Build For Engineering Student Which CPU?

[martyboy2222]

hey people i am newb to building to pcs so i am looking for a bit of advice on building a new system. I am an engineering student with a bidget of anywhere up to $2000 AUD. PC is needed for surfing the net (about 5 windows at a time with about 10 tabs each), lots of word documents, excel, graphing programs mathematics programs (sorry for being so vague but its been 2 years since i defferred and i dnt remember much lol) as well as watching movies and doing the odd bit of gaming here and there. I am a huge multitasker and keep many programs open simultaneously. Mainly i want a computer that can crunch huge amounts of information very quickly even though the programs mentioned arent very intensive they get more so as the degree goes on.

SO any reccomendations for a nice build that is gonna b super fast with a medium range gfx card. Do i need quad core processing power? i am not sure how the distribution of programs to threads works so would it help to look at it to overcome my needs? perhaps a super fast core duo or even single core processsor would do it? anyway let me knw if you have any suggestions, i am not sure if i have been clear enough or just rambled on so let me knw if i missed some info.

all help is greatly appreciated. thnks vry much guys.

 

[gkay09]

^ Quad is the way to go...
And for your budget and needs, here is a setup
i7 920
Mobo - Gigabyte X58A UD3R if you can find one or ASUS P6T
RAM - 6GB kit(3x2GB DDR3 1333MHz and above operating at 1.65V or less)
CASE - You choice but quality ones from Antec/ Cooler Master are good options
PSU - Depends on the graphics card - For a single card - 550W PSU from Antec EA/ Corsair/ Seasonic/ Silverstone/ OCZ/ PCP&S
HDD - A 1TB HDD Samsung F3
Maybe a small SSD for just the OS and apps - Intel 40GB/ OCZ Vertex/ Agility 30GB
LCD - 1080p resolution monitor from ASUS/ Acer/ LG/ Samsung/ AOC...

Am sure it will come under your 2K AUD budget...
Try to find these components from your local source or online stores and post if you have any doubts...

 

[-Fran-]

I'd even consider going with a Dell Studio 15 equipped with a Core i7. A friend of mine (also an engineer) asked me about this same topic but notebook wise.

We looked for the close to perfect machine equiped with a Core i7 from Dell. Around $1200-ish and is a beast in my eyes.

If you also want to travel and do some work, take a look with a Dell Studio 15 notebook.

Cheers!

 

[MadAdmiral]

I wouldn't touch Dell. Prebuilt pretty much suck. You'll easily pay 50% more than you would if you built it yourself. You also get a low quality motherboard, PSU, RAM and HDD.

 

[-Fran-]

I wouldn't touch Dell. Prebuilt pretty much suck. You'll easily pay 50% more than you would if you built it yourself. You also get a low quality motherboard, PSU, RAM and HDD.

Considering I'm talking about a notebook and since building your own notebook, as cool it might sound, it's kinda hard I'd say it's not a bad advice.

But I used Dell as a reference (for a notebook, lol), he could use any vendor he wants.

Cheers!

 

[MadAdmiral]

That's true, but OP's talking about building a desktop. An i7 in a laptop is also a waste of money. No reason to stick a lot of fancy, expensive parts into a form that won't allow you to get the most out of them...