Buying a computer

[Mexa]

Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40 GHz (4 cores - 8 Threads) [Sandy Bridge] [Multiplier unlocked]
CPU Coolers: Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Motherboard: P8P67 Deluxe B3 Sandy Bridge
Memory: Kingston DDR3 - 1600MHz - 16GB (4 x 4GB) ValueRAM
Graphics: ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/1GD5 (Crossfire)
Hard Drive 1: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
Hard Drive 2: Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD
Optical Drive 1: Lite-On iHBS112 12xBD Writer Blu-ray
Housing: SilverStone Raven RV03 SST RV03B-W
Power supply: SilverStone ST85F-P 850W (modular)

This costs 2,504.52 USD, Should anything be changed ?

All help is appreaciated

[OhpUldum]

What will you be using the computer for? That will dictate entirely if anything should be changed.

At a glance I would hope you plan to use the SSD as your OS/Game storage drive and the 1TB for media storage.

[Mexa]

What will you be using the computer for? That will dictate entirely if anything should be changed.

At a glance I would hope you plan to use the SSD as your OS/Game storage drive and the 1TB for media storage.

Its for upcoming games like BF3 and Skyrim and such, and yes, its the plan to use the SSD for OS/games and HDD for media. The 1TB was cheap so i just picked it

[OhpUldum]

Yeah if all you plan to do is store your media on the 1TB Caviar Green it is perfectly fine. If you planned to write FRAPS vids to it then I would suggest something else.

[Yohassakura]

Its for upcoming games like BF3 and Skyrim and such, and yes, its the plan to use the SSD for OS/games and HDD for media. The 1TB was cheap so i just picked it

Yeah, you want to change that hard drive you picked up for cheap. - This is winner. You'll be disappointed in that caviar green hard drive, as it's a low performance drive. The only thing you should use it for is storing tons of music + films, rather than games or programs.

[llDemonll]

I'm not sure why the price of the computer you have configured is so high, but:

US Configuration (using newegg.com)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz
MB: [Z68] ASUS P8Z68-V Pro ATX
GPU: 2x MSI Twin Frozr III Radeon HD 6950
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1600
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB SATA III
PSU: SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold
CPUHS: Noctua NH-D14
CASE: Silverstone Raven RV03 Mid Tower
CDROM: LiteOn BluRay Burner
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM (64-bit)
Total Price: $2058 USD
Configure More

Better Motherboard, SSD, RAM, PSU, GPU, CPU Cooler

[vesseblah]

I would recommend not taking BluRay burner. Have one and I have burned whole 2 discs in year or so. Spinning discs is dead media, most of it comes on flash cards and streaming over internet today. Also as somebody else mentioned before. You will want much faster HDD if you want to do video capture.

[Deleted]

Processor: Overkill for gamers. If you do not render or encode or use media (heavily) it's ridiculous to take this. Take the 2500, as a gamer you will never notice the difference. The 2600 is the top cpu on the market, I sincerely doubt you'll ever use even half of its performance.

Motherboard: Very good choice, the Z68 series is newer, but has same features as the P67. The only thing it has 'more' are features of the H series (and a tad more) which are basically again aimed at encoding and rendering.

Memory: Take 8gb unless you planning on running a gazillion virtual machines? If not, 8gb is the most anyone needs at the moment.

Graphics: Good choice. If you want to unlock them and overclock them you can get them to perform higher than stock 6970's.

Case: Seems a bit small to me, if you can fit in your 6950's and it has decent cooling then go for it

PSU: Never used a Silverstone PSU. I'd choose Corsair but shouldn't matter that much (if the PSU is 80plus etc. certified).

Again. That processor has no benefit if you're only interested in gaming. It's 100$ you could spend somewhere else.

The Bluray writer is your own choice, external disks are still cheaper. Although, depending on where you live, if a BD disc price is low (sometimes even only 1-2$) it's still a decent solution.

[counterhero]

Processor: Overkill for gamers. If you do not render or encode or use media (heavily) it's plain ridiculous to take this. Take the 2500, as a gamer you will never notice the difference. The 2600 is the top cpu on the market, I sincerely doubt you'll ever use even half of its performance.

Motherboard: Very good choice, the Z68 series is newer, but has same features as the P67. The only thing it has 'more' are features of the H series (and a tad more) which are basically again aimed at encoding and rendering.

Memory: Take 8gb unless you planning on running a gazillion virtual machines? If not, 8gb is the most anyone needs at the moment.

Graphics: Good choice. If you want to unlock them and overclock them you can get them to perform higher than stock 6970's.

Case: Seems a bit small to me, if you can fit in your 6950's and it has decent cooling then go for it

PSU: Never used a Silverstone PSU. I'd choose Corsair but shouldn't matter that much (if the PSU is 80plus etc. certified).

Again. That processor has no benefit if you're only interested in gaming. It's 100$ you could spend somewhere else.

The Bluray writer is your own choice, though external disks are still cheaper. Although, depending on where you live, if a BD disc price is low (sometimes even only 1-2$) it's still a decent solution.

He's already spending 2 grand. Let him get the i7. Also stick with the 16GB. My buddy was going to get 8 until I told him to buy 16. First game he loads while running all his apps/firefox and it was using a little over 8GB. Its only about 100 dollars for 16 DAMN GIGS OF RAM. I remember when i bought my 2GIG's of DDR2 800 for 289 dollars. How how the times have changed.

[lasheric]

Yeah, you want to change that hard drive you picked up for cheap. - This is winner. You'll be disappointed in that caviar green hard drive, as it's a low performance drive. The only thing you should use it for is storing tons of music + films, rather than games or programs.

Yohassakura, is this the same item? http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpo...6623590&sr=8-1

[vesseblah]

The Bluray writer is your own choice, though external disks are still cheaper. Although, depending on where you live, if a BD disc price is low (sometimes even only 1-2$) it's still a decent solution.

The thing why BluRay burner is dead...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817130187
Are probably the cheapest BluRay discs in Newegg, for $1.495 each. That's 5,98 cents per gigabyte.

In comparsion popular 1TB HDD for $59.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
It has about 953GB capacity formatted, or 6,29 cents per gigabyte.

Surprise surprise. Empty BluRay discs are actually cheaper. On to round two...


Copying 500 gigabytes of data into BluRay discs requires 20 discs, and 6x discs' theoretical burn time is 15.5 minutes per disc, making the grand total 310 minutes. Because of media quality and leadin/leadout times as well as manual disc swapping you can add 2.5 minutes for each disc, or 18 minutes per disc for a total of 360 minutes.

Copying 500 gigabytes into internal SATA2 HDD goes at the speed averaging 100 megabytes/second, which means about 50 seconds, or one minute on paper. In reality it takes around 10-15 minutes. Taking computer side panel off and unplugging the disc takes... let's say 3 minutes but if you're fast 1 minute is enough.

Moving the data as HDDs is approximately 20 times faster, and will take approximately 1/10 of the physical space (20 jewel cases vs 3.5" HDD). That's why BD writers are useless unless you need it to burn home movies for relatives.

[llDemonll]

16GB is an utter waste, all RAM prices do is go down. If he decides he needs more than 8GB he can always buy more later.

Agree'd with the i7 comment. His budget doesn't seem to be tight so there is no reason not to get the i7 over the i5

[Deleted]

If budget doesn't matter why even bother with the 6950's. Why not crossfire a pair of 6990's since he can afford it. Atleast that would set him ahead for his gaming, the 2600k would not. Paying 100$ more for something you won't be using (increased cache, hyperthread)? No matter how big your budget is, wasting money is always bad.

Still sticking with the 2500 unless he does more than only 'gaming'.

As for the ram, as demon says, wait for prices to drop and see for yourself if you will fully use 8gb.

---------- Post added 2011-09-21 at 05:22 PM ----------

Copying 500 gigabytes of data into BluRay discs requires 20 discs, and 6x discs' theoretical burn time is 15.5 minutes per disc, making the grand total 310 minutes. Because of media quality and leadin/leadout times as well as manual disc swapping you can add 2.5 minutes for each disc, or 18 minutes per disc for a total of 360 minutes.

Copying 500 gigabytes into internal SATA2 HDD goes at the speed averaging 100 megabytes/second, which means about 50 seconds, or one minute on paper. In reality it takes around 10-15 minutes. Taking computer side panel off and unplugging the disc takes... let's say 3 minutes but if you're fast 1 minute is enough.

Moving the data as HDDs is approximately 20 times faster, and will take approximately 1/10 of the physical space (20 jewel cases vs 3.5" HDD). That's why BD writers are useless unless you need it to burn home movies for relatives.

Your whole analogy has 1 fault, being that the sata drive is internal (buying the wires to make it 'external' are silly), thus eliminating the portability. That said, external drives are only a tad more expensive (around the 100$ range I reckon?). And going back to the speed. Since it's external you're forced into usb (still 2.0 on most devices) and they have a throughput of 30-40 Mb/s. I'd still take external drives over discs but discs are still useful.

[llDemonll]

USB 3.0, eSATA...either way the USB 2.0 will be faster and more convenient than bluray