Calling on Techie Nerds

[MobBoss]

One more point since you mentioned it specifically. If you are getting a unlocked CPU and plan on tweaking it or over-clocking, you need to buy a decent CPU fan - dont really on the basic one that comes with the CPU. I'd recommend a CoolerMaster Hyper 212, or one of the better Zalman fans for around 35 bucks or so (you can often find them on sale for less than 20).

I'd also read up on case fan installation as well. Its good to have some knowledge on case airflow as opposed to just slapping fans all over the place on a case. Especially if you are going to run multiple drives and a big CPU in it.

 

[TomYo689]

So wait about my earlier question does that mean you're saying a old computer with best internet ever will download at 100gbps

 

[Zelig]

So wait about my earlier question does that mean you're saying a old computer with best internet ever will download at 100gbps

No, but computer bottlenecks are typically an order of magnitude faster than internet connection bottlenecks.

A slow hard drive will be a PC's bottleneck at 50 MB/s - this is already faster than the vast majority of wireless connections will do, and 5x faster than a 100 mbps wired connection to your router. You'd need roughly a 400 mbit internet connection to reach this speed, there are only a very small handful of ISPs in North America that do this. (http://highspeedgeek.com/america-gigabit-internet/)

 

[Chiteng]

So I've got a general question for anyone you techie folks out there kind of a value vs speed and what not. Im building a computer and just curious what you'll think of the specs for the cost. Feel free to post your own specs if you have some crazy stuff.

First its a full ATX tower
CPU: Intel Core I7-3770 3.4GHz -3.9GHZ Turbo
Motherboard: Intel LGA 1155 SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 Micro
Eternet Card: Intel PWLA8492MT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI PRO/1000 MT Dual Port
RAM: 4 - 240 Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 8GB sticks - total RAM 32GB
Drives: 2 - LG Black 4MB Cache Blue Ray/DVD/CD Burners
Hardrives: 256GB SSD SATA III / 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s
Grapics Card: Radeon HD 7750 2GB 128bit DDR3 PCI Express 3.0
Also some assorted power supplies and fans appropriate for this. Cost in total so far is roughly 1800-1900 haven't gotten the final cost but under 2000 for sure.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Looks good to me

 

[trader/warrior]

as far SLI, I meant like maybe two months from now get the second card.

Just so happens that the Geforce 700 series is being released in the next few months. You could get a real monster PC with the GK110 Titan card officialy released yesterday. Though that one will cost something like 800-1000$... Probably way overkill, but I would recommend that over 2 x 400$ cards.

 

[TomYo689]

Good to know

 

[MobBoss]

Just so happens that the Geforce 700 series is being released in the next few months. You could get a real monster PC with the GK110 Titan card officialy released yesterday. Though that one will cost something like 800-1000$... Probably way overkill, but I would recommend that over 2 x 400$ cards.

My rule of thumb is this: go for the card that has about 85% of the performance of the top card available.

This will usually be just about the spot for the best price vs performance ratio. You get a great card that will last you years and you avoid paying the premium that comes with having 'the best'.

That being said, if you say money is truly no object, dont build your own system, get one from Alienware or Falcon NW. Sure you will pay double if not triple what you would for a system, but you will get hands down the best system money can buy with a gurantee to keep it running or updated for years to come.

 

[Colonel]

My rule of thumb is this: go for the card that has about 85% of the performance of the top card available.

This will usually be just about the spot for the best price vs performance ratio. You get a great card that will last you years and you avoid paying the premium that comes with having 'the best'.

That being said, if you say money is truly no object, dont build your own system, get one from Alienware or Falcon NW. Sure you will pay double if not triple what you would for a system, but you will get hands down the best system money can buy with a gurantee to keep it running or updated for years to come.

So I had thought about that originally and seriously considering going that route but after comparing the specs between the computers alienware vs. my build mine is better. Now yes there is something to be said about technical support/time of building but 2000 difference is cost. Money isn't an object but thats not to say I want to be dumb about it, I don't want to be paying 2000 for tech support and for someone to put my computer together, especially if mine is better. (I went on alienware and maxed out there best computer in the build)

 

[Quintillus]

"Arguably"? "Max graphics"? "Latest games"? It is crazy to build a system like this with a $100 graphics card unless you don't plan to game whatsoever. And if that is the case, he could just as likely do with a $500 PC.

But I definitely agree with all your other points.

There wasn't much to go on as to the purpose of the system in the first post. For traditional gaming purposes, it's definitely the weak point. But if gaming was only a secondary purpose, a 7750 probably would have been a secondary card. It all depends on what you're going for. Some people like to game occasionally, but don't care about high settings on two monitors. And for something like that, I think a 7750 would be fine.

IMO even with gaming as a primary purpose, $150-$200 is the sweet spot of priceerformance for a GPU. Obviously if you care a lot about graphics, it will be above that... but you don't need a $400 card for gaming. I think too many people overemphasize the "need" for a super-fantastic GPU.

The other factor that I didn't know at first was that the goal was "up to $2000, but feel free to go close to that if performance is better" as opposed to "below $2000, but I'd rather be several hundred below that if possible". I assumed the latter, so went closer to a priceerformance ideal of $1200 or so. Turned out, that wasn't what Colonel was looking for.

My only reason for getting a second is in case I wanted to copy one disc to another just much easier.

This I just found while wandering, 30 bucks and I have some old floppys in a box somewhere in my electronics cache lol.

Looks pretty beastly. I didn't realize Blu-Ray burners had dropped so much in price, those came out quite a bit lower than I'd expected. I like the floppies making it in to an otherwise quite modern build, too.

 

[MobBoss]

So I had thought about that originally and seriously considering going that route but after comparing the specs between the computers alienware vs. my build mine is better. Now yes there is something to be said about technical support/time of building but 2000 difference is cost. Money isn't an object but thats not to say I want to be dumb about it, I don't want to be paying 2000 for tech support and for someone to put my computer together, especially if mine is better. (I went on alienware and maxed out there best computer in the build)

Couple more thoughts.

Have you ever built a high-end computer before? Or built your own computer at all? The reason I ask is you can often run into problems that you have to troubleshoot, not to mention the fact that you can always have an 'oops' moment and fry your 300+ dollar cpu by not doing something right and you end up eating that cost right off the bat. Putting a computer together is not hard per se, but you have to be detail oriented enough to not make costly mistakes.

The other thing about getting an Alienware or Falcon NW system, is those guys are the absolute best at getting every ounce of performance of those components. They come already overclocked and stable with a gurantee to stay that way. With your system, the only gurantee is your expertise in putting it together and tweaking it. Unless you do this...a lot....you simply arent going to get as much performance out of a system with the same exact components as those folks will.

Its all about what you are comfortable with and are willing to pay.

 

[MobBoss]

IMO even with gaming as a primary purpose, $150-$200 is the sweet spot of priceerformance for a GPU. Obviously if you care a lot about graphics, it will be above that... but you don't need a $400 card for gaming. I think too many people overemphasize the "need" for a super-fantastic GPU.

Close, but i'd go as high as $250 and it depends on the current market saturation and what kind of deal you can get on the card you desire. I got my Geforce 560 Ti for only about $170 bucks when they were selling for about $220 cause I managed to pick up a refurb and didnt have any issues with it at all. But the card was still a 'best buy' even at $220 cause it had the best bang for the buck at that price.

 

[Colonel]

The only main difference as performance between this vs. alienware is the CPU, as there's are overclocked to about 4.1 or 4.2 Ghz and stock out of the box mine is 3.9 Ghz. With that being said I've been assisting some a lot of my less then techie friends build theres lately. That being said the last one I built alone was about 5 years ago. As far as the rest of the specs go, even maxing out what I can get on alienware my specs with the exception of the CPU are better.

As far as the throw back to floppy drives, I bought it because it was 20 bucks and happened to find it when I was wandering newegg. That being said I'm planning on getting a VGA switch and build a couple of older computers so I run some older games without trying to do the whole backwards compatibility issue. Once I'm done with my office I plan on having a rather large tv on the wall hooked into computers and cable with a desk with a few monitors. The funny thing being the only non electronic thats going to be in the room is my gun safe. I was also contemplating setting up a business internet connection as I have some server equipment and it would interconnect the computers and increase my internet speed even more then it is now as its currently maxed out at 300MB/ps.

 

[MobBoss]

So you've built one before...you should have no major problems...especially if you order from newegg and can RMA possible bad parts for replacement.