Alright so this is gonna be my first build in about a decade. Not sure if my past rigs specs are still in my sig block.
I'm having some difficulty finding my bearings on what to do and be looking for. I don't need to go back to basics, but I'm gonna need some help with the current terminology, where X brands are at, what they call certain things now and what not.
The purpose of the build is going to be just general computing, having a good powerful computer all around. No gaming, I don't game anymore. I am going to give a Linux OS a fair shot this time around, so the computer will likely be running Mint distro. Either way I gotta prepare for the possibility that I don't like it and then just go back to Windows 10. One thing I am big on is audio, so I'm gonna need a good set of eyes when I get to that.
I plan on re-using two or three things, let me know if this is possible or if there's something I'm overlooking or that has changed substantially that would make this a bad idea.
I got a 750W Corsair power supply I bought back in 2010, unless somethings changed here or power demands have gone up significantly I think this should work.
CD drive and floppy disk drive.
1TB Seagate HDD, it's a traditional HDD. I know Solid State Drives were starting to become popular late 2k, is everything solid state now? Is it even worth it to recycle this HDD? I don't really need any more space, not even close but if a 1TB SSD is like $100 now then I might as well not even bother.
The rest of the components are gonna be the motherboard, RAM, CPU, CPU cooler, audio card and GPU plus a case. Am I missing something?
CPU/Motherboard
Okay so where are we at here? Last time I checked in the best thing was 1st gen Core i7, 970 something. I have no idea how the current naming scheme goes or what architecture were at.
From what I remember, in every CPU "series" there's always a best bang for the buck chip. Like the Q6600 was the best Quad Core in terms of performance:dollar, the i7940 or something was the best bang for buck 1st gen i7.
What is the current best performance for dollar Intel CPU?
Next is motherboards, only thing I remember is you had to make sure the amount of pins on the mobo were matching to the type of CPU you wanted to use. Like you had to remember Core 2 Quad is 1155 socket.
Where do we stand on this and what would be a good mobo to pair up with the best bang for dollar Intel CPU? Anything else I need to take into consideration?
RAM
What are we at now? Dance Dance Revolution 5? DDR10? Has anything changed in regards to ram?
What's the top DDR# now and the amount of memory I should run? I think 8gb DDR3 was consider pretty decent back in 09, what's the standard now?
CPU Cooler
I'm gonna go with air cooling.
What's the top air cooler nowadays? I think back then it was that big aluminum chunk made by Thermaltake, they also had the copper version but you couldn't set it up in a normal vertical mount mobo case because it was too heavy.
I see on Thermaltakes website they have more than 2 SKU's now. Do they still make that big aluminum tower cooler that was king I speak of? Is there another king of air cooling that's since dethroned it?
GPU.
I should be able to figure this out, anything I need to watch out for? We still using PCI-E 2.0? Have the physical seizes of GPU's gone up or anything to watch out for? Power consumption and the need for higher rated power supplies?
Audio Card
What's the top of the line audio card nowadays? The old go to was Creative X-FI, they seem to be dead now, then Asus started making sound cards that seem pretty high end.
What's some of the top of the line sound cards? Anything to watch out for? Any special considerations? They still use the smaller PCI-E slot as well?
Computer case
I used to have a full size tower, way to big for me, never liked it. This time around I'm thinking mid size maybe smaller, as long as I don't run the risk of not having enough room. Nothing crazy, no lights or clear glass.
What I'm wondering is if were still using the ATX form factor? One thing I remeber you had to take into account was when you bought parts, GPU, motherboard, power supply, etc they noted beside the item if it was for ATX-mid or ATX-full size.
I wouldn't want to buy a case that ends up not being big enough for what I want to put into it.
I also wouldn't want to find out the hard way that we don't even go by ATX form factor anymore and we use some other standard, with the same result of my parts not fitting in the case I bought.
Oh and do we still have flat top cases? Like the cases that you setup horizontally on your desktop itself, where many people would then put the screen on top of it? Do these still exist? Is there a performance reason or any good reason why not to go this route?
So yea if you guys could help me out with the brands, the naming schemes/hierarchy certain parts from certain companies are using now, if the terminology or what to look for has changed, if what works with what has changed, etc... Real thanks in advance.
I'm having some difficulty finding my bearings on what to do and be looking for. I don't need to go back to basics, but I'm gonna need some help with the current terminology, where X brands are at, what they call certain things now and what not.
The purpose of the build is going to be just general computing, having a good powerful computer all around. No gaming, I don't game anymore. I am going to give a Linux OS a fair shot this time around, so the computer will likely be running Mint distro. Either way I gotta prepare for the possibility that I don't like it and then just go back to Windows 10. One thing I am big on is audio, so I'm gonna need a good set of eyes when I get to that.
I plan on re-using two or three things, let me know if this is possible or if there's something I'm overlooking or that has changed substantially that would make this a bad idea.
I got a 750W Corsair power supply I bought back in 2010, unless somethings changed here or power demands have gone up significantly I think this should work.
CD drive and floppy disk drive.
1TB Seagate HDD, it's a traditional HDD. I know Solid State Drives were starting to become popular late 2k, is everything solid state now? Is it even worth it to recycle this HDD? I don't really need any more space, not even close but if a 1TB SSD is like $100 now then I might as well not even bother.
The rest of the components are gonna be the motherboard, RAM, CPU, CPU cooler, audio card and GPU plus a case. Am I missing something?
CPU/Motherboard
Okay so where are we at here? Last time I checked in the best thing was 1st gen Core i7, 970 something. I have no idea how the current naming scheme goes or what architecture were at.
From what I remember, in every CPU "series" there's always a best bang for the buck chip. Like the Q6600 was the best Quad Core in terms of performance:dollar, the i7940 or something was the best bang for buck 1st gen i7.
What is the current best performance for dollar Intel CPU?
Next is motherboards, only thing I remember is you had to make sure the amount of pins on the mobo were matching to the type of CPU you wanted to use. Like you had to remember Core 2 Quad is 1155 socket.
Where do we stand on this and what would be a good mobo to pair up with the best bang for dollar Intel CPU? Anything else I need to take into consideration?
RAM
What are we at now? Dance Dance Revolution 5? DDR10? Has anything changed in regards to ram?
What's the top DDR# now and the amount of memory I should run? I think 8gb DDR3 was consider pretty decent back in 09, what's the standard now?
CPU Cooler
I'm gonna go with air cooling.
What's the top air cooler nowadays? I think back then it was that big aluminum chunk made by Thermaltake, they also had the copper version but you couldn't set it up in a normal vertical mount mobo case because it was too heavy.
I see on Thermaltakes website they have more than 2 SKU's now. Do they still make that big aluminum tower cooler that was king I speak of? Is there another king of air cooling that's since dethroned it?
GPU.
I should be able to figure this out, anything I need to watch out for? We still using PCI-E 2.0? Have the physical seizes of GPU's gone up or anything to watch out for? Power consumption and the need for higher rated power supplies?
Audio Card
What's the top of the line audio card nowadays? The old go to was Creative X-FI, they seem to be dead now, then Asus started making sound cards that seem pretty high end.
What's some of the top of the line sound cards? Anything to watch out for? Any special considerations? They still use the smaller PCI-E slot as well?
Computer case
I used to have a full size tower, way to big for me, never liked it. This time around I'm thinking mid size maybe smaller, as long as I don't run the risk of not having enough room. Nothing crazy, no lights or clear glass.
What I'm wondering is if were still using the ATX form factor? One thing I remeber you had to take into account was when you bought parts, GPU, motherboard, power supply, etc they noted beside the item if it was for ATX-mid or ATX-full size.
I wouldn't want to buy a case that ends up not being big enough for what I want to put into it.
I also wouldn't want to find out the hard way that we don't even go by ATX form factor anymore and we use some other standard, with the same result of my parts not fitting in the case I bought.
Oh and do we still have flat top cases? Like the cases that you setup horizontally on your desktop itself, where many people would then put the screen on top of it? Do these still exist? Is there a performance reason or any good reason why not to go this route?
So yea if you guys could help me out with the brands, the naming schemes/hierarchy certain parts from certain companies are using now, if the terminology or what to look for has changed, if what works with what has changed, etc... Real thanks in advance.