SFF Gaming

[Alsmack]

I'm looking at probably being in Japan for another 1-2 years, which was not originally intended. With that I've decided to get a desktop build prepped. The downside here is a few fold:

1. Moving a desktop via normal airlines is generally impractical
2. Shipping is slow and/or hyper expensive
3. Part prices in Japan are for most major parts 50% higher MSRP than in the states. Example, 3080 US MSRP $699, Japan after USD conversion MSRP $1050
4. almost all parts at at least 10-20% more expensive

If not for COVID, I'd fly to China and put something together at half the cost, and get to visit China heh.

That said, the main things I'm looking at are something to support the following:

1. 2x 24" or 27" monitors, I don't give a shit about 4k. Haven't chosen monitors yet. Will likely 2680x1440, and 120hz+
2. 6x EQ at once - ezpz, a toaster can do this. But calls for 16GB RAM minimum. I'm going to go 32G minimum, 64 if price jump not too bad
3. I play some other demanding games from time to time, the mostly beastily of which is Escape from Tarkov.
4. I need wifi, even though I will do everything I can not to use it. Apartments in Japan demand flexibility.
5. The smaller the better, space is a premium, and I'd like to be able to save the box and ship it back to the states when I'm done.

That said, I've put together a prelim parts list for myself. It's 2k without the GPU and CPU, as prices aren't available

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/asiegman/ ... iew=PHdXkL

I've got about $500 or so of unnecessary crap in there (extra SSD for more storage, 64G instead of 32G)

The bigger problem is timing. If I build this in the US and stuff it in a box to Japan, I'll have probably a couple weeks in March to do so. If I try to buy this in Japan, I'm going to pay a LOT more. I was trying to keep my all in budget under $3k, but I don't think that's feasible anymore after initial pricing. Peripherals are likely to be $1000 for two good monitors and a decent KB (already have multiple mice), and shipping will easily be $100 which is still cheaper than paying the price markup here unless I can find a way to bring it on an airplane safely. Maybe check a pelican case?

Obvious places to save money:
1. SSD storage, I need at least 1TB for my normal use, would prefer 2, I don't really need the 4TB extra at the moment. Can add later easy enough
2. Get a 3060Ti or find a used 2080, both would be cheaper and more available than a 3080
3. Get a last gen Ryzen processor, or switch to a last gen Intel 6core build

If I did these, I could probably order today, but I wouldn't be upgrading much over either my wife's gaming laptop I'm using now, or my home desktop I already own that I could just buy a mini-itx case and motherboard for, and slap everything else in there. I might be able to sell my current desktop to a friend or relative for like, $500-1000 in extra cash, depending on what I leave in there. Anything not in that range would be vastly overcharging for it. And it needs two new good fans to replace the rattling ones on the cooler, so about $60 there or so.

Mostly just rubber ducking here, but figured folks might be interested in commenting. I know we have a few builders here, and if you're anything like me you enjoy seeing/nitpicking builds from time to time.

[Rapitiss]

There are several factors you're going to be fighting against:

1. There is a global shortage of parts used to make the CPU/GPU cores. They can't ramp up production
2. With the lock downs people are buying home computers/gaming machines. quote: 50%+ demand from last year.
3. The 7nm CPU/GPU cores are significantly better increasing demand even further.

I have heard that the global shortage is likely to take 1yr+ to resolve itself.

Getting a NVidia 3080 comes down to one of two things : Price or Time.

I know of two people who have purchased a new GPU. First one paid scalper prices because he wanted the 3090 NOW and could drop $2000+ on it. The 2nd person got a 3080 and Ryzen CPU by getting up at 4:30 am every day so he could be first in line at the local Microcenter.

To make matters worse the Trump Tariff exemptions ( are? / have? ) expired and nearly all the electronics goods are set to go up in price ( tax ) by 20%. Price I heard for 3080 makes the $699 MSRP into $850 ....

I do not envy anyone who is trying to put together the 'next gen' computer.

Pelican cases are your best bet, BUT, your CPU cooler and GPU can put a lot of stress on the boards. You may want to remove them from computer and pack them separately.

[Zargut]

I would be tempted to by a used machine while there, then sell it before I left.

[Alsmack]

I would be tempted to by a used machine while there, then sell it before I left.

PC Gaming isn't actually super popular in Japan. The used market is pretty bad here. It was my first thought as well.

Pelican cases are your best bet, BUT, your CPU cooler and GPU can put a lot of stress on the boards. You may want to remove them from computer and pack them separately.

Yep, if I decide to take it on the plane this would be exactly what I'd do.

I do not envy anyone who is trying to put together the 'next gen' computer.

Yeah, I wasn't really due for an upgrade till next year or so, but the newest stuff is such a large increase in performance, I wouldn't want to settle for less if building a new desktop at this point. I was going to deal with my wife's laptop while in Japan, but I wasn't supposed to be here full time for the next year or two when that was my plan.

I've also just considered putting up with laptop gaming, but hooking up external peripherals. But then you have to deal with laptop thermals, lack of future expandability for storage which I expect to need, and the typical laptop markup. Lenovo just released AMD Legion stuff that looks promising though.

[Rapitiss]

Honestly a laptop is the smallest form factor you are going to find.

Add an external brick for the monitors/keyboard/mouse and its not to bad.

In a pinch you can add an external USB drive of which ever flavor for more storage later.

[Rapitiss]

The thermal/power limits on laptop are going to significantly limit the GPU performance. There was a warning that the NVidia 30XX branding on the laptops is very misleading. They have significantly lower cores / clocks than the desktop variants and in some cases they expect the '3070/3080' in laptops to perform worse than previous generation '2070/2080' laptop variants.