Want a new rig, but am WAY out of touch with the latest tech.

Hi. Title says my problem. My current Rig was new when these forums were (Vista rendition). I think I have the specs in my signature, I'll update when I finish if I don't). Now this once top of the line awesomeness is merely a barely functioning paperweight (ok, I DO over exaggerate from time to time).

Someone will ask what I want my computer for, that someone is young lol. Us old computer geeks know that there is only ONE REAL PURPOSE FOR A COMPUTER, and that is gaming. Everything else is a by product. Steering the Mars lander? Secondary to teaching the monsters in Doom to kill....... Crunching numbers for a cure to cancer? Only if the processor isn't pixelating tanks to kill for WOT.........

This is going to be a bit of the process as I'm leaning towards the computer case being the desk, kinda like this:

And a quick search has given me some ideas on the desk part of it (as an awesome carpenter, the desk part other than ideas is a snap lol. Originality in design can be challenging for me though. but in this video, the kid answers a bunch of questions I really hadn't thought of yet. .

I really need to get an idea of the parts list though. I like the new 4.2 or 4.5 gen7 intel 4 core, but should I stretch and go for more cores at a lower frequency?

What socket type?

Is there a reason to NOT get the biggest most efficient PSU?

Where is a good RECENT resource that you have used to learn about water cooling and other *neat* stuff (if there is a new way of cooling I don't know about yet for example) so i can learn enough to even ask questions lol?

Is the VR tech good enough for me to worry about that being a factor in my GPU? What other hardware facilitates that?

How big and how many SSD's? Do multiple smaller ones beat 1 large one?

How much and what type RAM? I saw illuminated RAM on Newegg. Pretty lights are always good..... i mean the purpose of a see through desk IS visual....... but not if the computer doesn't work. Also a light motherboard......



Other than not going with an extreme edition CPU, this computer was all the latest stuff out. And it has worked great until now with only upgrading the GPU (which it needs again lol, first thing I'll get so I can coax more life out of this until I finish my build). I also quit keeping up with the latest tech about that time......... so..... any help will be greatly appreciated. I may be slow sometimes about responding (I'm redoing my house, the computer desk is MY reward), but I am not stopping this until I am done and WILL have about a Brazillian questions..


NOTE: Yes Virginia, I DO know how to use a blind google to get the results someone has paid google for me to see, and it is NOT my friend. I want personal experience not paid adverts please. A google may find a windows 10 answer, but a question posted here is more thoroughly answered and explained, I trust Brink or folks here, I don't trust Google. see what I mean?

Please keep that in mind next time someone asks a question and you want to type in *Google is your friend* If that is all you know, you really should just pass that question by and not waste your time or the posters time. It's 2017, we all know about Google. Some of us are even old enough to remember when it was useful).

EDIT: I want one of these. I wonder what a home PC will be used for in something like this. : http://mashable.com/2017/01/12/fitne.../#eoq8v14Ogaqc

Can you please wait a while until AMD releases it's next CPUs and GPUs? I hear they will be awesome, but only the future will tell, once we get some hands on reviews. I hear they will beat both Intel(CPU) and NVidia(GPU). If that's really true, then it's well worth waiting, as the prices will go down and speeds will go up and we finally have some healthy CPU/GPU competition again.

DeathStalker said:

Is there a reason to NOT get the biggest most efficient PSU?

Yes, power supplies deliver the best efficiency under a certain load. There isn't a point to run a 1200W power supply, if you only need 550W. You may not get the most efficiency from that power supply.

slicendice said:

Can you please wait a while until AMD releases it's next CPUs and GPUs? I hear they will be awesome, but only the future will tell, once we get some hands on reviews. I hear they will beat both Intel(CPU) and NVidia(GPU). If that's really true, then it's well worth waiting, as the prices will go down and speeds will go up and we finally have some healthy CPU/GPU competition again.

I'm trying man but they are killing me. My GPU is causing problems to my gaming but they really haven't come up with the *next* thing yet.

Never save on a power supply. It's the best investment you can make regarding electronics. Buy a quality one that has multiple power rails. The efficiency curves are nothing to worry about, but is a good thing to check out, just to be on the safe side. The best Platinum Certified power supplies has a very evenly distributed efficiency curve where the efficiency variate between 85-95% over the whole range of currents. So not a big difference there. And the power rails that don't have anything connected to them consume NO power at all. Never will you get an efficiency of only 20% or similar on such devices. Buy a cheap power supply and you are almost guaranteed to get in trouble sooner or later.

More important is to make sure each rail connected can produce enough current to your devices, and also plan ahead how you will connect the cables so you distribute the output evenly to all devices and don't strain one rail. Better have enough juice for possible future upgrades than struggle from the beginning with unstable computer and blown up parts.

Greetings from someone who has Electronics Engineering background as a hobby.

EDIT: Note that devices don't consume 100% of their rated power consumption all the time, it vary a lot, so Power Supplies are designed to produce even voltage with highest efficiency for the whole current range. If they would not be like this you would have a very unstable system.

For the first 2 questions, you may find excellent performance with speeds from about 3.2GHz upward. I'm running 64-bit Win10 Pro IP successfully on a 2.20GHz CPU with 4GB RAM.

For the socket, that will be determined by the CPU and motherboard, have to use the CPU that matches the socket on the board.

For the power supply I find the electrical circuit from the breaker panel has to be sufficient to run every thing in the room. Because of my setup/what I do I added a second 20-Amp circuit to alleviate any problem.

@slice: Thanks man, that's what i was looking for. Had an online *buddy* for years who was a computer hardware GOD. He went by the name Carbon (in some form). He disappeared though. LOL the similarity between him and Brink, even down to the same hometown in Oklyhoma, is eerie....... but Carbon was more hardware while Brink is more software...... anyway...............

They've changed a bunch of stuff since the last time I got a PSU. (Carbon was ALWAYS harping on the PSU as the cornerstone of the build),and these new *certifications*. At that time, everything was on a trend to consume MORE power so a Thermaltake 1200Toughpower seemed a no brainer. As I look now, I really don't see a plethora or 1200+ PSU's so my first conclusion would be that they have reversed the trend for power hog components. They also have added platinum, and titanium, and diamond and kyptonite (ok so i made a couple up..... so did they) classifications to surpass their *gold* rating so who knows if the misused adjectives used to describe their power consumption means anything.

So my understanding of the ratings is (as explained on Toms Hardware):

It is an efficiency rating or basically how much more it will pull from the wall than its rated output.
Example 500watt 80% efficient will pull 625watts from the wall at full load! at 90% efficiency the same PSU would do 555 watts from the wall!

Is this correct?

Have you any brands you recommend? They buy each other up so fast it's hard to keep up unless you are in the business, one day a brand will be great, the next cheapsters buy them for the name and put garbage inside until folks figure it out. EVGA was a company that ONLY made Intel GPU's now they make everything except breakfast....... and from what I see make it well...... today. Tomorrow? Who knows.

Now to decide what CPU to use. It determines the MB and the power needed to start......

Yes basically, if out imaginary PSU has only one power rail and can output MAX 40A at 12V @ 80% efficiency, it will be capable of outputting a total of:

12V x 40A = 480VA = 480W

The input would then be:

480W / 0.8 = 600W

This needs a Mains fuse for the household of at least the following values (rough calculation):

For US (120VAC): 600W / 120V = 5A --> Fuse > 5Ampere (I think US standard for many is 10A but not sure)
For EU (240VAC): 600W / 120V = 2.5A --> Fuse > 2.5Ampere (EU standards are 10A, 16A, 20A depending on cabling and the main fuse is usually 40A)

For PSU recommendations, first decide what components you need now and possibly in the future then we can search a few PSU candidates for you. If you will fill up you rig with gaming related hardware, then any gold or platinum rated PSU between 1200W and 1800W would be a good candidate.

As far as brands go, for power supplies, I stick with Corsair, Seasonic, or PC Power and Cooling.