Last summer I bought a really nice laptop (holy crap my last blog was before I got it), it's an MSI GT70 2pe-890us Dominator Pro.
I'll list the basic specs because I can't find a good page listing them (and the model normally comes with an i7-4800MQ so I got lucky):Processor: Intel i7-4810MQ (2.8ghz w/ turbo to 3.8)RAM: 12gb DDR3Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX880MHard Drive: 1TB 7200rpmAnyway, I tell you all this because I am planning to build a desktop in a couple months and need help figuring out how to do it. In an ideal world I'd want to be able to record recent games at max settings 1440p 60fps so that's the kind of power I'm looking for. Although I'd really rather avoid spending the premium price to own this years latest and greatest graphics technology unless it's actually worth the price. If nothing else I want it to be a decent step up from those laptop specs.The only problem is, I'm only vaguely familiar with building computers and choosing the best parts. For example, I know I should have an SSD for Windows to boot off of but I don't know anything about motherboards =pI could keep typing more nonsense now but I think it'd be easier to see what (if any) suggestions I get and work from there.edit: I guess I should mention that I already have a monitor/mouse/keyboard/etc so I only need to worry about the computer itself.
I'm liking this pcpartpicker site, especially the ability to find builds based on a couple specific parts.
edit:This guys build looks similar to something I might buy http://pcpartpicker.com/b/8mhqqs I figure I'll probably start with one graphics card and then SLI it later on. Probably start with 16gb of ram and then jump to 32 later on as well =pIf you're recording, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 2TB HDD. Long videos at 1440p with low compression will be fucking huge. Besides that, it looks like a solid build that will do everything that you said you wanted to do. How many monitors are you running?
I have a single 1440p monitor, I've never really gotten into the whole multi-monitor thing which I guess makes me weird =p.
I'm definitely leaning towards 2-3tb for my internal drive although for long term video storage I've already got a 4tb external drive (with plans to buy more as necessary). Still, I could easily fill up a 1tb drive with Steam games (I recently passed 700!) so it would be a bad idea to go any smaller than 2 =pIt will be interesting to see how much space the videos take up. Since I currently record with OBS my videos aren't that huge.. If I walk constantly in RS/Minecraft at 1080/30 I usually get 1.5-2gb for 30 mins. So I expect in the worse case scenario (lots of movement, non-simplistic graphics) my videos should still never pass 20gb each with my current settings, but I could be completely wrong.As far as cases go, I'm seriously considering this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553009 It's obviously not the best case in the world but I like how it looks and it comes with USB 3.0, unless somebody can find a major problem with it (such as parts not fitting) I'll probably go ahead and order it in a couple weeks.I got a new motherboard (MSI gaming 5 or whatever), an i7 4790k @4ghz, used my previous RAM (6GB), a new SSD, a new HDD, a gtx960 evga low-profile video card, and used my old PSU. Also about $90 for a decent gaming case. I spent maybe ~800+. If I were to buy new RAM and PSU, it would be around ~$950 total, plus tax of course. (I still have to make a blog on it. Its coming soon.)
It is pretty expensive, but man it runs like a dream. I'm hoping to keep it going for a good 10 years.16GB of RAM is more than enough TBH. Realistically, you should only have that much if you are doing video editing or model rendering. Same with the i5 vs i7, unless you'd like to record on top of your game playing or something.Also, I run a 1440p monitor, along with a 1080p. And I have a shortcut button to turn on the TV output to use as my gaming screen, though with 3 monitors it hikes the temps up another 10-20 degrees, which is why I turn it off when I'm not using it. Pretty nice though.Alert, if you have an extra laptop/computer, you can stream to your TV. It works crazy well through Steam and I'm sure you could even go lower and just use a streaming stick (ChromeCast/FireTV Stick) to stream the video to the TV. I'm going to try that on my FireTV when I get home. :P
In my experience I've had some trouble getting good quality out of the chromecast, I'd probably prefer the Roku stick for TV watching, personally.
Tho, they are coming out with newer and cheaper mini-pc's that are perfect for streaming. I do actually have a spare laptop I could use for streaming, so I might play around with that at some point..So I'm thinking about ordering the first piece of my desktop this weekend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372
Any thoughts?I have a glass desktop. It is nice, but the glass isn't attached to the wood underneath, so it sometimes slides around
The newer Samsung SSDs are always a safe choice. I think the 840 EVOs were the ones that had an issue causing big performance loss over time, but the 850s are fine.