Looking to build my first PC (non-gaming)

lucideer

Right now, I'm looking for something fairly basic - primary usage will be checking emails, browsing boards.ie and some programming. Will be running some lightweight Linux (#!/slack/maybe Debian-sans-KDE at a stretch).

However, my primary concern is future-proofing (so I guess I'm primarily looking for a decent motherboard). I'd like to be able to very easily upgrade to something fancy in a year or two for the likes of video editing or even some 3D design (though I don't game - I know, I'm very strange).

I have no real clue about hardware (all software me) - am I right to be looking mainly at motherboards initially. Anything else I should account for? PSU?

Also, recommendations would be welcome.

(
As for other questions in the "read this first" thread:
* budget is fairly arbitrary - €50-€1000
* don't have old parts
* don't need monitor or peripherals
* looking to buy asap - have credit card (wouldn't mind buying from Irish-based retailers)
)

Serephucus

If I take the end of your post literally, you want to buy from Irish-based - but not necessarily Irish - retailers. :P

Dabs.ie are Irish-based, though they're an English company.

Item|Price
Total build cost: €783.60 (inc delivery Free!)
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 Blu|€41.00
Fractal Design Core 3000 Mid-Tower Case|€59.06
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro CPU Cooler|€28.26
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz LGA1155 6MB|€196.58
Asus P8Z68-V LX S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX|€94.23
Crucial 128GB m4 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive|€174.11
PNY GeForce GTX 550 Ti 900MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI|€110.14
Corsair 550W Enthusiast Series TX550 Modular Power Supply|€80.22


Something like this would be overkill for what you're looking for, but would be perfect for some 3D modeling and/or video editing later on. The motherboard will also support the Ivy Bridge line of processors (March 2012). I've also included a CPU cooler, which, on top of making the whole rig quieter, will mean you can overclock from 3.4GHz to at least 4.8GHz later on (or when you get it. :P) if you need more power. (Though with this processor, I'd be very surprised if you did.)

The processor and motherboard support the AVX instruction set, which is by far the fastest solution out right now for video transcoding, and the GTX 550Ti would be great for modelling.

I've thrown in a 128GB SSD, which should make the whole computer very snappy, and quick to boot up, as well as for application loading times. If you need to, you can add in a storage drive next year when prices aren't ridiculous.

Just as an FYI, this can probably be had for cheaper on Hardwareversand.de, but it's up to you where you want to get it from. Dabs won't build that for you, if you're unsure of stuff on that end. There are plenty of people here though that would be happy to do it for you, depending on where you're located, myself included. (Maynooth)

lucideer

Thanks a million for the recommendations Serephucus - didn't expect the full rig listed but I'll definitely look into all of them.

It is probably slight overkill for me right now, as you say - I'll probably leave off the GeForce for now and maybe a few other things. That case does look nice though.

Particularly interested in your motherboard recommendation - hadn't heard of Ivy Bridge (or Sandy for that matter) so the point in the right direction helps a lot. I should definitely be sticking with an LGA 1155 or LGA 2011 then or are there other options to look out for? AMD?

As for shopping Irish - I did mean Irish (have amended my OP) but it's not a priority. Would probably buy from Hardwareversand before Dabs though, but I'll look into komplett/memoryc/elara/peats/etc. with your recommendations in mind initially anyway.

Cheers again. May return with questions later...