Hello everyone!
Bit of a long post but I hope there's enough information here to make for interesting replies.
I have a 4 year old rig I built myself and am wanting to update it as I haven't been able to sell it (ebay and craigslist offer new systems for less than I'd like to sell mine). Also, I've stopped keeping track of new technologies in computing hardware in general which is another reason for reaching out on this forum.
So this leaves me with a couple of options:
a) Buy/build a new PC/laptop (Windows/Mac/Linux) that will serve as a home system for my needs (described below)
b) Modify my current rig to be as silent as possible and update some components
What I use my pc for:
1. Some gaming: Diablo 3, Rocksmith, Mass Effect, some other titles. Main gaming is done on my PS3 and soon PS4
2. Some light 3D work (3ds Max/Maya)
3. Some light photo editing (photoshop/lightroom)
4. Some creative programming work (processing/arduino) and interfacing with components (sensors, kinect v2 for pc, leap motion, etc)
5. Music/movie storage/playback/streaming to PS3 or hi-fi gear through Optical output of the Asus DG card (connected to headphone amp/receiver/dac, etc)
Current issues:
1. I haven't powered it on in about 10 months since I moved out of my place (currently use my Surface Pro 2 and Dell Precision M4600 laptop), but I do remember an occasional BSOD from time to time and not sure if it was related to the PSU or some NVIdia drivers.
2. Can get quite noisy under stress so I need a setup that's as quiet as possible
Needs moving forward:
1. As quiet as possible (highest priority)
a. Am thinking of changing the case to a Fractal Design Define R4 in arctic white if I decide on updating my current setup.
2. I don't have a lot of room so the less space used the better.
3. Was thinking of at least getting an SSD to boot from. Windows licensing is not an issue (workplace provides it), am open to Linux/Mac OS setups as long as I can run a Windows VM for gaming.
4. I have two displays, a Dell U2410 IPS that I use for color-accurate work (1920 x 1200) and an old Viewsonic 24" that may need replacing (1920 x 1080) as it tends to hurt my eyes after a couple of hours of use.
5. As our router is in another room and I don't want to throw an ethernet cable all the way into my office I need to be connected through Wi-Fi (I have an Airport Extreme latest gen)
Budget constraints (including shipping and taxes if possible):
- If updating the rig I want to keep the spending below $800, but if there's a good enough reason I can go up to $1k.
- If changing to a completely new setup then suggestions on how to sell my current setup and possible prices (haven't had luck in the past month) are welcomed. Budget for new home setup would be about $1,500 but would need to be as compact and quiet as possible to justify the expense.
- Timeframe for purchase can be in a month or if recommended I can wait for Black Friday / Cyber Monday without a problem. I'm not in a rush to get this done.
A few extra notes:
- I live in NYC so I don't mind buying from NewEgg, TigerDirect, Amazon…
- I don't care for overclocking as I like to keep the noise to a minimum and my parts to last as long as possible. Same with SLI… don't really care for it.
- I'll probably update the Viewsonic monitor late next year to a 4k monitor once prices come down a bit and stabilize. But it would be mainly for photo/creative programming work and not so much for gaming.
- I've always had Intel processors and Nvidia GPU's… I don't mind switching but feel quite comfortable with those two brands.
- My significant other has a MacBookPro, an Ipad and other Apple hardware. I have an external hard drive for TimeMachine backups of that system but it couldn't hurt to set up something in our network to help with that.
And moving on to my current setup:
CPU:
Intel Core i7-950 3.06 GHz 8 MB Cache Socket LGA1366 Processor
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A6G3V2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Intel X58/Intel ICH10R Intel X58 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1366 Motherboard (GA-X58A-UD3R)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034CSTFY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Memory:
Corsair Dominator 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMP12GX3M3A1600C9)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ST3ZE8/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1>
Video Card:
Gigabyte Super Overclock Series GV-N560SO-1GI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready
Link: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3729#ov
PSU:
Cooler Master Silent Pro M - 850W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply with Modular Cables (RS850-AMBAJ3-US)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RWJGC2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Case:
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (RC-932-KKN5-GP)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EPUQAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
OS Hard Drive:
1 x Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop 3.5" Hard Drive
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036Q7MV0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Storage Hard Drive:
2 x Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
From <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681>
CPU Fan:
Cooler Master V8 - CPU Cooler with 8 Heat Pipes and Mirror-Finished Base (RR-UV8-XBU1-GP)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KUV2KQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Sound Card:
ASUS XONAR DG Headphone Amp & PCI 5.1 Audio Card
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045JHJSS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
So, hope this is enough information to get started... if you need anything else please let me know! And thanks in advance for any advice you can bring on the matter!
Greets,
v/
Bit of a long post but I hope there's enough information here to make for interesting replies.
I have a 4 year old rig I built myself and am wanting to update it as I haven't been able to sell it (ebay and craigslist offer new systems for less than I'd like to sell mine). Also, I've stopped keeping track of new technologies in computing hardware in general which is another reason for reaching out on this forum.
So this leaves me with a couple of options:
a) Buy/build a new PC/laptop (Windows/Mac/Linux) that will serve as a home system for my needs (described below)
b) Modify my current rig to be as silent as possible and update some components
What I use my pc for:
1. Some gaming: Diablo 3, Rocksmith, Mass Effect, some other titles. Main gaming is done on my PS3 and soon PS4
2. Some light 3D work (3ds Max/Maya)
3. Some light photo editing (photoshop/lightroom)
4. Some creative programming work (processing/arduino) and interfacing with components (sensors, kinect v2 for pc, leap motion, etc)
5. Music/movie storage/playback/streaming to PS3 or hi-fi gear through Optical output of the Asus DG card (connected to headphone amp/receiver/dac, etc)
Current issues:
1. I haven't powered it on in about 10 months since I moved out of my place (currently use my Surface Pro 2 and Dell Precision M4600 laptop), but I do remember an occasional BSOD from time to time and not sure if it was related to the PSU or some NVIdia drivers.
2. Can get quite noisy under stress so I need a setup that's as quiet as possible
Needs moving forward:
1. As quiet as possible (highest priority)
a. Am thinking of changing the case to a Fractal Design Define R4 in arctic white if I decide on updating my current setup.
2. I don't have a lot of room so the less space used the better.
3. Was thinking of at least getting an SSD to boot from. Windows licensing is not an issue (workplace provides it), am open to Linux/Mac OS setups as long as I can run a Windows VM for gaming.
4. I have two displays, a Dell U2410 IPS that I use for color-accurate work (1920 x 1200) and an old Viewsonic 24" that may need replacing (1920 x 1080) as it tends to hurt my eyes after a couple of hours of use.
5. As our router is in another room and I don't want to throw an ethernet cable all the way into my office I need to be connected through Wi-Fi (I have an Airport Extreme latest gen)
Budget constraints (including shipping and taxes if possible):
- If updating the rig I want to keep the spending below $800, but if there's a good enough reason I can go up to $1k.
- If changing to a completely new setup then suggestions on how to sell my current setup and possible prices (haven't had luck in the past month) are welcomed. Budget for new home setup would be about $1,500 but would need to be as compact and quiet as possible to justify the expense.
- Timeframe for purchase can be in a month or if recommended I can wait for Black Friday / Cyber Monday without a problem. I'm not in a rush to get this done.
A few extra notes:
- I live in NYC so I don't mind buying from NewEgg, TigerDirect, Amazon…
- I don't care for overclocking as I like to keep the noise to a minimum and my parts to last as long as possible. Same with SLI… don't really care for it.
- I'll probably update the Viewsonic monitor late next year to a 4k monitor once prices come down a bit and stabilize. But it would be mainly for photo/creative programming work and not so much for gaming.
- I've always had Intel processors and Nvidia GPU's… I don't mind switching but feel quite comfortable with those two brands.
- My significant other has a MacBookPro, an Ipad and other Apple hardware. I have an external hard drive for TimeMachine backups of that system but it couldn't hurt to set up something in our network to help with that.
And moving on to my current setup:
CPU:
Intel Core i7-950 3.06 GHz 8 MB Cache Socket LGA1366 Processor
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A6G3V2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Intel X58/Intel ICH10R Intel X58 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1366 Motherboard (GA-X58A-UD3R)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034CSTFY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Memory:
Corsair Dominator 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMP12GX3M3A1600C9)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ST3ZE8/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1>
Video Card:
Gigabyte Super Overclock Series GV-N560SO-1GI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready
Link: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3729#ov
PSU:
Cooler Master Silent Pro M - 850W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply with Modular Cables (RS850-AMBAJ3-US)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RWJGC2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Case:
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (RC-932-KKN5-GP)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EPUQAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
OS Hard Drive:
1 x Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop 3.5" Hard Drive
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036Q7MV0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Storage Hard Drive:
2 x Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
From <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681>
CPU Fan:
Cooler Master V8 - CPU Cooler with 8 Heat Pipes and Mirror-Finished Base (RR-UV8-XBU1-GP)
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KUV2KQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
Sound Card:
ASUS XONAR DG Headphone Amp & PCI 5.1 Audio Card
From <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045JHJSS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>
So, hope this is enough information to get started... if you need anything else please let me know! And thanks in advance for any advice you can bring on the matter!
Greets,
v/
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