The PC Build Thread

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knoop said:
Would the SSD replace the HDD or can that case run both?
Click to expand...

Just checked, unfortunately it's the small form factor one, it has a 3.5" 500GB HDD, but it can be converted to two 2.5" according to the Dell documentation.

Keep in mind this PC might be great for your needs now but it leaves basically zero room to add on to, maybe one day you want to add a GPU or another HDD then you can't.
 
Soul Assassin said:
Just checked, unfortunately it's the small form factor one, it has a 3.5" 500GB HDD, but it can be converted to two 2.5" according to the Dell documentation.

Keep in mind this PC might be great for your needs now but it leaves basically zero room to add on to, maybe one day you want to add a GPU or another HDD then you can't.
Click to expand...

Thanks for checking. I'll have to way up the benefit of the cost saving vs the zero upgrade path.
 
knoop said:
Thanks for checking. I'll have to way up the benefit of the cost saving vs the zero upgrade path.
Click to expand...

If this was me and I HAD to buy the Dell I would replace the 500GB HDD with a 250GB SDD and buy an USB 3.0 enclosure for the 500GB HDD.

That way you get the SSD and 500GB external storage, if the 500GB is connected with USB 3.0 and permanently connected it will be the same as having two internal drives.
 
Good people of this thred, I need some help configuring a PC.
Main use will be for 3D visualization software, not quite CAD but the machine still needs some horsepower.

Minimum requirements
OS Microsoft Windows 7 or higher
CPU Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB RAM
Disk space 500 MB available
Graphics card
(old engine) Hardware support for DirectX 9 including hardware support for Transform & Lighting (T&L) with vertex and pixel shaders version 2
Graphics card
(new engine) Hardware support for DirectX 11

Recommended requirements
OS Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
CPU Quad Core
Memory 8+ GB RAM
Disk space 1 GB available
Graphics card Hardware support for DirectX 11 with 2 GB of VRAM.
(ATI or NVIDIA are recommended)

If possible I'd like to cap the budget at R20k including the monitor. I just want a pretty decent HD monitor 24 inch or so, 4k will be overkill and will probably also kill the budget.

My thinking if looking at the softwares requirements, high end i5 or mid level i7 processor, 16 GB RAM with option to go up to 32 GB in future, 256 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD, GPU is the bit where I'm really stuck at, I don't know anything about GPU's. Then obviously decent PSU, decent cooling for everything (no overkill) and a case is a case is a case, it will anyway sit under a desk most probably. I'll supply my own Win10 pro 64 bit.

Thanks for all suggestions
 
Soul Assassin said:
Almost everyone around here has heard of PotterH on the Carbonite Classifieds, that is his site, myself and I can only imagine a lot of other people here bought our CPU's from him.
Click to expand...

Never knew that, PotterH is trustworthy, got excellent rep on Carbonite.
 
knoop said:
That i7 does look like a good deal. Are mineaway trustworthy? Never heard of them.
Click to expand...

I'll support Soul Assasin here and recommend going for that deal instead. PotterH is trustworthy!

If you still want 16GB of RAM you might as well get it from the same place as he's charging R1400 for it.
 
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bigboy529 said:
Good people of this thred, I need some help configuring a PC.
Main use will be for 3D visualization software, not quite CAD but the machine still needs some horsepower.

Minimum requirements
OS Microsoft Windows 7 or higher
CPU Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB RAM
Disk space 500 MB available
Graphics card
(old engine) Hardware support for DirectX 9 including hardware support for Transform & Lighting (T&L) with vertex and pixel shaders version 2
Graphics card
(new engine) Hardware support for DirectX 11

Recommended requirements
OS Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
CPU Quad Core
Memory 8+ GB RAM
Disk space 1 GB available
Graphics card Hardware support for DirectX 11 with 2 GB of VRAM.
(ATI or NVIDIA are recommended)

If possible I'd like to cap the budget at R20k including the monitor. I just want a pretty decent HD monitor 24 inch or so, 4k will be overkill and will probably also kill the budget.

My thinking if looking at the softwares requirements, high end i5 or mid level i7 processor, 16 GB RAM with option to go up to 32 GB in future, 256 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD, GPU is the bit where I'm really stuck at, I don't know anything about GPU's. Then obviously decent PSU, decent cooling for everything (no overkill) and a case is a case is a case, it will anyway sit under a desk most probably. I'll supply my own Win10 pro 64 bit.

Thanks for all suggestions
Click to expand...

See post #2331 above
 
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bigboy529 said:
Thanks, gives me a good indication. What GPU do I add then?
Also, does going Sky Lake rather than the newer Kaby Lake make sense at this stage?
Click to expand...

There's very little benefit of kaby over sky.

I'll get back to you tomorrow.
 
bigboy529 said:
Thanks, gives me a good indication. What GPU do I add then?
Also, does going Sky Lake rather than the newer Kaby Lake make sense at this stage?
Click to expand...
Kabylake has about a 10% performance increase over Skylake but with the same TDP, etc, so not a major improvement. Great chip if you're starting from scratch, but definitely a side grade if you already have a Skylake chip.

Strangely, it's the cheaper chip over here in the UK.
 
The Voice said:
Kabylake has about a 10% performance increase over Skylake but with the same TDP, etc, so not a major improvement. Great chip if you're starting from scratch, but definitely a side grade if you already have a Skylake chip.

Strangely, it's the cheaper chip over here in the UK.
Click to expand...



When the time to buy comes, I'll compare prices, makes sense to go for the newer technology for this build, but if it's much more expensive I'll go with Skylake. Apart from a RAM upgrade to 32 GB a year or so down the line and adding hard drives if needed in future, I don't plan to upgrade anything on this machine for at least 3 - 4 years.
 
bigboy529 said:
When the time to buy comes, I'll compare prices, makes sense to go for the newer technology for this build, but if it's much more expensive I'll go with Skylake. Apart from a RAM upgrade to 32 GB a year or so down the line and adding hard drives if needed in future, I don't plan to upgrade anything on this machine for at least 3 - 4 years.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna suggest you wait just a little bit to see what Ryzen offers, you want horsepower and their 8core/16thread cpu is 'rumoured' to start ~$320

They should arrive beginning of March.

http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-lineup-pricing-confirmed-8-cores-low-320/
 
ponder said:
I'm gonna suggest you wait just a little bit to see what Ryzen offers, you want horsepower and their 8core/16thread cpu is 'rumoured' to sell at ~$320

They should arrive beginning of March.
Click to expand...


Thanks I'll keep an eye out,this build will anyway only happen 2 - 3 months from now.
 
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