Advice on new desktop for poker

phantom_lord

Hi, just looking for any advice on picking out a new desktop.

Mainly going to be used for poker, and then just miscellaneous stuff. Also have two 1900x1200 monitors than I'm going to be using with it.

Looking at tweeking this model:



http://www.ankermann-edv.de/ANKERMANN-PC-Systems//PC-Core-i3-2100-NVIDIA-GTS430-4GB-RAM-1000GB-HDD-SATA3::9983.html?config



Intel Core i3-2100, 2x 3.10GHz, boxed (BX80623I32100) (1x)
ASUS P8H61-M Pro Rev 3.0, H61 (B3) (1x)
NVIDIA GeForce G 210 Passive 1GB DDR3 VGA, DVI, HDMI (1x)
4096MB DDR3 Dual Channel 1600MHz (PC3-12800) (1x)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EALX) (1x)
Crucial m4 SSD 64GB
24x SATA-II DVD Brenner Multi Fromat Dual Layer (Black) (1x)
Netzteil 450Watt Pure Power 140mm Lüfter 80+ Effizienz (1x)
Case (Case):
Cooler Master Elite 335 (RC-335) (1x)
Scythe Katana 3 (Sockel Intel/AMD)(SCKTN-3000) (1x)

Which comes to €530


Is it worth upgrading to a 2500K if I'm just going to be using this for poker?
Should I go for the Corsair 650W psu?
Will I notice much of a difference with a vga output or should I go for a gfx card with two DVI connections?
Probably going to stick two of my old hard-drives in it too if there's space.

Everything look ok, or should I change anything?

deconduo

Ankermann have a bad reputation as far as I know. I haven't ordered anything from them myself but from reading other people's experiences with them they don't seem too reliable. If you spec a similar system from HWVS:

Total build cost: €445.35 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155 €92.73
ASRock H61M-VS (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX €44.87
4GB-Kit Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-10667U CL9 €32.63
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.19
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Gigabyte GeForce G 210 TC, 128MB GDDR3, PCI-Express €26.02
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €96.59
Scythe Katana 3, nur für Intel-CPUs €16.89



Is it worth upgrading to a 2500K if I'm just going to be using this for poker?
-Probably not, I don't think poker is that demanding.
Should I go for the Corsair 650W psu?
-No need, won't even come close to 200W :P
Will I notice much of a difference with a vga output or should I go for a gfx card with two DVI connections?
-I can't tell the difference between VGA and DVI
Probably going to stick two of my old hard-drives in it too if there's space.

phantom_lord

Thanks, really helpful!

deconduo

If you add this to the basket it will get them to build it for you for €20
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=746&agid=829

However its great fun to build it yourself. Or if you want to save some money and you are in Dublin I'll happily do it for free.

ShadowHearth

not being smart, but if you will use it just for poker and minor thingd, you can just buy some dell low spec pc with bog standart spec for 300-400eu?

650 psu is barely needed even for high spec monster gaming biulds.

phantom_lord

How does this look?
I changed to a smaller PSU and went for a motherboard with two SATA 600 ports.
Could I get away without having a graphics card?

Total build cost: €443.86 + €30 shipping
ASRock H67M (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX €72.41
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155 €92.73
4GB-Kit Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-10667U CL9 €32.63
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Scythe Katana 3, nur für Intel-CPUs €16.89
be quiet! Pure Power 300 Watt / BQT L7 €33.98
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB Retail €100.79

phantom_lord

deconduo wrote: »

If you add this to the basket it will get them to build it for you for €20
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=746&agid=829

However its great fun to build it yourself. Or if you want to save some money and you are in Dublin I'll happily do it for free.

Thanks for the offer but your advice is more than enough!

ShadowHearth wrote: »

not being smart, but if you will use it just for poker and minor thingd, you can just buy some dell low spec pc with bog standart spec for 300-400eu?

650 psu is barely needed even for high spec monster gaming biulds.

I have some database software that runs with it than can be a bit intensive so I want to make sure it's up to that.

johnmcdnl

if your willing to go with AMD ahead of Intel



this is a computer I built recently with the help from the good people on here... you can probably knock a good €60 off by downgrading the graphics card because if your only playing poker your not going to need it...

so that'd be about the same price as the one you just quoted but you get a slightly better processor out of it... and that AMD processor is a quad core compared to your dual core... probably would make a bit of a difference for the database software???

also are your old drives IDE or SATA that your mentioned in your OP - just make sure there's a connector on the motherboard for them just in case..

can you get away without a graphics card - it's nicer to have a cheap graphics card than to be relying on on board graphics - and you said you have 2 monitors - not sure that you can do dual monitors without some kind of graphics card... - open to be corrected by someone who knows more than me on that though


well that's my 2 cents anyways - best of luck with it - it's really good fun building if it's your first time

phantom_lord

Ok, I think I have it down to:

Total build cost: €487.93 + €30 shipping
Cooler Master Hyper TX3, alle Sockel €14.16
ASUS P8H67-M LE Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, mATX, DDR3 €80.57
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155 €92.73
Seasonic S12II-430 Bronze, 430 Watt €61.65
4GB-Kit Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-10667U CL9 €32.63
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB Retail €100.79
TP-Link TL-WN781N, 150Mbps, PCIe x1 €10.97

Should be fairly silent too hopefully.

Dublin_Gunner

phantom_lord wrote: »

Ok, I think I have it down to:

Total build cost: €487.93 + €30 shipping
Cooler Master Hyper TX3, alle Sockel €14.16
ASUS P8H67-M LE Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, mATX, DDR3 €80.57
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155 €92.73
Seasonic S12II-430 Bronze, 430 Watt €61.65
4GB-Kit Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-10667U CL9 €32.63
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB Retail €100.79
TP-Link TL-WN781N, 150Mbps, PCIe x1 €10.97

Should be fairly silent too hopefully.

I can't help thinking that for your needs, you're spending over the odds.

SSD - pointless in that build really. What do you want one for? Aftermarket cooler - again pointless.

How about this:
(Free delivery too, and the tax goes to the Irish exchequer)



All for less than €300, more than powerful enough, and upgradeable to Bulldozer when it comes out.

**just realised I had 2 HDD's in there, so this build is shipped, for less than €300.

Absolute bargain. Throw in a decent low end video card and still be less than 350 if you like.

Dublin_Gunner

You could throw in this video card
http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-ati-radeon-5450-hd-512mb-sddr3-pci-express-hdmi-76JF.html?refs=43990000-47710000

And still be under 300.

or this:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6770-hd-850mhz-1gb-ddr5-pci-express-hdmi--claim-dirt3--7GVP.html?refs=43990000-47710000

To bring it to about €370 and it would have 2 x DVI outputs, and capable of playing most games etc if you want.

phantom_lord

phantom_lord wrote: »

Ok, I think I have it down to:

Total build cost: €487.93 + €30 shipping
Cooler Master Hyper TX3, alle Sockel €14.16
ASUS P8H67-M LE Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, mATX, DDR3 €80.57
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155 €92.73
Seasonic S12II-430 Bronze, 430 Watt €61.65
4GB-Kit Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-10667U CL9 €32.63
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €44.09
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €17.71
Xigmatek Asgard III Midi Tower - black, ohne Netzteil €32.63
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB Retail €100.79
TP-Link TL-WN781N, 150Mbps, PCIe x1 €10.97

Should be fairly silent too hopefully.

This is what I ended up going for in the end. Working fine 5 years on. The only issue I have is that when running a lot of tabs in chrome it gets very sluggish and occasionally freezes. In task manager it says the physical memory is running at full capacity, with little or none free.

I was looking at upgrading the ram to the full 16GB (running a 64bit version of windows). The cheapest 16GB kit here is €80, most expensive is €120. Is there much of a difference in performance? I don't really do any high level usage so should I just stick to the cheapest?

MB fits PC3 12800 ram:
http://www.shop4memory.com/products/ddr3.asp#pc3-12800

Xenoronin

2 x DIMM, Max. 16GB, DDR3 1333/1066 Hz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory Architecture

A quick look at the specs suggests that PC3-10666 is the max your motherboard can take.
I would suggest doubling to 8gb as I don't know if the rest of your system will handle 16gb worth of tabs.
Completely up to you though.
Single 8gb module: https://www.memoryc.com/computer-memory/ddr3/8gb-geil-green-series-ddr3-1333mhz-pc3-10660-cl9-single-module-1-35v.html
2x 4gb modules: https://www.memoryc.com/computer-memory/ddr3/8gb-geil-green-series-ddr3-1333mhz-pc3-10660-cl9-dual-kit-1-35v.html

phantom_lord

Thanks very much for the reply. I've ordered the single 8gb. Can I run that with one of the old 2gb modules?

Xenoronin

You can, but it isn't recommended to run two different modules, may end up with worse performance. Best to just leave it at the single 8gb stick.

phantom_lord

Still finding the PC getting very sluggish when I've a few tabs open, even after upgrading the ram. Is the next step to upgrade the processor?

K.O.Kiki

I'd suggest to diagnose the PC first, figure out WHY it's slow.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/desktop-pc/how-speed-up-windows-fix-slow-pc-3502902/
E.g. are there programs running that shouldn't be (either unused or malware)

Also, your Windows is installed on the SSD?

Digital Solitude

I recommend not using chrome. I've an i5 4460, 8gb ram and an SSD. Always have issues with chrome above 10 tabs or so.

Opera or FF might be a start.

phantom_lord

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I'd suggest to diagnose the PC first, figure out WHY it's slow.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/desktop-pc/how-speed-up-windows-fix-slow-pc-3502902/
E.g. are there programs running that shouldn't be (either unused or malware)

Also, your Windows is installed on the SSD?

Thanks I'll have a look at that when I get home.

Yep windows 7 is on the SSD but the SSD is small. Space keeps getting low due to log files, I must look at them again and see if I can clear up space.

phantom_lord

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I recommend not using chrome. I've an i5 4460, 8gb ram and an SSD. Always have issues with chrome above 10 tabs or so.

Opera or FF might be a start.

True, any time I look at the task manager it's chrome that's using all the ram.

Xenoronin

Chrome create a process for each tab, which allow any single tab to crash, without taking down everything else. The downside is that it also creates a new chrome engine for each tab and that just eats RAM and processing power (even if the engine is really efficient). Firefox has newly updated to rollout their take on this tech, which creates a process for each tab, but once it goes above 4 tabs, it starts to spawn threads in the existing processes for each new tab. This should be more efficient, but it does run at a slightly higher risk since you could crash a lot of tabs. They reckon the RAM and power efficiency makes up the benefits over the risk, as you only ever have up to 4 firefox engines running at any one time.

The SSD is really small, maybe look at cloning over to a bigger one at some point. Or just adding a bigger SSD and transferring all programs and non-windows files over to it. Also, make sure your SSD is plugged into a SATA3 port on the motherboard (Ensures no bottlenecks).
Throw in another 8gb stick to make the most of Dual Channel.

Another option is to stick a better processor in there. An i7 2600 can be found pretty cheaply (the non-K version which cannot be overclocked, or even the K version since even though you can't overclock with the current motherboard, the clocks are higher).

Or something like an i5 2500K. If you update the bios, you can even look at something like the i7 3770 or i5 3570.

phantom_lord

Hi, just a follow-up question, I guess this PC is getting on in age but it does the job fine.

Currently running my screens with these:

ASUS P8H67-M LE Rev 3.0, Sockel 1155, mATX, DDR3
Matrox M9140 LP PCIe x16 Quad

I got two new dell p2421d which run at a QHD 2560 X 1440 resolution. I may get a third if I can run it.


Just to double check.

I could get a DVI to HDMI converter, but it would limit me to 1920 x 1200?
Second option is to get a new GFX? I'm not gaming, I'd just want whatver's enough to run 2-4 of those screens?
Something like?
https://www.eurieka.ie/pny-gf710gtlh2gepb-graphics-card-nvidia-geforce-gt-710-2-gb-gddr3.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwdEVcromMeihWNvEdkpuB3-cxbHl0V69JWrdl_lK-9qCzAXfWCUQWhoCYWwQAvD_BwE#fo_c=28&fo_k=ec85808ea7a4a56834e881e308c0186c&fo_s=gplaie

Or I could get a new GFX. But I'd have to check if it's compatible with the MB? Are those relatively standard?

Pcgamer

Id be upgrading the cpu to something like the i5 3470 now as your CPU is really starting to show its age. Its really really badm

You can get one for 25 euro on cex and will be a massive upgrade to your system. Its roughly 2.5 times as strong or something like the i5 2500.

Someone else might confirm this would work for him. Its around 60 quid.

ASUS GT710-4H-SL-2GD5 GeForce GT 710 2 GB GDRR5 with 4 x HDMI Ports And Single Slot for Silent Multi-Monitor Productivity

phantom_lord

Pcgamer wrote: »

Id be upgrading the cpu to something like the i5 3470 now as your CPU is really starting to show its age. Its really really badm

You can get one for 25 euro on cex and will be a massive upgrade to your system. Its roughly 2.5 times as strong or something like the i5 2500.

Someone else might confirm this would work for him. Its around 60 quid.

ASUS GT710-4H-SL-2GD5 GeForce GT 710 2 GB GDRR5 with 4 x HDMI Ports And Single Slot for Silent Multi-Monitor Productivity

Thanks, I hadn't been thinking about the cpu. But that's probably a real bang for buck upgrade

Pcgamer

phantom_lord wrote: »

Thanks, I hadn't been thinking about the cpu. But that's probably a real bang for buck upgrade

Can get thermal paste off ebay for around 4 euro delivered

Dunfyy

I hope it's not gambling poker

https://www.bestuscasinos.org/blog/poker-sites-where-superuser-accounts-were-found/

Pcgamer

Pcgamer wrote: »

Id be upgrading the cpu to something like the i5 3470 now as your CPU is really starting to show its age. Its really really badm

You can get one for 25 euro on cex and will be a massive upgrade to your system. Its roughly 2.5 times as strong or something like the i5 2500.

Someone else might confirm this would work for him. Its around 60 quid.

ASUS GT710-4H-SL-2GD5 GeForce GT 710 2 GB GDRR5 with 4 x HDMI Ports And Single Slot for Silent Multi-Monitor Productivity

Hopefully someone gets back to you about the Asus card, shoukd be perfect

phantom_lord

Thanks for all the advice. I was looking into upgrading the cpu, but I ended up getting a good deal on a i9 9900k.

Not sure what's savagable. The hdd maybe the case, maybe the 430w psu. I'll only be using integrated graphics.

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (Purchased For €0.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 35.14 CFM CPU Cooler (€22.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B365M MORTAR Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€84.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL15 Memory (€77.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€59.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (€39.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 350 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€46.94 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €331.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-12 19:45 CET+0100

I'd opt for something like that.
350W PSU only if you don't plan to add a high-power GPU ever.

Inquitus

phantom_lord wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. I was looking into upgrading the cpu, but I ended up getting a good deal on a i9 9900k.

Not sure what's savagable. The hdd maybe the case, maybe the 430w psu. I'll only be using integrated graphics.

How many tables do you play at once Phants?

phantom_lord

None these days!

phantom_lord

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (Purchased For €0.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 35.14 CFM CPU Cooler (€22.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B365M MORTAR Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€84.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL15 Memory (€77.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€59.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (€39.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 350 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€46.94 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €331.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-12 19:45 CET+0100

I'd opt for something like that.
350W PSU only if you don't plan to add a high-power GPU ever.

Thanks, yeah I don't plan on adding one.

K.O.Kiki

Cool. If you want to get a really small (mini-ITX) machine then it would be a bit more.