the cheapest option that looks more reliable :p if “gaming” is even a parameter is because of marketing especially targeted on young kids who most of the time don’t know anything of what they realistically need in their gear and they think they need 360hz monitor and 100$ keyboard to play fortnite and the parents are even more clueless