steveg

I think this is the final spec I'm going to order, and will wait for the new acer monitor to be released. The ssds will be in a raid 0, with 2 existing smaller ones in a raid 1 for the boot drive. I've gone for the itx option, won't ever want to go sli so made sense to make it easily transportable. Thanks for all the comments and help. Steve

I really like the look of those 3, although have a couple of worries.... Is 16gb ram going to be enough long term? I'm inclined to say probably yes it is, at least for the next 3 years? Are those cases going to be available in the uk any time soon? If not is there a good alternative? Steve

Isn't 6 sata enough? I hadn't noticed it had no m.2 slot though, so will change it. Thanks

So far, machine is looking as follows: Intel Core i7 4790K 4GHz Socket 1150 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor 16GB 2400MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Beast Series Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 Socket 1150 HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard Crucial CT1000BX100SSD1 BX100 1TB SATAIII 2.5inch SSD Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card Corsair CXM 750W Semi Modular 80+ Bronze Power Supply XB280HKbprz/ 71cm (28) Wide 1ms G-Sync 100M:1 ACM 300nits 4K2K LED Displayport USB Hub Height adj. Pivot EURO/UK EMEA TCO6.0 Black Acer EcoDisplay Windows 8.1 home OEM total comes to £1690, just got to add a case. I may swap motherboard out for a micro atx one and go for the smaller case mentioned in this thread. I dropped the multiple ssd's for 1 big one, I think it will be a bit slow, but makes more sense overall. I know it will struggle with 4k resolutions, but the monitor should last through the next upgrade as well, and this pc may be cable of 4k gaming with a new graphics card in a year or so. Steve

Sorry all, hadn't realised how many extra replies there had been to this thread, and have been busy building a house at home over the last couple of days! To answer some of the queries, although size is important, performance comes first. I had a look at the ddr4 motherboards / cpu's and looking and the benchmarks they didn't seem great value for money to me. I don't think the machine needs insane cpu power for gaming, although I may be wrong. Ideally the pc has to last 3 years before being upgraded / replaced. The only thing I can see that may need upgrading sooner is the graphics card if she does go the 4k route? I'll have a proper look at this thread this eve. Steve

I'm leaning towards a 1440p monitor now with smoother frame rates rather than 4k. new pc in 3 years time may be the time to go 4k. Will look into the G-sync technology mentioned above. Steve

that looks like a better value monitor to me, her eyesight isn't that great so cant image she'd be able to tell the difference between that and a 4k one anyway! Steve

Ok, raid is out - 5 too slow, and 0 too much change of having to re-build it, which would be down to me, and she lives 70 miles away. I definitely want all ssd's. I'm likely to go with either 1 larger 1, or 2 or 3 smaller ones and use storage spaces, to allow for future expansion if needed. Is a gtx 980 worth the extra over a 970? 970 seemed reasonable value to me. Steve

I'm not overly keen on SLI configurations, they don't always work the best (unless things have changed?). The 4k monitor was more for future proofing, as monitors seem to last through 2 or 3 new pc's. She expects this to last 3 years before she'll buy a new pc. I did also consider some of the monitors that were somewhere between 1080 and 4k, as they may be a better quality monitor? Steve

I like very responsive computers :-) But do see our point. I like the idea of storage spaces though, I've never been too impressed with raid at the cheaper end of the scale and so this may well prove to be more reliable. Would have to have a separate boot drive then though, but think I have some spare 120gb solid states anyway, would be much easier to expand it in the future then if she runs out of space. thanks Steve

My sister has asked me to build her a new gaming pc. I used to do this a lot, but since having children 6 years ago haven't at all. Does anyone fancy making some suggestions? She is a pretty serious gamer, and has given me an initial budget of £1500, but is flexible if there is good reason to go over. Nothing from her current pc will come across, except the second monitor, keyboard and mouse, so will need a new main monitor. My rough spec so far is: i7 4790 (although slightly over the top for gaming, she also wants to broadcast games when playing so think its needed) 16gb ram 3 x 480gb ssd in raid 5 Gtx 970 28" 4k monitor. windows 8 This brings it in a bit over budget, but think its a fairly rounded spec, but would welcome input, and any specific items. Ideally she wants it as small as possible, so can take it on the train if necessary (gaming events etc) but not at the expense of spec / performance. 28" is max size for new monitor, would be happy with anything 24 - 28. I'm not set on building it, if an equal spec machine can be found ready made, but think it may be better value to build. Thanks Steve

Yep, I can. I'd read a lot that you can't as well, and to be honest wasn't expecting to be able to, but it definitely works on my box! I do still have an active sky subscription in the lounge, but can't see that this would affect it, it's a freeview card in the bedroom, not a multi room subscription. Steve

Why not keep the current sky box and just put a freeview card in it? They cost £20 from sky, this is what I have done in my bedroom, lets me record the same as if I paid for it, but can only watch the free channels. Steve

I agree its more a behaviour issue, but if you do want a technical solution, vision do a product to replace the remote with a box that goes on the wall: TC2-CTL3 Control - It mimics the ir from the remote, but what you could then do is run the cable to the ir receiver, and tape over them, so no other signal can get in. A lot of effort and expense for a problem that shouldn't exist! Steve

https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker ? Steve

Want to keep the incoming analogue line as we need it for broadband anyway, and don't trust the connection enough to go ip for incoming calls, at least if I'm away they can still use the directly connected analogue phone if the server has crashed! That interface card looks ideal, all I could find before were gateway devices which were around £200. Is asterisk the best software on to go for? I had a look at 3cx and was tempted by it running on a Windows box. Steve

Can anyone recommend a cheap phone system for home use? We are currently building a new house in the garden which my parents will live in. The main analogue phone line comes into the comms cab in the main house, and at the moment is distributed over cat 5 to an analogue phone. We are running cat 5 underground to the new house, so it will be on the same network and can will also allow 1 analogue phone to be connected directly to the phone line if we want to. What we want to achieve is the ability to call between the 2 houses internally, and transfer external calls to the other building if necessary. I'm thinking of using an old atom based pc I have to run a software pbx on, but can't find any cheap way of getting the analogue incoming phone line into the system? Also would need 2 cheap ip phones. If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated! Steve

When you create an apple id you first need to "purchase" a free app, when it then asks for your id, go through the process to create one. you will then be presented with the payment option of 'none'. If you just create an iTunes account, then this option is not given. There are also ways to script the creation of accounts. Steve

Bit bigger than a netbook, but we are buying Dell Latitude 3340 laptops for pupil use now. They have rubberised edges (but subtly so they still look nice) and the hinge can fold complete flat on the desk, so not easy for the children to damage them. The most recent set we have ordered have touch screens as well, these went into year 1 and year 2. We have a set of non touch screen ones in Year 6. Steve

It should do, just move the mdf / ldf out of the data folder first, as it tries to copy them to that folder as part of the process, and fails if they are already there. Steve

We've got a 576 here in the office and have been pretty happy with it. There was a problem with it a few weeks ago, but they just swapped it out for a brand new one. Was only then I realised we were still on the original cartridges for all the colours! Annoyingly I couldn't print out the page count, but it is the main printer for the business manager and the fax for the whole school. Steve

I did look at a few windows 8 tablets and keyboard docks etc, but none of these seemed quite rugged enough for us - these are going to be going into a year 1 and year 2! We already have a large amount of ipads in the school, and may consider some more tablets in the future. Steve

Thanks Colin, have dropped you an email. Steve

Has anyone purchased any touch screen laptops recently? Currently looking at buying 32 of them and have looked at Dell's. I am very keen to go with them, but obviously need to get at least another couple of quotes in, so would welcome some recommendations. The dell we are looking at is the Latitude 3340, which we already have some of (older non touch ones) and have been very happy with. Steve

Another 48 port 2920 in one of the buildings, on the end of a 10gig fiber link, and then a 1800 series in the other building, over a 1 gig link, that's it for us, about 250 connections to clients in total, the rest is wireless. Steve