EagleSoft Ltd's New
Gamedev PC!
(Part 2)
Intro
In my previous blog post (part 1) last year on my project of building a new gamedev PC, the Big Eagle, the planned computer build was 75% complete, pending making some stickers and ordering/installing a few other hardware parts. Fortunately, I was able to order and install most of those parts since then, pushing the planned build to 95% complete. Also during that time, I bought a few more unexpected thrift store, online, and clearance hardware finds too!
Previously on EagleSoft Labs 🦅™ blog ...
Quoth the Eagle:
"To finish the build, I'm purchasing and installing a few final parts at a later date:
- Used Logitech G19 or G19s keyboard to replace the one that bricked
- PCIe cards
- 4K PCIe x1 HDMI capture card
- WavLink BE8800 WiFi 7/BT 5.4 Tri-Band PCI-e x1 card (WL-WN685BE3-B)
- Bought for $10 new 🤯 from a yard sale on Sat 05/10/2025
- To further upgrade and future-proof the WiFi/BT networking on the computer
- May not work on the AMD chipset included, requires NVMe protocol over PCIe (not suported on PCIe 2.0 x1 card bus)?
- Decorations
- Custom Big Eagle sticker for front bay area
- Create a custom EagleSoft Ltd. logo sticker for the Asus Turbo GTX 1070 custom decal area"
Replacing the bricked Logitech G19
with an upgraded G19s keyboard
The Logitech G19(s) keyboards on the used eBay market usually sell for a lot depending on condition. The lowest price I was able to find at the time online with the unit being in good, working condition was a G19s for $60+$24.79 with S&H and tax = total $84.79 .
The G19s model has the same specs as the original G19 but just has a few cosmetic/material differences, including:
- Hydrophobic (sweat-resistant) coating on the palm rest
- Fingerprint-resistant matte coating on the chassis
- Silver WASD and arrow keys
- Windows 8/10/11 styled Windows Key logo
- Revised black-and-grey-styled keys paint job with more durable UV-coated keycaps
- Meant to resist fading compared to the original G19
The G19s refresh was also released in 2013 vs 2009 with the original G19. This technically makes the keyboard newer and thus less used, allowing for a longer shelf life. I also believe the refresh improves a few design flaws and improves the power supply circuit. A lot of original G19 units (being older) usually have backlit key LEDs that are dimming or sometimes have initialization bootloop problems like how my G19 keyboard bricked. I'm pretty happy to have replaced the G19 with an G19s model, and hoping it will have a longer shelf life and less problems.
Installing an UHD 4K HDMI Capture card
The Matrox MXO2 Mini device with ExpressCard 34 interface I already had worked very well for capturing upto 1080p Full HD content (1920x1080 resolution) over HDMI or component/composite with adapters (lower resolutions). Since it uses an ExpressCard 34 interface, this makes the capture solution cross-compatible on my mobile workstation laptop (Windows 7, the American Kestral) and in this Windows 11 build via PCIe to ExpressCard adapter.
Matrox MXO2 Mini Kit + ExpressCard 34 adapter
In 2013 the HDMI specification standard has been pushed to version 2.0 and beyond, with 2.0 being the first to support Ultra HD 4K format (3840x2160 resolution, or 4x the Full HD 1920x1080 resolution). A lot more devices are now pushing 4K content as the standard format. With now having a few AV devices supporting 4K resolution in my entertainment setup, I figured I should future-proof this PC with an HDMI 4K capture solution for any future 4K console gaming or streaming.
My 4K AV devices:
- This Windows 11 PC + UPerfect 15.6" Portable 4k Monitor for display (Model 156J10)
- Roku 4K streaming stick device
- ADTH NextGen TV Box Gen 2 (ATSC 3.0 OTA TV)
- Sony UBP-X700 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™ Player)
- (Technically my unpatched/jailbroken Nintendo Switch 1 console can be overclocked for 4K output)
I searched on eBay for a few months looking for any good deals on a PCIe-based HDMI 4K capture cards, but most were going for a pricey $80-$120+ price range . Fortunately, I came across a bargain alternative solution of an Elgato Cam Link 4K device, open-box/unused and untested which I bought for $52 (compared to $100 MSRP new). This interesting capture device is a USB 3.0 Type A/HDMI dongle which can capture AV from any 4K HDMI camera and use it as a streaming 4K webcam. It also doubles as a generic 4K HDMI (and 1080p) capture device too!
Elgato Cam Link 4K packaging (outer box)
Elgato Cam Link 4K packaging (inner box)
Elgato Cam Link 4K dongle
USB 3.0 Type A extension cable
(Real USB 3.0 extension cable;
notice the extra front-facing 5-pins)
notice the extra front-facing 5-pins)
Manual
Elgato logo sticker included
This device's USB 3.0 Type A interface is ideal for maximizing data bandwidth on my computer build too for 4K HDMI capture. As previously mentioned in part 1 of my blog post, the top 4 data interfaces on the computer's motherboard are
Motherboard data interfaces vs. max bandwidth:
- 1. PCIe 2.0 x16 = 16,000 MB/s (~16 GB/s)
- 1 slot reserved for GPU (GTX 1070)
- 2. USB 3.0 Type A = 625 MB/s
- 3. PCIe 2.0 x1 = 500 MB/s (~0.5 GB/s)
- 4. Digital SSD/Mechnical HDD at SATA 2 = 375 MB/s
Comparison of various data transfer bandwidth speeds (MBps)
of standards and interfaces on the motherboard
Since the GTX 1070 GPU PCIe 2.0 x16 card occupies the only x16 slot and the WiFi networking card occupies the only PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, this Cam Link 4K device over USB 3.0 Type A interface utilizes the max bandwidth possible for the capture device (at 625 MB/s). The USB 3.0 Type A interface is also the 2nd fastest bus interface on the computer, 125 MBps faster than the PCIe 2.0 x1 slot. Furthermore, the USB 3.0 Type A interface also makes the capture card cross-compatible with my Windows 7 laptop too 😀.
Fortunately the Cam Link 4K device was determined to be functional upon use (sold as untested). I also haven't come across any USB current draw issues (yet) with it that various other users online have reported; however there is a hardware fix if the issue arrises. 4K AV can be captured with the included Elgato Camera Hub software. The device came with an Elgato logo sticker, so I put that on my computer case; sticker++ .
Elgato Cam Link 4K Video Capture Test (Roku 4K)
4K 30fps
4K 30fps
Look! 4K video content detected on YouTube
Installing a WiFi 7/BT 5.4 PCIe network card
Installing the newer WavLink BE8800 Wi-Fi 7/BT 5.4 Tri-Band PCI-e x1 card (WL-WN685BE3-B) was just as easy as the older TP-Link Archer TX55E card. It still blows my mind 🤯 that I found this cutting edge Wi-Fi 7 card $10 new at a yard sale last summer (from an Amazon reseller). I don't know anybody or any organizations/institutions that are utilizing Wi-Fi 7 routers or hardware yet; it's such new technology. Most people are still on Wi-Fi 6(E) for their newest Wi-Fi hardware available.
According to Wikipedia, retail Wi-Fi 7 hardware became available in early 2023, and the Wi-Fi Alliance just introduced its Wi-Fi Certified 7 program for device certification compliance in January 2024. At the time of this writing (July 2026), this makes Wi-Fi 7 the current WiFi version standard, with the technology just being a young 3 years old since public retail availability. A Wi-Fi 8 version is currently in the works with a release date TBA. All of this makes the Wi-Fi 7 card quite future-proof for the computer build and the newest piece of technology in the computer!
The Wi-Fi 7 card and standard utilizes tri-band technology (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and the new 6 GHz band) for some of its newer, higher speed operation modes (such as Multi-link Operation/MLO, where data is sent/received across all 3 bands simultaneously).
The 6.0 Jiggahertz (JHz) band. Great Scott!
The WavLink network card supports up to Bluetooth 5.4, the version specification which was released in February 2023. At the time of this writing (July 2026), the current Bluetooth specification is Bluetooth 6.2 (released in November 2025). This puts this card only 3 version revisions behind the latest and an upgrade by 1 version compared to the previous Archer TX55E network card (supporting upto Bluetooth 5.2). Not bad of an upgrade!
Despite the network card requiring NVMe protocol over PCIe (and the motherboard only supporting PCIe 2.0 x1 card bus), the device seems to work, though its throughput might be bottlenecked. When I moved into a newer apartment in February 2026, I signed up for the Bulk Superfast Plan of Comcast XFinity internet service plan, since it was included at a discounted rate as rent (part of the included amenties on discount). This plan tops out at downloads speeds of 800 mbps and upload speeds of 150 mbps. This makes the plan nearly Gigabit internet speeds.
Below is a comparison between both interfaces (benchmarked using Ookla Speedtest)
Ethernet (wired) connection
WiFi 7 (wireless) connection
- Download speeds (mbps)
- Ethernet: 425.16 mbps
- WiFi 7: 386.30 mbps
- 9.58% difference
- Upload speeds (mbps)
- Ethernet: 163.47 mbps
- WiFi 7: 171.95 mbps
- 5.06% difference
- Somehow WiFi 7 was slightly faster than Ethernet; measurement must have been a fluke
- Ping (latency in ms)
- Overall
- Ethernet: 18 ms
- WiFi 7: 21 ms
- 15.38% difference
- Download
- Ethernet: 68 ms
- WiFi 7: 140 ms
- 69.23% difference
- Upload
- Eth: 28 ms
- WiFi 7: 31 ms
- 10.17% difference
Do note that my WiFi Router after the move into the new apartment is now a TP-Link AX1800 WiFi 6, so I am not utilizing maximum performance out of the newer WiF7 features that the network card can support. The provided XFinity router at the apartment is a WiFi 6E one, which may give slightly better performance between Ethernet and WiFi interfaces and tighten the percentage difference gap.
Adding more stickers and other decorations
Since part 1 of this blog topic series, I picked up a few more sticker sheets and designed a few more.
These included:
- Schell Games Project Freefall sticker
- Freebie given out the BitBridge Halloween Showcase 2024 at a public beta playtest
- BitBridge Halloween Showcase 2024 sticker (Freebie)
- Retro Gaming Asylum sticker (Freebie)
- Nike sticker shades ($5 from thirft store)
- Small Business Shop Small stickers ($0.25 Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse/PCCR)
- Hexagon with owl ($0.25, PCCR)
- Junior Ranger sticker ($0.25 from PPCCR)
- Elgato logo and I voted n'at (freebie from Elgato Cam Link 4K box, and at voting poll)
- Five Below Hatsune Miku 100 Decal Variety Pack
- Github Logo pack ($5)
- Nintendo 64 controller knockoff sticker (freebie from seller on a eBay purchase)
- Akaifuwa sticker (freebie from a gaming convention, AGDQ 2026 IIRC)
- * Custom Big Eagle sticker I printed out
- Others
She's hiding in your WiFi
I'm thinkin' Miku
Nike: Just do it!
The sticker pack scans have been updated. Unfortunately I haven't created my custom EagleSoft Ltd. branded acryllic sheet/embossed sticker yet for the GTX 1070 custom logo; to do later for blog post part 3.
Also while thrifting I found some other mouse pads for decoration, to fill up the surfaces on the top of the computer desk
- ITT Technical Institute photo mouse pad $1
- Inserted a Neptunia Anime wallpaper
- Circular Marvel Captain America shield mouse pad $1
- Walmart Onn Gaming Mousepad
- Originally $12.88
- Bought on clearance for $6.50
- YouTube review
Other hardware add-ons, keyboard, mice, headsets, microphones
While thrifting at local thrift stores, I found a few other misc. hardware add-ons
Other hardware:
- Smart Cards
- Taglio PIVKey C980 v2 Enterprise Dual (Contact/Contactless) PKI Smart Card (ordered $24 online)
- Todo: Make custom EagleSoft Ltd logo stick on front of card (Cucu covers?)
- Card readers
- Identiv SCR3310v2 USB Smart Card reader ($3)
- Reads chip-based Smart Cards
- Connected to the USB Type A HUB on my KVM between
- This Big Eagle Windows 11 PC
- DOSBox Millenium Eagle PC
- Todo: Future blog post
- Use Smart Card reader and provision my Taglio card as a single-computer login hardware key
- Utilize EIDAuthenticate software (official webpage, Github project)
- Vintage MiniTeller USB magstripe card reader ($1)
- Does not seem to have a dedicated driver, fully embedded and Plug n' Play?
- Swiping magstripe cards auto-types ASCII chars into a text input box (serial device)
- Keyboards (Super Goodwill lot, sold by weight, $12 total for all)
- Razer Blackwidow Chroma (RZ03-0122)
- OMG RGB a Razer Chroma-compatible keyboard 🤯
- Compatible with the features I programmed into Coffee Crisis (Steam/Xbox One) 😼
- Logitech G510 and G510s (510s for $3 separately)
- Has a B&W LCD screen which applets and applicable apps/gaming software can use to display data
- Like the color G19s, but B&W LCD screen vs. a color QVGA pixel screen
- Logitech Gaming Software
- Logitech G HUB
- Havic Magic Eagle 🦅 Gaming Keyboard (HV-KB558CM)
- Backlit keyboard with multimedia keys
- Asus KB2621 USB keyboard
- Basic USB chiclet keyboard with basic multimedia keys
- Being used on a Power Mac G5 desktop PC
- Vintage Monorail RT2158TW PS/2 Keyboard
- Windows 95 compatible!
- Being used on an old SGI Indy R4000 pizza box 🍕 computer
- In excellent, like-new condition!
- Womier Keyboard keycap set
- Unknown model set and unknown color set
- Keycap set officially meant for a Womier keyboard, but should be compatible with most types of basic keyboard style
- If I ever want to customize any of my keyboards
- Mice
- Razer Basilisk X Hyperspeed (RC30-031501) mouse ($3 thrift store find)
- 16K DPI
- AA Battery
- 2.4GHZ dongle (missing) or Bluetooth
- Missing mouse top cover
- Razer Chroma Compatible
- Light weight and hyperspeed fast (ludicrous speed go!)
-
- Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury mouse ($5 thrift store find)
- Wired USB mouse
- 8 programmable buttons
- 1000 Hz polling (1ms latency)
- 4 DPI settings (240-4000 DPI)
- Logitech Gaming Software/G-HUB support
- onn Rechargeable Wireless Gaming Mouse (originally $30, $14.94 on clearance)
- 2.4GHz Nano low-latency USB receiver (included)
- 8 programmable buttons
- Scroll wheel, on/off switch, connection switch
- Adjustable DPI settings (36 levels from 200-7200 DPI)
- 1000Hz Polling rate
- 16.8 milliion RGB color
- onn gaming software
- USB-C charging conncetor
- Headsets/Mics ($3 total by weight from Super Goodwill)
- Used Edifier G4 TE 7.1 Surround Sound USB Gaming Headset
- High quality USB Gaming Headset compatible with PC, PS4, and Mac
- Virtual 7.1 surround sound and a great EQ/driver software!
- Detachable and flexible uni-directional microphone
- RGB color light switch
- Volume control knob
- Microphone mute toggle button
- YouTube review
- Headphone material wearing out, rope on USB cord fraying; otherwise functional and working
- Now my primary daily driver digital (USB) headphone for the Big Eagle computer
- Replaces my analog 3.5mm headphone/microphone Medion Erazer Headset combo
- Razer Seiren Mini (RZ19-03450)
- Micro USB connector
- Mercase USB Condenser Microphone
- USB Type - B to desired connector (Type A, C with adapter)
- Plug n' play, no driver needed
- Compatible with PC, Mac, PS4/5, Android
- Noise cancellation/mute button
- Echo knob
- Volume knob
- 3.5mm headphone monitor jack
Overall, I found a lot of misc extra hardware at steep discounts while thrifting the past year (keyboards, higher end gaming mice, some great streaming microphones, even some obscure card readers).
It's nice to have a few different keyboard sets for variety and choosing what feature set I need as appropriate to the task. The enhanced keyboard keys (macro keys on Razer and Logitech keyboards)
do not work in Windows ME on DOSBox computer through the KVM (accidental key press of macro keys freeze the computer).
As for mice, I'll primarily be using the 18-button programmable wired RPG ONN mouse (RGB) on the Big Eagle. The Basilisk Hyperspeed mouse seems nice for when doing compitive gaming, as well as the wireless Onn mouse. Good to have options for all 3 main RGB software ecosystems (onn, Logitech, Razer). Like with the keyboards, only my Windows XP partition on the Millenium Eagle DOSBox computer can handle the onn wired mouse or better; so for Windows ME, 3.11, and Pure Mode DOS, will have to use a basic USB mouse.
The 7.1 Edifier headphone over USB is amazing! It's now my primary headphone for the Big Eagle computer. The Millenium Eagle DOSBox computer can't handle it (lack of drivers), so that computer will have to use the older 3.5mm combo Medion Erazer headset I previously used. The 2 new USB microphones are decent too. I like the Mercase microphone better, since it has echo and noise reduction controls, as well as a standard screw post for mounting. The 3.5mm headphone monitor jack will be great for live monitoring/feedback of while filming for video game, tech, and streaming. Pair it with a 3.5mm bluetooth transmitter and a pair of 3.5mm bluetooth headphone to receive, it should work great for studio streaming.
Conclusion
The Big Eagle 🦅 Windows 11 gaming computer build is nearly complete (95% done)!
The Logitech G19 keyboard that was bricked was replaced with a working G19s keyboard, an Elgato Cam Link 4K USB 3.0 capture card was acquired for 4K HDMI capture, and the networking capabilities was upgraded with a WiFi 7 🤯 PCIe network card. More stickers were added (including a custom Big Eagle sticker). Also extra hardware was acquired at steep discounts through thrifting (keyboards, mice, a headphone set, extra microphones). Even some obscure hardware like a magstrip card reader and Smartcard reader were found!
To finish the build in part 3:
- Misc
- Taglio PIVKey C980 v2 card
- Provision card for single-computer login (EIDAuthenticate)
- Separate blog post
- Make custom EagleSoft Ltd logo stick on front of card (Cucu covers?)
- Decorations
- Create a custom EagleSoft Ltd. logo sticker for the Asus Turbo GTX 1070 custom decal area
- Create a few other custom stickers to wrapup the build
Cya later! -Eagle
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