We can't explain the universe, just describe it; and we don't know whether our theories are true, we just know they're not wrong. >Harald Lesch
You seem to be blinded by brand loyalty,
Spare your insults if you can't understand some sly humour. I'm not blind for other companies (I own an Antec PSU myself), but I want to spice up the mix a bit when the opportunity arises. By no means are we planning to invade the US - just maybe their market.
rather than focusing on benchmarking and test results.
Now that's just rude. That's the only thing I'm basing recommendations on.
If you can find a worthy review that says otherwise, I'd be interested, but from what I've found, that PSU struggles with voltage regulation (
source, which you can compare to
this).
Even your review - where it failed the Voltage regulations - praises it: "But if you are a user
who only demands the best in class, this may be the power supply you are looking for." It's an established review site, so I'm wondering, why would they recommend a PSU failing tests? My guess is they knew something was off for this test run, because on other sites the unit passed with flying colors:
http://www.pc-max.de/artikel/netzteile/test-be-quiet-dark-power-pro-10-650-watt-netzteil/13622http://www.legitreviews.com/be-quiet-dark-power-pro-10-650w-psu-review_2094/6If you were concerned about noise, put the money toward a fanless PSU
Or a be quiet!.
In all seriousness, have you looked at their dB(m)? They ARE quiet. There's no
need to be quieter.
Just like with the voltages, which are 1-2% off compared to Seasonic's 0.5% average (when I ignore the bad -12V Rail). They are better on paper but in practice there's no difference. There's a reason <= 3% off is considered flawless.
The fact is that a semi-modular PSU made by FSP is almost never going to be worth more money than the X Series.
Semi modular isn't a disadvantage. I even consider it an advantage when the cables I will always need can't be pulled out because it might happen accidentally when working in the case or in time due to aged and loosening connectors.
And money didn't seem the issue. He wanted a perfect product and that's what I recommended.
Alright, based on that, I'd recommend something similar to the following:
Up to you if you want to upgrade the HDD. Nothing else needs to be upgraded, unless you really want to have a lot of memory or a really expensive GPU.
Okay, so this will be my final build for the tower?
I'd go for the Barracudas most earlier builds included:
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($81.90 @ NCIX US)
They are considerably faster than the Blues, which is important when copying game images or DVD / BluRays from / to it and they have double capacity which is also useful for large video and game collections.
Also I didn't find reviews on the PSU. If you want it to be quiet (reasonable when watching videos), then you gonna have to ask Roy if they are that.
A note about the SSD: 1 GB of flash storage won't give you much compared to more HDD storage because SSDs have their biggest advantage when reading small files like for your OS or programs. They don't speed up game loading times much (maybe 10-20%) because many other components are involved as well. So I'd still recommend the
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($357.99 @ Amazon)
for various reasons:
- A whopping 10 year warranty. Shows how confident Samsung is in their product.
- 3D V-NAND technology. While I don't usually jump on new technology this has been in development for years and I haven't heard anything bad yet, + 10 year warranty. They are faster, take less space, and most importantly last much longer (thus 10 year warranty)
- faster by a decent margin
But if you insist on 1 TB, the Samsung 840 EVO is the performance/price winner. (Not the performance winner)
For the Dell monitors, are those my best choice for going dual screen? They sound pretty nice, reading from what the description says. Are touch-screen monitors worth getting? Or are they a waste of money? (If there's any cheap but good ones that is)
God, stay away from touch enabled screens. It's not at all useful for a desktop PC. Mouse is much more ergonomic.
The Dells are what I'd get. That's because I like unicolor websites (or anime background) to be unicolor instead of having a gradient and I need fast reaction times as a gamer. And they seem to offer both. Of course I can't say if they are "the best" but they do what you need.
The 3rd aspect Roy mentioned (high framerate) isn't mainstream because your video card needs to be able to render fast enough or the fast monitor won't be much of an advantage. And even the 300€ more expensive GTX 780 in Roy's last build doesn't even come close in recent games:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-8.htmlSo the advantage is only for older games.
And before you ask: You have no advantage in videos because they are at most 30fps.
However when you're watching videos with friends IPS makes sure everyone gets a good contrast view, independent from where they are sitting.
That being said, stick with the Dells, and the build at the top of my post, just replace the HDD and SSD.