BB wants a new computer - PC this time

[viper37]

Orders placed on my new computer. 

did you order what you posted a few pages above?

[Barrister]

Orders placed on my new computer. 

did you order what you posted a few pages above?

Mostly.  I cracked and spent more on a motherboard, and went down to 8GB RAM.  I also realized the damn window on my case cost an extra $30, so I went windowless instead.

[viper37]

Orders placed on my new computer. 

did you order what you posted a few pages above?

Mostly.  I cracked and spent more on a motherboard, and went down to 8GB RAM.  I also realized the damn window on my case cost an extra $30, so I went windowless instead.

you'll need a little more than 8gb if you want to use some gaming mods that increase texture quality.  Some of the Skyrim mods do require 16gb.  And any multitasking will drop your performance, so be sure to shut down everything else non essential while you game.
Basice games shouldn't be a problem for a while.

[Barrister]

Orders placed on my new computer. 

did you order what you posted a few pages above?

Mostly.  I cracked and spent more on a motherboard, and went down to 8GB RAM.  I also realized the damn window on my case cost an extra $30, so I went windowless instead.

you'll need a little more than 8gb if you want to use some gaming mods that increase texture quality.  Some of the Skyrim mods do require 16gb.  And any multitasking will drop your performance, so be sure to shut down everything else non essential while you game.
Basice games shouldn't be a problem for a while.

I can always buy more later on.

Which was part of the idea going with this rig.  I could have gotten slightly better gaming performance by going with an older CPU and motherboard, and spending more on the graphics card.  But going with the Z170 board and Skylake it should be more upgradeable in the future.

[katmai]

The majority of my rig except video card are turning 4 this Xmas. Think it is time to upgrade?!?

[Barrister]

The majority of my rig except video card are turning 4 this Xmas. Think it is time to upgrade?!?

Bah!  My rig is 7 going on 8 before I upgraded!


But seriously... it's a question of what are you unhappy about with your current rig, and how much money do you have to burn?  If you've got money burning a hole in your pocket the answer is yes without knowing anything more, but otherwise we need more details...

[Barrister]

Oh the final listing on my rig:

CPU: Intel 6600K
Motherboard: Gigabyte GAZ170XP-SU (chosen because it was a bundle on Newegg with the CPU)
Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu (chosen because it's a bit hit on silentpcreview.com, and the 6600K doesn't have a stock cooler)
RAM: G.Skill 8GB 2400 (DDR4)
HD: Samsung 250GB (I dunno - Samsung was a familiar name)
HD: Seagate 2TB (was cheap, and I went with Viper's advice to get 2TB)
GPU: EVGA GTX 960 (cheapest 960 I saw, seemed decent)
Case: Fractal Design R5 Titanium (very good reviews, willing to spend a bit on the case)
PS: Fractal 550W (I had no idea - same manufacturer as the case)
DVD: Samsung (was only $20, otherwise might have skipped)
Keyboard: Logitech (realized if I sell the Mac Pro, I have to get rid of the Mac keyboard - so this was cheap)

Wound up getting all but two things from Newegg - the cooler was from Amazon, and the Seagate HDD from Memory Express.  I decided against buying from a couple of the retailers pcpartspicker suggested on the grounds I'd never, ever heard of them.  Besides, while it might list them as the cheapest price, Newegg was only a buck or two more price on almost everything.

[viper37]

In the future, if you ever decide to go SLI with a 2nd video card, be sure to recheck the power requirement, 550w is probably borderline for a 2nd video card.

tell us how it goes once you've taken it out for a spin

[crazy canuck]

The majority of my rig except video card are turning 4 this Xmas. Think it is time to upgrade?!?

I don't think so.  From everything I have read the improvement isn't worth the upgrade.  Better to wait for the AMD Zen chip and the Intel response.

[Monoriu]

The majority of my rig except video card are turning 4 this Xmas. Think it is time to upgrade?!?

I upgraded my 4-year old computer recently.  I am happy with the new computer.  There is a noticeable difference.  Everything is faster and in my case the computer is a lot more quiet. 

[viper37]

The majority of my rig except video card are turning 4 this Xmas. Think it is time to upgrade?!?

It's time to upgrade if you feel your computer is too slow, the graphics aren't nice enough or there's games you'd like to play and you can't because you don't have the requirements for it.

Time is not a good indicator, because it varies from people to people.

[Barrister]

So bonus points to Memory Express: one item ordered from them Monday night, delivered on Wednesday.

Tracking sheet shows it was shipped from Calgary, which likely explains the quick delivery.  I'll have to keep that in mind if/when ordering anything else.

Hoping other components start showing up today, though I bet it won't be till next week when everything is present.

[Barrister]

Nothing arrived on Thursday.

[crazy canuck]

http://www.dell.com/ca/p/alienware-x51-r3/pd?oc=dax51r3_bt_b003e&model_id=alienware-x51-r3

This seems like a really good deal.  Is there something I am missing?

[Barrister]

http://www.dell.com/ca/p/alienware-x51-r3/pd?oc=dax51r3_bt_b003e&model_id=alienware-x51-r3

This seems like a really good deal.  Is there something I am missing?

The videocard.  If I was going to spend $2,000 I would want a better videocard.  Not that it's a bad card - it is what I ordered.  But there are better cards out there. 

You could probably save a couple hundred going the "build your own" route, but that's only 10% of your cost.  Plus you get a factory warranty.

I had decent luck with Dell desktops back in the day, but then I had an absolutely horrid laptop and went Mac after that.  And the laptop might have just been down to Vista.