Feeler - new PC build

[Kevin P]

I'm starting to think about retiring my trusty, 6 year old Phantom Stalker II system. It's outdated, throws enough heat to warm my house and has some issues running a USB keyboard/mouse through a new KVM I recently got.

So, I've started building a list on Newegg. This is highly tentative, first pass, and is subject to change based on recommendations from folks here, cheaper options, and as I evaluate my needs (I'd like to cut the price some). I figure it's easier to over-design initially and then scale back (as long as I haven't ordered anything yet!)

So, what I have so far is:

Antec NSK 6582B Black 0.8 mm Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - I've always liked Antec cases.

ASRock 890GX PRO3 AM3+ AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - so far my builds have been using Asus or ASRock mobos and have always had good luck with them. Plus I wanted something relatively future-proof and with onboard video (I don't game so I don't want a noisy, heat-generating high-end video card).


AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor - I see little point in skimping on a CPU since the amount I'd save would be minimal.


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL - 8 GB should be plenty for anything I want to do.

Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OS drive for fast boot/load times. I may skip this to save cost though.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Data drive (and OS if I skip the SSD)

LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu Ray 3D Feature SATA IHBS112-04 - OEM - The requisite optical drive

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM - The requisite OS.

Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor - might as well splurge on a nice monitor while we're at it

Thoughts? I'll probably start placing orders in a couple weeks, unless I change my mind.

I probably should state what I use my desktop PC for. Mainly email/web surfing, Quicken, and some photo and video editing (this is where I want some gusto, otherwise I could just do an el-cheapo build).

[aud19]

Those 6 cores should help out with the photo editing, I know I like opening my task manager when 3D rendering and see all of them screaming along

Otherwise, I'd imagine a 80GB or 96Gb SSD for OS/software only would be plenty and still relatively cheap, no?

Maybe one of these:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssd-price-per-gb-ssd-performance,2942-4.html

[Chris D]

Would be pretty cool, Kev. This is the "Trevor Trouncer" you're replacing, yes?

I'll make myself happy by pretending that I prompted your build desire a bit.

If you're wanting to stick with AM3 chips, I hear that the "Bulldozer" chipset is about to get released. Would you want to get one of those?

So me not knowing these things... how would you configure the computer to boot just from one drive, but save all files and everything to the other drive? Each time you save or install something, would you have to manually tell it whether to use the C: drive or D:?

[Kevin P]

Yes, I have to trounce Trevor again. I'm sure he's surpassed my last build several times over since I built it. Too bad he doesn't swing by here anymore.

I would have to see what this "Bulldozer" chip is all about, but I'm not looking for bleeding-edge (as in expensive) technology, just something that works and is faster than what I have now (which was close to bleeding-edge 6 years ago).

In Windows it's easy to move user profiles (and thus, user data) over to a D drive. For installing programs, one has to specify the target drive to install to, but of course a lot of crap gets put on the C drive anyway (i.e. DLLs, runtime crap etc.)

I think Vista and 7 support mounting a drive within a directory of another drive (much like the way drives are mounted in Linux). I might have to look into that as a possibility. But that's if I don't forego the SSD in the first place. The build as I listed it is close to a grand (and is over if I add the monitor) and I'd like to scale that back quite a bit if possible, even if means building a lesser system.

[Hdale85]

Generally AMD chips aren't ever really that expensive though, not even the new ones which is one of the nice things. I'd love a new 6 core i7 but 500 bucks is up there lol.

[PewterTA]

You REALLY need to change out your Intel SSD for an OCZ Vertex III... You're missing out on almost 300MB/s read/write with Sata3 (6GBs)...

That's really slowing down your build doing that...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

If you want to save on price, get the OCZ Vertex 2 which still has a better read/write over the intel at over $50 less.

OCZ is the #1 in SSDs in my opinion. I have 2 in my 2008 server (60GB), 1 in my Laptop and 2 more in my desktop. Not one has ever given me problems. I still have my original Vertex and Agility in use over at my parents in their machines (that's about 4 years old now)...

[PewterTA]

I'd also dump that monitor... that's WAY to expensive for an 8ms response time screen.

Here's a MUCH better monitor at half the price....

ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1

Now you got no problems getting the SSD!!! ha ha

[aud19]

I'd also dump that monitor... that's WAY to expensive for an 8ms response time screen.

Here's a MUCH better monitor at half the price....

ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1

Now you got no problems getting the SSD!!! ha ha

Boo!! TN panel :throwup:

[Kevin P]

I'd also dump that monitor... that's WAY to expensive for an 8ms response time screen.

Here's a MUCH better monitor at half the price....

ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1

Now you got no problems getting the SSD!!! ha ha

But mommy, I want an IPS monitor! Waaaah! :rofl:

Here's some tweaks to the list to make it cheaper:

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor I don't need 6 cores so this saves me about $60
LITE-ON Black Internal 12X Blu-ray Combo with SW SATA Model iHES112-29 - BD reader instead of burner, saves $15

And I eliminated the SSD entirely. For what we use it for it's not worth the dough. I could save more by not buying a new monitor at all, as my 19" Viewsonic still looks fine to me. I was thinking bigger for Heather since her eyesight is declining faster than mine.

[Chris D]

I could save more by not buying a new monitor at all, as my 19" Viewsonic still looks fine to me. I was thinking bigger for Heather since her eyesight is declining faster than mine.

Lucky you! My wife's eyesight is still just fine, and she's seeing every flaw as I get older and fatter.

[Kevin P]

Another possibility, if I decide to really cheap-out on this build, is to just pop a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and HDD into my existing case. If I do that, I'll probably go lower-end, maybe just use the extra Socket AM2 Athlon II X2 I still have in the box.

I may do this anyway, even if I build a new box, so I can refresh and repurpose the old one.

[aud19]

Then you can afford that monitor! :lol:

[Hdale85]

I don't know, I think if you go that far between upgrades you should build the best you can possibly squeeze in. The current Phenoms are about to be the previous generation CPU's and there for slower then the newer ones. If you got 6-7 years before upgrading it's going to be pretty archaic at that point. The price difference between them and the x6 is tiny, and the new chips shouldn't be that bad either.

[Kevin P]

Well, "archaic" doesn't really matter for email, web surfing, Facebook, HTG, and Quicken. My 6 year old PC is still plenty adequate for those tasks. It just doesn't like my USB KVM and USB mouse/keyboard that much. Other than that it's still a good PC.

Therefore, I don't see any need to spend extra for "cutting edge" when I don't do much cutting-edge work (or games) on it. If I wanted cutting edge I'd wait for the next batch of AMD chips to come out.

Money's a bit tight these days, so going all-out on a new build isn't really the best thing to do. I may not build a new system for another few months to a year anyway, and by then the next generation or two will be out. Too many other irons in the fire right now.

[Hdale85]

Yeah I guess that's true.

You can get an Intel Core i3 bundle for like 500 or less even and it's really quick for how cheap they are. I love all the new i series chips actually. I know generally you go for AMD from what it seems lol.