Fuark that was fast. 15 minutes

:thatswhatshesaid:

 

WEI is still 5.9


Primary disk is 7.5, everything else 5.9

 

spent the past 4 hours with windows update... WTF man. its like never ending updates

 

another 117 updates...

 

32GB of RAM would make the updates go faster :wink:

 

 

 

So i finally did my first computer build and im loving it. I didn't want a gaming system setup since this is for just for doing the normal things (surfing the webs, watching videos, editing photos). With that being said, i'm happy i took the time to doing this instead of buying it pre-built.

I-7 intel core 4790 processor
Z97 MSI mobo
Raidmax 700W PSU.
16GB Ram
120GB SSD
2TB HDD WD Blue
Cooler Blaster CPU cooler
EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti
Windows 8.1 System Builder.
Azza Case

 

I put together a media center PC a couple of weeks ago:

Intel NUC Core i5-4250U -- larger case with room for a 2.5" HDD
Crucial M500 120G mSATA SSD
8GB Corsair DDR3L RAM
WD Blue SATA III 1TB HDD
Running Win7 64/Pro

Hooked up to a 55" Samsung LCD TV.

Works really well. Might build another for my wife's PC when her aging laptop is ready to go. She only uses it at a desk now, so a mini PC with a big display would be much better.

 

Cool! What software do you use for the media center aspect?

 

Windows Media Center. I want a whole house DVR, and most of what we record is scrambled digital cable. From everything I gleaned online, WMC was the only way to go to record it. I have an HD Homerun 3 as my network tuner and a couple of Xbox 360's as extenders.

Works great so far.

 

Nice.

 

So far so good. Sucks for watching Netflix though because it uses Silverlight and there's no hardware acceleration for it.

But that's why Steve Jobs invented Apple TV.

 

It doesn't require silver light anymore. They added drm capability to HTML 5 a while back and they use that now. Though if you're using thenetflix add on to wmc then it probably still needs it. If you're on windows 8 there's the netflix app in the windows store too

 

Went Win7 because Win8 media center is hamstrung for my application. I did try the addon only because this thing has to be simple for the wife, so staying in the media center ui is important for that.

 

Are you using a remote to control wmc? If so which one?

 

Do you have a cable card? If so do you rent it from your cable provider or own one?

 

Harmony Touch

Have one, have to rent it from my cable provider. They will be getting their DVR back soon.

 

I used to be a PC gamer but after I moved here the seemingly best option at the time was to buy a console. After having burned my money away so far I'd like to go back to playing games on a nicely setup PC. I have 2 builds in mind. One requires a little more saving than the other.

I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions.
Build 1
AMD FX-8320 149
Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ 90
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 100370L Radeon R7 265
HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 95
Corsair CX 430 50
Kingston SSDNow V300 64
Some cheap cabinet 567+40

Build 2
AMD FX-8320 149
Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ 90
ASUS DirectCU II R9270X 179
CORSAIR CXM series CX600M 600W 64
2 x 4GBRipjaws X Series DDR3 95
SanDisk Extreme II 2.5" 120GB 75
Some cheap cabinet 652+40

 

I would stick to Intel for a gaming build. All those cores don't mean squat to most titles/engines. It's better to have a turbo 4 than an 8 cylinder...

The new i5 is a beast.

Cores could be more important if you do video editing and the like though.

 

Well to be fair its going to be used for a multitude of things. Gaming is one, video editing, photoshop, stuff like that. Granted its not the best use of resources for gaming alone but it will be a combo machine. My main concern is getting the best for physics simulations. Given how PC games have a lot of options for physics heavy simulations I would be using it for that.

I've seen intel dominate for slightly more pricey builds. But that may just be my bias. At this price point they've seemed pretty similar to me. At least the benchmarks have...

 

Go for 16GB of RAM. It's cheep.

 

Hell I have 32 GB, it IS cheap.

 

best decision i did other than to go SSD.

 

32 GB = Outlook, a couple games, Netflix, Remote Desktop, Firefox without any issues

 

Hmm. I'll look into upgrading that then. The last time I built a PC 4gigs was a huge amount lol. I thought 8 was overkill

 

I was doing crazy things, but still...

8 core I7 (4 cores, hyperthreading) and 32GB RAM

 

IMO everyone should have 16GB. It's cheap.

But only specifics tasks demand 32GB.

You probably use less than 8GB 95% of the time.

I'd rather have 16GB of faster and higher quality memory than 32GB of average stuff. IMO.

 

firefox like 5 times on this new computer. i gave up and started using chrome.

 

Building another NUC, this time to replace my wife's ancient Centrino based laptop that doesn't go mobile anymore since she loves her iPad.

-Core i5 NUC
-240 GB mSATA SSD
-8 GB RAM (more than enough for her needs)
-mSATA WiFi/BT wireless card
-27" Asus monitor with speakers
-Wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse
-Windows 7 Pro 64... I will not even consider foisting Windows 8 on the least technically savvy person in my house.

Re-using another 21" monitor for her dual monitor setup.

 

What's NUC?

Been out of the game since I built my current PC in December 2006

 

Mini PC

 

It's a little Intel computer about the size of a Mac Mini. You buy the NUC, and put in the memory/SSD you want. Wifi can be added with an mSATA card, and there is a taller case that also supports a 2.5" HDD.

 

Interesting. How much do those things run for? And does it support 32gb of ram?

 

Certainly not the cheapest way to go -- you do pay for the form factor and simplicity of assembly.

The Core i5 box I got was $349. The SSD, WiFi card, and memory are additional and up to the buyer to figure out.

And yes, I believe you can put 32gb in them.

 

Hmmm probably not gonna go that route.

My computer is long over due for an upgrade. But I usually go all high end so it lasts me 6-7 years.

My current build is 8 years old

My iPhone 6 plus runs faster than it for surfing the net

 

I've had my eye on this one for awhile.

 

I hear ya on that -- the time to transfer all of my applications is huge. My Core i7 computer is over 5 years old and still plenty for what I need. But it was over $3000 all in.

My wife's setup is dirt simple -- Windows, Office, iTunes. Done.

 

NUCs are great. Just make sure you choose one with the better Intel gfx (5000). IMO

 

Actually thinking about it some more, my use these days is MUCH different than before.

If this thing can run Lightroom 4 or 5 well and photoshop, then I may go this route since its cheep and small.

Been planning on moving my storage over to one Of those western digital mycloud setups.