On 13 April 2016 at 15:25, mick mbm@rlogin.net wrote:
But:
The downside is that the on-board graphics chip is crap. It simply cannot cope with playback (using VLC) of even the lower resolution files I have stored at the moment. I have now resorted to re-using the old Nvidia GeForce GT220 from my old i3 so that I get decent performance.
That's interesting; the onboard HD 510 provided by the i7-6700 should be at least OK and on a par with the GT220 if my reading of the chart here is correct: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gpu-hierarchy,review-33383.html (The 530 is listed but not the 510 so I've had to guess where the 510 should be in that table.)
The i7-6700K in contrast has the HD 530 which from that same chart should be the match of any cheap desktop graphics card, which as led me towards building my own box (and typically inflated the total cost): http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/H4mtXL The component choices are pretty much guesses so advice welcome. It does give the option to substantially increase RAM (max 64GB) which is helpful on a machine running VMs.
Which brings me to the next bad point about the PC - the PSU (at 250 watts) is way too underspecced to handle the addition of a decent GPU (or even too many disks).
Another reason I'm looking at a self-build.
On balance though, given that you get a skylake i7 and 16 Gig of DDR4, I'd say that the Zoostorm was a bargain.
That is a good point however. My component list is about £150 more and doesn't include a build...
Decisions decisions.... Further input really appreciated!