Long overdue upgrade

RevMen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 22, 2004
Messages
460
My friends: my once mighty, 6 year old machine is still running great, but I am starting
aproject that needs more guts. Plus, it's just time.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

For the next year or 2, it will be used for software development. Some Web development, but also work on a very processor intensive project (that will probably not be multi-threaded). So high CPU speed is necessary, but many cores won't be too helpful for now.

It needs to be able to support 3 monitors, but they won't be used for games. On-board video with DisplayPort that supports MST would be ideal, I think.

After a year or w it will become a gaming rig. I'll add a GPU or two or 3 and resume wasting my life. I may replace the CPU then, too. I'd like the motherboard to last another 5 years.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Flexible. Prefer to stay around $500 but can go up to $800 if it's worth it.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Northern Colorado, USA. Best Buy and Office Depot are my only b and m options.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

Motherboard
CPU
Memory
SSD (256-ish would be adequate)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Silverstone FT02 case
Power Supply (don't remember the model but it's up to the task)
Radeon 5850 (if I need it, would prefer to not use it)
Many spinning hard drives for storage
DP hub if I need it.

6) Will you be overclocking?

No. No interest in over clocking at all.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

3 x 1600 x 1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Soon. Would order parts tonight if I had them picked out.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

On board video would be very nice, as long as it supports 3 monitors.
USB 3
Support for M.2 would be good


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

It'll be running Linux, so software is already covered
 
Please find out the make and model of your PSU. Also how old is it?
 
CPU: Intel i5-4670 / i7-4790 (depending on your needs)
Mobo: Asus H97M-PLUS or Asus Z97-A
They're pretty much the same boards, but in your case it all boils down to how you want to connect your monitors as one on the H97M-PLUS board will be using VGA, other than that it wont make a difference in your case.
H97M-PLUS - HDMI + DVI + VGA
Z97-A - HDMI + DVI + Displayport + VGA
Intel LAN and of course chipset, Realtek audio, solid boards and at a decent price.

Memory:
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9
Single 8Gb stick or 2x8Gb (16Gb in total)
Good stock ram, works fine and does what it's supposed to do.

SSDs:
Plextor PX-256M6Pro ~150$
Micro M600 256GB ~140$
SAMSUNG 850 PRO 256Gb ~180$
Crucial M550 256Gb ~130$
All good ones, the Crucial M550 is a bit older than the rest but still performs very well and is a solid choice. The Samsung Pro offers longer warranty than the others but is also the most expensive one.
//Danne
 
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If the PSU is 6 years old I would replace it. If you care about single threaded performance you could get a G3258 and OC and upgrade to an i5-4670K later. If are really against OCing just get an i5-4590 (non-K) now and a cheap H81 MB.
 
PSU is not 6 years old. The motherboard and memory are.

Thanks for the great advice! Was thinking about Asus but wasn't sure. I just need to be pushed, sometimes.
 
Gigabyte B85 board $81
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D1A5OR0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Intel 4590 $210
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/offer-li...2176094&sr=1-1&keywords=i5+4590&condition=new

16GB ram $101
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D1IUEHW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Crucial 256GB SSD $110
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFAGCWK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

all free ship and your total is $502

2 weeks ago I got a 4690K for $214 and right now it runs pretty well at 4.3Ghz on a stock Intel aluminum cooler


I also added a Radeon R 280 for $159 after MIR and tax
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IZXOW80/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Rosewill 650W PSU $80
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ILWYJQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for a grand total of $741 for a kickin' game system on a budget. Mind you that that price does not include keyboard/mouse, monitor or case all of which I had previously.
 
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Well XFX PSUs are generally good as I'm not aware of any XFX PSU that has actually failed proper testing.

So here's what I recommend:
$302 - Intel Core i7-4790 CPU
$100 - AsRock Fatal1ty H97 Performance Intel H97 Motherboard
$105 - Crucial BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$98 - Samsung 850 Evo Series 250GB SSD
---
Total: $605 shipped.

The CPU is a tad overkill but it means that you would no reason to upgrade your CPU later on. It actually saves you money in the long-run. Plus if your software development does become more multi-threaded, the Core i7's HT feature should help. But if you want to remain close to budget, then drop down to the $200 Core i5 4590:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116991
 
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@ YeuEmMaiMai
It's not a that bad mobo but if you run Linux/BSD you very much want to have Intel LAN at least. I've also seen interesting BIOS bugs regarding USB and ACPI with Gigabyte (that doesn't show up in Windows) so I'd be a bit careful going that route. He/She also most likely want to connect all monitors digitally which isn't possible with that mobo. It also lacks M2.

The memory is verys similar to the Crucial sticks I mentioned, no idea of the quality of PNY memory and/or compatibility.

From what I've gathered, the equivalent to Crucial's M550 would be MX200. The MX100 seems to be replacing M500 which does have quite a bit slower specs esp writes so that might be worth taking into consideration.

@ Dangman
No need for some "gamer" mobo as all software enhancements is pretty much software you don't want to install in the first place and he/she is going to run Linux so there wont be any at all. It lacks M.2 which was desirable by RevMan and only two digital video outputs so it falls a bit short compared to the Asus H97M-PLUS which at least has the M.2 connection while the Z97-A has both.

I'd be a bit careful with EVO-line and Toggle NAND which has shorter life span compared to regular MLC memory, the ones I mentioned are all MLC based and the 850 Pro has longer warranty but might not justify its price.
//Danne
 
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dizzy, I tried to keep it near his $500 mark and as such, made that specific recommendation, I have no issues with my board so that's another reason why I recommended it.

I got it because

a) it fits into a mATX case
b) you can overclock the K series CPU on a budget.

sure he is willing to go up to $800 but imho the extra $300 is not buying you much especially if you are not getting a fairly modern GPU..

I like your recommendation as well I also prefer Intel LAN but since Intel gave up the making of Mainboards Ghost a few years ago, we are SOL at my price point and size.
 
Hmm... having a quick look
8Gb RAM, Z97-A, i5-4590, Plextor SSD is around 550$ over at Newegg, getting the beefier i5 would be 20$ more and grabbing the H97M-PLUS would be 40$ less over at Newegg.

The case is an ATX sized one (if needed) ;-)
//Danne
 
8GB is most likely borderline if you want the PC to last without upgrading...
 
It's Linux and not Windows =)
That said, memory is the easiest part to upgrade when/if needed and I mentioned both 8 and 16 in the first post.
//Danne
 
@ Dangman
No need for some "gamer" mobo as all software enhancements is pretty much software you don't want to install in the first place and he/she is going to run Linux so there wont be any at all. It lacks M.2 which was desirable by RevMan and only two digital video outputs so it falls a bit short compared to the Asus H97M-PLUS which at least has the M.2 connection while the Z97-A has both.

I'd be a bit careful with EVO-line and Toggle NAND which has shorter life span compared to regular MLC memory, the ones I mentioned are all MLC based and the 850 Pro has longer warranty but might not justify its price.
//Danne

I don't think the toggle NAND is a really big issue. By the time that SSD needs to be replaced, so would the rest of the PC.

Fair points on the motherboard. But I mainly chose that AsRock on the basis of it having a longer track record than the Asus H97M-PLUS.
 
Bump to say thanks again for the advice. I used most of what's listed below, including the Z97-A motherboard and the i5. It went together very easily and it's sooo much faster than my last machine. The motherboard easily supports all 3 of my monitors, and in Xubuntu I didn't have to do a thing to get them all working.

CPU: Intel i5-4670 / i7-4790 (depending on your needs)
Mobo: Asus H97M-PLUS or Asus Z97-A
They're pretty much the same boards, but in your case it all boils down to how you want to connect your monitors as one on the H97M-PLUS board will be using VGA, other than that it wont make a difference in your case.
H97M-PLUS - HDMI + DVI + VGA
Z97-A - HDMI + DVI + Displayport + VGA
Intel LAN and of course chipset, Realtek audio, solid boards and at a decent price.

Memory:
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9
Single 8Gb stick or 2x8Gb (16Gb in total)
Good stock ram, works fine and does what it's supposed to do.

SSDs:
Plextor PX-256M6Pro ~150$
Micro M600 256GB ~140$
SAMSUNG 850 PRO 256Gb ~180$
Crucial M550 256Gb ~130$
All good ones, the Crucial M550 is a bit older than the rest but still performs very well and is a solid choice. The Samsung Pro offers longer warranty than the others but is also the most expensive one.
//Danne
 
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