Recently I went to a local shop that is quite reputable to figure out what's on the market. Note: in more than one thread I asked a few related questions. Unfortunately, their website is down. But I could get a quote for a system. I suggested I wanted a 'middle of the road' system. Custom made. System: MDB 1151 ASUS Z270, CPU 1151 INTEL CORE i5-7500, 16 GB DDR4 PC17000, HDD SATA 3.5 IN 1000GB /7200 RPM, 500 GB SSD, DVD RW. No additional graphics card. Price: 1.000 euros ! (conversion: 1,230 USD) Much more than I had expected. It almost looks as if these machines have become more expensive. NOTE: their comments: SSD is more expensive than HDD, they had tried a cheaper unknown brand but it broke down within a month. Graphics cards are very expensive because of the cryptocurrency bubble. I'll install my own Windows 7. Questions: what do you folks think about the price ? About their comments about SSD ? About the mainboard, CPU and price ?
Fly, The price seems reasonable to me. I have a Z77 MB (old) and found I needed a graphics card. I bought an inexpensive nVidia one for $40 and it really helped. Google Earth and Photoshop especially. Regarding the SSD. If you are going to use Win7 and no other OS then a 128 GB SSD is even too large. I found putting personal data files on the SSD made negligible performance difference.
You convert to USD. I read here many times computers & computer part are much more expensive outside the US. So asking about prices US residents will quote lower retail prices than dealers pay wholesale where you are.
What is the motherboard model? Asus Z270 mobos start from ~120 euros (e.g. Prime z270m-plus) and can go to ~560 euros (e.g.Asus ROG MAximus IX Extreme) The i5-7500 is priced around 160 euros The ram is priced around 170 euros The hdd 50-60 euros The ssd starts from 120-130 euros (for a 500gb one) A decent power supply from 40-50 euros and upwards... A decent case from 40-50 euros and upwards... Graphic cards: not a good time to purchase. Their prices have almost doubled in the recent months because of the cryptocurrency miners.
@pandlouk , 'MDB 1151 ASUS Z270' I think MDB 1151 is the motherboard ? I think 1,000 euros is a bit expensive ... if their website was working I could compare systems. Also 'Coolermaster N400+ PSU850W 4X12V' All assembled by the shop.
MDB is an acronym that stands for motherboard. The case Coolermaster N400 is priced around 60 euros And the power supply (acronym = psu) of 850W can start from 45 euros (the cheap ones). Yes, it is expensive especially when they did not provide you detailed info about what components they'll use. That configuration could cost from a minimum 720 euros + assembly service to a maximum of 1120 euros + assembly. I would advise you to select the components yourself and then pay them for an assembly service if you are not confident in your skills. And because I have seen all kind of BS happen is better to first buy the components/boxes mark their contents and serial numbers and then give them for assembly.
Can't stress this enough research the PSU unit extensively. When I was building desktops there was 1 site that exclusively reviewed, tested, & tore apart PSUs. Also buy bigger if you're getting newer hardware in the future. There were also sites you'd enter components & you'd be clued in how powerful a PSU is needed. I remember folks posting considered components adding up to $1,000.00 to $3,000.00. Then they'd list their considered PSU. It'd be some cheap **** PSU & they'd be back later with intermittent, burnt, failed or some such hardware fail. Plan to spend on the higher end range of $80.00-$150.00 maybe even $200.00 on a quality PSU. If you (anyone) haven't experience building & following your build through a year or two. Sooner if you cheap out. Keep your council because you don't know.
@Fly I agree with zapjb. Buy a quality "80 PLUS" certified psu. Personally, I prefer the less noisy ones like "Be Quiet", "Corsair" and "Seasonic", but any 80 plus certified will do fine.
Bill_Bright recommended this for me might be helpful: https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
Zapjb said: This machine normally pretty speedy, on occasion at boot screen, become very very slow slow. at boot screen. The little dots going around in a circle, can take 3 - 5 minutes each, perhaps 15 minutes to make one revolution. This continues in windows, & when windows desktop is loading, you can still see, the log in screen, through the partially loaded, desktop (similar to aero view) the desktop never finishes loading. What always restores, speedy behavior, force shutdown, un-plug. This problem shows up randomly, happened in win 8&10 Checked everything, because it happens so early in the boot process. I was thinking 'intermittent', PSU problem. Could this be one of the intermittents, in your quote? Thanks Rico
A poor PSU can screw up just about anything. And try & diagnose them. Some are impossible. For instance a bad PSU can damage caps causing many different problems & before they bulge or explode you wouldn't know wtf happened. So to answer. It'd be Idk. Only thing I know is until you can start fresh (all new components) it's possible for a bad PSU caused problem to show up years later. Even years after the bad PSU has been replaced.
If no graphics card, then a power unit with 850W is really overkill. As said before, get a smaller SSD (120 GB), and add a HDD to store data. And cut the RAM down to 8 GB. As you are not buying a graphics card, you obviously are not planning on heavy gaming etc, so why do you need 16 GB? Unused RAM is expensive and adds nothing to system performance. But if you are going to run VMs, then the extra RAM will definitely come in handy. It all depends on what you intend to do with your PC. FYI you can add RAM later on as needed.
There are all kinds of ways to mitigate online privacy and anonymity issues. Apparently, some people use virtual machines and VPNs for such issues. In the future, I may need a bit more than my current setup. Any suggestions for hardware requirements for such purposes ? Thus far, I only skimmed that topic.
I realize that Fly is considering building his own or using a local shop to build a PC, but I'd like to also suggest an online site that allows you to essentially pick your parts and they will build it for you. I've used such a site for a number of desktop PC's. The site I used most recently is http://www.ecollegepc.com/.
I haven't heard about many people using virtual machines for privacy and anonymity issues. At least, it is not so common. The most common reasons for geeky Windows users to use a VM is to have easy access to a different OS (for instance, to run legacy software on Windows XP), or testing new software, or running malware samples in a controlled environment. In any case, the main thing for VMs is plenty of RAM. That can be added later, as needed. Adding RAM is usually the cheapest and easiest and most common upgrade of hardware. But if you want the VM to run fast, you will need a big SSD, so you can put the VM on the SSD. If you put your VM on a HDD, it's real slow to respond. 2 VPNs don't have any special hardware requirements that I know of.
I was just reading a thread about this in a forum devoted to building PCs: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcfo...prices_are_way_too_inflated_for_gpus_and_ram/
@PastTense , Thanks for that. I wasn't really looking for a graphics card. But the extra costs for RAM are not good. I haven't bought an OEM desktop for over 20 years. Disadvantages ? Things like hidden partitions and other things I may not like ? I'm not sure if a full and fresh install of an OS can 'override' that ? The OS would be Windows 7 for now. Thing is, I don't know what to think of the 'brand' computers. There are lots, but those names mean very little to me. Anyway, 1,000 euro is a bit much. I'll continue looking for now.
@zapjb , That's a very good point. I knew about not supporting Windows 7, but even the 7th gen ? From a quick glance at the internet, it looks like that. I really, really don't want Windows 10. I just need to do a fresh install of Windows 7 with current updates. Not possible ? Other hardware ?? I don't like Apple. Linux ? I'd rather not. I had not expected that ...
Look, 6th gen (skylake) is really not so bad at all. As long as you aren't doing heavy-duty scientific computing, or video processing, or hard-core gaming, I doubt you will ever notice the difference between 6th gen and 8th gen. Either 6th gen, or bite the bullet and install Windows 10. If you are bothered by telemetry, there is software to counteract that.
There is no reason to believe that these softwares are anyway near 100% effective at keeping W10 telemetry at bay. Not to mention the introduction of new telemetries through non-optional Windows Updates for W10. Or the reintroduction or switching back on of current telemetries.
