Calling all real geeks

gthomas04

gthomas04

...was Drubbing's first. AKA Captain Tightarse
Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Location
Mt Druitt Western Sydney
As some may recall I have been awaiting a performance review at my current job. It finally came through and I have leapt from 10.00 per day to 100.00 per day. Good bit backpayed for 6 months - bad bit -payroll had no idea how to calculate the tax payable = good bit I gently pointed them to the appropriate ATO webpage and they agreed they had made a slight but meaningful oops. Long story short I got a not unreasonable chunk of change. And this is where the Geeks come in. herself (may her tiny heart be forever blessed) said "You might as well get the Computer system you have always wanted cause it will probably be your last". Not too sure what the last bit was about but I wont look a gift horse etc.
I am mainly doing photographic stuff in Adobe and Lightroom and will be driving a Dell U2711 monitor and an epson R800 printer. My firts choice of system was:
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4Ghz 1155pin Boxed CPU
AsRock Z68-Extreme3-Gen3 Intel Z68 USB3.0 1155pin M
G.Skill Ripjaws-X 16G Kit(8Gx2) DDR3 1333 F3-10666CL9D-
Seagate 3.5" Barracuda Green 2TB ST2000DL003 SATA 2 X 2
GIGABYTE GV-N56GOC-1GI 1GB GTX560 PCI-E VG 1
Coolermaster RC-922M-KKNI HAF 922 NO PSU 1
Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus RS-550 Watt. PSU 1
Samsung SATA 22x Black DVD RW 1
Intel SSD 520 120GB SSD SATA3 SSD
Logitech MK200 Media Desktop (KM+MS)
Microsoft MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM

I am since told they have supply problems with the MB and wish to replace it with:
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H Intel H77/1155/4xDDR3/SATA3/US B3/GLan/HDMI/DVI mATX Motherboard

and the 2 HDDs with
Seagate 3.5" Barracuda Green 2TB ST2000DL003 SATA 2

The price difference is only $3.00 but I am not geeky enough to know whether I am giving up something good in not hanging out for first choice.

No gaming except maybe a bit of Frogger or Lemmimgs for those of you old enough but I do want a system that is quick and has superb graphics.
All suggestions gratefully received

Glen
 
Congratulations on the not inconsiderable pay rise, but alas I cannot help you.

My inner geek has all but left me. I used to know what I was talking about with these things, but seem to have lost my way a long time ago.

I only got to play with an iphone for the first time ever last week and gave it back within 2 minutes.

Although in my defence I am an Android user, and I think the iphone just made me feel dirty.
 
I recently bought a new pc too, I went AMD - always preferred AMD.

I spent around $1200 and got a top of the line cpu, no SSD and I reused my graphics card which cost around $300 at the time.

If you are interested looking at AMD I could flick you the specs but what you have picked is pretty much on the money, I went for an Asrock board and absolutely do not regret it.

I'd probably look for a bigger PSU to be honest.

Maybe a 700W or 800W. For the dollars it's better to get the biggest you can as you can comfortably upgrade the graphics card latre on and not have to worry about the PSU, same with adding HDD's.

As you aren't going to be gaming the Seagate saren't an issue, green means spin time is a little slower as it has power saving things in the firmware. No big deal unless you are doing something a bit more read-write intensive.

Drop the DVD drive and go a Blu Ray drive. It's future proofing and you can then burn to Blu Ray which is much more storage space than DVD anyway. Unless you don't care, in which case just get a DVD RW. They are so cheap now anyway.
 
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I'm old, back from the days where I would never touch a mATX motherboard as they normally had less RAM slots, and obviously less PCI slots.
I've got no experience with intel desktops though, the only intels I own are all laptops, all my desktops are AMD (and old too).

That original board would be better for longevity, has polymer capacitors. Cap failures nearly are always what kills a board.

But the original board has the old Z68 chipset, which is EOL as the Z77 chipset is out which the replacement GB board you've been offered has.

Old board more features and better caps, new board has new chipset with some fancy video stuff and less power/heat needed.

I don't know much about it though myself, I only research and look up this stuff before I'm buying anything myself. Takes me months to buy ANYTHING, always researching for ages before buying anything over $30.
It literally saves me money because I end up not buying anything and just go through the motions. That's why everything I have is so old, even the razors.
 
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Pablo, thank you!

I am not the only one that does the research thing for even fairly minor purchases after all.
 
Well I wanted to try a DE razor, and a merkur was about $50. Heaps of research was undertaken, and here I am on shaving forums 4 years later...
The research and learning is often the best thing about buying something! I know of RM from OCAU because I was there in 2002 learning for a few years when I bought my first PC. I know of Drubbing from WP only because I was there for ISP research and later on again for more PC stuff. That's the only reason why I posted a lot there, and I would only go back when I wanted to research and learn stuff again for the next PC.
To be interested in a product, I feel I have to learn everything about it, and if I find something I don't like about the product, then scope out other options. This takes up time I could be out there spending all my money and getting to debt lol.
edit: I also don't like being 'told' anything, whether it's my parents when I was younger, the mrs now, or advertisers/media/paid people selling them stuff.
 
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I've just spent the better part of the last week trying to work out the most cost effective method of network unlocking my optus branded htc incredible s.

I know of two methods that will work, 1 is paying optus $80 (if it was a few weeks older it would be free, but I fly out to Asia tomorrow and need it now). The 2nd is paying another company $25.

However there are others that purport to be able to unlock it cheaper, I just can't find the reviews to back it up.


/Edit Sorry to de-rail your post so early Glen. I didn't mean to, but this is VisionCollision 4.0 so you do have to expect these things
 
eggbert said:
I've just spent the better part of the last week trying to work out the most cost effective method of network unlocking my optus branded htc incredible s.

I know of two methods that will work, 1 is paying optus $80 (if it was a few weeks older it would be free, but I fly out to Asia tomorrow and need it now). The 2nd is paying another company $25.

However there are others that purport to be able to unlock it cheaper, I just can't find the reviews to back it up.


/Edit Sorry to de-rail your post so early Glen. I didn't mean to, but this is VisionCollision 4.0 so you do have to expect these things
Click to expand...

well i) it's under $30, so just get it unlocked, even I don't research purchases that cheap, thats drinking money for the night or a meal!

ii) The fact that you replied made me re-read the thread and see JugV2's post, so you did Glenn a favour, as he may have listened to him, being an influential mod and all these days.
Glenn, don't listen to any crazy person telling you to look at AMD. I've had AMD desktop PCs since 1999. I wouldn't buy one now! My last was the 1090T hex core almost 3 years ago, that was their swansong when the writing was on the wall.
Previous to 1999 I had a few intel systems, and during the AMD years a couple of intel systems (edit: for laptops), so it's not like I hate either, I just research and buy what's best at the time.
What I said before is all you need to worry about, getting an older chipset but better mobo, or a less featured mobo with the newer chipset. If they are building it for you, I guess you have no choice anyway if they don't have the older one in stock anymore.
If you are building it yourself, then you can shop around, but if they are building it, there's no option unless you want to either wait for them to get an asrock brand in stock, or pay more for the equivalent quality of the asrock z68 with the newer Z77 chipset.


edit: I also don't understand what you are asking about with regards to the HDDs, you've state the same size/model with the orig spec and proposed changes. And 4TB of storage! Wow that's a lot, never had more than 2TB myself in one PC, though I do have a few PCs I spead the data around on (most of it being backup data I prefer it that way - in PCs that are turned off, or in external enclosures etc, I don't think all my data is over 2TB, it's just replicated 3+ times across the network and USB)
 
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Well in fairness I did say that I prefer AMD but his selecion is on the money. I didn't try to persuade him to go AMD.

I did suggest a couple changes which are independent of platform.
 
Thanks all for the replies. I have been Intel since the 8088 IBM PC days so I think I will stay on familiar turf with it. I do have some concerns about a small size MotherBoard and going to the bleeding edge of a new chipset, so I may shop around. A couple of people on Whirlpool have suggested some Mobos so I will look at those.


The question on the HDs was only if there was strong opinion on Seagate vs WD. Need lotsa room for RAW photos.

Will let you know how I get on.
Thanks again guys

Glen
 
I've been silly busy of late, so I will chime in.

Z77 board is a much better idea. It's designed for Ivy Bridge CPU's rather than the Sandy Bridge CPU's. However the one they have specced is much lower end.

We are about to go EOL on Sandy Bridge CPU's of which your 2600K is one. Now I have the same CPU and it's great, but the thought of going to the Z77 board without a Ivy CPU is kind of like buying a Commodore SV6/Falcon XR6 shell and dropping in an engine from a Kia Rio. I'd suggest waiting a few more weeks when the Ivy CPU's will come out.

As for Storage - Hitachi drives are the way to go. Now owned by Western Digital, but still the old Hitachi manufacturing for now. (FYI, Seagate now own Samsung).

My general thoughts:

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4Ghz 1155pin Boxed CPU
A good CPU, I'd hold out for an Ivy Bridge CPU. Release date was supposed to be first week of May, but some people are pointing to an April 23 release (that's MONDAY!).
You aren't likely to see them in any real quantity in the next few weeks though.

AsRock Z68-Extreme3-Gen3 Intel Z68 USB3.0 1155pin M (OR)
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H Intel H77/1155/4xDDR3/SATA3/US B3/GLan/HDMI/DVI mATX Motherboard
I don't recommend buying any board with only 4-pin CPU power - especially as you are looking at an overclockable CPU. Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H would be the minimum I would recommend, and I would go for a UD5H if I was buying it myself.

Unless I was building a mATX system for a reason, I only go ATX.

G.Skill Ripjaws-X 16G Kit(8Gx2) DDR3 1333 F3-10666CL9D-
Yes, but get the 1600Mhz DIMMs instead.

Seagate 3.5" Barracuda Green 2TB ST2000DL003 SATA 2 X 2
I much prefer the Hitachi 7K series. I think the 7K3000 (2TB drives) are what you are after.

GIGABYTE GV-N56GOC-1GI 1GB GTX560 PCI-E VG 1
Is the machine for gaming or just general use? It's a decent card anyway, should run BF3 at quite usable settings on the U2711.

Coolermaster RC-922M-KKNI HAF 922 NO PSU 1
A good case. I run the HAF-X personally.

Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus RS-550 Watt. PSU 1
No. Please dont.

Corsair HX-650 at a minimum, I'd prefer to see an HX-750 in there - I used to run the HX-650's with dual 8800GT's and an overclocked Q6600 at 3.6Ghz, and all running 100% (Folding@Home). The kids machine would switch off (cheap arse Coolermaster PSU) when we had a slight power fluctuation, but the Corsairs kept going. Will last 2 upgrades if you buy a good one.

I run an AX-850 in my main box now.

Samsung SATA 22x Black DVD RW 1
They are good, but its an optical drive.

Intel SSD 520 120GB SSD SATA3 SSD
I'm running an older Corsair as my system drive and a 120GB Force3 as my Steam Drive and they are great. The Intels are good but I would stick to the Corsair's unless the price differential was considerable.

Logitech MK200 Media Desktop (KM+MS)
Personal choice.

Microsoft MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM
If you said the 32-bit I would have killed you (with 16GB of RAM and all)


Other question - CPU COOLER?
I like the sealed water coolers - Antec Kulher 920 or the Corsair H80.
 
I'm an intel convert since the core2duo. The asrock m/b you originally specced is great, well priced for what it costs. Would you try other suppliers for it, rather than accepting the Z77 mATX?

The more common hard drive failures that I have seen is Seagate. Not meaning they are all falling down all over the place, maybe just a few percent higher. I trust samsung over seagate.

The PSU. This stands out to me in your spec list as quite low in quality compared to everything else. I like Seasonic, Corsair (HX or TX series) and Antec TP series.
You don't actually need big watts unless like RM you are running overclocked and dual 8800GT's (hot power suckers). I have done some live testing with an i7-920+gtx280 single gpu and at idle <100W, at 100% close to 350W. My older core2+8800GTS cannot reach 300W. Its happy and quiet with a seasonic 420W.
To repeat what RM said on the coolermaster - no, please don't.

Everything else on your list looks like stuff I would choose for myself. Cost effective quality. Not gaming too much anymore, just the occasional lan game with my son.
 
Thanks Razor and bodge. The suggestions are first rate and have now only served to confuse me more.
The genesis of this machine is a one time oportunity to get a system that will enable me to play in the digital photographic world for some time to come. Even better using "found" money i.e. backpay. I actually started with the screen and then looked around for system suggestions. The first pass was from Whirlpool as their top of the line photo/video system. When MSY let me down on some parts I thought it best to get advise from those who might know. Surrounding all this of course is the"found" money does have a limit on it and I was already spending $800.00 on a screen. MY hope was to get a system including the screen for around the $2400.00 mark and as my eyes arent't the greatest anymore, my plan was to get MSY to do the build. (Every build I have done has always ended up looking like a bowl of spaghetti. Still I guess as I really like the sound of the ASROCK I may just haveto bite the bullet and get various bits from various places and take a slow steady approach to the build. Will certainly take the advice on the PSU as it was something I was quite unsure about.
Not to certain of the need for CPU cooling as I have no intention of overclocking (pretty much guarantee I would fry something along the way).

So once more I thank you all for your time and knowledge it really is appreciated.
 
If you have no intention of overclocking then the 2600K is a waste.

If you have no intention of gaming then the GTX560 is a waste also.

That said, running an aftermarket CPU cooler is a good idea. You might not need the sealed unit water coolers, but a decent air cooler is going to keep things nice and cool and lengthen the life of your system.
 
Razormonsta said:
If you have no intention of overclocking then the 2600K is a waste.

If you have no intention of gaming then the GTX560 is a waste also.

That said, running an aftermarket CPU cooler is a good idea. You might not need the sealed unit water coolers, but a decent air cooler is going to keep things nice and cool and lengthen the life of your system.
Click to expand...

Even to drive the Dell at optimum resolution for Photoshop and Lightroom work?
I will certainly look into the aftermarket CPU cooler.

Thanks again.
 
Razormonsta said:
If you have no intention of overclocking then the 2600K is a waste.

If you have no intention of gaming then the GTX560 is a waste also.

That said, running an aftermarket CPU cooler is a good idea. You might not need the sealed unit water coolers, but a decent air cooler is going to keep things nice and cool and lengthen the life of your system.
Click to expand...

Latest configuration follows - still to get an aftermarket cooler bt stuck with the processor and gtx650 - rather have a little too much grunt and not need it than not enough and want more - took your advice Razor on the power supply.

Thanks again peoples
 
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