scubba85

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Jul 24, 2009
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Hey guys, don't know where you are, but I'm ready for it to get warm. <insert more small talk here>

Anyway looking to build 5-10 office computers for some scrub boss that my girlfriend works with. Defintly need them to outperform the p4 dells they are working with, not that that should be a problem.

Heard a lot about the 99 dollar quad core from amd but not sure that its really worth it, at least not while amd offers low cost tri cores.

(on a side note i had some toms hardware forum tabs open and i was gonna copy/paste the ask for build advice format, but none of the 4 tabs from the homebuilt systems forums used it. What is the interwebs coming to?)

Well this will be my first attempt at building a PC.


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: less than 3 months

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Office work, lots of web tabs, word/excell/light video usage or flash gaming, you know how work is ;-)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard mouse OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg

PARTS PREFERENCES: amd almost 100% sure

OVERCLOCKING: nah SLI OR CROSSFIRE: nopers

MONITOR RESOLUTION: umm probably anywhere from 1280x1024 all the way up to 1680x1050, but its not a huge deal

Budget: Hoping for under 400 shipped.... but that may not happen


CPU: Unsure was looking at either
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

or the triple core
AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724

Not confident that 4 cores are gonna be stressed... but i havent heard a lot about sup $100 tri cores

MOBO
MSI 785GTM-E45 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130237

want the 4200 onboard just because if something does need to be done with video card, i want them to be satisfied...ddr2 is not a problem

Ram
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136113

I know that the hardrive access times have a lot to do with computer responsiveness, atleast i think so, should i bump that up to the samsung f3 500gb?

dvd burner
some lite-on/sony no big deal

PSU/Case
Antec NSK6580 Black/ Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel construction ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129033

Couple questions... Should I drop the ddr2 board, grab a 3200 onboard MOBO with dd3 support and pick up 4 gigs?
Should I take the triple core or the quad core?
HDD-Samsung f3 or is the cavier blue going to cut it for office use?
Case/psu combo, ok?

Currently at 380ish before shipping... with the quad core and 2gb ddr2, any suggestions?

Edit: typo/thanks before hand for the help

 

branflakes71

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Dec 31, 2007
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Hard drives: The Caviars will be fine for office work. None of the programs will show real improvement with the F3 drives.

RAM: 2GB is plenty for office work...depending on OS. Which one? For XP or Win7, no problem. For Vista, 2GB is okay, but 3 or 4GB might be better. DDR2 vs DDR3 won't matter for those programs - Just depends on the cpu you go with.

I'm not an AMD cpu expert, so others can comment, but 2 or 3 cores will probably take care of things fine.

Not where I can compare your psu/case.
 

scubba85

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Jul 24, 2009
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Good question, probably gonna go with windows xp, the motherboard i chose had only 2 ram slots, so its 2 or 4.... Man I dont know if I will see a performance gain with 4gigs....

I, myself have always used intel cpus so I dont know if that triple core will suffice, or a faster duel, slower quad....blah....
But thats why these forums are here :D


Thanks for the advice on the harddrive. I just wish there was a cheaper 250gb......