Not all of us have an extra 300$ tho
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You can downgrade the cooling for the CPU as you won't really need it unless overclocking the CPU. Stock fan will do just fine but you can grab a larger fan for around $20. Additionally, he can throw out the 2gb HD. I doubt he'll need it with a 500 gb SSD unless he has other plans for the computer. Alternatively, he could even drop the K version since I doubt he will be overclocking. After all, nobody really needs that much CPU power - it's an utter waste.
On top of that, he can go 8GB RAM. I highly doubt that he will need more. I have 32gigs and I rarely run out unless I leave the same Chrome browser for a week or more.
Money made for higher end GPU.
Also, don't forget that the GPU configuration you gave him will only keep him up to date for a year tops. Then he would have to swap out both video cards for a single high end GPU, ultimately spending more money. It just doesn't make sense when he could've bought a high end GPU to begin with by cutting back on hardware that he could later upgrade without much devaluation.
Some people want to have tons of useless ram in their pc, and useless processor power too. He could get the exact same gaming perfomance with cheap processor and sapphire card and 8gb ram. It has only effect on loading times so who cares. And he could save tons of money and get a laptop or tablet easily to use when on the road
Computer nerds!
Coolers are good to have but they're not exactly needed unless you're overclocking. Since you're not, you're spending more on your cooling system than you should be.
You mention that for the games you play, SLI will be just fine. Now, to me, this sounds like you'll be playing older games. In that case, my next question is: did you check if these games will actually accept SLI configurations? If not, it really is a waste.
It's my personal opinion but I really felt you could've opted for the more powerful and software friendly higher end GPU. I listed the many disadvantages of SLI - it can really be more trouble than it's worth.
Hes gonna mine bitcoin :chuncky::chuncky::chuncky:
good luck getting your money back
I too own a computer :D
Local network hosting, virtual machines (especially this one), etc. So yes, I need that much storage and I need it to be fast.
For your other question, people overclock to gain a boost in performance. However, if you're already getting a powerful processor to begin with - the need to overclock just doesn't make sense. All you're doing is upping your watts for gains that you won't really need or even see for that matter. Overclocking is useful for older CPUs - it isn't needed, especially if you're going for an i7.
If you're not going to overclock or do not know how to, you basically just paid $100 or so more for a feature you do not even use. Also, the non K i7's are still able to be overclocked slightly so I really do not see when you would need it.
And what do you require them for? You can get all the programs in the world for linux and windows.
Virtual computers? Do you test new and different OS:s on your freetime for fun or what?
Local network hosting? Why not just buy a router and attach hard drive to it?