Recommendations for New PC Build

[hobbyguy]

Moving to an SSD is a huge upgrade in real world performance. In my case, I checked what was actually using for hard drive space, and simply switched to a 250 GB SSD - which is more than adequate for my needs as back ups and old files that "I might want some day" go on an external hard drive.

For my uses, I figure the difference in real world performance was about triple.

[kgcayenne]

Okay, I'm completely off on what processor I've got, and I was wrong about my power supply! That's what I get for failing to acknowledge how freaking fast technology inventory changes and getting my info from going to the vendor site and looking it up that way. (purchased July 2016)

Annnyway... older processor, yet: i7-4790 3.6GHz (4GHz), only a 400W power supply. Limitations, limitations, limitations??

Got the SSD, just have to actually do the deed. I have the ability to buy a new-in-box GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Video Card, cheap (<$150) or I see several *different* GTX 1060 for sale here on the classifieds. I have no idea what the difference is between all of these. The 1070 or 1080 exceed my budget.

[JagXKR]

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

1060 is much higher benchmark and the 1070 is way way up there.

[kgcayenne]

Thank you. I took a close look and found out the 1070 needs a 500W PS, mine is only 400W. Hmmm that pretty much tells me I’m limited to the 1060 or 1050 Ti. Unfortunately, all I can find are gaming only comparisons.

[Urban Cowboy]

Thank you. I took a close look and found out the 1070 needs a 500W PS, mine is only 400W. Hmmm that pretty much tells me I’m limited to the 1060 or 1050 Ti. Unfortunately, all I can find are gaming only comparisons.

Not overly pricey to upgrade power supply...... https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

[kgcayenne]

*nods* So, to do this 'right' I have to resolve to spend around $800 or more if I seek-out an RTX model, which I think is overkill for LR and PS; I don't use AP (yet).

But, but, but if I'm spending 'that' much, there's a lens I want... or a strobe... hmmm... lens or strobe.... or GPU.

[Urban Cowboy]

Yep always comes down to priorities. If you do upgrade PSU I have Corsair units in all three of my towers and they have proven very reliable.

FWIW it is a good rule of thumb to stay well above the minimum required for a graphics card when trying to decide which wattage to go for. A little headroom never hurts.

[kgcayenne]

I know what I have to do: I have to first get that SSD installed and assess how I find performance in LR & PS.

(Lol, I remember my grandparents had a Corsair... I think it was a car or something)

[JagXKR]

Corsair - Pappy Boyington
Corvair - Ralph Nader

As for PSU I have a Thermaltake in my 8 core unit that is now going on it's 6th year. No issues at all.
Urban makes a very good point about minimum wattage, never go for the bare minimum. You should always go higher than your needs. I would say 100 watts to be safe.

[Jlabute]

Moving to an SSD is a huge upgrade in real world performance. In my case, I checked what was actually using for hard drive space, and simply switched to a 250 GB SSD - which is more than adequate for my needs as back ups and old files that "I might want some day" go on an external hard drive.

For my uses, I figure the difference in real world performance was about triple.

If you get a top of the line SSD:
Max Sequential Read: Up to 550 MBps
Max Sequential Write: Up to 520 MBps

You can get some fairly impressive specs.

If you want to go this route, it would be better to do an M.2 SSD like
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147690

Max Sequential Read: Up to 3400 MBps
Max Sequential Write: Up to 2300 MBps

It will make your good quality SSD look like molasses. Your new motherboard should be able to accommodate an M.2 storage device which most new mobos do.

[kgcayenne]

My motherboard does actually support M.2, and I'm not ruling it out for a future addition, I can always use the SSD to revive a sluggish laptop.

[kgcayenne]

You need one of the new AMD Ryzen 16 core and 32 thread processors, 32G RAM, 1T SSD, and a Radeon GeForce 1080 graphics card.

There, I fixed your problem.

Did the 1T SSD, and got a GTX 1050Ti for a price I could NOT pass-up. I am very pleased with the increase in performance. The SSD came first, and I swear that the addition of the GPU has also made my boot-up time even faster than it was with the SSD.

My only problem: I need to fix my boot-up. If I have any external hard drives plugged-in, then I have to go in to the BIOS and manually select my boot. Oh... another thing why do I have three boot options on the same SSD, which do I pick for primary boot, and how do I remove the ones I don't need? I formatted the HDD and made it a single volume, so that, I'm hoping, should not be an issue.

[TylerM4]

For clarification:

SSD = Solid State Disk.
M.2 = A type of drive interface/controller. Often used for better performance vs SATA or IDE interface/controllers.

Just so happens that as of right now, all drives that support the M.2 interface are SSD's.

To avoid confusion, it should be worded something like "My motherboard does actually support M.2, and I'm not ruling it out for a future addition, I can always use the SATA SSD to revive a sluggish laptop"

[Jlabute]

The AMD Zen 2 processors are about to come out. Twice as many cores, speed boost, if you can wait a few months, you can get a fast chip cheap... and compatible with existing motherboards. I am waiting for the AMD 3600G before I build.