It's that time again-- help Jackie pick out things for her computer
GnomeQueen
The Lulz QueenMountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
Hey y'all,
It's rebuild time! Hooray!
What I've got:
Ryzen 7 2700x
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
A case
Some other old hard drives
I think I can reuse my current PSU? It's a year or two old
GeForce 1080
What I need:
Motherboard
RAM
New Keyboard-- def want mechanical
New Headset
???? anything I'm missing
Budget:..Let's say $600-800
Any recs?
Thanks friends. 
0
Comments
Headset: Sennheiser PC37x
RAM: Any G.Skill-brand memory kit that starts with "F4-3200C14D-16G"
Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Keyboard:
1. Clicky or not clicky?
2. LEDs or no LEDs?
3. Numpad or no numpad?
4. Number row or no number row?
5. Do you need/want arrow keys, or don't care?
1.) ..Clicky?
2.) LEDs are fun but not necessary
3.) Yes numpad
4.) Yes number row
5.) Yes arrow keys
https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3615 with Cherry Blue switches.
Thanks!
I HIGHLY second the Ducky One. I LOVE the ducky keyboards.
Sorry to threadjack, but are Cherry MX the best for mechanical keyboards? Also, which color? I've seen people spooge over the red, but Thrax recommends the blue. Is it personal preference?
It is entirely personal preference. I like cherry blue and brown. Red is not click enough for my tastes
It all depends on what you want.
Do you want a keypress to have a tactile bump?
Do you want the keypress to physically make a click sound?
Do you want the keypress to feel stiff, or provide little resistance?
Depending on the answer to these questions, the switch recommendation changes.
For example:
1. If you wanted a light resistance clicky switch: Cherry Blue
2. If you wanted a heavy resistance clicky switch: Cherry Green
3. If you wanted a light resistance, non-clicky switch with no tactile bump: Cherry Red or Speed Silver
4. If you wanted a heavy resistance, non-clicky switch with a bump: Cherry Light Grey
Another company called Gateron provides clone switches of Cherry, which many like more than the OG, as the key travel has less squeaking and wiggling.
And new providers are coming on the scene, offering really fantastic switches, like Kailh, Topre, and Outemu.
I'm a huge fan of Kailh Box Navy and Kailh Box Jade switches.
keyswitch hipsters unite
Cherry clears. All the way.
also, I can't recommend the Sennheiser PC37x the clamping force is too tight, the ear openings too small, and the pad depth to shallow. Granted I probably have a bigger head than you. They sound alright though.
I'm using a cheap-shit membrane keyboard that tries to be mechanical. I pine for a true mechanical. After I move to Florida I'll treat myself to one with my newfound riches.
Well, what worries me with my description are my glasses. I already can't wear my current headset with my second pair of glasses because of discomfort.
I just picked up an 84-key with browns because it's a little quieter but still extremely satisfying. I cut my professional teeth on a legit IBM Model M, so I've had my fill of loud-click hard-press (as much as I loved it).
If you want a full size keyboard go with a DASkeyboard.
In general gamers like lighter key action and typers like heavier.
My board has Cherry blues in it and it like it a lot, a good compromise.
As far as mobo goes, what size? ATX or compact?
Contrasting viewpoint: I wore the PC37x with thick acetate frames, and it was very comfortable. Clamping force was not tight, ear openings were fine even including the temple of the glasses, and the drivers did not touch my ears.
I have the previous generation of this motherboard. Cheap and decent. I even find the motherboard audio solution to be acceptable if you are driving a fairly efficient set of headphones / headset. Had some issues really early on but with bios revisions it's become rock solid and I've been pleased the couple times I've had to ask Asrock a question. - https://www.microcenter.com/product/509728/fatal1ty-b450-gaming-k4-am4-atx-amd-motherboard - Keep in mind, you can build in a small ATX form factor but it's more painful, it's more limiting, it usually costs a little more and you would be amazed at how much smaller some full ATX cases have gotten.
You said you have a case? What do you have to build in?
I run some G Skill Ripjaws V and I have not had any trouble clocking at the listed profiles. - https://www.microcenter.com/product/481738/ripjaws-v-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-pc4-25600-cl16-dual-channel-desktop-memory-kit
Gaming headsets are beneath you.... Though I will agree with @Thrax if you are going to do one, the Sennheiser is a solid choice and Massdrop has that on sale pretty much all the time for $119 which isn't bad.
That said, here is how the cool kids do it. - It will totally make you look like Princess Leia. -
- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826138190&Description=shp9500&cm_re=shp9500--26-138-190--Product - https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Microphone-Gaming-Communication/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=asc_df_B00BJ17WKK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309773039951&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10682579818500758711&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007872&hvtargid=pla-383568761441&psc=1
This is what I use for gaming and it's every bit as fantastic as Z says it is. It's easy to drive, but I'd just say this, it's going to leak sound so your friends in the room are gonna know what you are into. Life is too short to have one headphone though, that's why you get a closed set for when you need them.
Seriously, look like Princess Leia, they are massive side muffs of comfort and audible joy, take pics...
I have a serious mechanical keys fetish. I'm a little nuts. I have keyboards. See... It's personal what feels best to you. I'll say this, I don't like MX blacks, they are too firm, they are actually less comfortable to type on than a cheap keyboard. I do quite like MX reds for gaming and it's a decent typing key. Browns are like the midway point for most, medium force, little tactile bump in the middle, I'm not super into them, I just sold a Zowie keyboard with browns not too long ago, browns are sort of fake blues. MX blue keys are a dream to type on but they have a high pitched loud sound that can be grating to some, for me, it's musical. For typing, an old school unicomp made IBM buckling spring is the God of all typists keyboards but it's not as good all around and it's obnoxiously loud. I'm a good tenkeyless typist, my fingers got game, if yours do you can save some desk space. There is a difference in quality that goes beyond the key type alone. Some mount the PCB to a decent metal frame, others all plastic, it matters. For $59 - This is pretty damn nice. - https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Gaming-Keyboards/Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboards/K63-Compact-Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboard-—-CHERRY®-MX-Red/p/CH-9115020-NA
I'm not a fan of DASkeyboard or CODE keyboard having owned both; they both wore out fast. The DAS was fragile and stopped working after a couple of LAN trips though I liked the size and weight. I had one of the older models with real Cherry MX Blue switches so I was able to reuse the keycaps on a WASD Keyboards barebones. I gave that one to my sister and she hasn't complained.
I bought a tenkeyless CODE keyboard with MX Greens for my living room and the key cap screen printing has worn off after a couple of years. This wouldn't be so bad except for the keyboard is backlit so now I just have fingerprint-shaped lights instead of key labels.
I have a Matias Tactile Pro at work with the Alps knock-off switches and it's been a mixed bag to use. It's started double-pumping certain keys but that goes away when I shake it so I suspect it's producing conductive FOD during operation. Other than that, the keyswitch action is very nice and just like my old Apple Extended Keyboard II.
My 30 year-old Apple Extended II and IBM Model M boards are still going strong. The Apple board can't be used in the EFI environment though as it's little Apple Desktop Bus to USB adapter doesn't work unless an OS is loaded.
The Ducky Channel keyboards are built like fucking tanks. I throw a dust cover on mine every night and it still works and looks like new.
I should have never given away that Ducky you gave me. I was seduced by the lure of rainbow LEDs. Never again!
If something lights up I intentionally avoid things that require a driver for me to manage. If it's red or blue or white, cool, just pick a color, let it light up that way without a driver for me to fiddle with. I have this Corsair RGB mouse and sometimes it fails to come up on boot and it's annoying. I have to get up, trace the cable, unplug it, plug it back in, let the driver find the profiles loaded on the thing and finally back to work. My current keyboards don't have any LED's, I'm not opposed to them, but if it requires a specialized software to run at boot, I really don't want it. Next gaming mouse I buy is going to be driverless. Maybe a BenQ Zowie with just four or five preset DPI stepping's and that's it. I kind of hate that all the high end motherboards come with crazy RGB software customizations to play with, just one more potential software problem as I see it.
The Corsair K95 series have on board memory that stores your lighting and macro profiles.
Alright, I have purchased all of these things! So my computer is now:
Ryzen 7 2700x
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C14D-16GTZR
GeForce 1080
One other small SSD, two other hard drives.
It looks like I need a new PSU that has three pins for the motherboard. Any suggestions?
Didn't want to go for an NVME drive? Not sure what "three pins for the motherboard" means; there's typically a monster 24-pin connector and a 4 or 8-pin extra power connector.
Ye olde Power Supply Calculator says you want a 550W minimum power supply of the 80+ variety. That's basically all of them so whoever you like is probably fine. I'm a SeaSonic person myself.
2nd, 3rd,and only buy seasonic.
@GnomeQueen That board has a twenty-four, eight, and four pin power connector. The twenty-four and eight are the only necessary ones. The extra four pin is there if you are a mad scientist and you want to deliver as much power headroom to the board as possible so you can do extreme overclocks. You can ignore it if you don't intend to get too fancy with your overclocking.
That's what I've done so far, but I'm having some issues now that may or may not stem from that lack of pin. Shrug emoji
What kind of problems?
Rift S problems. Might not be getting enough power to the USBs or something. Not sure. More VR more problems.