New computer

[Frank]

So yeah. I've been told I will get a) a new PC; b) a new laptop; or c) a new PC and a new laptop by the end ofthis year.
Since I'm gonna study computer engineering, my family thinks I'll need the best I can get. Therefore, within an unknown but approximate budget, I've got to make any of these. I will NOT get just a new laptop. I'd rather get a not great PC and an okay laptop. But overall my focus is still desktop.


Within US$700 and US$1200, I believe is what they can afford.

If you have any suggestions or suggested builds OR parts, post them here. Y'all are thank'd in advance.

P.S.: Only the computer itself is needed, peripherals are just extras, which I'm okay with the ones I already have.

[Viole]

You could always custom build a pretty good desktop for around $600-700, and spend up to $500 for a cheap APU laptop that can game better than Chris's lemon

With the new AMD GPU's coming out, you can hit a pretty nice budget build that can play games better than mine 

[Frank]

Yes, I want a custom built PC. I'll get the parts and then, most likely, build it myself. The laptop I find not so important.

[Viole]

Are you choosing any set form factor? As that amount of money you can get a nice M-ITX build   
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1MZen

I do think you should wait until you can get those one of those new AMD cards, but I didn't look at their pricings yet.

[Frank]

I currently have this:

Motherboard
BIOSTAR H55 HD LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor
Intel Core i3 540  @ 3.07GHz

Graphics card
EVGA GeForce GTS 250 1GB

RAM
Kingston 4GB Dual-Channel DDR3

Case
http://www.sentey.com/en_productos_details.php?tipo=Gabinetes&ctg=Deluxe%20Series&prod=ds1-4243



I want at least an i5, a GeForce 650, and 8GBs of RAM. That's my minimum standard.


Without much or in-depth analysing, I made this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Frankie50/saved/2ylL

[Peetah]

Just to get ya started or giving some ideas you can use this video.
Logan's a great guy and hes funny.

http://youtu.be/RmhZkaVXrqw

You can skip to 1min where it starts.

[Xrain]

First thing, make sure you have two monitors... Totally worth it.

For computer engineering the most you will use will be programs like Cadence orcad, eagle or a similar PSPICE circuit simulation software.
These don't really require a ton of horsepower so the dual xeon setup isn't needed. 

That said I would get a better cpu, a ssd, and 8-16 gb of ram, vs. what I would do for a gaming computer.


So a reasonable comp engineering setup for ~$1200:

CPU:  i5-4670k - $230

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H - $135

Memory: 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz (I like corsair or mushkin ram) - $58

PSU:    ThermalTake SP-530PCWEU - $65

Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 (Unless you already have one you like) $70

SSD: Samsung EVO 256 gb - $179 (Go bigger if you can spend the monies)

HDD: 2TB HDD (Personally I like WD black drives, but Seagate works too) - ~$150

GPU: AMD R9 270x - $199

OS: Windows 7 Professional OEM $135 (also a good idea to make a small partition on the HD and install Arch linux and learn that as well)

Extras: SATA DVD-RW Drive - $20

Totaling it up we get $1240 Which admittedly is a hair more than the budget but these are just rough prices I pulled out, you should be able to find better deals than what I priced out.


Welcome to the secret brotherhood of the electrical engineers! 

[Frank]

What do you think about this setup?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($209.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)

Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($232.97 @ Outlet PC)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($149.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($62.98 @ Outlet PC)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card  ($334.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($18.49 @ Amazon)


Total: $1219.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-11 06:45 EDT-0400)

[Xrain]

What do you think about this setup?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1N9wC/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($209.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)

Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($232.97 @ Outlet PC)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($149.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($62.98 @ Outlet PC)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card  ($334.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($18.49 @ Amazon)


Total: $1219.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-11 06:45 EDT-0400)

The i5-3570 is last generation technology (ivy bridge) If you are buying new might as well go with haswell.

That Mobo uses a Z77 northbridge which is the old generation of motherboard compared to the Z87 in the gigabyte Mobo I recommend sticking with the cpu/mobo combination I recommended, it should be better performance for the same price. And will put you on the current cpu socket standard.

Rams good

That HDD will work

The 670 is slower than the R9 780x in every benchmark I have seen, is nearly two generations old, and is $35 more expensive. If your going to spend $300 on a card go with the 780x

Case is a personal choice thing for the most part.

As for the PSU the 530W one I specced or the 750W one you specced will both work fine for either case. You wont really see much benefit from the extra wattage unless you are going to run several graphics cards in SLI. Which I personally wouldn't run SLI since the drivers tend to be rather spotty.

CD drive is fine, they are all pretty much the same.

You forgot to add the OS, which will be another $130.


I would highly reccomend the SSD for your system, as you will likely see the greatest speed gain from having one. Just install the OS and your most used applications on the SSD, and put your movies and music on the HDD.


Here is the computer on that part picker website:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1NqmJ

Granted I put the 7970 in there simply because they don't have the 780x's listed yet. But that 7970 should perform similarly to the 780x in any case.

And you can pick whatever cpu cooler, I have an arctic cooling and like it, but the one you had chosen should work as well.

[Frank]

The i5-3570 is last generation technology (ivy bridge) If you are buying new might as well go with haswell.

That Mobo uses a Z77 northbridge which is the old generation of motherboard compared to the Z87 in the gigabyte Mobo I recommend sticking with the cpu/mobo combination I recommended, it should be better performance for the same price. And will put you on the current cpu socket standard.

Rams good

That HDD will work

The 670 is slower than the R9 780x in every benchmark I have seen, is nearly two generations old, and is $35 more expensive. If your going to spend $300 on a card go with the 780x

Case is a personal choice thing for the most part.

As for the PSU the 530W one I specced or the 750W one you specced will both work fine for either case. You wont really see much benefit from the extra wattage unless you are going to run several graphics cards in SLI. Which I personally wouldn't run SLI since the drivers tend to be rather spotty.

CD drive is fine, they are all pretty much the same.

You forgot to add the OS, which will be another $130.


I would highly reccomend the SSD for your system, as you will likely see the greatest speed gain from having one. Just install the OS and your most used applications on the SSD, and put your movies and music on the HDD.


Here is the computer on that part picker website:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1NqmJ

Granted I put the 7970 in there simply because they don't have the 780x's listed yet. But that 7970 should perform similarly to the 780x in any case.

And you can pick whatever cpu cooler, I have an arctic cooling and like it, but the one you had chosen should work as well.

What if uhh... I were to use a special kind of OS? How would that affect me?

[Xrain]

What if uhh... I were to use a special kind of OS? How would that affect me?

Just use Linux it will help you with a lot of things later. What you do with your OS's outside of that is your business.

[Frank]

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Ovj5/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Ovj5/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($239.99 @ Newegg)


CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.98 @ SuperBiiz)


Thermal Compound: TUNIQ TX-2 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($7.99 @ Newegg)


Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ Newegg)


Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($134.99 @ Amazon)


Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($99.99 @ Amazon)


Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($146.99 @ NCIX US)


Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card  ($279.99 @ Newegg)


Case: Thermaltake Commander MS-I Epic Edition (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Microcenter)


Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 630W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)


Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($18.49 @ Amazon)


Total: $1203.38


http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Frankie50/saved/2ylL

[Frank]

Bump and sorry for double post. How much would it affect me to go to 12GB/8GB RAM? And what if I took out the SSD?

[Xrain]

Bump and sorry for double post. How much would it affect me to go to 12GB/8GB RAM? And what if I took out the SSD?

An extra 4GB of ram will pretty much do nothing. Unless you are running something that will use all of that. Since nothing I do ever exceeds 8GB you wont see any real benefit from the extra 4 gigs.

Removing the SSD will change you boot times from ~12 sec or less to around 50 sec+.

Any program that you would have had running on it would load considerably slower (ie not instant).


If money is a problem and you are trying to save some it wont be the end of the world to not have a ssd, it is just one of those things that are nice to have.

[Viole]

Every time I see you posting computer stuff, I feel stupid