New computer

"MUSASHI66" (musashi66)
04/29/2016 at 11:22 • Filed to: None

Oppo, you just made me spend a bunch of money...all the posts about computers made me realize I am really due for a new one.

My old XPS 435T (Core i7 920, 6GB triple channel RAM, Nvidia GTX 460) has been working like a champ, but I started running out of storage, it started taking a while to edit large RAW images from my new camera, and after 6-7 years of faithful service, I pulled the trigger on a new XPS.

The new one is a Dell XPS 8900 - Core i7-6700, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GT745, 1TB HDD. Costco had it for $999 with $200 instant rebate, so $880 after taxes. I had $525 in Costco cash cards as a rebate for some phones we got recently. I probably could have built a slightly nicer machine than this one for the same price, but I just wanted to spend my Costco cash cards.

I pulled my new-ish 250GB Samsung 850 PRO SSD out of the old one, and installed Windows 10 from scratch on it. The 1TB drive that came with it will be my new data drive. I also pulled the other two data drives out of my old computer and I am torn - do I spend a few more bucks on a 7200rpm HDD with 2TB of storage, migrate the data and have all new drives, or do I keep my old drives (2009 and 2010 manufacture dates) ?

I think I will put my old XPS for sale soon - I’ll do a fresh install, I have a 20" HP monitor with an articulating stand, and I think I will put the original 640GB HDD in it. I also have 2-3 spare HDs I can include, and I am thinking about loading it up with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and targeting photo editing crowd without too much money. I think I spent some $1200 on my old XPS with all the upgrades, and I am thinking about asking for $200 with the monitor, plus few bucks more for extra drives.

I could also put the original video card in it - some old Radeon model - and try to sell the GTX 460 on it’s own. Ironically, my ancient GTX460 video card has almost the same benchmark scores as this brand new GT745. I think GTX 970 might be the next upgrade.

Abarth for your time

DISCUSSION (41)

Battery Tender Unnecessary > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:28

Was your computer on constantly? The rule of thumb is usually replace a drive every 3-5 years if it’s constantly powered. In my experience Western Digitals last longer than most, I’ve never actually had a hard drive failure in the past 16 years using them. I’d just backup anything critical to a cloud service or a cheap WD Passport USB drive and set it aside and keep using what you’ve got for storage. Of course, double or triple backup anything critical you don’t want to lose.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:29

Yeah, that GT 745 is kind of underpowered if you’re doing anything GPU intensive. If you upgrade the GPU, make sure the power supply can handle it, and has the correct power connectors.

I’d go with a new drive, and use the old ones as extras. They’re a bit old to rely on for anything important.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:33

I uused the next step up version of your old one as my workstation and then it began to breakdown like a Land Rover, so i built a new beastly machine. NVMe SSD FTW, plus 980Ti Classified. But now that it’s done and I run 3 2k monitors I want to build another.

Panther Brown Tdi Volvo Shooting Brake Manual Miata RWD Wagon Stole HondaBro's Accord. > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:34

Your kidding! I just bought a computer just like this. http://oppositelock.kinja.com/what-should-i-…

spanfucker retire bitch > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:38

Waiting to buy new GPUs. We literally have a new generation of graphics cards coming from AMD and nVidia in the next month or two. They’ll also be the first die shrink in over 3 years from 28nm to 14nm. It’s a big fucking deal.

MUSASHI66 > Battery Tender Unnecessary
04/29/2016 at 11:39

Yup, on 24/7 for about 7 years. I did photo editing, torrenting, and it was my Plex server too. I can get a WD Red 2TB for under a $100. The 1TB that came with it, plus another 2TB should be enough for now - I have 1.64TB of storage in the old one and I would essentially be doubling it.

MUSASHI66 > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
04/29/2016 at 11:42

Hopefully it will be enough - it seems Lightroom loves processors more than video cards, plus 16GB of RAM vs 6GB I had before, so any photo editing should work well. I kind of stopped gaming - only game I ever play on my PC is COD MW3 and I have no need for super-dooper-ultra-high resolution settings.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:42

I might be interested in that deal for 200 bucks.

The question is would it cost another 200 in shipping to get it to me....

MUSASHI66 > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/29/2016 at 11:42

You are to blame for me pulling the trigger... I saw your build thread.

MUSASHI66 > spanfucker retire bitch
04/29/2016 at 11:43

Good to know! I usually hate spending more than $200 on a video card, we’ll see what come out. I doubt I’ll be buying anything any time soon - I’ll just make do with the GT745

MUSASHI66 > Panther Brown Tdi Volvo Shooting Brake Manual Miata RWD Wagon Stole HondaBro's Accord.
04/29/2016 at 11:46

Yup, I saw that. I figure if you paid $130 for that one, I should be able to get $200 for my XPS with a monitor. I can get a windows license for $10 through my university, maybe I’ll just put windows 10 on. My current W7 license is for the Ultimate, I would hate selling it. I actually might have the OS/license that originally came with that XPS somewhere...

MUSASHI66 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
04/29/2016 at 11:48

It probably would cost way too much- where are you located?

XPS 435T and that huge tower is twice as heavy as the new XPS.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:50

Well if you’re not gaming, then the GT 745 should be enough.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 11:57

Hahaha, Metro Detroit

MUSASHI66 > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
04/29/2016 at 11:59

That’s what I am hoping - it benchmarks the same as my GTX460, but I have 3x RAM and a processor which benchmarks at 9961 versus my old one that benchmarks at 4993. Plus, this one is W10, and I was on W7.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:00

You’re all set then. I see no reason for you to get a better GPU. Might as well not waste money.

MUSASHI66 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
04/29/2016 at 12:02

Yeah, I don’t think it would make financial sense to do so...

Panther Brown Tdi Volvo Shooting Brake Manual Miata RWD Wagon Stole HondaBro's Accord. > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:03

You computer actually has a ton of life leftthough.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:03

yup, probably wouldn’t. Thought i’d ask though in case you were next door and i didn’t realize it.

MUSASHI66 > Panther Brown Tdi Volvo Shooting Brake Manual Miata RWD Wagon Stole HondaBro's Accord.
04/29/2016 at 12:11

I agree, I just didn’t want to throw any more money at it. Since I bought it, I added a SSD, then a bigger SSD, new video card too...at this point, components are 7 years old, hard drives are 6-7 years old, processor is a million generations behind.... however, I think it works as well or better than a brand new $400-500 desktop with core i3 and integrated graphics. New cheap Dell XPS with a really crappy GT730 and core i5 and a HDD instead of a SSD would probably perform slower than my old beast.

Question is - would it die tomorrow, or would it keep on ticking for another 5 years?

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:25

“my ancient GTX460 video card has almost the same benchmark scores as this brand new GT745.”

That’s because the old one has a number that ends in ‘60' and the new one ends in ‘45'.

You see, typically the GTX or GT is mostly just marketing, the first number is the generation of chip and the last two digits indicate how ‘high’ the performance is within that generation of chip.

Thus, something like a 730 (which would basically be like on-board graphics) would be way shittier than a 480 (which would be the top end or close to the top end for that generation, usually on a discrete card).

If you compare a 480 against a 780, the 780 will usually be faster as each new generation has an incremental improvement in performance, power consumption and features for a given level within that given generation.

Of course these are just approximations.

I recommend you check Tom’s Hardware’s ‘Best Graphics cards for the money’ and the graphics chip heirarchy they list:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-g…

So as you can see there, a GTX590, GTX680 and GTX770 are all roughly on the same ‘level’.

As for the hard drive situation, yes, make the SSD your boot/Cache/swap/application drive. Use the 1TB regular drive just to store data.

If you want the best performance and you have the money, get a new 1TB SSD and don’t use any of the old hard drives or SSDs.

You could put unused hard drives in an enclosure and use them for external backups.

If graphics performance matters to you, yes, get that GTX 970.. or a Radeon R9 390/390X.

Also note that if you’re gonna run some flavour of Linux like Ubuntu, I strongly recommend you stick with an NVidia-based graphics card.

MUSASHI66 > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
04/29/2016 at 12:32

Linux can die in fire :D. I guess I don’t mind installing Mint on a computer I want to sell when I don’t have any Windows licenses available.

If I ever feel like gaming again, or if my editing suffers, I’d go for a 960 or 970.

I have a 3TB backup drive, if I don’t use the drives in the new computer, they go in my spare part pile.

And yes, I knew that about video cards, but thanks for the explanation anyway :)

TheVicious > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:40

If you’re planning on upgrading the gpu, make sure you check the power supply. Dell used to build them into the case, and most pc companies these days only give the bare minimum for the parts inside. You may need to swap that too.

MUSASHI66 > TheVicious
04/29/2016 at 12:43

This one is 460W - it should be enough, but I am $60 or so away from a 600W which should work just fine for just about any card.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 12:45

If you want security by obscurity, using Linux is one of the best ways.

I wasn’t sure if you knew about video card heirarchies... I hope I didn’t come off as patronizing as that wasn’t my intention.

I’ve had more than one person come to me in the past about upgrading their computers with a graphics card they got a “great deal” on... and it’s something that is that is borderline garbage... or they want a new computer for playing games and they decided to a buy laptop with onboard Intel graphics for that purpose (!)... and when they discover it sucks, ask me if I can “do something” to make it play games better.

MUSASHI66 > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
04/29/2016 at 12:50

I’ve been a Sys Admin for years, so I am pretty good with this stuff. I didn’t find it patronizing at all, no worries.

I fix computers as my beer money, and I offer computer buying advice - I would much rather my client buy a decent machine, than to buy that “deal” they found because it had “2TB of memory so it must be fast!!”.

Linux...I just can’t get behind it - I torrent a lot, but I haven’t had a virus or malware on my desktop for about 10 years now. I can keep myself safe on Windows just fine. Occasionally, I do have to dig into some Linux stuff - at home and at work - but I just don’t like it. I am not as comfortable with it as I am with Windows, and that’s probably why.

TheVicious > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 13:02

Yeah, I’d definitely agree 600 is the sweet spot for single card builds. Speaking from experience, you definitely want the breathing room.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 13:07

Yep... me too... have been in IT for a couple of decades.

Linux is definitely different. I have been using it for years just because I wanted to try something different. Helps keeps my mind fresh/flexible. At one point I was also administering a Linux web server.

I used to fix computers more... but I got tired of it with people wanting something for nothing. The worst was POS that someone bought at a garage sale for $50... that they wanted me to upgrade. By the time I was done, the only thing left of the original was the case and the keyboard. Couldn’t even reuse the power supply.

These days when people come to me with something like that, I either:

1. tell them to open it, fill it with cement, attach a rope to it and use it as a boat anchor

2. tell them to cut a hole in the top, fill it with soil, use it as a pot for plants.

3. I give them a nickel and tell them to buy a better computer.

LOL

I use a mix of systems. At work it’s mostly Win 7 and Win 10... as well as Android, iOS devices and some Macs. At home, I have an Ubuntu system as well as some Android devices, a couple of old Blackberries and a Windows Vista system (living room computer... good enough for netflix) and a couple of more current windows laptops. At one point I had a DEC Alpha running VMS, and I’ve also worked on AS400 systems as well.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 14:05

Hahahahaha. I literally blew my 990x dell studio pc up about a month ago. Dem SQL databases yall, be so heavy on the resources. Luckily i finished that and have just been playing the division since I built my new pc. Also you wanna buy an XFX R9 390 8GB for your new machine?

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 14:06

Or yuo could just get 2 Mushkin 1TB reactor SSds.....just saying. \lessspinningrust \moarSSDs

#noplattermasterrace

MUSASHI66 > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/29/2016 at 14:19

I prefer Nvidia - I would get a gtx970 for $300 before spending that much cash on a Radeon.

DO you run SQL DBs on your own box? We run all of ours on our VMWare infrastructure so we can throw more RAM or Processors or storage when we need to. We just use our local boxes for SSMS.

MUSASHI66 > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/29/2016 at 14:19

I’d love a 1TB SSD, and I would buy one for my OS, but I don’t need my data server that fast :)

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 20:36

I run test benches for my SharePoint SQL dB and for my dynamics test dB before I publish them out on a server.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 20:38

Also the 390 I was referring to I have sitting in its box, has been since about a week after I got it. It wouldn’t play nice with my gigabyte board, although after I just flashed my BIOS I bet it would work better.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 20:38

You need a PCIe SSD dude.

MUSASHI66 > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/29/2016 at 20:55

Sharepoint....KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > MUSASHI66
04/29/2016 at 22:42

Eh keeps the bills paid and it’s not so bad in the office 365/suite

No Prius Needed > MUSASHI66
04/30/2016 at 18:42

Brother!

Kinja'd!!!

My rig has the ASUS STRIX 970 in it. I also have an XPS 9100 like your old pc.

MUSASHI66 > No Prius Needed
04/30/2016 at 21:52

Ha! That is awesome :)

No Prius Needed > MUSASHI66
05/01/2016 at 20:01

Those first gen i7s are beasts. For the 8900, I'd definitely suggest getting the 970 since the 745 sounds like a hairdryer under load. I've also got a 600w PSU in mine.

MUSASHI66 > No Prius Needed
05/01/2016 at 20:55

I just put it on sale today, $220 with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and all cables.

That i7-920 @ 2.67GHz benchmarks at around 5000 - that is on par with some newer processors, and it is 7 years old.