My quest to DIY a gaming console

[Angrboda]

Looking more deeply into the A750. At $150, it has a lot of advantages over the RX580 or RX590. Even if Steam's API is optimized for AMD, no amount of optimization can erase a 100% increase in rasterization speed, Intel's upscaling technology is better than FSR 3, and the A750 supports XeSs 3.0 which means that you get MFG, which optimization isn't a match for. The only sticking spot is that there are some slowdowns in DX11 titles, but not a 50% decrease, and ostensibly you can use Vulkan wrappers for DX11 to eliminate that problem. I'm looking at wanting a card for emulation from SNES to PS3. The latest recommendations for an ideal setup specify a 5700 XT or an RTX 2060. An A750 is faster than both, and neither have MFG. The next step up is the 6600. The price is comparable, but again upscaling is a sticking point. You can run FSR3 which isn't as good as XeSs 3.0, or you can run FSR 4.1, but because the 6600 doesn't have FP8, you'll face a 20-30% overhead penalty, making it slower than the A750 with the latest upscaling enabled. It's interesting. I had considered the B580, but given that the A750 is good enough for PS3 emulation, I'm leaning that way. My 5070 is in the shop. If Asus doesn't fix it, the A750 looks sufficient to tide me through to 2027. In hindsight, the 5070 was overkill, but I was obsessed with the VRAM issue. Whatever. Tomorrow is a new day.

[emjay]

Hi there Jackalope, sorry I'm a bit late replying to this thread, but I don't read the forums that much these days. I don't know how far you are along with your quest, but for whatever it's worth I'd highly recommend a Linux distro called "Pop OS" for gaming with Steam. it's a beautiful OS and very simple to use... very intuitive. I got it because it had support for my gaming laptop's (a "Lenovo Legion'... which also I'd highly recommend... I love Lenovo laptops and this gaming one has been my best one yet) graphics card which I couldn't find easily anywhere else. So glad I did cos I just love this distro for that, and it's in my opinion a really viable alternative to Windows 11 gaming.

I also just bought a new xbox controller that I actually like... love in fact.. . and would highly recommend, which has actually led me to willfully using the xbox for gaming for the first time in years (usually I just use it for streaming TV and do all my gaming on a Playstation). This controller is called an "8bitdo Pro 2", which chatgpt helped me find, and it's awesome for so many reasons... it's "wired" so always plugged in and with no batteries, so no need to faff around with wireless connections or constantly recharging batteries, and amazingly it's built more in the style of a PlayStation controller, both in looks and feel, yet still, despite being third party, having Microsoft's apparent full approval (ie "officially licensed for xbox" ).  For me, traditional Microsoft xbox controllers, both standard and elite, have always been uncomfortable, unergonomic I'd say, and very fragile... for instance they always set off RSI in me where PS4 ones never do, so gave up trying to game with them long ago, but this new controller is not like that at all... feels great and is quite cheap too, about £35, so it looks like it's going to be in reliable supply. it also has "Hall effect" analogue sticks, which was a wonderful and unexpected bonus... ie magnetic sticks are much more durable and drift-resistant... and for such a cheap price, I'm amazed. If the anti-drift effect is reliable, which tbh I don't have too much faith in these days, being let down many times on that score, then that would be fully the ideal for me, and totally worth switching over to xbox being my main console, but we'll see :-)

[Jackalope]

Bazzite is also based on Linux, but I will give Pop OS a look. Bazzite's big screen mode makes the experience about the same as a Steam Deck, except in a small form factor PC, controlled exclusively with a Xbox controller.

--

The whole thing is disassembled and packed for travel south. There's some question whether the ATX power supply I already have will fit, if not I need to spring for an SFX PSU, for a lot of pesos.

[Jackalope]

Started final assembly today in a Jonsbo D32 Pro. No problem fitting the ATX PSU (Rosewill 850W Gold modular), and I could easily fit a much longer GPU in it if I chose. Also no problem fitting the tall CPU cooler (Thermalright Assassin).

The remaining challenge is where to mount the fan controller where it won't be an eyesore because of course I have to have 4 12cm PWM case fans and the innards are visible. I can reconfigure the case to increase the space under the motherboard from 19mm to 25mm but I have to completely disassemble it to do so and that's not happening today, or ever if I don't have to.

Still a bit away from powering it up.

[awty]

I read posts like this and feel so far out of it. My gaming, and knowledge of hard and software required, consists of Solitaire online. hangs head in shame

[Angrboda]

The Thermalright Assassin is killer.

[Angrboda]

My 5070 was returned with nothing wrong with it. Which raises the question of why the Z77 system died when I fired it up. I guess there's some unanswered questions there that I may look into. I think I'm going to buy a refurbished A750 and play with that for a few months. It's nothing that I need, but I'm very curious about how well that would work for my needs. Then I'll buy and sell stuff to get to my ideal configuration. I doubt that I'll sell the 5070 in order to run one of the Intel graphics cards long-term, but I'm not ruling it out, either. I might upgrade to a 5070 Ti or a 9070 XT in 2027.

[Angrboda]

The Z77 board has a bent CPU pin. I'm guessing it got bent a long time ago and as a result of being moved around, it finally shorted out. Probably no point in trying to fix it. The question now is whether to test the CPU and RAM that came out of it. I think that's only $20 of parts, so that's probably not worth the risk either.

[Angrboda]

Running tests on an H61 based system with an i5-2500 installed. I thought it was running slow, but the benchmarks don't reflect that. Probably just my perception.

[Jackalope]

Benchmarks can be filthy lies depending on what they're measuring and how.