New build suggestions!

Thanks for sharing you're experienced, expert views.

I agree 370 is approx double the price....and supports twice the total memory...

I would want a sturdy, versatile, lasting one...

Its a gamble, and they confuse me..

Regards!

I have to address this "expert" thing you keep posting. I'm in no way shape or form an expert, just a well rounded hobbyist. There are however a lot of other people who follow trends and what have you with computer hardware and manufacture's better than I do. When I built my PC I took the time to do some research, weighed the reviews with various vendors and went with my gut instincts on whether it was a good piece of hardware or not. If you comparison shop like I do, check out parts at Amazon and Newegg and read the reviews. With Amazon you can use the website Fakespot | Analyze and identify fake reviews and counterfeits to get a grade on the quality of the reviews on whether those reviews can be trusted or not. This is NOT a grade on the product its self, only the submitted reviews and whether you can take them for face value or not. Fakespot will also grade reviews for everyone's favorite Yelp.


Writing fake positive reviews is a full time job for some people hired by the company its self. While Amazon et al try to weed that out, it's still a prevalent issue. On Newegg the only thing you can go by is whether the reviewer purchased the item and ownership duration. If a reviewer has owned that piece of hardware for at least a year and is shown to have bought it from Newegg, then chances are that review can be trusted. But reviews are still a general consensus and some people will post reviews based on the stupidest of all things. Especially if they bought something thinking it would work how they thought it would never mind the fact it was never able to do that from the get go. HAHA

In a nutshell, there are certain brands that can or can not be trusted for high quality. And in fact every PC builder has their preferences. For me it's Crucial for RAM and SSDs, Hitachi enterprise grade platter hard drives (though, Hitachi is now part of Western Digital), Gigabyte for motherboards, cooler master for CPU coolers and some case fans as well as PC cases, Pioneer for Blu-ray drives, Nvidia for GPUs, and Antec for PSUs. On the sound card front I'm not exactly sure who is the best. Right now I have a pretty decent Creative Z and its sound is a lot better than what the onboard sound can produce. Plus, I have THX certified 5.1 surround sound so I needed it. LOL Music sounds phenomenal and I can really crank up the volume if I want.

The other thing you really should consider is a decent pure sine wave UPS. Now depending on your PSU will have a factor on what type of UPS you can use. But you can't go wrong with a Cyberpower UPS like this one. The reason why you want a UPS is because if the power suddenly goes out it won't take the PC along with it. I've heard of this happening on more than one occasion on other tech forums. And I suppose the quality of the PSU may have a factor as well. The other thing is that a UPS has a built-in surge protector to help with a power surge, sag, under voltage, etc. And a good PSU can help with that sort of thing as well. My Antec has all that fluff. Now note that if you buy a cheap UPS that isn't pure sine wave and you go ahead and plug a surge protector into it, if the UPS kicks in you can cause a fire because of the ripple or what ever from the UPS into the surge protector. Something else you should know is that surge protectors should be replaced at least every five years or so. Can't remember the exact time frame now. The reason is due to the electronic resistor in there which I can't remember its name that is the surge protector. Over the course of time they get worn out from small surges you don't even know about and can cause a fire. So if you have ancient surge protectors replace them often. Also, surge protectors DO NOT protect you from a lightning strike. Many people think this but it's not true at all. There's a huge difference between a minor electrical surge and a thousands of volts lightning strike. It can and will destroy your hardware in no time no matter the surge protector. So do what I do and power down the UPS, flip the switch to the PSU on the back of the computer and unplug everything until lightning has passed. I take no chances. Especially since I spent lots of money on my stuff and it would be very hard for me to replace since I'm not exactly made of money.

I'm into radio communications and have an outside antenna. If there's lightning outside I unplug the coaxial cable to my scanner as well. Even then, lightning can find its way into your house in more ways than one. I hate the stuff and cringe every time a storm passes over and hope it's a fast moving cell.

Anyway, research, research, research your hardware. And consider a Cyberpower UPS to protect your investment. You'll be happy you did. I have my 5.1 audio, two monitors and computer plugged into the UPS and it says run time is about 19 minutes. Plenty of time to safely close out your applications and power off the PC normally. Now if I were gaming at the time of a power outage I'm sure my battery run time would be a lot less than 19 minutes, but still enough time to safely close everything and power off the PC in normal fashion. I actually once lost a netbook power adapter due to a power outage. Thankfully the netbook wasn't damaged. Had to buy a replacement adapter on eBay. Be careful there as well. There are cheap Chinese knocks offs and you don't want that. Buy OEM only otherwise you risk a fire hazard with the cheap parts.

Time to squeeze a squid for more ink...