Am I the only one who looks at the first post and thinks this machine is complete overkill for superboyac's needs? Seems to me like everyone is building their own dream computer vicariously for superboyac instead of helping him buy what suits his purposes.-Deozaan
I don't think that's what is happening in most cases.
In the first post, Superboyac pointed out he only does a new machine every 5-7 years - and that he does not do hardware upgrades in between.
A lot of the recommendations have obviously taken that into account by suggesting newer technologies with an eye to future system hardware requirements, rather than just what would be optimal right now.
If you take a look at my specific recommendations you'll see a heavy emphasis on "bang-for-the-buck" and 'recycling' where appropriate.
I haven't read all 7 pages of posts in this thread, but from what I remember he doesn't even care about playing the latest games. So why is he buying a $200 video card?
This did come up earlier. Carol Haynes,
et al also raised that question.
In one of Superboyac's posts, he mentioned he is involved in pro/semi-pro music applications. (So am I.)
I can't speak for everyone since I never buy the fastest CPUs, RAM, or motherboards. But I do know from sometimes bitter experience that the less you have hogging CPU cycles when you're running music applications, the better. If you ever had your DAW freeze up on you right in the middle of a session where you were desperately trying to get some elusive bit of "inspired brilliance" down before you forgot it - or you lost that 'once in a lifetime' guitar solo you were playing - you'll understand.
So in SBoy's build, offloading graphics to a separate GPU makes a huge amount of sense. And when you can also get an overall better video experience across the board by using a GPU, why scrimp on that relatively small outlay?
GPUs were suggested at various price/performance points. Some were well below the $200 mark. Once again, SBoy seemed to go with a piece of hardware that got both excellent reviews and bang-for-the-buck performance.
(Do I see a trend here?
)
BTW: the mobo, which I recommended, doesn't have onboard video for that very reason.
I care about playing games on my PC, but I would never spend $2,500 on a gaming rig. Why is he spending that much on a non-gaming rig?
You'll have to ask him that!
When I suggested some cost cutting, he replied he could afford it and didn't feel the need to start worrying about the price just yet.
I've never been in that position.
But I've been given to understand that it's rather nice!