xDLGx

I switched to using Mac for work a few years ago and I don't see myself ever going back to Windows. OS X just feels faster and more stable. It doesn't seem to grow in size and degrade over time. There is no registry, applications keep more to themselves (easier and faster to install/uninstall). No defragmentation or trim to worry about... everything just works. There are so many little things in OS X that made working it in both easier and faster for me. It does everything Windows does and more. The basic included apps in OS X I also feel are of higher quality than their counterparts in Windows. The only annoying things I had to get used to is that Mac and Windows uses the ctrl key differently, and Mac has the cmd key. OS X used to have poor mouse support and missing some PC-like keyboard features (all fixed with free third party apps) but they seem to have changed all that with Mountain Lion.

Think it's mostly ~8 fingers. I very rarely hit any key with any little finger... well I use the left one to hit shift/caps... and I don't think I ever use my left thumb. Typing at around 80 wpm and I never have to look at the keyboard. Used to be 100+ wpm back when I did a lot more typing on a daily basis.

Depends on the type of "workstation" but in most cases when I think workstation I think Mac - it just works, it's fast, it's very energy efficient etc. (and you can run Windows on them if you want to)

Very much agree. The 7990 was a real waste. They released it too late and with issues. Maybe the R&D on it was finished earlier but they knew that the new driver was still months off. They decided to release the card in hope of at least get a return investment on it before the 9000 series... just speculation. Real shame. If the card and the new driver had been released earlier it would have been an excellent piece of hardware.... except maybe for the coil whine issues. AMD has themselves to blame for not taking the frame latency issues seriously sooner. Hopefully they'll make use of the cooler again on some future cards.

If you're not getting special after market cards it might be worth checking what kind of presence the brands you're choosing from have in your country/area. Some brands focus more on different markets so with the "right brand" it's easier and faster to sort out problems with faulty products.

But I went with Intel :p I spent a good week or so making the decision though.

CPU bottleneck is almost never anything to worry about. The only time your CPU will bottleneck your GPU(s) in real world game applications is when you're playing at a resolution or with graphical settings so low that the GPU is trying to produce 200+ fps or something. At that point it will be limited by the CPU. This pretty much never happens to a gamer unless the game is very CPU intensive for some reason. In most games when you play at maximum graphical settings at high resolution you can see that your CPU is barely doing any work, it might sit at 25-30% load, waiting on the GPU which is working its ass off.

I just have to add that it's a complete joke that you're meant to first pay for the blu-ray player and then pay for some crap software before you're able to play blu-rays on it. PowerDVD is horrible, some edition of that came included with my player, but of course it didn't work anyway (except with normal DVDs). GTX 580 might not support blu-ray playback their support said, they told me to get a modern graphics card (and this was nearly two years ago). It just makes people want to go the illegal way and just rip or use various crack methods instead.

I haven't got any experience with EVGA PSUs. EVGA is probably the one brand that's got the least exposure over here. It's mostly just their Hydro series of cards that you see. I had no idea they had a 10 year warranty, it's not being advertised well. Either way, I ended up getting the 1200i from Corsair. I've started ordering parts. It's pretty much only for games and for the fun of building and customizing a PC again. I do all my work on Mac. I was actually thinking of going AMD for this build as it's cheaper and the in-game performance is pretty much identical unless you're playing at such low resolution that the CPU becomes the bottleneck. Reason I went Intel anyway is really that the AM3+ platform is just old... I don't like buying motherboards that are borderline ancient at this point.

I am debating this for my new build. I wonder how much their new cards will cost. The top-end cards have really gone up in price these past 1-2 years. If AMD has a single-gpu "Titan killer" it will be very interesting see if it will cost the same as a Titan today or less (I can't possibly see it cost more). It will also be interesting to see if they solve the frame latency, both via software in their coming drivers, and via hardware with the 9000 series. I would like to wait but at the same time I've got free time now, until the end of September. When the new cards arrive (probably available by the end of October) I won't have much time to use them on a daily basis. Typical.

Safari, I do all my browsing on Mac and there it's the fastest and most stable browser.

Could just be a bug in the drivers with that old card. Not like they focus on the older cards when updating the drivers. Generally I don't update drivers unless there is a problem with my current ones or the new drivers seem to give me new features or improvements that I actually need. You didn't try to monitor heat while you had problems? In case the drivers screwed up the fan controller of something, overheated and shut down. I've had problems similar to yours twice in the past, with monitor going black and no DVI signal. Sometimes no signal even when doing a cold reboot. The first time it was bad pci-e cables, card actually lost power and turned off. The second time it turned out to be a corrupted Windows paging file... of all things.

Is it totally random while just sitting at desktop or random while doing things like playing games? Installed any new hardware lately? Installed any new drivers lately? Any new software? Especially stuff that might be running in the background?

We do have access to pretty much all brands as far as PSUs go. We'll see where it ends up, if I feel like saving some money I'll probably get the 860i for now and then upgrade later. I figure the resell value should be alright on the 860i... with 7 years warranty and all.

Oh no you're not, waited on BSOD many times. It's very annoying, especially when you don't get one for a while and think you've fixed the problem then BAM!

Wish I had a photo but way back while I worked extra at a computer store there was a crap machine in for service that looked like the one right above this post, only difference was that the 3.5" hdd was hanging in the middle of all the cables, supported by some brown tape.

If the PC actually shuts off (as if you'd pulled the power cord) and your CPU is not overheating to the point of self-shutdown the most likely cause is the PSU or cables from the PSU to the motherboard. The other possibility would be faulty motherboard. I can't think of any other problem that would cause a complete system shutdown, all other problems would or at least should present themselves in a different way (bluescreens, blackscreens, sudden reboots etc.) I've never seen or heard of broken Windows or drivers causing instant shutdowns.

My guess is that the budget might end up around 4000 USD (keep in mind that you get more PC for 4000 USD in the US or Canada compared to here). The parts I've more or less already selected lands at ~2550 USD. The 4000 USD includes a new GPU whichever it ends up being (plan to get a strong single GPU and expand later when needed). Also includes all parts for at least CPU watercooling as I plan to start with that and I'll probably get a kit. It should cover a stand alone soundcard if I end up getting one later. I'm getting 8 gb ram sticks for sure. I was planning for a 360 radiator with high quality fans as that should fit very well at the top of the case (3 x 120mm cutouts there). It should be enough for both CPU and future GPUs but if it's not I'll just have to get another radiator in there somehow... or fit one externally out back. This is why I'll just do a simple loop for the CPU first. The PSU is a difficult choice. I wish the Corsair AX digital series had a 1000w option but it jumps from 860w to 1200w. In a future SLI setup with high end GPUs there won't be much overhead with 860w, especially if I end up with AMD cards. I doubt they'll get their act together with the power consumption. Thanks for the input guys!

Even if in theory a few Titans should be able to at least get things moving the optimisation and scaling for resolutions that high is probably nonexistant today.

Higher resolution, a larger screen right in front of you at native 1440/1600p does wonders for the gaming experience. Just like how movies are better on a larger TV and best at the cinema (as long as the people around you can shut up).

Sorry if the post is long but I'm new on the forums so an intro is required. It's been over 10 years since I last built a computer system, I actually used to work extra at a computer store back then. I think the last system I built had an AMD Athlon XP 1500 MHz or something in it… Felt it was time to get back into this old hobby of actually building my own PC and after watching a lot of tech videos and reading a lot of reviews I found Linux Tech Tips to be an excellent source of information with top notch vids that manage to be informative, easy to follow and funny all at the same time…. so I signed up here. Today I do all my work on Macbook Pro with external screen. My last PC was pre-built and is from late 2008 (i7 920), with upgraded graphics cards since then (dual 580s) and replaced faulty memory. I hope to finish my new build during July or at least before my g/f gets back from her seasonal employment and I (hopefully) start my new job. Moving on to the planned build: I don't have any set budget as I can afford a beast system BUT I do have an inner voice telling me "do you really need this crap?" and it stops me from going overboard with components I won't be using to their full extent. I've decided to go with a black and red theme, it looks nice and it's cheaper as there are more parts/brands to choose from that are red and black. I won't bother listing prices as I'm in Sweden so any prices will just appear outrageous to most of you. If I could import from the US I would but the customs fees and added VAT would almost make it pointless, not to mention the hassle if something is broken. Parts: Lian Li PC-V2120X - horribly expensive chassi but it's timeless, door can be opened the "correct way" for me and it has wheels. Lots of room for adding more components later. Corsair AX1200i Digital - expensive but very future proof and 7 years warranty which is insane. I might still go for the 860i version but I'd hate to see that lack overhead with future graphics cards in SLI and everything overclocked. MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming - really like the look and reviews I've seen have been good. i7 4770K - price difference is so small so I don't see any point in buying lower-end versions. Remember when I bought my AMD K6 200MHz for more than twice the price of this CPU... long ago. Corsair 16GB DDR3 Vengeance Pro Red 2400MHz - might go 32GB but I have to read up more on the usefulness of ram disks nowadays. Even if I probably won't be running the memory at 2400 I really like to have overhead on certified memory, makes sure it's stable. If I get 32GB I'll pick lower clock speed ones. Intel 520 series 2.5" 240GB SSD - debating if I should get two right away and RAID 0 them. Optical drives and mechanical hard drives - I'll probably just grab those from my current PC. Things I'm still debating is water cooling, I want to do custom water cooling, CPU and GPU but probably starting with the CPU only. I'll need to get the chassi before I can plan exactly what to do but a 360 rad in the top is the most likely outcome. I'm also undecided on the GPU. Not sure if I should wait and see what the Radeon 9000 series brings and just use one or two of my GTX 580s until then… or if should sell the 580s and get something now. I'm sitting at a 30" 2560x1600 DELL monitor so I need some juice when playing games. Dedicated sound card is also up for debate, I'll have to see how the onboard audio on the MSI board is first. ASUS Xonar looks cool otherwise. Case lights… even though the V2120X doesn't have any windows I plan for some internal lighting, and it's possible I might mod one of the side panels to have a window or see if I can find custom side panels online somewhere (for an arm and a leg I'm sure). So that's my plan so far. Comments are welcome, especially when it comes to ram disks and sound cards. Peace!

With any modern gaming case where they thought of airflow there would only be downsides with the dust, risk of damage etc. In the old days (~10 years ago) I and many others had to keep the side panel off and have a floorfan blowing from the side to prevent overheating... terrible old computer cases.