Advice on a new PC

LaVail

Hi lads

I opened a thread in the computers forum and was interested in a new dell XPS 8500 but maybe building from scratch would be better. I'm hopeing some of you can help me on this.

1. What is your budget? [€4000]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming (some)/Video editing/Internet] (maybe the odd FPS)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes] 7 Professional 64bit

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [no]

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes] Has to be high end and full HD etc etc

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [24' or above]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes/No]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse] Must be good quality and wireless

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [No]

8. How can you pay? [Credit Card/Laser/Cash]

9. When are you purchasing? [In 30-60 days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Kerry]

11. Would like it to have some sort of SSD also

12. Has to run as silent as possible


Cheers

Procrastastudy

i7 3770K based machine with a dual GFX690s and 3 x Catleaps in Surround.

Shouldn't leave you much change from 4k

If you'd prefer the same machine for 2K drop 2 of the Catleaps and 1 of the video cards. You'll still have 2 GPUs just on the one card.

Tea_Bag

there is no need to spend 4K on a PC with your needs, but if you want to anyway, you can water cool everything and get as silent as it gets.

regardless, come back in a months time/ a week before you're ready to order, cause specing something now won't likely be relevant then. the 7990 is around the corner for instance, and could be a good way to go depending on price/performance.


and definitely a catleap or 3.

Procrastastudy

Just on watercooling - wont you just move the noise somewhere else? I presume the radiators need cooling somehow?

LaVail

Tea_Bag wrote: »

there is no need to spend 4K on a PC with your needs, but if you want to anyway, you can water cool everything and get as silent as it gets.

regardless, come back in a months time/ a week before you're ready to order, cause specing something now won't likely be relevant then. the 7990 is around the corner for instance, and could be a good way to go depending on price/performance.


and definitely a catleap or 3.

I guess computer tech changes so much that machines go out of date often so it's probably best as you say to come back a week before I want to buy. I know I don't need a 4k machine but I often spend 12hrs+ in front of my current one so I would like something top end and as modern as possible for that reason alone.

I had thought about water cooling but know very little - nothing about it.

As regards catleap monitors, are they the best? I don't need 3D but would love higher picture quality than say an iMac. My current monitor is a hanns-g and it's pretty bad.

Thanks for the replies lads.

Tea_Bag

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Just on watercooling - wont you just move the noise somewhere else? I presume the radiators need cooling somehow?

not necessarily, if the radiator is large enough it can be completely passive. serephucus runs passive for example.

otherwise, your looking to use large 120mm or 200mm fans going very slowly. its a hell of a lot quieter than your GPU fan for example.

when Ulster bank sort their crap and I get a bit more money I'll be water cooling, and the only noise in my PC will be 5 gentle typhoons going very slowly.

LaVail wrote: »

I guess computer tech changes so much that machines go out of date often so it's probably best as you say to come back a week before I want to buy. I know I don't need a 4k machine but I often spend 12hrs+ in front of my current one so I would like something top end and as modern as possible for that reason alone.

I had thought about water cooling but know very little - nothing about it.

As regards catleap monitors, are they the best? I don't need 3D but would love higher picture quality than say an iMac. My current monitor is a hanns-g and it's pretty bad.

Thanks for the replies lads.

the catleap is the same monitor that the 27" iMac. its a ultra high definition 2560*1440p 27" S-IPS monitor. its pretty much the best monitor you can buy unless you spend €1000+. it costs about €300 for a catleap.

LaVail

Tea_Bag wrote: »

the catleap is the same monitor that the 27" iMac. its a ultra high definition 2560*1440p 27" S-IPS monitor. its pretty much the best monitor you can buy unless you spend €1000+. it costs about €300 for a catleap.

The catleap is starting to sound a lot better now

Just out of curiosity though can you link to some €1000+ monitors that you think are better?

It's been several years since I even thought of buying a computer or monitor so I don't know how far tech has come in that time and am interested just to see the quality of today's products.

Thanks Tea_Bag

frozenfrozen

What kind of video editing will you be doing? i.e. are you just messing around or doing it as a profession? I recently went with about a 3k build, but kept peripherals from last build so we're talking almost the same budget. You may want to look at a 3930k for your cpu. 6 cores, 12 threads and its really destroying anything I throw at it.

I would advise against getting a 690 or any 600 series card for video work. The cuda side of nvidias gaming range has been nerfed heavily from the last 500 series. With your budget you could look at getting a quadro card. Although that really depends on how serious your work with video is, and if you would even benefit from it. Again if you're seriously into video you may want a RED rocket or other speciality card for working with high end codecs. Do you want a broadcast monitor to be included in the price? Also what about sound? You will need a well acoustically treated environment if you want high end monitoring speakers.

4,000 is a huge amount of money to spend on a pc if you don't actually need it. Look through some of the other threads around here and you will see a lot of builds are sub-1000 euro.

My ~3,000+ build is more than enough, and I'm working with a further good few thousand worth of equipment.

Procrastastudy

Frozen - after reading Thor's threads your not boasting

frozenfrozen

I don't know of this thread but I'm sure it's going to be a custom loop on a 3960x and some ridiculous monitor setup :P