Hoping Tacos reads this, as I like his ideas I've read
 
I've not had a desktop for years (I've been working on a laptop), so I'm a little out of touch with what I really need.  However, I want the best I can get for the least money!
 
I'd prefer to do only minimal overclocking, as I want a stable system.  If something breaks, I can't do my job until it's fixed
 
The system will have 2 main uses:
[*:f4769f4079]Software Development, which includes consolidating various Linux dev servers onto VM's running on this box (to save space and make backups easier)
[*:f4769f4079]Photo editing, management etc (I'm a very keen photographer, and do some professional work)
So... good Photoshop performance (which sucks on my laptop) and responsiveness while developing, with 1 or more virtual machines running constantly, is the main aim.
 
I will be using a dual screen setup from the start but would like the option to go to 3 or 4 screens.  I don't understand if this means I need a SLI-enabled mobo?  Otherwise there'd be only one PCI x16 slot, so I don't understand how two graphics cards would work...  Still thinking of the motherboard, I need it to support Firewire and gigabit ethernet.
 
I don't really game, but it'd be good to be able to play Battlefield2 and similar games without problems (which I guess will be no difficulty!)
 
I'm in the UK so components are more expensive, but ideally I'd like to keep the system under £750 ($1300) - the further under the better!
 
<b>Current proposed spec:</b>
Core2Duo E6400
Abit AB9 Pro <i>or</i> Asus P5N-E SLI NF650i (if SLI is necessary)
2GB Corsair DDR2 667MHz (not sure which one)
WD 320GB HD x2 (one for backup)
Leadtek WinFast GeForce 7300 GS 256MB DDR2 PCI-E
Sony AW-G170A10 18xDVD±RW/RAM Dual Layer Writer
Scythe Ninja cooler
Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-t PCI Freeview Receiver
 
<b>Things that do not need to be included:</b>
Keyboard/mouse
Screens (that's a whole other discussion)
Windows licenses
 
I want a quiet system, and am willing to pay a bit extra to reduce the noise.
 
When choosing RAM, what's the best way to trade off quantity vs speed?  If I'm hardly going to overclock, is 533MHz RAM ok and I can save some money (to go towards another 2GB of RAM)?
 
Any help much appreciated - I'm far better at using the system than choosing the right components!  I did price up an AMD machine recently, and then all benchmarks showed the Core2Duo with better performance for the price point.

well, lets take a look at what we got here.  So for photo editing, the more ram the better.  What I suggest is if there's room in your budget, get 4gig's of ram, that will end up the best for you, so what I suggest is 4 gigs of this really cheap stuff
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145015
you will have to give me a well known site for your country for me to find the prices for there, but you can et 4gigs of this ram for the price of some nice 2gig sets.  But the thing is that corsair's cheap xms is horrible at overclocking, so don't expect great results from them.
Then for for the motherboard, if you really must have 3 or 4 monitors down the road, then get the 650i, but there are device that can do the same job by using one port to branch off to 3 monitors.  So with dual dvi, theoritically, you could use 4 monitors off one gfx card.  But if 2 is enough for you, then I suggest this board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128012
It just flat out is the better board of the two.
 
Then for your gfx card, I suggest getting the 7600gt, their dirt cheap now and outperform teh 7300le by a mile, and for gaming, it would be preferable to get the 7600gt anyway
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150182
 
Then hdd, I suggest getting one of these instead of 2 320gig at first
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136011
Because then later on you can add massive drives (there's a terabite drive on the way for only $400 USD, which should emmensly bring down the price of 500 and 750gig drives in case you need the photo space), but you'll want something fast to keep up with your system at first.
 
Then for the cpu, I suggest getting the 4300 instead, because if you raise the fsb to 266 which all the other core 2's run at stock, you just got yourself and e6600 with half the cache, which makes about a 6% difference while the higher cpu speed makes more, it's better to get the 4300 with nice cooling than the 6400 with stock cooling performance wise you'll have a much greater benefit.
 
Then for the cooler, a very cheap one that I have no problem recommending to anyone is the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro, that is a very cheap one  ($15 USD) and runs very quietly, but for even more silence, get yourself the thermalright ultra 120, which outperforms the zalman 9700 and ninja, and can run fanless too.
 
Finally on the drive, buy the nec version, nec is owned by sony and the drives are the exact same, just sony puts their name on some and sells them for a higher price
 
I may have gone a bit over your budget here, but tell me what you think, things can be purchased later if you wish

Thaks Tacos, I was thinking about more RAM as the best option, especially with the virtual machines running.

Here's a few:
http://www.ebuyer.com (very bad search but best prices)
http://www.scan.co.uk
http://www.dabs.com
 

OK - but for non-overclocked use or the overclocking you suggest below with the E4300 they should be OK?

Do you know what these are called, and can they display different images on each monitor (ie stretch the desktop across them)?
 

Just to clarify, that's better than the Abit AB9 Pro?  I guess the pro in the name is what makes me stop and think .  It also lacks Firewire according to http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=437659 (I presume this is the same board, couldn't get the exact same name on any UK site), but that could be added using a card.
 

OK.  I'd gone for the E6400 as it seemed mid-range and was only £30 more than the E4300 (which is £109.94 or ~$210 in the UK), but it'll be better performance to use the E4300 overclocked than the 6400 slightly overclocked?
 

Sounds good, and only costs the difference between the E6400 and the E4300!
 

Thanks, I didn't know that!

Yes, for running 1:1, then this memory should do the job, it's cheap, so try to get 4gigs if you can, memory helps a lot for photoshop etc.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98691
I will have to look into the multipiple monitor thing, I can't remember much about it, but you might as well just buy a second 7600gt if you have the money
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/121114
Then if you don't want that mobo, this one has sli support for about the same price, don't underestimate it due to it's cheapness, it's a nice board, and trust me, I have dealt with "pro", "deluxe", "premium", the name means nothing besides what the company wants people to think
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125082
And get the tuniq and 4300, if you get that to above 3ghz, then you have more than enough power (more than the fastest cpu at stock anyway, and totally demolishes amd's top model right now for $500 less)
 
 
And yes, nec is part of sony, here's proof
http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com/index_en.html
There's the drive I use (their opteriac line is top notch)

OK, I didn't realise it was possible to increase the FSB without touching the memory timings.
 

To clarify, because I don't understand, if I want to put two graphics cards in to power 4 monitors (stretching the desktop across them all), do I need a SLI board, so there are two accelerated PCI-Express slots?
 
That's the only reason I've been harping on about SLI - but if it's not needed to run the two graphics cards I will go for the Gigabyte board because there are more expansion slots available.
 
Thanks,
Peter

All good points in the post except I would suggest getting an E6xxx series processor.  I'm a huge fan of the 4300 and I'm getting one myself, but it lacks Intel's Virtualization technology.  Since you'll be running VMWare, you probably want this feature in your processor.

Good call PinkCaddy, if it makes any difference to the overall performance.
 
Assuming it does, is it back to the E6400 or the slightly cheaper E6300?

yes, you would want sli, otherwise the gpu's won't work together and it will just be four screens of the same data, rather than all the data spread accross four screens
 
 
And if you need virtualization tech, I suggest getting this xeon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819117102
It's the 6300 version, but if you won't overclock much, then this is for you, otherwise I would get this cpu to stress the mobo less (6400 version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819117103
 
And hte 8 mult on the 6400 will allow for a higher eventual overclock, but I would get the xeon, because those will overclock to the same speeds with less voltage, increasing the lifespan of your cpu (for every bump in voltage you'll loose some lifetime, so if you get a xeon that runs below regular voltage, a few bumps will take you to stock core 2 voltage, which is still safe for long lifespans)