Yeah I'd say an SSD for your OS/app drive is one of the best bangs for your buck you can get when building a new machine. I have a Fry's here in Austin....I'm wondering if they would price match Microcenter, even though their CPU deals are in-store only and there aren't any around here. Hmmm.
They will if you can get it shipped. Because when I called Frys to price match, they told me if they can add it to their cart and get it to ship then they will price match. If it is sold out or unavailable for shipping, then they will not
Thanks, repped. Sounds like they probably wouldn't go for it then since it clearly says in-store only on Microcenter's site.
i have seen 128gb ssd go for around 120-150 depending on the brand and quality you can probably find a 1tb internal drive for around 100 or less so i would say 250 or so for storage the ssd will do wonders as SwoLy-D said you can have the best GPUs, an i7 processor with 16gb of ram and all but if its all running off a 7200rpm sata hd you wont see the extra performance boost. again i do not know your budget I would recommend an I7 processor as well but if you get a ssd an i5 would still be more than sufficient
Any particular brand on the ssd storage? Also will I need to place the game files, media files, etc on the ssd to see the difference in performance? (This might sound like a stupid question, but I just want to make sure my assumption is correct)
you cant go wrong with crucial, intel or ocz intel i believe tends to be the priciest of the 3 but depending on the model you buy will depend on performance and price. i have a few of these: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-I...JKZI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335376297&sr=8-2 that work great as for what to store on it - have your OS and game installs on there but anything likes mp3s, videos have it stored on your regular sata storage drive. I do not know how much space a game requires but a 128 gig drive probably gives you about 115 actual space and then after windows you probably have around 100 gigs to have to install your games. I looked up the specs for COD:MW3 and that takes about 16gigs so guessing that is probably one of the larger games out there you probably could get about 6-8 games installed on that 128gig ssd, probably more depending on what other applications you want to install (i mean if you plan to install one of the major adobe suites or some sort of other multimedia processing software that will take up some decent space as well) hope that helps
I'm just curious why you would recommend an i7? I was all set to go i7, but the more research I've done, the more I've come to the conclusion that for a gaming machine an i7 isn't going to give you much over an i5. If money's not an object then yeah, but I think you'd be far better off throwing some extra coin at your GPU rather than your CPU.
every person I've helped build a 'gaming' machine ended up using it for other things so just if that happens here than if its not much more may as well get the i7. but as i said getting an i5 with an ssd is far more important and just a i7
Also, before building, I wold check out Maximum PC site. For example, they currently have a parts list for three different computer builds: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_pc_any_budget_three_builds_500_2000?page=0,0
OCZ actually have really low reliability. Intel and Samsung are the best-of-the-best SSDs on the market. Fast speed, high reliability. Highest price, too. Crucial makes great budget SSDs. They are mediocre in speed, high in reliability, and medium price. OCZ are fast but have a lot of reliability issues (look at reviews to see how many failures they have), and are medium priced. Definitely get at minimum a 128 GB SSD. Keep in mind that many games nowadays take up 8+ GB of storage. I just bought a 256 GB Crucial M4 SSD for my desktop which I intend to upgrade piece by piece. My current 500 GB 7200 RPM is going to turn into my storage drive. Keep in mind that storage space really depends on the person. How much media files you have, how many programs you install, etc. The best gauge of how large a drive to purchase is look at your own storage problems. Do you run out of storage space? Constantly uninstalling programs? Have a lot of media files? etc.
I feel like I will be "Purchasing" a lot of games every couple of months, which makes me thing I might need a 256gb ssd. That'll probably run me a good $300 a lone, maybe more if I want Intel or Samsung...
really as long as the OS is on the SSD, having some games on your standard drive won't be a big deal. Put the games you play all the time on the SSD and either uninstall and reinstall other stuff from there as you get tired of it and want something new, or just take the small performance bump and run the game off the regular drive, which is what I do with most of my games since SSD prices were even higher when I got mine.
Mostly ID10T errors or firmware issues. All manufacturers that used the Sandforce 2281 chipset went through the growing pains. Even Crucial and Corsair. Funny thing is that I went through all the firmware revisions with my 3x128GB OCZ Max Iops and never had the issues that others have had but then again, I'm using an Adaptec 6405 instead of onboard. Been running 24/7 since release date. and before people call bs... I'm a moderator over at HardOCP so I have a little experience in this regard. as far as the OP.. if you plan on installing steam.. do yourself a favor a get a storage drive to install to and not the SSD. You might get 4-5 decent games at most along with your O/S on a standard 128gb ssd. (at least what I learned from installing a 128gb on my laptop) You can still boot and load up the O/S from the SSD. As far as my setup, here's a link to my old rig and here's rig I'm currently running.
Both set ups seem so sick bro. I feel like I'll need to do this piece by piece over a 3 month span or so.
usually how it works... start off with the minimums to get your system running.. I rarely buy everything at once. Sometimes I'll reuse parts so I don't have to purchase them, like scavenging memory, hdd, and a case from parts lying around. Sometimes I'll search the FS/T section of hardforums.. got great deals on video cards there once new cards come out. The main things for new gaming pc will be the MB/CPU (to get the latest chipset tech and to be more future proof) and video card. (obviously). To be perfectly honest.. I can't tell a difference in my AMD Phenom II gaming box and my i2700k IN GAME. (using the same video card) So I wouldn't think hard on the cpu part.. just get something current. If you are doing a lot of video encoding or similar then go with the more powerful cpu.
Just ordered my motherboard from Newegg. First purchase for the new build and the only thing I'm re-using is my case, so I've got a ways to go. Here is the one I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543 I have no intentions of ever going SLI, so it should meet my needs.
I will probably start with 4 things, Case, cpu, mobo, and Memory. I can reuse the battery and gpu for now. Microcenter has got i5 3570k for $189.99 plus a selection of 5 mobos to get $40-60 off. I might go with an asus at like $89.99. Corsair Vengence Memory, and then god knows what kind of case I'll get.
SSD? pssh... get this sucker: OCZ RevoDrive 3 Max Read: up to 1000MB/s, Max Write: up to 900 MB/s, 4KB Random Write: I/O Per Second (IOPS): 130,000 IOPS,4KB Random Read: I/O Per Second (IOPS): 130,000 IOPS
Are you building it yourself? Having it built? Was going to start a thread on this but might as well tag onto this one because it's essentially the same thing. Looking to get a graphics intensive computer (AutoCAD, Revit Architecture, Adobe Design Suite, etc.) Would it be cheaper to have one built than to buy something outright? (Dell, HP, etc.) Been looking at some on Craigslist for 300-500 range but weary about doing it that way. This would be a workhorse work PC with 2-3 monitor setup. I'm running a Dell XPS 16 Laptop right now and am running into dilemmas with it already. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
