I know I was on the website magicmicro.com which I bought my last computer at, and then system I customized on there came out to around 1500. With the same components on pcpartpicker it came to 1300. So that seems like a fair trade off for setting it up.

I could post the parts I plan on getting to get some feedback.

Not sure if you are familiar with windows vista's winsxs problem but it basically just eats away at your hard drive taking up space and you can't delete it. I have nothing on my drive, that is taking up the majority of the space.

That is probably an excellent idea.

That magicmicro site looks quite good, tons of config options. You can save some money by taking an i5 system, I don't think you need an i7. Also you don't need a graphics card if you don't plan on playing 3d games.

Alright here we go this is the system I currently picked out for $1,374 (without an operating system picked yet)

Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 3.3GHz (3.6GHz turbo) Six-Core Prosessor
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, 4 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan
ASRock X99 Extreme3, X99, 3way X-Fire & SLI, GB LAN, USB3.0
16GB (4x4GB) PC4-17000 DDR4 2133MHz Quad Channel
GeForce GT 610 1GB, PCI EXpress 16X dual head, HDMI
256.0 GB SSD Plextor PX-M6S Series Solid State Drive, SATA3 6.0Gb/s, 510MBs
2TB Toshiba 7200RPM SATA3 6GB/s 64m cache
LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Apevia X-Dreamer-4 Black and Blue, front USB 2.0 & 3.0, Temp. display, Hot swap HDD
Logisys 400W ATX Power Supply

I didn't add any additional case fans or hard drive fans, are those necessary?

Only game I play is rocksmith 2014, basically guitar hero with a real guitar.

And You might be right about the I5, I am putting all similar component upgrades on one of those units and its in the $900 range.

The CPU is a bit overkill, but why not? But it doesn't have integrated graphics; with a socket 1150 CPU, e.g. an i5-4690 or an i7-4790 you get an integrated GPU. Then you don't need a graphics card if you don't play 3d games. But if you do, you should get something better than a GT 610.

this is a pretty terrible build for poker. you do not need a 6core intel CPU for poker. Intel's "K" processors have an unlocked multiplier and are meant for overclocking. and you definitely dont want to be overclocking with a ****ty logisys 400w power supply let alone booting up such an expensive computer on it. and a gt610 is a really ****ty graphics card considering how good your other parts are. that motherboard is meant for multiple video cards.

your current computer is still fine. if youre experiencing problems you may want to do a clean reinstall of windows and probably get an SSD, although the raptor is a very nice hard drive. you may want to consider getting a new video card. the 9500gt is old and terrible and might be struggling with 16 tables of poker animation and a hud. for under a $100 you can get a gt 740 or a r7 250 which will be 10x better than a 9500gt.

you can upgrade your current computer for about $250 and wouldnt notice a difference if you spent over $1300 on this computer.

Another beginner question, is a new generation i5 considered better than my 5 year old I7?

Yes: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i...l-Core-i5-4690

well your i7 is pretty old but still decent. the last 3 lines of intel cpus, sandy bridge, ivy bridge and now haswell, there has been little improvement in terms of pure processing power. Where the difference lies in is the integrated graphics and lower power consumption (which isnt too important). sandy bridge cpus came with HD 3000 integrated graphics. Ivy Bridge came with HD 4000 integrated graphics which was about 50% better than the 3000. The newest line of intel cpus come with HD 4400 or 4600 which is about 30% better than the 4000. Although the pure processing power of the CPU stayed about the same, the better integrated graphics allowed users to forgo buying a video card for every day use. You can even do some light gaming on the HD 4600. but for serious gaming, video editing, CAD and the like you obviously should get a good video card.

^ I gotta agree that the performance improvements are not drastic. Also with the CPUBoss comparison I posted above the frequencies differed by almost 1Ghz which contributes a lot. Here is a comparison with an i5 having almost the same clock frequency:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i...-Core-i5-4570R

Anyway, if you were willing to build a PC yourself you could do the following: Get an SSD (and a new battery for the MB), put it in your PC, make a clean install and see if things get better. If so, great; then you could also upgrade RAM and graphics if you like (a GT610 would be fine for that actually). If it doesn't work out you can then use the SSD for a new build.

I'm still debating it, but if I did just put in the new ssd, do I remove my current C drive or just add a third hard drive?

Most SSDs come with a acronis or some kind of cloning software that should make the transition easy.

1.Install SSD into computer
2.Install/run cloning software
3.Change boot settings to boot into SSD.
4. Wipe the old drive.

After you do that, you will notice a huge difference.

You will notice even a bigger difference if you just do a fresh install of Windows 7 on the SSD instead.

I've always told people that it's incredibly easy for me to spend their money. But imo a 5-year run with a good machine is a pretty good result and if you have the budget for a new setup, all the better. More so if you've got wear issues on a drive and your board is doing weird stuff.

Without any special demands I suggest building with as few parts as possible, less stuff to break. CPU, simple board, 1-2 sticks of RAM, SSD, backup drive, power supply, case, disc drive. Done.

The 5820k is fairly excessive to build around and not the best value for your needs. Those extra cores won't help you. Find one with integrated graphics instead and skip the video card. Forget $200+ boards you don't need them either.

Likewise you're probably looking at paying the premium for 16GB worth of new DDR4 memory. Memory in general has gone way up in price unfortunately...there are kits I owned a couple years ago that are several times more money now. My suggestion would be to go with a good 2x4GB kit.

The raw power and speed you want is there in the midrange processors and a decent SSD. Tricky motherboards and high-spec RAM is nice and all but I imagine you don't want to pay for features you won't feel in day-to-day use.

I was all ready to just buy an ssd and try and upgrade until your last post lol. Now I'll look at building a midrange system and post spec parts to see what people think

Ok here's a more of a middle level system I put together.


Intel Core i5-4690 Haswell 3.5GHz (3.9GHz turbo) Quad-Core 6000K
Intel Socket 1150/1155 CPU fan
MSI H81M-E33, Onboard Video, HD Audio, GB LAN, USB3.0, HDMI
8GB (2x4GB) PC10600 DDR3 1333 Dual Channel
HD Onboard 3D graphics Dual head, HDMI (only if listed with board)
256.0 GB SSD Crucial MX100 Series Solid State Drive, SATA3 6.0Gb/s, 550MBs
2TB Toshiba 7200RPM SATA3 6GB/s 64m cache
LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Apevia X-Dreamer-4 Silver and Blue, front USB 2.0 & 3.0, Temp. display, Hot swap HDD
Logisys 400W ATX Power Supply

System price is $743. I didn't pick an operating system yet, It says windows 7 will cost me an additional $108

Here's what I would do. Buy an SSD, try what we said earlier. If it still doesn't meet your needs, buy the rest of the parts for the new computer.

You won't lose anything by doing that.

ok that seems like a good middle ground.

Is the 256.0 GB SSD Crucial MX100 Series Solid State Drive, SATA3 6.0Gb/s, 550MBs a good ssd to go with?

PostgreSQL (by extension poker databases) has gotten very good at using multiple cores and threads.

If you going to blow money on computing power you don't need, the CPU should come right after SSD and RAM, for poker purposes.

Now you will have more money for your poker bankroll. But I see you still have the power supply that Love The Game had issues with.

Yea i'm gong to go with the upgrade the hard drive route first then if I need a new pc later on I can upgrade the specs of that

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct256mx100ssd1

Is that the ssd I want? It's only $116 there. I see other places selling it for $200

$200 is usury.

It's not the best performer wrt 4k reads and deep queue reads (ie. intensive database stuff) but still good value for $120.

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/ (click on +choose criteria above the list for 4k/DQ breakdown)

So the samsung 840 evo is the best 256 to get