Custom building a PC

C_Ronaldo

Im looking at buildinng a pC, i have around £1200 to spend, it will be used for a student doing graphics design so it would need a pretty good graphics card and also a fairly big hard drive, would a flat screen monitor be good for this or would a crt be better also with the person doing graphics design would a graphics tablet be suitable

kat21

try searching google for your requirements eg, good graphics computer review or look on tomshardware to see if theres a review there.
Things to consider, good processor, good memory, fast hard disk
good graphics card, the usual favorites are nvida or ati
hard disks, maxtor, or western digital
processor? look at 939 motherboards, amd 64
monitor, alot of graphics artists I know prefer to work with crt for some reason
good mouse and tablet
kat21
then software
such as os

sheedatali

Wooo 1200 quid is lotta budget, if you have knowledge of components then the adventure of custom PC sounds like a good idea, otherwise get something from Alienware, Dell XPS or any major brands multimedia or gaming systems. The biggest problem that people face is incompatibility of components. One of my friend went about buy his own system and he bought a high end Graphic Card to play games etc, he told me that he cant play a 3D game in full acceleration mode while the graphic card site claims that it is supported. I found out that mother board he had only supported 4x AGP slot and Graphic Card was 8x capable but could not go beyond 4x due to MB limitation. Good places for find info about components are Toms Hardware etc. I personaly like this site, http://www.mysuperpc.com, tells you step by step detailed info on components and pitfalls.

wolfman

Argh, nice budget.

Well being for a designer I'd start with the screen. You can't go wrong with a Dell 2007WFP. I think Dell had them at about £300 for a 20" screen. One of the best you can get. I'd go for an LCD, all the designer at my company have been switched away from CRT's.

Other things I'd recommend are, for a case the Antec Sonata II. It's about £80, a well built, good looking, and more importantly silent case. It also comes with a decent 450W PSU.

I'd also think about usability, and not get just any old keyboard and mouse. A logitech MX1000 is a great mouse (£35), so to is the Apple USB Keyboard (£22).

Aside from that, either go for a Dual Core Athlon 64, or preferably an Intel Core 2 Duo. Try to get about 2gb worth of RAM.

Gib_Gib

Spending that amount of money gives you a lot of choices.
But the only processor you should be thinking of these days is the intel core2duo or "conroe" as its commonly known. You should be thinking of 2gig ram for that money.

This is what I would buy for the money.

E6300 cpu - £125
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=430631
2gig Corsair DDr2 memory - £181
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=255300
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard - £147
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=434311
Quadro FX 560 gfx card- £208
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=396733
Hiper 530w power supply - £47
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=408083
Maxtor 300gb hard drive – £66
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=314153
Coolermaster case - £47
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=447844
Pioneer DVD-rw - £22
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=356212
Windows xp - £57
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=134165

That comes to £849 when you include postage.
I used this web site since I find one of the best online shops, it is cheap but not the cheapest, but their customer service is second to none.

All these components will work together properly.

With that you will need a keyboard and mouse and monitor, these are more personal choices. With Monitors CRT do give the best colour, but they do take up more desk space and use more power than a tft. I would buy a tft every time, but I am no artist.

This is a specialist graphics card for graphics work, if you want to play games etc then try something like a 7950gt for about the same money. You will be able to web browse etc with either card.

You also might want to think about a memory card reader, floppy drive and speakers.

kat21 wrote:

look at 939 motherboards, amd 64

If you want to buy an AMD system, buy the 940 (AM2) not the 939. The 940 newer and uses faster ddr2 ram, 939 has been discontinued, but you can still buy the remainders in the shops. I would recommend slot 939 if you were trying to build a machine on a severe budget, but for your money its not worth buying old technology.


But then again you might just want to think about buying an 20" iMac for £1000, its the designers choice.
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/

whotook316

Goog advice from Gib.

If you are building your own PC I would suggest a visit to http://www.buildyourown.org.uk

The guys on the forum (http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/forums/) are pretty helpful with suggesting components and talking new builders through any compatibility issues. They can help you out if you have any issues with putting the thing together too. Used the site myself when I built a PC.

C_Ronaldo

ill see what i can do guys, thanks for your help

wolfman

Gib_Gib wrote:

But the only processor you should be thinking of these days is the intel core2duo or "conroe" as its commonly known.

Or "Allendale". I believe Conroe refers to the E6600 and E6700. The E6300 and E6400 are the very overclockable Allendale's.

Another motherboard worth looking at is the Gigabyte DS3 or DS4. Excellent for overclocking a sytem. Also quite cheap and stable if you don't plan on overclocking. You need to make sure you get compatible RAM, althought that can apply to most Core Duo motherboards.


I'd still say socket 939 is worth looking at. Socket 940 doesn't really gain much (if anything) from DDR2, or atleast from what the benchmarks reflect. It's got a new mounting system (for the HSF). A dual core 939 Athlon 64 represents great value for money.

Gib_Gib

Ok the 2mb L2 cache technically allendales, and all the 4mb L2 cache core 2 duos are conores, but I do find that people call them all conroe. Its like all vacuum cleaners are called hoovers, but only certain vacuum cleaners are hoovers.

I stand by my call that 939 is dead technology, in a years time if you want to upgrade you will be left to looking around ebay for second hand chips.

wolfman

Gib_Gib wrote:

Ok the 2mb L2 cache technically allendales, and all the 4mb L2 cache core 2 duos are conores, but I do find that people call them all conroe. Its like all vacuum cleaners are called hoovers, but only certain vacuum cleaners are hoovers.

Was just mentioning incase someone see's an "Allendale" and doesn't know what it is, or how it differs to a "Conroe". I've always defined between the two, especially Allendales as they are great overclockers that such enthusiasts like to go for.

Gib_Gib wrote:

I stand by my call that 939 is dead technology, in a years time if you want to upgrade you will be left to looking around ebay for second hand chips.

True, but given all the changing standards/technology, and having to try and sell the parts, it's often easier just to sell the whole base unit and buy a new one. Or if not the whole unit then the cpu/motherboard/memory combination. You could pickup a dual core 939, and it'd be fine for a year or two. You'd then just sell up and buy into whatever is the best current architecture.

I'm not saying it's the best option, it's something worth considering. I've not looked at the price difference between 939 and 940 for a while now. If it's slim, then yes 940 would be the better choice.