[Racer X 69]

Just got this for my daughter for Christmas....FX504G...ys it's a gaming laptop, but she does not game. Charlie is crazy you say? Perhaps, but she is in an arts program and will most certainly be using graphically intensive programs to draw/sculpt/post process and this system has a great price per performance price point.

I just went back and looked at my last build, from January 2017.


CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7g Thermal Paste ($3.44 @ OutletPC) Comes with CPU fan

Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

Storage: Sandisk X400 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card

Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit

Case Fan: Enermax UCTVS12P-R 76.0 CFM 120mm Fan
Case Fan: Enermax UCTVS12P-R 76.0 CFM 120mm Fan

CPU B&H $393.89
CPU Cooler New Egg $34.99 + $10 Mail In Rebate
Motherboard Amazon $229.98
Memory Jet $454.97 + $29.57 “Estimated” Sales Tax
SSD B&H $265.79
Hard Drive Outlet PC $49.78
Hard Drive Outlet PC $49.78
Video Card Outlet PC $419.88
Case New Egg $69.99/$59.99 + $10 Mail In Rebate
Power Supply Amazon $69.99
Optical Drive Outlet PC $18.88 + $7.95 Shipping
Operating System New Egg $139.99
Case Fan New Egg $14.99
Case Fan New Egg $14.99

Totals $2217.89

Less Rebates $20 $2197.89

Add Shipping $7.95 $2205.84

Add “Sales Tax” $29.57 $2235.41

I used PC Part Picker to put it together. When I actually ordered everything some of the prices had changed, and one item (CPU cooler) wound up being not available so I had to find an alternate.

Quite a bit more than I remember spending, but there it is.

And I already had two monitors, a mouse and keyboard.

Last spring I replaced the two disc drives with a set of three 2TB drives in RAID.

[Racer X 69]

It's warming up, supposed to be 60F on Turkey Day.

So much for some skiing.

[tim60]

That is exactly what happens with cheap units...for instance, graphics, if you don't have a good graphics card you are wondering why you super-duper I7 processor is not keeping up....well that is because it is having to do a lot of the graphics work that it is not designed to do. Or, the motherboard architecture is a cheap design so even though you bolt a very expensive processor on the card, it is like trying to drive a F1 card on a gravel road; 300kph you will not achieve.

That make a serious problem for customers.


We need some way to clearly distinguish machines on the showroom shelf as suitable for x or y purpose and a way of testing them in the shop. Just listing the spec of items inside does not cut the mustard because they could be configured with a bottleneck section not itemised in the list. Also, we need to get away from a simplistic bad, better best kind of categorisation, because that does not really inform if your need is to do something in particular that is quite demanding. Then, the other part is the robustness of the box - how long will it perform at proper spec - noting that almost every machine I have used seemed lighting fast when new and then accumulated rubbish inflicted by updates etc and slowed to treacle.

[k1man]

i should be a bit more savvy but i dont have a clue what you posted, i am hopeless at this computer stuff, good luck to you, regards ian

[CharLac]

That make a serious problem for customers.


We need some way to clearly distinguish machines on the showroom shelf as suitable for x or y purpose and a way of testing them in the shop. Just listing the spec of items inside does not cut the mustard because they could be configured with a bottleneck section not itemised in the list. Also, we need to get away from a simplistic bad, better best kind of categorisation, because that does not really inform if your need is to do something in particular that is quite demanding. Then, the other part is the robustness of the box - how long will it perform at proper spec - noting that almost every machine I have used seemed lighting fast when new and then accumulated rubbish inflicted by updates etc and slowed to treacle.

Google is your friend....or a tech savvy friend :-)

[CharLac]

Yup, winter arrived yesterday

[CharLac]

I just went back and looked at my last build, from January 2017.


CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7g Thermal Paste ($3.44 @ OutletPC) Comes with CPU fan

Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

Storage: Sandisk X400 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card

Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit

Case Fan: Enermax UCTVS12P-R 76.0 CFM 120mm Fan
Case Fan: Enermax UCTVS12P-R 76.0 CFM 120mm Fan

CPU B&H $393.89
CPU Cooler New Egg $34.99 + $10 Mail In Rebate
Motherboard Amazon $229.98
Memory Jet $454.97 + $29.57 “Estimated” Sales Tax
SSD B&H $265.79
Hard Drive Outlet PC $49.78
Hard Drive Outlet PC $49.78
Video Card Outlet PC $419.88
Case New Egg $69.99/$59.99 + $10 Mail In Rebate
Power Supply Amazon $69.99
Optical Drive Outlet PC $18.88 + $7.95 Shipping
Operating System New Egg $139.99
Case Fan New Egg $14.99
Case Fan New Egg $14.99

Totals $2217.89

Less Rebates $20 $2197.89

Add Shipping $7.95 $2205.84

Add “Sales Tax” $29.57 $2235.41

I used PC Part Picker to put it together. When I actually ordered everything some of the prices had changed, and one item (CPU cooler) wound up being not available so I had to find an alternate.

Quite a bit more than I remember spending, but there it is.

And I already had two monitors, a mouse and keyboard.

Last spring I replaced the two disc drives with a set of three 2TB drives in RAID.

Me, I am cheap, I found a used Dell Precision T3500 (old CAD/CAM box with 12GB and quad-core zeon) and replaced the graphics card with an up to date GeForce GTX 1050 Ti...and boom, kick-butt photo-processing system for cheap and easy

[CharLac]

Good morning all, off to breakfast at Perkins and then errands to run with the missus

[robtcorl]

Good morning Charlie and gang.
One hour road trip for me and Mrs Bob this morning to Red Bud, Illinois.
She hired a lady there to quilt a quilt top that was sewn together by her grandmother.
Stopping in Waterloo, IL on the way back for a fried chicken lunch at Gallagher's, voted the best fried chicken in the StL area.
Not sure it's the best, but it is damn good.

[Racer X 69]

Then, the other part is the robustness of the box - how long will it perform at proper spec - noting that almost every machine I have used seemed lighting fast when new and then accumulated rubbish inflicted by updates etc and slowed to treacle.

After installing the OS and other software, I update the OS until the machine is stable and running well.

I do the same with the applications I install.

Then I turn off the update notifications and keep the OS and applications at that fixed and stable point. The system drive then doesn't get clogged up with the endless stream of updates.

[Racer X 69]

Me, I am cheap, I found a used Dell Precision T3500 (old CAD/CAM box with 12GB and quad-core zeon) and replaced the graphics card with an up to date GeForce GTX 1050 Ti...and boom, kick-butt photo-processing system for cheap and easy

Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!

[robtcorl]

Racer, you're really tech savvy for an old grease monkey.

[Racer X 69]

Racer, you're really tech savvy for an old grease monkey.

At one time I swore there would never be a computer in my house, and if there ever was, it would not be connected to the internet.

Then Mrs. Racer 2.0's son offered me a cast off box he got from his older sister, and she had bought it used at the Boeing Surplus store that used to be in Kent. Washington. The boy had tried to use it for recording and processing music from his garage band, but decided to build a "better" one.

It was a Pentium II.

At first I left it in the corner of my den. Mrs. Racer 2.0 bugged me every few weeks to do something with it, or she would toss it out. So one day I set it up and turned it on.

Then I was on the phone with first the boy, then the daughter, asking lots of questions. I finally got it up and running. Before I knew it I was connected to the World Wide Web. Next thing I was at the local computer shop buying an upgrade processor and extra memory.

It wasn't long and I switched from a 28.8k dialup to cable.

I was the envy of everyone with the super fast cable.

And Mrs. Racer's son and daughter started calling me for tech help.

Next up, back to the computer store, buying my first full build. The latest and most up to date system with a dual display video card and two 20" CRT monitors to run AutoCAD.

The specs I posted here for my latest build is the 5th machine I have built. The last two are both set up to run CAD and process photographs. The third one I built was solely to record music from my extensive vinyl LP collection and digitize it. The first two were learning platforms really, and still run, but Windows NT is very long in the tooth, and feels clunky compared to Windows 7 Pro. I plan to upgrade on of them to run racing video games.

I have owned 6 laptops, and still have 4. The last 2 I bought when I drove trucks, one for navigation and to keep my driver's daily log, the other for surfing the web and managing images while parked after each day's drive.

Never say never, eh?

[bertwert]

Google is your friend....or a tech savvy friend :-)

bla bla bla ... Stack Exchange ... bla bla bla

[bertwert]

Yup, winter arrived yesterday

We've had snow for a wee bit already, Ive been skiing and tobogganing, made snow men, shoved snow down the neck of many, nailed many in the face with snow balls, etc...