Mycroft2046
Broken In
First of all, the mandatory questionnaire:
1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run?
Ans: It's my only PC. I'm a computer science researcher, so my works are varied. However, considerable part of the tasks I will perform on the system are as follows:
I am not much of a gamer, but I do dabble in some of the recent games like Call of Juarez, Bioshock Infinity, Crysis 2, Far Cry 3, Just Cause 2, etc. I do not need to play them in Ultra settings. Though not an avid gamer, I would obviously like it if I can run current games, albeit at medium settings.
2. What is your overall budget?
Ans: Rs. 35000, with a tolerance of Rs. 3000
3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: No. However, the potential to overclock is always welcome.
4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Windows 10, Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora: all 64-bit
5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: None. I already have hard disks with 8TB space (including external HDDs).
6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: No. I already have one. It's LG Flatron E2040T, 20 inch, with resolution of 1600 x 900. It has gotten long in the tooth, but I will replace it only when it fails. The replacement will likely be a Full HD monitor of 24 inch diagonal size.
7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: Cabinet, Keyboard, Mouse, HDD, Optical Disk, Monitor, Speaker.
8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: Within the next 15-20 days.
9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: I will assemble it myself.
10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: I live in Kolkata. As I am on a tight budget, I am willing to buy locally as well as online, wherever the price is lower.
11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: A lot.
Things I would like to say:
I am upgrading from i3-530 coupled with Intel DH55TC and XFX HD5750 1GB. That system has lasted me for more than 5 years and is still kicking. But with the dreaded Microsoft deadline knocking at the door, coupled with Windows 10's devious license policy (License expires when Motherboard expires), I am looking for a new system.
So far, I have narrowed down to this configuration:
Motherboard: Asus H170 Pro OR MSI H170 Gaming M3
CPU: Intel i3-6100
RAM: Corsair ValueSelect 8GB 2133MHz DDR4
PSU: Corsair VS450
According to my estimate based on online prices (Amazon, Flipkart and MD Computers), this configuration leaves me with a budget of around Rs. 15000 for my graphics card. I was planning on getting Zotac GTX 950 AMP!, when a dizzying avalanche of suggestions from my friends has left me utterly bewildered. Now, I can't decide between GTX 950, RX 470, R9 270X and a crapload of other cards. To make things even worse, the difference in prices of NVidia and AMD cards in India, and Europe and America are utterly confusing, which makes calculation of price-performance ratio even harder. I think that AMD cards in India are priced higher, which completely changes the adage "AMD gives more performance per dollar than NVidia".
So, at last, I have planned to outsource this decision to you guys. Let me know which graphics card will be the best fit for my budget. Also let me know if I can do better with the configuration of other components within the mentioned budget. I would however like to make the system future-proof (if that concept even exists with modern computing), as I plan on using this system for the coming 5-6 years, which is why I have gone with LGA 1151 socket instead of LGA1150.
Any comment or suggestion is earnestly requested.
1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run?
Ans: It's my only PC. I'm a computer science researcher, so my works are varied. However, considerable part of the tasks I will perform on the system are as follows:
- 10-bit HEVC encoding
- Editing 14bit RAW photos of resolution 16 Megapixel in Photoshop CC
- Single and Multithreaded Programming in C++, Python and Haskell
- Compressing files of size greater than 10GB with FreeArc
- Extensive vector graphics work in Illustrator
- Modelling and simulation of systems in Mathematica and Matlab
I am not much of a gamer, but I do dabble in some of the recent games like Call of Juarez, Bioshock Infinity, Crysis 2, Far Cry 3, Just Cause 2, etc. I do not need to play them in Ultra settings. Though not an avid gamer, I would obviously like it if I can run current games, albeit at medium settings.
2. What is your overall budget?
Ans: Rs. 35000, with a tolerance of Rs. 3000
3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: No. However, the potential to overclock is always welcome.
4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Windows 10, Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora: all 64-bit
5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: None. I already have hard disks with 8TB space (including external HDDs).
6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: No. I already have one. It's LG Flatron E2040T, 20 inch, with resolution of 1600 x 900. It has gotten long in the tooth, but I will replace it only when it fails. The replacement will likely be a Full HD monitor of 24 inch diagonal size.
7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: Cabinet, Keyboard, Mouse, HDD, Optical Disk, Monitor, Speaker.
8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: Within the next 15-20 days.
9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: I will assemble it myself.
10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: I live in Kolkata. As I am on a tight budget, I am willing to buy locally as well as online, wherever the price is lower.
11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: A lot.
Things I would like to say:
I am upgrading from i3-530 coupled with Intel DH55TC and XFX HD5750 1GB. That system has lasted me for more than 5 years and is still kicking. But with the dreaded Microsoft deadline knocking at the door, coupled with Windows 10's devious license policy (License expires when Motherboard expires), I am looking for a new system.
So far, I have narrowed down to this configuration:
Motherboard: Asus H170 Pro OR MSI H170 Gaming M3
CPU: Intel i3-6100
RAM: Corsair ValueSelect 8GB 2133MHz DDR4
PSU: Corsair VS450
According to my estimate based on online prices (Amazon, Flipkart and MD Computers), this configuration leaves me with a budget of around Rs. 15000 for my graphics card. I was planning on getting Zotac GTX 950 AMP!, when a dizzying avalanche of suggestions from my friends has left me utterly bewildered. Now, I can't decide between GTX 950, RX 470, R9 270X and a crapload of other cards. To make things even worse, the difference in prices of NVidia and AMD cards in India, and Europe and America are utterly confusing, which makes calculation of price-performance ratio even harder. I think that AMD cards in India are priced higher, which completely changes the adage "AMD gives more performance per dollar than NVidia".
So, at last, I have planned to outsource this decision to you guys. Let me know which graphics card will be the best fit for my budget. Also let me know if I can do better with the configuration of other components within the mentioned budget. I would however like to make the system future-proof (if that concept even exists with modern computing), as I plan on using this system for the coming 5-6 years, which is why I have gone with LGA 1151 socket instead of LGA1150.
Any comment or suggestion is earnestly requested.
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