This is really great to read. Even if it costs you a few bucks more, the value your kid gets from building the machine almost certainly makes up for it as a one off.
SumnerH said:This is really great to read. Even if it costs you a few bucks more, the value your kid gets from building the machine almost certainly makes up for it as a one off.
Yeah. I think long term usually buying good prebuilt stuff makes more sense, but everyone who is even borderline interested will be very well served building one or two machines themselves and it'll be a cool custom machine on top of the stuff you learn in the process. Especially when you can teach a kid in the process.DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
And the added benefit is that I think he'll take better care of it -- in terms of keeping it clean and safe, and investing the time and effort into virus protection and stuff -- than if we'd just bought it from a store. He feels he has a stake in it.
leftfieldlegacy said:Thanks for taking the time to respond.
I will probably be using one of PS/LR for editing photos.
I don't see a price on the 4690 non K version on the Micro Center site. I can check that tomorrow. (The k version that they quoted at $199.99 is on sale from $259.99 and currently on Amazon for $224).
There is a 4590 (3.3GHz) version for $40 less@ $159.99. Not sure if that would be adequate. If there would be no discernible difference for my needs, I would rather roll that money into bigger/better storage.
Just wondering if there is any need to even consider i7? The price jump is significant and I'm not sure necessary.
I was going to broach the monitor subject separately, because I need to understand the video out options better than I do now, but definitely can say I will be using a new monitor(s).
I think the 3TB would be more appropriate. I will adjust that and switch the SSD from Kingston to one of the others.
DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
And the added benefit is that I think he'll take better care of it -- in terms of keeping it clean and safe, and investing the time and effort into virus protection and stuff -- than if we'd just bought it from a store. He feels he has a stake in it.
Couperin47 said:
This makes me smile, it's also this generation's equivalent to rebuilding their first used car which is becoming both technologically and financially impossible: knowing what's going on under the hood builds confidence and assurance in ways hard to measure.
You also lucked out, back in the day Newegg refurb boards would show up with just that: the board, not even the backplate for the case. Fortunately it seems EVGA doesn't do nasty stuff like that. You can overclock that cpu seriously: you want either of the Coolermasters either $20 or $30 after their stupid $5 rebates on sale at Newegg. The limits to how hard you can push it is when the video fails, which is quite weak on that chip...for serious gaming he will go to a video card.
DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
Yeah, the video is not great -- there's a noticeable difference between the pentium and my i5 -- but hopefully when we get a video card it will be a good setup.
I should have mentioned that about the board -- nothing in the box other than the board and the backplate. No manual, sata cables, or anything, and the EVGA website is not great for downloads, so definitely a bit of a PITA. It also looks like the board that EVGA sells new has a nifty little metal plate that covers the chipset and has a nice logo on it, which didn't come in the box. Still for $60 less than they sell the new boards for, and $40 less than the ASUS mini at the time, it was ok for us. Flashing the bios was way more complicated than with the ASrock board, as an example. But for a new build that's as much of a project as anything else, some of that stuff is part of the fun, and so I didn't mind.
Couperin47 said:
You navigated all those issues ?...congrats we should issue you a diploma. Refurb video cards are less of an issue...there's no parts they can leave out...
DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
Some hiccups along the way, but we got through it. It's amazing how many resources there are on the internet. Even the little things. Like I attached the fans to the motherboard headers and then tried to use the EVGA bios to control them, but it just wouldn't work. Sure enough with some targeted google searching, I learned that three-pin fans can't be controlled with the MB, but need to be 4 pin, etc. Lots of little things like that.
I'll tell you, the hardest part of the whole darned thing may just be attaching the intel fan above the cpu. What a pain.
I like the idea of dual monitors, but I'm concerned that for making subtle color adjustments or altering contrast etc. on my photos, I would need the screen to be directly in front of me, not off to the side or angled in.Couperin47 said:The sweet spot for monitors these days is 1900 x 1080 24" "class" IPS monitors, the actual sizes run from 23.8 to 24". Read the last few pages of the Tech Bargain thread and you will see one or 2 of these on sale literally every week. Most have HDMI & DVI input, Displayport is rare at this price class. A dual setup lets you angle them in slightly, use one to keep browser, file manager and other utils handy while you use the other for whatever main app you're working on atm. Also great for using one to watch live stuff while working.. At under $250 for a pair this is about half what we used to expect to pay for a good video setup. At the resolutions you will be using the output from HDMI, DVI or Displayport will all be identical so which 2 you use just depends on what that mb offers. You should easily find, at basically the same price, either Asus or ASRock motherboards that have HDMI & DVI. They seem to carry at the same price the ASRock Z97 Pro4 LGA that several here (including me) have used and like a lot, this also includes optical audio out and Intel ethernet which is considered premium.
Finally, do you have a printer ? If not I suspect you don't get to 30 days without finding a need. Do a Canon b&w laser printer or multifunction which on sale will run $60 to $110.
leftfieldlegacy said:I like the idea of dual monitors, but I'm concerned that for making subtle color adjustments or altering contrast etc. on my photos, I would need the screen to be directly in front of me, not off to the side or angled in.
I have a printer. A color canon laser that you helped me find a good deal on back in November.
Good to understand that now. I'm more comfortable with a dual monitor set up.Couperin47 said:
The thing about IPS and VA monitors is their spec'ed angles of viewing are 178 x 178 degrees (when looking at any monitor specs, when you see those you know it's an IPS, MVA or VA panel) and their main benefit is that slight off angle does NOT produce the color shifts you see in TN panels (normally around 160 x 160). If you have 2 slightly angled and you're in the middle, you only need to turn your head slightly to be dead on, and as I said, a few degrees off will not produce the color shifts of TN, the other setup is one dead ahead, one angled to the side and you do all the serious work on the one straight ahead.
leftfieldlegacy said:Good to understand that now. I'm more comfortable with a dual monitor set up.
I made some changes to the original parts list and just need to settle on the mb. I've listed two options the Z97 PRO 4 that you mentioned and the Z97 extreme 6 which would include displayport in addition to DVI and HDMI but for $30 more. That is still a significant savings off that mb alone because it is bundled w/ the 4690K chip. I decided to stay with the 4690K because with the bundle discount it was only a few dollars more than the 4590. Plus the price of the 4690K chip and the OS also dropped another $10 each.
Upgraded the SSD and HDD.
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Boxed Processor: $189.99
ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Socket LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard (DVI, HDMI and Diplayport) $119.99
or
ASRock Z97 PRO4 LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard (DVI and HDMI) $89.99 (incl rebate)
MS OEM WIN 8.1 64 BIT ENG 1 PK DVD $89.99
LG GH24NSC0B 24x Internal DVD Rewritable SATA Drive $14.99
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 8GB Memory Modules): $114.99
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES 300R CASE: $69.99
CRUCIAL 250 GB MX200 2.5 SATA SSD: $109.99
TOSHIBA 3TB 3.5' 7200: $104.99
Corsair CX Series CX600M 600 Watt ATX Modular Power Supply: $74.99
Totals for components w/ tax are $921. or $890. depending on the mb
Gorton Fisherman said:
Great thread.
So I just got finished building a new PC to replace my aging (~6 year old) Windows box. Overall things went pretty well, and I'm am pretty pleased with how it came out. I do have one minor annoyance though that I thought I would throw at the knowledgeable folks here. First of all, my components are as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Video Card: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB (harvested from my old PC)
2nd Hard Drive: WD Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (harvested from my old PC)
The annoyance is: frequently (but not always) when I power on the computer from a completely powered off state, the machine comes on, the fans spin up, but I get no video signal on my monitor, and the machine does not boot. The fans then settle down to a normal speed, and the machine just kind of sits there indefinitely. If I then force the computer off by holding down the power button, then immediately power it back on by pressing the power button again, I get video and the computer boots normally (seemingly 100% of the time).
Any ideas? I have updated to the latest motherboard BIOS. Could some BIOS setting be to blame? Appreciate any advice.
Gorton Fisherman said:Thanks for the suggestions. FYI my video card is in slot #1 (closest to the CPU). That Peripherals page setting for video was already set to slot #1. Also, the Intel graphics were already disabled (I disabled this after I got my video card installed).
I did try changing that MIT setting to Gen 2; unfortunately this didn't seem to help.
One thing left for me to try is moving the video card to slot #4. Will try this and let you know.
Couperin47 said:
For $30 I'd probably go for the mb with all 3 video outs too. You'll be using this for years, any way you look at it amortized it's pennies. The good news is Classic Shell costs exactly nothing to make Win 8.1 into something really comfortable.