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Should it be a laptop or a desktop? I'm inclined to go for a desktop. Should I build it myself, or buy a off-the-self pc? What hardware should i choose? I would prefer if it could be quite quiet (no water cooling), it doesn't need to be noiseless but I don't want a second vacuum cleaner. I would also like it to be relative future proof. I have no idea what a build-it-yourself computer costs today, it has been at least 10 years since I bought and assembled one the last time. How far will 10.000 dkk get me? |
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Thats really not much to go on... As a guy with nearly 10 years experience in building desktops to be placed in the living room without the wife complaining to much, I will throw a few pointers. As a first you really need to decide on a budget, as you could "easily" build an ITX machine with 8 cores and SLI all passively cooled, but you might just prefer to use your money on an F-16 jetfighter instead... As a rule: It is very hard to find stock desktops where the noise levels have been more than a minor design concern. The question of whether to get a laptop instead is really more of a question of how you intend to use it. If it is going to just be sitting on your table all the time then you will just pay around 3000 extra for a machine with a smaller screen... The trick is to balance your need for computing power against your need for it to be silent, as the two tend to draw in opposite directions. A good place to start is to get a noise dampening case. I would recommend either: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=71 or: http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6702 and as I said, balance your need for computing power against your noise reduction needs. Get a power supply which just meets the systems requirements, and consider changing the stock fans on your CPU and GPU. A rough rule is: The larger the fan, the lower noise. This is not an absolute truth as the qaulity of the bearing plays a big part as well, but it is a good rule of thumb. If you have the case, install a few extra 120mm fans, then there really is no limit to the components you can choose to put into your system, and you might even consider installing passive cooling on your GPU and mainboard like: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/430/accelero-s1-plus.html or get as big a cooler as possible and run it on "low" settings, eg: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/376/accelero-xtreme-plus-ii.html But really as I said, you should start by deciding on a budget, and then play around with the different part until you end up with the system that best fits your needs. If you want more tips and tricks on building low noise systems I would recommend going here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/ Hope it helps, and happy building ;) I have added a price limit, and scaled down the importance of the quietness in my original question. 10K should bring you a long way. I think I7 with SLI/crossfire should be within range. I would still advise on spending a little extra on the case and coolers, to avoid the "vacuum cleaner" ;) You're a big bad computer scientist, you (should) know what the numbers mean. Go to eg. edbpriser.dk and see what is available and decide what you want to bet on. Eg 3 x SSD in a raid for razor sharp IO or 2x dual-gpu cards for maximum graphical detail. |
Did you get yourself a new gaming rig? (please accept :-))