Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, JustAnEngineer
Andymc wrote:Motherboard Asus Maximus V Gene £149 (I should be able to pass on a separate sound card with this? But this might still be overkill, since I don't care for SLI/OC)
Andymc wrote:Memory 4x4GB DDR3 1600MHz £60 (or should I get the non low-profile version at £70?)
Andymc wrote:CPU Cooler Arctic Freezer i30 £29
Andymc wrote:Storage Samsung SSD 830 256GB £145 (I notice there seems to be a Laptop Kit, Basic Kit and a Desktop Kit. Should I care?)
Andymc wrote:How should I decide which buyer, beyond price alone?! Is it worth paying £15 more for a perfect pixel version?
Chrispy_ wrote:Price compare the following sites. I've been happy with service, RMA and order status updates with all of these companies and use them reguarly
Chrispy_ wrote:2x8GB gives you room to grow without affecting the current memory bandwidth (as long as you populate each bank with one stick)
Chrispy_ wrote:I'm not a fan of Arctic Cooling.
Jon1984 wrote:I might choose the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo over this one.
Chrispy_ wrote:Why do you want wireless? It sucks.
Chrispy_ wrote:even the perfect-pixel guarantees are not actually perfect-pixel screens, if you read the auction details more carefully.
Jon1984 wrote:I would choose something like this (P8Z77-V) for more expansion slots (sound cards etc...)
Chrispy_ wrote:The motherboard is overkill. Any realtek audio is fine for absolutely everything except high-end analogue speakers/headphones. If you decide it's not enough for you later just get a cheap Asus Xonar.
Andymc wrote:In case I want to upgrade beyond 16GB? I think that's incredibly unlikely to ever happen. With this in mind, is there any advantage to 2x8 over 4x4?
Airmantharp wrote:I did look at the P8Z77-V for a while. Any idea how the performance stacks up against the MAXIMUS V GENE? As well as the onboard sound (I do use ~£100 headphones), another thing that attracted me to the GENE is that it seems to outperform cheaper mobos in benchmarks, and not just by 0.5%.
Andymc wrote:If you CAN run cables, should be easy to get a cheap one if you have Monoprice or an equivalent. I would still keep the wireless in mind, just in case you can't run cables (or can't run them safely).Sadly it's not my house. I might be able to get away with running a cable, we'll see, otherwise I'm stuck with WiFi. IIRC the router is very close to my room, though, so signal shouldn't be an issue. ("IIRC" because I haven't moved in yet!)
Airmantharp wrote:While reading your list, I feel obliged to point you to TR's latest venerable System Guide. Specifically, take a look at the Editor's Choice build.
Airmantharp wrote:If you're not overclocking and you're not going to run multiple GPUs, you don't need a single feature that a high-end motherboard provides; a base model Asus, ASRock, or Gigabyte is on order. There's literally no difference in end use...
Airmantharp wrote:at best, you'll want to grab a board that can split the PCIe lanes into 8x/8x for the possibility of adding a second GPU due to your intended higher resolution.
Airmantharp wrote:For a discrete audio card, look here.
Airmantharp wrote:Try and get a 2x8GB DDR3-1600 kit instead; if you're doing VMs and coding the flexibility is worth the extra cost.
Airmantharp wrote:For your GPU, I'd recommend an EVGA FTW instead, which will go along with my case and CPU cooler suggestion.
For the CPU case, please look closely at Fractal Design's Define R4, linked here in white- Scan has Black among others as well. It's only slightly cheaper than your Corsair pick but it is smaller, quieter, and more configurable.
For an HSF, look into a Corsair H60 integrated water-cooler. When combined with a good blower-style GPU (the FTW is the best there is) and a closed case like the Define R4/Antec P280/NZXT H2, you can get a dead silent system that pushes all of the heat outside of the case and stays clean inside by using a positive pressure design and filtered intakes.
Airmantharp wrote:The Corsair PSU is a fine one, if not complete overkill. Even with two GTX670s you're not likely to go over 450w power usage at most; you could save a little and gain efficiency with a BeQuiet! 600W Gold or save even more with say a 600W Corsair Builder Series. Unless you're set on a windowed case, a modular PSU isn't going to make any real difference, just bundle the cables up and twisty them to something like a spare drive bay.
Airmantharp wrote:The Corsair Vengeance keyboard is well rated, though there are probably better all-around keyboards for the price. TR just did a review of Rosewill units comparing all of the common mechanical switches. Keyboards are quite personal though; I suggest you try it out in person if you can.
Airmantharp wrote:Also, I only mention the higher-end ASUS board with an 8x/8x configuration because of your intended resolution, as one GTX670 (or any current high-end GPU) is really only adequate.
Airmantharp wrote:I read more than just TR for reviews...
Airmantharp wrote:Also, I get your perspective on the memory setup, it's just that the cost for the convenience makes sense here. I'm a 'do it right the first time' kinda guy, and I'd rather not have to throw parts out to perform an upgrade in the future .
Airmantharp wrote:For overall system design, my perspective is along the lines of many, especially at SPCR, that feel that a computer should be neither seen nor heard, but used. You don't have to go crazy creating a noiseless system. Just know that you'll thank yourself later by edging more towards quiet computing where you can, especially if you're going to use the system for real work. And with just one GPU and a stock CPU, more fans will do nothing for you except add noise and cost! Take the R4, move the included rear fan up front, put the H60 on the rear, and use the FTW with it's excellent blower stolen from the GTX680, and call it done. Inexpensive, filtered, quiet, and extremely quick system built in no time.
Chrispy_ wrote:Everyone else has answered the questions you asked me except for Wireless:
Powerline (or sometimes called Homeplug) works really well on 240V mains circuits. It's a £30 pair of power plugs you hook up to power sockets and piggybacks between sockets using the mains wiring in your house.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/netgear-xavb1301-200mbps-powerline-twin-pack-kit-homeplug
It's as good as a CAT5 cable (since your router is likely to be the limiting factor) but it's even more convenient than wireless.
I've installed them for dozens of people who got annoyed with the pathetic performance of Wireless G and N and they swear by them. At best (ie, short range, line-of-sight between the router and the laptop) Wireless-N is less than a quarter the speed of even a cheap 200MBit powerline setup, and you'll never get crap speeds, dropouts or slowdowns from interference with other WiFi networks in the area.
Andymc wrote:As I said, it's not my house, so I'd have to negotiate this with the landlord. Thanks for the info, though!
Chrispy_ wrote:This is my point, you don't need to change anything or consult your landlord because each plug is just an appliance like a TV or a phone charger. Piggybacking the network info over your mains wiring is not harmful in any way. Many appliances like vacuum cleaners and electric drills routinely dump far more harmful noise back into the mains electricity system than a homeplug can.
Andymc wrote:Chrispy_ wrote:This is my point, you don't need to change anything or consult your landlord because each plug is just an appliance like a TV or a phone charger. Piggybacking the network info over your mains wiring is not harmful in any way. Many appliances like vacuum cleaners and electric drills routinely dump far more harmful noise back into the mains electricity system than a homeplug can.
Live-in landlord & router not in my room => I would have to make sure he's okay with it. Trust me here.
Latest:
CPU Intel Core i7-3770 £227
Motherboard Asus Maximus V Gene £149 Asus P8Z77-V £122
Memory 4x4GB DDR3 1600MHz £60 (getting a CAS-9 2x8GB kit seems to take me up to £95+)
Graphics Card MSI GTX 670 OC £288 MSI GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition OC £312
PSU Corsair HX650W £84 (why skimp? this could easily power another build in 4-5 years time)
CPU Cooler Arctic Freezer i30 £29 Coolermaster Hyper 212 Quiet £19 (anyone know whether this comes with thermal compound pre-applied?)
Case Corsair Carbide 500R White £93 (I don't care so much about silence to go with the other option suggested, and I kinda like the look and everything...)
Optical Drive SATA DVD-RW £13
Storage Samsung SSD 830 256GB £145
Storage 2TB WD Caviar Green £80
Wireless TP Link TL-WDN4800 £25 motherboard comes with WiFi, so don't need anything separate
Subtotal: £1,162
Monitor 1 Korean 27" 2560x1440 IPS £200
Monitor 2 Korean 27" 2560x1440 IPS £200
Keyboard Corsair K60 Vengeance £81
Mouse Logitech G500 £39
Subtotal: £520
Total: £1,682
Again, my (lack of) requirements:
Not planning to overclock beyond 4 bins, so I don't need epic cooling or anything like that.
Not interested in SLI.
(In fact, I could probably cut down the mobo even further... should I?)
Also, I remembered this isn't a laptop... any webcam/microphone recommendations?
rogue426 wrote:The Cooler Master Hyper 212 comes with a tube of thermal paste, it's not pre applied.Why would you want to cut down on the mobo? I'd like to know how you like the Corsair case if you end up getting it, I've been contemplating one myself.The rest of your build looks delicious, enjoy. BTW the Corsair PSU is a winner, it's more than similar Seasonic's but comes with a 7 year warranty. I still have a 520 HX five years after I bought it and it's still running with no problems.
Andymc wrote:Hold on, I just realised my cooler isn't compatible with Socket 1155. The natural option would then be the Hyper 212 EVO, but this feels like overkill, given I'm not going beyond the limited overclock. Should I maybe just stick with the stock Intel cooler?
Airmantharp wrote:Get the Evo and call it done. It's overkill on cooling, but not price, so there's not much to be concerned about.
Andymc wrote:Airmantharp wrote:Get the Evo and call it done. It's overkill on cooling, but not price, so there's not much to be concerned about.
Sure. Will it fit?
Andymc wrote:Chrispy_ wrote:This is my point, you don't need to change anything or consult your landlord because each plug is just an appliance like a TV or a phone charger. Piggybacking the network info over your mains wiring is not harmful in any way. Many appliances like vacuum cleaners and electric drills routinely dump far more harmful noise back into the mains electricity system than a homeplug can.
Live-in landlord & router not in my room => I would have to make sure he's okay with it. Trust me here.
Chrispy_ wrote:That sounds like you need to find a landlord who's not a ****.
MrJP wrote:Definitely not. Pretty much all 256GB SSDs have considerably higher performance than their 128GB equivalents simply because they have more chips working in parallel. The RAID option therefore won't offer any performance advantage (and will often be slower), won't cost much less, and will generally be a lot more hassle (even if TRIM is sorted). Have a look back at some of the recent TR SSD reviews. They covered the whole question of performance scaling with capacity, and had a look at RAID not long ago as well. Sorry I don't have the time right now to track down the right reviews.
MrJP wrote:Pretty much all 256GB SSDs have considerably higher performance than their 128GB equivalents simply because they have more chips working in parallel.
MrJP wrote:The RAID option therefore won't offer any performance advantage (and will often be slower)
MrJP wrote:and will generally be a lot more hassle
MrJP wrote:Have a look back at some of the recent TR SSD reviews. They covered the whole question of performance scaling with capacity, and had a look at RAID not long ago as well. Sorry I don't have the time right now to track down the right reviews.
halbhh2 wrote:I think that power supply (PSU) is less reliable than I'd want on such a generous budget.
halbhh2 wrote:Really, on a high quality build I want a very good PSU, and the least effort is to go Seasonic
halbhh2 wrote:More efficient is better -- you will save money for *years*, so why not go gold? You can take it with you to the next build, etc.