Need advice on building a new Desktop PC $850

xmanli

August 19, 2010 7:39:08 PM

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: October 2010.
BUDGET RANGE: $650 - $850.
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Primarily Home/Office.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Windows, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Hong Kong.
PARTS PREFERENCES: Non Ob-board Graphics.
OVERCLOCKING: No.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: Higher than 1600x1200.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Quite & Cool PC.

Hi,

I am planning to build a totally new Desktop PC for Home/Office use. I am facing problems with current PC. It takes a while to open excel and PDF files.

In my busy working hours, at max I require to run 20 excel files, 10 pdf files, Word with 5-10 docs, Chrome with 15-20tabs, Firefox with 10-15tabs, Photoshop editing 5-10 big images, Dreamweaver, Running system monitor programs, Accounting software such as Tally, 10-12 File Browsers, Messenger with 10-15 chat windows, with min. 1 having video/audio conference, Anti-virus at background, 7-zip, uploading & downloading utorrents, etc.

My current PC can't support even half the above load, it starts to hang/lag when I reach 40% load. So I need advice on building a new PC. BTW, I am not considering to accept On-board graphics. I do feel that I need better components for LAN, CPU, RAM, HDD. I also wish to get SATA3.0 and USB3.0 support. Audio preferences are not important AT ALL.

Also my current PC gets very hot, maybe because I have only 1 fan on the CPU in my whole system, my PCIe graphic card also don't have a fan, it gets very hot. I would also appreciate for advice on PC cooling.

My current Built is:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (Stock heatsink & fan)
MB Gigabyte G31M-S2L
A-Data 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Hitachi HardDisk 320GB 7200RPM
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB DDR
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3

Thanks in advance.

Oh Nearly forgot to mention my budget for the hardware components. Its around US$650-850 depending on whether I get some extras. I already have Windows, so I don't need that in my new built. Will accept to higher my budget for better performance.

More about : advice building desktop 850

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gkay09

August 20, 2010 7:19:09 AM

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xmanli

August 20, 2010 10:05:58 AM

Hi again,

I can't decide with CPU to choose. Is there any performance review/benchmark to show differences between Intel I5-760 & AMD Phenom II X6 1055T for the specific purpose of my PC jobs???

I guess my work come in the category of Multi-tasking, I am not sure though !

Would it better for me to use 64-bit OS ? I guess it is due to more RAM will be usable ? If I only use 32-Bit OS, will it be better to use SSD for OS and page/swap file so that it can cover the performance deficiency due to less RAM usable ?

Also, please advice which Graphic card will be enough powerful for my PC work load, I don't want to have a GPU bottleneck.

Thx again

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Essex

August 20, 2010 10:17:09 AM

I don't think you need a better gpu since you don't use any graphical programs(3ds,autocad...)

you will need the 64-bit os, sice you will need quite some RAM and if you use 32-bit your computer will only recognize 3GB.I dont recommend using 32-bit. All data will be have to transfered from your HDD to your RAM first before your CPU can do anything with it, so that is why it is important for you to have a large amount of RAM.

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gkay09

August 20, 2010 10:26:38 AM

^ As for the RAM part, he has cleared it...
As for the CPU, take a look at this article...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-...

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xmanli

August 20, 2010 10:56:49 AM

@gkay09

I read your link. It shows 2 performance chart.

1) SYSMark 2007 Performance which quotes "SYSMark really taxes two cores most of the time, giving the edge to Lynnfield and its aggressive turbo modes. Lightly threaded or mixed workloads won't do so well on the Phenom II X6."

2) Adobe Photoshop CS4 Performance. This seems to me a single application running heavily jobs. I am not sure if it can reflect the same scenario for my PC jobs which is "Mulitiple Applications running heavily".

Would there any possible benchmarks to show CPU performance under Multiple Applications Running heavily ?

About the GPU, is my current GeForce 7600GS enough for my new build ?

Thx again

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Yargnit

August 20, 2010 11:17:12 AM

Do you only run the single monitor? I know you only mention one, but that's a lot of windows open at once for only one screen.

To be honest I think you may have a hard time fitting a system that can run all of that into an $850 max budget. Just doing a quick count, I came up with 85-113 tabs/folders/documents across 10 different programs that you may have running all at once. Luckily a lot of them aren't high demand, (word, pdf's, web browsers etc) But a few you mentioned are at least moderately so. (Excel if the spreadsheet is large, Photoshop, Video chat, and so forth)

Your biggest spending is going to be on CPU/RAM from your listed uses, although depending on your version of Photoshop, and what you are doing on it, you may see some benefit from it's GPU computing abilities.

As gkay said, you're likely looking at either the i5 760, or one of the and hex cores. Although if we can get it in your budget you might benefit from the hyper-threading on Intel's i7 quad cores, seeing as how you are running a lot of programs, but none which will really be using a lot of resources individually.

Actually, I have an idea... no idea if I can fit this build into an $850 budget but lets see what I can do.

$200 AMD Phenom 2 x6 1055t

$80 Asus M4A77TD

$175 G.Skill 8gb RAM

$75 Samsung Spinpoint 1tb HD

$20 Samsung DVD Drive

$40 Rosewill case w/400w Power Supply

$80 Gigabyte GT240 Video card

And the probably very controversial last part;

$170 OCZ 60gb Vertex 2 SSD

So the big question obviously, why save $170 out of an $850 build for a SSD? Normally I'd agree it's insane. I'd never usually recommend a SSD for a build in that price range. And even more controversial, I'm not recommending it for a boot drive. My thoughts here are to throw Office, Photoshop, and all you're other frequently opened/closed programs that'll be running 5-10 windows or more on the SSD so you're not waiting for your productivity software to load constantly. (If you have room hell yeah put windows on it, but for your specific needs I'd actually prioritize that secondary.

You don't need a hefty video card, so the GT240 will be plenty. The reason I went Nvidia rather than ATI, which is arguably more attractive in this price range, is that Nvidia tends to support GPU aided computing in programs such as Photoshop more-so than ATI. Also with such modest GPU needs a minimal power supply is more than sufficient. (I've used this case w/PS personally for a cheap build and it worked well) And again, this saves the funds necessary for the SSD.

I went with the AMD Phenom 2 x6 over the Intel i5 x4 because AMD motherboards start cheaper (again, saving for the SSD) and because for you're purposes quantity of cores seems paramount. (And fitting an i7 for 8 Hyper-threaded cores was just not going to happen with a SSD)

I'd be curious to hear what others think of my idea of fitting a SSD for productivity apps, and if it would pay off over bumping a few other parts up a grade?

8GB RAM also seems a given with how much you plan to run. In fact, if the general consensus was that a SSD won't pay off, I'd maybe bump that to 16gb even. (That's a LOT of programs you are running at once)

Thoughts? Flames?

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ScrewySqrl

August 20, 2010 11:46:10 AM

xmanli said:

Hi again,

I can't decide with CPU to choose. Is there any performance review/benchmark to show differences between Intel I5-760 & AMD Phenom II X6 1055T for the specific purpose of my PC jobs???

I guess my work come in the category of Multi-tasking, I am not sure though !

Would it better for me to use 64-bit OS ? I guess it is due to more RAM will be usable ? If I only use 32-Bit OS, will it be better to use SSD for OS and page/swap file so that it can cover the performance deficiency due to less RAM usable ?

Also, please advice which Graphic card will be enough powerful for my PC work load, I don't want to have a GPU bottleneck.

Thx again

well, since you specifically mentioned photoshop, but not gaming, yo do want a GPU, but it doesn't necessarily need to be bleeding edge model. you also might want to consider a dual monitor solution for enough workspace for everything.

I'll start with the X6 processor. As much multitasking as you are doing, I think you'll see great benefit from 6 processors. All prices are from Newegg, pre-rebates, and no combos as you're buying in hong kong:

APEVIA X-DREAMER3-AL Silver Metal ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$49.99

A plain looking case (white w/ blue LED fans), but comes with 3 120mm fans. 1 front, 1 back, 1 side, and should be great for cooling.

HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate Card

$64.99

I chose the hitachi as a good brand that was on sale right now, with that rebate. While the Samsung f3 1TB drive is the fastest 1TB drive right now, its hard to find in the hong kong shops. Any 1tb drive with a 32MB Cache from Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, or Seagate will be solid and reliable.

ASUS M4A88TD-M AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$89.99

You can find biostar for a little cheaper, but Asus is a top brand and Biostar isn't. This board has SATA 3, USB 3, and 4 RAM slots.

SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate Card

$144.99

Prices may vary in hong kong for a 5770, but it should be $140-160US

SeaSonic SS-400ET Bronze 400W ATX12V V2.2/EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ... - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$48.99

You only need a 400W supply for this build, this is a solidly reliable power supply 80+ bronze certified from the very reliable seasonic company. Other reliable companies include thermaltake, antec, cooler master, OCZ, Ultra, ad Silverstone. the lease expensive 400W bronze from any of them will serve you well.

2xA-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model AD3U1333B2G9-DRH
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$163.98
($81.99 each)

4x2 GB chips is MUCH, MUCH cheaper than 2x4GB chips. You'll want the 8GB with everything you are doing at once

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$199.99

Subtotal: $762.92, $712.92 after rebates.

Other things to consider:
a 1920x1080 monitor from Acer is $169. You can run this with your existing monitor.
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit: $99
a 64 GB SSD for a boot/applications drive: $139-179, optional but will see the best performance increase
Wireless N PCIe card: $20 for a reliable brand

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gkay09

August 20, 2010 11:51:13 AM

Some more 1055T reviews...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom...
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-r...
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/processors/A...
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_105...

As for the graphics card, yes that 7600GS would suffice...
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405711.html

As for the build linked by Yargnit, it is good except for the PSU...though you might get away with a cheap case if it has enough air flow, but that is not the case with the PSU...
Never skimp on the PSU's quality...There is high probability that if the PSU dies, it might kill other parts as well...

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Yargnit

August 20, 2010 12:02:16 PM

Oh I would never recommend a PSU like that if you were throwing any significant power demands on the system, but for a system whose power use should never top 250w I'd say you should be fine with a Case/PSU bundle. (And like I said, I have actually built a system with this bundle and it caused no problems)

What are you're thoughts on my SSD theory gkay?

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xmanli

August 20, 2010 12:04:51 PM

Thanks guys, I will study all your suggestions and come back with my answer. But I already decide to have at least the following:
- minimum 8 GB Ram
- 64-bit OS
- dual monitor setup
My budget also seems to be tight, I am going to check if I can increase it a bit. My built is planned for October, so I still have some time to save extra $. For the CPU & GPU, I still didn't come up with a decision yet.
Will study and come back soon.

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gkay09

August 21, 2010 5:34:05 AM

@ Yargnit, well even if wont give any problems now, but if you check your power usage, it will also tell a different story...Because of the high efficiency, not only you save power, but also they are much better in handling power fluctuations...

As for the SSD, if you have got the money, then SSD is a good option as a boot drive...

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