Computer Recommendations?

[Rennn]

Again, thank you for providing this thorough advice! I am not actually going to buy parts and assemble them into a computer, a task for which I am entirely incompetent. (I am a historian.) Looking at your suggestions and realizing that I should probably not be too penny-pinching in buying something I will use for a good many years, and having just gotten an unexpected writing assignment that will bring in a little extra, I am considering going back to Falcon Northwest--I had two computers from them in earlier times, although my present machine is a very modest Dell--and forking out about $2,200 for a Talon. Here are the components I listed. Do you see any weak points? (I do want to play Oblivion & Skyrim, including several--but not dozens of--mods, at the best settings; but I do not expect to buy many more games.) I copy down the terms below with only a vague understanding of what some of them mean. (My screen name wasn't chosen at random :-)

 

Power supply: 750 watts Motherboard: Asus Z87 Plus

Processor: Intel Core i5 4670K, 3.4GHz Cooler: Asetek Liquid Cooling

Memory: 1866MHz 2x8GB Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB

Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 1TB Optical Drive: Asus 16x

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I plan to use "on-board audio" because I seldom listen to music on my computer and I usually play games with the music turned off--I find it distracting.

 

There will also, I believe, be a keyboard and a mouse. :laugh:

 

I'm not sure how you being a historian has anything to do with your capacity to build a PC...

Integrated audio is more than sufficient to play music; a soundcard is only recommended if you plan to use enthusiast-quality speakers in a surround sound setup.

 

In addition, 2,000 is way too much for that PC. I just hypothetically built the same one for $1050.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good PC. However, $2000 is enough to get something extraordinary, like that same rig with a GTX 780 instead of a GTX 760.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Rennn

[Inafog]

Again, thanks. I investigated the Alienware X51 and it does indeed seem that I can get a system comparable--in some ways identical--to the Talon for about $1,600, or $500+ less. It would have a GTX 670 video card, which I think is quite a good one, an Intel i7-4770 processor, and 16GB memory. The power supply is only 330 watts, however--is that enough? (I know the X51 is a small machine.)

 

PS - Being a historian impedes my ability to build a machine to the extent that I am not mechanically or technically inclined, have no wish to learn anything more than the essentials of operating a computer--in fact, turning one on is the extent of my real interest in these overgrown typewriters--and always fear making some fatal error (i.e. fatal to the computer, not to me, although I'm never quite sure the machine won't explode... :laugh: ) I was a board gamer for about four decades before I got my first computer and although I of necessity learned something about them--I recall spending most of an evening tweaking the DOS memory to get enough space to play Daggerfall, or maybe it was Arena--the less time I spend on such things, the better for me. That's why I greatly value the advice of folks like you, who are knowledgeable about computers and can assist my feeble, reluctant steps.