Out with the old, in with the new!

[Arthmoor]

So the time finally came for me to upgrade. I think 6 years on my old hardware was probably about enough to ask of it. Besides, I know some of it is ready to croak so I'm long overdue

New goodies:

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139012
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132255
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113393
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103202
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233629
Harddrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178307

Ought to arrive early next week. Sadly couldn't will call anything because it wasn't in stock here in California.

Not updating the graphics card since I just got an R9 290 with 4GB on it back in February.

Also not updating the PSU since it's an Antec 900W with good 40 amp rails already.

The retiring components:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2Ghz
Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator
Motherboard: Asus M4A79T Deluxe
Harddrive: 1TB Hitachi SATA 2. This bastard is really slow for whatever reason, also it's the oldest part here.

Antec case, unknown model, with dead USB ports on the front. Sadness.

Zalman cooler that wouldn't fit the new socket

[VaultDuke]

I would have suggested to at least get a hybrid drive with a few GB of internal SSD. with Win 8+, the OS is really able to make the most of it.

or get a small SSD as a boot drive just for the OS.

 

in my current Laptop, I have a 64GB SSD, that is raided to an 1TB drive, and some intel software does a self optimization on the SSD allocation. it's certainly not a full SSD setup, but the speed improvement is already stellar. I can recommend looking into such a setup, and how to set it up on your rig. it'll bee cheaper than a full SSD, and well worth the money (the software seems to be freeware).

 

edit: seems to be proprietary. sorry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Response_Technology

but maybe AMD offers something similar?

[Hana]

Wee, fun times!

 

I can't really comment, I'm not an AMD person as you know. I'm just boggling that the HD is the most expensive item.

[Deathbydestiny]

Awesome I wish I could afford something new. I would also suggest an SSD at the very least for the OS partition.

[Nico coiN]

• ^ What Gruftlord and Deathbydestiny said. A small SSD for OS setup is great for OS reactivity (and boot chrono).

I'm an Intel CPU user so no advice on it, but the cooler looks rather cheap imo. Keep in mind AMD procs produce slightly more heat than Intel ones.

For a long lifetime MB I wouldn't invest less than 230$. Long life capacitors are at this cost. ASUS is a very good manufacturer, though. (and USB3 is a blessing ! ) I don't know yet if UEFI is more convenient than the good old BIOS...

16 GB RAM is a standard and good amount for actual rigs, but this set looks rather expensive imo.

I'm a WD user for HDD, avoiding Seagate at all cost (bad experiences past). This one is excessively expensive imo. Also, 4 TB is a gigantic storage space and you'll need to switch to GPT partition system.

Do not neglect fans for general airflow in the case. You may get a set of 2 good and silent ones for less than 40$.

What about a Bluray player for a movie addict ? On PC though, AnyDVD HD is just mandatory if you want to play your Bluray discs...

[VaultDuke]

I can not recommend bluray on a pc. The money is much better spent on a player hooked to your tv. I got a bluray burner (yeah lol) on my old setup

you may know that my rigs are able to display 3d. So the old one from Toshiba came with a software that ran 3d blurays. Nice.

My current one i bought with a bluray Player (no burner this time) again. Seems the manufacturer didn't pack a 3d bluray Player software this time (i only buy laptops, don't feel like a Desktop person) I can only watch them in 2d, even though the monitor is capable of more.

Long Story short: If you buy a bluray player and the necessary software to play DRMed movies, the price us identical to a regular tv bluray player. For the software to run 3d, well you get to pay way too much.

Fuck bluray and their stupid licensing fees. Dvd is enough for a Computer. There is no software content on bluray. Get a regular independent Player, or avoid it completly. Invest the money in better Internet and Netflix

[Jon]

I don't understand the price of that hard drive.  It seems insane to me.  You could have gotten:

 

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

WD Red 4TB  (I don't like Green because the head parking delay is extremely short, the load/unload cycles are rated for half the Red, and the MTBF is like 2-3x higher on the Reds) 

 

for the same price.

 

I really can't stress enough the impact that switching to an SSD for your OS drive would make.  It makes without doubt the largest impact on perceived performance.   Bottlenecking new components with a mechanical HDD is a poor choice in my opinion.

[Arthmoor]

5 year warranty and 128MB cache on it is why. Been burned once too often by drives with shitty warranties.

 

I've seen one of these Seagate drives in action on my roommate's PC. Despite what logic would suggest, he's getting performance from it that's unbelievably fast and his only has 64MB of cache on it and isn't a hybrid drive.

 

Also I've had seriously BAD luck with Western Digital in the past, having lost 6 drives made by them over an 18 month period. I will never again touch their brand, no matter how good people say they are.

[Donnato]

I like that that RAM setup comes with a cooler. Where we live we can`t have too much airflow.

[DSoS]

5 year warranty and 128MB cache on it is why. Been burned once too often by drives with shitty warranties.

 

I've seen one of these Seagate drives in action on my roommate's PC. Despite what logic would suggest, he's getting performance from it that's unbelievably fast and his only has 64MB of cache on it and isn't a hybrid drive.

 

Also I've had seriously BAD luck with Western Digital in the past, having lost 6 drives made by them over an 18 month period. I will never again touch their brand, no matter how good people say they are.

 

I agree with one the WD drives.

 

I just wish that Samsung didn't sell their HDD division to Seagate, which is what I'm using now along side of my few Samsung drives.

 

Let me know how that 4TB drive works out for you please

 

---

 

Also, congrats on the new computer setup

[BlackPete]

Wish I could afford to build a new computer too. My current one is over 10 years old.

 

Sounds like a really nice PC to me.

[InsanePlumber]

AMD?

No thanks...

 

"Been burned once too often by drives with shitty warranties"

 

I do not know if this is possible where you live.
I for ten years with a new desktop, laptop and other electronics I buy additional guarantees.

Which represents an additional 10-15% of the value of the purchased product.

The warranty is extended by 100% over the original.
In addition it covers damages resulting from not proper use.

 

Two years ago I finished build a house, and when moving in, man from shipping company dropped my desktop to the ground.
After analyzing the damage turned out that reusable ar only power supply, CPU, RAM.

For the rest got the possibility of a refund or the choice product at the same price.

So it came to me for "good" because I got a better GPU and motherboard.

[VaultDuke]

Are you suggesting you gad your insurance pay for the damage done by someone else? And additionally, i don't think warranty and insurance are the same thing even in your country.

And even if there is propper warranty times, who cares? If I had trouble with products from one manufacturer for half a dozen times, no amount of warranty would make me buy their products.

[InsanePlumber]

"Are you suggesting you gad your insurance pay for the damage done by someone else?"

I said that I have caused damage.

 

"i don't think warranty and insurance are the same thing even in your country"

I wrote it wrong.
Of course, after the warranty period (producer) is an additional Insurance. (insurance company)

And from what I remember such an agreement you can only enter if you are a regular customer of this store. www.arest.pl

 

EDIT

That's why I'm not sure if this is possible if you purchase in www.newegg.com

[Arthmoor]

AMD?

No thanks...

Well.... for another $1200 I could have built one Intel system of roughly equal specs... or 2.5 AMD systems just like the one I listed. Which would you choose? For me, limited budget, I chose the AMD system that's LESS THAN HALF of what I would have paid for a marginally better Intel setup.

 

The warranty is extended by 100% over the original.

In addition it covers damages resulting from not proper use.

Extended warranty, yes, we have that. It costs extra and in the case of stuff bought at Neweegg would only be good for another additional year. So the usual cheap ass drives I could have picked up would have 1 year manufacturer, 1 year extended. You can perhaps see why I opted for 5 year manufacturer instead.

Plus as I already pointed out, and Gruftlord understands, no amount of coverage would have convinced me to buy Western Digital again.

[DSoS]

@Arth,

 

Could I talk you into getting this SSD??

 

 

[lmstearn]

@Arth,

 

Could I talk you into getting this SSD??

 

 

Sold me on the 500gb one.

[DSoS]

Sold me on the 500gb one.

 

Glad to be of help

[Arthmoor]

Did some more checking, decided to swap the CPU cooler out for this one instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103202

 

Those Noctua fans get good ratings, but apparently they're intended for use in micro-cases and that wasn't made clear on Newegg's listing.

[Donnato]

Oh hells yeah Arth .. .nice upgrade.

[RabidGears]

One thing to bear in mind with these coolers is that the fan sticks out over the first RAM slot. Depending on the profile of the RAM it may mean that you won't be able to use that slot.

I've been looking at building a system with similar motherboard, RAM, and cooler. I'd be interested to hear how it works out.

[Arthmoor]

Looks like everything is back up and running as usual. Gotta figure out why the sound output is so low, but otherwise it seems to be coming together nicely.

 

So much faster than what I had. Once I get all my tools and stuff settled I'll have to start poking around the games to see how well they do