Any reason to get a standalone graphics card instead of integrated graphics

[slicksilver]

My usage will be only browsing, youtube hd, music and office work. In other words, it will be a productivity computer. I'm a sucker for lag free computer and would like to know if getting an additional graphics card(a minimum spec one) will help my case.

Thanks

 

[Kenmitch]

Why not just try out the integrated graphics and see how they work out for you?

You could always drop in a dedicated gpu later if you feel the need.

 

[Blue_Max]

Might depend on your processor, but IGP is pretty darned good these days...

For your stuff, I *seriously* doubt you'd see the difference, especially on an Intel i3 or better.

 

[slicksilver]

Why not just try out the integrated graphics and see how they work out for you?

You could always drop in a dedicated gpu later if you feel the need.

Thinking of getting a board without a graphics card slot. Below is the config I'm building :

i3 - 4130 / 3.4 GHz
Asus H81M-K
DDR 3 -1600 16(8x2) GB
Samsung 850 pro ssd 256GB MZ-7KE256BW
Antec VSK case with Antec 450W Power Supply (VP450P)

 

[Zodiark1593]

Since you're not gaming, nor doing anything compute intensive, I'd say stick to the igp.

 

[Kenmitch]

Thinking of getting a board without a graphics card slot. Below is the config I'm building :

i3 - 4130 / 3.4 GHz
Asus H81M-K
DDR 3 -1600 16(8x2) GB
Samsung 850 pro ssd 256GB MZ-7KE256BW
Antec VSK case with Antec 450W Power Supply (VP450P)

Lost me on your above config....The MB has a slot for a gpu if needed.

 

[inf1nity]

That CPU has HD 4400 graphics, which would be more than sufficient for your usage.

Thinking of getting a board without a graphics card slot. Below is the config I'm building :

i3 - 4130 / 3.4 GHz
Asus H81M-K
DDR 3 -1600 16(8x2) GB
Samsung 850 pro ssd 256GB MZ-7KE256BW
Antec VSK case with Antec 450W Power Supply (VP450P)

Um, why are you getting 16 GB of RAM? That's completely unnecessary for the things you need to do.

 

[slicksilver]

Cool. Thanks all. I run simulation models in excel and some times they can get very intensive.

 

[Techhog]

Cool. Thanks all. I run simulation models in excel and some times they can get very intensive.

Those would be more CPU-intensive, if anything.

 

[slicksilver]

Yeah ? No real advantage of going 16gb for my purpose then?

 

[Seba]

Asus H81M-K

I would choose a motherboard with HDMI (along DVI and D-SUB). Not much price difference (if any), but useful to have when using integrated graphics.

 

[Techhog]

Yeah ? No real advantage of going 16gb for my purpose then?

Nope.

 

[Kenmitch]

Yeah ? No real advantage of going 16gb for my purpose then?

Probably better off pushing the money towards a better cpu or motherboard or both even.

 

[Erenhardt]

Probably better off pushing the money towards a better cpu or motherboard or both even.

He will be better off saving some money. Is i3 nesesery for office and youtube? 8GB of RAM seems like overkill, not to mention 16GB.

I think he can downgrade to pentium or amd apu. If he is going to be using this setup for long periods of time, he will be better off spending saved money on quality display that will not stress his eyes.

 

[slicksilver]

Probably better off pushing the money towards a better cpu or motherboard or both even.

Work with massive amounts of data and do a fair amount of modeling with the data. My modeling involves running large numbers of simulations or iterative processes where I can take full advantage of multi-threading. For what it's worth, some of my code must be run through Excel/VBA, which probably ups the RAM requirements. Right? That's the reason I'm considering 8GB. Upgrading the proc. to i5 and a board with HDMI and DVI connectivity options.

 

[Blue_Max]

Yeah ? No real advantage of going 16gb for my purpose then?

Nope. Put the money saved into an i5 instead of i3... your spreadsheets will really benefit from the CPU power!

start with 8GB (even if it's just ONE 8GB stick) and leave the second slot open. Monitor your memory usage... if you regularly go above 8GB (which I doubt) you can grab a 4 or 8GB stick to throw in the second slot later.

Don't worry, the Intel platform only sees a ~1% performance benefit of single vs. dual-channel memory so a 2-slot board is better off leaving the slot open for more RAM later, unless you're confident enough to sell 2x4GB sticks to buy larger if/when you need it.

 

[lopri]

Ctrl + Shift + ESC will bring up Task Manager on Win 7/8. See how much memory you use on average and consider having some breathing room. RAM is inexpensive and it doesn't hurt to have excess on desktop.

Memory performance is really a matter of either/or. You either have enough or not, and when you do not have enough the whole system tanks.

If you can afford, going with a discrete GPU will free up CPU cycles thus make the system feel snappier.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a Sandy Bridge Pentium G630 rig. I upgraded it with a (low-profile) NVidia / PNY GT430. Scrolling is smoother in the web browser, and Skype is better.

 

[MeldarthX]

For those that are going 16 gigs is overkill with excel; I have several users where I work that have to have 16 gigs for excel because of modeling and scripts they run.

I would say min that he will want is 8 gigs; test and upgrade to 16 after a little bit...but excel scripts can easily chew through 16 gigs of ram......

 

[Roland00Address]

More memory is always good, but I would try to get an i5 prior to go more than 8 gbs of memory.

The way I think upgrades for general use (non gaming or anything need a graphic card).

Haswell Pentium First with 8gb->Decent SSD like at least 128 or a 256 of tier 1 brand->I3->I5->16gb->better ssd like a 480.

After that you can't really improve it much, you can do marginal improvements but the key word marginal. Now some things such as video rendering/encoding would prefer an i7 quad core to an i7 eight core (damn that is sexy saying that i7 eight core with 16 threads, repeat after me SEXY) but for most usage models you will not go above 4 cores at 3.7 ghz.

Now I would highly recommend a good monitor, something ips/pls and at least 1080p but preferably 1440p. You can get Koreans for roughly $300 and brands such as ASUS for $500. Now 4k is awesome but I would wait a little longer for the price to drop for nice panels and not tn stuff and for the various OSes to get better resolution support. (why is not possible in windows for the software to think I am running a 1080 panel if its not dpi aware and and a 4k panel if its aware with a checkbox under preferences for each individual program. I would gladly lose the 1 pixel and just do a 2x2 pixel doubling or the graphic card smoothing out the colors so you get the best of both worlds.)

 

[slicksilver]

Thank you all. I have a monitor already Dell u2711. I will get the Intel® Core™ i5-4690 Processor instead and get 8GB RAM. Pretty sure I'll be upgrading to 16 maybe in a week or more. Some colleagues who are doing this work said 16 makes it sweet.

 

[PliotronX]

Thinking of getting a board without a graphics card slot. Below is the config I'm building :

i3 - 4130 / 3.4 GHz
Asus H81M-K
DDR 3 -1600 16(8x2) GB
Samsung 850 pro ssd 256GB MZ-7KE256BW
Antec VSK case with Antec 450W Power Supply (VP450P)

Bump that up to a 4330, more cache and speed for like ten bucks.

Edit- didnt see you were going i5, good choice

 

[slicksilver]

I have a Sandy Bridge Pentium G630 rig. I upgraded it with a (low-profile) NVidia / PNY GT430. Scrolling is smoother in the web browser, and Skype is better.

I'm surprised. How is Skype affected by graphics?

 

[Cerb]

If you might use 16GB already, think about getting a nicer motherboard, with 4 RAM slots (you'll probably need a B85 or H97 chipset), so that you can go up to 24GB or 32GB, before replacing the system.

 

[Deders]

Yeah ? No real advantage of going 16gb for my purpose then?

Excel calculations are one of the tasks that can actually perform better with lower Ram latencies, so probably better off getting 8GB of low high speed low latency DDR3.