Geek seeks powerful PC ~ £500

wattc

Hi guys

I'm in need of a new desktop PC.

I work in multimedia, so often use a lot of demanding software applications like Photoshop, Flex, Flash etc.

I have a budget of around £500. I already have a good monitor, so don't need to worry about that.

It's years since I bought my last PC, so not sure what a good spec is these days.

I'm guessing a minimum of 6GB RAM - what do you think of this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182594

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz
6GB RAM
2TB HDD
DVD Writer
Intel GMA X4500
Windows 7 Home Premium

Do you think I could do any better than that for £500? Do you see any shortcoming with this one?

Cheers for any relevant advice or opinions.

bob_man_uk

havent got time to take a long look at the specs... but if you want to use the 6gb ram you WILL need windows 64 bit, just something else you will need to factor in to the costs

gonzo127

ok so as i see it the short comings are

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz - old tech now, no upgrade path
6GB RAM - DDR2 ram so will start to get expensive if you want to add more in a year or 2
2TB HDD - do you actually NEED 2TB at the moment, a hard drive upgrade is a very cheap and easy upgrade for yourself to do in future
DVD Writer
Intel GMA X4500 - not a good chipset although should be able to add a seperate card if you need it, - just noticed it only comes with a 250w PSU so you wont be able to add a different GPU in without getting a new PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium - make sure 64 bit

quick look on DinoPC customise build could give you

core I5 760
windows 7 home prem 64bit
Asus P7H55-M mobo
4GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HDD
DVD RW
intel X4500 GPU
500w PSU
£503.92 (including £25 for delivery)

now i have gone for the above configuration based on potential for easy self upgrade if needed in future, as well as decent performance now given by the CPU (quad core, core i5) and the 4GB DDR3 RAM

as far as upgrades in the future this should give you 'reasonable' ability to upgrade such as RAM which is a easy upgrade and not 'too' expensive, same as the hard drive which is easy to hook a second up if needed and the GPU can be slotted in if needed all of which the 500w psu should be able to take so long as you are not dropping in a high end GPU

FYI just a benchmark i have found although as ever benchmarks do need to be taken with a small pinch of salt should give you an idea on the power difference
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Core i5 760 rank 43 score 4941
Core 2 Quad Q8300 rank 93 score 3567

wattc

Many thanks to gonzo127 for the advice!

In the end I went for this one from Dell Outlet, cost ~ £550 (with a £20 vouchers and free delivery):

Studio XPS 8100 Base
Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB)
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 BIT)
8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Graphics Card Single 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 240
Hard Drive : 1TB Serial ATA (7200RPM)

Hopefully it's up to the job

gonzo127

i woudl seriously expect so as thats a pretty powerful system for the price - good find