Hi all, I am thinking of building a new PC. I would call myself about as much of a power user as you can get without playing games or being a software developer, video editor, etc.
Right now I have a super-crappy cheap Win7 Home Pentium P6200 ~$250 laptop from Best Buy from 2011. I like to have a second monitor plugged in, browse the web with lots of tabs, spreadsheets and accounting software all at once. Then of course the obligatory occasional YouTube/Netflix/Hulu/VLC video. In the background I run Google Drive, Dropbox, KeePass, and a VNC Server for remoting in. Occasionally I use GIMP for photo touchup. I am also going to try to teach myself compsci/programming so there could be some development software going. The cheapie laptop, while it did a surprisingly good job meeting my needs for nearly two years, just hasn't been cutting it now for about a year and is starting to get really bad.
Currently I have another old laptop (this one is kind of quality, Dell Latitude D620, but 8 years old) that I use as a server. I run a web server, ftp server, music (MPD) server, plex server for streaming to a Roku, VNC server for remoting in. Ideally, I would like to combine all of these functions onto the new system. Just no sense having two computers running all the time in my relatively small apartment, and file transfers between the two of them is just slow and kind of a pain. The server is completely idle the vast majority of the time as I am the only one who would ever access it, I just like to have it available. And if I do access it, it means I am not at home and therefore not doing anything else on the machine.
After all these years of using laptops, I have grown to hate them and everything about them - their terrible ergonomics, constant overheating, batteries that don't last, impossible to get open or customize, ugh, I just hate them. Maybe it'd be good to keep one around for trips to Starbucks or whatever, but man, do they suck and I am aching to get a nice desktop. Anyways I digress...
I'm very value conscious and like to squeeze every last drop from my money, hence getting the usage I've gotten out of this old piece of crap I'm using now. That being said, as much as I use a machine, I'm not afraid to spend a little more if it will be worth it. I'm thinking of starting around the $300 lifehacker build and going up from there. I probably wouldn't want to go up past $500. I do have enough money, and use my computer enough, that I don't want to skimp... I would like to try to make this thing smooth as butter for the functions I described, and last for a decent amount of time. I can probably save some dough on hard drives because I have a Terabyte external I can rip out of the enclosure and put in there for storage, and a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD that's currently in my laptop (its only upgrade) for the OS.
My question revolves around the CPU and GPU if applicable. The Lifehacker build is using a sub $50 AMD CPU and I think I want to bump that up to around $100-$120 and get a little more power. I have been reading all the pros and cons of the i3's with Hyperthreading vs the AMD's around that price range which will have more cores. Power consumption is to be considered as I will be running this thing nearly 24/7. Also, quieter is nice. So that makes me lean Intel. But, will AMD's 4 or 6 core models around the same price range give me better performance than the two cores with HT, given the multitasking functions that I like to do?
Second, is a graphics card worth it for a non-gamer or should I just stick with onboard? I have never owned a computer with a graphics card so I don't really know what I'm missing. Do I need one to run two monitors off of a Desktop PC? Actually, one of the monitors would be a true computer monitor but the other would just be a 22" flatscreen TV I keep on my desk in my bedroom, hooked up via HDMI. It serves it's purpose well as a backup monitor and TV for viewing videos off of the PC.
In summary, i3 vs AMD with 4-6 cores for $100-$120 price range? I do a lot of multitasking and relatively heavy use, but I don't play games. And should I get a GPU?
Thanks to all! Seems like a lot of the info out there is gaming, home theater, or "home office" (aka yahoo mail + microsoft word) related so I wanted to just see if the more experienced out there could comment on the best options for my more unique needs.
EDIT: Bought a Power Supply, Case, and Optical Drive, and made some draft builds:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vbtYRB
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vbtYRB/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.00 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($00.00 @ Micro Center (Bundle))
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Purchased For $16.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $19.99)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $13.49)
Total: $224.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-23 11:21 EDT-0400
_________________________________________________
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWGzXL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWGzXL/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Purchased For $16.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $19.99)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $13.49)
Total: $292.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-23 11:21 EDT-0400
Right now I have a super-crappy cheap Win7 Home Pentium P6200 ~$250 laptop from Best Buy from 2011. I like to have a second monitor plugged in, browse the web with lots of tabs, spreadsheets and accounting software all at once. Then of course the obligatory occasional YouTube/Netflix/Hulu/VLC video. In the background I run Google Drive, Dropbox, KeePass, and a VNC Server for remoting in. Occasionally I use GIMP for photo touchup. I am also going to try to teach myself compsci/programming so there could be some development software going. The cheapie laptop, while it did a surprisingly good job meeting my needs for nearly two years, just hasn't been cutting it now for about a year and is starting to get really bad.
Currently I have another old laptop (this one is kind of quality, Dell Latitude D620, but 8 years old) that I use as a server. I run a web server, ftp server, music (MPD) server, plex server for streaming to a Roku, VNC server for remoting in. Ideally, I would like to combine all of these functions onto the new system. Just no sense having two computers running all the time in my relatively small apartment, and file transfers between the two of them is just slow and kind of a pain. The server is completely idle the vast majority of the time as I am the only one who would ever access it, I just like to have it available. And if I do access it, it means I am not at home and therefore not doing anything else on the machine.
After all these years of using laptops, I have grown to hate them and everything about them - their terrible ergonomics, constant overheating, batteries that don't last, impossible to get open or customize, ugh, I just hate them. Maybe it'd be good to keep one around for trips to Starbucks or whatever, but man, do they suck and I am aching to get a nice desktop. Anyways I digress...
I'm very value conscious and like to squeeze every last drop from my money, hence getting the usage I've gotten out of this old piece of crap I'm using now. That being said, as much as I use a machine, I'm not afraid to spend a little more if it will be worth it. I'm thinking of starting around the $300 lifehacker build and going up from there. I probably wouldn't want to go up past $500. I do have enough money, and use my computer enough, that I don't want to skimp... I would like to try to make this thing smooth as butter for the functions I described, and last for a decent amount of time. I can probably save some dough on hard drives because I have a Terabyte external I can rip out of the enclosure and put in there for storage, and a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD that's currently in my laptop (its only upgrade) for the OS.
My question revolves around the CPU and GPU if applicable. The Lifehacker build is using a sub $50 AMD CPU and I think I want to bump that up to around $100-$120 and get a little more power. I have been reading all the pros and cons of the i3's with Hyperthreading vs the AMD's around that price range which will have more cores. Power consumption is to be considered as I will be running this thing nearly 24/7. Also, quieter is nice. So that makes me lean Intel. But, will AMD's 4 or 6 core models around the same price range give me better performance than the two cores with HT, given the multitasking functions that I like to do?
Second, is a graphics card worth it for a non-gamer or should I just stick with onboard? I have never owned a computer with a graphics card so I don't really know what I'm missing. Do I need one to run two monitors off of a Desktop PC? Actually, one of the monitors would be a true computer monitor but the other would just be a 22" flatscreen TV I keep on my desk in my bedroom, hooked up via HDMI. It serves it's purpose well as a backup monitor and TV for viewing videos off of the PC.
In summary, i3 vs AMD with 4-6 cores for $100-$120 price range? I do a lot of multitasking and relatively heavy use, but I don't play games. And should I get a GPU?
Thanks to all! Seems like a lot of the info out there is gaming, home theater, or "home office" (aka yahoo mail + microsoft word) related so I wanted to just see if the more experienced out there could comment on the best options for my more unique needs.
EDIT: Bought a Power Supply, Case, and Optical Drive, and made some draft builds:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vbtYRB
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vbtYRB/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.00 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($00.00 @ Micro Center (Bundle))
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Purchased For $16.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $19.99)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $13.49)
Total: $224.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-23 11:21 EDT-0400
_________________________________________________
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWGzXL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kWGzXL/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Purchased For $16.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $19.99)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $13.49)
Total: $292.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-23 11:21 EDT-0400
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