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New PC Purchase
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Buying a new PC.

Primary uses are family stuff...internet, music, pictures.

On the work side, need lots of power for large and resource intensive excel work.

Need some power for video editing.

What, say you, are the important features.
  • Processor type (speed, cores)
  • Amount of RAM (8, 16, 32, etc., also EEC, non-EEC)
  • HD type (SSD or not)
  • Video card

Any general thoughts?
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Re: New PC Purchase [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Let your apps dictate what you need. For example, look at those video editing tools to see what they take advantage of the most. For myself, I do a lot of computationally intensive structural analysis. The codes I use can support both multiple cpCPUs as well as multiple cores. They also can utilize the GPUs on Nvidia graphics cards. If I have enough RAM, I can solve millions of equations without spilling over to disk. The codes I use also have a sweet spot of using 3-4 cores. As such, I can get away with an i5 with 4 cores. The most important things for me are CPU clock speed and RAM. My current i5 with 32gb RAM will be replaced sometime in the future with a 4+ GHz i5 or i7 with 64 to 128 gb RAM.

I also have an SSD for my main drive, but it's only 128gb and hosts the operating system. I have another 3tb of traditional hard drive space for apps and data. Did just upgrade my gtx 1070 graphics card to a 1080 time, mainly for the 11gb of VRAM to tap into for my analysis runs as well as better gaming support with my Oculus Rift.
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Re: New PC Purchase [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Look for DDR4 memory

Intel Core i7-5820K or i7-6700K and Higher

As for drives look for those that support 2TB and Higher, 7200 rpm minimum.

Be sure to look into using RAID. Having daily/weekly backups is often overlooked until things go to hell.

"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
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