Features Set you NEED in your PC

[Yongkit]

Lets have some coffee time and discuss on the features set you wish and hope to have with your PC and whether it is worth your investment?

how many of you agreed with the video below ?



I believe there should be no right or wrong since all will be personal experience and opinion discussion

 

[wtfh4x]

IMO for the motherboard section, he's clearly trying to upsell a more expensive board to people who might not need them.

Paying more for power and reset buttons on the board for 'testing outside the case', a one-time only use is really wasteful. Shorting the power pins with a screwdriver or just plugging in the case power button header and using that outside the case works perfectly fine.

BIOS Flashback for BIOS updates? I mean come on, in 2021 you shouldn't be buying a board without some form of onboard backup BIOS. Even the most basic Gigabyte boards have this feature for a decade at least. The only reason you should ever need BIOS flashback is to update an older board to take a newer CPU, that I can understand. In the GPU section, he then goes on to say DualBIOS is recommended on GPUs? Why would it be recommended for GPUs but not motherboards? As a tech reviewer he should know better.

And then it goes to complete crap when he claims using fan splitters will cause a cheap motherboard to not last long cos "the amps are too high". It's just fear-mongering so someone who doesn't know much will buy an expensive board they don't need. The fact that companies like Noctua have CPU fan header splitters for air coolers with dual fans are a clear indication that fan splitters are safe to use as long as you don't go overboard with it.

 

[soltrdc]

I totally agree with this. The part at 7:55 is exactly what happened to me and my mobo had a power button on it so I did exactly that, press it and poof the system worked. I already suspected I connected the pins wrongly but this just made it simple to conclude.

Many other things in this video as well are very nice to have, especially for DIY builders. If you buy pre-builds then of course it doesn't matter, someone makes it work for you and if it fails, someone will fix it. DIY is a different animal altogether. All the little things may not make a big diff on their own, but add all together, I'd say is easily worth the price difference. Time is money after all, and stress is something most of us already have too much of

Regarding the price factor - in the lifetime of a system, even taking a medium length time of 5 years, differences of say $100 is just $20 a year. Would I pay $20 a year for a better system? Absolutely. And the thing about buying something better from the start, if you can afford it, vs. buy cheap and upgrade later is you get to enjoy the benefits right from the start. Like, sure, buy a 5600X now and upgrade to 5900X in 2 years time when the price drops, but if you add up the difference you may pay the same and perhaps even more, while you miss 2 years of using the better chip. Yeah this is CPU but same goes for any PC component.

 

[watzup_ken]

I agree all these are nice to have. What you need is that the system works, that's all. I've build a lot of systems, all without power buttons on the motherboard for example, and they are perfectly fine and functional. For me, I would have prefer not having to look into the casing in the first place.

 

[soltrdc]

I agree all these are nice to have. What you need is that the system works, that's all. I've build a lot of systems, all without power buttons on the motherboard for example, and they are perfectly fine and functional. For me, I would have prefer not having to look into the casing in the first place.

Agree, so if in direct reply to @Yongkit 's thread title, I'd say none of the features are an actual need, but they all definitely have value.

 

[Yongkit]

IMO for the motherboard section, he's clearly trying to upsell a more expensive board to people who might not need them.

Paying more for power and reset buttons on the board for 'testing outside the case', a one-time only use is really wasteful. Shorting the power pins with a screwdriver or just plugging in the case power button header and using that outside the case works perfectly fine.

BIOS Flashback for BIOS updates? I mean come on, in 2021 you shouldn't be buying a board without some form of onboard backup BIOS. Even the most basic Gigabyte boards have this feature for a decade at least. The only reason you should ever need BIOS flashback is to update an older board to take a newer CPU, that I can understand. In the GPU section, he then goes on to say DualBIOS is recommended on GPUs? Why would it be recommended for GPUs but not motherboards? As a tech reviewer he should know better.

And then it goes to complete crap when he claims using fan splitters will cause a cheap motherboard to not last long cos "the amps are too high". It's just fear-mongering so someone who doesn't know much will buy an expensive board they don't need. The fact that companies like Noctua have CPU fan header splitters for air coolers with dual fans are a clear indication that fan splitters are safe to use as long as you don't go overboard with it.

Very interesting point of view any comments on the features of following:

1. flashing bios without CPU

2. power delivery to CPU, RAM & GPU

3. mobo sound card

4. mobo wifi

personally i think why GPU have dual bios compared to mobo because GPU are standalone components which you unable to change/upgrade it chips easily as example we cant change a 3070 to be 3090. and without bios upgrade we still can use it as standard GPU.

Unlike mobo which cater to fits or interchange different generation cpu based on user requirements, even it had dual bios (same generation) we still need to upgrade to newer bios for new generation CPU otherwise it wont work, this is for AMD.
Too bad for Intel always limited within 2 generation max of mobo pairing with their CPU.

 

[Yongkit]

Agree, so if in direct reply to @Yongkit 's thread title, I'd say none of the features are an actual need, but they all definitely have value.

I believe it was the features that distinguish between standard mobo and high-end mobo

one things for sure was the components used in high-end mobo which we can only feel it immediately when we touch its. if i were to go to the store given the opportunity touching both standard mobo and high-end mobo, i will fall to the trap of buying the high-end mobo.

To tough is to believe

 

[Yongkit]

This thread title not only limited to mobo it includes all other components in pc like dedicated sounds card could be one of the discussion points too nowadays I am not sure of sound cards still popular but I personally using external sound card for better sound stage and amps for headset too.

 

[Lastwishes]

This thread title not only limited to mobo it includes all other components in pc like dedicated sounds card could be one of the discussion points too nowadays I am not sure of sound cards still popular but I personally using external sound card for better sound stage and amps for headset too.

All nice to have, especially for people who tinker with their systems often. But most general users won't care.

On soundcards, I'm still using the Asus Essence STX I got years ago (I think it's been in 3 of my systems across the years). Have thought about freeing up the slot to keep the build cleaner, but even an old card still sounds better than most onboard. I have external dacs I use for headsets, but I still find having the software controls from the Asus important in my daily usage. Not sure if there's anything that's clearly an upgrade from the Essence nowadays. Feels like there isn't a market for pcie soundcards nowadays.

 

[wtfh4x]

Very interesting point of view any comments on the features of following:

1. flashing bios without CPU

2. power delivery to CPU, RAM & GPU

3. mobo sound card

4. mobo wifi

personally i think why GPU have dual bios compared to mobo because GPU are standalone components which you unable to change/upgrade it chips easily as example we cant change a 3070 to be 3090. and without bios upgrade we still can use it as standard GPU.

Unlike mobo which cater to fits or interchange different generation cpu based on user requirements, even it had dual bios (same generation) we still need to upgrade to newer bios for new generation CPU otherwise it wont work, this is for AMD.
Too bad for Intel always limited within 2 generation max of mobo pairing with their CPU.

I already commented on no.1, its also called BIOS Flashback. Simply unnecessary unless you're in that tiny time frame between CPU generations where you need to update the BIOS before putting in a new CPU. Definitely not a "must-have" feature.

2. IMO only important if you are overclocking, I don't think most people do that nowadays thanks to locked chips. Again, if I was gonna put $100 extra into a motherboard just for overclocking, I'd be seriously considering putting $100 into a faster CPU in the first place. $50SGD gets you from a Ryzen 3500x to a 3600 with double the thread count, and you simply can't double thread count by overclocking. For RAM and GPU, same thing, just put the money straight into it. If you want a gain, pay for a concrete gain, not a potential gain.

3. Any audiophile would recommend a DAC instead of onboard sound. You can switch your DAC to other devices, you can replace it independently of your motherboard etc.

4. If you need Wifi and there's no practical option to add it on eg in an ITX board, go for it. But most of the time, a $20-30 Wifi card does exactly the same.

I think you're misunderstanding the point of DualBIOS, DualBIOS saves your board in the event of a power failure while updating the BIOS. It just copies over from the backup BIOS automatically in case the primary BIOS is corrupt.

No need to prepare a USB for BIOS flashback, in any case, how exactly would someone create a USB stick with a BIOS image for BIOS flashback if they didn't have a second computer? You can buy Windows 10 on USB from a store, but no store is going to sell you ROG Maximus Bios version 1.1 on a USB.

My main beef with this video is that all these features he's touting are definitely not something you NEED. I think it is downright misleading that he's trying to tell you these features are what you need while holding a $600 motherboard. You might have a newbie falling for these tricks and then wasting money on ******** in a time when money is hard to come by, and we're already significantly overpaying for PC components right now.

 

[watzup_ken]

This thread title not only limited to mobo it includes all other components in pc like dedicated sounds card could be one of the discussion points too nowadays I am not sure of sound cards still popular but I personally using external sound card for better sound stage and amps for headset too.

Sound card is a nice to have feature, but like you, I am using an external DAC. I would actually prefer motherboard makers to not put in too fancy a sound card because it adds on to the cost, and I feel not many people are very particular about sound. And no matter what they do, they are unlikely to produce an onboard sound solution that will please audiophiles.

 

[NightRaven49]

2. IMO only important if you are overclocking, I don't think most people do that nowadays thanks to locked chips. Again, if I was gonna put $100 extra into a motherboard just for overclocking, I'd be seriously considering putting $100 into a faster CPU in the first place. $50SGD gets you from a Ryzen 3500x to a 3600 with double the thread count, and you simply can't double thread count by overclocking.

not 100% correct. some poorly made boards cant even handle cpus that they officially support, like msi's initial midrange x570 lineup with the 3900x. this could prove disadvantageous when using a midrange cpu at first and then upgrading to a top of the line one later on. and only cpus from intel are locked, and then again not all are: k series intel cpus and all ryzen cpus are unlocked. overclocking can also prove useful in the long run when trying to eke out as much performance as possible as demands increase over the years.

as for bios flash, i feel it is still a good feature to have. ive come across a few times where having it proved useful and sometimes where not having it caused quite a few issues. it is also a pretty good alternative to dualbios. ur argument for not having a separate computer to write the bios file into a usb doesnt hold much water, since most ppl who can afford playing around with these kinds of pcs usually have a workable laptop around that can do just that.

 

[xonix]

BIOS flashback & Diagnostic LED would be useful during troubleshooting

 

[soltrdc]

Diagnostic LED definitely... Ytd reseating my GPU after reseat cannot boot, tot gpu problem. Then look at my board LED (MSI MPG B460I), indicated DRAM issue. Turns out I accidentally unseat one of the RAM modules while handling the board. Problem solved!

 

[wtfh4x]

not 100% correct. some poorly made boards cant even handle cpus that they officially support, like msi's initial midrange x570 lineup with the 3900x. this could prove disadvantageous when using a midrange cpu at first and then upgrading to a top of the line one later on. and only cpus from intel are locked, and then again not all are: k series intel cpus and all ryzen cpus are unlocked. overclocking can also prove useful in the long run when trying to eke out as much performance as possible as demands increase over the years.

as for bios flash, i feel it is still a good feature to have. ive come across a few times where having it proved useful and sometimes where not having it caused quite a few issues. it is also a pretty good alternative to dualbios. ur argument for not having a separate computer to write the bios file into a usb doesnt hold much water, since most ppl who can afford playing around with these kinds of pcs usually have a workable laptop around that can do just that.

Good to have, but not NEED to have. That's my whole beef. Saying people NEED to have these things like in the video title is plain wrong.

It is absolutely ridiculous to claim that "most people" have a workable laptop to service a desktop with, it is like saying if you can afford one car which breaks down, you can afford a second car to go buy parts for it. That definitely doesn't fly when the video is aimed at those who are starting out building PCs, they most likely are on a budget already trying to build their first PC and now they're expected to have a laptop also? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[NightRaven49]

Good to have, but not NEED to have. That's my whole beef. Saying people NEED to have these things like in the video title is plain wrong.

It is absolutely ridiculous to claim that "most people" have a workable laptop to service a desktop with, it is like saying if you can afford one car which breaks down, you can afford a second car to go buy parts for it. That definitely doesn't fly when the video is aimed at those who are starting out building PCs, they most likely are on a budget already trying to build their first PC and now they're expected to have a laptop also? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

i agree that bios flashback is not a need, but id wager for ppl looking to build (rather than simply acquire) a pc, they would already have enough disposable income to have some form of basic computing beforehand. i wouldnt liken it to having a 2nd car as in ur analogy but rather a bicycle, so nothing too expensive but something at least functional and is something that most people at this level of spending power generally have. heck, u could probably use a regular smart tv to do the writing to usb.
having a good quality (not necessarily feature rich) mobo is in a grey area between need and want i feel.

 

[Yongkit]

Is RGB feature in the pc components now a need? How many DIY will choose no RGB setup nowadays? I believe it is RGB that really push up all the components prices.

 

[CopySeeSewDye]

Is RGB feature in the pc components now a need? How many DIY will choose no RGB setup nowadays? I believe it is RGB that really push up all the components prices.

Rgb has always and will be a want lol, its like u stare at ur bare pc and then u look at other builds and u get tempted. It does nothing useful to the pc. I still have friends who (unlike me) choose to be price efficient so they usually choose no rgb stuff unless there is little price difference. Usually the standard rgb parts alone makes a build cost at least 200+ more.

 

[Yongkit]

Do we NEED more than 1 casing fan (rear exhaust ) as what normally the standard pre-built setup for DIY system?

 

[Mach3.2]

Rgb has always and will be a want lol, its like u stare at ur bare pc and then u look at other builds and u get tempted. It does nothing useful to the pc. I still have friends who (unlike me) choose to be price efficient so they usually choose no rgb stuff unless there is little price difference. Usually the standard rgb parts alone makes a build cost at least 200+ more.

I avoid RGB lighting, not really my thing.