|
The post starts with "Why would I not get the Storm Scout?" Obviously, I show why I would not get it.
Originally Posted by Pascal
1. Watercooling? He's building a first time PC, not a sick overclocking setup. There is no need for watercooling unless you are overclocking, and it's far too high maintenance/technical for a first time builder.
Why not watercooling? We are talking the next build, and for that the sky is the limit. Why limit yourself now?
2. He's not going to be using hotswap bays, ever. He's building a home PC, not a server. When would he ever need to hot swap a hard drive?
"Why would I not get the Storm Scout?"
3. I doubt it has tool-less assembly either, but he's going to be building the PC once and then most likely not touching it again for 2 years. Tool-less assembly isn't worth $100.
Ummm, no. When something goes kaput, its gotta be easy to get in there and get outta there as quickly as possible and without hurting yourself. When you want to replace an item, add a new one or do whatever you want to do in there, it should be as easy as can be. I'm not building a mac, i.e. a machine I'll never enter because there might be dragons in there.
I've got a case which is probably 6 or 7 years old with a rig that's ~2 years old. Sure, it doesn't make people go wow, but the case was cheap as hell and I have no need to go inside it. Would I like to get a new one at some point - sure. Is it something I'd spend money on instead of something else - no.
Well that's great. I got an old case with new internals too, and I've had several types of builds within it. At some point I had a gaming computer as well, and then I didn't give a shit about games anymore. Nowadays it's setup with 12 hard drives internally and I'm running out of room. If I did buy a case with just 4 or 5 5.25 bays to begin with, it would have been impossible to setup this particular build with it.
It sounds like you are taking what you want in a PC and telling bigred he should have it, rather than suggesting him things he'd benefit from having in his PC. 32GB of memory is so unnecessary - 16GB is way more than enough.
At one point 640K of memory was enough. I swear to god I'm going to shoot the next person who tells me "but you don't need X amount of RAM". Memory is dirtcheap nowadays compared to just two years ago. Why not max out your mobo for $130? Whereas, comparatively, this 2 stick kit of 16GB costs $110 (and this one's $86). It's a gaming build, and always forever since the dawn of time gaming computers were much more powerful than the average computers.
The fanless power supply is a waste of money if you're trying to keep the value down - any PSU with a 140mm fan will be basically silent, and you'll be able to get a 750W power supply for half the price. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a 500W power supply if he wanted to upgrade certain parts in the future.
This is an 80+ platinum power supply, the most efficient there is AFAIK on the market today. Because its so efficient, it also runs ultra cool. And fanless. More than capable of driving the expected load. Basically, you get what you paid for.
Bigred wants his computer to be as silent as possible for his significant other, and it does not get any more silent than that.
Except this one has only two USB3 ports. The one I linked to has 6 USB3 ports on the back panel. And two thunderbolt ports. And more. The definition of Future-proof. Big deal? Well, maybe today it isn't if you don't mind copying stuff at 15~25MB/s instead of 80~100MB/s. But very soon down the road it will.
IMO, save $100 on the case, $100 on the motherboard, $80 on the power supply, $65 on the memory, $60 on the SSD (drop to 128GB here) bump the graphics card back up to the GTX 680 for $70 more, and you'll also have over $300 in your back pocket with a more powerful, stable, upgradable PC with the only features lost ones that you never would have taken advantage of in the first place
A quick note: SWTOR alone has a 20GB install size. And GTA IV complete edition 30GB. That's 16% and 25% respectively of a 128GB SSD gone to a single damn game. This is without mentioning how some SSDs perform worse as they get full. A 128GB SSD is awesome if you are an office guy, playing in spreadsheets, or just install a single game at a time, but that is not how gamers do it, or at least not how we rolled back in my time.
I actually believe even a 256GB is not necessarily enough for this particular scenario.
That fanless PSU is complete overkill in the noise department and is costing you nearly $100 over an essentially silent 140mm PSU which is going to be more efficient and offer more upgrade options! and so on and so on.
Ummm, no. See above. Plus, according to this, it should handle SLI down the road fine.
Originally Posted by Pascal
I should probably also say why I feel qualified to give advice - I have over 10k posts on a PC forum, and while I haven't been active for at least a year, maybe two years now, I still keep in touch with PC technology. That forum was packed with people with way more money than me, given I was a broke student, and I learnt pretty quickly when building PCs using part-time job wages that there are plenty of corners you can cut to be able to have a PC that's just as good as someone else's just without the flashy lights and top range prices. Like you said, there's a middle ground to be found - a place where the price/performance ratio suits you perfectly - and a $200 motherboard with Thunderbolt when you're trying to spend $1k or less just doesn't fit into that. Don't get dragged in by the fact there's always something a bit better, and make sensible choices.
I'm just an all-around IT guy and notorious researcher who has been at it for at least 10 years.
On to the bold part, and I believe the root of the confusion brewing here: bigred's budget.
I'm not trying to shoot you down or fighting with you or whatever Pascal, but I do think you are fundamentally wrong when it comes to cases, ergo we disagree. But you are allowed to have your opinion about everything, just like everyone else. So if you like your cases cheap, have at it hoss!
|