Please help me spec my PC!

irisandalex

Thanks.

What processes use the GPU as opposed to the CPU though?

Percy1983

I am going to go in a different direction with this.

Go for a baord based on the 880g chipset, this will have decent onboard graphics (ATI 4250) not much good for gaming but does have hardware acceleration for video etc.

On there I would recommend one of the x2 x3 x4 processors, for what you are saying a higher speed x2 may be better than a lower speed x4 but is is worth looking into. 4GB DDR3 is a no brainer and hard drives are genrally best value around 1TB right now. As for PSU's I would reccommend a decent budget one, for the specs above budget around £30 and you will get something decent quality. Cases can be had for less than £15 for a plan case. It is worh noting a blu-ray reader + DVD-RW is around £40-50 which isn't much more than the £15 you would have to spend on DVD-RW, but of course this is money wasted if your not interested.

I can spec going into more specific parts/prices if that sounds like a decent plan.

Percy1983

irisandalex wrote: »

I was thinking an on board graphics processor would be fine. Does the graphics card make any difference with standard windows applications, i.e. non games?

None in the slightest, a decent onboard grpahics is more than enough here.

gonzo127

out of your stated usage

flash is a big user of the GPU (think video streaming online lovefilm blinkbox etc)
and graphics design programs will tend to use the GPU

you wont need much for everyday work hence why i stated a £50 max one should be more than good enough for your usage

Percy1983

gonzo127 wrote: »

out of your stated usage

flash is a big user of the GPU (think video streaming online lovefilm blinkbox etc)
and graphics design programs will tend to use the GPU

you wont need much for everyday work hence why i stated a £50 max one should be more than good enough for your usage

lookup UVD2.0 it is exactly the same on an onboard 4200/4250 as it is on a topend graphics card, either will fully decode to the same standard.

This is a fact by the way.

custardy

well as long as the OP gets a mobo with onboard graphics,they will soon find out if they need a separate graphics card.
TBH i would either go intelI3/5/7 (mmm I7) if the budget allows
if not grab a nice quad/hex core AMD
probably a Phenom

irisandalex

Ok, so to keep focus on the CPU for now, I'm thinking definitely AMD. Sandybridge sounds overkill and over twice the price for the CPU/motherboard combo.

Percy1983, your logic for going 2x sounds good, I guess most applications I use won't use the multi cores, so two will give max performance most of the time with what I use.

So, only problem now is figuring out which one of the many! Don't understand yet all the different AMD models.

custardy

irisandalex wrote: »

Ok, so to keep focus on the CPU for now, I'm thinking definitely AMD. Sandybridge sounds overkill and over twice the price for the CPU/motherboard combo.

Percy1983, your logic for going 2x sounds good, I guess most applications I use won't use the multi cores, so two will give max performance most of the time with what I use.

So, only problem now is figuring out which one of the many! Don't understand yet all the different AMD models.

this link work for you?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-AMD/660/695/629

so you have the

AMD Athlon II

and then the Phenom
the phenom has l3 cache http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-l3-cache,2416.html

both use the AM3 socket

I would go with the Phenom personally
so if you want quad core (or you can go hex/6 core) then now its a case of what you want to pay for the CPU
then you can start looking at motherboards

scan have a today only deal on

Silverstone KL03B Kublai, Black, Mid Tower, eATX, w/o PSU
650W Coolermaster RS650-ACAAE3-UK GX, 80 PLUS, 85% Eff', SLI/CrossFire, , EPS 12V, 120mm Fan
Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked, Socket 1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4 GHz, 8MB Cache, 95W, OEM
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus, 4 Heat Pipes, with 120mm Quiet Fan LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5V
Asus P8P67 Pro, Intel P67 Express, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2200(OC), SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID

for £569.99

so you can work out you costs in comparison to that spec

spakkker

Intel I3 -530/540 is as good as you need with a decent m/b ~£170. A lot depends on if the software you are going to use is optimised for multi-core and what percentage of time you actually need such use.
Not all clocks are equal when it comes to different cpu types.

irisandalex

While I'm still reading, has anybody got any experience of the energy efficient versions of the AthlonII?