Taking the dive into PC building

[Aeni]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Ah, I give.

It's not like I was advocating filling up the machine with all the RAM that can fit; on the contrary, I was saying look at what the machine is supposed to do, and select the components accordingly. But, I seem unable to convey that concept properly. Oh well.

Yes, but you said it yourself, "IT wouldn't allow me to uninstall all this bloatware on the company laptop". Isn't that kind of already telling you why you don't actually need all that RAM? For the majority of users not in your boat, guess what? They won't be inundated with numerous background applications hogging up system resources and bogging down their device. Unless they got a Dell. Then they're screwed (not really, since you can actually manually remove them, but many people choose to be lazy and that's their own problem)

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Yes, but you said it yourself, "IT wouldn't allow me to uninstall all this bloatware on the company laptop". Isn't that kind of already telling you why you don't actually need all that RAM? For the majority of users not in your boat, guess what?

It's a work computer, as in the company paid for it. The company and its IT has the final say on what runs on it. It means the junk IT installed is a part of my computer's workload, no if's and's or but's about it--I NEED that 6GB of RAM.

And, yes, different people's computer will need different amount of RAM. That's what I mean by one has to look at the workload--what you have to run on your computer isn't the same as what I have to run on mine.

Different people, different workload--different computer configurations.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm gonna be needing 12~16 for my new rig, but that's because I intend to do streaming and video editing for my gameplays so that's going to dig into system resources a fair bit.

After 10~12 GB, a RAID and a good CPU will probably do more for that scenario than 16GB of RAM.

My guess (and it's a rough one, since I have little hands on experience with that scenario) is that your bottlenecks will be at:
1. CPU (compressing video capture--unless you offload it to an Aver card or something),
2. System bus (constantly moving data between RAM and CPU/capture card--unless the card has some special technique to avoid that), and
3. I/O (video editing).

(Or you can just get the fastest 16 GB of RAM you can afford, and see how that turns out.)

* * *

Edit: Opps. Forgot I was to give up; too much of computer geek in me, I guess. Feel free to ignore what I wrote.

[Malacite]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

I intend to get the strongest CPU I can, as well as a pretty 700-series nVidia card alongside an SSD for my games & OS, and a 2~3 TB HDD for everything else. 12~16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 should do me just fine as well. I'd like to get DDR4 when it comes out but it'll probably be insanely expensive.

EDIT: Also, the Avermedia LGP I have is very highly rated - the unique compression format it uses allows for very small files without sacrificing much (if any) quality (My test shots of Halo 4 turned out perfect, zero quality loss) and it takes a good deal of the workload off my CPU & GPU.

[DakAttack]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Mal, let me know if I'm getting these brands wrong, but I believe you said Corsair's Vengeance is your top pick for PC memory. Fotunately for me, this is what I ended up running with, but I went and compared it to the brand I usually roll with, ADATA. I think you can use this link to compare them:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611&IsNodeId=1&Description=ADATA%208GB&bop=And&CompareItemList=147|20-233-144^20-233-144-TS%2C20-211-457^20-211-457-08%23&percm=20-211-457%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

Is 1600 what you would have recommended, or would it have been 1866?

[Malacite]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

1600 is fine, above that is a little overkill unless you're multi-tasking heavy stuff like I will be (i.e. streaming games like BF4, Starcraft 2 etc. that are very intensive)


And yeah, Corsair Vengeance is without question the #1 rated brand for gaming PCs. Kingston also makes very good stuff, and actually has a model that goes over 2k Mhz, but for overall performance every single review site and expert I've checked with recommends Corsair Vengeance. Corsair's products in general are extremely good (though I like CoolMaster better for towers & PSUs) but they really can't be beat for RAM.


I'm eagerly awaiting Samsung's new Pro-series SSDs as Intel's got some new ones coming out soon and while they're nice and reliable, they overcharge and underperform (not by much but enough) compared to Samsung.

Feels like an eternity waiting for AMD to release Steamroller in October. Really, really hope they can live up to their claims of beating Haswel's performance by 45%


EDIT: The heat-spreader is part of what makes it so good - though the size of it can be an issue for some people. Just, for the love of God, don't try to remove it... read some comments from idiots who tried and you basically destroy the chip by doing so as it's glued on. It's not meant to be removed, lol.

Does a very nice job of keeping your system's temps in check.

[Aeni]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10B    : Computers & Accessories


^

I'm putting these into the new system I'm building. I've gotten a fair list going. Placed it in an Amazon wishlist, and hope some good Samaritan pays for it.

...

Well, I'll pay the rest with the money I have...

[Aeni]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Edit: I accidentally copied and pasted the wrong link. Sorry about that

Anyway, the parts are coming in from free shipping, so I won't get to work on the system for another week or so (free shipping is the slowest possible that isn't a boat here to Hawaii) It's odd that I looked at Newegg and they didn't have sale for anything that I wanted (they get good deals on crap combos and the flimsiest boards) I also had to get a new mid-tower since I cannot reuse any of Dell's cases (I got a pair here and they are so proprietary that I think I would be better off not bothering) The fact that my wife will more likely inherit this PC means I need another copy of Windows, another PSU, etc ... so it came out more than I wanted to spend, but as a friend of mine told me over the weekend, from this point forward, any cost will just be standard upgrades (e.g., graphics card) and hopefully this is a 4 to 5 year system, like my Dell is.

[Etra]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

So, a friend's laptop is being dysfunctional. Whenever it boots up, it gets the BSOD at the windows logo. Had him try safe mode, last good configuration, and windows repair. Always BSOD.

Do I need to reformat this stuff, flash some bios, or..?

[cidbahamut]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Can it boot off a Linux live cd? If it can then we can probably rule out a few hardware failures.

Which version of Windows is this?

Does the BSOD linger long enough for you to take note of what it actually says?

[Etra]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

It's Windows 7. And not sure how long it stays up, since I only talked to him over the phone about it... Probably just going to reformat and see what happens.

[Aeni]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Did he make any changes to his hardware and/or Windows? Any software he installed? Is he a risky internet surfer?

As I was building my new PC, I had failures to boot up Windows. Turns out that because the Windows installation didn't have Marvell drivers, my SSD drive just didn't want to play along, and had to force set SATA controllers to IDE in the BIOS. Then it worked without hitches. If your friend overclocks a lot, or fiddled with the BIOS recently, have him check that out. There's also a chance of a virus, either hitting his system files or even the BIOS.

[Etra]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

He doesn't do anything porn or illegal download related on the PC. Not into porn and doesn't know how to use torrents, so a virus is likely out. Especially since I set him up with ESET. He's just a casual user.

[Malacite]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Someone... not using the internet... for pr0n?!

!?!?!??!!

[cidbahamut]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

He doesn't do anything porn or illegal download related on the PC. Not into porn and doesn't know how to use torrents, so a virus is likely out. Especially since I set him up with ESET. He's just a casual user.

That doesn't really rule it out. Stuff gets in all the time off of ads even when you're surfing otherwise safe sites. Shit's nefarious man. Plus not all anti-viruses catch the same things.

That said, I agree that it's probably not a virus.

[Etra]

Re: Taking the dive into PC building

Turns out the HDD failed. Just replaced it with another HDD and it's fine. Asked him how he was turning the laptop off... Said he was holding down the power button... In the words of Mal: