Your views on a PC

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itsjosh

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Josh
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After buying a new camera, and loading up photoshop every few minutes i have decided to buy a new pc due to my current one being too slow!
AMD 64 3000+
512mb ram...
hmmmm :lol:

so I'm looking at buying:

System Configuration:
Motherboard
FoxConn A6VMX AM2+, VGA, Lan, 5.1Snd, mATX £34.95
Processor
AMD Athlon64 5200 Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor - Retail £46.25
Memory Slot 1
2Gb DDR2 667Mhz PC5300 Memory Module £15.95
Memory Slot 2
2Gb DDR2 667Mhz PC5300 Memory Module £15.95
Network
Wireless 54Mbps PCI LAN Card £5.95
Hard Drive 1
500Gb Samsung Spinpoint T 7200rpm S-ATAII 300 Hard Drive £48.36
Optical Device 1
NEC AD-5200A-0B 20X+/-DVD-R Dual Layer Dvd Writer- Black £15.95
Floppy Drive Bay 1
33-in-1 USB2.0 Card Reader 3.5 Internal/External -Black £5.95
Case
Ecute Black mATX Case Side Windows 550W PSU £34.95
Desk Managers
Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse - Black/Silver - Radio F £7.95
Warranty
Bronze Eclipse System Warranty (1Year RTB + Premier30) £4.95


Total cost :
£278.66 inc VAT

what do you think? Is it worth it?
I need a small pc as I do not have the room for a tower anymore! I have the smallest room in the house and find it hard enough moving in there without the tower!!
 
Thats pretty much the same as what im running. Same processor and ram anyhow!

To be honest mine handles photoshop CS3 fine, i click the icon and its up and running within a couple of seconds if that.
 
Seems a pretty standard cheap PC. There are numerous places you could improve it but then you know that yourself but all of them will cost you more. I think I would pay another £15 and get the 1Tb F1 as it is marginally quicker and now you're into photography you will fill it up in no time at all :)

Is there anywhere to go on cost or not?
 
is that just written out badly or have you speced up 4gb ram?

have you thought about building a pc urself? its very easy and it would save you a lot of money.
 
its copy & pasted from a computer building site.
i have built all of my computers in the past, however i'm not sure what way to go with micro ATX motherboards & cases etc! i did look into it though as i'm not new to it but i need a lowcost computer system and thought id try to find a good high spec machine for under £300.
i was going to get a triple / quad core however the cost came to too much!
 
see i did think of graphics but then i dont use it to play games etc, just to do photoshopping and watch movies.

unless anyone can help me build a good spec mini pc?
 
From my understanding CS4 takes advantage of your gfx card to speed up the photo processing, CUDA or something... probably wrong, my memory isnt up to much. :)
 
eeek, looks like im getting a gfx card then! don't want to replace again for couple of years lol.
 
Why not build it without the gfx card first, you can always add it later.

Do you already have an operating system that you can use?
 
yeah, i have XP (don't really want vista too resource hoggy)
i need to plan ahead, as im not sure about the cases slots at the back (need to find out if it has one for a gfx card.)
 
Just upgrade your memory to the maximum your motherboard can take, then get the best graphics card your motherboard can take, then the fastest and highest capacity hard drive your motherboard and your wallet can take.
 
I wouldn't get an Athlon64 if i were you.

if you must just get a latest generation celeron or the cheapest core2duo you can find and overclock it.
 
you can easily beat that spec for less, i just specced this up for you:

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD10EACS) £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Asus Vintage V3-P5945GC Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Celeron E1200 1.6Ghz Dual-Core Processor (LGA775) - Retail £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £25.99
(£30.54) £25.99
(£30.54)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £20.99
(£24.66) £20.99
(£24.66)
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 (967561-1120) £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Sub Total : £220.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £40.41
Total : £271.30


Now that CPU is better than any athlon64 at stock Hz, but if you overclock it on stock cooling you should get it to at least 2.4GHz with ease.
 
see id go the opposite to you, i won't touch a celeron. bad experiences.
wheres as athlon 64's ive had good experiences with.
 
kingsizeriz said:
see id go the opposite to you, i won't touch a celeron. bad experiences.
wheres as athlon 64's ive had good experiences with.
Click to expand...

you probly had bad experiences with the old celerons. and don't get me wrong they were terrible. the new generation ones are just cheap core2 duos though with less cache.

if you really against celerons though you could get a bottom line core 2 duo for an extra £20
 
Darryn said:
From my understanding CS4 takes advantage of your gfx card to speed up the photo processing, CUDA or something... probably wrong, my memory isnt up to much. :)
Click to expand...

He is buying a budget PC...I don't think CS4 will be on his shopping list ;)
 
Yantorsen said:
and even if it was you'd be better off getting a better CPU
Click to expand...

Well, I wasn't referring to that....

Yes he would be better off getting a better CPU etc, but budgets are there to be stuck to! I haven't kept up with technological changes and prices since I got my current PC....2 years ago...so I don't know what a better suggestion would be!
 
ok it's £20 over, but this PC is much much better than the pc in the op and ive included the keyboard and mouse. 2gb ram, dual core (unless the op is actually a athlonx2, but it seems to suggest its not), not single core, room for overclocking, better case, a top quality power supply.

Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £63.99
(£75.19) £63.99
(£75.19)
Thermaltake VF1000BNS Lanbox - Black £52.99
(£62.26) £52.99
(£62.26)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Intel Celeron E1200 1.6Ghz Dual-Core Processor (LGA775) - Retail £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Enermax EG285-SX-VB(G) 285W Micro ATX Power Supply £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £20.99
(£24.66) £20.99
(£24.66)
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 (967561-1120) £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
Sub Total : £261.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £47.58
Total : £319.45
 
where was that from??
bar the celeron its good, goin to look for a better cpu but sounds cool.
 
kingsizeriz said:
where was that from??
Click to expand...

www.overlockers.co.uk

it would be a build it yourself job though

eclipse, where your original spec seemed to be from, is in Coventry so if you live near eclipse you could probably spec something similar and build it yourself but collect the parts to save money on shipping.

that price in the spec above includes shipping.



also other sites to look for computer parts and whole pcs which you might find useful are:

www.ebuyer.co.uk
http://www.meshcomputers.com/
www.scan.co.uk
 
yeah it was eclipse, im not bothered about building myself got experience in that field
used to swear by komplett but they shut now.. and aria.co.uk is good but will have a look around and keep you all posted!
 
I wouldn't worry to much about 512mb graphics cards unless you are gaming.

I have a 256mb Geforce 8600 GTS and it flies through things on CS3.
As for the processor, i have a 64 x2 5200+ the same and ive never struggled in photoshop or anything. Plus its not hard to overclock it a little bit if you need to. I have pushed mine from the 2.6ghz stock speed to 3ghz with ease.
 
Asus T3-M3N8200 Piano Black AM2 Barebone - With 300W PSU
£110.37
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz Socket AM2 1MB L2 (2x512KB) Cache Retail Processor
£66.94
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC
£21.99
LG GH20NS15 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM
£13.82
Samsung HD753LJ 750GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache*
£59.37



Shipping Charge: £10.35
Total: £282.83
 
you went for the bare bone? thought you wanted a lying down case?

apart from that looks good, i'd save money and get a 2.8ghz athlon if i were you, your not really gonna notice the difference, but you wallet will.
 
i do preferably, but i need to do research into that case to see if it will fit in a unit i have.
but i haven't got a tape measure handy at the moment to check!
 
kingsizeriz said:
i do preferably, but i need to do research into that case to see if it will fit in a unit i have.
but i haven't got a tape measure handy at the moment to check!
Click to expand...

fair enough :)

theres nothing really stopping you from lying it on its side, just means the optical drive will open sideways
 
How does this look?

Case: Aspire X-QpackII Black MATX Cube Case With Side Window - With 500W PSU - £44.98

Motherboard: Foxconn M61PMV GeForce 6100 Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 5.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard £31.21

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.9GHz Energy Efficient Socket AM2 1MB L2 Cache (2x512KB) Retail Boxed Processor £59.44

Graphics: ECS 8600GT 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £40.99

Optical: Optiarc AD-7201A 20X DVD±RW/RAM LightScribe IDE Black Bare Drive - Boxed with Nero 8 *Worth £4.50* £15.95

Memory: Extra Value 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered £34.83

Hard Drive: Samsung HD753LJ 750GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM £59.37

All comes to £286.77 and then a tenner postage brings it under your budget!
This is all from ebuyer! To be fair you could probably save a bit on a slower processor, but for bang for buck and looks this is a beast!

Trust me with a 2.9ghz x2 and 4gb ram nothing is gonna be a problem!
 
sounds good! i think im definately going to get one from ebuyer.. has some bargins on there!
i have to wait until the 18th (unless i can borrow £150 from my mum n dad or my brother) but hopefully ill get one soon! :D
 
Its a good pc for the money in all fairness. I have pretty much the same setup and the only things i struggle with are the very latest demanding games.

Having said that fifa 09 runs perfectly and thats onlly just come out!
 
You'll not have any problems in that case.

I run CS3 for editing while having utorrent chugging along at 10mbps, playing music and watching tv all at the same time. Admitedly my tv card takes the stress off the computer ***.

I run vista ultimate as well and its never missed a beat, oh and i only have 2gb ram!
 
I'll be running:

XP
CS3 + Lightroom
uTorrent / Newzbin
and
iTunes (for my iPhone)
and Media Player classic
so that should be a good system for my requirements
 
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