PC build thread

[Ziggy]

I decided to finally get some more RAM for my desktop.

I'm still rocking my i7 920 build from 2009. Of course, when I built it, a 3x2GB kit of triple channel DDR3 was over $100, around $150 IIRC. About a year or two ago I noticed the exact kit I bought was still being stocked and was only around $60. I kept putting off buying it, and now they don't carry the same kit anymore. But, I was able to get a 3x4GB kit for about that price ($60-70). So instead of doubling my RAM, I'm tripling it for the same price. So I'll have 18GB of RAM, up from 6GB.

I'm still rocking my GeForce 9800 GT. I'm not gonna bother upgrading it until I actually buy a game that I can't run (I don't really do modern gaming on PC).

[Ziggy]

Can anyone recommend a good monitor on a budget?

I'm not asking for people to research for me, I was just wondering if anyone picked up a monitor recently and would recommend it. I just looked through dozens of monitors on NewEgg and Amazon, but I get easily scared off by bad reviews.

I'm looking for something that's at least 21.5" and 1080. I'm thinking 23 or 24" absolute max. It needs to have a nice stable base and a matte finish (I hate gloss). It needs to be a good (trusted) brand. Something around $100 would be fantastic, but I'll go up to $150 if it's worth it (possibly a tad more than that if it's a good buy).

This Acer looks good, and a good price, but similar Acer models on Amazon (with that style base) have a bunch of reviews saying that it wobbles easily. That would be a definite deal breaker for me. In my house, it WILL wobble when I walk across the room or some one shuts a door hard. So I'm hesitant to pull the trigger.

This Asus has 3800 reviews, so it's gotta have something going for it. It's priced great, but I can't find any mention of if the bezel is matte or gloss though. Looks like from the pics the base might be glossy but the bezel is matte. Kinda hard to tell from stock pics. Some of the customer pics make it look like it's glossy. Also, some reviews mention that it wobbles, and the base looks like it's really light.


Anyone have any recommendations?

[marurun]

Can anyone recommend a good monitor on a budget?
...
Anyone have any recommendations?

I have the 22" version of that ASUS and I love it. I had to send the first one back, though, because it had a little bit of a lean. Amazon was quick to replace it, though, and what I have now is great. Image is nice and bright, seems to not be laggy, and the colors are pretty sharp.

[Ziggy]

Can anyone recommend a good monitor on a budget?
...
Anyone have any recommendations?

I have the 22" version of that ASUS and I love it. I had to send the first one back, though, because it had a little bit of a lean. Amazon was quick to replace it, though, and what I have now is great. Image is nice and bright, seems to not be laggy, and the colors are pretty sharp.

Thanks!

How would you say the base is? Is it light and flimsy? Let's say your computer desk isn't very sturdy (mine isn't), would the monitor rock around easily?

Is the finish glossy or matte? It's really hard to tell from the pics.

[marurun]

Can anyone recommend a good monitor on a budget?
...
Anyone have any recommendations?

I have the 22" version of that ASUS and I love it. I had to send the first one back, though, because it had a little bit of a lean. Amazon was quick to replace it, though, and what I have now is great. Image is nice and bright, seems to not be laggy, and the colors are pretty sharp.

Thanks!

How would you say the base is? Is it light and flimsy? Let's say your computer desk isn't very sturdy (mine isn't), would the monitor rock around easily?

Is the finish glossy or matte? It's really hard to tell from the pics.

The base is not flimsy, no. Mine was just crooked for some reason. My model is matte, not glossy. I cannot speak to the 24". But since I prefer matte, I'm happy.

[Ziggy]

Thanks, I think I'm gonna order one when I get home from work. I think I'm gonna go with the 23" model.

edit: I ordered the 23" model. It just came in, and I just hooked it up. It looks fantastic! What a big improvement over my 19" 1440x700!

Thanks, marurun!

[marurun]

I bet it's nice a bright, too. Almost too bright.

[Ziggy]

Thinking about finally upgrading my video card.

GTX 750 Ti... Any thoughts?

I'm looking at the EVGA super clocked version. It's about $100-120 new, depending on the retailer. From what I can tell, it blows my current 9800 GT out of the water while being smaller and using less power. I know it's not a current gen video card, and I know its performance limits, but it sounds like the best performance:cost:power consumption card for me.

I think that's what I really like about this card, the fact that it's small and doesn't use a lot of power. When I built my desktop, I gave myself some headroom with the PSU. But I've since added several components (multiple HDDs, more RAM, a second optical drive, plus devices that are powered over USB). I haven't recalculated everything, I'm sure I still have headroom. But I still have two thoughts: One, the PSU is 7 years old. And two, I'd have to put some serious thought into what a more power hungry video card would mean for my system. That, and $100 is really my limit of what I wanna spend on a video card.

I guess I'm just really asking if anyone feels another card would be better for about the same amount of money. I think I wanna stick with nVidia, and I haven't really seen anything else in the nVidia line that beats this card for the price.

[emwearz]

Your only other option really is the R7 370 by AMD, which is an upgraded R7 270, they trade off in a few benchmarks, but more often than not the 370 has a sizable gap on the 750ti in performance. The prices seems fairly similar here in Australia.

It does however use more power and would mean jumping away from team green, but other than power efficacy and brand loyalty, there is no real reason to pick the 750Ti over the R7 370.

[ElkinFencer10]

I don't know if I ever actually posted my PC build here when I finished assembling it last year, so I figure I'll post it here now.

CPU - Intel Core i7 quad core 4.00 GHz
RAM - 8 GB DDR3 (going to upgrade to 16 GB soon, but it's a relatively low priority atm)
GPU - EVGA GTX 980 4 GB GDDR5

For storage, I have a 256 GB SSD for my OS and a 2 TB 7200 RPM HDD for my games (although I'm going to order a 5 TB HDD when I get my bonus in March and make that strictly for Steam since I filled up a terabyte and a half in 12 months, lol).

I've also got a Blu-ray reader/burner because why not?