ok here is what i have come up with, without any knowlege of what your budget is i arbitrarily chose these components, but it should be able to run almost anything you throw at it

CPU: AMD Phenom 9600 quad core 2.3Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103244

Mobo: Ecs 780g fairly cheap but not a pos i think
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813135075

Memory: 4gigs pqi ddr2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820141366

Video Card: 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814129113

PSU: Corsair 550vx
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=550vx

Hard Drive: 250gigs seagate 7200.10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148262

CD/DVD: Lite-on retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106264

Case: its a case and it isn't expensive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811233033

Monitor: Acer 22in good deal a 22in for under $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009094

Total ~ $950

Have fun building 30 comps

Your going to need to give a budget. If you are going to keep them for a long time and do some of the CPU intensive tasks that you want, then you should go quad. The Q6600 is really cheap right now and can get a really simple and mild OC to 3G with an after market heatsink. I would recommend the aftermarket HS anyway, because the stock push pin mounting system is bad.

I know you don't want to OC 30 school computers, but it is that easy and won't shorten their lives appreciably if at all, assuming you confirm the temps are good. You have to check the temps anyway so it's no extra work. No voltage increases are required, you just lock the PCIe to 100Mhz and the RAM to whatever speed it is then set the FSB to 1333MHz.

It's hard to advise you when we have absolutely no idea of how much you can spend.

In any case I would go Intel quad.

I am guessing they didn't get 30,000 grant for 30 computers. it is probably more like 15,000 grant. So they won't need a top of the line videocard, or 4 gigs of ram. BTW... ECS motherboards are junk. This is what I would do:





Antec Three Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Antec Three Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811129042
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy



$69.95




Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148262
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy



$59.99




PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814133232
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

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Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan

The product will be replaced and shipped directly to you at no charge(more info)

* 1 year: $24.99
* 2 year: $39.99



$110.99




ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A3T

ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A3T - Retail
Item #: N82E16827135176
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan

The product will be replaced and shipped directly to you at no charge(more info)

* 1 year: $9.99
* 2 year: $14.99



$22.99




Antec Neo Power 430 430W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Antec Neo Power 430 430W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817103939
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

-$45.00 Instant


$89.99
$44.99




CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-5400c4

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-5400c4 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145015
Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy



$43.99




ASUS P5N73-AM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS P5N73-AM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131338
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

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Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan

The product will be replaced and shipped directly to you at no charge(more info)

* 1 year: $14.99
* 2 year: $19.99



$59.99




Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7200

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7200 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115052
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy

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This didn't include a copy of windows for each computer but you probably get a good deal through microsoft on a 30 user license of XP for reasonable cheap. So maybe add $50 more per computer just windows.

i dont think a school NEEDS an antec 300 or an 8800gt. why not just get them a 3650 for photoshop and such?

What about the new 4670? Looks pretty promising for what it is.

No warranty, no support. Think about it.

Dude, get a batch of Dell's and pop a new video card in and be done. We just did a lab for engineering in our district, were able to get a dual core intel just can't remember the model of it, I think it was a mid range though, maybe e4500 or better. But we also got over 20 Quadro fx 370 cards at around 100 each from dell, go around, pop in all the cards, and get one machine set up exactly like you want, use norton ghost or something similar, and ghost all those puppies to the same config and done.

+1 to that

Go with HP or Dell. It's worth the markup for the warranty. I am a big fan of homebuilt for tech savvy people at home but at work it's nice to have HP to fall back on it there's a hardware failure.

Wow, you did so much research. I wasnt expecting this much. Thank you soo much and everyone else who posted possible builds. I thought XP isnt available anymore. Funny you should mention, the Dells we have now have XP when XP first came out and its the Proffesional version. WOuld Vista be ok? I was thinking of Vista and see if Mircrosoft can cut a deal..especially with a City School and I was thkinking (see message below of rebuilding 15 laptops instead of 30.

premier is what you are thinking of i think, will you use photoshop?

Do your students a favor and get Vista, it's a no brainer. I would argue against Vista because of my personal irritation with DRM, but you have a responsibility to present the latest technology to your students. Anything less is, at a minimum, irresponsible.

It reminds me of the class I took in COBOL, it was a serious waste of my time and money. I knew it at the time and it pissed me off, but it was required. Don't make the same mistake. There is no choice other than, God help me, Vista.

I never thought I would recommend Vista, and it's all your fault.

You really should know better, it's kind of embarrassing.

Hey, at least it wasn't f_ing COBOL. It was dead dead dead. I know it's not technically dead, somehow it still breaths. I'm sure there is someone that will chime in and tout its value.

I guess they were just getting us "fully" prepared for a cubicle in a government building somewhere.

Well, if you are buying for the School Computer Lab, then I guess you would at least keep them for 5 years (though I expect ten). As you are likely to keep the computers for a long time, you should think a lot before you decide to buy something. I think you would want to buy energy efficient and cost sensetive hardware as you are buying in quite a large scale.

I did some research and found out that the Summer Vacation in USA (where I expect you to be) goes on from June till September. That also coincides with the release of Lynnfield or Intel Core i5 or mainstream Nehalem 45nm Quad cores. It releases in Q3 2009 and will probably release in August 2009. Also, 40nm Graphics cards would be available by then. So you might surprise your students by welcoming them with some excellent comps.

Lynnfield will essentially be about similar to Bloomfield or Core i7 but come with cheaper motherboards which would have lesser memory and PCI express slots. It would also be a bit more power efficient. I expect a Lynnfield of about 3ghz to be sold at about $300. Then a 2.66 should be selling for around $260 and a 2.4 for $230. I say this as a core i7 refreshment is expected soon which should do something like Qx9650, Q9650 and Q9550. You might also be able to buy Core 2 or Phenom II for Peanuts. You would also like to buy something like an RV740 as it would have HD4830 like performance at about 90$ and be very energy efficient. It might make sense to wait for 32nm Westmere mainstream though I wonder if you can wait till then (H2 2010 according to Wikipedia, I think about Aug 2010).

Well, not all computers would need to have high end hardware. You can make some computers out of Havendale (dual core Nehalem) or core 2 or Phenom II if you are short of money for basic tasks. Though you should make them look similar on the face using similar monitors case etc, You might also want to buy somethings like around 5 Graphics Tablets (like this one ; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6823100047 ).

As you haven't given you total budget, I can't prepare a plan based on it. Anyways, here is the estimated cost of buying the above discussed systems :-

Core i5:-
$230, $260, $300 (Processor)
$110 (Mobo)
$80 (Gfx card)
$80 (4GB DDR 3)
$70 (500GB HDD)
100$ (Case + PSU (Antec Sonata III or similar) )
$180 (22" Monitor)
$20 (Input Devices)
$25 (In case something gets costlier or you want to add something)
Total :- Around $900

Core 2, Phenom II :-
-20$ for the mobo, -60$ for the processor, -20$ for the RAM
Total :- Around $800

Havendale:-
-130$ for the CPU, -30$ for the RAM, - 40$ for the Mobo, -80$ for the gfx card
Total :- Around $600

So you might get 10 i5's, 10 core 2's, 10 Havendales for less than $25000, or cheapen here and there and get for something less, say $20000.



For the software, how about going open source? Though Windows is quite mainstream, the user interface between Windows and something like Ubuntu is quite similar and there is not much of a difference between the two. So you might use Ubuntu in some PC's. It would save some $$$ and soon the FOSS of tomorrow will outclass the costly Adobe Microsoft etc of today. Use Blender Gimp etc. For example, Windows 7 is soon coming and it would soon replace Vista. Then the next version of Windows would come and you would have to buy it as Vista would become old by then. Of course it would take some time for FOSS to become more widespread as currently only 1% of people use Linux. So you might just as well buy windows 7 (after it is well reviewed). The main cause of the spread of Windows is piracy, otherwise Linux would have beaten it long ago. Bill Gates has himself said this. In my country (India) about 90% would be using pirated software. Infact, it was even present in my school computers and the computer teacher herself gave us pirated software. How saddening... Linux is much stabler and better.

Well, I hope that my post helps you a bit... As you can see, I haven't made a recommendation based on today's hardware as it makes sense to wait.