Personal computing discussed

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Crayon Shin Chan
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:25 am

That reminds me of my SGI and a post I made on Nekochan. Having the fastest/most exotic hardware in the world doesn't mean jack when you aren't doing anything special with it. You think new hardware is boring, but you know what that indicates? It means you're just doing boring stuff with it.
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derFunkenstein
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:00 am

I fail to see how a 2500K with a fancy graphics card is "extreme". It's not an LGA 2011 system with a pair of 7970s in crossfire all water cooled using separate loops or anything.

As Crayon Man above me said, it's more about what you do with it than it is what the hardware itself is. Dysons are boring because all they do is pick up bits of stuff off the floor. High-end PCs are boring because you're probably just playing games with them. The best thing you can do is find a creative outlet and quit looking to purchases for validation. I built my last system in 2009 and I only upgraded to Sandy Bridge this year because of hardware failure. PSU died and took the mobo and/or CPU with it. I quit the upgrade train because I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part. It was life-altering, and for me to say otherwise would be an understatement.
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vargis14
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:48 am

Do not sweat it Stug i know just how you feel.Up until this past april my last Killer build was $3000+ around 2005 just like sircharles.Before that i was Improving or upgrading every 6-8 months.Then 6 months after that killer 3G build i lost interest and sold it.In that 6 months my rig went from best to good.But i made my money back on the sale minus a couple hundred.
But I still religiously read TR along with other tech sites at least 4 times a week. then in 2009 i purchased a couple htpc's since i had a taste by using my laptop on my HDTV.I was back to reading the tech sites every day.
You have right now a extreme PC that will serve you for half a decade or better.Its not like it was back in the years between 2000 and 2006.
You will always have silicone in your blood.The urge will slowly return took me 7 years to take the plunge again.I just hope everything is ok with you physically.Your still using a extreme PC.So do not hurt yourself picking up that triple slot 40lb 7970 :lol:
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:01 am

StuG wrote:
I have made a decision to have this be the last high end upgrade I ever do on my computer. Money is getting tighter, but mainly there is less and less need to really get upgrades now a days. Maybe the days of old where I require new PC upgrades will return with some new advent, but I highly doubt it. I upgraded to Sandy Bridge not long ago (actually my first Intel CPU) as the beginning process of this decision, and I just placed an order for an SSD (Corsair Performance Pro 128GB) and a GPU (Asus DirectCU II HD7970). I was willing to spend the bit more on the 7970 because honestly, ATI and later AMD has always served me well on the GPU front and this is my farewell to them per-say. I have almost always gone with them for my GPU needs since way back in the Radeon 9800 days, and been upgrading every other generation since. Call it corny, fanboism, or what have you but I cannot say how many times I've gotten my GPU's dirt cheap from ATI/AMD. This is my cheers to them.

There is no real point to the post, but this is more or less the end to my active participation in my favorite hobby to date. I will be keeping up with the new releases still for fun, and will always have my eye out for low power HTPC predecessors. Still a bit of a sad day none the less. Anyone else doing something similar?


WTF how is a "farewell" buying the latest and greatest parts available?

WTF kind of a sick definition is that. You make me feel sick for owning a q9450.

A real "My farewell to extreme PCs" post would be where you have a PC that is 2 generations behind current tech and you are deciding NOT to upgrade because you don't need the extra power. Not justifying to yourself that your current SSD and Sandybridge insanity are just "OK".

Pathetic post.
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:36 am

The last PC I built for personal use which would even remotely qualify as "extreme" was probably the dual Socket A (Athlon MP) system I put together around 10 years ago. Since then, I've pretty consistently stayed close to the peak of the price/performance curve, i.e. somewhere in the mid-range of overall system specs.

I suppose some people might consider my ECC RAM fetish (mentioned back on page 1) a bit extreme for desktop systems... hey, I'm a stability freak. :wink:
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Vrock
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:05 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part.
Like what? I'm curious as to what you could do with your PC that's so interesting.
 
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:34 pm

Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part.
Like what? I'm curious as to what you could do with your PC that's so interesting.


What do you do with your PC that's so dis-interesting and why are you into computers if it is?
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
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cynan
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:13 pm

I just pulled the trigger for the most extravagant build (by far) of my life, in the neighborhood of 3k. I would never have done this normally, but due to special circumstances (don't ask) I had about 2K that I couldn't really spend on anything else and I'd lose if I didn't. The CPU, motherboard, GPU and SSDs (x2) alone cost about $2300 before tax (x79 with 3930k, HD7970, 256GB Corsair performance pros).

I was so excited that I finally, after a dozen or so years of dabbling as a PC hardware enthusiast, could justify (sort of, kinda, ok who's kidding who) a truly top tier system. But by the time I was done, I had a sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach (I know, poor me, but I guess I just don't like to waste money, even if a large part of it isn't exactly mine). The thing is, I can't believe high end parts cost so much when you add them all up. But moreover, I can't believe people (ie, almost any gamer that buys an X79 platform with a 3960x or 3930k, etc) buy this stuff when you can get like 80-90% or more of the performance (in most cases, real world use) with a system that costs half as much. And judging by how hard it is to find a 3930k in stock right now (and even an HD 7970 with a non-stock cooler), there's gotta be a few.

My current system is q9450 based. I'm planning to to shoehorn this into a media PC (Silverstone makes some lower cost nice-looking full ATX HTPC enclosures that aren't much larger than my Denon AVR) when I get my loot.

But man, I hear ya. No matter how much money I make in the future, this might very well be the first and last extreme PC build for me too. Staying close to the price/performance curve is the way to go. Heck, part of the fun of being a tech savvy enthusiast is figuring out how to get more performance for your $$ than the next less informed individual. A large part of me is kind of regretting (feeling guilty) going somewhere between the cost of the Econobox and The Sweet Spot over budget, just so I could have what I would consider pretty close to the best of the best. But I'm sure it'll suck even more when Kepler and Ivy Bridge-E comes out ... So it goes.
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:45 pm

Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part.
Like what? I'm curious as to what you could do with your PC that's so interesting.

You know there's more to using a computer than checking email and flaming people on forums, right? ;) I did mention it should be a CREATIVE outlet. What I do isn't necessarily interesting to anybody but me, but I find it more interesting than the hardware.

Right now I'm working on a Christmas CD fundraiser for our church, the proceeds of which will go to help end malaria in sub-Sahara Africa. Interestingly enough the Imagine No Malaria project is funded with seed money donated by the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The music program's part is a small part (the local church) of another small part (etc, etc), but if everyone did their part it'd be cured. I've been able to record 30-member choirs, handbells, kids choirs, and multi-track a band (a full drum kit with just 2 mics is pretty interesting). We just wrapped up all the tracking (which I had to work in around my work schedule) and I'm applying some minimal EQ/effects to the big groups and I'm going to be producing 3 tracks pretty fully. It goes to production in August, which is still a ways away, but there's still plenty to do for what amounts to a one-man studio who isn't a full-time engineer.

And this isn't anything fancy. What I'm doing is nowhere near as creative as people who are recording their own music, for example. People do way more interesting stuff than this. One just has to put down the controller for a while and pursue a creative interest instead of being a consumer.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
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Vrock
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:21 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part.
Like what? I'm curious as to what you could do with your PC that's so interesting.

You know there's more to using a computer than checking email and flaming people on forums, right? ;)
Heresy. :D

derFunkenstein wrote:
I did mention it should be a CREATIVE outlet. What I do isn't necessarily interesting to anybody but me, but I find it more interesting than the hardware.

Right now I'm working on a Christmas CD fundraiser for our church, the proceeds of which will go to help end malaria in sub-Sahara Africa. Interestingly enough the Imagine No Malaria project is funded with seed money donated by the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The music program's part is a small part (the local church) of another small part (etc, etc), but if everyone did their part it'd be cured. I've been able to record 30-member choirs, handbells, kids choirs, and multi-track a band (a full drum kit with just 2 mics is pretty interesting). We just wrapped up all the tracking (which I had to work in around my work schedule) and I'm applying some minimal EQ/effects to the big groups and I'm going to be producing 3 tracks pretty fully. It goes to production in August, which is still a ways away, but there's still plenty to do for what amounts to a one-man studio who isn't a full-time engineer.

And this isn't anything fancy. What I'm doing is nowhere near as creative as people who are recording their own music, for example. People do way more interesting stuff than this. One just has to put down the controller for a while and pursue a creative interest instead of being a consumer.
I think that's great. I was genuinely curious, thank you for sharing.
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:25 pm

sure thing. It just happened that you caught me doing something altruistic. I've used the mobile studio for profit, too - Musicians tend to flock together and I'm the resident nerd for most of them. I've done a handful of EPs for some songwriters, and did a Christmas present for a super musical family, they wrote some stuff together and we did a simple project (demos almost) of music that they gave out to their extended family for presents.

Regardless, it's fun and fulfilling. There are photography nerds here, and some folks like making videos that inevitably get thumbed down on Youtube. My wife is a writer, but all she needs there is OpenOffice and a considerably slower laptop to get that done. There's plenty to do that's interesting. :D
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
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grege
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:50 pm

If you are not a gamer, then how much computing power is good enough?

I got an idea to build a mini-ITX machine that used as little power as possible. In the end I built two. Computers are my hobby, I did this because I wanted to see what I could achieve. I realise you can save just as much power by turning off two lights.

The first iteration is an AMD E350. With an Antec mini-ITX case and a power brick and a 1Tb WD 2.5" HDD. It pulls about 26w at the wall most of the time. This little machine is good enough for email and general web browsing, but a little frustrating when you go beyond that. Tasks like video encoding or complex documents suddenly have a delay. It is not that it cannot do it, it just takes noticeably longer. Even big file transfers take a little longer. The OS used is Debian Sid. Gnome Shell takes a good 20secs from pressing enter on the log in screen to being usable. I think that an SSD might help quite a bit with some of these issues. I decided that perhaps I had gone just a bit too far with this race to the bottom end. A machine based on the newer E450 chip and an SSD would probably be OK for most general tasks, but I think it would still struggle once you stressed it with something like video encoding.

My current machine uses an ECS H67H2-I mini-ITX board with an i3-2120 and on-board graphics. I have an OCZ Agility 120gb SSD and a 750gb 2.5" Seagate HDD, with 8Gb ram. It runs Debian Sid and Gnome 3. This is housed in a case that allows me to use a standard ATX power supply, in this case a 380W Antec Earthwatts (80Plus bronze certified). Power usage has jumped to a massive 37w. The box is effectively silent. It is amazing what a good power supply can achieve at these levels. I tried a cheap power supply and it added 10w at the wall just because of it's inefficiency. General computing is fast, Gnome loads in a few seconds as do programs like Chrome and a pile of extensions. USB3 file transfers are very fast. I could probably shave off a few watts by using just a bigger SSD and no HDD, and maybe a 45w TDT Intel CPU, but then the build price would go up considerably. My monitor is a 24" Viewsonic running in "eco" mode and a pair of Audioengine 2 speakers. The monitor uses about 25w most of the time and the speakers idle at 8w. All power figures are actual measurements, not estimates. So, for 99% of the time my whole ecosystem uses 37 + 25 + 8 = 70w. If I stress the system with video encoding or full screen flash I can add an extra 5w. But those situations are rare (for me).

My favourite games are in "Microsoft Return to the Arcade" a Directx3 classic from the nineties. Bill Gates finest hour. Galaxian runs a treat through Wine 1.4

So that is my experience with "good enough" computing. I think you could get away with something slightly less powerful than my current machine, but really the extra savings in both money and electricity would be tiny.

OR

Just buy a notebook.
 
ludi
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:02 pm

yogibbear wrote:
WTF how is a "farewell" buying the latest and greatest parts available?

WTF kind of a sick definition is that. You make me feel sick for owning a q9450.

A real "My farewell to extreme PCs" post would be where you have a PC that is 2 generations behind current tech and you are deciding NOT to upgrade because you don't need the extra power. Not justifying to yourself that your current SSD and Sandybridge insanity are just "OK".

Pathetic post.

Man, you're cranky in the morning.
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Firestarter
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:37 pm

ludi wrote:
Man, you're cranky in the morning.

He's right though, he just spent more on a single component than the majority of gamers have spent on their XBOX or PS3. It might not be extreme in the strictest sense, but to think that a gaming PC such as he has is a sensible or mainstream thing to have, you'd have to be slightly delusional.
 
Mr. Bamboo Head
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:37 pm

ludi wrote:
yogibbear wrote:
WTF how is a "farewell" buying the latest and greatest parts available?

WTF kind of a sick definition is that. You make me feel sick for owning a q9450.

A real "My farewell to extreme PCs" post would be where you have a PC that is 2 generations behind current tech and you are deciding NOT to upgrade because you don't need the extra power. Not justifying to yourself that your current SSD and Sandybridge insanity are just "OK".

Pathetic post.

Man, you're cranky in the morning.

Perhaps a little, but I tend to agree. Sounds a bit like a smoker saying "I'm quitting.... after this pack." :S
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:10 pm

We already had that analogy. You'll have to come up with something else. :lol:
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Vrock
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:16 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
We already had that analogy. You'll have to come up with something else. :lol:

When I quit, I chucked my pack in the trash and there were like 8 cigarettes left in it. Why, oh why didn't I smoke those 8 cigarettes? *sigh*
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:33 pm

Because that 8 would have become 20 more. And 20 more after that.
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ludi
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:44 pm

Mr. Bamboo Head wrote:
Perhaps a little, but I tend to agree. Sounds a bit like a smoker saying "I'm quitting.... after this pack." :S

OP: "I have made a decision to have this be the last high end upgrade I ever do on my computer. (insert description of upgrade)"
yogibear: "WTF...WTF...You make me feel sick...a real post would look like (insert curmudgeon talk)...pathetic post."

I'm loading up a slingshot with Prozac right now, and we'll see if I can hit Mister Yogi's mouth next time he opens it. I'm not a great shot, so it may take a few tries :P
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Welch
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:59 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
I quit looking to the machine to be the interesting part and started looking at what I do with it as the interesting part.
Like what? I'm curious as to what you could do with your PC that's so interesting.

You know there's more to using a computer than checking email and flaming people on forums, right? ;) I did mention it should be a CREATIVE outlet. What I do isn't necessarily interesting to anybody but me, but I find it more interesting than the hardware.

Right now I'm working on a Christmas CD fundraiser for our church, the proceeds of which will go to help end malaria in sub-Sahara Africa. Interestingly enough the Imagine No Malaria project is funded with seed money donated by the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The music program's part is a small part (the local church) of another small part (etc, etc), but if everyone did their part it'd be cured. I've been able to record 30-member choirs, handbells, kids choirs, and multi-track a band (a full drum kit with just 2 mics is pretty interesting). We just wrapped up all the tracking (which I had to work in around my work schedule) and I'm applying some minimal EQ/effects to the big groups and I'm going to be producing 3 tracks pretty fully. It goes to production in August, which is still a ways away, but there's still plenty to do for what amounts to a one-man studio who isn't a full-time engineer.

And this isn't anything fancy. What I'm doing is nowhere near as creative as people who are recording their own music, for example. People do way more interesting stuff than this. One just has to put down the controller for a while and pursue a creative interest instead of being a consumer.


This is the exact kind of stuff that I'm talking about, creative/production like stuff. If someone isn't interested in that sort of stuff I suppose I too would opt for a Mini-ITX computer. I've built about 10 of those little Asus Mini-ITX E-350 computers in those Antec cases. For most of the users they don't notice the difference at all between that in a full sized computer. I actually had people in the office that I built them for (namely the lady who writes the checks) being an ass about the fact that their workstations were bigger and more expensive by about $200 bucks. She failed to realize that some of the stuff they do on the bigger computers actually require more power and the two front desk machines were simply meant for keying in orders for customers, so they didn't need the extra horse power, heat, electrical cost, space hogging systems.

Its going to be hard for someone like StuG or any computer enthusiast to ever get into using something like an E-350 for their primary machine because we know better, and when things don't run great... well, we will bitch and buy something faster. The only people truly capable of using an E-350 like system as their main are those who due very mundane tasks or don't have the cash for something a bit faster, and that's perfectly fine, I'm just not one of those people. I'd prefer to be able to do the creative like stuff that Funk does, very cool.

Ignorance is bliss, and if you guys are posting on TR, chances are your no longer ignorant to computer bliss. I suppose the title is "Extreme PC"... in which case I'm not sure the 2600k is ULTRA extreme, if you use it for things like video encoding, anything above it would be IMHO. However, I went with the 2500k because I saw the 2600k to be Extreme for my needs. If you were doing something like video editing professionally or rendering 3-D animations, then I suppose something like a 2600K and a 7970 wouldn't be considered extreme. Its pretty obvious that the term "Extreme" is subjective to the end-user. Who am I to say that the E-350 is useless!? It might be for my needs but for someone like my Grandmother or Regis Philbin it could be everything they need and more.
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Jigar
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 12:02 am

StuG wrote:
I have made a decision to have this be the last high end upgrade I ever do on my computer. Money is getting tighter, but mainly there is less and less need to really get upgrades now a days. Maybe the days of old where I require new PC upgrades will return with some new advent, but I highly doubt it. I upgraded to Sandy Bridge not long ago (actually my first Intel CPU) as the beginning process of this decision, and I just placed an order for an SSD (Corsair Performance Pro 128GB) and a GPU (Asus DirectCU II HD7970). I was willing to spend the bit more on the 7970 because honestly, ATI and later AMD has always served me well on the GPU front and this is my farewell to them per-say. I have almost always gone with them for my GPU needs since way back in the Radeon 9800 days, and been upgrading every other generation since. Call it corny, fanboism, or what have you but I cannot say how many times I've gotten my GPU's dirt cheap from ATI/AMD. This is my cheers to them.

There is no real point to the post, but this is more or less the end to my active participation in my favorite hobby to date. I will be keeping up with the new releases still for fun, and will always have my eye out for low power HTPC predecessors. Still a bit of a sad day none the less. Anyone else doing something similar?


Well count me in that list, i have been very happy with my q6600 and was going to upgrade this year, but for the same reason you mentioned, i will not upgrade any more. Infact since past 2 months i have hardly played any game and honestly games were the only reason i was purchasing new hardwares.

I have also been less active on TR recently, but computer hardware has always been my hobby, so i will be always around. :)
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:23 am

StuG wrote:
I have made a decision to have this be the last high end upgrade I ever do on my computer


I Said that at the start of 2010 - I carried on for 2 years with my lowly AMD Athlon II X4 and it's CF 5770's - Overclocked the hell out of that lowly CPU and Graphics Card to make it run fast enough. Then the upgrade itch bites eventually when my latest games like BF:3 just can't run with some reasonable LOD turned on. I guess it depends on where your coming from hardware wise tho, as my old rig was only mid-range at best even when it was built. It may have been different if I had fitted say an i7 950 and a pair of GTX 480's back then - But this Gerbil just isn't rolling in that level of disposable income!!!

And when you do upgrade, for me it's been quite an upgrade over what I had and im quite happy with my new PC (I got that FX-8120 cheap ok - £148.99, and the mobo was on deal at £99(!). So no mocking my CPU choice!!!). I'll ride this out for a few years too...
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:18 am

rcs2k4 wrote:
I got that FX-8120 cheap ok - £148.99, and the mobo was on deal at £99(!). So no mocking my CPU choice!!!). I'll ride this out for a few years too...


At 4.4GHZ, bulldozer is not slow, yes power hunger a bit...
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:47 pm

Well the one thing I can say is for me I have been waiting to upgrade for Ivy Bridge and Keplar before I upgrade again. I used to upgrade and re-build every year and a half, but I changed jobs and moved around the time I would of upgraded from my Core 2 duo and Geforce 260. My last all in PC was probably my old Athlon X2 4800+ and Geforce 6800 Ultra. I just haven't seem the need with the state of PC gaming slowly advancing. My old upgrades were more game driven then to just have a PC to overclock. I still play most newer games on 1900x1200.
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anubis44
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:11 pm

I've been judiciously restricting my spending on upgrades for many, many years. I look at PC upgrading as a marathon, not a sprint. What do I mean by that? Well, for example, from my first IBM PC compatible back in 1991, I've always considered the best possible bang for buck CPUs and GPUs. My first CPU was an AMD 386-40MHz, because it was cheaper than the Intel 386-33MHz, and the guy at the store assured me it was 100% compatible. From that point onward, I have rarely bought an Intel CPU. I have a policy of never spending more than $300 on a CPU or a GPU. This policy has served me very well, especially on the CPU side, as, since about 1997, you have almost always been able to get within 80% or more of the performance of the $1000+ CPUs. Cases in point that I've actually owned: Intel Celeron 300a (300MHz clocked to 450MHz with a simple multiplier change), AMD Athlon 500MHz which clocked to 700MHz+, AMD Duron 700MHz which clocked to within a hair of 1GHz with the right voltage, AMD Athlon X2 4400+ (default clock rate was 2.0GHz, but it clocked to 2.53GHz without even any added voltage), AMD Phenom 9850BE 2.5GHz which clocks to 3.0GHz without added voltage, and now my current Phenom II X2 550BE which not only clocks from it's default 3.1GHz clock rate to 3.6GHz with just a tiny .1 extra voltage bump, but also unlocks 2 extra cores to give me a Phenom II quad core running at 3.6GHz. Price of this last CPU? $120.

I also buy the most inexpensive on-brand motherboard that has crossfire. My current board is a Gigabyte GA-MA790x UDP4 which cost me about $130. Did my research and saw that there was virtually no difference in speed bewteen x8 and x16 PCI-E slots for gaming graphics in crossfire, and only about a 3-5% speed improvement by going from DDR2 to DDR 3, so I haven't bothered to upgrade my socket AM2+ mobo just for the sake of DDR3 ram. I bought a 6950 card a few months back, but decided to return it, as I felt I would hold out for a 7950 - perhaps the first card I'll spend more than $300 on, so I can have the first half of a great eyefinity/crossfire gaming rig.

Summary? You need not spend more than about ~$200 on a CPU these days, ~$130 on a motherboard, and really, you should save the lion's share of your hard-earned money for the GPU - that's where you'll really see the bang for you buck.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700@4GHz, Zalman LQ-320, Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero, 16GB G.Skill DDR4-3600MHz, Gigabyte R9 290 (1050MHz core w/bios flash), Cooler Master Storm Stryker (white)
 
Cuhulin
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:23 pm

StuG:

Certainly, the money getting tighter is a good reason to change your perspective on the hobby.

I have done that!

I am going to suggest, though, that there is another way to view matters, and it is a bit of what derFunkenstein has done and I continue to do: change the build to improve your computing experience.

Processor speeds these days are such that it doesn't matter much whether you can overclock a Celeron 300A to 450 Mhz. Video cars render well enough that gaming works unless you have a really high res monitor. The speed itself is not the point.

However, having the machine work better for you, now that is a different story. So, instead of blindly looking for what is faster, my suggestion -- and it's only one person commenting, so reject it if you want -- is to think of what you want your system to do better. I like video, for example. So I have a 37" monitor on one desk, done with a relatively low cost TV that I researched carefully and that I love for the purpose. On my office desk, I have an ATI 3-monitor setup.

Let the hobby fit you. The benefit is that when you do spend money, you often can send less and get more benefit.

It's just a suggestion, but you really don't have to abandon your hobby!
For Work: Corsair One Pro, i7-7700, 16GB, GTX 1080, Samsung 49KS8000 and 2xAsus 27" 4K, 2 x Sonos Play 5

For Play: Ryzen 5, MSI B350M, 8GB, Radeon 580 and building....
 
stmok
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:29 pm

sircharles32 wrote:
I stepped out of the upgrade cycle, back in 2005. Built a $2200 rig, and now get by with value based system components.
The whole "good enough" thing........


Agreed. Back in 1995, I spent AUD$5000 on a top-end system. (Pentium based).

In 1998, it was down to AUD$1000. (Pentium III based, dual-processor desktop).

Today? Its likely to be less than AUD$500 for desktops.
(Leaning towards a affordable-mainstream solution like AMD "Trinity" or Intel "Ivy Bridge" based platforms. Re-use existing bits where possible.)

My current interim system is a budget ThinkPad L520. (Sandy Bridge based Core i3 2310m at 2.10GHz with 2GB RAM...For about AUD$600-ish.)

Often, I find today's affordable systems are more than sufficient for my needs.
 
FireGryphon
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:01 pm

The only 'high end' system I ever owned was the first one I purchased with my own money -- a Pentium II system with 32 MB EDO RAM. My setup was state of the art (I got my 400 MHz chip a bit cheaper because the 450 MHz had just come out). I played games, but I got the hardware because I loved it and because I wanted to play with it and build a system.

Nowadays my time is spent elsewhere, I don't upgrade as much, and my system isn't state of the art, rather I build my system to be inexpensive and last me many years. Thankfully, that's possible with today's parts. It's still fun to read about all the new hardware, and because of my enthusiast status and knowledge I hold sway over many people IRL who buy parts.

I may not have a state of the art system, but I'm still an enthusiast.
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thegleek
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:35 pm

Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
You know there's more to using a computer than checking email and flaming people on forums, right? ;)
Heresy. :D

isn't it hearsay?
 
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Re: My farewell to extreme PCs

Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:59 pm

thegleek wrote:
Vrock wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
You know there's more to using a computer than checking email and flaming people on forums, right? ;)
Heresy. :D

isn't it hearsay?

Nope.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

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