Custom built desk top

seert

Would some of our more techie minded people have a look at the following and give their comments please. I have asked a local guy if he would make me up a new system as my laptop recently crashed, this is his suggestion, I only use internet, Microsoft office and adobe cs6

PSU - 500w black atx power supply
Motherboard - Asus P8-H77-I Mini ITX motherboard
CPU - Intel Core i5 3340 Quad core 3.1GHz CPU
RAM - 8GB Kingston HyperX (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz
Hard Drive 1 - 128GB Sandisk Ultra 2.5" SSD SATA-111 (6Gb/s)
Hard Drive 2 - 500GB Western Digital 2.5" SATA-11 (3Gb/s)
Optical Drive - LG 24x SATA-11 DVD-RW Drive
Operating System - MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit or MS Windows 8
USB 3's front & back

Does this seem like a good set up, is there anything that should be added or taken away, I am not an expert by the way
Advice greatly received. Thanks.

Knarf44

We need to know how much you have been quoted and then we can tell you if we think you are getting the best value for money.

The specs are decent but way over the top for your stated intended use.

closed

custom built tend to be more problematic and expensive than factory built

specs are on the ott side for the suggested use.

matttye

You could probably drop the processor to an i3 for your needs and get rid of the SSD to save some money. Might be okay with 4GB RAM as well, but RAM isn't that expensive these days anyway.

closed wrote: »

custom built tend to be more problematic and expensive than factory built

specs are on the ott side for the suggested use.

Agree with more problematic but not the more expensive part.

Look for any factory build PC and then look at the cost of all the individual components and equivalent case.. it's usually quite a bit cheaper.

seert

i have been quoted £649, i have not done any haggling on this price as yet til i got some feedback

banger9365

to dear ,look http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-178-OE&groupid=43&catid=2477

and you can build it cheaper still if you do it your self

Sparhawke

500W PSU £15
Motherboard £66
CPU £160
RAM £65
HD1 £75
HD2 £40
Optical Drive £70
Win XP7 Pro £75

(All prices are averaged out and not indicative of the cheapest options available from differing sources, they are often quoted higher here than it is possible to get them for)

Without a Tower Case being included and using averages where possible although you will likely get cheaper if you shop around it all came to £500 by my reckoning. The CPU seems a little overpowered for the motherboard to my mind, but handing him up to £200 and beyond seems a little much for a custom build, you can simply buy these parts yourself and take them to an independent shop who will be happy to put them together for you for less than £50

If you only use simple things and Adobe 6 then you do not need the SSD, they are mainly for fast gaming where you need speed of loading when every millisecond counts. I would scrap this option and spend £20 more on a 2Terabyte hard drive (still saving yourself £60)

I would say your local guy is having a laugh on your part, I had my system built by the son of a friend who I have known for years, we sat down and I got to see the cost of everything as it was being made, it only cost £650 (with £100 added for his time and know-how) and goes like the proverbial clappers and that is with a terrific graphics board too (which you do not seem to have)

seert

Maybe didnt make this bit clear, the guy in question here has an independent computer shop and i went to him with the romantic idea of giving local business the opportunity. On one of your points i asked about the graphics and he said it would be inside the machine, im not as i said earlier totally techie minded but understand a little bit. I dont play games and dont so far download films or edit films etc but i do like to do a lot of photoshop stuff. What graphics should i be looking for

matttye

seert wrote: »

Maybe didnt make this bit clear, the guy in question here has an independent computer shop and i went to him with the romantic idea of giving local business the opportunity. On one of your points i asked about the graphics and he said it would be inside the machine, im not as i said earlier totally techie minded but understand a little bit. I dont play games and dont so far download films or edit films etc but i do like to do a lot of photoshop stuff. What graphics should i be looking for

Integrated graphics are normally fine for HD video playback and some gaming.. if you use lots of filters and stuff in Photoshop you would probably benefit from a dedicated card.

I have to say I'm not an expert on graphics so I'll leave that up to someone else, but my suspicion is there might be some benefit for you going with a dedicated card - if only in speed. You would probably be better going with a dedicated card than an SSD.

SSDs substantially speed up file read/write/access times, so if you're not downloading, moving or copying large files all the time, the benefit will largely be in how fast the system boots up (assuming the OS is on the SSD). I would think that waiting a little longer at startup isn't a big deal if Photoshop - something you use often - runs more smoothly.

JohnStuart_2

Knarf44 wrote: »

We need to know how much you have been quoted and then we can tell you if we think you are getting the best value for money.

The specs are decent but way over the top for your stated intended use.

i think Specs are fine, he said he only use office, what if he wanted to play some game?
You are good to go mate.

chunter

cs6? Will it be used for video editing?