|
|
Post by Ben Lothian on May 19, 2011 18:57:28 GMT
Folks - Apologies for the "issues" at the end of the VQ on Sunday night - I'm afraid I've had some technical issues with the laptop. You may remember the graphics card issue I was moaning about around 10 moonths back , well it's re-occurred and I've not had a chance to back everything up yet before I try cooking the card again.  All going well I'll be on-line at the weekend. If not it probably will be a week or so until I do enough research to work out what I want to build, then source it and put the whole lot together. If anyone has suggestions for a decent desktop build around the £2,000-£2,500 mark please post them here ;D Speak soon Ben |
|
safira
Full Member
TLS Officer
Posts: 101
|
Post by safira on May 20, 2011 13:42:16 GMT
Ben, £2,000-£2,500 that should be around €3068. With that, you should be able to buy a top-of-the-line PC!! Like mine, it is more like a spacecraft than a PC  . I don't have much time now but later on I can dive into some systems that I know workw wonders and post here. For now, all I can say don't be in a hurry and prepare. Read and compare information about systems. Internet is a great source  . First decide what you will use the PC for, and don't buy things you will never use anyway (usually pre-installed software...). So buying in a store where you can hand-pick all components for assembly is best imho. Knowing what you will use the new PC for is also quite useful when giving hints for decent desktop builds |
|
safira
Full Member
TLS Officer
Posts: 101
|
Post by safira on May 23, 2011 15:34:29 GMT
As promised Ben, a desktop suggestion for you. This desktop is really high end and really upgradable whenever you desire with whatever you desire. It should be able to serve you well for the next 5 years without upgrading and after that you probably only need some 'minor' upgrades (if at all). Ofc you will also want a DVD player/burner and an Operating System etc. but the above makes for the fast system. Price will be around €2000 all inclusive and you can upgrade it with a second (same) graphics card and put it into Crossfire configuration. This system also allows lots of tweaking by yourself if you would be into it. I have this system and I plan to overclock my i7 to 4.0GHz (but only if needed after some 6 years perhaps) placing watercooling on top of it (very easy intallable nowadays. So this is my suggestion for you and I wish you happy shopping for whatever you will want to go for |
|
|
|
Post by Ben Lothian on May 25, 2011 19:59:45 GMT
That's fantastic. I've been out of the game with PC specifications over the last 4 or 5 years but that's looks pretty impressive. Gonna do a bit more research over the next month or so but I'll post what I'm thinking about to get any comments or feedback. The only thing I was thinking radically different was the inclusion of a 160GB or 250GB SSD as the main use drive alongside a standard drive for storage - Any thoughts on that? Thanks very much  Ben |
|
stefan
Junior Member
Ambitious but rubbish
Posts: 66
|
Post by stefan on May 26, 2011 9:04:45 GMT
@saf: Alternatively for the harddrives, you could get a SSD or fast drive for games etc and use a bigger storage drive for documents, movies and the like (or 2 so you always have a backup of your important stuff). Because having only 250-500 GB in total nowadays might be a bit low depending on how Ben intends to use his pc.
|
|
safira
Full Member
TLS Officer
Posts: 101
|
Post by safira on May 26, 2011 14:30:33 GMT
Go ahead and research the SSD-possibilities Ben. Those are really faster than normal HDDs. I also thought about SSD when I bought my system but decided not to go for it because it is SO much more expensive and there are also some discussions going on about life span and reliability of SSDs. First ask yourself how much volume do I want on my HDD and then look up the price. I decided I wanted 500 GB as my working horse HDD set up (where I play my games from ). Then I looked it up on SSD pricing...that costs around €1000,- And 2 'normal' HDDs in RAID 0 already gives a good speedboost, plus you have a big volume, for only €140,- With even increased security specs on the WD RE3. It is designed for RAID 0. If you can be satisfied with less volume on you (game-)HDD then I'd say it is worth looking into (maybe even also in RAID 0 configuration). SSD around 120 GB can be done I think for €200,- both normal and RAID 0 configuration. And then the lifespan and reliability of SSDs. Some say those arent as good on SSDs, some say it is improving "by the month" and some say it is, for anything else, good enough. I feel not comfortable with such discussions going around if I paid so much for something, but that is me, playing on the safe side . And like Stefan said, even 250-500GB is not much nowadays (depending on your habits, well 500GB is enough for me  ), so on top of any low-volume super fast SSD you will need an additional high volume HDD, so I think with low volume SSD your wallet will suffer roughly €280,- anyways. Good hunting Ben, and don't forget to make us drool by posting here what system you have bought once you have the top on your desk ;D |
|
stefan
Junior Member
Ambitious but rubbish
Posts: 66
|
Post by stefan on May 26, 2011 16:05:57 GMT
Using an OCZ Vertex 3 myself and no complaints  Using this for the operating system and games, the rest of my data (mostly video, audio and images) is stored on 6x2 TB drives from Western Digital's Caviar green series (3x2 TB mirrored). According to OCZ lifespan mostly depends on the amount of data writing action going on, and told me to expect at least 5 service years at 5 GB data traffic a day. Less would result in a longer lifespan. Considering that by that time I'll probably have upgraded or completely discarded this pc I was ok with that But yes it is a lot more expensive compared to normal HDD's (mine was about 230 euro's) so it's up to Ben if he considers the speed gain worth the extra costs. It would also mean that your motherboard suggestion would have to change though as the P6T series if I recall does not support SATA III. |
|
safira
Full Member
TLS Officer
Posts: 101
|
Post by safira on May 26, 2011 22:22:41 GMT
It would also mean that your motherboard suggestion would have to change though as the P6T series if I recall does not support SATA III. That is correct ^^. I would opt for an ASUS motherboard anyway. There has to be an ASUS mobo that support it or you could get an add on sata 3 card. Btw, what would be the speedgain of a single SSD compared to two 'normal' HDDs in RAID 0 configuration? I'm too lazy to look that up on the i net right now ;P. I do know RAID 0 just doubles the speed of the HDDs you use. |
|
stefan
Junior Member
Ambitious but rubbish
Posts: 66
|
Post by stefan on May 27, 2011 1:26:55 GMT
The decent SSD's can hit 550 mb read/500 write, whereas most HD's only reach about 100 MB write/read. The Velociraptor drives are about the fastest normal HDD's and they do 125/120.
So even in an ideal situation when a Raid 0 completely doubles the speeds, a single SSD outmatches them.
Another difference is that the access time of SSD's is far lower because flash drives don't rely on moving parts to access the data. Lack of moving parts also makes them completely silent.
|
|
.
.
), so on top of any low-volume super fast SSD you will need an additional high volume HDD, so I think with low volume SSD your wallet will suffer roughly €280,- anyways.