Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

[tdawg3782]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Get it right now. Only time PC parts and accessories go on sale really is during Black Friday, but they usually get snatched up very quick. Every once in a while Best Buy or Staples etc. will have one on sale, but those sales are hit or miss.

So I would just buy it. Waiting on sales some times can make you not buy anything ever because you would be constantly waiting playing the what if game.

This. Also Amazon is really solid on their HDD prices. I've gotten my last 4 from them and have never been disappointed is the price.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Majingir]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Something I was reading, apparently external harddrives don't last forever? Anyone wanna weigh in?

I have always been under the impression that they do. I got basically everything backed up on a drive, it's not something I'll use every week, and when I do use it, it's simply plugged in for the time it takes to write stuff on or off the drive, but it does have stuff I do want to store forever.

I usually keep good care of things I own, hopefully they are able to last for a long time. I've been wanting to buy a big drive as a "long term investment" just so that I can use it for everything I need backed up now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now and so on. But if they actually do fail after a few years, hopefully I don't lose anything on it, and maybe it would be wiser just getting a smaller drive if I'm not gonna be using all the space up in the next few years?

And if they do die eventually, how will I even know? Don't wanna buy one for sake of getting a new one every few years if I don't need to, but I obviously don't want to lose valuable files either.

[daflyboys]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I have a 1 TB Lacie HDD that has been a beast. I think it's about 10 yo and I only really fire it up to do a massive update backup of one of our PCs. I'm sure YMMV.

[Majingir]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I have a 1 TB Lacie HDD that has been a beast. I think it's about 10 yo and I only really fire it up to do a massive update backup of one of our PCs. I'm sure YMMV.

This is the one I've been looking at

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expan.../dp/B00ZTRXTPW

[Phobia]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Something I was reading, apparently external harddrives don't last forever? Anyone wanna weigh in?

I have always been under the impression that they do. I got basically everything backed up on a drive, it's not something I'll use every week, and when I do use it, it's simply plugged in for the time it takes to write stuff on or off the drive, but it does have stuff I do want to store forever.

I usually keep good care of things I own, hopefully they are able to last for a long time. I've been wanting to buy a big drive as a "long term investment" just so that I can use it for everything I need backed up now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now and so on. But if they actually do fail after a few years, hopefully I don't lose anything on it, and maybe it would be wiser just getting a smaller drive if I'm not gonna be using all the space up in the next few years?

And if they do die eventually, how will I even know? Don't wanna buy one for sake of getting a new one every few years if I don't need to, but I obviously don't want to lose valuable files either.

They don't fail after a few years. I have 6 or so years on one with no issues what so ever. The reason they fail is because its physical moving pieces and like anything mechanical it has an expiration date until those moving pieces will stop working as they did when built. Multiple platters, the head for reading platters, and the actuators are all moving and moving at pretty quick speeds, so they will give out at some point in time.

I tell everyone I know in real life that wants to keep things like family photos, tax data, important documents, etc safe & not going anywhere. You need redundancy, first this gives you peace of mind if a drive does fail, that you simple replace the faulty drive and move the data from another storage location back onto your newly replaced drive. Next you need more than just physical storage locations.

The way I do it, I utilize 3 physical drives (2 internal, 1 external) for storing pictures, important docs, files, resumes', etc. This way its highly unlikely ALL will fail at the exact same time. 2 contain the exact same data, so if one happens to fail it's a easy process of copying the data from the working drive to the new drive. The external drive contains only music which I copied from CD's onto the drive.

I also utilize 2 cloud based storage options (One Drive & Google Drive)(Yet again redundancy). I store the same data here but also some everyday use things as well. This way if my house was to burn down or some other catastrophe which destroyed all my physical drives, I still have all my content within reach to be retrieved. I also utilize the cloud for things I might need when away from my home office. What if there is a file that I access often and need to make changes to, but I wouldn't want to be forced to make those changes again on my "home" copy of that file. So instead the file goes to the cloud, if I makes changes to that file say at work, I then re-upload it over the original cloud file, and when I get home download from the cloud & write over the home file. This way everything retains the same version.

I also make sure my file structure is identical on all my forms of storage to make for easy writing over, replacing files, etc. That's a little out of scope for this but something to think about when you get into making sure everything is backed up AND most importantly each location isn't housing different data.

I also keep 1 (64gb I think is the size) flash drives with really important data locked in my home fireproof safe. 1 flash stays in my filing cabinet which houses all my windows activation keys, product keys for non-steam games, and other odds and ends "semi-important" items.

This is how I handle this at home and by all means nothing this in-depth you need to do as well. I just wanted to point out, don't worry about the drive failing, instead focus your attention on having all data you never want to lose backed up to multiple locations + 1 cloud storage location in case of a major catastrophe. I'd recommend 2 physical backups and 1 cloud based as the bare minimum.

[Majingir]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

So basically the cost will double to backup everything twice.

Things like photos I got on multiple locations, but everything else I don't. Maybe it would be better getting multiple smaller drives over a big one? Even if cost is more(a 2TB drive costs more than two 1TB drives, and a 1TB drive costs less than two 500GB drives).

Might just opt for that 3TB one for now. If I rarely use it(like once or twice a month at most), that probably is best? And if in future I see some major black friday sale on 1TB drives, just get that as the backup backup.

[Phobia]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

So basically the cost will double to backup everything twice.

Things like photos I got on multiple locations, but everything else I don't. Maybe it would be better getting multiple smaller drives over a big one? Even if cost is more(a 2TB drive costs more than two 1TB drives, and a 1TB drive costs less than two 500GB drives).

Might just opt for that 3TB one for now. If I rarely use it(like once or twice a month at most), that probably is best? And if in future I see some major black friday sale on 1TB drives, just get that as the backup backup.

Yup, I bought two 1 TB western digital blue internal drives for something like $50 a piece. You just have to base it on what your looking to backup, normally 1 TB is more than enough space. You only want the data you never want to possibly lose to be backup redundantly (Tax copies, family photos, business docs, resumes, warranty paper work, home mortgage documents, IRA/Mutual fund docs, etc.), another words don't back up game data, memes, or other useless crap that just takes up space. Only one I'd put on the iffy mark is music, it's a bitch to upload old cd's so while the files are not lost forever, all that work would be required to be done again. The only issue with music, it takes up large amounts of space.

[Majingir]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I have music and videos which do take up alot of space. Obviously videos from phones take up lots of space. A single few minute video takes up dozens of MBs. Add that up over the course of however long smartphones and digital cameras have been out for, and that's ALOT of stuff.

But getting a 3TB drive for $100 (under $80US) is hard to pass up on, especially compared to a 1TB which is about 30% cheaper, or 2TB about 20% cheaper.

Just as long as the files would be safe, would be nice having a "central storage spot" with that 3TB one and then can just use smaller drive for the extra protection.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I’m a back up freak. Really important stuff you have to cloud, I also upload pics to a private Facebook album and videos to YouTube. Music I don’t care too much since I stream Apple Music and Spotify. I have a raid system for my movies, music, pics, movie and photo projects. I also have 2 8 tb seagate external drives to back those up a couple times a year, then I unplug it and store it.

It’s excessive but I was traumatized 10 years ago when I lost all my pics from high school, college, dogs, family and all the music I collected since the AOL days. I cried that day.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I don't keep anything of importance on a PC. Only thing I care about is birth certificate, social security card. Anything else I don't worry about.

[mgoblue]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I have a 1TB Seagate in our fire box I add stuff to every 6ish months.

We also have our pictures on our phone backed up automatically by Google, along with a Amazon backup of pictures...should probably update that one to give us better coverage of what's on the hard drive...

[Gerg04]

Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Built my PC in 2011. This rig has gone above and beyond my needs, even if it is not top of the line. And it is still going strong today. I upgraded my GPU last year from 660ti to a 1060 6gb. It was time for a graphics update and with 3 daughters my PC budget gets a back seat. Regardless, the 1060 suits my needs just fine. I don't need the best of the best.

Anyway my HDD has been really shoddy lately. I can run all the games I play fine, but I know an SSD would go a long way. My disk usage is constantly high and probably my biggest detriment when gaming.

Having said that, I've started thinking about upgrading more overall and I'm kind of torn.

I'm currently only running 8gbs of RAM, and it's gotten me by so far. But upgrading to at least 16gb is probably smart. Where I'm torn is if I buy start off by upgrading my RAM first, for my current 1150 socket MB, I'm limiting my eventual CPU upgrade. Currently running i5-2310, which again has been ok for me but it's time for an upgrade.

As stated above, my budget these days need to be on the cheap side but it's about time I start upgrading.

I'd like to upgrade my MB+CPU (Combo if needed) and 16gbs of RAM for around $600? Is it feasible to be able to do that or should I just roll with what I have and start saving?

Again, I don't need top of the line. Considering how well my rig runs now for my needs any upgrade will be an upgrade. I plan on reusing my case, fans, GPU and monitor. I'll get a new monitor down the road.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Phobia]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

Built my PC in 2011. This rig has gone above and beyond my needs, even if it is not top of the line. And it is still going strong today. I upgraded my GPU last year from 660ti to a 1060 6gb. It was time for a graphics update and with 3 daughters my PC budget gets a back seat. Regardless, the 1060 suits my needs just fine. I don't need the best of the best.

Anyway my HDD has been really shoddy lately. I can run all the games I play fine, but I know an SSD would go a long way. My disk usage is constantly high and probably my biggest detriment when gaming.

Having said that, I've started thinking about upgrading more overall and I'm kind of torn.

I'm currently only running 8gbs of RAM, and it's gotten me by so far. But upgrading to at least 16gb is probably smart. Where I'm torn is if I buy start off by upgrading my RAM first, for my current 1150 socket MB, I'm limiting my eventual CPU upgrade. Currently running i5-2310, which again has been ok for me but it's time for an upgrade.

As stated above, my budget these days need to be on the cheap side but it's about time I start upgrading.

I'd like to upgrade my MB+CPU (Combo if needed) and 16gbs of RAM for around $600? Is it feasible to be able to do that or should I just roll with what I have and start saving?

Again, I don't need top of the line. Considering how well my rig runs now for my needs any upgrade will be an upgrade. I plan on reusing my case, fans, GPU and monitor. I'll get a new monitor down the road.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd personally do a CPU, MB, RAM, and SSD upgrade. There is a couple reasons why I would. 1) A RAM upgrade to 16GB is needed but finding old ram will be just as costly and pointless to spend the money there for hardly a noticeable improvement. 2) A SSD upgrade is fantastic and easily one of the top upgrades someone can make. It affects every facet of your PC experience, so I'd consider it super important but..3) I wouldn't upgrade just the SSD & forgo on a CPU + MB combo. Seven years out that CPU/MB is right at that perfect upgrade point and I feel rotating in that 1060 will go great with a Ryzen 5. A Ryzen 5 2600X combo sounds like it would be a worthy upgrade for you.https://www.newegg.com/Product/Combo...=Combo.3797358

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I definitely think just building a brand new PC would be the way to go. PC component prices are back to normal now and everything is back in stock.

[ubernoob]

Re: Official "I want to build a New PC!" Thread

I definitely think just building a brand new PC would be the way to go. PC component prices are back to normal now and everything is back in stock.

Nah, RAM prices are still astronomically high. GPUs back to relative normalcy though.