Advice for buying a New PC

[votemarvel]

My first piece of advice when asked questions about buying a new computer is "what do you want to use it for?"

Sure gaming is the obvious answer here but look to what settings in games will make you happy. Do you want to push the limits or would you be happy with getting High (and who wouldn't) and having to drop lower as titles become more demanding.

A friend of mine has a computer I sold him with a FX-6300, 8gb of RAM, and a GTX 760 in it. It's still a solid little performer for 1080p gaming at medium settings, though to be fair he mostly uses it as a World of Warcrack machine these days.

The point was that don't feel that you need to push the limits of your budget. Oh and don't be afraid to look to the second hand market, you can get some really good deals if you are willing to shop around.

As to the boot drive. Well I've said before that I don't think that SSDs are bang for your buck at the moment, somewhat hypocritical since I have two of them in my PC, and that you are better off going for a larger SSHD. Smaller performance boost to be sure but more space for a similar amount of money.

 

[SweetShark]

Ok, first off, thank you once again for your help. With your knowledge you have, I decided to find for new part and I think I finished.
However this time the List I created have everything I have plans to buy and create the PC myself:


- Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit DSP
- Toshiba Desktop HDD 2TB
- TeamGroup SSD Evo L7 120GB
- TeamGroup Desktop RAM Value 8GB 2400MHz DDR4
- MSI VGA GeForce GTX 1060 OCV1 6GB
- Gigabyte Motherboard B250M DS3H (B250/1151/DDR4)
- CPU Cooler CP-1210
- Intel CPU Core i5 6500 (1151/3.2 GHz/6 MB)
- Corsair PSU CX Series 430 W CX430
- Corsair Carbide Spec-03 Blue Midi Tower


What do you think now please?

 

[QuiteEnjoyed2016]

As to the boot drive. Well I've said before that I don't think that SSDs are bang for your buck at the moment, somewhat hypocritical since I have two of them in my PC, and that you are better off going for a larger SSHD. Smaller performance boost to be sure but more space for a similar amount of money.

Ok, first off, thank you once again for your help. With your knowledge you have, I decided to find for new part and I think I finished.
However this time the List I created have everything I have plans to buy and create the PC myself:


- Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit DSP
- Toshiba Desktop HDD 2TB
- TeamGroup SSD Evo L7 120GB
- TeamGroup Desktop RAM Value 8GB 2400MHz DDR4
- MSI VGA GeForce GTX 1060 OCV1 6GB
- Gigabyte Motherboard B250M DS3H (B250/1151/DDR4)
- CPU Cooler CP-1210
- Intel CPU Core i5 6500 (1151/3.2 GHz/6 MB)
- Corsair PSU CX Series 430 W CX430
- Corsair Carbide Spec-03 Blue Midi Tower


What do you think now please?

As to the boot drive. Well I've said before that I don't think that SSDs are bang for your buck at the moment, somewhat hypocritical since I have two of them in my PC, and that you are better off going for a larger SSHD. Smaller performance boost to be sure but more space for a similar amount of money.

Don't listen to votemarvel! SSD are frankly the best upgrade since graphics card plateaued, SSHD's are hateful.

This is only 80 quid - http://www.ebuyer.com/695890-samsung-850-evo-250gb-2-5inch-ssd-mz-75e250bw?mkwid=slHGNTp51_dc&pcrid=51482419619&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CNivwd-A79ECFe-d7Qod6jsO6w

This is only 150 quid - https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb-samsung-850-evo-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-mgx-3d-v-nand-512mb-cache-read-540mb-s-write-520mb-s-98k?utm_source=google%20shopping&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CP7yqOyA79ECFUq17QodhfcOkg

Do it... down, bang all over the buck there!

Seriously though, it's pure taste / opinion thing, I love my SSD and genuinely think it's the best upgrade I've ever had... (well apart from my R290 which is still delivering 40 - 50 FPS at 1440p in most thing, remarkably) but if you are on a strict budget then that looks like a pretty good system to me. You'll be happily 1080p at mid to high.

As an aside, didn't realise the price point jump was so big between the 1060 and 1070, nearly double, interesting. I'd recommend Win 10 for DX 12 but that doesn't seem to be delivering any improvements on Nvidia card so make no difference, although Win 8.1 will become increasingly ignored, it's just was MS do.

 

[votemarvel]

This is 80 quid https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000dx002-35-firecuda-sshd-8gb-cmlc-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-1987-mm-hei

This is only 106 pounds and 47 pence https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-seagate-st2000dx002-35-firecuda-sshd-8gb-cmlc-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-2611-mm-hei

1tb vs 350gb. 2tb vs 500gb.

The same money, well less in the second example, but far more storage. And to me they represent far better value. Let me say why I think that.

Thanks to Sleep and Hibernate, no matter your boot drive your PC can be back up and running near instantly. If a few extra seconds at start up from a reboot bother you, then I'd question just how often are you needing to restart your PC.

Apps start up time, well I'd be lying if I would say there is no difference but the SSHD will 'learn' your most commonly used items and store them on the solid state cache. So things like your game clients (Steam, Origin etc) that you use often are going to be put on there.

Getting into the games themselves. Well you aren't going to be seeing much, if any at all, difference in frames per second. Loading times will see a benefit but as games increasingly load to the RAM first, the difference just isn't worth the extra cost of an SSD given the space you lose.

Sure if money is no object then by all means go full SSD, I doubt you'd look back. However given that you'd need to spend 150 quid on a 500gb SSD, which is the bare minimum I would consider for a solo drive, most people would look to a smaller SSD for the boot and a larger traditional hard drive to store the games on. Which pretty much kills the benefit of having an SSD for gaming in the first place.

Most people of course disagree with me however, but I thought my point of view worth considering.

 

[QuiteEnjoyed2016]

This is 80 quid https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000dx002-35-firecuda-sshd-8gb-cmlc-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-1987-mm-hei

This is only 106 pounds and 47 pence https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-seagate-st2000dx002-35-firecuda-sshd-8gb-cmlc-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-2611-mm-hei

1tb vs 350gb. 2tb vs 500gb.

The same money, well less in the second example, but far more storage. And to me they represent far better value. Let me say why I think that.

Thanks to Sleep and Hibernate, no matter your boot drive your PC can be back up and running near instantly. If a few extra seconds at start up from a reboot bother you, then I'd question just how often are you needing to restart your PC.

Apps start up time, well I'd be lying if I would say there is no difference but the SSHD will 'learn' your most commonly used items and store them on the solid state cache. So things like your game clients (Steam, Origin etc) that you use often are going to be put on there.

Getting into the games themselves. Well you aren't going to be seeing much, if any at all, difference in frames per second. Loading times will see a benefit but as games increasingly load to the RAM first, the difference just isn't worth the extra cost of an SSD given the space you lose.

Sure if money is no object then by all means go full SSD, I doubt you'd look back. However given that you'd need to spend 150 quid on a 500gb SSD, which is the bare minimum I would consider for a solo drive, most people would look to a smaller SSD for the boot and a larger traditional hard drive to store the games on. Which pretty much kills the benefit of having an SSD for gaming in the first place.

Most people of course disagree with me however, but I thought my point of view worth considering.

Hey to be clear I was totally joking, absolutely understand your PoV and it's valid.

 

[votemarvel]

Hey to be clear I was totally joking, absolutely understand your PoV and it's valid.

Joking or not I tend not to explain myself as much as I should. I thank you for the prompt to do so.