- Mar 10, 2013
- 19
- 0
- 10,520
I want a system that is powerful now and will continue to be relevant for 3-5 years- I tried to come up with a build with future expandability, flexibility, and somewhat reasonable cost in mind. I don't need to buy an OS as I have been using Linux (Mint and Ubuntu) for about a year now and I love it. I've got a copy Windows 7 but I only really use it for games and things that don't run in Linux (I do play some Steam games in Linux- TF2 mainly).
Here is what I've come up with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JVmmpg
I've already got a nice mouse and I don't have an SSD included as I already have a 250gb Crucial mx200- should I maybe get a larger one, given that newer games like GTA V are ~65GB and I'll probably partition 30-40GB for Linux?
I'm not buying a monitor yet, as I received a 2560x1440 Dell from my parents. I would like to eventually upgrade to a 4K monitor with G-Sync as I have heard that a good-sized 4K screen is good for programming. This would probably be when they are much cheaper, and I'd like to make sure my hardware now can handle it (if that is worth the money).
I want to stick with Intel and NVIDIA (for G-Sync, low power consumption, quietness) but I welcome any contrary advice as I don't really know what I'm doing. I would like to overclock- it is safe and worth it to do it when immediately, or should I do it once my warranty runs out? Would I need a different cooler? I've never overclocked before, so I was hoping for advice on this. Should I pour money into something like the 5820K when Skylake is coming out soon, and will chipsets be an issue? If my chipset is soon to be outdated, should I go for a better CPU so I can keep my mobo, RAM, etc for longer before switching chipsets in the future? If I went for the 5930K, would the 40 lanes be better later on than the 5820K's 28, or would I be better off upgrading once I need 40 lanes? Would my mobo even make good use of 40 lanes, or would I need a full ATX in order to see the advantage? (at most I would have dual SLI and an Intel 750 SSD in the future)
I was also thinking that I could SLI the GPU when I get a 4K screen, so my machine could handle it (unless that's not a good idea). I will be building after the GTX 980ti is announced- if it's sub-$700, would it be a better choice for SLI down the road, or am I going overboard? I've heard that SLI had/has compatibility problems, but it seems to me that one GTX 980(ti) would be able to handle most if not all older games with SLI issues while the newer games, more likely to support SLI, would benefit from SLI vs. a single newer card (as would my wallet). Plus, I'd end up with 12GB VRAM when I SLI down the road. Also, wouldn't G-Sync fix microstuttering?Is my reasoning flawed?
From most to least important, I will use the system for gaming, programming, music composition (Sibelius 7, which seemed very power-hungry on my old laptop), audio editing (Audition) and encoding, video editing (Premiere, occasionally) and a lot of file management. I play games like Mafia II, Just Cause 2. Far Cry 3, San Andreas: Multiplayer and would like to be able to play games like GTA V without much stress in 1440 and beyond. I also use VirtualBox and use multitask a lot in Windows and would regularly hit 6GB of memory use with my M14x. I have a 1TB music collection that I keep on a backup drive, but I am always moving parts of it around and listening through for things to put on my iPod- I had about 500GB of music on my M14x and about 5GB of space left on its 750GB drive.
I have been toying with the idea of RAID storage- I like the idea of redundancy in case of HDD failure, as I've heard that larger drives beyond 2TB fail more often. If I were to do a RAID setup, I would probably do RAID1 with two 3TB drives or RAID5 with three 3TB drives for 6TB of storage. Is it worth the cost and higher likelihood of a drive failing at any given time for a little more storage that I can feel safe with, or should I just get a 3TB drive and hope for the best if I want more storage?
I plan to purchase and build the system sometime in mid-June, after I sell the laptop. I have a budget of $1600-2100, but I'd rather not spend money that doesn't really need to be spent (especially if it would be better to save for later). I live near a Fry's and a Best Buy in Sacramento, CA if they would be useful for cheaper parts- I'm guessing that is not the case, but it's still relevant. I don't really want to wait to build, as I'm stuck with my crappy Asus backup laptop and want to be able to game over the summer.
Some extra things I'm not sure/worried about:
The specs of my last laptop, should the information be pertinent:
Thank you!
Here is what I've come up with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JVmmpg
I've already got a nice mouse and I don't have an SSD included as I already have a 250gb Crucial mx200- should I maybe get a larger one, given that newer games like GTA V are ~65GB and I'll probably partition 30-40GB for Linux?
I'm not buying a monitor yet, as I received a 2560x1440 Dell from my parents. I would like to eventually upgrade to a 4K monitor with G-Sync as I have heard that a good-sized 4K screen is good for programming. This would probably be when they are much cheaper, and I'd like to make sure my hardware now can handle it (if that is worth the money).
I want to stick with Intel and NVIDIA (for G-Sync, low power consumption, quietness) but I welcome any contrary advice as I don't really know what I'm doing. I would like to overclock- it is safe and worth it to do it when immediately, or should I do it once my warranty runs out? Would I need a different cooler? I've never overclocked before, so I was hoping for advice on this. Should I pour money into something like the 5820K when Skylake is coming out soon, and will chipsets be an issue? If my chipset is soon to be outdated, should I go for a better CPU so I can keep my mobo, RAM, etc for longer before switching chipsets in the future? If I went for the 5930K, would the 40 lanes be better later on than the 5820K's 28, or would I be better off upgrading once I need 40 lanes? Would my mobo even make good use of 40 lanes, or would I need a full ATX in order to see the advantage? (at most I would have dual SLI and an Intel 750 SSD in the future)
I was also thinking that I could SLI the GPU when I get a 4K screen, so my machine could handle it (unless that's not a good idea). I will be building after the GTX 980ti is announced- if it's sub-$700, would it be a better choice for SLI down the road, or am I going overboard? I've heard that SLI had/has compatibility problems, but it seems to me that one GTX 980(ti) would be able to handle most if not all older games with SLI issues while the newer games, more likely to support SLI, would benefit from SLI vs. a single newer card (as would my wallet). Plus, I'd end up with 12GB VRAM when I SLI down the road. Also, wouldn't G-Sync fix microstuttering?Is my reasoning flawed?
From most to least important, I will use the system for gaming, programming, music composition (Sibelius 7, which seemed very power-hungry on my old laptop), audio editing (Audition) and encoding, video editing (Premiere, occasionally) and a lot of file management. I play games like Mafia II, Just Cause 2. Far Cry 3, San Andreas: Multiplayer and would like to be able to play games like GTA V without much stress in 1440 and beyond. I also use VirtualBox and use multitask a lot in Windows and would regularly hit 6GB of memory use with my M14x. I have a 1TB music collection that I keep on a backup drive, but I am always moving parts of it around and listening through for things to put on my iPod- I had about 500GB of music on my M14x and about 5GB of space left on its 750GB drive.
I have been toying with the idea of RAID storage- I like the idea of redundancy in case of HDD failure, as I've heard that larger drives beyond 2TB fail more often. If I were to do a RAID setup, I would probably do RAID1 with two 3TB drives or RAID5 with three 3TB drives for 6TB of storage. Is it worth the cost and higher likelihood of a drive failing at any given time for a little more storage that I can feel safe with, or should I just get a 3TB drive and hope for the best if I want more storage?
I plan to purchase and build the system sometime in mid-June, after I sell the laptop. I have a budget of $1600-2100, but I'd rather not spend money that doesn't really need to be spent (especially if it would be better to save for later). I live near a Fry's and a Best Buy in Sacramento, CA if they would be useful for cheaper parts- I'm guessing that is not the case, but it's still relevant. I don't really want to wait to build, as I'm stuck with my crappy Asus backup laptop and want to be able to game over the summer.
Some extra things I'm not sure/worried about:
■ Linux compatibility
■ WiFi (it will be mainly plugged in by ethernet, but I will need WiFi at my parents' house)- I'd like to save the two PCI slots for an extra SLI card (if it's worth it) and potentially an Intel 750 NVMe SSD if I want one when they drop in price later, which is why I'm going for USB WiFi. Would I run into compatibility issues with Linux? I have an Intel 7260ac from my laptop lying around, but I'm not sure if it would fit into my motherboard or how the antenna would work.
■ My chosen case- reviews say that it's quiet and keeps cool, but it seems big for what I want (I'm probably never going to use 10 HDD spots). I looked at SFF cases but I didn't like the idea of having heat issues and not being able to fit parts, though I like the small size of the entire package. I also will be moving it around on (not particularly smooth) hour-and-a-half long car rides and am worried about durability given all the room for things to swing around (and isn't the GPU only held in by the back panel and the PCI slot?). I do kind of like the idea of a case that can sit both horizontally and vertically, but I couldn't find any good ones- I like the case-under-monitor concept but still want to be able to fit it vertically when not at home)
■ The motherboard- I looked at the reviews for all the microATX mobos on pcpartpicker and they all seemed to have different flaws. I chose the EVGA because the bad reviews talked about either dead boards or the USB header needing an adaptor to fit with SLI cards, which seemed better than the reviews for the others complaining about not being able to overclock or incompatible RAM.
■ I've heard much scoffing at "future-proofing" but I'm trying to plan for the future by maximizing flexibility- is this the wrong thing to do? I'm also trying not to waste money on parts that give minimal improvements over cheaper options, but I don't want to regret not buying better components later. I don't have a very good sense of desktop value given that I'm used to overpriced Alienware laptops, which doesn't help.
■ Is the PSU overkill? I want to be able to run AMD GPUs in Crossfire if necessary, and I know that they use more power. I also read that optimum efficiency is at 2/3 of the PSU's capacity. Is Platinum kind of a gimmick, or would it be worth it if I tend to have my computer on 12+ hours a day?
The specs of my last laptop, should the information be pertinent:
Alienware M14xR2
CPU: i7-3840QM
RAM: 16GB @ 1600MHz
HDD: 750GB SATA Hard drive 7200RPM
SSD: 64GB mSATA (I used this as a caching drive)
GPU: 2 GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForceGT 650M
CPU: i7-3840QM
RAM: 16GB @ 1600MHz
HDD: 750GB SATA Hard drive 7200RPM
SSD: 64GB mSATA (I used this as a caching drive)
GPU: 2 GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForceGT 650M
Thank you!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram