I think it's time to upgrade my computer, affectionately dubbed "Whisper" because at the time I built it the thing ran quietly as a cloud compared to my old rig. The rest of my family are dropping a lot of cash on new cars, I'm thinking of spending less than a grand on a new gaming PC, and probably retiring Whisper into a bedroom Linux box, which was what I did with my old rig before the motherboard died.
Still got the wireless network card and keyboard/mouse from that.
Anyway, last time I built a PC I followed PC Gamer's (UK) suggested rig from about... I dunno, 2009, 2010? Maybe earlier. I'm actually pleased to say that their advice was pretty good back then, since the only time I've ever had to crack the case open to replace anything was to switch out a broken PSU that was responsible for a pretty bad burning smell throughout the house. The suggested PSU was a 700W one, I switched it for a 750W which was a little louder to the point where the name "Whisper" became decidedly ironic. Otherwise, what I bought then has held together pretty well with only really modern games (Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite) actually running sluggishly. But she is showing her age, I'd like to run Dark Souls at 60FPS (or thereabouts) while recording, and just maybe get the games I do play nowadays a lot prettier.
So back to the PC Gamer rig. The current suggested machine is here, but I'm making a few changes to it because, frankly, there are either parts I don't need or the fact that the PSU suggested is atrocious.
In that case, I'm going with this PSU instead; it's actually the same one I've got installed on my current machine, and it seems like you're paying stupid prices for 850W up. A 650W is inadequate; the 450W they suggest in the magazine is pathetic. I'm also not going with the keyboard, mouse, soundcard, and headset since I've got my own superior models (Logitech G510, Razer Naga, and Logitech G35 rendering soundcards obsolete). I may get a nice, shiny new monitor if what I order comes to significantly less than £1,000. I'm also going for a different DVD-RW; a LG one that's less than the Samsung.
Otherwise, I can't see any glaring issues with the build, which is probably where you come in.
One big issue I'm seeking advice for is the hard drive situation. Back when I was building my potato, SSDs were new and expensive and tiny. Now they're old and inexpensive and still tiny; what the website doesn't state is that in the magazine list they're running a 128GB SSD backed up with a 1TB HDD.
Except... While I might go for a SSD as a main OS install, I'm a bit leery about a 1TB HDD. I remember that it used to be commonly thought that 1TB drives have a high and inevitable failure rate, but I'm not sure if this is still the case now. When it comes to retiring this PC, I'll probably remove the largest of the SATA HDD (512GB) and install that as extra space while keeping the 128GB one in to at least render the box usable.
But I'd still like to slot in a nice shiny new drive. I've got a 2TB external drive that holds my Steam install (1.14TB and growing!) plus a few other things. This is part of the reason why I take such a performance hit whenever I'm recording, since the videos are dumped onto this drive.
Assuming sensible cost, what would be a decent hard drive arrangement: Windows and essential programs on a 128GB SSD, everything else on a 512GB HDD and a 1TB HDD as additional space, or shouldn't I gamble on a TB drive and maybe just buy a few more 512GB drives? For what it's worth, I do tend to partition up large drives to maintain a little sanity.
Also, I'm sticking with Windows 7 for now. I may be waiting for Windows 9, I'm unlikely to be going with a Linux install for my main machine since I have had absolutely nothing but problems with hardware incompatibility to the point where installing Ubuntu on this machine has rendered my headset unusable in Windows until I remove the Linux install.
And, as always, is there anything I'm being thick about? If so, let me know before I drop some serious cash on a new machine.
Still got the wireless network card and keyboard/mouse from that.
Anyway, last time I built a PC I followed PC Gamer's (UK) suggested rig from about... I dunno, 2009, 2010? Maybe earlier. I'm actually pleased to say that their advice was pretty good back then, since the only time I've ever had to crack the case open to replace anything was to switch out a broken PSU that was responsible for a pretty bad burning smell throughout the house. The suggested PSU was a 700W one, I switched it for a 750W which was a little louder to the point where the name "Whisper" became decidedly ironic. Otherwise, what I bought then has held together pretty well with only really modern games (Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite) actually running sluggishly. But she is showing her age, I'd like to run Dark Souls at 60FPS (or thereabouts) while recording, and just maybe get the games I do play nowadays a lot prettier.
So back to the PC Gamer rig. The current suggested machine is here, but I'm making a few changes to it because, frankly, there are either parts I don't need or the fact that the PSU suggested is atrocious.
In that case, I'm going with this PSU instead; it's actually the same one I've got installed on my current machine, and it seems like you're paying stupid prices for 850W up. A 650W is inadequate; the 450W they suggest in the magazine is pathetic. I'm also not going with the keyboard, mouse, soundcard, and headset since I've got my own superior models (Logitech G510, Razer Naga, and Logitech G35 rendering soundcards obsolete). I may get a nice, shiny new monitor if what I order comes to significantly less than £1,000. I'm also going for a different DVD-RW; a LG one that's less than the Samsung.
Otherwise, I can't see any glaring issues with the build, which is probably where you come in.
One big issue I'm seeking advice for is the hard drive situation. Back when I was building my potato, SSDs were new and expensive and tiny. Now they're old and inexpensive and still tiny; what the website doesn't state is that in the magazine list they're running a 128GB SSD backed up with a 1TB HDD.
Except... While I might go for a SSD as a main OS install, I'm a bit leery about a 1TB HDD. I remember that it used to be commonly thought that 1TB drives have a high and inevitable failure rate, but I'm not sure if this is still the case now. When it comes to retiring this PC, I'll probably remove the largest of the SATA HDD (512GB) and install that as extra space while keeping the 128GB one in to at least render the box usable.
But I'd still like to slot in a nice shiny new drive. I've got a 2TB external drive that holds my Steam install (1.14TB and growing!) plus a few other things. This is part of the reason why I take such a performance hit whenever I'm recording, since the videos are dumped onto this drive.
Assuming sensible cost, what would be a decent hard drive arrangement: Windows and essential programs on a 128GB SSD, everything else on a 512GB HDD and a 1TB HDD as additional space, or shouldn't I gamble on a TB drive and maybe just buy a few more 512GB drives? For what it's worth, I do tend to partition up large drives to maintain a little sanity.
Also, I'm sticking with Windows 7 for now. I may be waiting for Windows 9, I'm unlikely to be going with a Linux install for my main machine since I have had absolutely nothing but problems with hardware incompatibility to the point where installing Ubuntu on this machine has rendered my headset unusable in Windows until I remove the Linux install.
And, as always, is there anything I'm being thick about? If so, let me know before I drop some serious cash on a new machine.
When in mortal danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
BattleTag: Schrau#2386
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
BattleTag: Schrau#2386