Your calculations don't include the stress and problems of having to fix something ASAP because you need the thing for something critically important and it broke down and you're in a bad place. You're like my uncle, not every cost can be neatly laid out in .xls format.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ OutletPC) ($179.99 @ Microcenter if you're a lucky cunt and you live near one) CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: Asus Z87-K ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($114.99 @ NCIX US) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ NCIX US) Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($409.99 @ Amazon) Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.99 @ Micro Center) Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg) Total: $1109.91 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-27 14:14 EDT-0400)
My approach roughly is: [Inner monologue] Look, what a high quality rig I've build! I've spend ~ 300 hours comparing every piece of hardware that is suitable, had to switch out 3 components during ordering, reordered more filter mats 3 times, .... but it turned out MARVELOUS! Then I go and see what all I can throw at that build, decide to switch out monitors 3 times, tweak around a week until that monster is energy efficient and saves me 6 EUR a year, .... maybe I even play a game or start up the VMs (after around a month of toying just with the hardware and wiring). SPARTACUS! WHAT YOU BUILD IS A CHEAP HOOKER!!! I BUILD WIFES ONLY.
OMG, who the fuck puts an msata SSD into his desktop?!!!!! Didn't you learn anything from this forum? "The mSATA version was the same price as the 2.5" version, so I went the mSATA route to keep case clutter to a minimum. " Do you realize you get less performance for the same price!!! OMG OMG
I am. However, AMD has basically shat on enthusiasts by focusing on their APUs instead of taking the fight with Intel seriously. I'm hoping they will return with another set of FX processors that doesn't require 8 cores to compete with Intel's quads.
UPDATE I'm done. $1020.42 before $50 in rebates. I'm rather pleased with all of the deals that I found. Bad troll is bad. Even if you have the best wife in the world, it only lasts 5 years before you want a new one. Why get a 10-yr wife if you know she'll be gone before the 5 year mark? Different use cases have different costs associated with down-time. Businesses pay through the nose for more up-time because every minute of down-time costs them a metric shit ton. Down-time for me means I can't play video games. That's a bummer, but I'm ultimately OK with it. Don't try to shove that mediocre PSU at me. It's been down to $35 like a million times in the last six months. EVGA's PSUs are just rebrands of Seasonic or FSP or some other OEM. Nothing special. And a warranty is only guaranteed as long as the company still exists. 10 years is a long time for a small tech company to exist. Look what happened to OCZ's warranties when they were bought out by Toshiba. Poof. Gone. I do, but they add sales tax, so it ends up being $194 out the door. At that point, the periodic $200 Newegg/Amazon deals start to look pretty appetizing. Corsair makes radiator-friendly cases that are easy to assemble, great stuff. Fractal Design makes attractive & quiet cases, great stuff. NZXT also makes attractive & quiet cases, great stuff. There's a lot of great stuff out there. I've heard a lot of great suggestions, but I haven't heard why they are "more great" than the my current pick. $500 left over? You know I can't resist $500!
But Corsair tho ( I have to admit it's a bit sketchy as my first CX died a week after I got mine. Got it replaced with an HX for free. Shit's awesome.
Not going to sort through that whole post to quote that bit. Didn't know that about EVGA PSU's. Small company yeah, but 1. Its been around for 15ish years so thats a good sign. and 2. Its a damn sight better than the manufactuerers which offer 2 years. (Yes, I know OCZ was around since early 2000 before you say that )
Was thinking of building a PC soon. Mine came to arond $500 forget the CPU but it was and AMD that benchmarked just under an I7 Only thing I am reusing from current build is a p.o.s case and ram. Parts that come with games normally have issues. Your better off finding sites that will give bundle discounts. Also having a business license makes it easier to get parts cheaper.
My 2 cents is that 240 gigs ain't enough, need to buy some cheap hdd to store all your music, games, anime, whatever. Don't know much about that power supply, I'd personally rather spend the extra 10 bucks or so for some brand/model that has proven reliable. Still, it is gold rated, so it should be decent at least. A case is a case, if it fits your crap and the price is right go for it.(This tends to be one of my cheapest components in a build.) I thought there wasn't much point in going past 1600 ram? Though checking pcpartlists it seems you'd only save like 6 dollars, so yeah might as well. Considering you can't overclock that cpu I don't see a reason for the heatsink. I know you say you are worried about how hot it will get because of the small case, spending the money on another case fan would probably be better for the whole system though. I mean there isn't too many games out that will really tax the cpu so it runs full throttle anyway, but your gpu will make things heat up, which can affect the motherboard and any HDD you have badly possibly. If you do get the heat sink, there isn't anything saying you can't just face it towards the back so it won't block the ram slots.
He doesn't need a large amount of storage. From what he's told me 250-ish GB is easily enough for him.
Yeah, it's definitely enough to get me started. Obviously I wouldn't've turned down a good price for a ~500GB SSD. I also have two 250GB hard drives and one 160GB hard drive that I can poach from old systems in a pinch. FSP has been around for like 20 years. They normally sell under other brands like Antec or Thermaltake. A case is how you cool your parts. Cooling isn't as simple as just adding a bunch of fans. Weird, but that kit is the cheapest kid that's combo'ed with my chosen CPU. The combo saves me $30. Cooling is a zero sum game. If my CPU is hotter, that means it's harder for my GPU (and other parts) to stay cool. For $20, the 212 Plus is a sizable jump from the stock cooler. There's less room on the other side of the mobo. As it turns out, I'm right around <1mm, so I might be able to make it work. Otherwise, I think I have enough room to slide the heatsink fan up a bit to "rest" on top of the DIMMs.
So where's the Noctua D-14 on there? If you're not using a god damn engine block as a cooler, you're doing something wrong.
