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  • Building an RTX 3080 Powered Gaming PC

    Building an RTX 3080 Powered Gaming PC

    Keen to get your hands a new gaming PC powered by a latest and greatest next-gen RTX 3000 series GPU? Well of course Australia’s #1 custom PC retailer will have them ready for order on day one. All you need to do is sort out the rest of the build and get ready to lock in your order on September 17th.

    Getting the balance right

    Nothing is worse than sinking a lot of money in to a high powered GPU only to have your in game frame rates bottlenecked by other factors of your build! Getting this right is essential but not overly difficult once you know the basics. Matching the right CPU to your GPU is going to be the first and most important step. You’re mileage will vary from game to game as to where the exact bottleneck lies, but a 6 core, 12 thread CPU with a nice high turbo clock like the Intel 10600K or AMD 3600XT is great value for high end gaming.

    This is especially true when gaming at high resolutions like 1440p or 4K where the CPU is less of a bottleneck in general. If you’re the type of gamer that prefers ultra high frame rates over higher resolutions, stepping up to a 10700K or even the 10900K if it’s within your budget might be worth the extra spend to you.

    Not going overboard

    The #1 thing to avoid when customising a new PC is over-spending on components that won’t actually add any additional functionality or performance, and under-spending on critical core components that might bottleneck the performance of the others.

    The most common examples of over-spending we see here at Evatech is customers selecting anything above 32GB of RAM and going overboard on the power supply. Unless you have a very specific memory-hungry use case beyond gaming, 16GB is generally plenty, and being able to supply 1000w to a system that is only capable of drawing half that number is just a waste. Our custom PC builder will track the max potential system power draw and display it just above the power supply selection options for you to help you decide.

    Making sure it fits!

    The RTX3080 is behemoth of a GPU that takes a behemoth of a cooler to keep it under control, and as such, they’re pretty damn BIG! Much bigger than your average RTX2080. Unfortunately this means some cases won’t quite cut the mustard. One of our go favourites we’ve recommended in the past, the Corsair 220T falls short by a couple of centimetres. You won’t have to worry about this as our our online PC builder will let you know if you run into any compatibility issues as you configure your system. But if you’re buying the parts to build it yourself, it’s definitely something you need to keep in mind! Gone are the days you could take it for granted that your GPU will simply fit in a mid-tower ATX chassis.

    Keeping your cool

    These latest RTX 3000 series cards come with some pretty beefy higher power coolers to keep up with the heat generated from the GPU. That’s great right? Well, yes and no. Yes it’s great the cards already come with a big fat high powered cooler built in, but the heat that’s getting kicked out of that cooler is still has to get out of the chassis.

    This generation getting a good high airflow case could make the difference between your new GPU hitting its peak possible performance, or getting thermally throttled. Again, this is an easy one to solve once you’re aware of the problem.

    The easiest way to go about it is to simply select a case with plenty of visible ventilation. All solid aluminum and tempered glass panels? Far from ideal. Big mesh air grills or intakes and a couple of fans on the front panel? Perfect.

    There’s plenty to choose from but you can’t go wrong with the Corsair 275R Airflow in either black or white. As the name suggests, designed with great airflow in mind and rocks plenty of ventilation and three 120mm fans right out of the box. If you prefer the bling of RGB, stepping up to a Corsair iCue 465X (also in black or white) will get you where you need to go without sacrificing the all so important airflow.

    Storage Speed Matters Now?

    General consensus used to be that faster storage didn’t really affect game performance at all but was great for boot times, game load times, and general overall system responsiveness as you launched apps, copied around files and pretty much went about any non in-game activities. Well with DirectX 12 ultimate and RTX3000 comes what Nvidia is calling RTX I/O. Think of it as a direct line of communication and dedicated hardware on the GPU to handle data transfers from the storage drive to your GPU memory. Ultimately allowing for much higher bandwidth transfers between the two.

    Does this mean in-game performance will benefit from faster storage? Well, theoretically maybe? We’ll have to wait and see exactly how games start to utilise it. It will probably be most noticeable still in load times, or possible in some big open world games that stream world content in and out as you play. As for how it may or may not affect frame rates, only time will tell.

    Now you’ve got the general idea, time to customise!

    To get started simply head on over to our store page (linked here) and browse our range of pre-configured or fully customisable gaming PCs.

    The RTX 3080 will appear on launch day (17/09) with RTX 3090 a week later on the 25th. Remember, stock in first shipments are expected to be very limited with such high demand so get your orders in early as stock will be allocated on a first-in first-out basis.

    Don’t forget our sales and support team are always standing by to help, so if you have any questions this article didn’t cover just jump on our contact page (here) and shoot us a message.

  • 2019’s most popular PC components

    2019’s most popular PC components

    Another year just about wrapped up for us. With the year ending, it’s common to look back at what made this year as great as it was. And what better way to do that than with some data and graphs!

    While we sometimes think we know what the most popular choices would be since we build all the PCs right here ourselves, it’s easy to forget or be swayed by what’s been selling recently. The following graphs are true for all PCs sold by Evatech to Evatech customers.

    2019’s most popular graphics cards

    A note that each GPU’s data is a combined total of OC editions, special order editions, liquid cooled variants, etc. to give a more full representation of each GPU.

    Also worth keeping in mind that the Super cards only launched late July.

    Since there are no AMD graphics cards here – it’s pretty clear Nvidia is dominating the gaming scene right now. But what will 2020 have in store?

    2019’s most popular CPUs

    Similar to GPUs, all CPU variants are combined to show each CPU’s data. eg: 9900, 9900KF, 9990K, and 9900KS are all under the “9900” umbrella.

    i5 takes out the win for 2019 with i7 not far behind, and i9 (for those with larger budgets) in third place. We have some representation from AMD in the form of Threadripper (workstation/server use) as well as their consumer grade 2nd & 3rd gen Ryzen chips.

    2019’s most popular cases

    Again, combined case variants to represent each chassis to the fullest.

    Unsurprisingly for all Evatech staff, the Corsair 270R chassis takes the crown. A massively popular case accounting for over 20% of all our builds for the year! A huge amount of cases we sell are Corsair, as you can quite easily make out from the graph. With the large amount of case options we offer, the spread is pretty large over a number of cases.

    Worth noting here that the Deepcool Earlkase gets such a large slice of the pie thanks to being the case for our RTG Black/White systems.

    This is why customisable PCs is so important

    While we’d love to give each and every one of you an i7 or i9 with an RTX 2080 Ti (since that offers the best gaming experience right now) – we can plainly see that’s not how this works. Everyone has different budgets, different tastes, and unique needs & wants.

    Our average PC price tag this year was $3,300, up just $100 on last year’s average. The most expensive single PC this year coming in at just over $13,000, up on 2018’s $11,500 but still not beating 2017’s $14,000 PC.

    We’d hate to be one of those stores that just sells pre-built PCs with very little options to customise. We’re truly custom. Check it out while we’re on break, and place an order for when we’re back in the office (January 2nd) replying to emails, taking phone calls, and processing orders: putting smiles on thousands more customers in 2020.

  • Studies show: gamers have better K/D ratio with higher FPS

    Studies show: gamers have better K/D ratio with higher FPS

    Nvidia seems to have put a whole heap of research into this subject, and also graced us with heaps of graphs, infographics, and easy to digest information regarding high FPS and the gaming advantages it brings. Not alone in the study by any means, with Linus & friends from Linus Tech Tips also studying the field.

    (more…)
  • Graphics Card Roundup (2019 December)

    Graphics Card Roundup (2019 December)

    Back again due to popular demand! Another edition of GPU roundup so you can make a more informed decision when customising your next gaming PC.

    Custom Gaming PC Graphics Card Prices vs. Passmark Score

    Not much has changed compared to last roundup. Prices went up, and have come back down to just under where they previously sat. Nvidia has released a few new variants of GPUs for us to choose from, but apart from more choices, nothing too exciting.

    Due to the GT 1030 and GTX 1050 Ti’s lower performance values and high price points, we have removed them from our Custom Gaming PC lineups.

    They will be removed from future roundups as a result.

    Although this makes for more expensive gaming PCs, it also ensures more compelling and capable gaming PCs for our gaming oriented customers. We’d prefer this than potentially misleading customers into believing they’re getting good value when they may not be happy with the very low-end price/performance the cards offered.

    Speaking of price to performance…

    Passmark Points per Dollar

    Green for Nvidia GeForce cards, Red for AMD Radeon cards.

    The combination of these graphs tells us that Nvidia is currently dominating the graphics card market. No surprises there. However, it appears that if you were wanting to spend under between $700-$800 on a graphics card, your best bet should be the RX 5700 XT, which is probably the only time we’d recommend AMD over Nvidia. There’s a bit more to the story though, such as each individual game performing differently, as well as different resolution setting as well as level of detail, and also the other hardware going with the PC! Finally, Nvidia is generally better at releasing updated drivers for game releases, and often sees better gaming performance due to this.

    So, GTX 1650 Super is the best value – let’s make all PCs with this graphics card! Not so fast. Just because something represents great value for money doesn’t mean it’s suited to your needs. For instance, an entry level small-sized car is great value, but isn’t well suited to racing, moving large items, etc.

    The majority of our customers are satisfied enough with the performance an RTX 2060 Super offers. But there’s always those few who will settle for nothing less than the best, which is currently only achieved with Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Ti. Sadly though, Nvidia knows nobody competes with them at the high end, so they’re dictating a high premium on the high performing GPUs. This is not Evatech’s doing!

    If you’re after something high end without what we consider “overspending” then the RTX 2070 Super is likely the one for you.

    But everyone is different. If you have any questions, or just want to get some tailored advice, get in touch with our friendly staff. Or try your hand at customising your own gaming PC!

    If you’re just after a graphics card, check out the insanely (good) priced Colorful range we have. GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Super, RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070 Super, and RTX 2080 Super and VERY limited stock of RTX 2080 Ti. Strictly while stocks last. So get in quick!

    Evatech staff are constantly updating component pricing as supplier pricing changes due to new shipments, or market changes. At all times we do our best to deliver the lowest prices to customers.

  • Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

    Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

    Coming in 2020 (next year!) Microsoft Flight Simulator is the next iteration of one of the most loved simulation games. Featuring everything from light planes to wide-body jets, you’ll fly highly detailed aircraft in an incredibly realistic world. Create your flight plan and fly anywhere on the planet. Enjoy flying day or night and face realistic, challenging weather conditions.

    The game will support 4K and HDR, catering to next gen-consoles and high end PC gamers. Releasing on Windows 10 (PC) in 2020, and Xbox One at a later date, and also available on Xbox Game Pass.

    It’ll be 14 years since the previous Flight Simulator release back in 2006 (not including the 2014 Steam release which was the same title). And from the looks of things, Microsoft has been hard at work at least some of this time.

    What took so long?

    As already stated, the game will enable you to fly all over the world. To pull this off, Microsoft is using data from Bing Maps, and highly detailed satelite imagery. It will be able to generate photorealistic 3D models of buildings, trees, and terrain. The game will also have realistic physics and utilise real world weather data. For example, if it’s raining somewhere in real life: it will be raining there in game. Invidual clouds will have their own characterstics, resulting in different impacts on the aircraft. There’s animals. And Flight Simulator will even populate roads with vehicles, water will flow realistically based on wind direction, trees will have individual leaves. The game, like Earth, has over 2 million cities, and over 45,000 airports.

    The size of this game is way, way, way larger than you have the space for. But this hasn’t stopped Microsoft. Instead of downloading the entire game (more than 2PB [petabytes], or 2 million GB), you will stream the data from their servers. In the settings, you’ll be able to allocate a certain amount of storage to cache, and also pre-load data required for a flight. You will be able to play in offline mode. It’s basically Flight Simulator on demand style. Or Netflix style. Everywhere will be at the tips of your fingers.

    Yes, you’ll be able to find your house.

    Coming soon, get ready!

    To date, there are no hardware requirements mentioned. But, given it’s coming to Xbox One, minimum requirements shouldn’t be too high. However, to be able to play at the photorealistic graphics settings, 4K, HDR, and a high frame rate: you’ll likely need something extremely up to date, and high end.

    With requirements not even hinted at yet, you can be assured that this game will be on our radar. Pun very much intended. We’ll be back with updates for this game. Previous Flight Simulator titles have been huge driving forces for customers buying gaming PCs from us, so we know this is a popular game.

    If you pressured me for a guess at what hardware would run this game decently from current the generation?
    i5 9600K / R5 3600, 16GB RAM, 500GB of free storage space, and Nvidia RTX 2060. Or higher, of course.

    You can customise and buy your very own gaming PC today!