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And I would *recommend* budget-allowing looking very hard at an improved GPU. Like one of these two unit:
https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-Turbo-Aut...=cat5tv-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-Dual-fan-...=cat5tv-20
Long-term the extra memory and improved performance will do you well. Since if you find yourself pushing the GPU boundaries sooner rather than later, you aren't eating a good chunk of the GPU cost in usage time. Things like the RAM you have plenty of expansion room. Or extra PCI slots if you find the sound built-in lacking. But the GPU is a much harder component at this level to shell out for a replacement upgrade later. While the initial ZOTAC Recommendation fits in budget nicely and is advertised as a VR-ready part. Pushing it up now to an improved component will serve you very nicely long-term.
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Thanks for making sense of 2 days worth of chat logs, Garbee! :) Will update the shopping list tonight.
Robbie Ferguson // The Bald Nerd
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Starting to consider the software... obviously Steam is going to be a big part of this build. Should we try SteamOS in Desktop Mode? Anyone had experience with it? Or should we go the Ubuntu route since Steam support is good? What are your thoughts?
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Another question: is there a game controller we should be including with this?
Robbie Ferguson // The Bald Nerd
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Parts ordered! ETA is no later than September 15, according to Amazon.
Couple points I forgot to bring up on air:
- Does Sasha need WiFi? If yes, I'd recommend a simple USB adapter, that way it is easily upgradeable and doesn't take up space in the system.
- Does Sasha need a DVD or BluRay optical drive? It's been SO LONG since I've used optical media that it entirely slipped my mind in parts 1, 2 and 3.
- TheFu also made an excellent suggestion after the show: buy a UPS. So I think if contributions are such that we have "money left over" in the budget, we should add that to the shopping list.
Anything else I'm missing?
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I've reduced the M.2 from a KC1000 to a SSDNOW. While there's a significant difference in speed between the two (SSDNOW is SATA M.2), I realized after an in depth talk with Garbee that I'm putting some of my own needs on a gaming system. Ie., they're doing gaming and normal computer usage, not HD video renders from multiple camera angles simultaneously. The reliability and speed of even the SATA M.2 is going to be more than enough to wow them with power and speed, but is 1/2 the price.
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I'm not a gamer, per se, so I can't speak to those needs, but with that 4K TV sitting there I can't imagine hi-def movies won't be in the mix. Depending on what other home theater peripherals live in her living room, I'd say some method to play blu-ray/4K/HDR media is a must!! There's some streaming content available, but I think optical media is still the most solid choice.
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On the subject of storage, I was wondering if some sort of NAS might be worth considering?? Maybe this is Phase 2, but I was thinking about something inexpensive for storage and backup like a Raspberry Pi running (maybe) OpenMediaVault?? I'm interested to know if anyone has experience with that distro??
