What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

Looking to run Stable Diffusion and do 1440p gaming.
Games such as Modern Warfare 2 / War-Zone, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Apex Legends, and Control.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

Max is $2,500
($1700, $800 reserved for purchase from a friend noted below)

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

Looking to buy within a week or 2.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Towecomputer parts, monitor, Keyboard, Mouse

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

Texas, USA
Not near a Microcenter, but at willing to visit a friend in Dallas that can buy for me.

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

I have 3 old 3.5 hard drives I’d like to access. Whether putting them inside or putting them in something that I can connect to the PC.
PS5 controller
Philips SHP9500 Over-Ear Open-Air Headphones with V-MODA BoomPro microphone

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

Yes, in the future. -A modest overclock on both CPU/GPU. One that wouldn’t require much fidgeting with.
Interested in undervolting the GPU for Stable Diffusion down the line.

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

I’d like a fast 2 TB SSD for OS/current games and a 4 TB hard drive for storage

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

I prefer no RGB, though I prefer value over aesthetics any day.

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

No

Extra info or particulars:

32GB RAM
$800 of funds are reserved for purchasing a used 3090 TI from a friend - I want the 24 GB of VRAM.
Value, acoustics, and thermals are my priorities.
Hesitant on liquid cooling though I’m open to AIO’s if performance and acoustics are significantly increased.
I’d like a 27” monitor low latency / 144 Hz. HDR would be a nice plus if it would fit in without affecting the rest of the build. (Everything else takes priority over hdr)

>**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**
Gaming (Elden ring and fromsoft games in general, Counter-strike, apex legends, Resident evil village, God of war, Hogwarts legacy etc) and light microsoft office usage.
>**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**
Maximum £2400 before shipping including tax (UK so tax should be included in the price)
>**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**
ASAP
>**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**
Case, CPU (and cooler if necessary), GPU, Memory, Motherboard, PSU, Case. Don't need storage (see extra info)
>**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?**
England
>**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**
BenQ ZOWIE XL2411 24 Inch, G pro superlight mouse, Keychron K2 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
>**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**
No and not interested down the line
>**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**
No specific features
>**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**
Function over form, airflow then noise are the most important to me. I looked at the Fractal meshify 2 and the white Fractal design North (I've read this can be noisy)
>**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**
Windows 11 home edition
>**Extra info or particulars:**
First off thank you in advance for taking the time :) .
I had something like this in mind: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/W7t4Kp .
In general I'm function over form the only visual I care about is I'd like to avoid RGB unless there is no reasonable alternative.
I have already purchased Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 since it was on discount. The budget I've listed already takes this into account.
The 7800X3D + 7900XTX combo is of interest because longevity is important to me, and I'm not too bothered about ray tracing (I was also looking at the sapphire nitro+). But if you strongly feel there are better alternatives I am open to that.
I will be using an ethernet port so the motherboard doesn't need integrated Wifi so I figured I would get more value out of one that didn't have integrated wifi - Happy to be told otherwise though.
I looked at the Fractal North case, but saw reviews saying it was quite noisy so went for the meshify 2 as it reportedly has excellent cooling.
I've already purchased the storage drive as it is on discount.

Games include: - Demon’s Souls Remastered - Dark Souls Remastered - Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin - Bloodborne - Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades - Sekiro - Elden Ring
Criteria for Completion: - every PS trophy - every weapon + variants - every armour piece + variant (inc, alterations in ER) - every item (inc. things like proof of concord WELL kept etc) - every talisman and ring (yes, even those two from DS2) - every spell - every fight done solo at least once - every covenant ranked to max (excluding DS2 brotherhood and sentinels)
Ask me anything! How I’d rank the different aspects of these games; tips for certain fights; why I hate myself…
Happy to discuss anything!

Need to break my addiction to elden ring.
Want another addiction... love arpgs and roguelikes right now
Have a little money to spend so doesn't necessarily have to be free or game pass.
Thank you for any suggestions.

So after playing, beating and getting the platinum trophys for Elden Ring and Bloodborne (in that order) I realized that I now have an addiction you FromSoft games; so I decided to give this one a go! I started the other day but I'm not very far. I've found 1 gourd seed, 3 prayer beads and last night just stumbled across my first horrible abomination of a creature called "The Headless" which was in a mountainside cave that required quite a bit of platforming to get to. He kicked my ass, I'm not gonna lie. I've defeated a few, I guess they're called generals? They have health bars like bosses but I don't quite think they are. The one right before I found the cave with the Headless in it was a pain but the last one I beat. And I've found a couple of merchants so far but that's really it. Any tips for a new comer? The action in this game is similar but still quite different from ER and BB, Any tips on how to git gud? Anything I should be looking out for that the game doesn't tell me? And I'm wondering if I'm understanding this right, everytime I die I'm expecting to lose gold and xp like in the other games but am I also poisoning everyone with Dragonrot when I do? And how tf do I utilize this "Unseen Aid" that pops up every once in a while?

The things I'm gonna say are just tearing me up inside so I gotta let it out.
Okay first things first. I played MK my whole life. My childhood was carried by MK 4 and I got like 3-4-5k hours across 9,X and 11. That being said I gotta say that I'm legit angry because of many of the shit NRS did and still Do.
Im gonna put the MK1 rant at the start because I got a lot of things to say for 11 as well.
Let's start from the price... 85 BUCKS??? You can get Elden Ring,Cyberpunk,Hogwarts Legacy,so many good fucking games,with open world and shit. They are charging 85 bucks for a fighting game?
Those Kameo fighters or whatever. Wtf is this? We are not playing fucking Dragonball,or MvC or something. This is MK,a game about a 1 on 1 tournament. And now we don't even have pure 1v1 anymore? Then the trailer,and the gameplay reveal. The fighters... God... The fighters... Liu Kang,Scorpion,Sub-Zero,Sonya,Mileena,Kitana and the rest... We saw in the last 3 mk games. THATS 10+ YEARS. Kenshi is cool,glad they brought him back tho. But many people expect their favorite fighters to return. They want to see Smoke,Reptile,Ermac and many others.
"Oh but the graphics,it looks so good 🤩" Yeah no shit. It's 2023. They better have good graphics. Considering that this is a fighting game. They don't need to generate open world or anything. They got all that memory of a new platform for Stages and Fighters to look good. Having good graphics is not impressive. It is the bare minimum.
I can't understand all that Hype. MK11 Was pretty much a dissapointment. And I expect for 1 to be even worse.
Now about the rest:
Right. I'm gonna start from 11. This game costed so much on launch. 60 bucks for a fighting game is not okay. Considering for 60 bucks you could get games like DMC5,RDR2,Days Gone,etc. For a fighting game thats way too pricey. Then you have the Kombat Pack 1 which if you got you were screwed because later on you would get the Komplete Edition for the same price.
They brought back Cassie and Jacque which is... why tf. Then they introduced a bunch of unwanted guest characters. Like fr,who even asked for Robocop?
All this aside. Boon promised huge things with MK11 so many confirmations and shit (after KP1) Only cool things we got were Fujin,Mileena,Rain and Somewhat decent story expansion. Then they went radio silent for almost like a year. And went "oops you know what,that was it,bye" . Really? Then we got the cosmetics which were a painful grind in ToT,with a bunch of annoying modifiers. So if you didn't use an unlocker you were pretty much stuck with grinding for useless gear. Since all kharacters have a bunch of geaskin options right? NO! Most of those things were scrapped,and just recolors of the same stuff.
Idk how people were not furious about this,but they also fucked the colors of particles on a couple of fighters (mostly Jade's).
Game was one of my favorites. And It's just making me sad of what it has become. It just seems like cash grabbing,and NRS mainly Boon "trolling" his playerbase. People want the same things for years. Yet he and NRS rely on all that Hype to sell their crappy/lazy game. And when all the hype goes down,they pull out another crappy and lazy game out of their ass. Wonder when will people see the pattern.
If you read all that,just wanna say thank you,and you're a legend!

Hello,
I'm looking for any (indie) games with some difficulty and deep/advanced mechanics
I really do not care for most of the mainstream games like Elden Ring and looking for more "hidden gems" that i might have not heard about - I play a lot of games and probably have heard of most of the big releases that came out in recent years
Perfect examples of what I mean:
Until we die - absolute banger and very difficult (sadly still waiting for more content)
Trimps - very slow incremental game but very deep gameplay
ZERO Sievert - looter shooter with extractions something like Tarkov
Battle brothers - something like Wartales but very punishing

Hi I’m completely new to PC building and I have a budget for £2-2.5k for a new PC but I don’t know where to start. I was going to use PC Builder as I’d not confident at all on building the PC on my own and also like the warranty service they provide on it. I’m from the UK
Main use will be for gaming and also stuff like game development in Unity/Unreal, using photoshop etc and would like to use an intel based system and want to run games on. I’d also need a new monitor suggestions that are preferably 27” 1440p+, 144hz/165hz whilst playing some games on high settings if possible, if not it’s fine; some examples of big games that I’d play would be Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring and Red Dead for example.
The case I will be using will be a Hyte Y60 case, for case size. I’d also like a iCUE H100i/H150i ELITE LCD Display Liquid CPU Cooler if possible if it fits within the budget

I waited too long to become an Ashen one. Why did no one tell me?

I'm just now getting into game dev, like JUST now, so this may be a stupid question. I have a basic understanding of what file compression is but I want to know the whys and why-nots. For example when redownloading Elden ring the download is 46.7 GB and the installed game is 48.1 GB, what is the point of the less than 2 GB of file compression? Why do some devs seem to avoid any kind of file compression like the plague, it's something I have seen people getting upset about online, when referring to obnoxiously large game files, but I'm assuming there has to be more to it than pure laziness on the dev's part like people make it out to be. If this is not an easily answerable question could someone at least point me in the direction of a good learning resource?

No seriously I give up for you guys elden ring so far has had the coolest co-op scene I've ever seen. As I've been playing more than a thousand hours now, since about hour 270ish I've been spending my time very seldom in my own world but instead the worlds of our community
My name is Merchant if you play around the 175ish range on PC you may have run into Me by now once or twice with my banished frog helm and ronin chest , and it's been an absolute treat invaders are so much more alive and interactive in this game compared to past titles I've managed quite a few times now as a blue and gold boy to convince the red phantom to leave peacefully through desperate praying at them or offering them runes or other items tbh the way this community interacts in game is weirdly wholesome even a majority of hackers I've even seen have been weirdos who use the ability to cheat to enlarge their head to huge bobble head sizes
Tldr: 10/10 community 10/10 game keep it up soulsborne your ability to grow never ceases to amaze me

If I haven’t played the other Diablo games would I be able to pick up and play number 4 or would I just be lost it looks fun but also I haven’t played these games don’t want to spend the money if I’m gonna be completely lost and thanks for the help. I’m not to picky when it comes to game types as long a they are solid games I play anything from elden ring to animal crossing I love Zelda, pokemon, the Witcher, deatiny 2, remnants from the ashes, god of war the list goes on the only games I don’t really enjoy are battle royale but Im more concerned about story wise will I need to play the other Diablo games first to know what’s going on or is this a good starting point

I like RDR2, Elden ring, God of war, Persona, Ratchet and clank. What games from days of plays do you recommend me to get based on my favorite games before it’s gone.

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

• I will be playing games like Monster Hunter World, Ready or Not, Elden Ring, Payday 2, other high spec requirement games.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

• $1500 Canadian dollars.

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

• tomorrow or the day after .

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

*everything but keyboard and mouse.

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

• Canada, Saskatchewan.

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

• I’ve only ever used Intel parts, i can’t remember what my keyboard and mouse brands are though.

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

• Sometime down the line when I have the money again.

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

• Need SSD I think.

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

• LED lighting is not a requirement for me, preferably black case.

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

• I think so? .

Extra info or particulars:

If possible an RTX 3050 graphics card

So you guys know how the beginning cutscene of Elden Ring has the narrator say Elden Ring in such a weird moaning way? Well and me and my brother started saying Elden Ring in that exaggerated gasping-moaning way as a joke for whenever something incredible or really sucky happened. It became a force of habit, for memes with my brother and some other friends.
Anyways I was with my girlfriend and we were having sex, and when I reached the climax, I instant connected the way the Elden Ring Guy said Elden Ring to the moan sounds and I kinda scream-moaned Elden Ring when I finished. She looked at me super weird (she doesn’t play video games at all) and left early. Did I mess up really bad? And if possible, how do I recover?
Edit: I talked to my gf this morning and she just said she was confused and thought it was weird. She’s not upset with me but asked me to make sure it doesn’t happen again, she thought it was kind of funny after I showed her the trailer.
Also as the comments pointed out, the Elden ring moan is in the announcement trailer not the opening cinematic

Style and Narrative

The game looks excellent, from small clutter to massive building fronts. Every street corner is packed with traces of human life ripped apart by the puppet uprising without being stuffed, floating furniture or badly aligned windows are rare, although they do exist here and there. That's completely fine, it happens in every game and often more obviously than here.
Areas are interconnected nicely, although not particularly complex so far. Being able to climb to another level here and there and not dying for jumping off a low roof is good fun.
The hub is not too large, has a lovely atmosphere, and you can see from the stargazer teleport which (additional?) NPCs are in it. Being able to groove with sad tunes is a great design choice. When talking to NPCs however, I have to ask: why can't I talk to them from any direction and why do they take such long pauses between their lines when every other readable prompt disappears two seconds too early?
Favorite NPC confirmed already.
In many aspects, I find the game too derivative of Bloodborne. Blatantly so, to be honest. Stalkers are hunters, puppets are beasts, both appear to be bereft of humanity. Workshops are workshops, Sophia is a firekeeper (with standard greeting!), the petrification disease stands in for a beast plague driving victims mad, the aesthetic and layout of the city is vaguely adjacent to Yharnam--not gothic of course, but bridges and plazas and carriages and boxes are all so strongly reminiscent that I sometimes felt like recognizing Cleric Beast's bridge, Gascoigne's summoning spot or Arianna's alley. Ergo and otherworldly materials will probably develop into an alien influence adjacent to BB's Great Ones and the arcane cosmic.
But don't fret, the original story elements possess some intrigue of their own. Next to the mystery of maddened puppets, it appears we will come across fairy-like influences that explain the origin of Geppetto's automaton vision, which has been wiped from at least two puppets' minds.
The petrification disease could also be interesting. I am not sure if it comes from the puppets yet, maybe an influence of their ergo, but having more cause of chaos than brutal mayhem is always good.
I always love me a good critique of large companies, so the different depictions of how they influence Krat's life on the large and small scale are welcomed. Soulslikes tend to struggle to put meaning behind their copies, but here I can already posit theories, like the struggle representing P's drive to gain a speck of humanity.
Hooray for making the dingy Daedalians blow up, boo for implying that Venigni is going to be a rad wheel-spinning robogrinder instead of the greedy loser he is meant to be. Knowing the genre, he's probably going to end up mad anyways though.
P should be voiced. No reason not to, really. He is a character with development, not a blank slate. FromSoft allowed Sekiro to speak, you don't have to cling to other titles' concepts.

Gameplay

So you don't think I'm *just* salty, here's my Souls Cred (I'm a bit proud of these, fight me): Finished DS1, DS3, BB, Sekiro & Elden Ring, the middle three several times, and recently beat DS3+Ashes at SL1. I gave up on my BL4 and No Beads Runs halfway through because I hate getting one-shot. On my first playthrough, I beat every (and I mean every) ER boss bar five in less than 10 tries. I like these games a lot and would like to believe that I know what I'm talking about.
Let's start with the compliments!
Enemies appear in plentiful sizes and shapes with interesting models and varied move sets. Regular puppets have a fun amount of health and deal dangerous but not overwhelming damage.
P's quickly unlocked weapons are equally versatile, even if they only seem to have two light/heavy attacks each. For the most part, they feel appropriately weighty and I never noticed a swing being too fast or slow. Reassembling weapon parts can be strange because the handle determines the moveset, so a blunt mace head might adopt a rapier's quick stabs. Funny enough to not be off-putting.
P himself moves adequately well. He doesn't slip too easily from the thin catwalks bridging Krat's roofs and turns quickly. Same for the camera, this is the first game in a while where I didn't crank the sensitivity up to 8.
Dogs don't teleport. Good dogs.
I skimmed most of the tutorials because they are just Souls mechanics, but they do a fine job of explaining the basics. Being able to see that you have enough ergo by the number becoming blue is a wonderful idea.
The skills seem to be fairly extensive and might allow for a solid build once you get far enough. They should be unlocked earlier though.
There is a rewarding amount of items strewn throughout the world and even the frequent sawtooth cog drops feel nice. It's cool to have something to trigger traps with from afar!
Dropping ergo in front of the boss room is very kind and a good conclusion when you hand the player infinite homeward bones with the watch.
I like the pulse cell regain through attacking. Could go a bit faster though, you don't have that many to begin with.
I've seen this arrangement somewhere before and I don't know where :(
And now we get to the detailed negatives, much of which comes down to the ever-maligned frame data.
Parrying needs a few more frames. Maybe guard should linger on its own instead of being spammable. Since they basically do not have to recover after a parry, slower weapons get one hit in, then they strike again and hyper armor through anything, even charged heavy attacks. This does not feel good by being unresponsive to player actions. Where's my reward for nailing three perfect parries in a row? And why do I sometimes take damage after I get the SUCCESS vibration and ping? Even red attacks shouldn't knock me down and punish me for perfect parrying.
Perhaps there should also be an indicator like Sekiro's red kanji, whose fading tells you when to act. The red sparks only tell you that a special attack is coming sometime in the next five seconds. Subverting Sekiro's kanji into not being able to *dodge* the red attack is also an odd choice, since you can dodge it with proper spacing. Without mikiri counter or jumps it only leaves parrying, and again, odd choice. The game didn't need this feature, considering...
Dodge has no travel distance and struggles to actually *dodge*. I am fine with limited iframes, but if I can't move out of an enemies range with two dodges, I question why I even have the ability.
Another factor for the insufficient dodge is how little Capacity improves your carry weight. If I want to stay under 29% for a somewhat acceptable dodge, I can't use a club AND armor pieces. The legion arm was thrown right out because of how heavy it is.
Strongly delayed attacks a la Elden Ring are just annoying. Malfunctioning puppets have an actual reason for doing it, but it's not natural. You have to memorize attack patterns instead of reacting to them. Waiting three seconds for an attack to come down in an instant feels weird.
The waiting game makes for a lackluster combination of Bloodborne and Sekiro. There need to be larger windows between attacks for heavy weapons and less recovery after striking back.
The weapon durability system isn't very appealing to me. The game moves too fast for this tactical element, which would work better in something paced like earlier Souls titles. Bouncing off the opponent with everything, including weapon arts, is *bad*. That's not how durability works or should be represented. Just make me deal less damage instead of stealing my turn for surviving until the end of the fight. You also forget about it because the areas are too short for your weapon to degrade noticeably.
Take a closer look at that snout!
The stronger watchmen feel like they have too much health (I was level 30 with a balanced build + rapier at the end). Not a lot too much, but their resistance could be lowered for more enjoyable mini bosses inbetween areas of enemies.
Dummy traps could last about 1.5 seconds less.
Why do you only get rally on chip damage? There is no lore reason like in Bloodborne, and I doubt there could be any that would make sense for it to be restricted to blocked attacks. Enemies (bosses!) should not have access to rally, period.
Enemies feel like they have block or jagged models/boxes that won't let me pass. When P collides with them, they stick instead of sliding past each other, which often meant that I was stuck right in the enemy's weapon arm. This is particularly obnoxious with long-limbed bosses, who will just trap me with their left arm and attack with the right. Because of the long dodge recovery, I can't adjust after this happens either.
Why are there six enemies with what appears to be instant parry next to each other? Give that to one or two in a group, otherwise you'll be ganked (completely fine) and an attempt to strike back after parrying one enemy will be punished.
Watchman Paarl leaves shock traps that sometimes hit you as soon as you get up, making it an unnecessary double punishment. He also has two very fast attacks with barely any windup that are inconsistent with his regular attack speed (and another fast one that winds up for about 2.5 seconds). Since all his strikes are either right-left windup while crouching or standing, they and the grab are difficult to distinguish.
Since all his larger attacks place him right on top of you (slams and Sonic slam), he can just combo any attack from there and hits. The grab often caught me because of our models sticking together when I tried to dodge after such a slam or a shock trap. The grab also reaches too far and has unintuitive windup-followup, which messes with dodge timings too hard for an early enemy.
Speaking of shock traps, the radial burst with random lightning bolts surrounded by a ring of lightning doesn't feel fair. Where am I supposed to dodge with my half-inch frolicking steps? Run startup is too long to flee, what fires first is hard to foresee. And when he decides to do another Paarl burst right after, which doesn't have the appropriate charge before blowing up, you've just eaten three to five attacks without seeing any of them.
I enjoyed my time a lot, some improvements and this'll be great!