Hi,

My current PC is now nearly ten years old and is starting to show its age. My plan is to put it into use as a server, (which is what it was built for in the first place) and build a new one next year. I haven't set a budget yet, but it cant be silly money, and I want it as future proof as possible.

I don't need Blu-Ray, but I would like an i7 CPU. Aside from that and as much RAM as possible. I am not up to date with what's "hot" at the moment, so could I have some component suggestions, please?

Thanks.

Have you given yourself a budget? Though it would depend on what you plan to do with it. A games machine might cost more than a more general use machine, and what you can use like screens, with screen sharing.

Erm...

I've already got monitors so won't need them and I'm thinking no more than £600. Less would be good



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Question: What are you doing that requires an i7? That's one hell of lot of firepower.

£600 is easy for that sort of thing if you can reuse some of what you have (and replace that with cheaper bits), most of the cost would be PSU, CPU, Ram & Mobo

Most other things you can cut corners on/add later when needed (like a GPU unless you plan on gaming straight away)

Would you take anything with you to the new build (psu, case etc)?

Without hard drives:
Bequiet 630w semi modular psu
i7 4770k (can save £25 getting the regular 4770 or around £90 getting the i4 4670k)
Asus Z87-K motherboard (again can save money getting a different chipset if needed)
16gb DDR3 (2x8gb)
Fractal R4 case
Smidge over £600 from Scan at £624 (assuming free postage), £534ish if you switch to the i5 instead then you can whack in a 120gb SSD to bring it up to £600

I've got a few video editing jobs coming up, but the main reason is that I tend to run a few virtual machines, which is a pain at the moment, as the old girl can't run more than one at a time.

I'll have a look at those suggestions, Fin, but there's not a lot I can take from the old machine, partly because I want to carry on using it as the server it was intended to be, but also because it's so damned old!

AGP graphics, anyone? I do have a few DVD writers knocking around, so that'll save me £25, and I don't need new monitors. I could probably salvage an old hard drive from somewhere, even if it's only for a while, then I'll sneak a new SSD in when the wife's not watching

I'm on a i5 4570, with an MSI z87-g42 motherboard, and 16gb of ram (the numbers 1600C11 seem to describe its type).
I can fire up 6 or 7 virtual machines at once on it in Hyper-V. If I adjust their virtual RAM down from 2gb each I would be able to run more.
Or I have space to bung another 16gb in there instead.

One of the things that made me think i7 is that I read somewhere they're better for video editing, which is something I've been doing a bit of recently, and will more likely than not be doing more of next year.

I'm also re-discovering gaming, although that's not going to take up too much of my time. I will have a look at the i5 though.

For now, what do you guys think of the first attempt? Here's a link to the Scan basket.

Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome.

EDIT TO ADD: Also, I am planning on keeping this PC for as long as the last one, (at least 10 years) so getting the latest technology, (I can afford) has got to be a good thing, for future-proofing, hasn't it?

Doesn't the K on the end of your CPU there mean it can be overclocked but has virtualisation extensions disabled?

I think I may have added the wrong processor. I'll double check but I think I wanted the plain 4770, which I believe has the virtualisation extensions enabled...

I've also been doing a bit of thinking... do I really need to keep the old PC, given that I've managed without a, (physical) server since the Dual P3 beastie died many years ago? I could probably sell my current PC and use any cash raised from that towards the new one.

I'm thinking of ways to sweeten the deal with Mrs. V, which will undoubtedly witter on about how "You don't need two PCs, what are you going to do with that one, let's take it to the skip, blah blah blah"

The thing is, I have no idea how much I'd get for the old girl, (I'm talking about the PC now, not the wife - she's priceless, and may well read this at some stage!) or the best place to sell a computer, for a reasonable price.

The spec's, in case anyone is unaware:

CPU: Dual Intel Xeon 2.4GHz (Socket 604)
Motherboard: Asus PCH-DL
RAM: 4GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Sound: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Audigy
Hard Drive: 230GB
DVD Writer
Antec Sonata Case

Any ideas how much, anyone? I'm still looking online to try and find something similar for sale, without any luck...

EDIT TO ADD:

Updated list with plain i7 4770 CPU

Means the multiplier is unlocked

My 3570k has vt-x virtualization, vt-d is usually a Xeon feature and needs a compatible mobo to go with it

Forget what I said about selling the old one, as the wife had just told me I need to keep it to use as a server. So, which processor is the one to go for? As Shakespeare may have said... To k or not to k. That is the question lol

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Are you 100% she said that? It wasn't more like?

JV - I might keep the old PC to use as a server
MrsV: Do whatever you like

k if you ever plan to overclock it later down the line, locked multipliers are a PITA to clock and you get a miniscule amount out of them