lol nub. SAS Raid 1 would store VMs, SDD is host and cache, one sata drive for data, one for VM snapshots. My build in that post was more of a weird version of an extreme Remote-FX host :D I don't think PCIe SSDs for under 3000 EUR are worth thinking about, check fusion IO instead.
The stock heatsink can definitely do the job if he isn't overclocking and the case is adequate. Intel doesn't release a cooler than can't cool its product within spec. This is Intel, they have been doing this for more than a few years. To everyone previously bitching that he should upgrade to a 1440p 27" monitor, I told you so. 60Hz is fine. That limits the max frame rate to 60 frames per second (or 16.6 ms/frame). That may be of some concern to you, but the max frame latency isn't a big deal. It's the min frame latency that you should worry about and the monitor has little to do with that. When you see a GPU benching a game at 80 fps (12.5 ms/frame), that doesn't mean it was a constant 80 fps. It varied a lot. Most frames could've been rendered in ~10ms, but a handful might've taken 50-100ms. It doesn't take good vision to notice a frozen frame for one tenth of a second. It's a lot longer than it sounds. So when you see crazy refresh rates like 120Hz or even 240Hz on some HDTVs, don't get sucked in. Gameplay is perfectly fine at 60Hz. The problems occur when you get really long frames and the refresh rate has nothing to do with that. Lose the expensive CPU. If you are absolutely hell-bent on getting a quad-core CPU, don't get anything more expensive than a 3570K. You're already wasting your money with that model, but the 3770K is absolutely gluttonous. If you're not overclocking the CPU (and you shouldn't), then don't waste the money on a K CPU at all. Check out a list of Ivy Bridge CPUs on Newegg. Whether Intel gives them the "i5" brand or the "Celeron" brand, they all use the same architecture. Within the same architecture, it is acceptable to judge based on clock speed (it's not cool to do that normally). You may want to look at the "P" CPUs that don't have integrated graphics (such at HD4000 or HD2500). You could save a few bucks since you have little use for integrated graphics. They also run slightly cooler since there's one less thing to use power. I think the $180 3350P is a good value since it runs identically to the $200 3450, except without unnecessary integrated graphics. With the money you save on a more appropriate CPU, you could take advantage of a great deal right now on a recently released Crucial M500 480GB SSD for only $335 after a coupon (EMCYTZT3329). It's a good price even for an old SSD, but this family just came out about a week ago. With that big drive, you might be able to squeak by without a data hard drive (or use an old drive) when you first build your machine. The longer you wait, the better chance you will find a respectable price on hard drives. Current hard drive prices are mediocre at best. They are still slightly above the 2011's prices due a famous flood near the factories that they are produced.
Nubkie, I don't think your can read properly. The storage type and what you do with it are mostly two separate things. I'm only advocating the USE of solid state over hard disk. PCI-e SSD would be nice but you can use standard SATA SSDs on a SAS controller and get more performance than if you stick with the northbridge SATA controller.
Spartacus, Great info as usual, thank you ! I'll paste links to key notes within this thread in the first post. JustGoFly
And im just sitting here in a corner content with what I have and amazed on how well my 4(? i dont even know anymore) years has aged. Seriously though, I doubt I will bother with an upgrade untill new consoles hit the market.
Especially for a gaming pc. I finally remembered that the ever-meticulous Ian Cutress did a quick and dirty review on the effect of upgrading the CPU in a gaming system. www.anandtech.com/show/6670/dragging-core2duo-into-2013-time-for-an-upgrade Notice that the six (erm seven?) year old midrange overclocked E6400 can still get almost 80% of the performance of a stock 3770K in some situations. But that's not the purpose of this post. If you look at the 3225 (effectively identical to the 3220 I suggested) you see an interesting, but not unexpected result. Even though Intel comically gives it the "i3" brand, those high clocked ivy bridge cores are the same as those in the 3770K and it shows. The supposedly inferior 3225 manages more than 95% of the frame rates of the 3770K. Also notice that the uber expensive six core 3960X averages no better than the 3770K or 3225 once you adjust for testing variances. And be sure to check the CPU intensive (i.e. not gaming) benchmarks to see the expensive multi core CPUs earn their keep. I really want to drive home that gaming is not CPU intensive and we are wasting money when we put unnecessary dollars into the CPU instead of the GPU and SSD. I don't make this shit up, people.
Yeah, I have to keep bringing this up when I'm talking about computer builds with people. My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 965. It cost half the price of my graphics card, if not less. I never have had an issue with CPU bottlenecking on games with it. If I want higher frame rates, the issue is with my graphics card, not my CPU. In fact, even quad core is unnecessary for most games, but I use my fair share of multithreaded programs, such as circuit simulations and A/V encoding.
Once the next generation of consoles are out (late 2013?), we will see a quite big rise of game system requierements.
What do you mean by "consoles" ? Do you mean Xbox and shit ? How does that impact PC prices ? This thread is about PC's not gaming consoles.
Yes i mean the next Xbox and the Playstation 4 and how those 2 consoles will influence minimum system requierements for PC games. The reason why nobody needed better PC specs for so long for playing games was that all those games had to run on 2004 style consoles too.
The only future proofing that you can do is making sure your GPU can handle high resolutions and/or large textures. That means this is the only time that it's cool to seriously prefer a GPU because it has more vram, lol. Pretty much anything more expensive than a 7850 or 660 would fit the bill. As iMacmatician mentioned, the wider buses on equivalent AMD cards may prove to support more precious memory bandwidth if you decide to overclock to stave off an upgrade in the future. And considering the budget, that is the baseline for the suggested GPUs, so no serious console-hedging is necessary.
You're a lucky boy. Dell just released outlet coupons for every home product. There's an Alienware x51 with a 3770 and room for a 150w GPU for less than $700. outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&cs=22&puid=e6673f71 Then just buy a 660 ti (the best 150w card) and you have a respectable machine for a grand. Coupon info is here: slickdeals.net/f/5983956-Dell-Outlet-Coupon-for-20-30-off-Refurbished-or-Scratch-Dent-Laptops-Desktops-All-In-Ones-Tablets-Free-Shipping If I was in the market, I would've already bought this. They'd only one left. I hope you get it. Edit it's gone. It's a shame. That was your chance to get a prebuilt machine with a wasteful CPU and room for a decent GPU. Oh well.
Coolness - TigerDirect also has a deal with CPU - i5-3770, 3.4ghz dropped from $235 to $200. Also XFX Radeon HD 7770 1 Gb - for $110 - down from $135. Your dell link didn't work - but your second link shows : Dell Outlet Save 30% off Any Dell Outlet Home Laptop, Desktop, All-in-One or Tablet Priced $1000 and Up Enter code ?XVLZGPF5PKR2X at checkout Desktops [dell.com] | Laptops [dell.com] Save 25% off Any Dell Outlet Home Laptop, Desktop, All-in-One or Tablet Priced $500 to $999 Enter code P7VQTJP?93F7B6 at checkout Desktops [dell.com] | Laptops [dell.com] Save 20% off Any Dell Outlet Home Laptop, Desktop, All-in-One or Tablet Priced Up to $499 Enter code SWVK475SC9F70S at checkout Desktops [dell.com] | Laptops [dell.com] Choosing the: Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 Processor (3.4GHz (8MB Cache) with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost Technology 2.0) Windows 8 Dell Outlet Alienware X51 Desktop 1TB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache 6 GB DDR3 Memory (1X2G/1X4G), 1333MHz 8X DVD +/- RW Drive 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 for $859 Applying coupon brings total from $859 down to $644.25 Look good ? Before I buy - I want to look at the other choices, maybe the 30% will kick in if I can find one with the right video card. THX ! When we're playing in Empires, and you shoot me. Just consider that a kindness that I allowed to happen :D But it may be time to move to some higher graphic intensive game for a while until some of the current crap is worked out. Empires needs a newsletter to inform old players of new changes, to get them back. JustGoFly
For comparison purposes I kicked the system up to over $1K and this is what comes out of next choice in AlienWare Aurora R4 type system: Alienware Aurora R4 Processor: Intel Core i7-3820 Processor (3.6GHz,Quad Core, 10MB Cache) Overclocked up to 4.1GHz Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, Dell Outlet Alienware Aurora R4 Desktop 1TB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache, 32GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability, Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7870 System Identifier: Z8MBKABK System Details Dell Outlet Alienware Aurora R4 Desktop Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate Modify Selection 1 $2,509.00 Save 30% on any Dell Outlet home laptop, desktop or tablet priced $1,000 and up! Expires Tuesday, April 30, 2013 View Details - $752.70 Sub-total $1,756.30 Any comments on comparison to the +$1100 cost compared to the Alien X51 ? Alienware X51 Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 Processor (3.4GHz (8MB Cache) with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost Technology 2.0) Windows 8 Dell Outlet Alienware X51 Desktop 1TB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache 6 GB DDR3 Memory (1X2G/1X4G), 1333MHz 8X DVD +/- RW Drive 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 System Identifier: F5D03V4C System Details Dell Outlet Alienware X51 Desktop Windows 8 Modify Selection 1 $859.00 Save 25% on any Dell Outlet home laptop, desktop or tablet priced between $500 and $999! Expires Tuesday, April 30, 2013 View Details - $214.75 Sub-total $644.25 Also it looks as if neither system has SSD. What's with that ? Seems like the cheaper X51 has more bang for the buck. Will add SSD and decent video card.
