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FLTCAPT Savar

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re: Going to Build A New Computer

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Hey Guys,

 

I know there are several techies here and I have need of your assistance. I am thinking about building my own computer and I have no idea what I am doing. I was going to spend around $1K on the thing, so please give me your ideas about all components. Again, I have no idea how to ensure that everything is compatible, etc.....

 

Savar



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VADM JT Kerry
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I need to know your preferences: Intel vs. AMD and nVidia vs. ATI Radeon.  Other question, do you have a Case, a Power Supply over 600W and do you want to upgrade your mouse and keyboard.  I am usually online on Saturday mornings until about 6am to 9am - usually vent is a solo experience in the mornings.  If you want to run macros, I have a decent keyboard and mouse combination.

The goal is to find a Motherboard with the right combination of specs to allow you to upgrade in the future - so you can upgrade memory video and chip without replacing everything.  Lets talk  or PM and let me know what you have or if it will be all new.

JT



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FLTCAPT Savar

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Just let me know when you will be online... I don't really need to replace the monitors, keyboard, or mouse. I just need to build a new machine.



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I'll send you a copy of my build.  You can use that as a starting point and go from there.  Also,if you plan on doing this yourself, I can walk you though it via Facetime or Skype, but its fairly straight forward. 



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When and if I ever get resettled in Florida, I too want to build a new computer.  However, hate to say this, but it's primary purpose is to play Star Citizen when it goes live.  I figure if it can play Star Citizen, STO should be no problem.   I hope the Fleet Techies don't mind if I pick you mind as well. 

Bags are packed and my Wife's Lexus is ready to go, off to Florida I go.

Cheers

 



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VADM JT Kerry
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To stay within your budget, I would suggest an AMD based PC.  All of this is from newegg.com.  You can get a top end processor with 8-cores for half the price of a top end Intel with twice the cores.  I kept the keyboard and mouse in because you can program macros (you can omit them).  Newegg has Win 7 Home 64bit for $99 and Rakuten.com (formerly Buy.com) or Amazon sells Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 for $35 a 3 user license.  Bitdefender Total 2014 is a little better - http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/RAP/RAP-quadrant-Aug13-Feb14-1200.jpg - 3 user 2yr. is $64 or almost 1/2 that for 2013.

So, here are my suggestions:

Device    
Case $50.00 Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Power Supply $60.00 Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W
Motherboard $135.00 ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer AM3+ 
Processor $160.00
AMD FX-8320 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W
Memory  $80.00 Crucial Ballistix 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 1866 
Video Card  $150.00 PowerColor TurboDuo AXR7 265 2GBD5-TDHE/OC Radeon R7 265 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
Blueray/DVD-RW $80.00 ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner
HDD/SSD $85.00 WD BLACK SERIES WD1003FZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 
Mouse $34.00 CM Storm Recon - Ambidextrous 4000 DPI Gaming Mouse - (can program macros)
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 
$40.00
 (can program macros)
Total $874.00  
     
Note:   All from Newegg.com    
Note:      

I looked at factors like upgrade path for Mboard components and such and the fact that there is no onboard Vid is a plus (sometimes they can get in the way).  But, the limitation of $1000 to build a complete system with nothing transferring comes to this.  The Video Card specs better than most of the 7000 series cards and is a next generation card.  Let me know if you need to discuss.  I should be on Wednesday or Thursday night.

See you,

JT



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FLTCAPT Savar

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Thanks guys. I will be in touch once I start getting all the pieces together... It may be a few weeks.

 

Again, thanks for the help.



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Thank you, Sirs.  Food for thought.  Still a few months out, but I want something that will last for at least three years this time.  Good news is that are "Tiger Direct" stores both in Raleigh, N.C. and in Jacksonville, Florida.  Over the years, we have been able to "pimp-out" our Lenovo/IBM computers this way. 

(Pimp my Computer as a new realty show???)

Cheers

 



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Christian M. Hanson
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I'm also building a new PC to handle star citizen. AMD parts appear to be less expensive then Intel. The same is true for AMD graphics cards over NVIDIA. Is there a disadvantage of going with an AMD quad processor over Intel? The same for AMD graphics cards over NVIDIA?



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Christian M. Hanson wrote:

I'm also building a new PC to handle star citizen. AMD parts appear to be less expensive then Intel. The same is true for AMD graphics cards over NVIDIA. Is there a disadvantage of going with an AMD quad processor over Intel? The same for AMD graphics cards over NVIDIA?


I suggested the FX series chip, with a 8-Core processor.  Intel only has 4 cores (Quad), unless you virtualized the chip through the BIOS, which degrades the bandwidth usable within the chip.  In other words, if you virtualize an Intel Quad at 3.5GHz to make it 8-cores you will split the bandwidth of the chip and make it 8-cores at 1.6Ghz or less (you loose some of the bandwidth in the method) - and it degrades the switching functions of the hardware through the North Bridge chip because it is now acting as a switch for memory from memory for the virtual chip functions. 

The FX series chip I suggested was the second from the top of the line AMD processors - without video stacked on top of it for $160 - the same 3.5GHz in a quad with video shared on top of the same chip is a Haswell i7 3.5 Quad for $340 - with a budget of $1000,which would you buy.  And the added fact of having to fight the Haswell/Intel HD 4000 series video drivers (which suck at best). 

But, AMD has a number of things on it's side, stability being one of them.  I have run AMD chips at home for years, and I can't remember the last time I locked up and couldn't back out of it.  The cores access memory independent of one another allowing for 8 different threads running at  the same time.  Plus most of the memory management happens on the processor and not the North Bridge chip - so it multitasks better.  Most of the PCs I run at work are Intel.  There is at least one BSoD that happens out of the 130 PCs in my building a day - usually more.  I have backed out of a lock up on my AMD 6-core and was able to shutdown the process, not the PC.  With the Intel's, I usually have to do a hard shutdown (hold the power button down). 

The differences between nVidia and Radeon (AMD) - which are marginal to which one is better from one week to the next - they are both good cards.  The Mboard I picked supports both AMD 3-Way CrossFireX and nVidia Quad SLI, so it doesn't matter which one you choose.  I think Star Citizen has a slight program advantage for AMD (ATI) and STO has a slight advantage for nVidia. So, in my books, it's a preference.  Another sweet thing about the ASRock board is it will run 2 full video cards at x16 and it supports up to 64GB of system RAM, so you will be able to upgrade the system for a while.



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VADM JT Kerry, USS Astoria, "Lucky" 7th Fleet, Starfleet Command, UFP

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Sorry, for the long explanations.  My wife says, "When someone asks you the time, you tell them how to build the watch."  It's a fault in an engineer, which is my specialty at work (hardware).  I hope you all can look around it.



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Thanks JT! It was a good read. You've pointed me in the right direction.



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JT, no worries.  It was a good read and basic enough for the common man to understand.  Also, I'm married to an Industrial Engineer, so I can relate. 

 

Cheers

 



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I'm going with the following:

 

Processor: AMD FX-8320 CPU (8x 3.50GHz/8MB L3 Cache)

 
 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P -- AMD 970
 
Power supply: 500 Watt - Standard
 
Hard Drive: 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s
 
Optical Drive: 24x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW
 
OS: Windows 7


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Mr. Hanson,

I would up the wattage on the Power Supply to at least 600W - because you need headroom in that area when gaming - never under power always overpower a gaming rig.  I would look for an HDD with a 32MB or 64MB Cache @7200rpm - the increased performance will show in your gaming experience and the cost is small.  Other than that it looks good. 

Pay attention the CAS Latency on the memory - the lower the numbers the better the performance and stability.  I chose the Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) (yellow heat spreader) because of its lower CAS rating 9-9-9-27, and when in a matched pair the rating is at 9-9-9-24.  I saw a number of DDR3 1866 memory out there ranging from CAS 9 to CAS 13.

JT



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