I'm going to have to start looking at HTPC-style cases soon. Need to measure the cabinet space under my TV before I start the hunt, but anyone have one they are in love with? My 5-year-old one is pretty crap, since it had to fit in a much smaller hole at the time and has an odd-sized power supply that I had to rip out and make external.
The one Rym and I have is pretty much perfect. Here it is.
Update on my monitor shopping: I ordered a Viewsonic VX2703MH on a Black Friday sale. (I also got an employee discount, so extra money off!) I just plugged it in today and I'm loving the hell out of it.
It has a contrast ratio of 1200:1 (10M:1 dynamic) and it looks gorgeous from where I'm sitting now. It's a bit pricy, but it's worth it.
This is the one that I have but it is full height because it's on top of a low cabinet alongside the receiver.
The GD10 (newest revision) is even better and looks easier to build inside.
However half height ones like the one that Scott has posted are probably your best bet if it is going inside a cabinet as the full height ones are about 15 or 16cm in height.
Update on my monitor shopping: I ordered a Viewsonic VX2703MH on a Black Friday sale. (I also got an employee discount, so extra money off!) I just plugged it in today and I'm loving the hell out of it.
It has a contrast ratio of 1200:1 (10M:1 dynamic) and it looks gorgeous from where I'm sitting now. It's a bit pricy, but it's worth it.
That is a damn good price, I don't think you guys understand how lucky you have it, lol.
It really works for the room. On a side note my receiver started making a loud high frequency noise, I asked my fellow viewers if they heard it after a few hours of watching TV shows last night and they asked if I was referring to the fans in the case.
Protecting my ears apparently has negative effects too!
So what about logical increments? Is picking a budget then buying exactly what they tell you to a good idea?
Never saw that site before. It seems pretty good to me, I only have minor disagreements with their choices. For example, I never use a non-stock heat sink. I never go ATi or AMD. I would never buy those ridiculously tacky cases. They're recommending good reliable PSUs, but they are perhaps overpowered and will jack up your electric bill. They're also choosing drives for you, which I think is separate consideration. Data doesn't become obsolete. All your drives from your current computer come on over like red rover.
So what about logical increments? Is picking a budget then buying exactly what they tell you to a good idea?
I've never seen this site either but I feel as if it is misleading. For example in graphics cards, the site switches between stock card designs alongside vendor modified designs. Differences can be huge, for example some of the MSI designs there have fans that don't spin until required and are best in cases with good air flow. The stock design version of the same card makes way more noise, excels in a closed cased, design that doesn't need high air flow however is super noisy. The vendor cards also come overclocked.
The CPU coolers won't all fit in the cases listed.
The site seems to not believe that any Samsung SSD's exist other than the 850, so far Samsung has been the most reliable and one of the fastest.
Case and power supply choices seem to be all over the place.
I would recommend against buying off of a list such as this.
Unless you're significantly overclocking, why would you ever buy a non-stock heatsink for an Intel chip? The included ones are practically silent and great in every way.
Unless you're going with a liquid cooled case, I fail to see any reason to "upgrade" that component.
The stock cooler that came with my APU wouldn't fit in my tiny-ass case. I had to order a special low-profile cooler.
Passive cooling is a possibility with some Intel chips (and I've heard some of the low-TDP AMD chips too), so that's another reason to go non-stock. But those are both highly specialized situations.
I would think that a list like the one linked there is a good sort of 'starting point' that gets you in the right ballpark for a certain 'tier' and you can check the specs of the recommended bits, then look for the configurations that match your needs. And the FAQ on the page basically says as much. The main point is to say 'if you have budget X, this is the type of machine you should expect, and here's an example of a build using components that are fairly matched so that you have a baseline for that price range' But ultimately one should look at all the similarly-priced, similarly spec'd hardware and note the finer details between.
It's not rocket scientry, so no list is really needed if one does enough research: but I think it's a cool idea as a sanity-check as well as a reference sheet.
Unless you're significantly overclocking, why would you ever buy a non-stock heatsink for an Intel chip? The included ones are practically silent and great in every way.
I've replaced an Intel stock heatsink after I moved and the movers knocked the case hard enough that the tabs holding the heatsink onto the motherboard broke. I decided it would be easier buy a replacement than to find replacement parts.
It's not rocket scientry, so no list is really needed if one does enough research: but I think it's a cool idea as a sanity-check as well as a reference sheet.
I would also recommend PC Perspective's hardware leaderboard (although they have not uploaded this month's updates for some reason), Tom's Hardware System Builder Marathons, I would have included Anandtech but they go more in depth then required for newer people and I won't include MaximumPC as they assume their audience are enthusiast builders.
In short get a few different opinions on the main parts of your build or expensive components.
What is the minimum I should shell out money for based on power of the chip? What video card had the best power for the price point? Should I still aim for i5 rather than i7?
What is the minimum I should shell out money for based on power of the chip? What video card had the best power for the price point? Should I still aim for i5 rather than i7?
I'm not sure what you're starting with but this is what I would go for with a 1920 x 1080 / 1200 output. If it is a 2560 or higher you will need more investment into your video card.
CPU - i5 4670 (get 4670k if you want an easy overclock), or you can get the i7 4790 or something like this if you have CPU heavy tasks to complete on the side. Motherboard - Z97 chipset (I would recommend Asus but MSI is what others have been using) RAM - anything with lifetime warranty SSD - Samsung 840 EVO (recent sales have made the 500gb and 1tb models relatively affordable) HDD - WD as a personal choice but anything large like 2 - 4 tb Graphics Card - nVidia GTX 970 (on a 1920 panel is ideal, try and get one of the ones with aftermarket fans that don't spin up unless required like the Asus Strix or the MSI Twin Frozr series), I have one of these and it is crazy quiet the loudest fan in my room is now the the single 120mm case fan (Although strictly speaking for best price point the AMD 290X can be bought for really low prices on some sites, I would recommend mostly the XFX series if you go down this route, this series of cards will make much more heat and noise than nVidia's 900 series). PSU - 750W Seasonic / Corsair / etc.
Comments
If you want to go ultra-small formfactor, I can share my experiences there.
It has a contrast ratio of 1200:1 (10M:1 dynamic) and it looks gorgeous from where I'm sitting now. It's a bit pricy, but it's worth it.
The GD10 (newest revision) is even better and looks easier to build inside.
However half height ones like the one that Scott has posted are probably your best bet if it is going inside a cabinet as the full height ones are about 15 or 16cm in height.
On a side note my receiver started making a loud high frequency noise, I asked my fellow viewers if they heard it after a few hours of watching TV shows last night and they asked if I was referring to the fans in the case.
Protecting my ears apparently has negative effects too!
The CPU coolers won't all fit in the cases listed.
The site seems to not believe that any Samsung SSD's exist other than the 850, so far Samsung has been the most reliable and one of the fastest.
Case and power supply choices seem to be all over the place.
I would recommend against buying off of a list such as this.
Unless you're going with a liquid cooled case, I fail to see any reason to "upgrade" that component.
Passive cooling is a possibility with some Intel chips (and I've heard some of the low-TDP AMD chips too), so that's another reason to go non-stock. But those are both highly specialized situations.
It's not rocket scientry, so no list is really needed if one does enough research: but I think it's a cool idea as a sanity-check as well as a reference sheet.
In short get a few different opinions on the main parts of your build or expensive components.
Oh, and a case and a power supply.
Gets 200+ fps on Dragon Age with maxed out settings.
What is the minimum I should shell out money for based on power of the chip? What video card had the best power for the price point? Should I still aim for i5 rather than i7?
Might have to spring for a GTX 970 afterall.
CPU - i5 4670 (get 4670k if you want an easy overclock), or you can get the i7 4790 or something like this if you have CPU heavy tasks to complete on the side.
Motherboard - Z97 chipset (I would recommend Asus but MSI is what others have been using)
RAM - anything with lifetime warranty
SSD - Samsung 840 EVO (recent sales have made the 500gb and 1tb models relatively affordable)
HDD - WD as a personal choice but anything large like 2 - 4 tb
Graphics Card - nVidia GTX 970 (on a 1920 panel is ideal, try and get one of the ones with aftermarket fans that don't spin up unless required like the Asus Strix or the MSI Twin Frozr series), I have one of these and it is crazy quiet the loudest fan in my room is now the the single 120mm case fan
(Although strictly speaking for best price point the AMD 290X can be bought for really low prices on some sites, I would recommend mostly the XFX series if you go down this route, this series of cards will make much more heat and noise than nVidia's 900 series).
PSU - 750W Seasonic / Corsair / etc.
Sound card if you want one.
Does anyone need a soundcard or is the onboard sound via the motherboard good enough?