Anyone good with computer bits...?

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manc

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If you were to buy a new PC motherboard and processor for editing images using CS3/Lightroom etc what would you get as I am looking at upgrading and have lost track with the technology as its about 5 years since i got my current K7N mobo and Athlon 2100+(1.6Ghz) with 1Gig DDR400. Currently use IDE HD's and a couple of external HD's via USB. its slowing down with many apps open. Maybe a boost in RAM may help but I'm think its getting on and should be relaced.

Prolly need Mobo, RAM, PSU, video card?
any pointers to recommended kit would be welcome.
I have a 19" LCD monitor, CD/DVDRW, mouse, keyboard etc.
Best to build myself or get a ready built base? I'm looking at spending £400 max.
 
What are you planning to do with the PC? You appear to have missed off the hard drive - does that mean that you are intending to use the same Operating System that you already have? Will it reregister? If it is 5 years old is probably also due for replacement.

I remain unconvinced that a quad core will provide too much of an advantage over a good twin core processor. I also remain unconvinced that 64bit OS is much of an advantage over 32bit. Buy reasonable quality components with a decent power supply and cooling fan - if you plan to use CS4 you need a GPU based Graphics card.

I prefer to build my own rather than buy stuff that I don't want or need. I note that a number of PCs in the price range you are looking at come with a Blue Ray player - I have no interest in a PC based player (althought a writer would be different).

Chris
 
Do the new Mobo's support my IDe hard drives? I was reading that the new ones are SATA which I'm not really up to speed on. I think my OS will rereg. I have rebuilt the OS on the current system before. Its Win XP.

I'll have a read up on GPU cards.
 
manc said:
Do the new Mobo's support my IDe hard drives? I was reading that the new ones are SATA which I'm not really up to speed on. I think my OS will rereg. I have rebuilt the OS on the current system before. Its Win XP.

I'll have a read up on GPU cards.
Click to expand...

Alot of motherboards do still support IDE so you should not hit an issue there - XP will also be fine if it allows you to register. You will trigger a reactivate with the replacment of the CPU and Motherboard. I would question why you would want to keep the old IDS drive as SATA is considerably swifter and not that expensive.

Chris
 
take a look at the dell business site, you can buy from there even if you are not a business ;)

Dell Vostro 420 (Which is decent) start at 289 + VAT and thats for a quad core without a monitor plus you get 1 years warranty and you will know it will work
For £309 + VAT you get
Quad Q6600 CPU
Vista Basic
2gb ram
160gb disk
256 gfx card
keyboard
mouse
DVD drive
1 years warranty

And you can get much cheaper!
The other cool thing with Dell is that you can add things to your order, like more ram, better OS, HD, Monitors etc

You could build it for less than £400 but can you build it?
Personally I build my own, but then ive done it loads of times before for people.
Some places sell bearbone cases with the box, psu, mobo and so on which would help you.

Oh and check the price for a similar PC at PC world and it will be hundreds more....
 
I built this PC so know what I'm doing, just haven't kept up to speed on the latest bits of kit.
As for HD's, if SATA is the way forward them I'll move to those, I have 3x 300GB IDE's at the moment installed. I can hook up the old drives via USB to grab the data off them.

That DELL a good deal? I'll read up

how much faster is a dual core running at 1.8GHz that my current Athlon 2100+(1.6Ghz)...
 
a dual core at 1.8 thats pretty slow, something like an AMD Sempron 3200+ socket 939 1.8GHz OEM Processor? you can get one for less than £15 but would you want to?
I'd look at AM2 chips as they are more frequent and mobos offer more for upgrades, something like a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz Socket AM2 for £65
Im more AMD than intel but im sure they offer the same dual cores
The Dell isnt bad, an easier solution but there are much better models on their site
 
another vote for dell business pcs, dependable yet inexpensive kit. Probably serving the majority of businesses.

don't be tempted to reuse a hard disk, the failure rate increases significantly beyond five years.
 
Most new boards have just one IDE channel, so you're stuck with attaching one HD and your dvd writer. But you can get an IDE card to fit in to a PCI slot that will let you connect 4 extra drives. It's what I'm having to do during the transition from IDE to SATA.
 
yeah defo gonna get a sata dvd drive.

Been weighing up but prob want to bump the CPU up
IL-E5200 INTEL E5200 DUAL CORE CPU 1 £54.95
SAM-H653B SAMSUNG 20X DVD+/-R/RW/RAM SATA 1 £11.50
MSI-P45N3F MSI P45 NEO3-FR 1 £68.00
GEL-BD644G GEIL PC2-6400 4GB (2X2GB) 1 £37.00
BFG GeForce 9500 GT 1GB PCIe 2.0 Dual DVI TVO - Retail with PhysX & CUDA £65.55 (inc vat)
2x Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 32Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM

or
The Q6600 CPU , Asus P5Q motherboard
 
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