Breaking Up With My Girlfriend of 3.5 Years: Serain Builds A New Desktop

[Serain]

I’m sorry, I don’t love you anymore. You were only mid-range but a huge upgrade for me when I bought you, and frankly, you were somewhat overpriced and loaded with bloatware. I optimized you and we’ve been dating for about three years, but now, honestly, I’m tired of trying to run Photoshop and various games on a graphics card is three generations behind and other components that are even more so. I’ve decided to start planning for a proper new desktop. This is goodbye, I'm afraid.

I didn't get

Budget: $1100

PC Part Picker List (w/o monitor): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AJYI

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor $229.00
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard $139.99
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $49.99
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $87.97
Storage (SSD): Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk $129.99
Storage (HDD): Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $69.99
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card $219.99
Case: Antec Nine Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case $109.99
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply $54.99
Rosewill 750W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply $69.99
Monitor: ASUS VX238H 23-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor $179.99
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm QuickFire TK Wired Gaming Mechanical Keyboard $79.99
Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Wired Gaming Mechanical Keyboard $74.99
Corsair Vengeance K90 Wired Gaming Keyboard $89.99

Total: $1263.40

Oops I am way over budget >_> But on the bright side if I had $0.13 more stuff on there my total will add up to $1234.56. Maybe if I wait a month and then buy the parts it will drop a bit... Otherwise, I am unwilling to swap out my case and/or keyboard. I need them to be blue and shiny along with my mouse, as well as have the proper ports and ideally should last me until I decide that I don't want to use a desktop anymore. Ideally this build should last me at least 4 years before I need to upgrade any of the components besides buying a bit more RAM, which should be easy to add on. (Also, it's not that cheap, that'd add at least another $25 per 4gb).

Since this didn't get a lot of traction on tumblr: thoughts on this?

[HeK]

A 750 watt power supply is way overkill. You can get away with half of that. 500-550 watt to be safe.

It's not much more to get 16gb ram. It's infact cheaper now then later, as the price point is at a low.


I've seen parts go for extremely low prices compared to what PC part picker finds, such as i5-3750Ks going for $189.

[Serain]

A 750 watt power supply is way overkill. You can get away with half of that. 500-550 watt to be safe.

It's not much more to get 16gb ram. It's infact cheaper now then later, as the price point is at a low.


I've seen parts go for extremely low prices compared to what PC part picker finds, such as i5-3750Ks going for $189.

You think so? I was told that it may just barely power everything if I intend to overclock, which may be an option for the future (though I suppose I would have to buy more fans). I'll probably throw on some more ram if that's the case.

Also, where are these magical prices :o

[HeK]

I'm running an old (~5 year) 430 watt psu with my i5-3570K with a 1.1ghz overclock, with a GTX560 (also overclocked) and seven fans.

Modern PCs use, way, way less power then previous generations.

[Elder]

I'm running an old (~5 year) 430 watt psu with my i5-3570K with a 1.1ghz overclock, with a GTX560 (also overclocked) and seven fans.

Modern PCs use, way, way less power then previous generations.

im using the same processor and GTX560 Ti and have a 600 watt psu, with 5 fans, which is actually overkill, usually look at what kind of psu it suggests for your mobo, processor, and gpu and buy one accordingly

[Serain]

Okay, removed some power and added some more ram.

Should I wait to buy this or just go ahead and buy this now? If so, how long should I wait? I don't have a particularly pressing need and can wait until June, probably.

[Eightball]

Nice build--seriously. If it weren't for budget I wouldn't have changed anything from what you originally had. For reference, I've got exactly the same CPU, GPU, memory, and the same hard drive configuration (128GB SSD boot drive and 1TB game drive). And I know what HeK said and I've been quite content with 8GB of the same Corsair Vengeance DDR3. I may have suggested a less expensive case, but Antec is great and you seem to have a thing for the aesthetics (something I can relate to). I agree that 750W is probably more than you need, but I would still get one that gives you some breathing room above your absolutely minimum. 550-650 sounds great to me.

What's sending you over budget is really the monitor, but I would not recommend getting a cheaper one; below that price they seem to be kinda poo-poo quality.

You don't really have to buy all in one go, but if you wait too long you may encounter the problem of a DOA part that you didn't discover until 90 days after you received it, making returns/RMA difficult or impossible.

EDIT: Oh and be aware that the Quickfire TK has no arrow keys. Doesn't matter for some, but I like having a full-size keyboard now that I'm not in the dorms with a tiny desk.

[KorJax]

Really you suggest 16gb of ram over 8 but say having a 750w psu is pointless?

First of all, if we are being totally frank, nothing you use for this computer will ever use more than 8GB of RAM or more than 550/600w PSU wise, so we're going to assume you want to make one better for the sake of future proofing.

16GB of ram is a total waste. There is nothing out there that gets close to 8GB of ram, unless you are the type of person who is bored of waiting for a video to render and wants to watch a movie on top of that. Or if you like to have steam, 20 chrome tabs open, photoshop open, music, a video and a big high-memory game going all at once.

And there is no reason to suspect that we'll ever need 16gb/s of ram anywhere in the near future, especially because even assuming the next console generation boosts memory usage in PC games up to double the current standard, having just said game running would still run like silk at 8gb. I don't care if 16GB of ram is "only" $80 or so, it's still spending $40 too much on something you don't need.

Meanwhile, having at least 600-700w PSU is a great way to future proof, ESPECAILLY if you get a quality brand. Sooner or later you're going to be upgrading a video card, adding a second one, upgrading the CPU (though its pretty good as is in this build), etc - all of these things require more power. If you stay at 550w, you are pretty much stuck with this and will need to replace your PSU if you plan on getting any other upgrades. It's also much wiser to have some overhead when it comes to power, instead of always riding on exactly what your PSU supports. This is especially true as a PSU's wattage capabilities degrade over time - a 550w PSU in 2-3 years will not be able to sustain 550w load. It's what happened to my old 550w PSU I had - was playing witcher 2, and then suddenly it poped with some spark. No damage, but the PSU was dead. After 3-4 or so years of owning it and doing constant upgrades it just couldn't keep up. Now I have a 600w psu, brand new fancy brand for the quality.

[CaffeinePowered]

16GB of ram is a total waste. There is nothing out there that gets close to 8GB of ram, unless you are the type of person who is bored of waiting for a video to render and wants to watch a movie on top of that. Or if you like to have steam, 20 chrome tabs open, photoshop open, music, a video and a big high-memory game going all at once.

And there is no reason to suspect that we'll ever need 16gb/s of ram anywhere in the near future, especially because even assuming the next console generation boosts memory usage in PC games up to double the current standard, having just said game running would still run like silk at 8gb. I don't care if 16GB of ram is "only" $80 or so, it's still spending $40 too much on something you don't need.

"I have too much ram" - Said no one ever


I put 32 GB in my new box, why? Because I can, and its the max the motherboard will hold.

Know that RAM problem while taking PS2 videos? Yea, Ive never had it

And Ive seen it chew up to 4 gigs of ram at certain points with just PS2, oh and I can alt tab seamlessly :3

[Versus]

i have an overclocked i7 and a 6870 and it draws under 400 watts, counting all of the fans and HDDs

if i upgraded to two nvidia 690s i would hit 750W, according to http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psuca...orlite.jsp

dual nvidia 680s puts me well under 600W

if possible, i recommend a larger SSD

[Eightball]

"I have too much ram" - Said no one ever

And Ive seen it chew up to 4 gigs of ram at certain points with just PS2, oh and I can alt tab seamlessly :3

And as I said to you when you told me that last time:

"I have too much money" - Said no one ever

I have never, ever ran into problems with even 6GB RAM. Never, not once. And I run games, photo & video editing software, etc. I think that it does not hurt to have more RAM than you need, but it's very easy to make the point that it's a needless expenditure and not the sort of thing to recommend to everybody. If you know you'll need more than 8GB, get more. If you know you won't, get 8GB. If you don't know, what your choice is is largely up for you to decide. I think a reasonable middle ground is to get a 2x4GB kit of the Corsair Vengeance. If she really needs it, it should be trivial to find the exact same kit to upgrade.

And I think total memory doesn't really influence how well games alt-tab.

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=Caffeine link=topic=6751.msg261260#msg261260 date=1359662991]
"I have too much ram" - Said no one ever

And Ive seen it chew up to 4 gigs of ram at certain points with just PS2, oh and I can alt tab seamlessly :3

And as I said to you when you told me that last time:

"I have too much money" - Said no one ever

And I think total memory doesn't really influence how well games alt-tab
[/quote]

I believe that it does, having more ram is like if I was playing freecell and suddenly someone doubled the amount of empty spaces I could move cards to but kept the number of cards the same.

Also ram is dirt cheap. $40 to double is not a lot of money at all. Its not like dumping an extra $200 to grab the next processor/video card up

[Eightball]

Also ram is dirt cheap. $40 to double is not a lot of money at all. Its not like dumping an extra $200 to grab the next processor/video card up

I'll agree with this point. But, considering the amount that Serain is over by is about $150, $40 is non-trivial. I'll repeat that it is practical for her to start with 8GB, and upgrade if needed. This line of memory is not exactly obscure, so matching kits will be easy even in a few years. Furthermore, she's using a stock CPU cooler so she won't run into the clearance issue I did if she goes 4x4GB, meaning she doesn't have to commit to 2x8 now.

I edited my last post to have a bit more content.

EDIT: Serain, see if there's a microcenter in your area. As Mission, Scar, and others will vouch, they often beat Newegg for CPUs. I got my 3570k there for about $190? Seeing similar prices from them on PCPartpicker.
EDIT2: Yup, if you were able to pick up the 3570k in-person, you would save $30 on the CPU. This would break the $13 combo discount you have on Newegg with the 2x8GB kit, but if you were to go with 2x4 you would save about $38? For a net savings of $55.
EDIT3: Also, if you're really not going to overclock (I can't tell with that stock cooler), then...you could save $10 by getting the non-k version of the 3570. I should kick myself for saying it, but it's true. Destroys the whole microcenter/combo deal thing though.

[Didzo]

What nobody has mentioned so far is that barring LED lights, RAM has the highest e-peen increase per dollar ratio of any computer part.

Just something to consider when building a high end rig.

[HeK]

What nobody has mentioned so far is that barring LED lights, RAM has the highest e-peen increase per dollar ratio of any computer part.

Really? More epeen than ridiculous SSD striped raids?

[Serain]

EDIT: Oh and be aware that the Quickfire TK has no arrow keys. Doesn't matter for some, but I like having a full-size keyboard now that I'm not in the dorms with a tiny desk.

Yeah, I think the integration with the numpad will be fine for me, though I certainly wouldn't mind a similarly priced full keyboard option. I'll probably go take another look.

i have an overclocked i7 and a 6870 and it draws under 400 watts, counting all of the fans and HDDs

if i upgraded to two nvidia 690s i would hit 750W, according to http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psuca...orlite.jsp

dual nvidia 680s puts me well under 600W

if possible, i recommend a larger SSD

Gotcha. I think I may go for more power and less RAM then :x I opted out of a 250 gb SSD to cut a few costs, since I wasn't sure it would be entirely worth it :x

EDIT: Serain, see if there's a microcenter in your area. As Mission, Scar, and others will vouch, they often beat Newegg for CPUs. I got my 3570k there for about $190? Seeing similar prices from them on PCPartpicker.
EDIT2: Yup, if you were able to pick up the 3570k in-person, you would save $30 on the CPU. This would break the $13 combo discount you have on Newegg with the 2x8GB kit, but if you were to go with 2x4 you would save about $38? For a net savings of $55.
EDIT3: Also, if you're really not going to overclock (I can't tell with that stock cooler), then...you could save $10 by getting the non-k version of the 3570. I should kick myself for saying it, but it's true. Destroys the whole microcenter/combo deal thing though.

The only microcenter around here is Fry's, which, being a chain store, probably doesn't have much lower prices, but I can go check anyway. Also, I plan to have overclocking as an option for some point in the future, if I need to squeeze out some extra performance. I will probably buy a few more fans though, if that is the case.

Also, this screen? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6824236079 It's a little cheaper than the ASUS VX238H, though heavy as hell (weighing in at nearly 14 lbs). Otherwise, they seem to have comparable specs, unless I'm missing something ._.

Edit: Also my e-peen is definitely measured in LEDs

[Didzo]

[quote author=Didzo link=topic=6751.msg261274#msg261274 date=1359671267]
What nobody has mentioned so far is that barring LED lights, RAM has the highest e-peen increase per dollar ratio of any computer part.

Really? More epeen than ridiculous SSD striped raids?
[/quote]

E-peen increases start to rapidly drop off once Average Joe no longer has any idea what the technology is. Lack of arbitrary numbers also detracts from e-peen increases.

[at0m]

In all seriousness, getting a 240GB+ SSD with even average SSD performance is very much worth it, unless you usually bio and unload while your game loads. you may end up needing a poopsock