The PC Thread - Tips, Benchmarks, Specs, Laptops, Custom Desktops, Pre-Builds and more.

[Heimdall]

Firefox add-ons? I already added uBlock Origin & Privacy Badger.

let me check my list - there's gonna be a lot of links

First I'd encourage you to check the settings - disable the Sponsored stuff in the Home section, then check the Privacy & Security section (e.g. enabling HTTPS-only, enabling DoH - some options have built-in adblocking)

Some add-ons I'd recommend:
Bitwarden - a password manager (you may use a different one, but if you don't I'd recommend this one!)
Buster - a captcha solver. It's hit and miss and requires a little tweaking to get it to work better but it's handy.
Bypass Paywalls Clean - bypass paywalls on plenty of sites
Imagus mod - just a good image viewing add-on
LibRedirect - redirect numerous services to nicer, privacy-respecting frontends
Old Reddit Redirect - if you don't like the current Reddit layout
Stylus - userstyles manager, for modifying the look of individual websites - dark mode add-ons are also useful and there are several of those
Tampermonkey/Violentmonkey/Greasemonkey - userscripts manager - I have used all 3 but currently use Violentmonkey. Userscripts in general are great, and plenty can be found at GreasyFork. I just like adding functionality (as this list probably suggests)
Tree Style Tab - if you have a lot of tabs this is crucial (an alternative would be Sidebery)

Privacy-specific
CanvasBlocker - can be used to fake some properties that are used for fingerprinting, if that's something that is important to you.
Chameleon - Erm... According to this page (I'll come back to this), Privacy Badger may not be that useful (or redundant, depending on your settings.) As an alternative I used Privacy Possum which worked differently, and was effective but broke sites occasionally. I recently switched to Chameleon which works similarly to Possum but has been updated this decade.

Container add-ons - these can be used to partition cookies, storage etc. if you want to log in to the same site with multiple accounts for example - there are several: Multi-Account Containers & Temporary Containers are recommended on the page linked above, though I use simpler add-ons: Containerise and Simple Temporary Containers
Facebook Container - isolates Facebook's cookies (there's a Google container too)

Just for YouTube
Clickbait Remover for YouTube - changes thumbnails so you don't have to see stupid faces any more
Enhancer for YouTube - has been taken down (I don't know why but I still use it) but it's back now, and has plenty of features
Unhook - can be used to essentially clean the YouTube page

Oh yes, the page I said I'd come back to - it is an encyclopedia of about:config (or user.js) tweaks, mainly for "privacy & enhanced security" - useful, but not really necessary. Off the top of my head something you might want to do:

• Disable disk cache (set browser.cache.disk.enable to false) - may require tweaking browser.cache.memory.capacity/max_entry_size
• Disable more telemetry (search about:config for telemetry, datareporting, set to false) - but leave toolkit.telemetry.enabled for some reason

 

[Mister_DoItNice]

Out of curiosity, if you had $8K to spend on a rig, what would you build? I need maximum power for my 57" 4kx2 ultrawide. I like quiet shyt. I'll sacrifice some heat for a quiet system. I did some EK shyt and it was like $1500 for a water cooled setup. I already have 128gb of G.Skill ram.

Well I don’t know much about water cooling but I have seen plenty of people complain about the prices that EK charges in relation to their quality and reliability. But I’d probably do a Seasonic Prime TX-1600 PSU, 4090 FE, ROG Z790 Dark Hero, 14900K, then fill that HAF up with as many fans and radiators that it will hold. Take a look at the Corsair Link fans or the Lian Li SL Fans that eliminate a lot of the unnecessary cabling that fans come with. I will never buy another set of fans that don’t daisy chain together in some capacity.

 

[WTFisWallace?]

let me check my list - there's gonna be a lot of links

Some add-ons I'd recommend:
Bitwarden - a password manager (you may use a different one, but if you don't I'd recommend this one!)

Bypass Paywalls Clean - bypass paywalls on plenty of sites

Tampermonkey/Violentmonkey/Greasemonkey - userscripts manager - I have used all 3 but currently use Violentmonkey. Userscripts in general are great, and plenty can be found at GreasyFork. I just like adding functionality (as this list probably suggests)

Container add-ons - these can be used to partition cookies, storage etc. if you want to log in to the same site with multiple accounts for example - there are several: Multi-Account Containers & Temporary Containers are recommended on the page linked above, though I use simpler add-ons: Containerise and Simple Temporary Containers
Facebook Container - isolates Facebook's cookies (there's a Google container too)

Just for YouTube
Clickbait Remover for YouTube - changes thumbnails so you don't have to see stupid faces any more
Enhancer for YouTube - has been taken down (I don't know why but I still use it) but has plenty of features - direct link
Unhook - can be used to essentially clean the YouTube page

Coli won't let me rep you again, but bet

- Added the Bypass Paywalls, that seems damn near essential.
- The YouTube ones seem interesting, seems like it could useful for kids too.

- I've always been weary of Password managers, have you or anyone else ever had security issues with it?

- The Containers are interesting as well, in regards to Facebook...I have an account that I haven't used in years. But then I guess the other properties like Instagram probably cross track too.

- I'll read more into the userscripts manager.

 

[winb83]

Bitwarden - a password manager (you may use a different one, but if you don't I'd recommend this one!)

I prefer 1Password. They give you 34 character password on top of whatever password you create for your vault. If your vault is ever stolen the encryption uses both to open the vault. Any new devices you need that 2nd password to access the vault.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Well I don’t know much about water cooling but I have seen plenty of people complain about the prices that EK charges in relation to their quality and reliability. But I’d probably do a Seasonic Prime TX-1600 PSU, 4090 FE, ROG Z790 Dark Hero, 14900K, then fill that HAF up with as many fans and radiators that it will hold. Take a look at the Corsair Link fans or the Lian Li SL Fans that eliminate a lot of the unnecessary cabling that fans come with. I will never buy another set of fans that don’t daisy chain together in some capacity.

I'm about to pull the order on my new pc this week. I just sold my estat amp, so I have $8K to play with dedicated to my new pc. Hopefully I don't have to spend the full $8K, but we'll see. I'm real disappointed that my current rig turned to shyt and is a complete brick. This sorta shyt makes somebody not want to do pc gaming again at all, and will probably scare off newbies. It is what it is though.

I don't know if my gpu is fukking up. I don't think it is, but I can't test it. I'll probably try to sell it on ebay with the waterblock installed. Maybe I could get a fair price. Same with my 13900k

 

[Mister_DoItNice]

I'm about to pull the order on my new pc this week. I just sold my estat amp, so I have $8K to play with dedicated to my new pc. Hopefully I don't have to spend the full $8K, but we'll see. I'm real disappointed that my current rig turned to shyt and is a complete brick. This sorta shyt makes somebody not want to do pc gaming again at all, and will probably scare off newbies. It is what it is though.

I don't know if my gpu is fukking up. I don't think it is, but I can't test it. I'll probably try to sell it on ebay with the waterblock installed. Maybe I could get a fair price. Same with my 13900k

I don’t see you needing to use the entire $8k on your new build. Prices aren’t too bad right now, outside of GPU’s. You can try eBay but make sure you take a good look at the feedback of whatever potential sellers send you offers. It’s really easy for people to try to scam on there. You should be able to move your GPU and 13900k pretty easily though. People are clamoring for 4090’s wherever they can get them right now. If you don’t think it’s bricked though, could be worth keeping.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Just copped the 4090 FE for $2100 on ebay

Got the 14900k for $595 though

 

[winb83]

Just copped the 4090 FE for $2100 on ebay

Got the 14900k for $595 though

A 13900k and a 14900k are basically the same thing though right?

 

[Ciggavelli]

A 13900k and a 14900k are basically the same thing though right?

I guess. I think the 14900k is marginally better (it boosts to 6, instead of 5.8...whatever). I'm just hoping it's not as hot as the 13900k.

Since I don't know what is going on with my bricked pc, I'm just getting a new CPU too. Well see...

 

[Ciggavelli]

I don’t see you needing to use the entire $8k on your new build. Prices aren’t too bad right now, outside of GPU’s. You can try eBay but make sure you take a good look at the feedback of whatever potential sellers send you offers. It’s really easy for people to try to scam on there. You should be able to move your GPU and 13900k pretty easily though. People are clamoring for 4090’s wherever they can get them right now. If you don’t think it’s bricked though, could be worth keeping.

I might be close to the $8K with the water cooling shyt. I'm looking at $1700 for the EK setup (I've always used EK, but I might look at other options). Then a mobo for like $700-$1200 (depending on what I get). Then the $2100 for the 4090FE, $500 for the case, $500 of the Seasonic 1600 psu, and $595 for the 14900k. That all is already like $6400. I guess I could use my ssds, but who knows if they are bad are not. I'll then get a new nvme and a ton of fans. I think I might be at $8k almost exactly.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Now I'm going with either the Asus Apex Encore or Dark Hero mobo. They both cost around the same. I'm not sure which one to get. I need to do some research. If I get the CoolerMaster case, I wanna do moderate overclocking, so maybe the Encore is better?

 

[Mister_DoItNice]

Now I'm going with either the Asus Apex Encore or Dark Hero mobo. They both cost around the same. I'm not sure which one to get. I need to do some research. If I get the CoolerMaster case, I wanna do moderate overclocking, so maybe the Encore is better?

The encore will definitely be faster for overclocking. Two DIMM motherboards are able to clock their RAM significantly higher than four DIMM boards. However, the Apex Encore lacks certain features like the ability to use integrated graphics on your CPU. It’s not considered a full featured board per se because of that. I would take a look at all the features the dark hero has and compare side by side to the Apex Encore to make sure you’re not potentially losing a feature you really want or need for the sake of higher RAM speeds.

 

[Mister_DoItNice]

A 13900k and a 14900k are basically the same thing though right?

For all intents and purposes yeah. The 14900k is marginally more efficient. Its so marginal that it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Ciggavelli]

The encore will definitely be faster for overclocking. Two DIMM motherboards are able to clock their RAM significantly higher than four DIMM boards. However, the Apex Encore lacks certain features like the ability to use integrated graphics on your CPU. It’s not considered a full featured board per se because of that. I would take a look at all the features the dark hero has and compare side by side to the Apex Encore to make sure you’re not potentially losing a feature you really want or need for the sake of higher RAM speeds.

Oh, yeah, I want the option to use integrated graphics on the CPU (though I'll probably never use it unless my gpu goes bad, but I want the option). Thanks for your help! I'll probably pull the trigger on the Dark Hero here in a day or two after more research. I need to see how it plays with water cooling spacing.

 

[Ciggavelli]

EK is out of very important components. I'm gonna get the Dark Hero I think. It plays well with water cooling. And I can use the active backplate cooling on my 4090, which I couldn't do on my current mobo, due to spacing.

What other water cooling companies do people like? EK lets you build a complete setup real easy on the website. I need to do some research I guess. They are saying I gotta wait until Feb for the mobo waterblock. I guess it hasn't been made yet. I can wait, but would prefer not to. Hmmm