Ars Technica system guide: Falling prices are more exciting than new parts

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WildberrySelect_223@reddit

As someone sensitive about faking premium materials I just can't let this go. What they describe as "brushed metal finish" on the Thermaltake H17 case, is just plastic. And yes it's exactly what to expect at such low price, but it doesn't justify lying about it.

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Gwennifer@reddit

What's even worse is that a lot of these textured finishes in plastic largely suck at their intended job of looking nice long term. If you want a surface finish that lasts, take a stoneground or satin finish. It will hide fingerprints and scratches nicely.

They also generate a lot of waste through reject parts. Even if you don't care how it looks, you should care about how much plastic waste it makes.

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Strazdas1@reddit

I feel like a satin finish on a computer case would not look great for long.

Altrough i wonder what would its acoustic properties be, would it make a difference agaisnt wood/metal?

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Gwennifer@reddit

I feel like a satin finish on a computer case would not look great for long.

It's something like what Fractal Design uses on their Torrent's front. The surface roughness is actually shockingly high.

Here's one example of a plastic finish card depicting the differences between available, standard finishes.

Here's another example; their VDI page is elsewhere on the website

The main reason you want a rougher surface is because a rough surface has far more diffuse reflections. Since the surface already scatters light, stains and scratches don't come up as a blemish across a distinct background.

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capn_hector@reddit

soft-touch plastic just needs to be flatly banned already

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Acrobatic_Age6937@reddit

esp. when used on surfaces users touch. Wacom pens, Mice etc. Luckily you can remove it easily with alcohol, which leaves a hard glossy surface.

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sansisness_101@reddit

Leave the wacom pens alone they're so ergonomic idc that it gets a bit messy after a while.

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Acrobatic_Age6937@reddit

the pens themselves are fine. And really just clean it up with alcohol. The hard glossy plastic you end up with is far better than the gooey sticky mess the surface turns into.

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djashjones@reddit

With AMD's exploding cpu's and long boot times or Intel's degrading 13/14th gen cpu's. I've decided when it's time for me to purchase anything new or upgrade to get the previous generation when the prices fall due to the latest generation. By that time all the issues and bugs should have been fixed.

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Admirable-Lie-9191@reddit

The exploding CPUs and long load times were fixed relatively soon after

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Strazdas1@reddit

Exploding CPUs were fixed in couple of weeks, but boot times are still issues on some motherboards apparently.

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NoStructure5034@reddit

Also wasn't that an Asus problem?

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steve09089@reddit

Pretty sure all of them were hit by it

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haloimplant@reddit

there's almost nothing exciting about new parts unless you're dropping huge amounts of money for the top one. for everyone else it's just price increases, maybe a bit of power efficiency if you're lucky

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gatornatortater@reddit

For someone who has no interest in a new GPU if it costs more than $250, then it has plenty of potential to be exciting, but they're all way over priced still. Seems like it takes longer and longer for prices to fall these last few years.

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haloimplant@reddit

Yeah at price point you're waiting for 4060ti or 4070 level performance to drop

I remember my first real GPU was a geforce4 ti 4200, which was only a little bit down from the top dog 4600, for under $200 usd :/

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A_tree_as_great@reddit

8 GB GPU is bad advice for a gaming machine

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Jeep-Eep@reddit

Yeah, it's been unacceptable for anything but used since 2020 at the absolute latest, and it had better be a steep discount.

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capn_hector@reddit

Yeah, it's been unacceptable for anything but used since 2020 at the absolute latest, and it had better be a steep discount.

"2020 at latest", meaning you think it probably was unacceptable even earlier?

feels hyperbolic to argue 5700XT and 2070S were unacceptable products at launch imo

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A_tree_as_great@reddit

12 GB is the current minimum

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upvoter_1000@reddit

I have a 4K uktrawide and use a 2080 super, it’s really not bad

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theholylancer@reddit

I mean for 1080p, its not the worst, and both AMD alternatives are similar, youd have go 3060 (which alright may be a good idea given how small the jump is, and not like FG is gona make the gen for you at this res).

or 6750, which is old gen and now you are trading off DLSS for 4 GB and some better raster perf and it would honestly come down to sale / price since both are around 280 bucks.

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SomeoneBritish@reddit

No, 8GB works, but it’s bad that the GPU manufacturers are putting only 8GB in into cards which cost so much.

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Gippy_@reddit

Good article It actually has put some thought into the subject instead of churning out a SEO "top picks" or AI-generated article which is what shows up on the first page of Google.

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HeroYouKey_SawAnon@reddit

Ars is in an interesting spot after Anandtech's demise and The Verge going all in on journalism while abandoning reviews/guides for the most part. They've always been quite good at being thorough and not caring about being late because of a quite dedicated reader base, so hopefully they lean into the new open niche.