PC Help Please!

[Fader209]

Looking for some advice from all you clever computer people as I'm hoping to get a new PC soon and it's been so long since I bought one that I'm really out of the loop regarding what to look for. My current Dell is easily 8 years old and I have kept it alive fairly well all that time but it really is time to move on and spec up.

The only real criteria to speak of is that I need to run a few programs at once (the Adobe suite) and I was thinking one day of dual screening but that isn't urgent. This won't be a gaming rig but it would be nice to be able to run simple games.

So yeah, I literally don't know what to look for with specs or whether to go with a shop ready package or a custom built job so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks chums.

[speedlolita]

Budget? Do you only need the system or would you like a monitor too?

[Fader209]

I would say ?400-500 is the budget. Would be nice to have a bigger monitor too so yeah that included as well.
Really not keen on those "All in one" PCs...seem a bit silly if you want to expand in the future.

Thanks dude

[speedlolita]

This should do you. I opted for an SSD because HDD prices are ridiculous at the moment. 60GB isn't much but hey.

Not the best best best PC ever but pretty great for the spec and a healthy upgrade.

Will also allow you to expand your system quite easily in future.

http://i43.tinypic.com/35n565u.png

[Brad]

Excellently done mr speed. I'd leave out the cooler though unless he definitely intends to overclock. Not really needed is it? The stock one was fine on my i5?

[speedlolita]

I like my CPUs icy cold.

[averybluemonkey]

It's got no monitor but from Dell you can get the following for ?500 all in:

PROCESSOR Intel? Core™ i5-2320 Processor (3.0GHz, 6MB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows? 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
MEMORY 4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 [2x2048] Memory edit
OPTICAL DRIVE DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD AMD Radeon™ HD 6450 1GB DDR3 graphics edit
SOUND SOFTWARE Integrated 5.1 High Definition Audio edit
FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES Integrated 8-in-1 Media Card Reader & No Floppy edit
MONITOR Display Not Included edit
MOUSE Dell MS111 USB Optical Mouse (Indigo) edit
KEYBOARD Dell™ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) edit

[speedlolita]

Yeah but that's got an awful motherboard and no monitor.

[averybluemonkey]

Yeah but the i3 only has 2 cores, these days there's no point in touching dual core setups. Plus the i5 has double the cache which is a pretty big deal. That monitor is only 22 inch and it's easier to upgrade the monitor at a later date than it is to upgrade the CPU and out of the 60GB drive he'd struggle to get a usable Windows installation. What's the problem with the motherboard?

[speedlolita]

I built the PC to Faber209's requirements.

[Fader209]

Nice one guys This has given me a good idea of what to look for now. Still a bit unsure of whether to go with i3 or i5, I'm guessing i5 is a quad core? How would it benefit me too?
I think I would go for the cooler too if I had the option, can't stand knowing something could be overheating.

Thanks again lads!

[Brad]

Quad core will make the overall feel of your PC faster. All the many hundreds of processes that are going on all the time in your computer will be spread across 4 cores. Some applications that are written to take advantage of multithreading such as video encoding will be faster on an i5. More and more games are becoming multi-core aware too.

You say you need to use a bunch of Adobe software at the same time. I think having more cores sill benefit you here too.

Your CPU will not overheat using the stock cooler. That cooler is designed to cool that CPU at normal, non overclocked speeds. If you want to O/C though then yes, you'll need better cooling.

[averybluemonkey]

I've been using dual cores for years at work and got a quad core for home use last year and found the difference in performance pretty staggering. Basicly anything where you use the PC for production purposes such as the stuff FSW mentions, coding, music production, art packages will benefit from extra cores. Even if the app you are using can only take advantage of a 2 core setup you'll benefit from the fact that systems processes and other applications you have open will be allocated on the other cores.

[Fader209]

Great advice guys. Been thinking about this all week and I'm sure I will be needing the quad core setup as performance is a major criteria for me. This will be used for work and sometimes the deadlines are tight so I need a decent machine to depend on and not have it chugging along if too much is going on. Plus it sort of future proofs me to a degree I guess.

One question regarding Dell - They have PCs in a separate section for businesses, would I have to be registered as a small business to get a package from there or would it not matter?

Oh I have a bit more money for the budget now so will be looking at around ?600 with a monitor now, may get that separate if the package deals aren't too hot.

Thanks again.

[ETC]

I can reccomend the i5 sandybridge its in my new system, bloody fast (i was using a phenom x4) and easy to o/c