So PC gamers, 2018 is almost over, what new PC components did you buy this year?

Another year, another new PC hardware componets has come such as new GPU & CPU from our pals at AMD, Intel, & Nvidia. Ryzen 7 2700X & i9-9900K, both new CPU and most of all, Nvidia new GPU the RTX makes splash on the PC market. For better or worst, did you buy anything new this year?

Me, I got myself a Ryzen 7 2700X, best CPU I enjoy so far and that's about it as far as new hardware goes.

What does this topic have to do with System Wars, isn't there a PC forum?

Almost a full build with an i7 8700k, SSD, rtx 2080 ti, and upped to 16gb ram after not upgrading for a long time. I splurged on the gpu since there were great black friday deals at my retailer.

The results were massive, to say the least lol.

Still rocking the same computer I built in mid-2015. I made a few mods this year:

• Sold the 980Ti and got a 1070Ti. Similar performance but waaay more efficient.
• Probably added an SSD at some point. They're so cheap now.

Also, the server got a new 4TB drive to extend the array.

I've been planning a new build in 2019, not sure I'm going to pull the trigger though. I will probably wait and see what's up with Ryzen 3 and whatever Intel is working on.

I'll probably go ahead and pick a theme, get a case and set all that stuff up and just use my existing hardware until something appealing comes out. I really want to pick a platform that gives me more than the standard 16 PCIe lanes.

Nothing for me. My Geforce 980 is still maxing things out, going on 5 years old now, too :D

My processor is also old, but I futureproofed a bit at the time with an i7 series, so it's still going strong as well.

And 16 GB memory is still enough haha.

We will see what happens in 2019, but right now I feel no need to upgrade. I always want to upgrade, but I think I might have to skip a gen or two.

@blackballs: Guess you wasn't here when I made a thread for 2017 and this is about bragging rights when it comes to these discussions.

He also said he got a new rig in another thread. Yet now he is hating on the notion of even speaking of such a thing.

Talk about low level trolling.

After my tax return, I picked up a BenQ 35" ultrawide monitor (3440x1440) that also has 100 Hz refresh. Maybe not as huge as 120 or 144 Hz, but then it's a reasonable fps to get from most current AAA games at that resolution. With a game like Warframe, I can still play fully maxed and still get near 200 fps most of the time. Check it out...

I was tempted to get a Ryzen 2700 on Black Friday, to upgrade from my 1600X. But then I recalled that the Ryzen 3 CPU's are expected to release some time in March or April next year. Not really too far off. Also something I can use my tax return for, hoping it's as good next year as this year's was.

And the Ryzen 3's will be a far bigger leap than the Ryzen 2's were over original generation. Reason being Ryzen 2 is actually the Zen+ architecture, so more like a Zen 1.5 (maybe 1.4?) moderate upgrade. Ryzen 3000 series will be the first actual Zen 2 chips. Kind of confusing how the Box branding isn't quite lining up with the architecture generations, that Ryzen 2000 wasn't Zen 2. But there it is. I guess it helps to think of Ryzen 2000's like the PS4 Pro and X1X, a "mid-gen moderate upgrade".

There have been these leaks of what to expect with Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2) and some of it is suspect but even if not all as shown, there's still vast improvements the full new Ryzen generation will be bringing, and a whole new level of competition against Intel. Plus the X570 motherboards will support PCIe 4.0, doubling the bandwidth from 3rd gen. If my understanding is correct, the expanded bandwidth (or widened bottleneck depending on how you look at it) alone could afford a huge performance boost to existing graphics cards. In my case a GTX 1070 (vanilla). Not double of course, but a significant performance increase as the GPU pushes its renders out faster.

Can't wait to see the official specs.

i7 7700k

RX 580 8GB

700 watt PU

Nothing mind bobbling, but there's no need to be when all i'm playing are past gen console games.

Just an Rx 570. Wasnt planning upgrading from my ageing r9 380 until AMD's navi gpu's and Nvidias rtx 2060 release but a 130 euros deal on RX 570 with RE remaster and Devil May cry included was to good to pass

Upgraded from my old i7 3770 this year, so yeah, I bought quite a lot of stuff:

• New case: Corsair Obsidian 250D
• New PSU: Seasonic Prime Titanium 650W -> replaced with a warranty-claimed 750W after factory defect shorted it dead
• New Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming
• New CPU: Intel i7 8700K
• New (liquid) cooler: ID-Cooling Frostflow 240 -> replaced with a warranty-claimed Enermax Liqmax II 240
• New RAMs: 2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHz DDR4
• New hard drive: Western Digital Black 6TB

Now just waiting for a compact graphics card with good bang for around ~$300 US worth of buck. Maybe next year.

@AdobeArtist said:

After my tax return, I picked up a BenQ 35" ultrawide monitor (3440x1440) that also has 100 Hz refresh. Maybe not as huge as 120 or 144 Hz, but then it's a reasonable fps to get from most current AAA games at that resolution. With a game like Warframe, I can still play fully maxed and still get near 200 fps most of the time. Check it out...

@davillain- said:

Me, I got myself a Ryzen 7 2700X, best CPU I enjoy so far and that's about it as far as new hardware goes.

I was tempted to get a Ryzen 2700 on Black Friday, to upgrade from my 1600X. But then I recalled that the Ryzen 3 CPU's are expected to release some time in March or April next year. Not really too far off. Also something I can use my tax return for, hoping it's as good next year as this year's was.

And the Ryzen 3's will be a far bigger leap than the Ryzen 2's were over original generation. Reason being Ryzen 2 is actually the Zen+ architecture, so more like a Zen 1.5 (maybe 1.4?) moderate upgrade. Ryzen 3000 series will be the first actual Zen 2 chips. Kind of confusing how the Box branding isn't quite lining up with the architecture generations, that Ryzen 2000 wasn't Zen 2. But there it is. I guess it helps to think of Ryzen 2000's like the PS4 Pro and X1X, a "mid-gen moderate upgrade".

There have been these leaks of what to expect with Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2) and some of it is suspect but even if not all as shown, there's still vast improvements the full new Ryzen generation will be bringing, and a whole new level of competition against Intel. Plus the X570 motherboards will support PCIe 4.0, doubling the bandwidth from 3rd gen. If my understanding is correct, the expanded bandwidth (or widened bottleneck depending on how you look at it) alone could afford a huge performance boost to existing graphics cards. In my case a GTX 1070 (vanilla). Not double of course, but a significant performance increase as the GPU pushes its renders out faster.

Can't wait to see the official specs.

Great set up as always AdobeArtist :)

Before I got the 2700X during Black Friday, I heard we were getting Zen 2 next year but I didn't feel like waiting and went ahead and got into 2700X and I'm totally satisfied with my new build but kept my 650w, SSD 1TB, & GTX 1080Ti. (Ryzen 7 2700X/GTX 1080Ti)

Just a bunch of ssd's really. Going to grab a 7nm ryzen chip when they release early 2019.

Purchased this year...

PSU: Corsair RM 850x

MOBO: Z390 Gigabyte Aorus Pro

CPU: i9 9900K

Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer 360

GPU: RTX 2080 Ti Zotac AMP

Monitor: Alienware AW3418DW (3440x1440/120hz G-Sync)

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe

None for me. I might do my gpu in another year or so, but I'm still happy with my 970 and i5 6500

I built a Mini ITX PC with a GTX 1080, Ryzen R5 1600, 8GB RAM and 7200 RPM 1TB HDD. I was gonna upgrade to 16gbs but never got around to it. During Black Friday I got an open box Dell G3 15 laptop with a maxi-q GTX 1060, Core i5 8300H, 1tbHDD + 16gb intel optane and 8GB RAM.

Nothing, though I need to upgrade my CPU which will also require a new mobo and RAM

Corsair Node, Corsair Dark core rgb and Wireless charging mouse pad, GTX 1080, 27” 4K monitor, Pny 240gb SSD

I'd have guessed you would have one of those more bragadotious type rigs.

@davillain- said:

Too. Many. FANS!! :o

I downgraded if that counts. I had a mid range PC in Australia but decided not to bring it with me. Probably would have costed more than it’s worth to bring it. Sold it and using a piece of shit laptop now :(

bought a new Monitor earlier this year.

its a Acer Predator TN panel with 1440p/144hz/Gsync. not sure of the model number

didn't buy any other computer related stuff this year

Well, upgrading is an option for a PC gamer and if you want the best of the best, it's gonna cost ya but for Xantufrog's case, his 970 is still a good GPU just gaming on normal stuff but the 970 is one of the most used GPU's on Steam survey. The 970 is still holding it's own, but it's starting to show it's age in newer games at 1080p, so even he knows he's gotta upgrade sooner next year.

@tgob89: Why? I keep telling people, I don't game on PC for the graphics (although the 970 holds up great at 1080p IMO)

Nothing really this year but an additional 1TB SSD. I was going to grab an RTX TI but chose to purchase a new Denon/Klipsch Atmos system instead as a Xmas gift to myself.

Still rocking my Skylake micro ITX build from the GTX1080 launch. It should hold out for a while yet until I do a full rebuild sometime next year.

Asus ROG Impact 8 mobo / i7 6700k @4.5, / 32Gb DDR4 / 2x1TB Samsung Evo SSD's / GTX 1080 @2.1 core and +500 on memory / EVGA 850W Supernova Gold

Absolutely nothing. I bought my components at the end of 2017

Nothing this year... Still rocking my i7 7700k and 1070. I'll be getting a new GPU, once we start to see this new RTX line make some headway.

Nada. I almost buckled into purchasing a new desktop but I went for mobility with the Surface Book 2. Next year I hope there are graphics cards that can entice and upgrade.

None this year. I built my computer back in 2016 and it has been the same ever since. I really want to upgrade my video card from the GTX 1060 to 1080 but the GTX 1080 cards are still expensive for me.

Might want to switch to AMD next year if the rumors about navi are true. The projected prices look seriously good.

I'll probably upgrade next year if it turns out true.

I already have the case and guts needed to maintain a powerful rig I just need a better card.

Still working my 1060. I'm happy at 1080P and I dont really envision going above so this workhorse is good till next year.

I do intend to let my wife have this system and work on a strictly AMD system.

Nothing. Same PC since 2014. I'm down to Medium settings now so prob time for an upgrade early next year tho!

@mobius_basic said:

Can I use this is as power generator when I go camping? hehe ;)

Setup looks good! Some nice setups in general for those who posted.

Table/Laptop PC Asus Q553U i7 12GB Ram 1GB HDD Geforce 940M 15.6"

A mouse.

4 meter micro-USB cable

This year I bought a GTX 980 Ti, Logitech z333 Sound system, Fnova Gaming Mouse and Topop 105 Gaming Mechanical Keyboard, and a new Mouse Pad. I'm looking at AMDs RX 3080 next year.

Built a new'ish rig from some parts I got from for free, parts I had and others that I bought

Free bits

I7 6850K, 2 x GTX 1080's, MSI X99 Motherboard, 64Gb RAM, Water reservoir, CPU water block

Bits I bought new

M.2 500GB SSD, water cooling piping and fittings, Radiator, Fans, Corsair 570X Case, Steel Series Arctis Pro wireless headset

Bits I had spare

1000w Superflower 80+ Platinum PSU, 3TB 7200 HDD, EVO 500GB SSD

Put it all together and it looks like this

Edit: just thinking of timings, I built this at the end of last year. Having a senior moment I think.

This year is really just the fans, headset and a change of coolant. :)

Not a PC gamer, but I did make a new build with an i7 8700k OC'd to 4,8 gigs, 16 gig of DDR4 RAM @ 3200Mhz, all components and WIN 10 cost me about 1200 euros. No GPU.

Swapped over from Intel to a Ryzen 2700x. One of the best decisions I've made in a while, now with Zen 2 coming out next year Intel is going to have to do some serious price to performance soul searching if they want to get me back to the blue side.

Still rocking the 980 though. I'm holding out to see what Navi is like and seeing if GPU prices will return to more respectable levels in the next few months.

If it counts, my 980ti (Gigabyte) died this year but luckily I had some warranty left. I sent it back for repair but it couldn't be fixed so they offered me a 1070 as a replacement. The performance is more or less the same but the power consumption is a lot lower so I'm pretty happy. If the rumors about AMD's Navi are true then I might finally switch to team red next year for my freesync monitor.

@AdobeArtist: Nice Ikea desk. I was going to get that same one, but I opted for just adding onto my original Ikea desk with a smaller side desk. XD

This year was a complete new build.

9900K on a Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Ultra Mobo cooled by an NZXT Kraken x52

16 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200

EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3

1000W EVGA G3 PSU

Corsair MP300 1TB M.2 SSD

8 TB Seagate Barracuda Pro

Corsair Spec Omega RGB case with extra RGB fans. Went full RGB mode. Also G560 RGB speakers and just picked up a new G502 Proteus RGB mouse.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the monitor. Samsung CF791 34" 3440x1440 100Hz.

And, I picked up an NZXT H500 for my extra rig that I have set up as an HTPC, and there's an RX 580 in there now that I got 2 free games(Resident Evil 2 Remake and Division 2) with for 160. Basically, paid 40 dollars for the video card, so figured why not.

All these flashy rigs are making my life hard when I want a case that has only one light (the power button) and I have to sift through a barrage of disco like cases, power supplies and video cards..

There are still cases and components with minimal lighting. My case turned out to be too small though with those two big coolers... I was gonna dremel a hole to the clear side panel, but I still haven't gotten to it.

You do realize you can turn off the lights on almost every new RGB component, right?

It's this cool thing called technology. :P

I know I can get a case without the flash and I know you can turn it off but my comment was about having to sift through so many flashy components when purchasing. Even my mouse have stupid RGB and I am stuck with it because I don't like Razor software (I know its self inflicted misery).

You should look at NZXT cases, then. The H500 series has no lights except for the power button. Even the fans that come with them are plain. Also, the cable management options in these things are insane. It was actually a sweet build to work on.

That does look pretty slick. Do they have smaller cases?

EDIT: Just saw the H200 series.

Looks like they have a micro ATX tower. The H400.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146294&Description=nzxt%20case%20H400&cm_re=nzxt_case_H400-_-11-146-294-_-Product

I definitely check them out earlier next year. I want my next rig to be super compact.

My Rig could drive you insane. I can set all the fans in to a rainbow wave as well as my keyboard and mouse. :)

@Pedro: Oh yeah, Mini ITX H200. Nice find. Yeah, these are definitely awesome cases, especially if you don't want the RGB bling.