Now before you think I am turning communist, or voting for Labour, remind yourself that this is the tech section… Right, now we’re on the same page.
My last PC build was in 2017, and the goal for it was to be an ultimate gaming machine – great graphics, amazing sound, all the processing power you could muster. And then some! 2017 was a different beast entirely – Groove Music still existed, and with it my decision to go serverless. I didn’t need a heap of space – the Xbox One had proved that to me with its 1TB drive. And Windows 10 was still embracing the world of apps. This build was to be a gaming and streaming powerhouse.
I succeeded in this goal. A gaming PC streaming all the traditional entertainment stuff that normally takes up heaps of space. Games were played, entertainment streamed, and neighbours annoyed.
Alas, that is now over 3 years ago, and things have (inevitably) changed. Intel have languished on outdated technology, allowing AMD, and even Apple, to leapfrog them when it comes to CPU power. Nvidia remain the top dogs for graphics performance, but that is now being challenged by AMD. And even now, the amazing Xbox Series X is pushing out 4K at 120 FPS and all the raytracing goodness one could want. When a console costing $800 outperforms your PC that cost upwards of $4,000, you just know it’s time to re-evaluate.
In saying that, my computer was never built to last. It is currently still working and still performing perfectly fine, but it has fallen quite short of its original goal in the past year. This is to be expected. All hardware has a life cycle. And for me, that life cycle is probably shorter than most.
With the release of Cyberpunk 2077, it became even clearer to me that my beast from 2017 just won’t cut it anymore. So, time has come to move it along. And with moving countries, 2021 is looking to be a computer-less year. But when we do get settled and setup again, I’ll be coming back into a completely different hardware landscape.
After a year, AMD should be on their second gen 5nm process, meaning their 7000 or even 8000 series CPU’s will be out. Further cementing their lead over Intel, judging by Intel’s leaked roadmaps. Apple will also be on their second gen M-type chip, which will be making a case for ARM CPU’s again. Nvidia will probably be releasing their 3080 Ti line up, and most likely a 3090 Ti variant too. AMD really need to bring the fight to them with their second gen Big Navi cards…
Coming back to computer gaming, I’ll be looking at the successor to the AMD 5950x and whatever comes between the 3080 and 3090. I have to be sensible after all… And this time, I will be going with a single hard drive. Probably a 2 TB NVMe drive to house everything. Since my current setup of 1.5 TB SSD has served me well so far.
Another exciting change will be updating the case, making sure I can fit in a full water-cooling loop. And the case I am looking at will be slightly bigger than an Xbox Series X, making this nice and compact. Currently this is all in the planning stages. Who knows what next year will hold, or what may change? For now, I am farewelling my computer and going console only for all my gaming and entertainment needs.
Now if only Apple would hurry up and put Apple Music on the Xbox…
