Office PC Build Help - Budget £200

[tino]

Hi all,

I have been given the task to spec out a series of office machines for the development department. All of them will be running CentOS and would require the option for dual monitor support. 2Gb of Ram is preferred as well as a dual core processor. Other than that it doesn't matter to much. The budget is £350 inc the dual monitors which are about £80 each. So £200 for the barebones.

Thanks for any replies.

tino

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If the budget is including VAT it is quite small.

This is what I would look at getting:

Antec Basiq Power 350W ATX 12V PSU ~ £29

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Sapphire HD 4350 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI HDCP PCI-E Low Profile Graphics Card ~ £27

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239012

Asus P5KPL-AM EPU iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168935

Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram ~ £28

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116357

Intel Celeron E3300 Socket 775 2.5GHz 1MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173863

Seagate ST3250318AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache ~ £25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159691

Casecom 6630 Black/Silver Midi Tower Case ~ £11

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119588

80mm Black Case Fan ~ £1

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23880

The total comes to around £202.

[tino]

If the budget is including VAT it is quite small.

This is what I would look at getting:

Antec Basiq Power 350W ATX 12V PSU ~ £29

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Sapphire HD 4350 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI HDCP PCI-E Low Profile Graphics Card ~ £27

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239012

Asus P5KPL-AM EPU iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168935

Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram ~ £28

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116357

Intel Celeron E3300 Socket 775 2.5GHz 1MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173863

Seagate ST3250318AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache ~ £25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159691

Casecom 6630 Black/Silver Midi Tower Case ~ £11

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119588

80mm Black Case Fan ~ £1

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23880

The total comes to around £202.

Its not inc vat, they will claim it back as a Business Expense kinda thing.

Thanks for the list.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Without VAT you are looking at around £235.

I would get the following build instead:

AMD Athlon II X3 440 ~ £57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/235763

ASROCK A790GMH/128M ~ £58

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166041

This has the HD3300 IGP with 128MB of dedicated DDR3 RAM. The IGP can support one monitor with a DVI connection and another with a VGA connection.

2GB 1333MHZ DDR3 RAM ~ £33

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152979

Antec 380W EarthWatts Green PSU ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185183

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB Hard Drive ~ £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

Casecom 6630 Black/Silver Midi Tower Case ~ £11

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119588

80mm Black Case Fan ~ £1

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23880

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

The total comes to around £241.

4GB of DDR3 RAM can be had for around £39 delivered:

http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/12...ory-module-kit

[ERU]

Crikey 'CAT-THE-FIFTH' your an awesome help on here. Giving rep as we speak!

[tino]

Thanks again. I have done my own build slightly different to yours.

Asus TM-B11 Black Micro ATX Tower Case No PSU £19.03 £22.36

LN26873
500 GB Seagate ST3500418AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 9.5 ms, NCQ £25.35 £29.79

LN27699
2GB Corsair Value Select, DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24 £29.10 £34.19

LN29317
Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2H, AMD 760G, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR2 1066/1200, SATA 3Gb/s RAID, uATX, VGA £38.10 £44.77

LN33527
AMD Athlon II X3 445, Rana, Triple Core, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 1.5MB Total Cache, HT 2000MHz, 95W, Retail £50.44 £59.27

LN34254
500W OCZ StealthXstream II PSU, 80+ Certified ~82% Efficiency, 120mm Fan, 3 Year Warranty, £38.48 £45.21

Which comes to a total of £250.24 inc V.A.T.

I'm not so sure on the PSU. I went for OCZ as its a fairly big brand, however in comparison with the other components its quite expensive....although I would rather go OTT on that than other components.

The other option is a barebones from Dell or HP such as http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...3-4208500.html or http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/busi...bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

However I think its better value for money to spec your own at this price range. Although there is no support...

Thanks for the replies again.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Antec are probably better than OCZ TBH.

Here is a review of the PSU:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3902/a...-380d-green-38

I did not list any parts from Scan due to the fact you need to pay for postage. If Scan is a preferred supplier to your university I am not sure whether you get discounted postage or not.

I don't know if the HD3000 IGP on the 760G motherboards support dual monitors or not. The motherboard I listed also has dedicated RAM for the IGP too.

If you are getting any parts from Scan I would get the following PSU instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400W-...ncy-UK-Version

[b0redom]

Any particular reason you're wanting to run CentOS as the OS? It's fantastic as a server OS, but it's not very nice as a desktop. Something like Fedora (if you're wanting to stay with RedHat) is far nicer to live with.

[aidanjt]

CentOS is Redhat which is Fedora minus the throat cutting bleeding edge experimental bits.

Also, assuming you're talking about CentOS 5.5, that IGP wont have Xorg support for 7xx series chips by anything but ATi's binary drivers, which are mortally horrific, stick with something with an Intel (G45 tops) or nVidia IGP.

[young_one]

Thanks again. I have done my own build slightly different to yours.


The other option is a barebones from Dell or HP such as http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...3-4208500.html or http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/busi...bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

Go for the Dells, no doubt you can get a discount and free delivery if you are buying a few.

The support alone is worth it for a production environment, the specs aren't much different and think of the time (thus cost) and hassle saved by not building the machines yourself.

Just my opinion.

[tino]

CentOS is Redhat which is Fedora minus the throat cutting bleeding edge experimental bits.

Also, assuming you're talking about CentOS 5.5, that IGP wont have Xorg support for 7xx series chips by anything but ATi's binary drivers, which are mortally horrific, stick with something with an Intel (G45 tops) or nVidia IGP.

That was an concern of mine.

We are using CentOS as thats what the company dictates that we use. The systems currently in use are running CentOS 4.4 so CentOS 5.5 would be a welcome upgrade!!

[tino]

How about this for a build in light of what was said above...

Qty Product Description QuickFind Cost (ex VAT) Line Cost
1 x Casecom 6630 Black Midi Tower Case With Front Panel USB2.0/Audio - No PSU 119589 £10.20 £10.20
1 x Antec 380W EarthWatts Green PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified 185183 £30.34 £30.34
1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue 124228 £25.52 £25.52
1 x Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P GeForce 7025 Socket AM2+ VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard 196402 £28.42 £28.42
1 x Crucial 2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6 142399 £28.08 £28.08
1 x AMD AMD Athlon 64 X2 7550 2.5 GHz Socket AM2+ 2MB Cache OEM Processor 171694 £38.41 £38.41
1 x Zotac 8400GS 512MB DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Low Profile Graphics Card 220409 £23.35 £23.35

Shipping £0.00
Subtotal £184.32
VAT £32.29
Order Total £216.61

I can't see any issues using an 8400GS with CentOS. Every site I have looked at says the support is good. I am wary about using older tech such as the AM2 processor, but I can't seem to find many AM3 Nvidia Motherboards out there!

1 x Asus M4N68T-M Geforce 7025 Socket AM3 GB Lan VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard 191598 £34.69 £34.69
1 x Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory CL9 1.5V 159919 £32.06 £32.06
1 x Antec 380W EarthWatts Green PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified 185183 £30.34 £30.34
1 x Casecom KB-7760 Black ATX Midi Tower Case - No PSU, No Case Fans Included 108280 £9.35 £9.35
1 x AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Socket AM3 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor 237554 £40.51 £40.51
1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue 124228 £25.52 £25.52
1 x Plexus SATA 2.0 to right angle SATA 7-pin Cable (Red) 46cm / 18" 151963 £1.65 £1.65
1 x MSI 8400GS 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA Out PCI-E Graphics Card 189234 £25.37 £25.37


Subtotal £199.49
VAT £34.94
Order Total £234.43

The above is slightly more expensive but I think its worth it for having the extra expandability over the system before.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The X2 7550+ you listed has no included cooler as it is OEM and it is also based on the older Phenom architecture. With the newer AMD processors the HT won't be run at full speed either with the motherboard you have chosen.

I would get the following motherboard:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/153087

If you cannot stretch to an Athlon II X3 I would get the Athlon II X2 250:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237554

I suppose you could use only RAM stick although the memory won't run in dual channel and hence there will be a performance loss.

[tino]

The X2 7550+ you listed has no included cooler as it is OEM and it is also based on the older Phenom architecture. With the newer AMD processors the HT won't be run at full speed either with the motherboard you have chosen.

I would get the following motherboard:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/153087

If you cannot stretch to an Athlon II X3 I would get the Athlon II X2 250:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237554

I suppose you could use only RAM stick although the memory won't run in dual channel and hence there will be a performance loss.

I understand there will be a slight performance loss running with only one stick, however it will only be used for the most simple of tasks.

We are all running an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ with 1GB of ram and a Matrox PCI GPU for reference for what going from. Using only one slot gives us the option to double it easily if required....which seeming the majority of the work is done using VIM I doubt is going to be to much of an issue.

The key requirement is it has to be stable under CentOS and have dual monitor support.

[aidanjt]

You can go with a modern AMD chipset board and disable the IGP and run all graphics off a 2xDVI PCIe graphics card. It might actually be better that way, I'm not sure how quirky TwinView is wrt to heads spanning multiple cards.

[b0redom]

CentOS is Redhat which is Fedora minus the throat cutting bleeding edge experimental bits.

Well it's a slightly butchered, community recompiled version of RedHat Enterprise Linux which is a great server OS, but not so nice as a desktop. If that's what your company is dictating you use, however, then that's what you're stuck with.