Need help making building a PC for my boss.

[bachpat]

His needs are simple. He's an old man 70 or so years old.

He wants a PC that can do one thing: Photoshop/Photo editing. He wants it to be fast and reliable.

money isn't really a factor, however I don't wanna spend over 1200-1500$ or so. (Including Monitor) which will probably run me 200-300$ depending on the size he wants.

Ok so.

I've decided to go with the E8500 or E8400 cuz the price is cheap and they are great Dual core processors.
4gb of RAM is without a doubt going in there..

The 2 main things I need help with are

1. Motherboard. Just something simple, no SLI, just needs to support the hardware.

2. Monitor. Any recommendations for something that would be used by a professional for photo editing/viewing?

Thanks!

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Believe it or not, for something simple like that, I'd say order a dell with a nice video card installed in it, and a 3 year warranty. Because should something ever go wrong with that build, you are tech support. If you get dell and a warranty where they show up at his house if he has problems, you've got less hassle to deal with.

 

[aevm]

+1 to getting a prebuilt box. Future Shop or Best Buy have computers like that around $600 pretty often in my area. They're usually HP or Acer or Gateway. Maybe find something with Q6600 or a Phenom in it. Quads are good for Photoshop. Check Amazon.com too.

If that saves enough cash, and you can afford to spend $900 or so on the monitor, get a Samsung 275T. It has better colors, better viewing angles, a huge resolution (1920x1200), and larger pixels than a 24" monitor (which is good at the age of 70 when the eyesight is not so good any more).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001272&Tpk=275T

 

[rockyjohn]

+2 for prebuilt unless you will be around for 3 years to provide - and can provide - tech support.

Suggest 4850 graphics card - more than he needs but well within his budget and might not hurt to have a little extra there if he is in graphics.

More prebuilts really overcharge for extra memory so you can help your boss by buying it with less and adding more - trying to match what it has. Same with the graphics card - check out the alternative of buying without and adding.

 

[foxhound009]

I'll hate myself for the rest of my life for typing that in.. but here it goes
You should buy him an MAC, they're easy to use and excellent and
things such as photoediting and so on.

 

[StevieD]

Dell Precision 390 owner here. The 390 has been replaced by a T model. Base unit about $635 after instant $100 savings. Precisions are workstations, meaning high reliability and high performance units.

The base unit, with 3 year North American support and next day warranty repairs, is a heck of a deal. Dell does over charge for their factory installed upgrades, so I would do my own upgrades.... RAM, graphics and HD's etc.

BTW, buy the upgrades from Dell. 1st, Dell will price match NewEgg on the parts, 2nd, buying the parts from Dell allows the sales dude to cut you additional discounts, such as $100 off a monitor etc.

 

[rockyjohn]

I'll hate myself for the rest of my life for typing that in.. but here it goes
You should buy him an MAC, they're easy to use and excellent and
things such as photoediting and so on.

LOL - strange thing is, I agree if he has used Macs before - but I would not try to change him now if he has not.

But it also makes me think - as an alternative to a prebuilt desktop - would a notebook be better for him? Maybe with a monitor to connect when at his desk, but would also give him freedom to use more places. Maybe with cart to use while lounging in his favorite easy chair.

 

[zenmaster]

Get a Dell with the 3year Next Day On-Site Service. (Any Model)
I believe HP as the Same type of Service available on their "Business PCs"

 

[rockyjohn]

BTW, buy the upgrades from Dell. 1st, Dell will price match NewEgg on the parts, 2nd, buying the parts from Dell allows the sales dude to cut you additional discounts, such as $100 off a monitor etc.

That's good to know. I think buying them from Dell will also keep entire system under warranty. Sometimes if you call for support they will ask you do remove third party devices that might be causing the problem before providing service.

 

[grieve]

GRR, This is the second time ever I have said this. Buy a dell

Get the cheapest quad system (photo editing) you can... maybe add 2 more gigs of ram when it arrives (4 total gigs)

Get him a LONG warranty so you dont have to support.

 

[tomasf]

NEVER EVER get a DELL o HP for photo editing!!!
their HD´s sucks and they don´t have good memory, besides if you customize the system the prize increase about 20%. Any azus mobo will do fine, get 4gig ddr2 800mhz, 2 HD´s, you need one for scratch; get a good samsung o view sonic monitor will be fine, a geforce 9500gt it´s enough.

O hope i could help you.

PD: as graphic designer I advise you to stay away from DELL.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Dude, nothing wrong with a dell. The place I work for just ordered a bunch of optiplex systems, tossed fx370 quadro video cards in because they are being used for an engineering lab. Relatively cheap, nothing wrong with them at all. Very clean tidy layouts.

Honestly, I second the mac though. I work on them all the time, am even certified with Apple and they are a nice machine. If you want something simple and reliable, get a mac. Far less hassle to set up. This is coming from a former mac hater. I still have my pc at home for games and all, but have a macbook, not bad at all. Get him one of the new iMacs with a 24 inch monitor, then pic up a retail copy of vista or xp and install that as well, then he can use either one. And they look good. Just get 3 year applecare and you should be good to go. Out of 150+ of the newer ones I've seen, I think maybe 2-3 have had any major issues. Which is saying something for quality control.