We’re thinking about building a new PC and put some early thoughts on our Custom PC Builder. We think it’s pretty alright so far, but we’re also willing to bet you can do better. So prove you can and win a $500 Micro Center gift card!
Check out our starter build here:
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=b45dffeb-ea6e-4ab3-b40b-f40776f1156f
You can either use our build and modify it, or you can start from scratch and build a PC all your own - just do better than us!
Between May 17th and June 7th, head over to our PC Builder tool, load it up with anything and everything you want, then share the link in the comments below. And be sure to tell us why your build is better than ours!
We’ll be randomly selecting one winner to receive a $500 Micro Center gift
Winners will be contacted the week after the contest ends.
Step 1. Head over to the Custom PC Builder
Step 2. Fill out the builder with your favorite PC parts, or work from our build!
Step 3. Copy the link from the share box on the right-hand side
Step 4. Paste the link in this thread and tells us about your build!
We can't wait to see how you beat our build!
Good luck!
See attached contest terms and conditions.
Contest submission window: 5/17/21 – 6/7/21
1st place winner will receive a $500 Micro Center gift card.
Hello Landsharh, by uninstall, do you mean open the case and pull the plug on the reader, restart the PC and then shut it down, and then go back in the case and plug in the reader? Then restart to see if the reader is detected?
Looking for clarification because the driver does not show up on the device manager. If it did then I would uninstall and then let it try to reinstall.
Yes, random restarts again during gameplay. Same problem as before.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
As far as free things go. Blender is the biggest free animation software, and it's pretty competitive with the big-name software. Even when I was learning Maya, it had features that weren't in that version of Maya as a default, despite Maya being the industry standard in many companies.
As for resources; you can't beat the main website:
There are great tutorials by Blender Guru, Grant Abbit, Blender Guru, and Yansculpts on youtube.
Also, if you're ever interested in preparing for the industry-standard in sculpting tools aka Pixologic's Zbrush; they have software known as Zbrush Core Mini (Previously Sculptris), but for most people, Blender's sculpting tools are just as good in the right hands.
And if you cannot afford some form of Photoshop (especially with its shift to a monthly subscription) then Gimp is a long-time alternative that complements Blenders texture tools.
Blender has some editing tools as well, but the free version of Davinci Resolve is a good start for many.
NVIDIA is making some very impressive claims!
I can't wait to upgrade! Coming from a GTX 1080 ti, the boost in performance will be tremendous, and I can't wait to see 2nd Gen RTX. I'll be upgrading to the RTX 3080. For me, the 3080 fits perfectly into my budget for my work and play. I've watched NVIDIA announcements in the past; however, the 3000 series launch was different for me, and I felt that I was witnessing a moment that will be remembered.
(Image Courtesy NVIDIA Official Launch Event)
Be sure to bookmark this post by clicking the star at the top right to easily check back, as we'll be updating this post once we know more about availability!
I can't wait to see how these cards benchmark and how they perform, especially after Jensen showed us the significant performance increase. The multipliers are based on 4k gameplay in multiple popular games. In the launch event, NVIDIA shows the 3090 handling 8k gameplay smoothly, which is absolutely mindblowing. It's always interesting to see what Jensen has been cooking, and I'm excited about the future of PC gaming.
We know demand for these new graphics cards is high. We’re working hard to make these new, exciting products available to as many customers as we can. Please see below for answers to popular questions. You may also post your question here and we’ll do our best to respond quickly.
Q.) Will you have the latest 3000 series cards on their release dates?
A.) Yes, we will have a variety of top brand RTX 3000 cards available on their respective launch dates.
Q.) Which model of RTX 3000 graphics cards are available?
A.) We will have RTX 3000 series graphics cards from our top vendors: ASUS, Gigabyte, Zotac, EVGA, and MSI, including gaming and overclocked models. These will vary store to store. Available models will be listed in the graphics cards category at launch.
Q.) How much will the 3000 Series video cards cost?
A.) Up-to-date pricing for our cards will be posted on the website once they’re available.
Q.) Are you doing pre-orders?
A.) At this time, we will not be offering pre-orders.
Q.) Will I be able to reserve or buy them online? A.) We will not be offering reservations for in-store pick-up, or shipping for these video cards due to the high demand.
Q.) When will vouchers be handed out?
Q.) How many vouchers will be handed out?
A.) Stores will be handing out vouchers for the cards in stock at that location. The amount handed will be equal to the amount of cards the store has in stock.
Q.) What are you doing to handle demand?
A.) Given the current pandemic, we want to avoid having lines outside of the store, in order to keep everyone as safe as possible. We ask that you continue to do your part in following CDC social distancing guidelines.
Q.) Can I buy more than one?
A.) We will be limiting purchases at this time to one per household. With limited availability, we want all of our customers to have a chance to be a part of this new product release.
Q.) Were Micro Center Associates able to buy the new graphics cards?
A.) Due to the high demand and constrained inventory, we’ve restricted employee purchases, so we can get new products into the hands of our loyal customers.
If you’ve been looking at M.2 storage recently, you may have seen or been recommended the Samsung 970 EVO. The 970 EVO M.2 is a fan favorite for its fast write speed and dependability. The Samsung 970 PRO is an even more durable version of the 970 EVO with a drastically increased amount of data it can rewrite. However, with new advancements in processors, motherboards, and chipsets, we are seeing the next level of high-speed storage in the form of PCIe Gen 4.0. Samsung recently released their new M.2 SSD and successor to their 970 series M.2 SSDs: the Samsung 980 PRO 2TB NVMe M.2, which fully utilizes the blazing-fast PCIe Gen 4.
We recently got to plug the new Samsung 980 PRO 2TB NVMe M.2 into our test bench and run some diagnostics on it. The 980 PRO 2TB NVMe M.2 makes use of NAND flash memory for stable and fast transfers, along with the newly released PCIe gen 4.0.
For our test, we used the same test bench as at WD_BLACK AN1500 SSD Benchmark, making use of an ASRock X570 Taichi paired with a Ryzen 9 3900X. We also had 16GB of 3200MHz RAM as well as an EVGA RTX 3070. You can find our test bench here. We also ran the Samsung 980 PRO through two different benchmarks, AIDA64’s Drive Benchmarks, and CrystalDiskMark.
To start with, let’s go over the CrystalDiskMark results:
6,579.2 MB/s read is a massive number. With the average sequential read speed of better consumer SSDs being around 3500 MB/s, this just blows the average out of the water. Large sequential write speeds as well, at that 3300MB/s vs the average 2300 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes at the various Queue Depths are all also very impressive, all scoring higher than the collection of higher-end M.2 NVMe SSDs. As a reminder, the CrystalDiskMark benchmark is based on short bursts and isn’t reflective of practical use for this SSD. It still shows potential speeds that the drive can have.
The next benchmark tool we used is the AIDA64 Drive Benchmark which has a multitude of tests for our 980 PRO to go through. The first one we did was the Average Write Access or the response time for the SSD to respond to a request.
SSDs, in general, have a fast response time, with the average being anywhere between 0.03 and 0.30ms. The 980 Pro is a bit faster, with an average of 0.02ms response time.
Next, we ran the Linear Write benchmark in the AIDA64 Drive Benchmark. This is the same as a Sequential Write Benchmark that CrystalDiskMark used but over a much longer period of time. Due to the longer period of testing, we can see how the Samsung 980 PRO handles thermal throttling. This benchmark is also similar to transferring one large file, like a video.
The result was a very respectable average of 2440 MB/s. With better active cooling, it is possible to see better results as the 980 PRO was under the heatsink of the Taichi.
We also ran a benchmark with the Linear Write + Verify. This benchmark has the SSD write sequential data and then verifies the data written.
After the Linear Write + Verify Benchmark, we ran both Random Write and Random Write + Verify Benchmark. Random Write is more like grabbing multiple different items and documents and transferring that data over rather than one single large item. This would be the more common application for most people, and the results were pretty great.
Lastly, we ran the Buffered Write benchmark. This tests the first few sectors on the SSD by writing data to it and then writing over that sector again. This shows the first bits of transfers are fast and work great for transferring small documents. Again, a monster performance.
In conclusion, this drive is incredible and worthy of the high praise it has received. The Samsung 980 PRO is a great successor to the Samsung 970 PRO, utilizing PCIe Gen 4.0 for some serious gains in performance. This is one of the fastest SSDs Micro Center has tested, and definitely one of the fastest options for the consumer market. The Pro series from Samsung are known for their durability, and the 980 Pro is sure to be no exception. Samsung says that you’ll be able to write 1200TB of data before seeing serious issues. Plus, the M.2 form factor makes installation easy, but Micro Center can install M.2 drives for you if you would like to bring them into the store! See our install page for more details.
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