PC Specs Help

Discussion in 'Technology' started by supersonic, Jul 5, 2012.

  1. I priced out the following parts for a new PC, can I get a quick critique?

    I'm not sure about the motherboard and ram. I don't understand RAM timings and speeds. But I'm guessing the "Integrated Memory Controller Speed" on the CPU (DDR3 1600) is the fasted speed of RAM I need?

    I have the change the SSD HD, the price went up $100 since I priced it yesterday.

    http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/AddToCart.aspx?Submit=ADD&ItemList=14-150-599%7c1%2c13-157-282%7c1%2c11-147-053%7c1%2c19-115-229%7c1%2c20-227-808%7c1%2c27-136-246%7c1%2c20-226-314%7c2%2c17-182-188%7c1
     
  2. What are you using this for? I only question since it's a mixture of things that doesn't look like a gaming PC.

    You cheaped out on the video card (that's actually the same exact one I bought about a week ago). But you splurged on the RAM. Do you actually need that much? I'm still rolling around on 4GB of ram. I don't even plan on upgrading that for a long time.

    You also splurged on the CPU.
     
  3. It will be for work projects, I intend to simulate other infrastructures locally via VMWare so I wanted alot of RAM. But I definitely don't need 32GB. I would only want the max a slot supports so I can drop it to 2x8 for 16GB and pick up 2 sticks later.

    I won't be doing any gaming on this (hopefully), but how is that card? I have some wiggle room with the price, and if I can do better for a bit more, it's an option.
     
  4. It's probably the quietest video card you can get at this performance level. It's only a tad louder under load compared to it idling.. and that's if you even notice it ramping up the rpm's. You can get cards at the low $200's that are much better than this one, but they'll sound like jet engines hitting near 50 db. But what's the point if you don't game ya know?

    Just stick with this card as it's in the best price/performance range at the moment. And in the case you do game, it runs everything fine at max settings. The newest games I have right now are Max Payne 3 and Ghost Recon Future Soldier and they're running perfectly maxed out.
     
  5. If you want to save little money you can drop the 1000W PSU to something much lower. I've had my PC loaded with 4 hard drives, 5 fans, water pump, illuminated keyboard, and few other things and it was only drawing about 300 Watts. I bet a $70 600w would do you fine. You could also save another $80 if you drop to an i5 CPU but keep the i7 if you think you need it. Hyper threading is the advantage of the i7.

    Your memory is 4x2x8GB. 8 sticks but you only have 4 slots.
     
  6. Is there a reason you went with Sandy Bridge E and X79 instead of Ivy Bridge and Z77?
     
  7. No, I don't know what that means. Should I go with a different CPU, I just went by price and speed.

    Thanks, I wasn't sure how much I needed for the PSU, so I overshot.
     
  8. well SB-E is much better for virtual cloning I'd bet than Ivy Bridge. Can't compare 12 virtual cores to 8. plus if he ever needs more than 16gig ram he can get it. I'm not sure if IB-E is said to be on LGA2011 as well? AFAIK Ivy Bridge is backwards compat with SB chipset/ motherboards so I'd think that is the focus here. And I'm not sure if they're looking to step it up on IB-E core count either to 8 to blow even bulldozer (or steamroller) out of the water!

    Given his interests I'd suggest SB-E or even Bulldozer (to save money) right now.
     
  9. Is 256gigs enough for you?? Also the RAM, if you keep a SB-E you really should fill all the RAM slots. It's (if only a little bit) more efficient that way plus 4gb sticks will be cheaper/ lower latency.

    Sorry about the RAM but this is just if it was me, I'd get
    save 70+ on PSU
    save ~160 on 4x4gb RAM (vs. 4x8gb as posted)
    save 150 on 128gb SSD
    buy a 2tb mechanical HD for 120
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681
    put your important stuff on the SSD, the rest on the 2TB. It may be kinda' slow but the read speed is virtually the same.

    total you save a couple hundred bucks.

    I'd go AMD (Bulldozer) before I go Ivy Bridge. An 8-core Bulldozer would run you probly half a grand less it might be a bit slower but you also get half a grand in savings! AMD is more upgradable and overclockable as well... though it doesn't look like that is anywhere in your thought process anyway... the overclocking that is. If not tell us. Your current proc(your looking at) is locked so overclocking is near impossible.
     
  10. The Ivy Bridge i7 3770k is significantly faster and runs on cheaper motherboards. You get a better CPU for less money overall when you factor in the motherboard.

    http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

    This is what I would get:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544

    Also, that power supply is from a crappy brand and has a junky looking 12v rail. I would go with this:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

    The TX650 is a Seasonic built unit, which is as good as it gets.
     
  11. oh it's just the 4-core one... well never mind than. I'd either get the six-core or go with Ivy Bridge as suggested... or save a bundle and go with AMD :)
     
  12. Avoid Bulldozer. It benchmarks worse than a Sandy Bridge i3 or AMD's own Phenom II chips. AMD really messed up with that thing.
     
  13. When monkey talks about AMD you need to avoid HIM, his face benchmarks faster than an Ivy Bridge i7 on those occasions :eek:. His very own passmark link has Bulldozer running twice as fast as the i3 and faster than any i5. for a 300 dollar savings I think it's quite a good deal. It can be overclocked as well (though some of the advantages such as power and cheaper mobo may be comprimised there).
     
  14. I was thinking about an 8 core AMD just to say it has 8 cores, but I remember some of the stuff monkey said about it. I'm hoping to not have to upgrade or touch this thing for 5 years, and am willing to finance my laziness with higher quality parts.
     
  15. I'd go Sandy Bridge E, but get 6-core (even at twice the price, it's worth it trust me) 9670 vs 13k+? not to mention the 6-core is overclockable (you'll want to buy a third party cooler for that though if you go that route... just get a cheap one if you get the 650w psu it might not even be worth the investment with a 100 dollar cooler, just get a 20-35 dollar one and you'll be fine, make sure it's LGA2011 compatible though :/).
     
  16. 5 years with no upgrades means you'll want a 6-core Sandy E and unfortunately... they cost a lot. I bought my Q9550 for $450 back in '08 and it still keeps up well enough, so you need to go fairly high end for that kind of mileage.
     
  17. Holy shit, that 6 core one is priced very competitively against a mortgage payment. I might be too goddamn cheap to rock that, unless I can heat my house with that CPU in the winter.

    I added cmdrmonkey's specs and came out $200 cheaper than what I had, so the 6core+mb upgrade would actually only cost $100 more than what I originally had... so I am going to ponder it until Monday.

    http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/AddToCart.aspx?Submit=ADD&ItemList=19-116-501%7c1%2c14-150-599%7c1%2c11-147-053%7c1%2c20-231-569%7c1%2c27-136-246%7c1%2c20-227-796%7c1%2c13-128-544%7c1%2c17-139-020%7c1

    Can anyone let me know if I'm missing anything? That should be everything I need right? I'm going to use my work OS/key.
     
  18. um..... lol you got a little bit of everything in that shopping cart I don't even know where to start lol. First off Ivy Bridge ram goes in pairs of 3s not 2s like traditional or 4s like Sandy Bridge E. So... I'm not sure where to start on the RAM. You don't need the 1000W PSU anymore do you? Why do you have 4 Blu-Ray drives? If you have a DVD drive from a previous build and don't use Blu-Rays why not just use your DVD drive? Almost nothing uses Blu-Rays but movies... and PS3 games.
     
  19. The Antec P280 is a better case for less money. It's also more professional looking.

    http://www.amazon.com/Antec-P280-Black-Tower-Computer/dp/B005X3E5BO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341545102&sr=8-1&keywords=antec+p280