u/Immortal_Jackal

I'm planning to upgrade my PC with the following:
MSI MPG X870E Carbon
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
MSI Trio OC 5070 Ti
CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB DDR5 6400
Samsung SSD 9100 PRO 1TB 5.0 PCIe

I'm upgrading from:
Gigabyte Z390 Designare
Intel Core i7 9700K
ROG 2070 Super Strix
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB DDR4 3600
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1 TB 4.0 PCIe
SanDisk Extreme 1 TB SSD 4.0 PCIe
Seagate BarraCuda 8TB HDD

I plan on purchasing a bundle deal for the CPU, RAM, and SSD together so I can get the mobo I want (X870E Carbon). My main question is regarding the mobo and how the SSD slots work. I'm not the most knowledgeable in PC parts, so some insight would be appreciated.

To be clear, I've already done some research, and from everything that I've gathered, if I use the new 9100 5.0 PCIe SSD on the M2_1 slot, and both my old PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the M2_3 and M2_4 slots, the PCIe 5.0 performance will drop from 16x to 8x. What do the 16x and 8x mean specifically?

How noticeable will the performance drop be? I've read that it's up to 5% performance sacrifice on the GPU performance, but is it really that noticeable?

Also, would it matter if I only used 2 SSDs instead of 3? So 9100 pro on the PCIe 5.0 M2_1 slot, and the 970 Evo Plus on the 4.0 M2_3 slot? Would PCIe still drop from 16x to 8x?

Last question, would installing the 8 TB HDD have any effect similar to the SSDs?

I'm planning to upgrade my PC with the following:
MSI MPG X870E Carbon
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
MSI Trio OC 5070 Ti
CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB DDR5 6400
Samsung SSD 9100 PRO 1TB 5.0 PCIe

I'm upgrading from:
Gigabyte Z390 Designare
Intel Core i7 9700K
ROG 2070 Super Strix
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB DDR4 3600
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1 TB 4.0 PCIe
SanDisk Extreme 1 TB SSD 4.0 PCIe
Seagate BarraCuda 8TB HDD

I plan on purchasing a bundle deal for the CPU, RAM, and SSD together so I can get the mobo I want (X870E Carbon). My main question is regarding the mobo and how the SSD slots work. I'm not the most knowledgeable in PC parts, so some insight would be appreciated.

To be clear, I've already done some research, and from everything that I've gathered, if I use the new 9100 5.0 PCIe SSD on the M2_1 slot, and both my old PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the M2_3 and M2_4 slots, the PCIe 5.0 performance will drop from 16x to 8x. What do the 16x and 8x mean specifically?

How noticeable will the performance drop be? I've read that it's up to 5% performance sacrifice on the GPU performance, but is it really that noticeable?

Also, would it matter if I only used 2 SSDs instead of 3? So 9100 pro on the PCIe 5.0 M2_1 slot, and the 970 Evo Plus on the 4.0 M2_3 slot? Would PCIe still drop from 16x to 8x?

Last question, would installing the 8 TB HDD have any effect similar to the SSDs?

I got admitted into UC Davis recently for Fall 2026, and I plan on being a full-time student. However, I'm also planning to start an MA program accredited by WASC during the summer, and I'm worried that the program scheduling would interfere with my College schedule.

The program lasts for 22 weeks and should start sometime during the summer. I mainly wanted to ask if anyone else went through this of being in an MA program while being a full-time student, and how manageable it is.

I used to have the standard version, but since I had my Mando standing by my bedroom window, my trash can was conveniently right below it. It must've fallen overnight, and I didn't notice it until right after the day my dad took out the garbage (in other words, it fell into my trash can on the day trash was taken out, and I didn't notice until after the garbage truck came). Long story short, it's gone, and I was super sad because it cost a pretty penny.

However, I have a majority of the accessories still, including the face sculpt, both Grogus, knife, dark saber, rifle, etc. I only lost the rifle with the long strap and the pistol.

Anyways, I wanted to ask those who have the Chrome version in hand if it's worth it, considering that I already have all of the key accessories that are in the standard version and not the Chrome version. Is the Chrome too shiny? How does it compare to the armor from the show?

I don't know if it's just me, but looking at the photos, the electroplating just makes the figure look cheap and much too shiny compared to the show. It may just be because the images don't do it justice, and I'd like it a lot better if I could see it in person. Please let me know! Thanks!