Hi everyone, I first wanted to thank you in advance for your help. Any and all advice you can give me is greatly appreciated. Here's the details:
Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next week
Budget Range: $500 - $750. I'm fine with spending $750, but if I'm also fine with spending less if there's no appreciable difference in performance.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Surfing the internet(tend to have lots of browser tabs open), hooking up to a TV, video editing(nothing major just using camtasia to make minor changes), option to have two monitors hooked up, watching videos on the internet,
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Power supply, Case, Hard drives, video card (nothing fancy, won’t be doing any gaming). Basically everything except mouse, keyboard, monitor, optical drive, and OS.
Do you need to buy OS: No, planning on just using Ubuntu and might dual boot later. However the cost of a Windows OS can be left out of the cost of the bid.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Parts Preferences: I have no brand preference. However I would like:
Storage: SSD drive as the primary drive and a separate 1TB drive for storage.
Wireless: It can be built into the motherboard or an add-on through a PCI slot.
Gigabit ethernet NIC: I would like this to be built into the board
Graphics: I would like the ability to hook up to two monitors. I can settle for one monitor for now, as long as I could add a second monitor in the future(second monitor preference can be dropped for cost considerations.) However, I absolutely would like the ability to hook it up to a TV through an HDMI connection(I can settle for VGA though.) I won’t be gaming with it, so I’m not sure how important the graphics card is.
RAM: I was thinking of buying 16GB(2, 8GB) for now. I’m open to suggestions on what you think would be the appropriate amount. I don’t know if my internet browsing habits(a lot of tabs open) and multiple programs(screen capture software) constitutes more RAM. I was also thinking it would be nice to have 4 slots for RAM. With max ram being a minimum of 32GB.
USB3.0: I have a few external hard drives to transfer videos and other info to and from. I would like at least two USB 3.0 ports.
USB2.0: I have a wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, and wireless headphones that I want to hook up. Three ports would be enough. I wouldn’t mind putting them into USB 3.0 ports as long as that was in addition to the USB 3.0 ports mentioned above.
Processor: 64-bit, doesn’t need to be unlocked. Something that would be faster than my laptop which currently has a 32-bit, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz.
Case: As long as everything fits and stays cool, I’m happy.
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No, don’t even know what it is.
Your Monitor Resolution: I can get this info later, if it’s critical. I anticipate to mostly be hooked up to a tv.
Additional Comments:
[Specific Software: Camtasia, Quickbooks, Neatreceipts. I won’t be playing any games. Just a general purpose PC.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My main computer for the last six years has been a Sony Vaio VGN-Z250N. I originally bought it when I needed a small, mobile laptop. Since then I no longer need a small, mobile laptop and a desktop is more of what I need right now.
My current laptop only has USB 2.0 which is slow compared to USB 3.0. Also, I lately have been connecting the HDMI port on my laptop to a TV. This was working fine initially, but lately it has been causing my laptop to overheat and shut-off.
I’m looking for a better performing computer and I think I can get more computer per dollar with a desktop than a laptop.
Here's my attempt at a build. I'm over my budget of $750 and I feel like I'm just guessing and don't really know what combinations will produce a well running PC.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Formula ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($243.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($141.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($91.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $981.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-26 00:47 EDT-0400
Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next week
Budget Range: $500 - $750. I'm fine with spending $750, but if I'm also fine with spending less if there's no appreciable difference in performance.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Surfing the internet(tend to have lots of browser tabs open), hooking up to a TV, video editing(nothing major just using camtasia to make minor changes), option to have two monitors hooked up, watching videos on the internet,
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Power supply, Case, Hard drives, video card (nothing fancy, won’t be doing any gaming). Basically everything except mouse, keyboard, monitor, optical drive, and OS.
Do you need to buy OS: No, planning on just using Ubuntu and might dual boot later. However the cost of a Windows OS can be left out of the cost of the bid.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Parts Preferences: I have no brand preference. However I would like:
Storage: SSD drive as the primary drive and a separate 1TB drive for storage.
Wireless: It can be built into the motherboard or an add-on through a PCI slot.
Gigabit ethernet NIC: I would like this to be built into the board
Graphics: I would like the ability to hook up to two monitors. I can settle for one monitor for now, as long as I could add a second monitor in the future(second monitor preference can be dropped for cost considerations.) However, I absolutely would like the ability to hook it up to a TV through an HDMI connection(I can settle for VGA though.) I won’t be gaming with it, so I’m not sure how important the graphics card is.
RAM: I was thinking of buying 16GB(2, 8GB) for now. I’m open to suggestions on what you think would be the appropriate amount. I don’t know if my internet browsing habits(a lot of tabs open) and multiple programs(screen capture software) constitutes more RAM. I was also thinking it would be nice to have 4 slots for RAM. With max ram being a minimum of 32GB.
USB3.0: I have a few external hard drives to transfer videos and other info to and from. I would like at least two USB 3.0 ports.
USB2.0: I have a wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, and wireless headphones that I want to hook up. Three ports would be enough. I wouldn’t mind putting them into USB 3.0 ports as long as that was in addition to the USB 3.0 ports mentioned above.
Processor: 64-bit, doesn’t need to be unlocked. Something that would be faster than my laptop which currently has a 32-bit, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz.
Case: As long as everything fits and stays cool, I’m happy.
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No, don’t even know what it is.
Your Monitor Resolution: I can get this info later, if it’s critical. I anticipate to mostly be hooked up to a tv.
Additional Comments:
[Specific Software: Camtasia, Quickbooks, Neatreceipts. I won’t be playing any games. Just a general purpose PC.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My main computer for the last six years has been a Sony Vaio VGN-Z250N. I originally bought it when I needed a small, mobile laptop. Since then I no longer need a small, mobile laptop and a desktop is more of what I need right now.
My current laptop only has USB 2.0 which is slow compared to USB 3.0. Also, I lately have been connecting the HDMI port on my laptop to a TV. This was working fine initially, but lately it has been causing my laptop to overheat and shut-off.
I’m looking for a better performing computer and I think I can get more computer per dollar with a desktop than a laptop.
Here's my attempt at a build. I'm over my budget of $750 and I feel like I'm just guessing and don't really know what combinations will produce a well running PC.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Formula ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($243.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($141.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($91.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $981.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-26 00:47 EDT-0400
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