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Murasaki wrote on 2014-11-24 04:47
Hello, I'm inept at hardware and need computer part suggestions or pre-built tower suggestions. What I need from my computer's in the title.
I'm not entirely sure what my budget is yet. Nothing over 2K I guess? lmao.
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Second wrote on 2014-11-24 05:27
Something with 32 gigs of ram or more.
:sing:
Then choose whatever.
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Compass wrote on 2014-11-24 07:30
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($193.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.77 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($349.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($82.79 @ OutletPC)
Total: $963.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-24 02:27 EST-0500
For a processor you definitely want an Intel i5, very few games prefer AMD when it comes to performance.
The GTX 970 is the best bang for the buck processor out there and it's 4GB VRAM is great since games are now using 2GB which was the standard.
If you have extra money I'd suggest getting an SSD, monitors, and a nice pair of headphones + modmic.
Edit: If you're not buying this now make a topic when you're about to. The prices on these things change due to sales so if you go with these specific parts you might be overpaying than you should, etc
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Taycat wrote on 2014-11-24 07:30
yeah, you need RAM and a good processor for photoshop
everything else is up to you
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SlurpTASTY wrote on 2014-11-25 02:06
Quote from Compass;1255200:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($193.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.77 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($349.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($82.79 @ OutletPC)
Total: $963.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-24 02:27 EST-0500
For a processor you definitely want an Intel i5, very few games prefer AMD when it comes to performance.
The GTX 970 is the best bang for the buck processor out there and it's 4GB VRAM is great since games are now using 2GB which was the standard.
If you have extra money I'd suggest getting an SSD, monitors, and a nice pair of headphones + modmic.
Edit: If you're not buying this now make a topic when you're about to. The prices on these things change due to sales so if you go with these specific parts you might be overpaying than you should, etc
The GTX 970 is way overkill, you can get a GTX 760 for $100 less and still be able to run almost everything on max settings with over 30 fps (especially GW2). Also I'd recommend the corsair 400r because of the 2 extra fans it has on the front (it's only $40 more than the 200r).
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Yoorah wrote on 2014-11-25 05:47
I think Compass' build is pretty sensible. My only real objection is the case... Personally, I'd spend more on a better, quieter case, like the Define R4 (~$100). Or an Antec P280 (~$70 ... damn, they got cheaper these days.) I have a P280 myself and it's an awesome case with a good balance for cooling and noise suppression, but it's pretty darn big. Some older power supply cables would not reach the CPU power connector not sure if it's still an issue with newer models... so you gotta look up the cable lengths to be sure if you wanna use it. Can't recommend it since I don't have the time to do that and hence cannot expect someone else to bother, either. x)... For what it's worth, I have a SeaSonic X-series and it reaches fine.
The 200R case has huge holes on the side which = insta-fail. Cases like these are roadkill when it comes to cooling AND noise suppression, unless you install fans into those holes, in which case cooling efficiency still sucks and noise suppression sucks more, but at least the cooling is better. v: (Basically, don't get a case with holes on the side unless you know what you're doing.)
Maybe add a fan for air intake, as the GPU dumps hot air into the case (not really needed with an R4, as it comes with a push-pull fan setup which is pretty efficient.)
I think the GTX 970 is indeed overkill, but it's still a great card for the money both in terms of performance and technology/efficiency (which is not something I can say about an NVIDIA card often). If you want to be more economical, you can find a cheaper card at the ~$250 price point that will suit your needs. GW2 doesn't have very high requirements.
You could throw a decent 128 GB SSD in there for less than $100, too. Boosts load speed on everything significantly.
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For the not-so-sensible-but-awesome recommendation, I'd go for a LGA2011-3 build. Basically, Intel recently released 6-core professional workstation-class chips for the consumer market, so they are more affordable than they ever were. The downside of course is cost... the CPU is still quite a bit pricier, it requires a more expensive motherboard and a new type of RAM: DDR4 (previous platforms like the quadcore build Compass suggested is still using DDR3.) You also want 4 sticks of RAM (preferably total of 16GB) because this new CPU can access 4 sticks at the same time, whereas regular CPUs can only access 2 at a time and it would be a shame not to take advantage of this.
So it would be something like this:
CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K (6 core) (~$370)
Some kind of CPU cooler because none is included with the leet processors ($20~40)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 (~$230)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 (~$200)
Prices not including rebates, because I don't trust those to actually work. xd
PSU: Might need to throw an extra $20 to upgrade the PSU because the leet CPU is more power hungry.
So building a leet 6-core workstation-style system would set you back an extra $500 or so (though you also get double the RAM.) Gotta say that having 6 cores isn't really helpful in today's games, but it's more useful for content creation software like Photoshop and 3D rendering stuff. How much of a benefit from it you'd get in Photoshop is hard to say, as it depends on the tools you use and whatnot and I'm not too familiar with how they work. Might wanna search around or ask on Photoshop forums regarding whether going the Intel 6 core workstation-style route is actually worth it. SATA Express support is nice, too.
Personally, I just think it's cool and so I'm throwing it out there. o/ You could fit it in your budget and still have enough to get a nice quality IPS monitor.
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Compass wrote on 2014-11-25 09:22
Quote from SlurpTASTY;1255290:
The GTX 970 is way overkill, you can get a GTX 760 for $100 less and still be able to run almost everything on max settings with over 30 fps (especially GW2).
A GTX 760 for $200 has been a terrible deal ever since AMD reduced the prices for their R9 series.
I don't see the point in buying a kepler based GPU when Maxwell is out and performs so much better, yes it may cost more but the price to performance ratio is better, and even for a futureproofing stand point getting the better card is the way to go. The last thing you want to do when you build a computer is thinking about upgrading because a specific part doesn't perform as good as you thought it would. What if there's a game Murasaki wants to play in about two to four years? The GTX 760 is already showing it's age most lower mid-range graphics do within a generation, and as I said games are starting to use more than 2GB VRAM.
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Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-11-25 14:14
Expanding on Yoorah's IPS suggestion, even low-price IPS panels are worth it, if only for the vastly superior viewing angle performance, which also gives the picture a vastly superior color quality with or without a truly expanded color space comapred to TN panels. TN panels are a straight downgrade really.
When you get one wiht a lower price you may get a flimsy build quality and inferior ergonomy options, if any at all, but I think picture quality is ok. It certainly is for mine at 150€. And it's not like a monitor for home use needs to be built very sturdily unless you got cats who get crazy when you're away from home.
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SlurpTASTY wrote on 2014-11-25 18:26
Quote from Compass;1255324:
A GTX 760 for $200 has been a terrible deal ever since AMD reduced the prices for their R9 series.
I don't see the point in buying a kepler based GPU when Maxwell is out and performs so much better, yes it may cost more but the price to performance ratio is better, and even for a futureproofing stand point getting the better card is the way to go. The last thing you want to do when you build a computer is thinking about upgrading because a specific part doesn't perform as good as you thought it would. What if there's a game Murasaki wants to play in about two to four years? The GTX 760 is already showing it's age most lower mid-range graphics do within a generation, and as I said games are starting to use more than 2GB VRAM.
Future proofing is a bad idea. As for the r9 I wouldve suggested that (I have the 280x myself) but I thought it might derail the topic into nvidia vs amd so I just stuck with the brand already recommended.
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Compass wrote on 2014-11-25 21:44
Quote from SlurpTASTY;1255352:
Future proofing is a bad idea..
Future proofing is only a bad idea if you things like a 650w+ psu, or 32GB of ram, or an i7 all for gaming for gaming since these are all parts that won't give you a performance increase or in the i7's case is more costly for a feature that isn't used in games with a slight performance increase.
Buying a better graphics card to futureproof is different.
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Second wrote on 2014-11-25 23:51
Maybe she doesn't even need a video card.
Intel HD graphics 4000+ should be good enough to run guild wars 2.
That i7-5820K cpu that yoorah recommended doesn't have integrated graphics so you need to buy a video card if you get that, but it's certainly good a cpu.
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Compass wrote on 2014-11-26 01:41
Quote from Second;1255412:
Maybe she doesn't even need a video card.
Intel HD graphics 4000+ should be good enough to run guild wars 2.
Okay this is just silly
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Murasaki wrote on 2014-11-26 04:16
I don't mind spending a bit extra to make sure that I get something solid. As long as it's solid, I'm good. I do use some tools that can make a few computers lag in Photoshop so over-preparing is probably something I'd do. I'll keep looking into things in the meantime.
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Yoorah wrote on 2014-11-26 06:35
I'm kind of curious what it is that you do that would cause the slowdown on your current machine. Tried to look up some info about Photoshop performance and it looks like different versions have different capabilities when it comes to utilizing large amounts of RAM. The newer versions let you configure how much RAM you're willing to allocate to PS. There's also an efficiency indicator tool, which drops under 100% if PS ran out of memory and had to write to the hard disk (this is much slower, so it causes a slowdown overall.) How much RAM does your current computer have?
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Murasaki wrote on 2014-11-26 15:06
Not much. 4 GB.
The lag isn't like...the lag of a thousand years, but certain brushes cause a delay, and even if it's a fraction of a second, it's very annoying to need to wait for every brush stroke. It's one of the main reasons I switched to SAI. Much lighter program with faster blending. I still use Photoshop for tweaks but that's about it right now.