siddharthx64
A Droid in a Tux
Guys, please bear with me here. I was (still am) a real PC nerd, but have lost touch with the hardware world since the last 3 years (Masters Studies tend to do that to you). I don't really know what is the best config to go for today. The last time I considered myself Knowledgeable, Sata2 was still the norm, a 250GB HDD seemed to be a sane choice for a mid range PC, and I used to game on MW2 and drool over it, DDR3 was just getting into the market and the best games in the market were Oblivion, MW2, and AC2. With studies finally coming to an end, I found myself in need of a rig that would let me get home and kick back with a nice game that can knock my socks off.
Here are the answers:
1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')
Ans: I am an avid fan of Action, futuristic and survival horror genres. I've been regularly drooling over games such as Crysis, Amnesia, CoD Ghosts, BioShock and BF4. If I can build a PC that can play ALL of these at the highest settings possible (Ultra-high Settings of Cry3 or BF4, for instance), I would be happy
Coming to applications side, I will be using the machine as a host for at least 2 or 3 parallel hypervisors (on Linux, with Qemu/KVM). I am an avid GIMPer, and also use other photo-editing suites. I have used Blender in the past, and may use again.
2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: I would be paying for this out of my own pocket money (Internship stipends and stuff) so I would like it to be as sensible as possible. A budget of 110K is what I have planned for. I am willing to extend it by no more than 15-20k.
3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: Not at the moment, but I would like to keep my options open.
4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: I will be using this machine for gaming as well as for Work purposes. My line of work concerns around building a lot of parallel-running Virtual Machines using Linux Systems. (Just so you know that this wont be a mere gaming rig). Hence, you can expect a Multi-boot from me, with Windows 7 and 2 other Linux OSes (RHEL and Gentoo/Debian)
5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: Since I will be gaming AND building VMs, I'd say As Much As Possible. I would settle for dual 1TB drives (with Sata3?) at a minimum
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: I have a monitor with 1920 x 1080 as the max. would this be enough? If yes, then I'm good with it.
7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: I have a Razer DeathAdder and a Xbox360 Controller for PC. I also have a Corsair DDR3 RAM [1yr 5months old] which I would like to use if possible. Apart from those (and the monitor?), I would go for everything else.
8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: the System will be bought in a little more than a months time. (1st week of Feb 2014, or last week of Jan 2014)
9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: I have built my own desktop once (the only thing I never did was: plugging the processor to the Mobo). I plan to do the same this time too.
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 Bangalore. I would buy locally (SP Road). If it so happens that a part is not available, and will stay unavailable for a long time (a month min) then I would consider (reputed) online stores.
11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: I hope I was able to answer all the questions here. Just to give yu an idea about my buying choices last time: AMD PhenomII x2 555 Black Edition[2-3 yrs old i think], Corsair 4GB DDR3 [2 years old] + 2GB OCZ DDR3, 500GB HDD 7200rpm Sata2, Asus M4A88TDV-Evo Mobo, XFX Geforce 9600GT 512MB version [taken in 2006/2007 i think], and a LiteOn writer that I do not trust anymore[old, tray gets stuck all the time]. Even on this rig, I have been successfully playing MW3, Dota2, Lara Croft TR 2013, albeit with mid range settings. I have unlocked the proccy to use all 4 cores of the 555 BE, to make it B55 BE.
Here are the answers:
1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')
Ans: I am an avid fan of Action, futuristic and survival horror genres. I've been regularly drooling over games such as Crysis, Amnesia, CoD Ghosts, BioShock and BF4. If I can build a PC that can play ALL of these at the highest settings possible (Ultra-high Settings of Cry3 or BF4, for instance), I would be happy
Coming to applications side, I will be using the machine as a host for at least 2 or 3 parallel hypervisors (on Linux, with Qemu/KVM). I am an avid GIMPer, and also use other photo-editing suites. I have used Blender in the past, and may use again.
2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: I would be paying for this out of my own pocket money (Internship stipends and stuff) so I would like it to be as sensible as possible. A budget of 110K is what I have planned for. I am willing to extend it by no more than 15-20k.
3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: Not at the moment, but I would like to keep my options open.
4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: I will be using this machine for gaming as well as for Work purposes. My line of work concerns around building a lot of parallel-running Virtual Machines using Linux Systems. (Just so you know that this wont be a mere gaming rig). Hence, you can expect a Multi-boot from me, with Windows 7 and 2 other Linux OSes (RHEL and Gentoo/Debian)
5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: Since I will be gaming AND building VMs, I'd say As Much As Possible. I would settle for dual 1TB drives (with Sata3?) at a minimum
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: I have a monitor with 1920 x 1080 as the max. would this be enough? If yes, then I'm good with it.
7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: I have a Razer DeathAdder and a Xbox360 Controller for PC. I also have a Corsair DDR3 RAM [1yr 5months old] which I would like to use if possible. Apart from those (and the monitor?), I would go for everything else.
8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: the System will be bought in a little more than a months time. (1st week of Feb 2014, or last week of Jan 2014)
9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: I have built my own desktop once (the only thing I never did was: plugging the processor to the Mobo). I plan to do the same this time too.
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 Bangalore. I would buy locally (SP Road). If it so happens that a part is not available, and will stay unavailable for a long time (a month min) then I would consider (reputed) online stores.
11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: I hope I was able to answer all the questions here. Just to give yu an idea about my buying choices last time: AMD PhenomII x2 555 Black Edition[2-3 yrs old i think], Corsair 4GB DDR3 [2 years old] + 2GB OCZ DDR3, 500GB HDD 7200rpm Sata2, Asus M4A88TDV-Evo Mobo, XFX Geforce 9600GT 512MB version [taken in 2006/2007 i think], and a LiteOn writer that I do not trust anymore[old, tray gets stuck all the time]. Even on this rig, I have been successfully playing MW3, Dota2, Lara Croft TR 2013, albeit with mid range settings. I have unlocked the proccy to use all 4 cores of the 555 BE, to make it B55 BE.
