Tek daydreams about building a new PC (again)

Odale said:
It's cheap! Just add oil regularly!
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Ehhh~ I don't like the burning oil smell, I don't want my daughter breathing that in when I drive her around, and if I'm going to get it fixed, I might as well do it sooner rather than later. Depending on the cost, it wouldn't delay the upgrades long, but it would take priority.
 
I didn't read through everything else in the thread so I don't know if anyone mentioned some of this stuff. I'm also looking to build a new desktop (first one in 8 or 9 years now) so I've been doing a lot of research as well. What's I've found is when you're trying to pinch pennies, you have to watch your aggregates. It's easy to say for any given part... it's only $20 more, and it'll future proof me. Add that up across 6-10 components though and it's an easy $120-$200 bucks extra. In addition, the reality is, the future proofing is pretty much hogwash. The extra $200 isn't going to buy you that much more time relative to how fast hardware progresses. Four years from now, your $1000 computer is going to be just as obsolete as your $800 computer. That doesn't mean parts don't matter, but there is definitely a threshold where you cross what is needed to what is just gravy. Build for what you need now and maybe 6 months from now. Don't build for a theoretical game a couple years down the line. If that's what you're waiting for, then just save the money until that theoretical game comes out and build then.

These aren't hard and fast. Take them with a grain of salt, but considering that cost is something that's important, I thought I would bring them up.

1) If you aren't really going to overclock, or if overclocking would just be kind of added bonus, the i5 3750k is overkill and superfluous. You could shave $100 off going with the i3-3220. It's the same mobo so it leaves open an upgrade path all the way to the i7-3770k. If you need a middle ground the i5 3470 is also there at $200. The other thing with overclocking, is you really need a better aftermarket CPU cooler which will set you back another $35-$50.

2) RAM is cheap. But it isn't free. There's no need for 16GB. Save yourself $30-$40 bucks and just get 2x4GB.

3) Motherboard - this is more subjective. There are several Z77 options (leaving open a CPU upgrade to an unlocked i5 3570k or i7 3770k in the future) that are sub $100. It seem like most people have good experiences, but perhaps more frequently deal with issues. If cost is the highest value though, could shave another $30-$40 off here and for the most part just sacrifice some tertiary features (extra ports, extreme overclockability, etc.)

4) The choice of a 7870 I think is good. It's a pretty substantial inflection point in that it's high performance for its cost. Cards costing more than it do not tend to increase performance proportionally to their increase in cost.

Those are my two cents :-D
 
Tek if you can give me your car's make, year, model and the repair shop that's asking for the $500, my dad can pull up the infos and see what the problem is. It's sounds like a really simple fix that shouldn't cost $500. He has a few degrees in mechanics and diesel mechanics.
 
$500 is very cheap for stopping an oil leak, I've been at the same Ford dealership for the past 8.5 years and labor rates have sky rocketed (ours have anyway). Also, you can't just look up the problem as many things can cause an oil leak in the same region of the engine - it needs to be physically inspected.

Although, it won't cost $500 if he does it himself.
 
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I plan on taking my car to a different mechanic for a second opinion and estimate next Wednesday (Dec. 26) or later in the week.

Okay, here's the latest theoretical build:

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K - $220
Video card: XFX Double D FX-787A-CDBC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Black Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - $230 after rebate
Mainboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $130 after rebate
Memory: ???

I will probably wait for the monitor purchase until I have a desk and I'm ready to move my computer from the living room to the bedroom.

As for memory, I'm fine with either 8GB or 16GB, so long as the cost-to-performance ratio is good.

EDIT: The 16GB RAM kit I had picked out is no longer on sale, so I'm open to suggestions again. I'd like to spend $60 or less on 16GB or $30 or less for 8GB.
 
Odale said:
I thought you were getting your car fixed.
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I am. I plan on taking it in for a second estimate on Wednesday or Thursday, which is why I was waiting to buy my PC upgrades. If the estimate is high, I'll postpone the upgrades. If it's low, I'll probably go ahead and buy them.
 
Okay, here we go again.

I'm considering going with this nVIDIA card because of the troubles I've had with ATI/AMD drivers in the past:

EVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - $270 AR

Processor and mainboard would remain the same. This memory was on sale and has excellent reviews:

Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division 2 Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PXD38G1600LLK - $33 AR

And, finally, this is the monitor I'm thinking of buying:

ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 50000000:1 (ASCR) - $140 after promo code and rebate

I don't like buying a monitor without seeing it in person first, but I don't know of any "showrooms" for monitors that would include the full range of options I'm considering.
 
first off the drivers for amd work fine..:) I've got two of them here and most of the machines clients buy have ati in them....:) Nvidia is good as wlel now too..:)
 
Time to put it all together:

Monitor: ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 50000000:1 (ASCR) - $140 after promo code and rebate
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K - $220
Mainboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $145
Video card (Option 1: nVIDIA): EVGA 02G-P4-3660-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - $270 AR
Video card (Option 2: AMD): XFX Double D FX-787A-CDBC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Black Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - $230 AR
Memory: Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division 2 Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PXD38G1600LLK - $33 AR

Total cost: $768/$808
 
Hescominsoon said:
Nice build
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Thanks.

Not sure if going with an nVIDIA card is worth a $40 price hike.

Also wondering if I should invest in a good 16GB RAM (8x2GB) kit now or just save a few bucks and go with 8GB.
 
Tek7 said:
Thanks.

Not sure if going with an nVIDIA card is worth a $40 price hike.

Also wondering if I should invest in a good 16GB RAM (8x2GB) kit now or just save a few bucks and go with 8GB.
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I've been running 8 gigs and for gaming that's all you need...unless you are doing cad or graphics..
 
Hescominsoon said:
I've been running 8 gigs and for gaming that's all you need...unless you are doing cad or graphics..
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I also have virtual machines (one for XP, one for Ubuntu), but neither would require enough to justify the added expense of a 16GB RAM kit.

I just want the computer to be as "future-resistant" as possible. :)

EDIT: Then again, if the RAM is only $33, I won't be as hesitant to upgrade in the future. Probably best to get inexpensive (but still high-quality and fast) RAM and less of it and put that money toward an nVIDIA card or a better monitor.
 
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