PC experts. Buying a custom PC.

kdawg

kdawg

Staff member
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Jun 25, 2003
I've had my office PC for almost 5 years and it's time for a new one - it's getting a little slow and the HD is a bit noisy which scares me.

I feel a bit stupid as I've spent half of today browsing websites and still don't really know what I want - or understand half of what I read.

I want something decent so that I can run multiple applications - mostly Photoshop and a few other things like that. No gaming (it's in my office and NT isa big enough distraction). I have 2 new monitors and all that stuff so I want to have someone build me one.

Some of you will know I'm an eye doctor so mostly I use it for office admin and taking pictures of people's eyes - attached to a big camera obviously.The camera software only runs on XP so that's what I'll be installing.

I have this spec from a local company:

[table][tr][td] [/td] [td]Computer Case[/td] [td]Cooler Master Elite 330[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]CPU[/td] [td]Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Motherboard[/td] [td]ASUS P5N73-AM S/V/L M-ATX 1333FSB (NVIDIA 7050)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Memory[/td] [td]4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) (DDR2)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Graphics Card[/td] [td]NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT - 512 MB - 2xDVI/VGA (Palit)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Power Supply[/td] [td]450W PSU[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Hard Drive 1[/td] [td]500 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Optical Drive 1[/td] [td]Samsung (S222A) DVD PLUS/-RW 22x Dual Layer - Black (IDE)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Sound Card[/td] [td]Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Networking[/td] [td]Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]USB Ports[/td] [td]10 X USB 2.0 Ports[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Card Reader[/td] [td]Internal Card Reader 50-in-1[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]CPU Heatsink[/td] [td]Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td] [/td] [td]Backup Solution[/td] [td]Standard Operating System Backup[/td] [/tr][/table]
Any good? Anything I'm missing or obvious mistakes. I think I'm right in saying that that graphics card will run dual monitors - that's what I haveat the moment but I just have 2 older cards running one each.
 
Seems pretty solid for your needs, some will probably say to get more ram though. Yes, that video card will run two monitors.
 
More than 4Gb?

Is it worth spending more for what looks like branded RAM? - they had different options that were still 4Gb but more expensive.
 
You can get a SATA optical drive for like $6 extra - what difference does that make?

They can do a ThermalTake Blue ORB II cooler for about $30 more.

What difference does having a bigger power supply make? They've got about 20 options - the one above is the second bottom one.
 
Originally Posted by kdawg

You can get a SATA optical drive for like $6 extra - what difference does that make?

They can do a ThermalTake Blue ORB II cooler for about $30 more.

What difference does having a bigger power supply make? They've got about 20 options - the one above is the second bottom one.
Click to expand...
sata ia alot faster. plus the wire is smaller so you'll get better airflow in the case
the stock heatsink that comes with the cpu is better than that blue orb crap
the 9600gt needs a psu that's atleast 430w. 450 is just too close for comfort...the psu probably isn't 100% efficient either
 
Thanks, that makes sense.

The only options they have for the heatsink are:

Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise

ThermalTake Blue ORB II - Low Noise

Thermalright Ultima-90i - Silent

Zalman (CNPS9900) Blue LED Tunnel Flower ** ULTIMATE COOLING **


Are any of them decent? - they only have about $30 difference top to bottom.
 
Also seems weird that you're throwing a 220 dollar cpu on a 55 dollar motherboard


Just noticed that. Again there's a ton of options.

I assumed that it's better to have the quad processor - and 2.66 rather than 2.40.

Does it make more sense to have a better motherboard and a cheaper process?

I've already added about $150 to the build with recommendations.
Click to expand...
 
I guess it's just their completely custom menu - you could have a much cheaper processor too so they need a cheap option.

Are either of these any good?

ASUS P5N-D S/L 1333FSB (NVIDIA 750i)
ASUS P5Q 1600FSB (Intel P45)
 
Your going to need a better power supply for what your buying. Look for a power supply with at least 2 12+v rails. And that motherboard is horrible 1333FSB ischilds play. Unless your paying 20 bucks for the board get something with at least 2500 FSB. Asus and Gigabyte have great boards priced around 60-80 bucks.
 
Kdawg if you want tell me your budget and I will send you specs for a pc that will be better than what you were given.
 
Originally Posted by kdawg

More than 4Gb?

Is it worth spending more for what looks like branded RAM? - they had different options that were still 4Gb but more expensive.
Click to expand...
Unless you're running a 64bit operation system, (which I assume you aren't) you don't need anything more than 4gb of ram becauseyou're OS won't be able to utilize it.

Zalman fans are excellent, excellent fans.

Originally Posted by kdawg

I guess it's just their completely custom menu - you could have a much cheaper processor too so they need a cheap option.

Are either of these any good?

ASUS P5N-D S/L 1333FSB (NVIDIA 750i)
ASUS P5Q 1600FSB (Intel P45)
Click to expand...

I'm not a huge fan of the Nvidia chipset so I'm gonna have to go with the Asus p5q
Ideally, though, I'd go with an intel Motherboard completely as I think they're very stable and won't crash on you at all... unlike my asusmotherboard.

Also, I would look into a better graphics card if you were going to run photoshop with two monitors. I'm sure there isn't a substantial pricedifference to upgrade to a 9800 gt at the least, but will increase performance a lot with a 1gb dedicated memory chip.

You're good with the Intel Quad chip though. They can do no wrong.

Cosign on the Sata disc drive
 
Aright, thanks a lot for the help.

New spec - only slightly more expensive than the first one but I've changed a few things as per advice:

[table][tr][td]Computer Case[/td] [td]Cooler Master Elite 330[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]CPU[/td] [td]Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (4 x 2.40 GHZ) G0 1066FSB - 8 MB[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Motherboard[/td] [td]ASUS P5Q 1600FSB (Intel P45)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Memory[/td] [td]4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) (DDR2)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Graphics Card[/td] [td]NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT - 512 MB - 2xDVI/VGA (Palit)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Power Supply[/td] [td]600W PSU[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Hard Drive 1[/td] [td]500 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Optical Drive 1[/td] [td]ASUS (DRW-2014L1T) DVD RW 20x - Black - Lightscribe (SATA)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Sound Card[/td] [td]Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Networking[/td] [td]Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]USB Ports[/td] [td]10 X USB 2.0 Ports[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]CPU Heatsink[/td] [td]Zalman (CNPS9900) Blue LED Tunnel Flower ** ULTIMATE COOLING **[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][/table]
 
Originally Posted by K2theAblaM

Originally Posted by kdawg

More than 4Gb?

Is it worth spending more for what looks like branded RAM? - they had different options that were still 4Gb but more expensive.
Click to expand...
Unless you're running a 64bit operation system, (which I assume you aren't) you don't need anything more than 4gb of ram because you're OS won't be able to utilize it.
Click to expand...
If your running a standard copy of XP you really cant even utilize the 4gb. I think it maxes out somewhere around 3.2gb
 
^ yeah, I knew that I think. You'd need to get the 64bit version and I don't really want to buy that too.

It's easy to get carried away and all of a sudden I've made the build $2k.
 
I fail, Monday hit it on the head. What options do they give for the PSU? Brands I mean. Brand and model are very important as many PSUs cant actually maintaintheir rated wattage.


Originally Posted by Stargalaqtic

Never ever touch a 64bit OS unless you want a serious headache. Finding drivers is a complete nightmare!!!!
Click to expand...

Hell yes.
 
Never ever touch a 64bit OS unless you want a serious headache. Finding drivers is a complete nightmare!!!!
 
they charged 2k for that? sheeesh

with the exception of the cpu i had something similar to that and it cost me around 600 to put together
laugh.gif
 
He probably paying them to put it together and load everything as well. Cause for 2k I could build a insane system plus get a new widescreen monitor.
 
You should get a better motherboard. If I were you I would get something that supports ddr3 memory.

If your operating system isnt 64 bit then go with 2 GBs of memory 32 bit OS's only support up to 3 gbs.

You might want to get a better power supply because the output decreases as time goes by.

Id also get a Radeon HD3870 better value even though its an older card.

Looks good though
 
they charged 2k for that? sheeesh


No, nothing like that - just when I added in all sorts of crazy stuff.


Here's the list of Power Supplies available:
450W PSU
600W PSU
OCZ 500W Stealth XStream - Low Noise
OCZ 600W Stealth XStream - Low Noise
OCZ 700W Game XStream - Low Noise
Cooler Master 850W Real Power M Active
Cooler Master 1250W Real Power Pro EPS12V
ThermalTake W0132 1000W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
ThermalTake W0133 1200W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
ThermalTake W0171 1500W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
Click to expand...
 
That's way more than sufficient for your needs. Especially since you'll only be installing WinXP.
 
Originally Posted by kdawg

they charged 2k for that? sheeesh
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


No, nothing like that - just when I added in all sorts of crazy stuff.


Here's the list of Power Supplies available:
450W PSU
600W PSU
OCZ 500W Stealth XStream - Low Noise
OCZ 600W Stealth XStream - Low Noise
OCZ 700W Game XStream - Low Noise
Cooler Master 850W Real Power M Active
Cooler Master 1250W Real Power Pro EPS12V
ThermalTake W0132 1000W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
ThermalTake W0133 1200W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
ThermalTake W0171 1500W TOUGHPOWER CABLE MANAGEMENT
pimp.gif


for what he does that'll work. i doubt he's gonna be upgrading yearly

oh yeah 4 gig of ram won't work with 32bit xp

you think you could built it yourself?
 
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