I need to get some up to date information on computer hardware such as Motherboards, Processors, Video Cards and Memory. The last time I built a computer was 10 years ago and I need to find a place to go with some unbiased information. Anybody have any good websites? I have looked at tom's hardware, motherboard.org, but I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. The book I used last time for my computer build was PC Hardware in a Nutshell. What a great series that was, but sadly they aren't keeping that book up to date. Does anyone know how good the building a computer for dummies is? Is it worth it to get that book? Any advice would be helpful
If you are not a hobbyist, why build a computer anymore? Even the cheap machines these days are not terrible. I do the same things today on a computer that I did 5 years ago.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ is all I know, read reviews at newegg, exc AMD Phenom/ Intel Core 2 Duo/ Intel i5 or i7 are your best bets for performance. Then the rest revolves around that
Let me rephrase. I am pretty good at technology, especially with computers, but I am not one that spends every waking hour keeping up with every new chipset or standard that comes out. I have better ways to spend my time. I also crave quality. The computer I am typing this response on was built in 1999. To date, I only HAD to replace 1 part on it since then and that was my hard drive. The cookie cutter emachines are just not my cup of tea. Besides my case alone is worth more than a lot of these emachines still today.
thanks. I found another: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2008/09/guide-200809.ars/4 Does anyone know about this site, if it is any good?
Also another thought, you can buy a barebone package and have everything you need..http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31
For the average person, and even the slightly above average PC user, I pretty much agree with this. Unless you're building a PC for a specific purpose (CAD/Photoshop/Gaming) which the OP probably isn't considering he has a 10 year old PC, then any Dell (or your PC manufacturer of choice) should be just fine.
i just did this right now. as you remember from last time you built it, everything is based on your budget. however, i'd classify myself as a budget user, with needs for light gaming, win7, productivity tools, and video/audio/photo (hd movie playback, lightroom/photoshop editing of photos from my dslr, and music). here's my thought process: CPU/Board - quad core is affordable and sustainable. AMD just broke the sub-$100 market with the Athlon II X4. Search newegg.com for combo #308220 and you'll see what i just ordered, a 2.8ghz socket am3 processor with a motherboard that supports 1333 DDR3 RAM. the board also supports PCI Express 2.0 x16, which is growing to be the standard for gaming video. (PCI Express 2.1 is coming, but it's bleeding edge?) the board only supports 2 max IDE(PATA) drives, which are phasing out anyway towards SATA... RAM - DDR3. 4GB is solid, 2GB is light usage. check your board for compatibility. DVD and hard drive - you know storage sizes and speeds, but formats are changing. almost all new boards rely on SATA for their primary connections. i opted for a solid state drive for the next build, 80GB for $230. it seems expensive, but most in-the-know have said that in this day and age, the most jaw-dropping difference in performance comes from random-hd-seek times. with solid state drives, people can boot up in less than 20 seconds. if you get a SSD, ensure that it's TRIM-capable. TRIM, from what i understand, is some sort of self-cleaning process that allows SSD to keep their speed over time. without it, the drive will slow down after years of use. video card - important if you're gaming or doing video. most of the later cards GPUs perform offloading functions, which basically take over graphics processing from the CPU, making your video playback/gaming draw less CPU usage. GDDR3 is the standard of video RAM, GDDR5 is out but expensive. i've been told that if you face a decision between cards with 1GB ram-128bit interface and a 512MB-256bit interface, take the 256bit interface. they say that the video ram only comes into play with large monitors... and the interface bandwidth is much more important. all in all, here is my coming build: -AMD Athlon II X4 630 (rated better than the lowest end Phenom chip) 2.8GHz -MSI 770-C45 board -4GB DDR3 1333 RAM (2x2GB) (combo deal from newegg = $237) -PowerColor AX4850 1GB GDDR3 video card (Radeon HD 4850), $113 -Intel X25-M 2nd generation 80GB solid state drive, $230 and i already have a 22" lcd, case, SATA hard drive, PATA DVDRW drive. best sites to use for shopping: bing.com (look into the bing cashback program) tigerdirect.com (works well with bing) newegg.com (always awesome, more often than not, free shipping) directron.com (rock-bottom prices, local, and can save on warehouse pickup) best for research: anandtech.com (user forums) tomshardware.com (general enthusiasts/reviewers) cheers and hope this helps!
The best sites to learn about computer parts, the pro's and con's of various models of hardware, whether you're getting ripped off, etc. are sites like tomshardware.com anandtech.com arstechnica.com is more about news and commentary than the previous 2 sites I mentioned. HardOCP.com and overclockers.com are a couple of other sites I read. I don't make major purchases without reading the forums and researching tomshardware.com and anandtech.com first, though. But of course you said those sites make your head spin, so I don't know what to tell ya. Anandtech has a guide for building low-end, mid-range, and high-end computers... they even tell you which parts to use in doing so. That may be what you're looking for? They only update it every few months, tho', but for your needs, it may be good : http://anandtech.com/guides/ Be careful with the video card recommendations in the guide since ATI turned the world on its ears after they released their latest batch of cards.
cpu - intel i5 or intel core 2 quad mobo - asus - used asus for over ten years and never had one problem. i tried gigabyte on 4 computers and just had one of their motherboards die on me after a year of use. never purchasing gigabyte again. ram - ddr3 (for i5) - ddr2 (for core 2 quad) - (corsair, kingston, or g.skill) hard drive - western digital black series or seagate w/32 meg of cache and 7200 rpm power supply - (very important) -(i prefer enermax, but a lot of people like corsair) - buy a good one at least 500w. 650+ would be better if u want to future proof it. video card - if you have the cash, go for the new ati 5850 or 5870. if not, a nvidia gtx 260 is still good. go to www.newegg.com and read the reviews on the components you're going to purchase. contrary to popular belief, it is still cheaper to build your own custom pc and much more reliable than purchasing one from dell/hp if you use quality parts. what is your budget? if you're willing to spend more than $1,000, i would go with a i7, 8 gigs of ram, 1 tb hdd, ati 5970 and 700+ watt power supply.
thanks for the advice, but I subscribe to the adage you get what you pay for and considering that I spent 149.00 for an Avant Prime keyboard and 500.00 for a pc power and cooling rig and considering the fact that 10 years later the design of these particular parts hasn't changed, meaning, if you buy an Avant Prime Keyboard today, they'll ship you the exact same model that I got 10 years ago, it might give you a sense as to the quality of my build. Everything you buy for a computer is not necessarily built for speed, but reliability is important and quality parts do make a difference. You could buy a honda or a Hyundai, both will get you to point a to b. One is just more solid than the other.
Yeah, the power supply is one part that people don't put thought into. I am going to get me a turbo cool 860 from pc power and cooling. It is probably just a little overkill, but yeah, pc in a nutshell converted me long ago on the wisdoms of getting a good power supply!
I'll second the recommendation for newegg.com I built a $3,000 gaming computer in August (retail) for around $1,200 or so in parts and another $100 or so to a guy I know that helped me put it all together, since I'd never built one before (just for his trouble). My situation was similar, working with a computer that was a retail Sony Vaio from early 2000s. I couldn't be happier. I can't remember the exact specs - but in general what I built was: Quad Core 2.8mhz X4 8GB DDR3 RAM 240GB primary HD 750GB secondary HD 1GB Video Ram (can't remember the video card model) 22" 1080p Monitor DVD/Blu-Ray/CD-Rom Drive Tower Case with blue running lights, clear side panel with 2 fans on top, two in front and a side mounted fan on the side panel. All in all, super super happy. And I'll also second the free shipping Newegg.com does. Lots of rebates on individual parts as well, and extremely good customer service. As a matter of fact, I'd made a mistake and ordered the wrong chipset for my motherboard (socket size). Processors in general are not refundable or returnable, and this is clearly stated all over the site. But, I called and explained the situation and they refunded me without thinking twice. They didn't even remind me it was non-refundable. I explained, the person who answered asked me to hold for a moment (to speak to a supervisor I'm sure) and came right back and approved the refund. So - I'll go to them for my future needs as well. I can recommend them enough.
You'd be amazed at how untrue this is in computer hardware. For example, the markup on the latest and greatest hardware is insane when it comes to processors and video cards. Are they really that much more quality than cheaper ones? No. They just happen to be the latest and greatest. The latest cpu's for example are way overpriced in terms of performance gained. Buying the latest CPU model is usually (not always) nuts. Most of the expensive cases out there now are just fashion statements. They don't necessarily perform any better than cheaper cases and in some cases are worse in terms of noise - but they look cooler. Some of the more expensive cases are better when it comes to noise-dampening... like the Sonata or P19x lines from Antec. The only thing that will get you quality is research. Price isn't necessarily the determining factor.
I like a lot of your suggestions. You seem to be in line or better than what I've been reading and the fact you mentioned the power supply as a necessary quality part gives me confidence you know what you are talking about. Question: is there a big difference from 4 gig of ram to 8 gig? Or is it just a matter of how many applications you can run? Also I am budging on a super solid mb in the 250 to 350 price range but not neccessary bleeding edge. I would rather by a processor that is a couple of notches down to save costs. I am also looking for a quality video card that is geared toward 2 d images. I remember from my last build that the gaming cards aren't always the best cards for accurate representations. Any suggestions?
I agree with this. I wasn't necessarily saying that the most expensive processors are the best. It does make sense to go with a lesser version because you'll never stay leading edge no matter what you buy. What I was saying in terms of quality was more power supplies, motherboards, spend money smart is my game. Probably the worst quality part in all of the commercial desktops is the power supply. I am not a w**** for technology.
You won't be able to use 8 gigs of RAM unless you're using a 64-bit OS, so make sure you are. Even all 4 gigs of RAM isn't usable ona 32-bit OS. Most average users only need 2-4 gigs. I use 8 gigs on my home machine to run multiple virtual machines at once. My work machine has 16gigs of RAM for the same reason. Expensive motherboards usually have things like onboard RAID, SLI/Crossifire capabilities, etc, that you may not use. Instead of looking at the price as the determining factor, find out what you're going to use the computer for, determine parts that fit those uses, then make an informed decision based upon your budget. You could go out and buy a $300 mobo, but not ever use $150 worth of its features. Accurate representations of what? What kind of "2d images" will you be looking at? What type of software do you use that requires a specific type of card?
PCP&C makes great power supplies, but you can find power supplies that perform just as well that are cheaper... much cheaper. A lot of PCP&C's following is reputation, but a lot is also hype/marketing. Seasonic for example makes great power supplies. They make power supplies for other manufacturers like Corsair. Many of the power supplies out there are made by other companies - they're just rebadged, so this is where research will come in. I think getting a good power supply is important, but some of these power supplies people buy are insanely overpowered for their purposes.
i'll also mention that unless you have specific programs for 64 bit (3d modeling, video rendering, PS, etc) theres no need for 64 bit. 32 bit software requires more space when run on a 64 bit system, than if it was on a 32.
