imflyinn

@Real_PhillBert would not having an onboard GPU affect anything because I will be running a good full time GPU?

@Real_PhillBert I am unsure of overclocking. I am open to it if it will help me but have no prior experience. I think that I will go up to a 970 for sure just because of gaming. I won't count the monitor and keyboard/mouse towards my budget to make room for a little better performance (Assuming Santa is good to me come Christmas time if not those I can upgrade with time when I start working again no problem) @OhhTee could I even put in an ssd after the fact if I plan on loading the OS and engineering programs and possibly Photoshop onto it, or would doing that cause huge problems? Btw I have only used Solidworks on my laptop (Ivy Bridge i7 with a nvidia mobile gpu ) and a school computer (The sticker said i5 but the awful performance kinda scared me about i5's) so pretty much anything that I get will seem like a giant upgrade to me

@Real_PhillBert Thanks, definately gets me in the right direction! Do you think that I will need a cpu cooler and an ssd for sure when I start? I was thinking about adding an ssd in later to increase my budget for other parts now

@Real_PhillBert Total budget not including monitor, keyboard, etc is around $1250. I know the monitor can divide in half and can supposedly act as two totally seprate screens but I will have to do more research on that

The pc is completely from scratch, this is my first ever build

Real_Phillbert thank you for offering help, I have been looking for a fellow engineer to give me a hand choosing these parts and will definitely need to take you up on that I don't have the budget now to run a dual gpu setup but wouldn't be opposed to picking up a quadro in the future. I am looking into an internship now and will be using all of those same programs for sure in the (hopefully) near future. As for the monitor I am looking into getting a 29:1 aspect ratio monitor instead of using a dual-monitor setup, any thoughts on that?

Total build budget is going to be around 1250, not including monitor, keyboard, etc. I am thinking about starting with 8gb of ram to start out with and upgrade in the summer when I have more money to save my budget for other parts, along with waiting on a ssd until then unless there is a great deal on one coming up. But other than that I would rather build for the future now than have to rip everything apart and upgrade in the near future

Posted a while back looking for help picking parts for a pc that needs to be suitable for both engineering work (intense 3-d modeling and rendering) and also do decent for gaming in the mean time. I will be back in a couple weeks for advice on picking the entire pc (will be ordered on black Friday) but for now I just have a couple questions: 1: Ivy Bridge or Haswell CPU? I would like to stick with an i7 Intel Cpu. Budget will be $300, assuming the older generation is on sale would I be better off getting a higher-end Ivy Bridge or lower end Haswell for the same price? 2: gtx 970, 780, or 780ti? Assuming again that the older generation will be on sale with a budget of $400, which would be better for the engineering work? I have done a ton of research on the fps's generated by each in gaming but for engineering which would be better? I see the 780s have more CUDA cores that I think means faster rendering but I could be wrong. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

I am looking to replace a tv with a monitor very soon. I live at college where the cable runs straight from the wall coax connector to the tv without needing a cable box. To connect a monitor and get tv stations would a digital tv converter box with an hdmi output (such as http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U/ref=pd_cp_pc_0 )work to give me access to all of the channels?

How necessary is an SSD? I know that it would be a good idea to have one but I know that they are expensive. Could I get away with getting a faster regular hard drive and upgrading to an ssd later as they go down in price with time? Also I would rather spend a little more money on things like the hard drive if it means that it will last longer and be less likely to break or fail.

I will be for sure dropping the sound card and downgrading the optical drive. I see a lot about changing the case. The Coolermaster I only picked because it was giant and had handles thinking that bigger case = more air flow = cooler pc. If there is something cheaper or tougher I am all for that as long as this thing will stay cool during long rendering sessions

Sorry about not using PC Picker this is the first time I have ever heard of it. My reason for posting now is to get an idea of what to choose seeing how all the new stuff coming in the next couple months is less likely to be on sale come black Friday and the stuff out now will hopefully be more discounted. All of this thread is helping me a ton to understand what I should be looking at and it will be easier to choose similar components that are on sale. That being said, yes I will most likely need to put this back up on black Friday, hopefully with a build that actually makes sense unlike what I first put up.

Hi everyone, I am brand new to PC building. I'm a mechanical engineering major on the cusp of getting my first internship looking to build a pc that will work for engineering as well as gaming. Goals: 1. Needs to run CAD programs such as Solidworks, Auto cad, and CREO. If I need to take work home to complete it I need a rig capable of doing large scale work. 2. Be able to run all current games at decently high settings, and be strong enough to be able to keep playing games for the next several years. 3. Cost NEEDS to be between $800-1000 not including peripherals. The kicker is that I will be buying on black Friday so I have no clue what will be on sale :mellow: 4. Needs to be durable enough to be transported to/from school and the quieter the better, but if I need to leave it on for long periods of time cooling>quiet. Problems: 1. This is my first PC build and although I have done research choosing components is way over my head and much of the terminology flies right over my head. 2. From reading I am finding that engineering PCs and gaming PC components appear to be polar opposites at least when it comes to graphics cards. 3. What I need out of this PC appears to be wayyyy more than my current budget. 4. Because I am buying on Black Friday even if I plan this all out ahead of time it could be a last minute scramble to choose components although finding comparable components seems easier than coming up with them out of the blue. What I have in mind so far: (hopefully the links work) http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-HAF-EVO-Rev/dp/B00FB45WPI/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_5 $100 Coolermaster chassis http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-PC3-12800-1600mHz-CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B/dp/B004QBUL1C/ref=br_lf_m_1001203001_1_2_ttl?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&pf_rd_p=1716572922&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1001203001&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=07MX5K4K6R81RNMZFA7S $85 8gb corsair ddr3 ram http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-Quadro-K2000-Graphics-PNY/dp/B00BLTE7DA/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1392615597&sr=8-3&keywords=quadro $400 NVIDIA QUADRO K2000 http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-3820-Quad-Core-Processor-Cache/dp/B006WVVA28/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392615686&sr=8-2&keywords=i7+processor $300 I7 3.6 GhZ http://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DSX-Engine-Playback-Support/dp/B007TMZ1MY/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_12?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1392615886&sr=1-12&keywords=sound+card $60 ASUS sound card http://www.amazon.com/Sony-AD-7280S-0B-Internal-Drive-Black/dp/B0057FRTPW/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_13?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1392616038&sr=1-13&keywords=optical+drive $30 Sony Optical drive http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392616160&sr=8-1&keywords=hard+drive $60 WD 1tb hard drive http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Builder-Series-Bronze-Certified/dp/B008RJZQSW/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392616233&sr=8-2&keywords=power+supply $70 Corsair 750watt PS - The cost of this right now adds up to $1200 so I will probably need to skimp in some areas to get the cost down. I heard the Quadro will be an awful choice for gaming is there truth to this/a better alternative? Is a sound card/optical drive necessary? And last but not least I realize that I am missing a motherboard and possibly other components but I have no clue how to choose them so I will definitely need some help there. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!