Hello folks
I have been speccing a new computer and I was wondering if you can give me advice on the selection.
I have a few requiremens
1) Not expensive (max £750)
2) Quiet (the quietest the better)
3) Parallel port
4) 3 PCI slots
5) Medium size case
6) Needs to drive 2 large 24" monitors
7) No gaming
With these requirements in mind I came up with the following components, sourced from either ebuyer or scan
- Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case
- Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H Socket 775 P965 DDR2 PCI-E ATX
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
- 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 (Crucial or somebody
- MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
- Samsung SpinPoint 500GB SATA-II 16MB
- LiteOn 20X SATA DVD±RW/RAM With Beige, Black & Silver Bezel + Nero - Retail
+
- APC Smart UPS 1500 VA Line interactive (DLA1500I)
- Icy Box Mobile Rack IB138SK-B Black + Blue Light SATA I/II + Fan fitted with a 250GB SATA drive (how noisy is its fan?)
It will run XP at the moment, to be upgraded to Vista if and when.
I was looking at one of the Asus P5B or P5K MoBos but they don't have a parallel port, which I need for a specific printer I want to use.
Also, I don't specifically need a DirectX 10 graphic card, but it needs to have 2 DVI ports, and be passively cooled, and needs to cost less than £80.00 approx. (and be powerful enough that I could play a game on it, should I want to).
The PCI ports will be fitted with another graphic card running another monitor and a second LAN card.
I understand that this is perhaps an odd machine.
I am a translator, and generally have 6 or 7 applications running, a couple of which are processor intensive database apps. and the monitors display texts, references, stuff, internet searches, a couple of VMware machines running, etc. and at the end of the day, I don't plan to replace it for another 3 years.
Any advice, comments on noise levels, cooling, reliability, etc. are welcome
TIA
Lorenz