I'D Like To Build My Own Computer

[MaiDong]

SNIP

I understand the point of getting a 1900-2400 THB processor with a 5000 THB videocard...if he's a gamer. However, we're looking at a guy who has admitted he isn't into gaming and choosing to go down to a processor that has less performance than a 3 year old dual core product when for not that much more scratch, especially since he is going to get such good onboard graphics, doesn't seem right to me.

I understand about scratch/swapfiles/pagefiles...I don't like the performance hit that comes with HAVING to depending on them. If you're only going to run 4GB of RAM and really use your computer, you're going to run into it. While modern hdd have really respectable transfer rates, the access time would have me pulling my hair out! Sorry you did not get the rhetorical nature of the question.

Thinking that IT decisions are decided solely by CTO rather than with major CFO input is quite a fantasy. Case in point; recently the company I work for was upgrading their laptops. Fine and dandy, right? Problem was that it was decided to go ahead and get Dell's cheapest models. On paper they sound great. 4 GB of RAM, a i5-5250, etc. But apparently there was no validation testing completed on them. Resume from suspend is atrocious. 100% of the time the USB keyboard/mouse will not work and 50% of the time the onboard keyboard won't work! But the guys controlling the purse strings thought that was what the company needed..

I can see your point about having back up ports; however I refuse to allow a computer that has warrantied parts to force me to switch items around to resolve an issue. If it is under warranty and throwing faults (memtest is ran before the machine is pressed into operation, right?), the sucker gets RMA'd. I still like Asus for family builds, but stick with Supermicro for my personal machines. I suppose I used to be a Tyan man, but after all the issues and dropped support on the K8WE (which I suffered though and cemented my current work or be returned attitude) I will stick with brands I know. Gigabyte also is on my hate list for their dual proc Opteron board that they sold and immediately dropped support for after realising just how hard it is to get workstation/server motherboards working as they should (yes I had bought one).

We do have quite disimilar attitudes on what constitutes a proper 'office machine'. Technically an dual core Atom with 4GB and a nlited XP would be great. If you want to do anything past smallish spreadsheets and simple emails you're going to quickly run into frustation though. This difference ties into the part you said you didn't understand. I do a lot of transcoding; both SD and 1080p. With out the machine I built I would be waiting forever trying to get stuff done. I have just a little bit of time to do it when I'm not working and I want them done as quickly as possible. Hence a machine was built out that should serve me some 4 more years. Nobody really needs 8 real cores and 16 threads. Nobody really needs 12 GB of RAM. Who needs an array that pushes over 500MB/s in their home computer? And yet I do. If that means that I can get done in a 1/4 of the time that other machines take, I will use that much less electricity (good for the power bill and the planet), have that much longer life out of equipment, etc. I consider it a good investment.

Way, way too technical for me! I'm enjoying the varying opinions though(the bits I understand!)

[justsumhelp]

Download them directly from Microsoft then buy the license (cough) http://www.mydigital...download-links/

WINDOWS 7 - where should I buy this from? Somewhere trusted, somewhere cheap preferably! I understand it won't differ too much from shop to shop, any recommendations?

[MaiDong]

Download them directly from Microsoft then buy the license (cough) http://www.mydigital...download-links/

WINDOWS 7 - where should I buy this from? Somewhere trusted, somewhere cheap preferably! I understand it won't differ too much from shop to shop, any recommendations?

Yes, that's been my thoughts for the last decade or so, my only concern is that if I'm spending this much money on a decent customised system I should at least treat myself to a trouble-free(cough) OS...

[Tywais]

Download them directly from Microsoft then buy the license (cough) http://www.mydigital...download-links/

WINDOWS 7 - where should I buy this from? Somewhere trusted, somewhere cheap preferably! I understand it won't differ too much from shop to shop, any recommendations?

Yes, that's been my thoughts for the last decade or so, my only concern is that if I'm spending this much money on a decent customised system I should at least treat myself to a trouble-free(cough) OS...

Might want to see a doctor about that cough. You can look at the pricing and order if you want from Invadeit.com

[MaiDong]

Download them directly from Microsoft then buy the license (cough) http://www.mydigital...download-links/

WINDOWS 7 - where should I buy this from? Somewhere trusted, somewhere cheap preferably! I understand it won't differ too much from shop to shop, any recommendations?

Yes, that's been my thoughts for the last decade or so, my only concern is that if I'm spending this much money on a decent customised system I should at least treat myself to a trouble-free(cough) OS...

Might want to see a doctor about that cough. You can look at the pricing and order if you want from Invadeit.com

hahahaha, I was going to buy an OS anyway, someone attempted to pollute my mind

Do InvadeIT offer competitive prices? Or should I jsut take advantage of ordering a bundle of items and getting it all delivered together?(hopefully)

[Tywais]

Do InvadeIT offer competitive prices? Or should I jsut take advantage of ordering a bundle of items and getting it all delivered together?(hopefully)

Some items may be slightly more some less but I use them as they have excellent service, quick responses and reliable. I ordered all my recent upgrade parts from them. Here are two other on-line stores to compare prices. You can still shop around at your local shops but if it is too cheap ....

Tohome.com

Shop4thai.com

[MaiDong]

Just placed my order for the following items;

Processor - B6,850

Motherboard - B2,750

RAM - B2,900 - 2x 4GB sticks of RAM

HDD - B2,080

DVD - B690

EDIT/ The helpful CTO at InvadeIT also guided me in the right direction regarding my OS too, I'm now ordering the Retail version, instead of the OEM version, allowing me to transfer it to my future self-build - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium English 32/64-bit (GFC-00094) Retail

I have received immediate responses from the helpful Chief Technical Officer of InvadeIT. Thanni, on the other hand, hasn't yet responded to my query as of 18:30 yesterday evening, I'm really hoping they get back to me soon

It has been suggested to me to consider 2 alternative motherboards, what does anybody think about these?...

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/motherboards/asus/p8h61-m-leb3-lga1155-h61-2-x-ddr3-4-x-sata-3gb-s-uatx-p005932/

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/motherboards/asus/p8h61-m-r3-lga1155-h61-2-x-ddr3-4-x-sata-3gb-s-microatx-p005744/

[MaiDong]

I came home with the Nox Coolbay Devil edition today, it was the closest thing to the now discontinued Coolbay 25, the differences seem to be that it has 4 fans instead of 2(optional 3), it has a large window on the side and it uses red LED's instead of blue(plus all the internal structure is red etc), I'm sure there are other differences but I haven't got to work on my project yet as I only just confirmed my order with InvadeIT this afternoon, I was rather surprised to be told by the man in the shop where I bought the Nox that I could simply cut some wires to disable the LED's and solder them back together in the future(if I really wanted to go to bed with kaleidoscopes going round in my eyes)...

Does that sound feasable? I asked him about any possible problems and he suggested the obvious, that I only cut 1 of the wires to prevent two cut wires from sparking, the power for the fans comes through a completely different wire so that comforted me a little, now I know there are going to be some who will shout at their monitors reading this, and others who agree with the man in the shop, any thoughts?

I also came home with a BenQ G925HDA 18.5" monitor and a BenQ G610HDAL 15.6" monitor, I thought I'd test them out on my current machine and they both done something to my current resolution. I plugged one in first and it immediately chose an unsuitable resolution and I was unable to choose the correct resolution, the picture was really smokey too, the same thing happened with the second one I tried so I plugged my old HP 18.5" and that too was all oddly sized, I had to update some drivers and restart and all was fine again, what could possibly be happening there? I'm a bit concerned about them affecting my new system, although with the components I'm going to install I would imagine them to be quite a bit more advanced than the machine I'm using now, any thoughts on this too?

Thanks for any clues!