Need Your Help Guys (Hardware Spec)

[richman]

Heyo all,

Iam back with another query, iam setting up a online buissness and need some help scoping out a specification for a machine for the office, i want it to be fast and reliable but not a beast that will run all of the top of the range games, some of the features i want are listed below in the short form.

1) Speedy and fast for loading applications and booting windows.

2) Plenty of hard drive space

3) Upgradable in the future

One of the things i was conssidering was a top line shuttle system as they are compact and have the motherboard already built in, but i wasnt sure so i cam here to ask you guys.

Hope you can help
Rich

[dave87]

My Suggested Spec, no prices, but should all be available from Scan

Shuttle XPC ST20G5 - nice design, slim.
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) (OEM) iirc shuttle have their own coolers
GeIL 1GB PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit - your not ocing it, so value stuff would be fine
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB HDD - large but silent
Plextor PX-740A Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter - high quality, last ages
Your choice of TFT, (if ur going for a shuttle you cant ruin it with a crt ;P) KB & Mouse

Anything I've missed lemmie kno

Dave

[Thorsson]

You might appreciate dual core CPUs for multi-tasking, e.g. a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ and 2Gb RAM would complement this nicely.

You'll also want data backup. RAID might be the easiest way to ensure business continuity, but you should also make regular copies of key data (kept offsite). You might want to buy a Raptor for system/program files.

[richman]

You might appreciate dual core CPUs for multi-tasking, e.g. a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+

This sounds good, what board would suit a chip of this speed!!!

2Gb RAM would complement this nicely.

Would DDR or DDR2 be better what ram is the best for top speed but not overclockability these days.

Richard

[arthurleung]

You cannot use DDR2 with AMD boards, only Intel 775 socket with the newest 9xx series chipset.

[ajones]

This sounds good, what board would suit a chip of this speed!!!

The Shuttle comes equipped with a mobo and psu so you wouldn't need to buy one separately

[richman]

What Ram would give me best speeds, are you sure the shutle is a good idea with heat and expandability.

If i was to have a number of drives in raid the shuttle would be a bad idea, would it not??

I was thinking for a motherboard maybe the A8N-SLI Premium

Rich

[merlin2001]

the X2 is a very good idea. AMD requires DDR ram, not DDR2 - 400Mhz - get a decent priced set to ensure good stability. for a business, data backup should be a key concern, so spend a fair bit here to make sure your business continuity is not at risk.

[richman]

Thanks for all you input guys i have been researching around and come up with the following so far..

Chassis
Akasa Eclipse-62 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End
Price £85.65

Chip
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ S939
Price £244.85

Memory
Curucial 2GB kit (1GBx2)
Price £224.41
See The Item Here

Motherboard
Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi
Price £129.19

Hard Drive (Main)
74Gb Western Digital Raptor Enterprise
Price £125.55

Hard Drive (Storage 1)
250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S
Price £79.32

<- These Drives are going to be in Raid 2->

Hard Drive (Storage 2)
250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S
Price £79.32

I have been looking at PSU's but not really sure which are the 'daddies' of the market becuase i have only ever had to buy for a ATX standard board and not these new Nforce 4 board.

Rich

[sawyen]

480W Tagan 2Force.. nice and simple..

[richman]

bit small that i think you got anything up your sleeve with 500w+ as iam going to be running some heavy hardware.

Rich

[Thorsson]

This sounds good, what board would suit a chip of this speed!!!

Any 939 board with a suitable BIOS (which must be almost all of 'em), so the ASUS A8N-SLi Premium would work well (needs latest BIOS). Allegedly doesn't suffer from many of the issues that beset the original boards (as is so often the case).

Would DDR or DDR2 be better what ram is the best for top speed but not overclockability these days.

As noted already you need DDR. Here's a shortlist of the most suitable, from my own research:

2Gb DDR PC3200 Patriot Low Latency Dual Channel kit (PDC2G3200LLK)
2Gb DDR PC3200 OCZ EL Platinum Dual Channel kit (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K)
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-093-CS)
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS)

All of these are 2 x 1Gb Dual Channel kits. The Patriot is probably cheapest and more than good enough for most tasks. Some people have had problems with Crucial and the Asus boards. It might be OK, but why take a chance? These are faster too, and in some cases cheaper.

PSU: The Seasonics are getting wonderful reviews elsewhere. Shame Hexus didn't include one in its recent roundup. Seasonic have a solid reputation built over time, and you can get them at Scan. Seasonic S12-600 ATX12V version 2.0 is the daddy. It's powerful, quiet and looks the business (i.e. no flashing lights and other fripperies, just solid power).

[richman]

Thanks for that, i had read that the seasonics were ment to be good units but i wanted to hear it from someone else aswell.

As for the bios flash i will make sure i keep that in mind when iam building the computer :-)

Rich