Buying parts to build a PC later today, Please have a look and tell me what you think

Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith

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Jamie Smith
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It would be great if someone could give their opinion on my first PC build, I am going to uni and need my pc to multitask really well and run apps such as Adobe Master Suite (Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Premiere), Sony Vegas 9.0 and Microsoft Office.

I do lots of video, design and photography editing, and rendering time is painfully slow! I decided I cannot throw more money at the 'Sinking ship' that is my old PC (6 years old, and very tired!)


Current Specification:
Make: Fujitsu Seimens
Model: Scaleo P (P5LD2-FM/DH)
Processor: Intel Pentium D CPU 3.40Ghz (2CPUs)
Memory: 1534MB RAM

Graphics/Chip-set: NVIDIA Ge Force 6500
G. Memory: 522 MB

I'm buying

AMD Athlon 7750 X2 Black Edition Hybrid Sli Board Bundle 1GB DDR2 Memory
Nvidia Geforce 9500GT 1GB PCI-E Graphics Card
1 TB SATA Hdrive
580W Power Supply
(Keeping DVD Writer and Card Reader from current PC)

I would be so greatful for some constructive feedback and suggestions.

I am buying from maplin (www.maplin.co.uk)

Thanks,
Jamie
 
i *** suggest def more ram... once you have a few programs running expecially photo and video editing this will soon get used.
 
What is the price?

Oh and get more that 1GB of RAM it won't be enough.
 
wjames said:
i *** suggest def more ram... once you have a few programs running expecially photo and video editing this will soon get used.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I forgot I'm buying a pair 2GB RAM Kit too at 800MHz :)

Is this necessary?
 
PsiFox said:
What is the price?

Oh and get more that 1GB of RAM it won't be enough.
Click to expand...

Sorry dude, I forgot I'm getting a paired 2 GB (4GB) RAM kit too :)
 
I would definately go for at least 4GB ram for photo and video editing.

Have you looked at other component suppliers?

I find that www.ebuyer.com are usually a good place to start and have used them for several PC builds.

www.aria.co.uk and www.dabs.com can also be worth a look to compare prices.

I am currently holding off now until the end of October, when my Windows 7 licences arrive before replacing my 6 year old machine.
 
It came to around £330-£350 (Can't remember exact price, because I am USELESS!)

Thanks for your help in advance guys!
 
Andybert said:
I would definately go for at least 4GB ram for photo and video editing.

Have you looked at other component suppliers?

I find that www.ebuyer.com are usually a good place to start and have used them for several PC builds.

www.aria.co.uk and www.dabs.com can also be worth a look to compare prices.

I am currently holding off now until the end of October, when my Windows 7 licences arrive before replacing my 6 year old machine.
Click to expand...

My issue is, I'm off to uni on Saturday, and I need it before I start (the course I am on is going to be soo intense!) ((Stage-school in London's supposed to break you isn't it))

I just want it all sort before I go :)

Cheers for the links, I'l check them out!
 
Is my prospective system way better than my current one?
Is it going to be worth it?

Should I go for Quad-core?
 
dont forget to try for student discount :D
 
wjames said:
dont forget to try for student discount :D
Click to expand...

Yes! 5%! Although I have a MASSIVE £15 off of any order over £300.

Buy some pick 'n' mix with it maybe?
 
Mohain said:
Yes it's worh it! You should notice a massive difference :)
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, I think I will scrap windows vista...it eats RAM,which i need every last kilobyte of!

Back to XP?

What do you think?
 
Jamie Smith said:
Cheers mate, I think I will scrap windows vista...it eats RAM,which i need every last kilobyte of!

Back to XP?

What do you think?
Click to expand...

XP will get dropped like a stone with Windows 7.0 coming out, in fact I'd install the Windows 7.0 beta and use that :)
 
I would get a quad core a lot of video and graphic programs can take advantage of the individual cores this is a fast growing area.
 
If you get 4GB of RAM you need a 64bit op sys to use it all.

I have run Vista since it came out on several of my systems and find it fine.

Windows 7 is not fully supported yet by many software/hardware developers so check carefully on what you want to run before going down that route.
 
mrgubby said:
XP will get dropped like a stone with Windows 7.0 coming out, in fact I'd install the Windows 7.0 beta and use that :)
Click to expand...

Please can you provide a link to the Beta :)
 
CReid said:
What OS you buiyng for that little lot, you didn't mention..

Carl
Click to expand...


I was thinking of going with either XP or Vista Ultimate
 
PsiFox said:
If you get 4GB of RAM you need a 64bit op sys to use it all.

I have run Vista since it came out on several of my systems and find it fine.

Windows 7 is not fully supported yet by many software/hardware developers so check carefully on what you want to run before going down that route.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the heads up, can I maybe install it as a second OS to XP or Vista?
 
What is your budget?

Maplin are usually expensive compared to some of the sites linked in previous posts (Ebuyer, Dabs etc).
 
i think your 1gb graphics card is a bit excessive, unless you are gonna be playing the resource hungry games. i have 512mb card with 2gb ram and an amd processor, it handles ps perfectly.
 
the motherboard has on board graphics but only VGA output, the 9500GT graphics card isn't that much faster really for the money and won't provide any more power with most 2D work stuff (office, video, photo). If you are keeping costs down and doing video/photo stuff you'd be better off with a motherboard with onboard DVI graphics output for a decent sized LCD monitor and dont bother with an extra graphics card. Also that's an AM2+ motherboard, its on the way out, its compatible (in a cut down way, cant remember what exactly) with AM3 processors for current but not necessarily for future AM3 processors.
The processor is a 7750 dual core, its from an older technology family so clock for clock not as powerful as the more modern processors , its not hugely faster than the old pentium D CPU that you're replacing.
If you're doing anything multi threaded , eg. rendering type applications, then the triple or quad cores will eat it for breakfast.

Maplins prices, not often the best, and the product lines can be dated, Its a £40 processor with a £40 motherboard and £20 of memory. Try www.scan.co.uk (they have a good "today only" page, that usually has good priced system bundles at weekends) and www.overclockers.co.uk (they do stock and overclocked bundles, and have weekly offers that are a good buy),

4GB if you can afford it in 2x2GB, and make sure the motherboard has 4 slots so can add memory later.

Win Vista 64 so that you can use more than 3.5GB memory. OEM versions with an win 7 upgrade included is a good buy at the moment. OEM means no customer support from microsoft (the "how do I . . . " type stuff, but still get all the updates) and its locked to that PC though and not transferable, you may prefer retail. 64 bit and also win 7 compatibility won't be a problem if buying current technology, its older peripherals that fall over (printers, modems, scanners, IO cards, etc). Be sure if you really want the ultimate version, especially with win 7 upgrade, it may not add much of value to you, check the features.

intel i5 has just hit the shelves with i7 performance and under the existing quad core prices so a price war shake up by both intel and AMD is imminent any second now, can you delay a few days?
 
get another 2gig of ram if you are using vista,and a second hard drive to store everything on
 
Wookie said:
the motherboard has on board graphics but only VGA output, the 9500GT graphics card isn't that much faster really for the money and won't provide any more power with most 2D work stuff (office, video, photo). If you are keeping costs down and doing video/photo stuff you'd be better off with a motherboard with onboard DVI graphics output for a decent sized LCD monitor and dont bother with an extra graphics card. Also that's an AM2+ motherboard, its on the way out, its compatible (in a cut down way, cant remember what exactly) with AM3 processors for current but not necessarily for future AM3 processors.
The processor is a 7750 dual core, its from an older technology family so clock for clock not as powerful as the more modern processors , its not hugely faster than the old pentium D CPU that you're replacing.
If you're doing anything multi threaded , eg. rendering type applications, then the triple or quad cores will eat it for breakfast.

Maplins prices, not often the best, and the product lines can be dated, Its a £40 processor with a £40 motherboard and £20 of memory. Try www.scan.co.uk (they have a good "today only" page, that usually has good priced system bundles at weekends) and www.overclockers.co.uk (they do stock and overclocked bundles, and have weekly offers that are a good buy),

4GB if you can afford it in 2x2GB, and make sure the motherboard has 4 slots so can add memory later.

Win Vista 64 so that you can use more than 3.5GB memory. OEM versions with an win 7 upgrade included is a good buy at the moment. OEM means no customer support from microsoft (the "how do I . . . " type stuff, but still get all the updates) and its locked to that PC though and not transferable, you may prefer retail. 64 bit and also win 7 compatibility won't be a problem if buying current technology, its older peripherals that fall over (printers, modems, scanners, IO cards, etc). Be sure if you really want the ultimate version, especially with win 7 upgrade, it may not add much of value to you, check the features.

intel i5 has just hit the shelves with i7 performance and under the existing quad core prices so a price war shake up by both intel and AMD is imminent any second now, can you delay a few days?
Click to expand...

Heya, I got it, and very happy with it too, using a 26" TV with HDMI output from the PC :) Looking sweet!

It came to just over 300 quid in the end, which isn't too bad! I bought a 4GB upgrade pack on RAM :)

The PC I had was reasonable, and I could cope with its performance, i think this PC will be better and make me realise just how slow my other one was.

I normally only run one programme at a time and really this PC is just for my room at uni.

Thankyou for the detailed response though! I just didn't think I would be utalising the extra cores enough :)
 
Thankyou Guys, I am actually on the PC built now!
I should have spent more time researching, but I am really happy with my PC's performance, and rather impressed I'm actually able to use it! The HD videos my video camera takes look AMAZING!

Thankyou for all your responses and advice!
 
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