getting new computer what to look for  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: sony mavica
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:22:25 am
content: so just going to be selling off my old computer for parts now cant be bothered trying to fix it anymore but i will be keeping the 2 hdd in it as they have importent data on them i need to kee my old compter specs arei7 2600k 8gb ram and nvidia gforce 450 don't remember the other specsmy price range would be around $1000nzd or so would be using it to play games here and there and editing and encoding videos ect so would like to get something better then my old pc what are your recommendations i would rather get one that is already built or have the place i get it from build for me because i could do it myself my i wanna make sure its done 100% right

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:00:06 am
content: Quote from: sony mavica on September 18, 2016, 09:22:25 amBe sure to get a keyboard that supports caps and punctuation marks - those are awesome.Your current setup seems to be fairly good for the current purpose, maybe add a better graphics card? If you don't like to fix your computer, it seems you might benefit from buying a prebuilt one? I bought an HP like that and I'm happy with it.

author: rob.manderson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 01:25:15 pm
content: Quotelol

author: bitslice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 02:02:05 pm
content: Just take it to a repair shop or your neighbourhood geek to fix,chances are it's a $100aus PSU replacement.nothing much wrong with a i7 2600ka nvidia gforce 450 is a bit old now.Personally I'd get it repaired and buy an SSD, then when the i7-6 series has been out for a while see if you can get cheap i7-4790K.For games, pick your favourite game and then research which GPU gives you at least 30-40fps, buy that.Blowing $1K generally buys a PC that's overkill for all games now but sucks in 3 years, if you spread your upgrades out a bit you'll squeeze a bit more value out of your gear.VR is coming too, and then everyone's PC will suck

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 02:13:50 pm
content: Would love an i7, but will do with the older Core 2's I have at the moment. Will still spend 99% of the CPU time in an idle loop anyway.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 02:29:22 pm
content: I was considering a new Skylake system, but my current i5-3750K is still doing okay. I'm probably just going to upgrade from the original (and outdated) GTX 550Ti. The GTX 750 cards are really cheap now, but the 900 series are dropping, so I may wait a bit longer.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 05:27:38 pm
content: I replied to your older post, I am happy to show you some bang for your buck stuff, and other things for a computer. I've designed for friends really neat rigs using different techniques like sticking to older server gear (A lot of it was bought, and a lot of it is going for cheap).EDIT: Email me athttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4GH48R9677if you don't want to PM/DM me on the forum. I also have stuff like skype.

author: System Error Message
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 08:02:23 pm
content: You can always get one of these:fixing the pc is always better. but if you do need a new PC try to reuse as much as you can from the old to save cost and get something that fits your goal.

author: Muxr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 08:56:21 pm
content: AMD has a CPU (Zen) that's supposed to be pretty competitive slated for Feb next year. 8 cores 16 threads.. it will probably be competitively priced and might even cause Intel to slash its prices. That's what I am waiting on for my next build.

author: Aodhan145
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 03:31:19 pm
content: Tell us what you are doing, What application are you using? What games are you playing? Then we are more able to give opinions on what would best suit you, so you don't spend too much on a computer you don't need.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 04:18:30 pm
content: I came up with a neat little build you can try.CPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4GH48R9677&ignorebbr=1X2MOBO:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAAY94DY2970&ignorebbr=1RAM:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5752CV1924&ignorebbr=1GPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133634&ignorebbr=1PSU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438027&ignorebbr=1SSD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372&ignorebbr=1HDD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAAEE3VU8144&ignorebbr=1CASE:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH4R96252&ignorebbr=1CPU COOLER:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064&ignorebbr=1X2DVD DRIVE:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151290&ignorebbr=1A bit of explenation behind my logic.The processors are older tech Xeons, but with 16 cores and 32 threads, you can't go wrong. Make sure your OS can support that.This would be a two CPU setup, but with such cheap CPUs, the expense of the board really doesn't matter. You can go for a non refurb CPU (Whatever, it will work) but it will be twice the money, and going for a higher base clock is more expensive (This CPU can boost to 3Ghz) Your only disadvantage is that the single core performance won't be the best, but not bad. Hyperthreading tasks should work great, so for workstation/CAD/video editing tasks this is great. Gaming normally takes advantage of multiple cores (You said you played GTAV)I included a GTX 1060, but you can go for a 970, 1070, or even higher, or even do SLI (I think.) I run a 970, and it's pretty good.It has a 250GB SSD (You can go for a 500GB one or even an NVME PCI-E one) and a 1TB HDD (Of course you can go for 2TB) This is all about what you want and how much you can pay.This is intended to be something you can add stuff to do if you want.If you use speakers, you will need a soundcard. Shouldn't be hard to find a cheap one, and you can grab a USB3 or USB3.1 card if you want, but I never use it, so get what you want.The PSU has support for two CPUs, and it's from a reliable company (EVGA tends to make good PSUs) and it should be fine for this setup. If you want another GPU, them maybe go for something higher MAYBE?The RAM is something I picked, be careful with RAM because even though it never happened to me, RAM especially on Intel systems can just decide to not work.You already have a computer with what OS you want, so you can migrate the drive over, or even install it as a third drive. I would NOT use Samsung's SSD migrator. Use Marcium Reflect or similar program. Samsung's migrator DELETES your HDD's items instead of cloning it over. This means if your computer crashes or dies through the migration progress, RIP you.I added a DVD drive, I use them, you might not, you might be even able to grab one from your current computer.For hyperthreaded tasks and gaming, this is a BANG for your buck. It's only weakspot is for single thread only tasks (Sadly some programs can't parallelize yet. grumble grumble)You can add more RAM, it supports a whole load, you can swap out the case for something else if you hate the look of that one, but make sure it supports E-ATX (E-ATX is E-ATX, if it doesn't say it supports E-ATX, move along)

author: Aodhan145
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 04:39:43 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 19, 2016, 04:18:30 pmI would call this poor, seriously older xeons. It's not worth the money at all, they dont even compare to the i7s you could buy if you went with a cheaper motherboard and spent more on the cpu and this would not be an upgrade at all. They would get a passmark of 9131. An i7-2600k would get a passmark of 8502. The xeons are piss for an upgrade. Go with a newer i7 like an i7-4790k these would not fail you at all they have a passmark of 11,185 (worth the money). The xeons have really low clock speed which is terrible in a lot of applications as most dont use all the cores.Go with a cheaper motherboard make sure it supports cpu overclocking so you can get full potential out of the cpu. (some thing the xeons dont offer).With the GPU I would buy a gtx 970. They can be picked up for ~£200 new if you look for them.You haven't gone wrong with the ssd. Make sure you research your hdd some companies are becoming notorious for making unreliable ones.All CPU coolers around that price are the same you wont notice any performance difference between them.PSU go for any decent brand any 500W psu it will serve you well. Dont go for the temptation to buy one from a strange brand remember this can fry all of your expensive parts.WHO EVEN USES A DISK DRIVE ANYMORE? seriously if you need one you probably have a laptop somewhere that you can copy the files onto a usb stick.This would be able to easily game at ultra for most games. I used to run the gpu and cpu they ran BF4 at ultra at 120fps, The even managed to play ArmA!!!!!!!SERIOUSLY E-ATX do you want a massive machine go for something nice and compact with a matx board or even with a bit for work go for an m-itx system it will be worth it.

author: TheBay
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 04:43:56 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 19, 2016, 04:18:30 pmLol the X5550 is weaker than his i7 2600k and uses more power!Nothing wrong with the OP i7 2600k, still a strong CPU, just fix it up with a new graphics card, psu (or motherboard TL;DR) SSD etc.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 04:53:12 pm
content: What to get is a function of your objectives and resources you can throw to achieve those objectives, and you mentioned none of them.Your machine has very good spec as is. The graphics card is a little bit old but respectable. What you have should be more than sufficient for most ordinary uses.So if I were you, I would look to see where the bottleneck is for your applications and take the upgrade route.If you want to buy a machine, I would recommend you look into getting one of those dual Xeon machines, either new or used. I have been using one for almost ten years and couldn't have been happier. Both Dell and HP have good offerings there.You may also look into the used market locally. I had a friend telling me that my dual x5450 12gb machine is worth about 50usd (on a good day) and it will likely go to a charity soon. So you can pick up one of those things in your neighborhood for next to nothing.The lessons ibhave learned is to buy quality first. It may be expensive upfront but it will last you longer.As to chips, look for something like x5650 or e5 2670.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 05:24:05 pm
content: Most applications and games will work fine on any recent i5, an i7 isn't necessary but it doesn't cost much more either. Games will benefit the most from better video cards (GPUs), and everything will be much better with an SSD. Server hardware is pointless in a single user environment, and could even be a detriment.As I said earlier, if you're trying to play GTA V, that Geforce 450 is a real problem. A GTX 750Ti or 970Ti is what you should probably look at, beyond that the bang to buck ratio drops sharply.If you think the power supply is okay for now, then video upgrade follwed by SSD is where I'd spend money. Still, a better power supply wouldn't hurt. It's the foundation of any computer system.Keep in mind that with planning, you can move the video card, SSD, and power supply to your next (better) mobo/cpu/RAM setup.

author: Aodhan145
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 05:25:17 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on September 19, 2016, 05:24:05 pmLol a 970 Ti, you would be hard pressed to try and find one of those.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 05:39:26 pm
content: Lol yeah, slight glitch there between brain and fingers, plain GTX 900 series, and 2GB minimum.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 06:18:47 pm
content: I don't see anything wrong with your old system apart from needing a graphics card upgrade for games.But if you are going for a new system, do not get sucked in to the whole more cores is better thing. Most software apart from a few exceptions can't make use of a large number of cores. So you probably want to stick with 4 cores but making sure the single threaded performance on them is as fast as possible. Games won't really notice the performance but doing cpu heavy things like compiling large FPGA projects, or big piles of C code, it really gets a massive boost on faster CPUsThat being said you probably want to stick to the two latest generations of CPUs like Haswell and Skylake and such, getting one with a as high as possible boost clock speed. The older Haswell is still just as fast as Skylake on the chips that go past 4GHz at the moment. And if you go Haswell you get to keep your cheep DDR3 memory (No real performance gain from DDR4 unless you perhaps make a lot of use of integrated graphics). Putting a 3rd party CPU cooler on it also helps to keep it running at higher boost clocks as well as making it quieter.With the graphics card its mostly a case of how much money you are willing to throw at it. The more expensive cards tend to just have more cores in the GPU and since graphics loads can scale very well it means more cores is more speed most of the time. There is a diminishing return as you go higher up tho so usually its best to stick to about 150 to 300 dollar cards. More expensive cards that that you tend to pay much more money for a little more performance while cheaper cards tend to be so slow that they will become obsolete in the next few years in terms of gaming. Best to stick to the 1000 and 900 series for nvidia or the 400 or 300 series from ATI.Also whatever you do get an SSD. On the desktop it makes 10 times more difference in responsiveness than any CPU upgrade.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 07:52:53 pm
content: Recently I got GTX 750 graphics card for the PCs (Dell low end office computers) my kids use. They couldn't be happier with the increase of speed in their games.

author: Muxr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 07:56:11 pm
content: 900 series Nvidia GPUs are outdated.Definitely look at either AMD rx4x0 (480, 470 and 460) or Nvidia 10xx series GPUs.For budget conscious folks AMD is a better bet since their cards support FreeSync (an open VESA standard compared to propriatery and expensive g-sync on Nvidia side), and historically speaking AMD GPUs age better than Nvidias in terms of performance over time.The only issues is if you're looking at a high end GPU AMD doesn't really have anything out there currently on the new FinFet process, 1070 and 1080 are your only bet. But if you are looking for a sub $300 GPU AMD is definitely the way to go.Also if you're building a PC, this website is your friend:http://pcpartpicker.com/

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 08:53:26 pm
content: Quote from: Muxr on September 19, 2016, 07:56:11 pmI agree. The 1000 series from Nvidia is new and I hadn't looked at them seriously as the upper end is extremely expensive. However, from what I've been reading today, it looks like the GTX 1060 is definitely a better choice than the GTX970 - similar price, better performance, and lower power. I almost made a spur of the moment purchase of one to replace my ancient 550 Ti while checking prices.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 09:27:33 pm
content: One thing that some people, most nerds, tend to fall for is chasing specsFor most daily jobs, you don't need the latest and greatest. And even if you, it is not going to be a big differentiator, within a couple generations .So don't pay much time as to if a system is outdated. Pay, instead, a lot of attention to its capabilities for what you are trying to do. It is entirely possible and likely that an outdated system offers the best bang for your buck.

author: Muxr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 10:37:53 pm
content: Quote from: dannyf on September 19, 2016, 09:27:33 pmIf you're going to buy a new GPU why buy an older version when the new generation uses less power, offers new features, and provides same or better perf/dollar?If you're a gamer it's even more important to get a recent model because old models don't get driver optimizations and fixes for new games. Nvidia is particularly bad about this. 7xx series of GPUs were relegated to legacy support less than 2 years after being sold as the latest and greatest.I agree on the CPU side since CPUs don't require special drivers and the CPU performance improvements have significantly stagnated in recent years. GPUs are a whole different ballgame however. They will continue to double in power each new generation for some time, as their performance scales horizontally and there is a lot of demand for performance from GPUs still, for instance a 144hz dual 8K screens for optimal VR experience requires something like 700 Tflops. Today's fastest GPUs don't even reach 10.

author: System Error Message
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2016, 12:58:08 am
content: The AMD rx480 is a bit faster than the older generation (talking about GCN) since they are comparable in architecture. So look at shader count, ROPs, texture units, clock speed and power usage. The rx480 boasts a 150W TDP with more than 2300 shaders, so its a bit faster than my old HD 7970 which has 2048 shaders but i can clock my HD 7970 at almost 1.3Ghz which does use more power.GPUs do not change their performance as they age (its been busted). What tends to change is drivers. What i do like about AMD is that they support things like freesync, openCL (they keep their openCL up to date). Essentially even the GTX 1080 will only support openCL 1.1 whereas the latest AMD GPU and intel will support openCL 1.3.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2016, 05:57:57 pm
content: On not chasing specs: I have a m.2ssd drive. On spec, it's 5 to 10x faster than a regular ssd, and shows that in benchmarking.For real life experience, it is not even noticeable vs. A regular ssd.Your computer is just going to be as slow as it's slowest component us. So figure out what you want to do with it and invest in the bottleneck.Not chasing specs blindly.