oh this is what I mentioned today after check local stores.
here prices:
G2020 = 74$
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H = 99$
4GB DDR3 1333 (Kingston) = 34$ (RAM price increased according to sellers)
And
1TB WD Blue is 100$
1TB Toshiba HDD cost 80$
I already have a 300W PSU salvaged from IBM/lenovo CPU.
For CG, you generally throw everything at it. Even CPU and video card selection can make a big difference.
If your program pulls the data into memory for calcs, then only the load is faster, not the recalcs. If your program is doing a lot of data base disk access then the SSD should help. Streaming with buffering is not really a benefit, and a will probably wear an SSD faster. Surfing depends on whether you frequent a lot of cached pages (SSD helps), but probably less value otherwise.
Lots of open pages are best with lots of RAM and SSD, but low memory is helped by having the SSD so that the virtual memory page swaps don’t pause the machine as long.
Not as good, but for low budget systems (not CG) ReadyBoost on a memory card/USB can help fill the gap of not having an SSD. Was a big impact on a slower processor, and I notice when it’s missing with our slower laptops that don’t have an SSD.
Full disclosure: percentage wise, I’ve had more SSD fails than HD fails. I’m still in the camp of it’s a luxury unless you’re constantly opening programs.
PS: Surprisingly - and against all advice - I’ve also become converted to Win8 for a desktop using Classic Shell (essentially ignoring touch features). It’s faster and even more stable for me than Win7. Even my friend with a new Win8 laptop is back to using Win8 instead of the Win7 OS drive.
Current system is enough for me. Im using Windows 7
But I know this motherboard will die very soon
It has some issues. sometimes it didn’t boot (not a RAM or VGA fault)
Intel® Core i7-3770S 3.1GHz, BOX (1155) 219.54 €
Fractal Design Define R4 USB 3.0 Black Pearl 84.87 €
DDRAM3 2x8GB Kingston Beast XMP 2400 CL9 (KHX24C11T3K2/16X) 113.25 €
Fortron AURUM 600W 80PLUS Gold 69.64 €
SanDisk SSD eXtreme 240GB 2,5" SATA III 159.33 €
VGA SAPPHIRE ATI HD7870 2GB DDR5 (PCIe) 163.29 €
MB ASRock Z77 EXTREME4 (1155) 98.88 €
Intel Core i5-2310 Quad-Core Processor,
GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V Motherboard,
Crucial DDR3 8GB Memory, Seagate 1TB HDD,
Rosewill Case w/350W PSU SuperCombo
$386.99 free shipping at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1219540
Oh and free Intel shirt
I built my latest computer about 18 months ago
Antec 300 series case
Asus P8H67-V (Rev 3) motherboard
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8ghz processor
16gb's of GSkill RipJaws Ram
EVGA superclocked Geforce 560 video card
Seasonic X750 power supply
(5) 1 tb Western Digital Caviar Black HD's
Soon to upgrade my C drive to a Samsung 128gb model 840 SSD for my boot drive
I would recommend a new PSU. Unless the one you have is fairly new. All the best.
Edit : If you want front USB 3.0 ports, you will need a new cabinet too. CM Elite 344 USB3.
My roll-top desk has a place to take a PC base unit … Unfortunately this slot has no ventilation at the rear or sides and is only 8.5” wide … Since this is an heirloom quality desk, I have been forbidden (by her) to cut a large vent hole in the wooden (oak) back … My five year old PC has a gap of about one inch on either side when in the slot … The PC is a Compaq Presario SR5219 and uses an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3GHz processor … I have 4GB of RAM and use Windows Vista … It works OK but is a bit slow particularly on startup, so I have been looking for a replacement … I have had no problems with excess heat even though the only fan is at the back.
If I upgrade to a faster computer , it seems that more waste heat will be produced and there is no way that I can get it out of the afforementioned slot … I don’t want to duct the heat out over the top of the PC case.
Then I saw the Apple Mac Mini with the 2.3GHz i7 quad core processor … It is less than 8” square and less than 2” thick … It is very fast and doesn’t seem to get even slightly warm … I wouldn’t bother with the optional SSD though , but for just over £70 I would fit 16GB of RAM instead of the 4GB … I don’t play any games on the PC , so I don’t think that a dedicated graphics card is essential … My existing PC uses on-board NVIDIA Geforce 6150 SE graphics … It is mainly used for general browsing and photography.
If I go for the Mac Mini , it will sit easily on the desk-top beside my monitor stand … When not in use it will be nicely hidden behind the desks roll-top … I will need to buy a DVD drive , but these are cheap enough nowadays … Samsung SE-S084F is about £38.
I realise that I could make a PC with better performance for the price of the Mac Mini , but certainly I couldn’t get one as small or neat as this.
I have two oak shelves that fit into where my present PC is kept and that means that I would have extra storage space in the desk to keep the DVD drive and Portable hard (backup) drive in , plus tools etc … I wouldn’t need to keep the desk door open if the computer was sitting on the desk-top.
If there is another tiny PC available tha doesn’t give off much heat , please let me know … The Mac Mini i7 is going to cost £605 plus the cost of the Samsung and the RAM , giving a total cost of about £715 … It is a lot of money but it is a nice “cool” bit of kit … Shame that the interest-free credit is now finished !
I can’t think of anything more suitable for my needs than the Mac Mini i7 … Maybe someone else can.
On reflection , I think that I’ve talked myself into the Mac Mini !
I think !
.
Just read that the Mac Mini i7 uses less than 11 Watts when on idle with only “finder” open … Some others reckon a lot less than this (three or four watts) … Apparently the maximum possible power consumption is 85 watts … I saw one being used in a PC World store and when I touched it , it did not feel warm at all considering that the demonstrator guy had all the apps loaded and running … Is there a seperate fan ? … Maybe there are fan blades fitted to the hard drive ? … 85 Watts from a tiny box like that should have felt at least a bit warm.
Still can’t find any tiny PC that would compete with the mac Mini i7 in size and performance though.
When the car is serviced and MOT’d next week and if there is any money left , I might well go for the Mac Mini i7.
Maybe !
Indecision is one of my strong points.
.
They parts you picked don’t look bad but I’d certainly go for a dedicated gfx card instead of a built in hybrid system, better performance and it’s just easier to mess with unless your going for something like small footprint, passive cooling, etc. Never cheap out on a psu or you’ll have troubles down the road.
I couldn’t say that you’d get a big upgrade going from a E5200 to some of the lower offerings of the current lineup but you would have to change sockets and everything. If I was building now I’d be going for an i5 or i7 and some good ram and a decent card. If your not gaming you can probably pick any good cards in the lower register, ATI or Nvida both have some pretty decent picks for cheap now.
If your doing rendering and more technical uses that could take advantage of an opengl card then you’ll probably want to look in to workstation cards but they don’t do the best job at gaming or household multimedia (And they’re expensive).
If your looking at AMD then I’d look at some of the older Phenom II’s, I built a rig for someone last year with one and it seems to be working well but the newer FX series has been pretty underwhelming. They can’t compete on the higher end of the market anymore though, it’s sad to see but AMD really just does budget stuff anymore.
I’m still running a old E6550 C2D at 3.3~~.4ghz anymore and it works OK, I’m stuck at 4g of ram and the board is limited at about 1866 fsb so I can’t really push it anymore even though I bet I could be getting about 3.6~~.8 out if it. I’ve got a gtx470 that pick up most of the slack so I’ll run it as long as it can go, as a poor student I’m really trying to stretch things as long as I can but the CPU’s been more an more outdated by the day.