I did this in my youth. But there have been generations of tech between now and then.
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To be honest, the only thing that is "hard" to mount is a custom cpu cooler, the rest is really easy, above all if you'll buy a modular psu
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If you've built a computer in the past, you should be just fine now. Not much has changed in the last decade. I helped my father put together his first build some years ago and he was amazed at how little effort it took. There's a million YouTube videos on the subject. Really, the hardest part is deciding on the best components for a given budget, and for that there's build lists around from various people.
If you put together a build a long time ago, like before the turn of the century, you'll find everything is far simpler. No more dealing with massive ribbon cables that have to be tethered to two devices, which also had to be configured as master/slave through their pins, just a small serial ATA cable plugs into each device and they're ready to go. If it's been even longer, forget the days of SCSI termination haha. A lot of power supplies are at least partly modular now too, meaning that pretty much every cable except the motherboard power connectors can be removed, so there's no unnecessary cables in the case.
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First of all I would look for quad core processor, probably i5 since i7's (yes I'm intel kid, I never took care of other brands) are still expensive as heck. Dual core's will be out of date in near future I think, if they're not already (that's the reason why I have to upgrade aswell). Of course we are talking about building PC.
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Yes, PC building. I actually have an i7 Quad Core in my laptop. Sadly, as I said, the laptop has other issues.
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Maybe you would be able to save that processor, but sadly you said that laptop has heat issues, just like mine and it can affect processor really bad. In my case overheating affected only hard drive, but it's unpredictable. Also depends on ''organ'' placement of your laptop.
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Yeah, it's been a real pain. Dell put great stuff under the hood, but their fan placement was foolish. And now, after several heat-related shutdowns, I'm not sure what might have been damaged.
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As I said it's unpredictable. I took my laptop to specialist and he said that it's all covered by dust and also dry due to lack of thermal paste. If your is not under guarantee anymore, try to clean it on your own and place paste as well. If it still has issues take it to someone that knows more about it. And yeah, fans are shit in laptops, that's why I will never buy ''gaming laptop'' anymore.
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0) You need to build it, this is the cheapest and best way as you know exactly what peripherals you've bought, also this is necessary to build an extremely close relationship with your pc
1) You really need to decide on your budget, that's the starting point
2) You can choose a good power supply (PSU) so that your motherboard will not fry with all other components
3) You can choose RAM which will not be bottleneck
4) You can choose nice and practical case
NOW: computer example = ($700/£450)
Further enhacements: Get SSD,
Hard Drive Seagate 1TB, SATAIII, 7200RPM, 64MB cache (ST1000DM003)
Motherboard MSI B85M-G43 Intel B85 LGA 1150 mATX - (B85M-G43)
Case Zalman ZALMAN Z3 - USB3.0
Thermaltake Smart SE Modular 530W (SPS-530MPCBEU)
CPU Intel CORE i5-4460 3.20GHz LGA1150 BOX BX80646I54460 - Haswell Refresh
RAM HyperX Savage 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 (HX316C9SR/8)
GPU MSI GeForce GTX 960 OC 2GB DDR5 128Bit DVI/HDMI/3xDP (GTX 960 2GD5T OC)
= This is just a typical pc, you really need to provide budget first then and only then you will get precise list of components which you could buy
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The must for a new generation PC.
A good case with good airflow like Corsair obsidian Series.
A future proof cpu like Intel i5 with aftermarket cooler is a must for general computing and gaming without bottlenecks, also 8 gigs of ram (if you can get 16gb, don't worry there 2 slots more to put memory in the future), 60-120gb SSD for Windows to make your pc fly (get more gb if you have money to spend to add some favorite games or mmos), also 1TB Western Digital Black for your games, i leave gpu to your decision, the gpu market is going along with the money you pay, for me a middle range card like gtx 960 is enough (200+€) for my 1200p monitor, but for you maybe a gtx 970 is a better option and future proof(340+€). Also the AMD gpus are cheaper. (im currently using a hd7850 i bought 2 years ago and its good for my needs).
As i writing this i believe there more helpfull replies above but oh well :)
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these are the most important parts as simple as possible:
Proc: at least an Intel Quad Core i5
Power Supply: get at least a True Rated 520W Modular +80 Bronze Power Supply. Good Brands are FSP and Seasonic. Never get a generic power supply.
Mobo: anything would do just be sure it's compatible. You don't really need an expensive motherboard if you don't intend to Overclock.
HDD: at least 1TB, you'll get the most of your money this way. be sure to check it's rpm and cache.
RAM: 8GB of Ram is sufficient.
OS: Legit Windows OS that you prefer. I personally use Win7.
Video Card: get a Nvidia, it's up to you how strong you want. But always get the best GPU you can afford. Games are always on NVIDIA. I'm on the Red Team though. Green team performs better when it comes to latest games as they monopolized the industry.
Case: check cases from Fractal Design, NZXT, Corsair, CM, they have affordable simple yet cool looking cases.
SSD: You don't really need this, it's a waste of money. It's only good for storing your OS, that's it.
CPU-Cooler: You don't really need to change CPU-Cooler, unless you plan on OverClocking.
Keyboard: seriously consider a mechanical keyboard, don't get those "gamer" keyboard that are expensive and uses membrane switches. Filco, Ducky, CM, Corsair are good starting brands.
Monitor: at least a 23" 1080p Full HD, you don't really need those 4K monitors.
Mouse: any decent mouse will do as long as they fit nicely on your hand. Logitech is a good brand for cheap mice that are dependable.
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SSDs have gone down so much in price and up in capacity/performance in the past few years that I think it's a bit unfair to say they're "only good for storing your OS" and a "waste of money". Things have changed since 2009 when people would spend 100 bucks on a 32GB drive that was just barely enough to store a Windows 7 installation. Current prices are around $50 USD for 120GB and $80 USD for 240GB. My Windows 7 installation takes up about 21GB, leaving my 120GB drive with about 90GB free before installing anything.
By no means am I suggesting it's mandatory. I'd say it's spending a bit of extra money for an improved user experience, just like buying a mechanical keyboard. It makes the OS super responsive, from boot time, starting applications installed on the drive, search queries in the start menu and the little things like making Windows updates install faster. To me this is worth the extra $50, especially if the alternative is using one hard drive for everything. Using other computers just feels sluggish now.
For other, more specialized uses that are I/O heavy (I run a couple databases, scripts that touch thousands of files, sometimes several VMs when virtualizing a domain) the performance increase is simply phenomenal.
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Can anyone link to a quality monitor for a gaming PC build? (60Ghz refresh rate, decent size, 1080p minimum, etc.)
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So, I've been doing all my computing on my laptop for years. Sadly my current laptop has heat issues, and is inconvenient for some other reasons too, so I'm looking to upgrade to a desktop.
Now, I'm a grad. student and thus not over-wealthy. What are the minimal things I should look for in a desktop if I want to game on it? I haven't looked into this for almost a decade, so my knowledge is woefully out of date. But I figured these forums will surely have people who can give useful advice. Thanks in advance for information.
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