Help with a DIY build

[dferguson]

Hello,
I am building a computer for my mother, my budget is around 1000 dollars and I want this Computer to last. She has her own business and needs a lot of multitasking capability. I was thinking either i7-860 or Phenom x6 but I'm not sure which. Any Suggestions?

 

[Timop]

For heavy multitasking, Id suggest a Phenom X6 and 8GB of RAM.

Does $1000 include monitor?

 

[dferguson]

Yes, she already has a monitor but I was thinking about upgrading that as well.
The Phenom is better? When I was looking at the charts the i7-860 typically had better scores, I was also looking at a i5-750 which is what I have in my own computer I built. But If you think that is best maybe I should go with what you suggested. Any further argument?

 

[popatim]

Keep in mind the scores you see are for that particular program to be the only one running. IMO if she is not in a rush then the thing to do is wait for Sandy Bridge or BullDozer to come out. These will offer a new level of computing power and be a bit more future proof then the current crop of cpu's. These new processors will not work on existing boards for instance; so anything you buy now would have limited upgradeability processor-wise.

As for the Phenom x6 yes it gets beat handily in mmost apps even by the i5-750 but the extra cores on the x6 does make a difference when running alot of apps simultaneously but I means she'd need to be running like 12 things and I'm not talking about browser windows.

Also this being her business pc, does she already have a backup solution? Just imagine her current pc being hit by lightning and absolutely nothing in it can be recovered. I've seen small companies fold because they never planned for their harddrive dying and talking all their irreplaceable data with it. (esp photographers)

 

[dferguson]

Ok. She does have a back-up in her laptop and external HD. So I am thinking I will go for the i5+good video card+large monitor, because the i5 is very fast as is.

Oh and currently her desktop is failing, which is why she now has the External HD so that if it does she doesn't lose everything,(its about 7 years old). Is there any particular set-up of HDD's that functions quickly and offers a large amount of space. I was thinking of some 500gb HDD in a Raid, or would a SSD and one large drive for storage?

 

[Timop]

Not really. The Phenom X6 will yield a lower platform cost, while not performing much worse than the i5. The fact is anything business isn't going to require much processing power, but things stack up and in turn the AMD will see a slight edge.

For Data security, I would suggest a RAID 1+0, or a SSD plus RAID 1 solution.
But to keep things simple you can simply use a Samsung F3 drive, plenty fast.

 

[dferguson]

Best answer selected by dferguson.