[MEGATHREAD] Personal Computer - Updated builds thanks to Logical Increments

[Swat 3]

Guys I wonder if it is appropiate to ask in here, but who cares:

Is PC Repair/Computer Science a good choice for an elective?

[Ad Bot]

[Plexious]

Guys I wonder if it is appropiate to ask in here, but who cares:

Is PC Repair/Computer Science a good choice for an elective?

Yes. We'll even help you with your homework.

[Swat 3]

Yes. We'll even help you with your homework.

Oh my god yes.

[Oasis]

Guys I wonder if it is appropiate to ask in here, but who cares:

Is PC Repair/Computer Science a good choice for an elective?

Lucky bastard. My high school offered no such elective.

[Swat 3]

Lucky bastard. My high school offered no such elective.

They also have Programming/Robotics.

[Oasis]

They also have Programming/Robotics but apparently it is primarily programming 8)

Fuuuuuuuuuck you. :C

My school had CAD. Architecture CAD.

[Swat 3]

Fuuuuuuuuuck you. :C

My school had CAD. Architecture CAD.

We have that as well. The course's name is called AutoCAD and they have like, 2 levels.

Oh and every single student gets a Chromebook.

my school has gotten a lot of grants

[ultimamax]

2grants5me

im jelly. we have only a few CS classes

[Plexious]

Here's a better build. I'll explain my decisions for each change

CPU: i5-4590
  - The i5-3470 isn't a bad choice, but this one has better performance through IPC improvements in haswell, as well as a 0.1 ghz increase in clockrate as well as more modern socket/chipset for only $10 more.
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Pro4 microATX or ECS B85 microATX board
  - This is just for futureproofing in case you want to get another broadwell/haswell processor further down the line and want to overclock. If you don't want to overclock or you're going to upgrade the motherboard anyway you can save like $25 bucks by using the second board.
RAM Corsair 1600mhz 2x4GB kit
  - There's no point in getting a 4x2 kit of memory instead of a 2x4. You don't have any space to upgrade on the motherboard and it's more expensive.
HDD WD Blue 1TB
  - Same as your build
GPU Gigabyte R7 265 (AMD) or EVGA 660 (NVIDIA)
  - So, both of these cards are siginificantly better than the 750 ti for not much more (like 25% better). Do not get a 750 ti. However, the 265 is only $10 more than the 750 ti while the 660 is $30 more than the 750 ti. Keep in mind, the 265 is SLIGHTLY better than the 660 too. I think you should reconsider your "no amd" mantra.
Case/PSU Apevia Qboii w/ 500W PSU
  - I've built with this combo several times before, the case is surprisingly sturdy and the PSU has all the connectors you'll need. It's a great value, though you'll want to add this 80mm fan to improve cooling for only $4 more.

So, the total cost for this machine is $608.91 with the AMD board and the B85 motherboard. That's cheaper than plexious' build with a better cpu and much better gpu.

If you readd the Z97 motherboard and 660, the total cost is $663.92 and you get no added performance benefit.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 Haswell Quad-Core 3.2GHz LGA 1150
 - $20 cheaper than the 4590 (with the promo code) and only 0.1 GHz low clockrate which won't make much of a difference.
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 LGA 1150 Micro ATX Motherboard
 - Just a cheaper alternative from a more familiar brand
RAM: Same as yours
HDD: Same as yours
GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2763-KR GeForce GTX 760 2GB
 - All that money saved allows us to get a higher tier graphics card.
Case/PSU: Rosewill R519-BK Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ 500W Power Supply
 - For just $5 less gets us a PSU from a more familiar brand and a non-upside-down design. Also, fan included.

Cost: $650 after mail in rebate (GPU) and promo code (CPU)

[Treynolds416]

cpu: fair enough
mobo: msi actually has a track record for poor bios and doa boards, and ecs has been in this game as a budget motherboard oem for a while. But, if the reviews say it's good then it might be worth going for due to price difference alone.
gpu: the 760 is still a poor bargain compared to the r9 280 and 280x, for the same reason the 660 was a poor bargain compared to the r7 265
case: I've built a few times with rosewell cases. They're nice looking cases for cheap that feel flimsy and have poor layouts. The reviews of the case reflect that. As for the case I linked, i already said that it's surprisingly sturdy and that I've had good experiences building with it twice. And there's nothing wrong with an upside down motherboard orientation.

[Plexious]

cpu: fair enough
mobo: msi actually has a track record for poor bios and doa boards, and ecs has been in this game as a budget motherboard oem for a while. But, if the reviews say it's good then it might be worth going for due to price difference alone.
gpu: the 760 is still a poor bargain compared to the r9 280 and 280x, for the same reason the 660 was a poor bargain compared to the r7 265
case: I've built a few times with rosewell cases. They're nice looking cases for cheap that feel flimsy and have poor layouts. The reviews of the case reflect that. As for the case I linked, i already said that it's surprisingly sturdy and that I've had good experiences building with it twice. And there's nothing wrong with an upside down motherboard orientation.

Even though you think an AMD GPU is a better bargain st8terblock specifically said no AMD parts. A Nvidia card is worth the extra few bucks just for the software support and drivers alone.
The AMD counterpart uses 50% more power than the 760 as well. More power = more heat. More heat = more noise.

[Tokthree]

Just set up Intel QuickSync to leverage the GPU in my i5 for encoding and stuff while streaming with OBS and was floored by how I can now stream butter-smooth 1080p 30FPS in any game I own with no performance drop in-game whatsoever.

[Zeblote]

Oh and every single student gets a Chromebook.

Are you also allowed to bring your own laptop? Cause otherwise that would suck big time. Chromebooks are clearly not intended for serious things.

[Treynolds416]

Even though you think an AMD GPU is a better bargain st8terblock specifically said no AMD parts. A Nvidia card is worth the extra few bucks just for the software support and drivers alone.
The AMD counterpart uses 50% more power than the 760 as well. More power = more heat. More heat = more noise.

I know he said that he did not want amd parts. But since he didn't cite his reasons for not wanting amd gpus, I'm trying to give him all the facts so he can make an informed decision. There are legitimate reasons to buy nvidia only gpus like gsync and cuda processing, but nobody ever cites these because they think nvidia is automatically better for no substantiated reason.

As for your claims about power, the R9 280 has a tdp of 200 while the 760 has one of 170. This is closer to a 15% difference in tdp, keeping in mind that the 280 performs better, and costs at least $20 less. I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference between fans dissipating a difference of 30 watts, especially considering that it would be well within the margin of error for difference vendor cooling designs.

[st8terblock]

Thanks for all these builds guys. Also I hate amd because I have bad experience with even though it was a laptop I still don't like amd because it overheats quickly