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Help me, I'm too old to remember this!

heymrdj

Diamond Member
Thread that started this: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2433248

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

The PC is my workstation. Important parts are gaming, and running Server 2012 R2 for Hyper-V. I use this for my studies and experiments. I dual boot Server 2012R2 for work with Windows 8.1 (and soon 10) for play. Windows 8.1 is the main OS, 2012R2 is a VHDX I boot to.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

Thinking 1300-1500$

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

No fanboyisms. I've had a Pentium 4 rig, a Core 2 Duo rig, Turion rig, AMD X2 rig, and currently my AMD X6 1090 rig I'm looking to replace. Whatever is the best bang for buck for what I need to use it for. First and foremost workstation capabilities, secondly as a gaming machine.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I currently have a Samsung 830 Pro 256GB SSD, I think that will be just fine to continue to use as a boot drive. Also an Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU, I figure that will continue to work fine.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

None

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

Currently running dual 1920x1080 screens. Only using one in gaming. Will probably use two for gaming with the upgrade, Euro Truck Simulator 2 being my current main game. Waiting on Just Cause 3 as my next PC title.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

I know everyone hates ranges but hoping sometime in the next half of the year, probably around September or so. Not really looking for exact prices at this time as I am parts recommendations.

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

No, I have Windows 8.1, Office 2013 ect.

I built my current workstation in 2008 (upgraded processors in 2010). It's an AMD 1090T, 32GB RAM, AMD 5870, MSI mainboard system. Ran it for years for virtualization experiments and of course gaming. But now ETS2 has a new update with an updated graphics engine, and the 5870 can't hardly keep up on medium on a single screen, let alone moving into the 2-4 screens it supports. What's most important to me is small size (I basically have a kitchen table to work from, yay apartment living), cooler temps, and stability. I will not be overclocking, and I would prefer to hopefully have a nice neat chassis this time, instead of a horribly oversized and messy chassis that I have now in the Antec 900. My plan is to store my two drives in the main chassis (1 2.5" SSD and 1 3.5" SATA drive I use to store ISO's and other large files I work with during experiements), while having a PCI-E card with ESATA or ESAS to go to an external chassis holding my 8-12 SATA work drives that I use for experiments.

Priorities:
Cool running and stable.
Decent graphics to run Indie titles at 1920x1080 on two screens, doesn't have to be max quality.
Neat small chassis that accepts a regular size PCI-E graphics card, and at least one other PCI-E 8x card.
Needs to support at least 32GB of RAM, more is a bonus. My experiments are RAM and I/O constrained, not CPU in the slightest. It's the gaming that could use a better CPU.

So basically I'm looking for budgetary balance. I'm not a guy that will throw 400$ to get 2% increased pixles. I need to aim this more at small workstation than I do gaming might. So AT help please!! I haven't built a rig in 7 years, and I'm lost when I hit up Newegg.
 
Why not use the old rig for the virtualization, and the new one for gaming? You don't need much to virtualize, but it all depends on how much you intend to run behind it. I would honestly just pull the video card from your existing rig and run virtualization with that. Plug an alternate input to one of your monitors and throw a Logitech K400 on it if you need a dedicated KB/Mouse for it.

As for the rig, whatever works, but with a $1300 budget, you should be able to get just about anything you want:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rBMrsY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rBMrsY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($314.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($84.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY CS1111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.45 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($525.45 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1295.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-31 19:28 EDT-0400
 
Why not use the old rig for the virtualization, and the new one for gaming? You don't need much to virtualize, but it all depends on how much you intend to run behind it. I would honestly just pull the video card from your existing rig and run virtualization with that. Plug an alternate input to one of your monitors and throw a Logitech K400 on it if you need a dedicated KB/Mouse for it.

As for the rig, whatever works, but with a $1300 budget, you should be able to get just about anything you want:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rBMrsY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rBMrsY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($314.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($84.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY CS1111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.45 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($525.45 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1295.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-31 19:28 EDT-0400

Wow this PC parts picker thing is really neat 😛. Is the 980 considered top of the line right now? Outside of the 980Ti? It seems that 1500$ goes pretty far these days. I build out HP and Dell servers at work, so I'm used to not much bang of for buck. That and my 256GB SSD I bought when they cost 299$ each (on a newegg sale).

How is the Corsair Obsidian 250D? If I pair that with a self contained CPU water cooler? For my apartment I've had to get fancy. Smaller equipment, cooler temps, I'm just not sure if I want a full tower anymore.
 
September is too far out to be giving advice on specific parts. There will certainly be new AMD GPUs out by then and perhaps even new Intel CPUs.

Also, I'm not sure I would recommend gaming across two monitors, that puts a bezel right in the middle of your view. Obviously you can run a game on one monitor and have your normal desktop on the other.

Here's the approximate price breakdown you should be looking at:

CPU $300
Mobo $120
RAM $200 (32GB)
GPU $350
Reuse SSD $0
3TB HDD $90
Reuse PSU $0
Case $100
Total: $960

You could obviously spend more, for example getting a ~500GB SSD and a new PSU (not a bad idea if the Earthwatts is the same vintage as your old PC). You could also get a faster GPU, but the price/performance really drops off above $350.
 
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