Choosing a Computer

[Ghan]

64 bit OS 100%. It's needed for more than 4 GB of RAM or you run into issues where you can't use all of your RAM.

As for putting it together, it's really not too bad these days, especially using the stock heat sink. The motherboard manual will have instructions on how to install many of the components. Make sure to read it. I'd also recommend hitting up YouTube. There are tons of guides out there on how to install every component as well as the entire machine itself. If you're not sure about something, post pics here.

 

[AgentPaper]

Excellent. The list I've come up with is:

Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Case
Power Supply
SSD
Memory
Graphics Card
Disk Drive

Should I buy these off of Newegg? Or is there a cheaper source? Looks like it comes out to $1,738.91, which is well within my budget.

Edit: Actually, changed my mind, I'll be going with the 2x8 RAM rather than the 4x8. I can always add more on if I need it, which I probably won't.

I'll also need a monitor. Any suggestions for that?

 

[Ghan]

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

Also, I would buy from Newegg. That's where I get all my parts and I've never had any issues with them.

 

[AgentPaper]

Mk. I'll probably look around a bit, but newegg is a good starting point at least. (I also decided to cut back on the SSD to 128 GB after investigating the size of the programs I'd actually be putting onto it)

I'll sleep on it before buying it. Thanks for all the help.


Edit: On Newegg, is there any way to view combo deals between items you already have in your cart?

Finally, any recommendations for a simple, cheap laptop for work? I suspect that my current laptop is going to give way pretty soon, so I want to have a backup option ready to buy. It doesn't need to be powerful, simply good enough to run Excel or Acrobat, and a decent amount of storage (512GB would be plenty) Something under $500 would be ideal, probably the most important thing is that it be built to last and run for long periods. (And yes it needs to be a laptop)

Hm, so I've decided to cut back a bit and go mostly with what you originally suggested. The only thing left is the processor. What kind of difference is there between the i5 and i7?

 

[AgentPaper]

Hm, so the graphics card says that the maximum resolution is 2560 x 1600, but the ASUS monitor says it's recommended resolution is 1920 x 1080. The 19" model, which I was going to buy since 24" seems a bit much, is 1440 x 900. Are these the actual pixel amounts for those monitors, or just the aspect ratios?

 

[Ghan]

For the laptop, would you be open to a netbook or would you rather have a full-sized laptop?

The i5 and i7 are both quad cores. The only real difference is that the i7 has Hyperthreading, which is Intel's technology that duplicates some of the hardware in the chip for each core, resulting in each core being able to run 2 threads at once. The operating system will see the CPU as if it had 8 cores, even though it does not. This usually results in a 10-25% performance improvement depending on workload.

As for the monitor stuff, I believe those are actual pixel counts, but I am not sure. The recommended resolutions are going to be the max that the monitor can support natively. It's just personal preference for which one you get. 1920x1080 is full HD and is pretty standard these days. The graphics card will not care at all which one you get.

 

[Slapshot136]

Once I've bought all this stuff, what do I do then? Is there a guide on how to put this together, or is it really easy enough that I can figure it out myself? (IE: Plug stuff in where it fits)

it's fairly easy to the point where you can probably do it yourself without a guide, but generally the case and motherboard will have instructions of how to put stuff together

 

[AgentPaper]

I decided to go with the original $400 videocard, since the other one is overclocked and I don't really want to have overclocked components in my first computer. I'll probably tone down the processor as well, but which component is the one most likely to be the bottleneck for performance? Is it worth getting the higher-end CPU despite everything else being back to standard? Is it important enough to have a great graphics card that the overclocked one might be worth it? And since it looks like the more expensive one is just an OC'd version of the first one, how difficult/safe is it to overclock it myself?


For the laptop, yes it should be a full-sized laptop. Right now I'm looking at the Latitude E5520. Is that powerful enough to run acrobat and photoshop and such without issue, or could I get an even cheaper one? Aesthetics and weight are a non-issue, by the way, as long as it's small enough to fit in a normal computer bag, but it needs to have a full-sized keyboard as well.

 

[Slapshot136]

I decided to go with the original $400 videocard, since the other one is overclocked and I don't really want to have overclocked components in my first computer. I'll probably tone down the processor as well, but which component is the one most likely to be the bottleneck for performance? Is it worth getting the higher-end CPU despite everything else being back to standard? Is it important enough to have a great graphics card that the overclocked one might be worth it? And since it looks like the more expensive one is just an OC'd version of the first one, how difficult/safe is it to overclock it myself?

it really depends what you are running as to what will be the bottleneck - if it's games, then it's going to be the graphics card, if it's movie encoding/etc. it will be the processor, and if it's Photoshop it will likely be the memory (although potentially the CPU as well, depends what you are doing) - if it's e-mail/etc. then this is way overkill and the bottleneck would be the user or the internet connection

the SSD/hard drive is usually the bottleneck when you turn on your system/launch a program, but once you launch it once and it gets saved in the ram, it won't be an issue anymore until you re-start the system and the ram gets flushed (or if you max out your ram and the system clears it out to make room for active programs)

if you want to run photoshop on your laptop, I would suggest getting 8gb of ram (still easy to upgrade if you want to DIY) and a i7 CPU though... (my original desktop cost was $1000, and that much desktop will still be better than any laptop at gaming)

 

[AgentPaper]

Are there any potential problems I might run into if I use the OEM version of Windows 7?

 

[Ghan]

Generally, no. It's a very gray area in Microsoft's licensing terms when it comes to OEM software. Basically they intend that whoever purchases the software to install on a single machine do so when they resell the machine and then support it. Microsoft does not offer technical support on OEM software, which is why when you buy something from someone like Dell, you call them for support. Individual system builders do often use OEM software when they build their own machines even though they are not reselling them (you could say you are selling it to yourself since you are going to be the one supporting the software).

 

[AgentPaper]

Case is on it's way since it takes longer to ship, then I'll be buying the rest tomorrow as soon as a deposit clears. I'm going with everything Ghan originally suggested, since that's actually just about the price point I want to be going for, powerful but not so much as to be wasteful. (I assumed that price point would be closer to 2-3k, since that's what I needed to spend 5 years ago, but luckily the prices seem to have gone down quite a bit)

I'd like a second opinion before I make the final purchase. I trust Ghan and all, but it would make me a lot more confident if someone could verify that all of these parts will work together, that the power is enough, and so on.

Also, how much room do I have for add-ons down the line? Is the power just enough for everything there, or will I need to upgrade that? Are there plenty of slots in the case? Specifically, I think I may want to add on more ram and more SSDs down the line, once they become cheaper.

 

[Slapshot136]

Also, how much room do I have for add-ons down the line? Is the power just enough for everything there, or will I need to upgrade that? Are there plenty of slots in the case? Specifically, I think I may want to add on more ram and more SSDs down the line, once they become cheaper.

you will have 2 open ram slots, so you can add 2 more 8gb sticks and get to 32gb of ram, the motherboard has 8 sata ports, 1 which will be used by the SSD, 1 by the HDD, and 1 by the optical drive - the case has room for 5 drives, so you can 3 extra SSD's or HDD's (or some mix that adds up to 3 more, since you already have 1 of each) before stuff gets slightly more complicated - at that point you can buy an adapter to put more storage drives in the optical drive bays, but 5 drives should be plenty - assuming you stop at 5 drives, you can add 2 extra cd/dvd/blu-ray burners (no real point unless you are burning lots of disks, but w/e) - the PSU also has cables for everything (8 sata power cables), so you should be good there - the one thing that you can't quite do is add a 2nd identical graphics card for SLI, due to the PSU not having enough power for a 2nd one (nor the cables to connect it with)

 

[AgentPaper]

you will have 2 open ram slots, so you can add 2 more 8gb sticks and get to 32gb of ram, the motherboard has 8 sata ports, 1 which will be used by the SSD, 1 by the HDD, and 1 by the optical drive - the case has room for 5 drives, so you can 3 extra SSD's or HDD's (or some mix that adds up to 3 more, since you already have 1 of each) before stuff gets slightly more complicated - at that point you can buy an adapter to put more storage drives in the optical drive bays, but 5 drives should be plenty - assuming you stop at 5 drives, you can add 2 extra cd/dvd/blu-ray burners (no real point unless you are burning lots of disks, but w/e) - the PSU also has cables for everything (8 sata power cables), so you should be good there - the one thing that you can't quite do is add a 2nd identical graphics card for SLI, due to the PSU not having enough power for a 2nd one (nor the cables to connect it with)

Thanks a ton. Is there a cheap and easy upgrade for the PSU to allow for SLI? I don't know if I will, but it would be preferable that I don't need to buy/install a new PSU if I do decide to. Given graphics cards are a major bottleneck for games, I suspect I will be doing so sooner rather than later.

Thanks once more to both of you.

 

[Ghan]

Just get this power supply and you should be good to go:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371051

I used it in a build recently - Antec is a good brand.

 

[AgentPaper]

And computer is now on it's way! I'll probably be back here on Tuesday asking for help with putting the darn thing together.

 

[AgentPaper]

And computer is up and running! Going to see about downloading some games to run it through it's paces, but everything seems to be working great. Thanks again for all the help!

(This was posted from the new computer, by the way)

 

[Ghan]

Woo! Hope it serves you well! (I want one )

 

[AgentPaper]

Everything seems to be working fine, but for some reason I can't connect with steam. Internet is fine, I tried all the port forwarding, taking down my firewall, and no luck. It also didn't work at work, when I first set up my computer, which leads me to believe it's not an issue with the connection but just with steam itself. Any ideas? I really want to get steam going so I can download shogun total war and play around at max graphics finally.

Nevermind, it's working now. I guess the steam servers were down, or just being funny for some reason. Shogun time!

Any recommendations for other games to put it through it's paces?

 

[Ghan]

Diablo 3.