New computer

[willsonman]

My VERY old (2007) computer is finally getting an upgrade. I build my own systems and prior to getting back into the hobby I did overclocking as a hobby (water cooling, peltier, case modding, etc). I've upgraded parts over the years. Things like video cards and hard drives. I've even got a caching SSD drive to speed things up. The problem is that with my larger print jobs being vectored it really bogs down... a LOT. Illustrator does not play nice with these. I'm not a big gamer but I'm huge on reliability. As this basic rig as lasted me the better part of a decade lets do the comparison.

Parts to be re-used:
MSI GTX 950 2GD5T OC video card
WD Caviar 500GB HDD
Sandisk 32GB ReadyCache SSD
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU (overkill, yes, but leftover from OC days)
ASUS 28" LED monitor
mouse and keyboard

Old (to be replaced) parts:
Biostar NF520-A2 Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
G.Skill DDR2 2GB RAM
old beat up case
Optical drive

New parts:
Gigabyte GA-H110M-A LGA1151 Motherboard
Intel Core i3-6100
G.Skill DDR4 8GB RAM
Thermaltake Versa case
LG Blu-ray drive

The advantages here are that I have an upgrade path for memory and processor. I have USB 3.0 now. A case that is minimalistic and has better cooling properties and I can even add my water cooling back if I get really ambitious. In short I should be able to process my plans with no issues and do video processing much faster for my Youtube videos. I can even add in a storage drive to keep all my airplane files backed up. SInce this machine sits in my bedroom I do use it to watch Netflix in the evening. Adding the Blu-ray drive is nice to be able to watch movies in bed on sick days and times when the Kids otherwise have our main TV occupied. We have no cable so internet is our only source of programming.

Pretty excited for this. I've not done a new build in years but I expect it will not take but a few hours to do.

 

[kacknor]

Your post is an on time reminder for me. Built my first computer in 1989 from the bit bought at a computer show. Stopped around the time your old one was new. I was selling and supporting them and it was just cheaper to buy ready made. I'm stale as heck with the current lines of components and standards.

These days I use laptops mostly, but as I watched my Sony notebook with an i7 and 12 gig of memory take about 90 minutes to render a 7 minute video I decided I may be needing something else.

JD

 

[willsonman]

So, can you imagine how long that video would take on my old system? LOL Its pretty worthless in terms of encoding. I do sometimes miss my days of my DFI motherboard with an Opteron processor. THat rig had two PSUs as they did not make them large enough then to run the overclocked rig and a peltier cooler. Back then, an overclock of 2.2Ghz was hard, but fun. Now I just want the thing to load my email. Software continually gets more bloated and taxing on the hardware that it forces you to upgrade. Security holes are plugged with more bloated security holes. It sucks but its the age we live in.

 

[finnen]

I've been living with laptops for years now, but getting the itch to build something again. I always built my own PC's back then, when I was gaming. Not a whole lot of modding though, but fun anyway.

I'm getting back into gaming a little, so I might need a little more performance, also I'm starting to run virtual machines for work reasons, and that could use a little more oumph as well.

Only downside is that that money could be used for RC stuff =( priorities, priorities...

 

[willsonman]

One of my mods has been frequently featured... here is one:
http://makezine.com/2008/12/21/benhecks-pc-mod-pick-of-the-day-ape/

 

[PHugger]

SInce this machine sits in my bedroom...

OUCH! Fan noise is a killer, even tuned down as much as possible.
Liquid cooling seems like a good direction.
My desktop machine is down in the Man Cave. It serves nicely to keep it warm.... (c8

Big Wins for your $$$ -

• SSD
• GPU
• USB3

On my 1 year old machine I can render video in near real-time. Mind boggling.
Things are getting out of hand - Tablets with Core i7 CPUs, Phones with 8 Core CPUs.
Thankfully Windows has really held the line as far as not requiring faster and faster hardware with new OS releases.
This allows you to slow down the hardware upgrade cycle, but 10 years? C'mon man...... (c8
Have fun with your new Ferrari!



Best regards,
PCH

 

[willsonman]

I use Silenx fans... no fan noise issues. GPU spools up when doing gaming but that is all.

 

[PHugger]

Those fans are crazy quiet, but what about the PSU?



Best regards,
PCH

 

[joshk20000]

i'm a big fan of custom computers. always more fun to build it yourself, right? might i recommend going to 16GB instead of 8GB of ram, it will make a world of a difference. one single program probably wont use it all (unless you are doing CAD or similar programs) but the amount of background things going on these days it just helps keep a smoother experience.

 

[willsonman]

The PSU has a 140mm fan... it's quiet. So, with 8GB I will max out on rare occasions when I am enlarging rasterized plans for my 44" printer. The rasterized files alone are in the area of 2-3 GB when first created at 300dpi. Other than that I should be fine. Should I need to get more in the future, I can go up to 32GB. This is also based on the performance of my Wife's computer with 8GB. She is a graphic designer and uses illustrator and photoshop constantly and 8GB is sufficient for her.

 

[joshk20000]

true, always easy to upgrade RAM

 

[PsyBorg]

Nice upgrade and reuse of parts. I had the opertunity to buy a nice prebuilt system a few years ago and have modded it a bit and have upgraded several parts.

Started out as an Ibuypower gaming computer and has some upgrades since. Full on liquid cooling for everything, pieced together from various aftermarket solutions. 2 bay reservoir and pump, 300mm radiator, all scythe fans. As it sits now it has a thermaltake tough power 850 watt PS. The original Asus P6t MB (next on list to be upgraded) I7 920 (have oc'd it and can run at 4.6 gig OC indefinitely with only a 10 c system temp rise. 12 gig ddr3 1600 in triple channel and an ATI R9 290x vid card (the reason to upgrade the MB as its only running PCIE X2 not full X3 on that MB) It has a 65gig OCX agility SSD for the OS and a 1Tera hybrid drive that has 64gig ssd on it for storage.

haven't found anything yet that even remotely struggle on computing wise which for an over 3year old Frankenstein is pretty good I think.

 

[rc-plane]

I would not buy an i3 , all my computers are i5, they have better L2,L3 cache and run much faster and more reliable, if you can afford it get the i5

 

[kacknor]

I would not buy an i3 , all my computers are i5, they have better L2,L3 cache and run much faster and more reliable, if you can afford it get the i5

I have an i3 in the house. Had a client tell me to take a Dell laptop for recycle. i3 with 6 gig, 15" screen and a 500 gig HD. Recycle? Fiance is using it! Good enough for email and internet for sure. Nobody however, is rendering video on it.

And I agree, I wouldn't buy one.

JD

 

[earthsciteach]

Nerd.

 

[kacknor]

This is the Nerd thread I guess.

I was awarded The Royal Order of Honorary Nerd many, many years ago. It's honorary because I can't code. Hardware guy extraordinaire. Fix it when it breaks. Make it work when others can not. Will cause reluctant software to work too.

But don't ask me to code a program. Ain't gonna happen.

JD

 

[Bricks]

Never been a computer geek of any kind and never wanted to, as I sit here using my OLD Dell Latitude E6510 laptop reading about computer Geeks and barely understanding what they are talking about.