So I am a little behind in the current computer stuff. My last computer was a laptop and the one before that my friend built for me. While I don't really need a new PC I am toying with the idea of building one or buying one or upgrading my current one. I was thinking of getting a solid state drive. Does anyone have any experience with them? I was thinking that I would put the OS and the programs I use on the SSD and then also have a 2nd drive that is around 1 TB to have music/pics and other data. So roughly I was thinking - 1 SSD ~128GB - Normal HD ~ 1TB - ~8 GIG Memory - Somewhat decent video card. Maybe last years model or so. Good enough but maybe not super expensive - Windows 7 (I am not sold on 8) I'm not against buying a pc that is already put together either. I just feel like I have been out of the game so long I am interested in what people think.
They're great for quick start-up and load times. They don't do anything for frame-rate in most cases. I have a hard time dealing with the space constraints so I use a smaller drive with Intel's caching thing and it works fantastically. About what are you looking to spend on the whole system? There's lots of levels of video card and processor spending.
I am still not sure how serious I am about it. Basically I was thinking my budget would be around $1000 max. However that said I am not sure I can even justify making a new computer when mine works just fine. So I am going back and forth on it. I also know that bringing a new PC into the house would cause a little drama with my GF since it's not something I "need". My main worry is that I will wait so long and not be able to get Windows 7 when I want to upgrade and be stuck with 8. I have yet to hear good things about Windows 8.
I recently picked up a 128SSD for my new build, and I frankly love it. But it is ultimately a luxury item, but having a computer boot to desktop and load in under 20 seconds is very useful when in a rush (and I always shut down my computer). The gains you get out of it are faster loads for OS work, and certain programs (anti virus/etc). I keep the one MMO I am currently playing at the time (GW2) on my SSD, while everything else (My Documents/Downloads/Anything not OS and Program Files) goes on my 2TB WD Black. Stick with Windows 7. There is basically zero good reasons to "upgrade" to Windows 8 from a gaming perspective. From my recent look at the market, I'll let you know what I did. I opted out of building a supercomputer and instead did a very modest upgrade for myself and banked cash for later. Personally I love making a spreadsheet of past components, and whatnot, and then deal hunt while switching out things as you go. Sit on the idea for a month or two then purchase. Case: TJ10B-W Temjin Case w/ Window Board: Asus*SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 w/ DDR3, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX / SLI CPU: AMD*FX-6300 Processor 3.5GHz w/ 14MB Cache OC to 4.7Ghz CPUCool: Corsair*Hydro Series H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler RAM: Corsair*Dominator Platinum 8GB DDR3 1866MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 4GB) Internal SSD: OCZ*Vector Solid State Drive SATA III, 128GB Internal HD: WD*2TB Caviar Black 7200rpm SATA III w/ 64MB Cache PSU: CZ Fatal1ty 1000W Individually-Sleeved Modular Gaming 80Plus Gold Power Supply GPU: Geforce 670 2GB The Case/GPU was from my last rig, while I haven't bothered to upgrade the PSU yet. Geforce 680 were on sale here for 400 dollars, which will offer you more than enough power for some time to come. PC Performance breakdown is basically: 1. GPU 2. CPU 3. Everything else For example, my old rig ran on a Duo Core 2 (that is effing ancient) with my Geforce 670 and still ran most games fine (Planetside 2). If you have any kind of i3 and up, and are worried about money then focus on your GPU and a nice sized performance hard drive (1TB+). Everything else is moot at that point. tl:dr; If you have an i3 and up, GPU and HD. I recommend the GTX670/680 since many are on sale currently, while AMD cards are also very decent (and good for bitcoin mining if you like that kind of stuff). Then pick up performance hard drive, all together that should be about 500 dollars. Edit: In case anyone is wondering, I picked up the FX-6300 as a throwaway CPU to play with OCing.
Windows 8 is lighter on system resources and it boots much faster. The task manager is better. There's lots to like, I think. Whether or not you like the UI is up to you (and dealing with "metro" is pretty much optional), but everything under the hood is the same or better than 7. $1000 will land you something worth while, probably. An i3/i5 or AMD FX, a mid-range graphics card 8gb RAM. What do you have now? How much stuff can you reuse? Case/Power Supply (If it was a decent unit, has the right connectors and put out ~500w you'd be fine)
As a small correction, Windows 7/8 are basically the same boot times. Window 8 run hibernation by default. The main path boot time of my SSD is under 10 seconds, so to be fair, the different at that point is moot. Source? I know that Windows 8 has a few improvements on file transfers and PC security involving rootkits but I was unaware of any performance gains as most benchmarks I looked at had the two OS performing at the same level.
Windows 8 is supposed to perform slightly better with AMD's FX series processors due to core scheduling improvements, but the difference is something like 1-2%. It also has better graphics support because it will receive new DirectX versions, but that wont matter for at least 5 years since game dev's wont even start to use the new versions for that many more years. Ive never seen it said that Windows 8 was lighter on system resources though. Might be true, might not be. I have 32GB of memory multiple SSDs and an 8 core processor at 5.2GHz so I dont really care anymore about system resources. Ill help out with some part suggestions later today.
Above average. But I also run a Corsair H100 with four Scythe Slipstream fans at 1900rpm and put a good amount of voltage into it. Nothing nearly as good as this guy though: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2828933 And besides, now you can buy (ok, well very very soon) 8-core processors that come stock with turbo core speeds of 5GHz
Alright here are some parts I came up with for around your budget. All these parts come in at $1,053 which is just barely over, but if you dont need to buy Windows 7 then it comes out to around $910. These parts are fairly high end and good quality but a few sacrifices had to be made to stay around the budget Case, Antec VSK-4000: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129187 Power Supply, Rosewill Capstone 650w gold rated: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182071 DVD/CD drive, Samsung generic drive (same as any other brand): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151266 Motherboard, Gigabyte 990FX UD3 AM3+ socket: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514 Processor, AMD FX-6350 3.9 - 4.2 GHz hex core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514 Memory, GSkill DDR1866 with tight timings 8GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231538 Graphics card, HIS 7870: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161411 Solid state drive, Mushkin Chronos 120GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236 Hard drive, Western Digital black 1TB : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533 Operating system, Windows 7 pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992 If you can afford it, a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is a great, cheap air cooler to buy to get better temperatures with this processor or to safely overclock it to around 4.4-4.5GHz. There are also better SSDs to get but not in your price range with everything else needed.
Here is what I could find on my current tower. The RAM is wrong as this report is from 2008 and at some point I updated it to be 6 gig. ------------------ System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 9/8/2008, 19:29:38 Machine name: Valindria's PC Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERANTIONAL CO.,LTD System Model: MS-7376 BIOS: Default System BIOS Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) 9550 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.2GHz Memory: 2046MB RAM Page File: 1939MB used, 2400MB available Windows Dir: C:\Windows DirectX Version: DirectX 10 DX Setup Parameters: Not found DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode --------------- Display Devices --------------- Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Manufacturer: NVIDIA Chip type: GeForce 9800 GTX DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0612&SUBSYS_087D19F1&REV_A2 Display Memory: 1264 MB Dedicated Memory: 497 MB Shared Memory: 767 MB