Hardware purchase, review of components needed

[Great Eastern]

I've got to spec a computer for work - its been a little while since I built a PC, the last being in 2007 so would much appreciate comments etc on the items in the pic at this link.

Its Dabs I know, but thats the preferred supplier, however I intended to just use this as a guide that we can get cheaper elsewhere to sway the boss to Scan.

The PC will be used as a general office machine, although there will be a bit of Photoshop will be used - nothing stressful just creating leaflets etc and Dreamweaver to update the website.

I'm aware that no graphics card is specified, but I can add that no fuss, just need advise etc on whether the CPU/Mobo/Memory are the best match.

Thanks!

Edit - also I'm not going to go for that case, just padding out the final price for something in that range

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've got to spec a computer for work - its been a little while since I built a PC, the last being in 2007 so would much appreciate comments etc on the items in the pic at this link.

Its Dabs I know, but thats the preferred supplier, however I intended to just use this as a guide that we can get cheaper elsewhere to sway the boss to Scan.

The PC will be used as a general office machine, although there will be a bit of Photoshop will be used - nothing stressful just creating leaflets etc and Dreamweaver to update the website.

I'm aware that no graphics card is specified, but I can add that no fuss, just need advise etc on whether the CPU/Mobo/Memory are the best match.

Thanks!

The Core i5 661 is way overpriced and pointless at the price. Get a Core i5 750 for the same price and it will probably be better suited for what you are doing and the motherboard is overpriced too. You will need an H55 based motherboard if you intend to use the integrated graphics on the Core i5 661. The PSU is also OTT for the PC too.

An AMD based setup would probably also do the job for a far lower cost. You would be saving over £100.

Edit!!

An X4 630 is half the price of the Core i5 661 but is only slightly behind it in image editing and video encoding performance:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=3704&p=8

Even the Core i3 530 is more expensive:

http://www.dabs.com/products/intel-c...tml?q=i3%20530

Also the Intel H55 motherboards are not cheap:

http://www.dabs.com/category/compone...ds/11143?q=h55

The AMD 785G based motherboards are cheaper too:

http://www.dabs.com/category/compone...s/11143?q=785g

This PSU is better suited for the type of build you are looking at and is made by Seasonic AFAIK:

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...ps-2-5GK2.html

[dirky]

Are you looking to purchase only 1 or would you be going for multiple for some roll out/refresh?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would suggest these parts:

AM Athlon II X4 630 ~ £86

http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-ath...tml?q=x4%20630

Asus M4A785TD-V EVO ~ £69

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-am...N8.html?q=785G

Has 128MB of dedicated DDR3 for the IGP on the motherboard.

4GB DDR3~ £87

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...l?q=4GB%20DDR3

Corsair CX400W PSU ~ £40

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...ml?q=CX%20400W

This should drop the cost of the build to under £400.

[Great Eastern]

Thanks for the help so far - very useful.

Its just for the one, it will lead to a cascade for the other machines as they then take on different roles. Its rare for the finance controller to put his hand in his pocket so need to take this chance to get something fairly decent - the one it is replacing is an AMD 1800 which no doubt shows its age well, although its been patched up many times along the way.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the help so far - very useful.

Its just for the one, it will lead to a cascade for the other machines as they then take on different roles. Its rare for the finance controller to put his hand in his pocket so need to take this chance to get something fairly decent - the one it is replacing is an AMD 1800 which no doubt shows its age well, although its been patched up many times along the way.

Considering that you are saving nearly £140 on your proposed build spec this would mean a new 24" monitor for example:

http://www.dabs.com/products/benq-24...G.html?q=24%22

http://www.dabs.com/products/viewson...1.html?q=24%22

For general productivity a larger screen or even a multi-screen setup makes more sense at least from my experience.

Also you do realise that for your purposes a jump from an XP1800 to a quad core Athlon is going to be huge. A more powerful processor is not going to make much difference TBH unless you are doing some complex rendering,image deconvolution or video encoding tasks.

If you really want to splash out I would get a Core i7 860 and a cheaper motherboard and case.

[Great Eastern]

Thanks - yes a new monitor will be in as well (although where this computer sits doesn't have enough room for a 24"), as well as 2 500Gb HDDs for the NAS because of additional storage requiements.

I have to put the costings to the boses for their meeting on Tue so trying to get the best budget then if other bits are needed for other PCs I can add them without having to crawl back for more money. Having a budget is foriegn really, normally the total is "if something is dead, then we'll talk about a replacment part" thats asuming something else cannot be canabalised!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you get a 20" monitor then it would also cost less than a 24" one:

http://www.dabs.com/category/periphe...11109-51790000

The money saved could go towards maybe a pair of 1TB discs for the NAS for instance.

[Pob255]

Personally i5 is way overkill for a general office pc with a bit of light photoshop and website updateing.

I'd look at one of these
http://www.dabs.com/products/zoostor...mium-6CVS.html
Or
http://www.dabs.com/products/zoostor...mium-6CVV.html

Or a 785g + PhenonII x2 based system

AMD Phenom II X2 545 http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-phe...efs=4294951761
The AMD 785G motherboard http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...F5.html?q=785g or http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-am...N8.html?q=785g (for full ATX)
Basic value ram will be fine as you're not going to be overclocking http://www.dabs.com/products/best-va...914-4294949657
The nice corsair (seasonic made) psu http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...ps-2-5GK2.html

Akasa Zen in white http://www.dabs.com/products/akasa-w...-fan-4QTQ.html or black http://www.dabs.com/products/akasa-z...case-49R2.html

[Time Bandit]

I recently had a machine similar to CAT's spec built for work - usual office apps plus some modelling.

Used the same 785G mobo (nice to work with and appears be rock solid) and the onboard gfx are more than capable for any of the photoshopping/ image manipulation I have done.

I went for a for the Phenom II X2 550 which at 3.1 GHz was a bit quicker - didn't need 4 cores because none of our modelling software is multithreaded and not likely to be in the near future.

The PSU was the same as your original spec to leave a little headroom for extra HDDs and expansion cards in the future. The Samsung F3 wasn't out at the time so I have the 500GB Seagate 7200.12 (singe platter - quick and quiet.)

Very pleased with the set up and bought a 16:10, 22" monitor with the money saved from the 'standard' hp machine that was the other alternative.

If your company uses BT Business Direct (dabs) you may get some discount if you are going to build a cascade of them.

[Pob255]

I think the OP means by "cascade" that the pc's in the office are going to get shunted around, rather than using that one as a reason to buy more.
Although when they see what can be done for fairly low costs these days they might upgrade some more.

It's amazing how well a cheap 2.5ghz dual core cpu + 2gb ram + decent sata2 HardDrive work for a basic office pc.

[jim]

I'm about to modify a donated machine in the next couple of days for a similar purpose.

Made me laugh, someone gave us it because "it was too slow for them now". And too right, it was a 3 GHz P4 with 512MB RAM... I was optimistic though, and luckily I was right - it's LGA775, Core2 compatible. It'll probably be faster than the new machine they've bought, for combined cost of about £50

[Great Eastern]

Thanks to everyone for your ideas and suggestions - will be very useful. I realise I somewhat over specced the computer, suppose I was thinking more what I'd use at home!!

Basic value ram will be fine as you're not going to be overclocking http://www.dabs.com/products/best-va...914-4294949657

I've always been suspicious of generic unbranded stuff - probably because ten years ago I worked building PCs, a time which was really the start of the white-box-specials (build em very cheap and stack em high at a vastly inflated price) and some of the components that were in the low end stuff using generic items, were crap to say the least. I sill have nightmares about PC Chips mATX motherboards and their, what felt like, endless jumpers to get everything working.
Making up the mid range and higher stuff was great, Abit (RIP) and their jumpless configuration was a god send.

[scaryjim]

... "it was too slow for them now". And too right, it was a 3 GHz P4 with 512MB RAM...

Actually, for general office purposes a 3GHz P4 + 512MB should be plenty (although 1GB is always preferable, of course...). I wish most of the machines in our office were that well specified *shudder*...

... I sill have nightmares about PC Chips mATX motherboards and their, what felt like, endless jumpers ...

I had mixed experiences with PC Chips motherboards: some just fell on their arses, but I had one that served me faithfully for almost 6 years; as my main PC, my office PC, an HTPC (!), my stepson's PC, and finally as a print and file server, before I sold it on ebay with a duron + 256MB RAM for about £30. Given that it only cost me about £20 new when I bought it, I don't think that's too bad

As to your original spec, I have to agree with everyone else: the new Intel i3 / i5 are definitely overpriced. I've just specced a new build for a mate - Phenom II X4 940, 4GB Ram, HD5770, 500GB SATA drive and Windows 7 for ~ £570. There are much better alternatives available.

[jim]

Actually, for general office purposes a 3GHz P4 + 512MB should be plenty (although 1GB is always preferable, of course...). I wish most of the machines in our office were that well specified *shudder*...

Ahh, I hate our old Pentium machines. We've got four of them currently, off the top of my head. A couple of P3s, one P4, and a truly awful Pentium M from ages ago... I've suggested that they're eliminated over the course of the next two years, but I'll have left by that point so I reckon they'll probably be kept alive so that some greedy sod can have two machines. They would soon regret it though.

They're pretty nasty little machines, just constantly fail for no particular reason... take them to bits, get rid of dust, remove or disable all unnecessary components, reassemble, magically works again. Ad nauseum.

[Pob255]

I've always been suspicious of generic unbranded stuff - probably because ten years ago I worked building PCs, a time which was really the start of the white-box-specials (build em very cheap and stack em high at a vastly inflated price) and some of the components that were in the low end stuff using generic items, were crap to say the least. I sill have nightmares about PC Chips mATX motherboards and their, what felt like, endless jumpers to get everything working.
Making up the mid range and higher stuff was great, Abit (RIP) and their jumpless configuration was a god send.

Motherboards are a different matter over memory, esp after the whole bad cap's incedent which a lot of cheap boards suffered from.
Personally I've never had an issue with generic memory, as long as I've not tried to overclock it past it's given specs
I'd also look at the basic curcial or corsair value select ram, should be a bit cheaper.
If you go with the AM3 system you could also look for some older high voltage ddr3 being sold off cheap, unlike the intel cpu's the amd ones are not fussy over higher voltage memory.

Actually, for general office purposes a 3GHz P4 + 512MB should be plenty (although 1GB is always preferable, of course...). I wish most of the machines in our office were that well specified *shudder*...

I'd get some more memory into that asap, 2gb does seem best, also check the hard drive, I've noticed some major differences between some ooder systems going from an IDE drive to a sata drive.