KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Leonov]

Might as well update this with some progress on my build.

Here are my parts so far. Getting my last two parts later this week.

[Camacha]

Not too shabby! I might have considered waiting for Haswell, which is about to break, but hey, this is going to kick ass anyway.

Coincidentally I have been looking for that keyboard for a while now. After breaking an Apple wired keyboard and dealing with a less than reliable wireless replacement I am now looking for a proper, simple and reliable keyboard. I've liked that Dell for about 10 years now, but they seem to be a little harder to find new now Though I must admit I've been busy with other things too, so maybe sometimes soon.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Camacha

[Leonov]

Fun fact about Early Dell OEM Peripheral Devices.

Most of them once you take off the Plastic exterior are actually Logitech.

I have an older dell mouse that i disassembled to clean and was amazed to see it was a Logitch on the inside. Same with this Keyboard i am using.

Dell used to be a Very good company. Then they started loosing money and had to cut corners.

I like to keep their older stuff around, Stuff lasts forever.

I had recently aquired an old IBM Model M for my Rig. For those who arent in the know The IBM Model M is a Fantastic Mechanical Programming keyboard from the Mid 1980s. They have a steel backing plate and nice heavy mechanical keys.

Leaked specs from the High End Ivy Bridge-E arent that impressive, You cant beat the Price/Performance of an 8350. That processor and board hold the world record for CPU Speed. Haswell can get to 8.0Ghz but the core temps are equivilent to liquid magma.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Leonov

[Camacha]

This post does not exist. You never saw it and sure as Kerbin will not mention it, to anyone, under any circumstances. Why would you, after all - there is nothing to talk about.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Camacha

[Camacha]

Fun fact about Early Dell OEM Peripheral Devices.

Most of them once you take off the Plastic exterior are actually Logitech.

I have an older dell mouse that i disassembled to clean and was amazed to see it was a Logitch on the inside. Same with this Keyboard i am using.

Dell used to be a Very good company. Then they started loosing money and had to cut corners.

I like to keep their older stuff around, Stuff lasts forever.

I had recently aquired an old IBM Model M for my Rig. For those who arent in the know The IBM Model M is a Fantastic Mechanical Programming keyboard from the Mid 1980s. They have a steel backing plate and nice heavy mechanical keys.

Yes, I know the IBM's are very wanted among a select few, but I am a little less picky. I do not really feel that I need a mechanical keyboard, though I might pick one up if I ever come across one. I do like the simple yet modern look of the Dell keyboard, as opposed to the often wavy plastic stuff Logitech gear comes with. Rubber dome is fine for me.

Usually stuff that comes standard with OEM computers is pretty rugged; they get used heavily in offices a lot and replacing them in large numbers would be disastrous for a manufacturer.

Fun fact about Early Dell OEM Peripheral Devices.

Leaked specs from the High End Ivy Bridge-E arent that impressive, You cant beat the Price/Performance of an 8350. That processor and board hold the world record for CPU Speed. Haswell can get to 8.0Ghz but the core temps are equivilent to liquid magma.

Not Ivy Bridge-E, Haswell It is the replacement of Ivy Bridge. Haswell is expected to come in at equivalent prices of the current socket 1155 hardware. A bit more expensive than most high end AMD's, but a lot of performance for a reasonable price. Ivy Bridge-E is replacing socket 2011, but both are way too expensive, except when rendering professionally on a daily basis or something.

The new AMD's are much better than the original Bulldozers, but single threaded performance keeps on being a bit of a weakness along with gaming tasks. They are fine and like you said, have a very nice bang for the buck, but it would be interesting to see the new standard Haswell probably introduces.

Also, remember that having the fastest CPU says little without performance to match All that being said, I think you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference between an fast i5 or i7 and a FX-83xx without doing detailed benchmarks. The experience will be great either way.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Camacha

[Leonov]

Indeed.

Benchmarks rarely transfer into the real-world performance arena. Sometimes they do but most of the time as you have said, someone will be hard pressed to see the difference between X product and Y product as long as they are apples to apples, and not oranges to apples.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Leonov

[Camacha]

Indeed.

Benchmarks rarely transfer into the real-world performance arena. Sometimes they do but most of the time as you have said, someone will be hard pressed to see the difference between X product and Y product as long as they are apples to apples, and not oranges to apples.

I was referring to a situation where you put someone in front of a computer without telling them what is inside. I am really quite sure that the user will not be able to tell a quick i5 from a i7 and a FX-83xx, unless he purposefully checks via Windows, does detailed benchmarks or compares the systems right next to each other. The actual differences are minute and probably really hard to notice when using a computer naturally.

I think the most telltale measurement would actually be the power consumption

[lukerules117]

Should I get a mid-tower or full.

[Camacha]

Should I get a mid-tower or full.

What did your own research come up with? We do not mind answering any questions, but it helps if you research the topic yourself first

[sammoe]

Intel i3 or i5? Im buying a gaming PC and it makes a $200 difference in my budget. Pros and cons?

[Camacha]

Intel i3 or i5? Im buying a gaming PC and it makes a $200 difference in my budget. Pros and cons?

Again, what did your own research come up with? We do not mind to answer any question, but some effort from yourself is appreciated. Some tips: make a list of things you want to do with the computer. You can build a computer without one, but it is often much more effective, cheaper and a lot easier to have a target and/or goals. Look at benchmarks and comparisons in general and for the specific purposes you want to use the computer for to see which is the best for your purposes. It not only helps you assemble a perfect computer for you, you will also learn a lot.

You might want to consider AMD too, as it often provides loads of performance for a very competitive price. The quality and durability is the same as with Intel.

[Leonov]

The thing with cases it really depends on its form factor. The form factor is what size board it can accept, Such as ATX.

As long as the motherboard can fit the case i dont see any difference between the two.

With regards to the Intel i3 or i5, specifics regard what exact model can influence a decision as well as what you want to do with it.

While on the subject of AMD vs Intel. It depends on a lot of factors.

[sammoe]

Im thinking of buying a Digital Storm gaming PC. I've chosen to save up for the Vanquish model. If I want a PC that can play KSP fine (of course) and play Crysis and other graphically intensive games which one of these choices should I pick? (Scroll all the way to the bottom)

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/vanquish-gaming-pc.asp?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Video&utm_campaign=Intel+VANQUISH

[lukerules117]

What did your own research come up with? We do not mind answering any questions, but it helps if you research the topic yourself first

I think I should get a full but my computer teacher thinks I should get a mid what are the pros and cons

[Camacha]

What do you folks think about the new Haswell desktop release? I must say I am not overly impressed. The focus appears (again) to be on energy consumption and mobile performance, not high-end power. Sure, the small gains are somewhat nice, but anyone on Sandy or Ivy or even socket 1156 or 1366 is much better off staying with the hardware they already own.

Overclocking seems impared since Intel chose to go with the (for high temperatures) problematic TIM-solution again instead of soldering. Sandy appears to be the last generation really suited for overclockers. I really feel AMD needs to make life difficult for Intel again to get some proper new CPU's instead of these minor bumps, although that is good news for people with lower end computers; their systems will not age that quickly anymore.

I think I should get a full but my computer teacher thinks I should get a mid what are the pros and cons

I am not trying to be obnoxious here, but again, what arguments did you find yourself? These types of threads are meant to help you along, not to do your homework for you It helps a lot to list the things you found out yourself, so others can comment on or add to them.

Just to show I am willing to help folks; a full tower has a lot of room, which helps cooling, cable management and simply fitting parts inside. The major drawback is its shear size; a mid-tower simply uses less room. What is important to you only you can decide.

Im thinking of buying a Digital Storm gaming PC. I've chosen to save up for the Vanquish model. If I want a PC that can play KSP fine (of course) and play Crysis and other graphically intensive games which one of these choices should I pick? (Scroll all the way to the bottom)

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/vanquish-gaming-pc.asp?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Video&utm_campaign=Intel+VANQUISH

Is building your own system an option? That often gets you a lot more bang for the buck and more options for upgrading at a later point.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Camacha

[Leonov]

I got a pretty good mod tower a Thermaltake V3 AMD edition. It has no cable management, so i bought a Modular PSU. Its an Ebb and flow of building a PC.

This website is an invaluable tool when it comes to building a PC. Build the exact pc that Digital storm is building and see the price difference.

IMO Mid towers are big enough to hold anything normal. Full towers are just Big and are better suited for someone who will do things like Watercooling or 4xSLI/Crossfire.

Intel is trying to invest heavily into the mobile market, The After PC market. Intel sees the mobile market is going to net them more profit over time, which is great for AMD.

This gives AMD a Massive timefraim to come out with their FX-10xxx that is rumoured to be in development.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Leonov

[lukerules117]

Just to show I am willing to help folks; a full tower has a lot of room, which helps cooling, cable management and simply fitting parts inside. The major drawback is its shear size; a mid-tower simply uses less room. What is important to you only you can decide.

thanks, size isn't a problem so I'll be getting a full-size and I only asked here because I couldn't find any reason not to get a full.

[Camacha]

This website is an invaluable tool when it comes to building a PC. Build the exact pc that Digital storm is building and see the price difference.

I feel builders often have pretty massive flaws. They do not take into account all the compatibility/QVL's, give weird (often excessive) advice on power supplies, limit the user in ways that are really not necessary or miss that something will physically not fit, as is sometimes the case with bigger coolers/RAM and other parts.

I do not know this specific builder, but I must say I have not found one yet that should be taken as more than a rough guideline. Manual checking is always required and it is not seldom better to just do that from the start.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Camacha

[jfx]

Intel is trying to invest heavily into the mobile market, The After PC market. Intel sees the mobile market is going to net them more profit over time, which is great for AMD.

This gives AMD a Massive timefraim to come out with their FX-10xxx that is rumoured to be in development.

Just throwing this in (interview from a couple of days ago):

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040045/amd-bridges-road-to-arm-with-new-lowpower-x86-server-chips.html

“Bulldozer was without doubt an unmitigated failure. We know it,†Feldman said.

“It cost the CEO his job, it cost most of the management team its job, it cost the vice president of engineering his job. You have a new team. We are crystal clear that that sort of failure is unacceptable,†Feldman said.

With Feldman being Andrew Feldman , corporate vice president and general manager of the server business unit at AMD.

The thing is AMD won't catch up even if intel stagnates. Bulldozer and its derivates fail at single threaded workloads and steamroller wont show up this year (and it will suffer from the same shortcommings as Bulldozer and Vishera). Intel runs circles around AMD power consumption and performance wise.

Its Netburst all over, it would be the best for the market if AMD would be bought by an investor.

Edited June 3, 2013 by jfx

[Camacha]

The thing is AMD won't catch up even if intel stagnates. Bulldozer and its derivates fail at single threaded workloads and steamroller wont show up this year (and it will suffer from the same shortcommings as Bulldozer and Vishera). Intel runs circles around AMD power consumption and performance wise.

Its Netburst all over, it would be the best for the market if AMD would be bought by an investor.

Please do remember that the current AMD setup is not chosen to perform on the desktop market - it is meant for the server market, in which it actually does quite well. Thus comparing it to Netburst is not really accurate. They just made certain design decisions and some parts of that are positive and some are negative.

Bulldozer was released just a bit too early, that is true. The product was not done or finished, but that does hardly diminish the potential of the new platform (depending on what you want to do with it).

[jfx]

You did read that the VP for the server branch called Bulldozer a failure for the server market?

Also: Bulldozer was postponed for almost two years. They were unable to release earlier, since 65nm and 45nm manufacturing did not enable them to reach power and frequency goals (and more than two modules woul have been way too fat with that technology).

[Leonov]

You go on about Bulldozer, you do know the latest series of FX chips are on Piledriver aka Vishera.

Piledriver fixes all the problems with Bulldozer.

I am very happy with my FX-8350, For the price you can not beat it.

If you havent read AMD 8 cores power the next gen consoles. That means nothing other than an influx of money for them to get to work with(Estimated 3 Billion USD agreement). Granted they have moved into the custom Chip market which could be a great buisness move, only time will tell.

[sammoe]

This website is an invaluable tool when it comes to building a PC. Build the exact pc that Digital storm is building and see the price difference.

I'm not quite at the building level yet. Can I please just get an opinion on which choice is the best price and performance wise. I'm twelve and have a bit of a challenge making money.

[IvanTehFennec]

I'm not quite at the building level yet. Can I please just get an opinion on which choice is the best price and performance wise. I'm twelve and have a bit of a challenge making money.

Even if you're not at the building level yet, it's fairly straight-forward. You'll save that hard-to-get money by building it yourself, and learn something that may come in handy down the road. I built my first one when I was 12.

[sammoe]

I know this sounds a little childish but my parents are afraid I'll mess it up in some way and lose all the hard-earned money. Not that it was their money to begin with but I can see why they want me to be happy by buying a PC that is for sure to work instead of spending $800 and and ending up with a useless pile a transistors.