Building/Buying a good desktop

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

Oh well, I sure have the budget for a 2500$ pc but if I can save a few hundred dollars, that's always appreciated.

Hehe, I'm tempted with that Blackwidow keyboard, I've heard good things on it and if I get back to rhythm games, that will be the sweetest thing ever, I'll probably keep it.

Besides, is it a long and complicated process to build the computer once you have all the pieces ? (+ installing the operating system, drivers and softwares)

[Izzy]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

Windows 8 auto finds drivers for practically all modern hardware. Assembling the components can take about an hour, maybe 2 if you've never done it before.

Also I have the new razer blackwidow. First mechanical keyboard I've owned so I don't know how to compare it. It makes loud clicky sounds which is new. Not terribly annoying, but you should expect to hear clicks. For stepmania it is the most consistent feel to it I've ever had. It also simply matches my computer and the extra programmable function keys are very useful in games and other shit. $140 for a full mechanical with extra function keys and back lighting isn't so bad.

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

That's good to know.

Meanwhile, I found the same Dell desktop as I mentioned earlier but for 1589$. Here's the stuff :
XPS 8700
Operating System : Windows 8.1 (64Bit) Canda MUI
Processor : 4th Generation IntelŽ Core™ i7-4770 Processor (8M Cache, 3.4 GHz)
Hard Drive : 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive + IntelŽ SRT 32GB SSD Cache
Video Card : NVIDIAŽ GeForceŽ GT 635 1GB DDR3
Memory : 24GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 4 DIMMs
Optical Drive : 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW), write to CD/DVD
Monitor : Dell UltraSharp U2412M
Keyboard : Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard, canada MUI
Mouse : Dell Laser Mouse
Including Microsoft Office + a bunch of non-interesting stuff

Pros : mostly the same processor than I was looking for, larger hard drive, impressive memory, monitor doesn't look that bad (but quite pricey for 400$!!!), all comes from the same source and all the stuff is already installed and mounted
Cons : SDD is too small, video card is alright, and the keyboard/mouse might be shitty (an assumption), don't know the watts of the power supply, I don't know if I'll break the warranty seal if I change pieces (need to check that)

I'm thinking about buying a few other pieces and upgrading it (a better video card + keyboard + sdd). In the end, it's gonna cost me more or less the same than if I build my own...

[Izzy]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

I can guarantee that will be shit in comparison. Down to the horrible airflow in the case and the shitty 3 year old graphics card. You could build that PC for way less than $1600.

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

There seems to have only one fan on the XPS 8700. Plus the SSD drive is only used for cache purpose.

[Izzy]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

You should really just do it yourself. It's fun and you'll learn some stuff for doing it in the future and/or upgrading parts.

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

My dad would disagree with that, he tried to convince me it wasn't a good idea at all. ^^
I'm more tempted to build one myself though.

Some changes :
- Went back with the i7-4770K 3.5 GHz, for 40$ more, it wouldn't hurt
- Blackwidow Keyboard settled in stone
- Added 139$ for Microsoft Office.

[Izzy]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

LibreOffice (the new open office) can do anything microsoft office can do and it is free. It can even save as microsoft file types.

[Rebirth0]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

The optical drive might be useless, unless you watch movies or rip movies/cd's from your computer. I haven't had an optical drive in my computer for two years and I'm missing out on nothing, but I guess I do download everything I need (torrents), and it is only $20, so that choice is yours.

I would upgrade that hard drive from 1TB to 2TB. $30 more for double the space.... even if you didn't think you needed it, it sounds like a great investment.

Also consider getting a water cooler for your cpu. If you do a lot of rendering/encoding/shit that uses a lot of cpu power, you will want to keep your cpu as cool as possible. With that cooler you'll probably get in the 50s in cpu temperatures. Water cooler (Corsair H60 for example) would make it 10 degrees cooler.

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

I will eventually need an optical drive for burning CDs for work related stuff. And I prefer one that's integrated instead of one that uses an USB port. And it's only 20$.

I doubt I'll ever reach 2TB (I prefer to stream movies, I don't use torrents), but my photographs takes a lot of space : 20 Mo per dng files, so there's that.

As for CPU cooling, the Corsair H60 seems like a good compromise. The H100i was probably a bit excessive for the build.

edit : as for the monitor, I might fall for something like http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/dell-monitor-s2340m

[dragon890x]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

I recommend buying a system that's just good enough to get you by until November.

There's no reason to make such a build at current prices. Wait for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and save yourself a potential $500+, or simply use it to get better hardware.

Also, $2,000-3,000 is really shooting high if you want a good setup. Parts are not that expensive, unless you're getting into professional grade server or graphics setups. I'm going to assume that you're not running a business nor developing high definition movies.

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

I can't wait until December this year. That's not an option for me.

Like I said, money isn't an issue. While my work is mostly centered around photo editing, I do have to edit and process HD movies from time to time.
Just to give an idea, my Mac laptop has an Intel Core i7 2,3 GHz with 8 GB of memory and I had a project last month that required me to edit a pdf file with Illustrator and had to wait a full 1 second after each change. It took me a full afternoon to do something I could have done in 1 hour.

[dragon890x]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

You're looking too far into this and I suspect you're being pulled in by price comparisons between desktop and laptop systems.

Look into this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/render-farm-node,2340.html

Money is always an issue.
If you're going to spend it, purchase the right things. Don't waste it on making other people rich.

[Rebirth0]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

I have the 21" version of those monitors, and Izzy has the 23" version. They're great monitors and are a great price. 21" was $120 at Micro Center. I highly recommend them

[noname219]

Re: Building/Buying a good desktop

You're looking too far into this and I suspect you're being pulled in by price comparisons between desktop and laptop systems.

Look into this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/render-farm-node,2340.html

Money is always an issue.
If you're going to spend it, purchase the right things. Don't waste it on making other people rich.

I should have said that money wasn't my primary issue.
I haven't made any comparison between laptop and desktop, I'm more influenced by comparisons between building or buying an all-in-one pc.

The link you gave me will be useful when my company decides to render 3d graphics or make a 3d game (we're getting there). I knew it was possible to do this but I didn't know how.

So, I'm reviewing everything today and I'll probably order the parts this week-end. I had the confirmation this morning that the data on my old laptop hard drive is lost - unless I send it to a specialized data recovery company, which I probably will depending on the price…