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Finally... => Life Advice => Topic started by: Owlbread on July 26, 2013, 03:28:02 pm

Title: General Computer Building Advice Thread
Post by: Owlbread on July 26, 2013, 03:28:02 pm

Seeing as my question has been answered and there are often quite a few threads about building PCs/asking for general computer advice, I've turned this thread into a general computer-building advice thread. Post here to ask any questions about building PCs that you'd like answered.

Spoiler: My original computer question (click to show/hide)

Well, this computer's lasted me since 2008 or 2009 (about when I started playing DF, in fact). I originally bought it so I could run Fallout 3 on the highest settings and sure enough it's lasted right up until the latest generation of games. It started to struggle with some of the punishment graphics-heavy games (or simulators) like Space Engine or Shogun 2 were putting on it and sometimes I just feel like it's time to upgrade. My goal is to be able to run at least Rome 2 on the highest settings, along with any other game that comes out for the next year or so (like maybe the PC version of GTA 5 when it arrives). I'd also like it to be able to play the rest of the games at a decent setting for the next 4-5 years. Right now money is not an issue, though I'm trying not to go too far over 1500 pounds. I've already had a chat with a good friend of mine and we came up with this model here:

PSU- XFX Modular
MOBO- Asus Z87 Sabertooth
CPU- i7 4770
RAM-16GB Corsair DDR3 1600Mhz
GPU- GTX 780
HDD- 3TB Seagate HDD/4TB HDD (need to find one)
SSD- Kingston 240GB SSD Kit
CASE- Coolermaster HAF X

What do you fellows think of it? Does it need work? Do you agree/disagree with some of our choices? I'm basically ready to purchase it now, I just wanted to run it past a few other people before I made that decision. I'm also looking at using 3 good monitors (I just use a TV at the moment), but I'll do that over the next year maybe.

I just want reliability and a good deal of power from this computer, enough to last me at least as long as this computer did. Those are my two main goals.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

Without knowing too much about gaming pcs i would think that RAM sounds a bit low, 16GB.

I don't game really but I exceed 16GB quite often doing other stupid stuff.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: freeformschooler on July 27, 2013, 10:21:10 am

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

Without knowing too much about gaming pcs i would think that RAM sounds a bit low, 16GB.

I don't game really but I exceed 16GB quite often doing other stupid stuff.

I've never exceeded 8GB running a hefty music synthesizer, Flash and Photoshop at the same time. How do you do it  ???

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: jaass on July 27, 2013, 12:32:27 pm

How much watts is your PSU? What are you planning to use the SSD for?

Come down on the RAM to about 8GB, and maybe get a Intel Core i5 4670K. You can overclock it about 4.4GHz if you need too but invest in a good cooling system if you are going to do that.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: nenjin on July 27, 2013, 02:19:38 pm

Wattage on the PSU is a big one. When upgrading, jumping up several generations of video card can render your PSU inadequate if you only bought one with enough power for your older build. It's always good to budget for more power than you currently need. 750w would mean you'd never need another PSU unless you started getting redonkulous with your hardware. SSDs also draw a lot less power than a standard HDD, so that's something to consider as well for what wattage you ultimately end up at. Also make sure whatever PSU you buy has the right amount of connectors, more available than you need never hurts. Also pay attention to the # of 12-volt rails the PSU has. 2 is pretty standard, 3 or more is great, 1 is unacceptable. You ideally want the CPU and the GPU on different rails (I honestly forget what runs on what rails anymore.) Might be less of an issue than the last time I bought a PSU.

16 gig ram can't hurt. If you've got money to burn, might as well. If not, go down to 8.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on July 27, 2013, 02:22:25 pm

Yeah, saving money here isn't really on my mind. If creating a monolith means spending extra cash then that's absolutely fine by me. But as nenjin has said, the wattage of the PSU is 750W. I was going to run my OS and all my essentials off the SSD (you know, boot from it etc) while I'd split the 4TB drive into 4 partitions for specific purposes. That sounds like decadence but believe me it's necessary.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 06:31:50 pm

Quote from: freeformschooler on July 27, 2013, 10:21:10 am

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

Without knowing too much about gaming pcs i would think that RAM sounds a bit low, 16GB.

I don't game really but I exceed 16GB quite often doing other stupid stuff.

I've never exceeded 8GB running a hefty music synthesizer, Flash and Photoshop at the same time. How do you do it  ???

modelling physical phenomena during my studies mostly... I have 32 gb here, and i can fill that too without trouble. But i am also a bad programmer. Oh, and i keep temporary files in memory instead of on the disk when in normal use, to not burden the SSD all the time with that stuff.

Reading what others say, it seems like it is not required with games though. Best not waste money then.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: jaass on July 27, 2013, 07:39:39 pm

If you don't mind spending money then, why don't you get a GTX Titan?

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Bdthemag on July 27, 2013, 07:41:48 pm

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

Without knowing too much about gaming pcs i would think that RAM sounds a bit low, 16GB.

I don't game really but I exceed 16GB quite often doing other stupid stuff.

What the hell kind of stuff are you doing normally that exceeds 16 GB of RAM? The average person isn't going to need more than eight, and even THAT is pushing it if you don't do any kind of video/photo editing.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: jaass on July 27, 2013, 07:43:55 pm

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

modelling physical phenomena

^ That is pretty demanding on a system. He may also be building his own simulation software.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Bdthemag on July 27, 2013, 07:46:05 pm

Quote from: jaass on July 27, 2013, 07:43:55 pm

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

modelling physical phenomena

^ That is pretty demanding on a system. He may also be building his own simulation software.

Oh, that makes sense. As I said, average person isn't going to need more than 4 GB of RAM if they intend to play video games. You can maybe get 8 GB for the hell of it, but there won't be any major differences if you solely intend to play video games.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: ChairmanPoo on July 27, 2013, 08:14:20 pm

Quote from: Bdthemag on July 27, 2013, 07:41:48 pm

Quote from: Evil Knievel on July 27, 2013, 02:39:49 am

Without knowing too much about gaming pcs i would think that RAM sounds a bit low, 16GB.

I don't game really but I exceed 16GB quite often doing other stupid stuff.

What the hell kind of stuff are you doing normally that exceeds 16 GB of RAM? The average person isn't going to need more than eight, and even THAT is pushing it if you don't do any kind of video/photo editing.

In fact, 640 kb of RAM should be enough for anybody

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on July 27, 2013, 09:36:02 pm

Quote from: jaass on July 27, 2013, 07:39:39 pm

If you don't mind spending money then, why don't you get a GTX Titan?

I looked at the Titan quite deeply but it seems to be far less reliable than the 780 (seemingly the second best they had), which still provides a Titan-like experience. I was worried that if I got the Titan it wouldn't last, and although money isn't really an issue I'd like my purchase to be worthwhile, if you know what I mean.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: foil on July 30, 2013, 01:08:51 pm

Specs look good enough, tho case looks a bit ricer imo and will probably be a bit noisy with all the vents and fans.

If you are not going to overclock the ass out of it why not get a silent/reduced sound case?

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Tellemurius on July 30, 2013, 03:12:23 pm

For a silent build i could recommend dropping water cooling (before you ask you are using a non-conductive fluid). The ram is extremely nice for gaming, im bottoming out on 8Gb due to massive textures (darn AAA games :P)

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on July 30, 2013, 04:05:27 pm

Quote from: foil on July 30, 2013, 01:08:51 pm

Specs look good enough, tho case looks a bit ricer imo and will probably be a bit noisy with all the vents and fans.

If you are not going to overclock the ass out of it why not get a silent/reduced sound case?

I thought that I'd go for a large, fairly open case like that so that I might be able to avoid stuff like water cooling and large fans, but that might be wise just for the sake of noise, as Tellemurius described.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: nenjin on July 30, 2013, 07:02:02 pm

That would be a good case to get if you need ultra mega cooling...but then you'd probably just buy water cooled anyways. I personally hate fans in the side of the case, just one more thing you gotta disconnect when opening your tower up. I may get a noise dampening case one day, because the quieter and better systems I build, the more noticeable the noise is :P

Also, have you considered buying two lower end cards instead of one 780? Your board comes with an SLI bridge and the expansion slots are right. While people generally do it because they can make one good card out of two budget cards....you get two good cards and make one monster card.

Balls out, and all that.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Tellemurius on July 30, 2013, 07:38:56 pm

Quote from: nenjin on July 30, 2013, 07:02:02 pm

That would be a good case to get if you need ultra mega cooling...but then you'd probably just buy water cooled anyways. I personally had fans in the side of the case, just one more thing you gotta disconnect when opening your tower up. I may get a noise dampening case one day, because the quieter and better systems I build, the more noticeable the noise is :P

Also, have you considered buying two lower end cards instead of one 780? Your board comes with an SLI bridge and the expansion slots are right. While people generally do it because they can make one good card out of two budget cards....you get two good cards and make one monster card.

Balls out, and all that.

SLI and Crossfire are known to crap out though and really you aren't going to see the need for multicards unless you are running crapton of monitors

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on July 30, 2013, 08:57:44 pm

Yeah, again, I'd rather spend more money on a more stable machine than try to save money like that and possibly crap things out a year or two down the line. I'd rather aspire to own a second 780 if I get the money in the next few years (or whatever comes along), but I won't base my main setup around it.

I was expecting a lot of heat from the specs, but maybe I'm just trying to stay prepared for the future. There's a lot of dust and heat in the room that it'll be in so a nice spatious case seemed like a good idea. The other attraction from the case was the fact that it doesn't really require many tools to open it up and work on it. Please keep giving suggestions though, I'm thinking a fair bit about cooling and noise levels now. I use headphones most of the time so they may help.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2013, 05:59:47 pm

This seems to be the thread to post it in, I also want to build a computer to last. So far, my prospective specs are:

CPU: AMD FX-8350
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43
Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 8GB Sticks)
Storage:
Seagate 240GB SSD
Seagate 2TB 7200RPM HDD
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB (Black)
Power Supply: Thermaltake 600W

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on August 02, 2013, 06:07:50 pm

I'm going to buy most of the parts pretty soon I think so you are very welcome to post that here, my good man.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Knight of Fools on August 02, 2013, 06:35:50 pm

SSD's aren't bad for games, but they aren't the best investment if that's all you want them for. Your boot and load times will be phenomenally fast, though. Say goodbye to waiting for long loading screens when the game's on the SSD. I hate waiting around because it causes introspection, which is detrimental to true gaming.

Quote from: PyroDesu on August 02, 2013, 05:59:47 pm

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti

I have a 560 Ti, and it's been going strong for a couple years now... But I have to say, despite upgrading every other component in my system, it's the one thing I'd like to upgrade now that newer games are coming out. I can run games with pretty good settings with a good FPS, but it's nothing amazing. With the new console generation out soon that may be changing so it may be worth looking into a higher quality chip if you're looking for something that'll really last. It'll cost you an extra $100 - 200, but even something in the 600 series will give you some good mileage.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: PyroDesu on August 02, 2013, 07:15:36 pm

Thing is, Knight, that's one of two parts I already own, along with the power supply. I intend to take them from this computer that I own in all but name and use them for the rig I will be building. Besides, it was cheap enough and is more than powerful enough for what I use it for (I don't play too many newer games, I think the newest one I play is Crusader Kings II, though that will change when Europa Unviersalis IV comes out), so I should be good for a while.

And I added the SSD as a bell-and-whistle in case by budget allows for bells and whistles, mostly for my OS and one or two games.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Knight of Fools on August 02, 2013, 09:18:02 pm

Oh, you'll be more than happy with the 560 Ti, then.

And for big games like CK2 and EU4, an SSD is amazing. I used to get up and make myself lunch while it loaded on my HDD, now I don't even have time to get myself a water. It's one of the areas SSDs really shine.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: CR055H41RZ on August 03, 2013, 08:49:05 pm

I love space engine.
Make sure you get a really good power supply unit those tend to die first
Man I was pissed when my good computer died at 6 mo. because of the specific powerp supply being malfunctional for the lack of a better word.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: miauw62 on August 04, 2013, 07:28:50 am

You know, Owlbread, you could turn this into the general computer-building & advice thread.

Title: Re: Planning on building a computer to last, how does this look?
Post by: Owlbread on August 04, 2013, 09:11:49 am

Quote from: miauw62 on August 04, 2013, 07:28:50 am

You know, Owlbread, you could turn this into the general computer-building & advice thread.

I think I shall do that, that is a good idea.

Title: Re: General Computer Building Advice Thread
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on November 30, 2020, 11:59:32 pm

My Ipad’d default weather shows the weather in Cupertino California, I live in Iowa, how do I make it show weather for the correct city?

Title: Re: General Computer Building Advice Thread
Post by: bloop_bleep on December 01, 2020, 01:39:52 am

Slightly wrong thread there, Naturegirl.  :)

Title: Re: General Computer Building Advice Thread
Post by: Naturegirl1999 on December 02, 2020, 02:08:03 am

Quote from: bloop_bleep on December 01, 2020, 01:39:52 am

Slightly wrong thread there, Naturegirl.  :)

well, the problem was fixed in the correct thread. Sorry for the mixup