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

[Nal]

people who actually produce music, i would assume have a use for a dedicated sound card

I found a soundcard that was marketed towards gaymers and I really don't understand why

this point still stands

[Ad Bot]

[BluetoothBoy]

430W would be fine if your computer could reach 100% efficiency but that kind of efficiency is impossible in today's computing.
It's better to over estimate the power supply than underestimate. Get a 500W PSU and save yourself the trouble when your computer randomly shuts down or bluescreens.

So you're saying ~185% isn't enough insurance? Sheesh... I don't know a lot about computers, but I know about electricity, and that just doesn't seem right. Anyway, I'll look into.

this point still stands

Companies don't usually care if a product is truly useful if people buy it. If they're selling it and nobody ever buys it, then they're just not very good at marketing research.

[Pentium]

Thanks, I'll check that out.
Thanks, but how will this card compare to a 2 gig card?

EDIT: Just opened up pcpartpicker and saw my old build it had saved. Modified it a bit, is it any good? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JQ67GX

To be honest I think you're better off using my build. The video card is a bit weaker, but it's easily replacable if you need an upgrade and the other components will likely last you 6+ years. If you're really concerned about the graphics performance you could always use the IGP until you can afford the 760.

[BluetoothBoy]

No, I won't do that, that means that in the long run I'll be spending almost twice as much money on a card and having a less powerful one for a while to boot. That's a poor use of my money. Also, I don't think any of the more substantial parts on my list are that much lower quality than what you suggested, at least not for the money. Now, what I really need to know is this:

Why's that? The CPU and GPU together are rated at bit over half of 430W.

[Treynolds416]

So you're saying ~185% isn't enough insurance? Sheesh... I don't know a lot about computers, but I know about electricity, and that just doesn't seem right. Anyway, I'll look into.

Components regularly draw more power than they're listed at. The average power draw under full load is their rating, but it spikes up and down. You'll want to aim at maximum usage being close to 50%, because that's also the range where your psu is most efficient.

To be honest I think you're better off using my build. The video card is a bit weaker, but it's easily replacable if you need an upgrade and the other components will likely last you 6+ years. If you're really concerned about the graphics performance you could always use the IGP until you can afford the 760.

I disagree. The gpu is just too underpowered, and he doesn't need a great cpu. He did specify that he wanted a card with 2gb vram and he didn't want to use the IGP, so that leads me to believe he has more use for better graphical processing. Also, for an $800 dollar budget there's no need to spend $100 on an ssd and no hard drive.

Plexious' build is better, but still not super great because he cheaped out on several things that he didn't have to and still decided to use a 760 instead of an R9 280 (which performs better for $10 - $20 less). Your build is actually probably the closest.

Get your build with an R9 280 instead of the 760, use pentium's ram and motherboard, and find a nice psu with 500 or 550. Don't use pentium's psu unless you're a real efficiency freak, nobody needs a gold rated psu on an $800 budget

[Pentium]

You're probably right about the processor and SSD; even though they're nice to have - especially the SSD - they're not neccessary for good gaming performance. I have to disagree about the power supply, though; $65 is less than a tenth of the cost of the whole computer, which isn't a lot especially considering that it's the most important component in a build. That being said, the Cooler Master V550SM is probably a better choice for the money.

[Treynolds416]

I have to disagree about the power supply, though; $65 is less than a tenth of the cost of the whole computer, which isn't a lot especially considering that it's the most important component in a build. That being said, the Cooler Master V550SM is probably a better choice for the money.

Right, but my point was that you could spend $35 or $45 and get the same quality components and wattage, just without the gold efficiency. There are a lot of well-rated bronze 500W psus out there on the cheap

[blockguy™]

what's the difference between a solid state drive and a hard drive? i never really understood that

[Foxscotch]

what's the difference between a solid state drive and a hard drive? i never really understood that

an SSD is like, a really big flash drive, that uses a connection better than USB. unless it's a USB SSD. then it still uses USB
but an HDD, is closer to a CD or DVD. the concept is pretty similar. but the way the disk actually works is a lot different

one advantage of an SSD is shock-proof... ness. hard drives are a lot more susceptible to damage from drops and stuff. also, I don't think you have to be careful about getting magnets near an SSD like you do with a hard drive. but don't go putting magnets all over your solid state drives just cus I said that. cus I'm not 100% sure

SSDs are faster. not sure exactly how storage works for them, but with a hard drive, there's a disk inside (hard disk drive), and it uses little bitty magnets to store the data, and a bigger magnet (or magnets?) to read and write it

[HerpaDerp]

you forgot the biggest point, SSDs are really efficient and are at least 10x faster than hard drives lol

[blockguy™]

10x faster than hard drives lol

and 10x more expensive

[Miga]

To add onto Fotscotch, Solid State Drives are also much faster than traditional hard drives. If you use one and have your OS on it, you will most likely notice a quicker startup time.

[HerpaDerp]

and 10x more expensive

thats why you get a small SSD and a hard drive so you get the speed AND space

[Nal]

ramdisks > ssds

[Pecon]

what's the difference between a solid state drive and a hard drive? i never really understood that

A solid state drive serves the same purpose as a hard drive, but has a number of benefits over the old hard drive technology. First of all, the SSD has no moving parts. So the SSD won't suffer to mechanical failure like a hard drive. Second of all, they are fast. Really, really really really fast. I can't stress this point enough, an SSD is practically guaranteed to speed up any computer that is still running on a hard drive. The main drawback is that the price per gigabyte on solid state drives is much higher than on hard drives, making them not yet a practical solution to everyday storage. If you use one for your computer, usually the best thing to do is have the SSD as your primary drive which handles the operating system, startup programs, and any other programs that you want less load time on. Then you could install a hard drive separately which you use for storage, and/or for games that take up too much space.