Long Time Gamer in Search of Advice

I'm not an expert but I can probably point you in the right direction. Remember, Google is yer frend!

Motherboards - the differences  you mentioned are chipsets they feature. I'd go to HardOCP, MaximumPC, maybe Guru3d and possibly Tom's Hardware to get the skinny on Mobo's, their chipsets, performance, reviews, community attitudes towards them, etc.

SSD's - opinions really vary. Myself, I don't like cluttering the main drive with games or software that's not system-related. So I opted in the past for about a 500Gg or so main drive, with a 500GB-1TB or more secondary SSD for games, videos and the like, and lastly an inexpensive platter drive for archving. that's my preference, however. Some like lots of drives & RAID, some prefer only 1 main drive and 1 archive, and so on.

I just recently bought two Samsung Pro 850's 1TB, just a FYI.

Depending on the OS you want, a main drive SSD of about 300Gg is average. Yes, go SSD, the tech has matured and platters are heading toward extinction.

CPU's - Can't help, really, I'm in the same boat. I wanted the Intel 5960X because I wanted the latest & greatest - but opinion's and research seem to indicate that, as a gamer, I'd be better off with a 5930, or even 5820. More cores != better for gaming (that's more for multitasking, heavy rendering or CAD, etc). Makes you really wish the gaming studios would get up to speed with multi-core and threading!

Im sure someone will speak up about CPU considerations.

One thing about all the opinions & reviews, though - they all assume you maximum performance per gaming dollar. That is, sure, that uber CPU might perform better, but it's too expensive - in their opinion. If you've the budget to go awesome, you are fine with overkill, why not? It's your money. On the other hand, if , while you do want great performance but it has to be a "smart buy" - well, then, gotta do the research.

Google! Then, when you get analysis paralysis, talk to DS or post stuffz here or other PC gaming forums.



Edited by Psimon - 11 Apr 2015 at 7:29am

For motherboards you first want to choose a processor as this will determine the motherboards you can use. Then you want to look at the specifications and options that the board has - how much memory can it support, how many ram slots does it have, how many and of what type of PCI slots, how many USB ports and what level (2.0 3.0 3.1), what can plug in - how many fans, how many drives, does it have M2 for faster drives, etc. Then you can pick one according to your needs and wants.

workstation processor can handle routine tasks, excel, some heavy computing and entry level gaming.

gaming processor is a faster processor that is programmed to work better with graphics and PhysX and generally has better built in graphics (for gaming you will want a separate graphics card).

SSDs are dependent on what you want it to be.
For a boot drive 120G is good along with a separate storage drive. If you want to use it for everything 500G-1Tb depending on how much storage you need. Some people combine the two with 120G boot drive and a 500g-1tb storage drive or 120g-500g boot drive and a HDD.

As far as build it depends on you and what you want it to do now and in the future.

The Velox lvl 2,3 or 4 would do.

If you want some overkill the Hailstorm lvl 1,2 or 3 would be good choices or the Aventum II lvl 3. Make sure to check the size and weight as these are big machines. The Aventum comes on a pallet.

Once you get a better handle on what computer you would like to have you can configure it and save that configuration, then post the configuration number on the configuration forum and have us check it out for recommendations.

Originally posted by Tidgxor Kate must have done you wrong.

That she did...

I still have to finish up the GPU and case/chassis/cooling sections, but I posted on "Configuring a Computer"...linked in my signature.