System Builder Marathon Q3 2015: Prosumer PC

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Component Selection

I opened the article by admitting that I spent some of my memory budget on graphics, but none of that would have been necessary if not for the expensive processor. I knew that readers would want to see Intel’s new Skylake in at least one of the machines, and did what I had to do in order to make it happen.

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Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.

44 Comments Comment from the forums

Blueberries

What is a prosumer and why is there no SSD?
Reply
RedJaron

You fit in a Skylake CPU? Bravo, sir!

16700788 said:
What is a prosumer
A portmanteau combining "Professional" and "Consumer" usually describing the type of person that gets paid for a hobby. Someone who has requirements beyond that of the typical consumer, but not so high as a dedicated professional.

16700788 said:
and why is there no SSD?
Read the whole article. It's explained there.
Reply
Crashman

16700796 said:
You fit in a Skylake CPU? Bravo, sir!

16700788 said:
What is a prosumer
A portmanteau combining "Professional" and "Consumer" usually describing the type of person that gets paid for a hobby. Someone who has requirements beyond that of the typical consumer, but not so high as a dedicated professional.

16700788 said:
and why is there no SSD?
Read the whole article. It's explained there.

Wow, and you pulled out portmanteau? Bravo to you, sir! And to everyone in the stadium, welcome to the first onstage meeting of Tom's Hardware Mutual Admiration Society.
Reply
chalabam

Any money spend in a DVD burner is money wasted.

You shouldn't buy a DVD burner until you actually need it.

Most software is either downloadable, or stored on HD, or capable of being copied to a USB stick.
Reply
Neat-O man

There should be a bargain prosumer that hits all the check marks. I built a FX-8320e @4.5Ghz (very small voltage bump, max 54c after two hours of prime95) with a Cooler Master HYPER T4, 16GB ddr3 1866 cas 9, 850 EVO 250GB ssd, TWO Toshiba 2TB drives in soft RAID-1 (smart UPS is a must in that case), EVGA 430 watt PSU, 750 Ti (over clocks like a monster), and last... Cooler Master Silencio 352. $800 with tax (before OS). It is used for simple Photoshop and business things, honestly... over kill

Yeah, even with AMD CPU lol... but holy carp was i surprised when i overclocked the FX-8320e compared to a FX-8320 i did three years ago when it came out. Runs super cool and stable for an AMD chip.
Reply
Neat-O man

16700962 said:
Any money spend in a DVD burner is money wasted.

You shouldn't buy a DVD burner until you actually need it.

Most software is either downloadable, or stored on HD, or capable of being copied to a USB stick.

That's true.. ish. What if you have some specialized software that you can't find anymore and you only have the CD/DVD that you forgot to transfer to pure digital... than a $15 investment isn't such a bad idea. And a well stored CD/DVD that you did NOT make yourself (pressed in a factory) or M-Disc will outlast most HDD/SSD drives because of bit rot, unless you have a good ZFS setup and swap out the drives when necessary.
Reply
Crashman

16700962 said:
Any money spend in a DVD burner is money wasted.

You shouldn't buy a DVD burner until you actually need it.

Most software is either downloadable, or stored on HD, or capable of being copied to a USB stick.
Not for most people using this for their first build. The winner might even be in that position, as stated in the article.

Please don't let those annoying facts get in the way of your eloquently-expressed opinion :)

On the other hand, we'll probably make the switch to Win10 in Q1, so you don't have to tolerate this measure of practicality much longer.

Reply
daveys93

16700962 said:
Any money spend in a DVD burner is money wasted.

You shouldn't buy a DVD burner until you actually need it.

Most software is either downloadable, or stored on HD, or capable of being copied to a USB stick.
Not for most people using this for their first build. The winner might even be in that position, as stated in the article.

Please don't let those annoying facts get in the way of your eloquently-expressed opinion :)

On the other hand, we'll probably make the switch to Win10 in Q1, so you don't have to tolerate this measure of practicality much longer.

Windows 8.1 can be downloaded to a USB drive right from the Microsoft website:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

If you obtained one of those "cheap Windows license" codes that was mentioned in the article for the lucky recipients of these machines and included it with Windows 8.1 on a cheap 4GB USB drive (if you are thrifty these can be obtained for $2 or less), you could forgo the antiquated optical drive, allowing this rounds builders to use the hardware and cases they really wanted. It would also free up some budget space since "cheap Windows license" codes are ~ $25 - $50.
Reply
SCREAM2NIGHT

16700962 said:
Any money spend in a DVD burner is money wasted.

You shouldn't buy a DVD burner until you actually need it.

Most software is either downloadable, or stored on HD, or capable of being copied to a USB stick.
Not for most people using this for their first build. The winner might even be in that position, as stated in the article.

Please don't let those annoying facts get in the way of your eloquently-expressed opinion :)

On the other hand, we'll probably make the switch to Win10 in Q1, so you don't have to tolerate this measure of practicality much longer.

I use my DVD drive to play older games.
Reply
ykki

This is a really nice build. You stuck to a strong processor, din't go overkill on the gpu and got a "sufficient" psu.

Also Tom's for q4 can we get a limited budget "no holds barred" where the contestants can do anything to anything to win. Threr sould be no constraints like what parts have to be compulsory (like this quarter's ODD). How 'bout it?
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