Spec me a pc

michaelheno

Hi Lads

with a budget of 1000 euro can you spec me a self build pc that can be easy upgradable as needs be i do not need a monitor, case, or optical drives as i have these could you do a intel and amd versions any help would be very welcome

Mike

Effluo

Hey Mike,

To build you a pc ideal for your needs we need to know what exactly you plan to do on it...
If there's gaming involved we must know the res of your screen and what games you'll be playing.

michaelheno

Lads i would be doing video editing and using photoshop etc

Solitaire

What case do you have? (if its very old and/or has poor cooling it may be better to get a modern replacement) Do you do any gaming at all? (just checking, affects the build a fair bit!) And what size and resolution is your current monitor? Plus do you want/need BluRay?

michaelheno

case antec p183 i have bluray drive monitor is samsung P2370 23''

michaelheno

odd gaming

leninbenjamin

til someone more knowledgeable comes along:

your €1000 could build an i7 machine, however most users do not warrant a machine of such power and they are entirely wasted for most applications. Might be worth it for video editing though, I've seen it recommended for such in a few places, but it would depends on how compatible the app is. Secondly, as the i7 are only available on Intel's new enterprise platform at the moment (LGA1366), upgrade costs will be more expensive down the line (although frankly, with that power you probably wont need to upgrade the CPU/Mobo for a long time).

the next in line are the newer i5s running on Intel's new mainstream platform, LGA1156. They seem pretty good bang for buck at the mo, judging by the performance charts, are pretty close to the i7 for most apps. However, the one big concern I've read is that the PCIe controller of the i5 750 is integrated into the die with a cap of 16 lanes, meaning if you ever wanted to go Xfire or SLI the bandwidth will be crippled to 8x, so it's suitable only for single card machines. So if you ever see yourself running dual GPUs, might want to look at others for the time being.

the best route in in terms of value at the mo is probably an AM3 build. A decent PhenomII x4 955 build will set you back about 700 with a decent graphics card, which is a wee bit less than the others, although i've seen Solitaire suggest that they aren't as good for multimedia.

As for Graphics card your spoiled for choice. Photoshop uses GPGPU acceleration, but it will work on ATI or Nvidia (there are however additional CUDA plugins you can purchase which only work on Nvidia). I don't know what apps you use for video editing, I've heard some favour Nvidia's but don't know the truth of it. If it doesn't matter an ATI 4870 would do the trick methinks.

edit: Solitaire is here to save the day! you can ignore my ramblings...

Solitaire

I don't see dual x8 lanes being a problem so long as the cards aren't SLI/CF-On-A-Stick dual GPU jobbies :P

Hate to be annoying, but "what games" and "how often"? I don't want to blow €150+ on a high-end card and a larger PSU for it but if you're gaming at 1080p resolutions an unerringly large card (okay, slight exaggeration but "€120+" is the norm at that res) is usually the call of the day :rolleyes:

michaelheno

games i play would be flight sims first person shooter like arma etc once or twice a week

Darr3nG

Did you consider investing in more monitors?

The last few video editing machines I specced all included at least 2 screens. Even for photoshop, that extra desktop space comes in very handy.

leninbenjamin

Solitaire wrote: »

I don't see dual x8 lanes being a problem so long as the cards aren't SLI/CF-On-A-Stick dual GPU jobbies :P

For most users. However down the line, if GPGPU acceleration becomes more widespread, it may be more desirable to run a second GPU just for the GPGPU bits, as caps on single card setups exist to prevent the desktop getting locked. It's not uncommon among GPGPU developers at least, so there's a possibility it may become worthwhile for the end user.

And not to mention, poorly implemented GPGPU can eat up bandwidth like there's no tomorrow. The shared memory management can be a bitch.

Although all that's idle speculation, and I wouldn't recommend the OP make any purchasing decisions on the back of it.

michaelheno

yes i could update the monitors

Solitaire

Oh, flip. Not ARMA2 again?!

If you're serious about Photoshop then I doubt you'd consider €320 for a decent monitor as overkill. So you'll be glad this build leaves that amount free from your budget



Once you get to ARMA2, for the love of God make sure you install all the patches. It's the only way to make it livable. In any case a strong quad and a HD4890 are the way to go

michaelheno

thats guys