Which PC build ? Advice Please

TheHitMan-1973 · 14 Nov 2010 at 14:20

I have 2 spec pc`s , not a gamer , will be using for browsing internet + Word & CS5 photoshop and a large music listerning collection

Spec 1

AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1045T (2.70GHz, 512kx6
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
4096MB 1333 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
24in Dell ST2420L Monitor 1920x1080 Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI)
1TB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5670 graphics card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music

Spec 2

Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 650 (3.20GHz, 4MB)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
24in Dell ST2420L Monitor 1920x1080 Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI)
1.5TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 240
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

Cookeh · 14 Nov 2010 at 15:03

Oof, thats a toughie. I assume they're both similar in price?

Here's some benchmarks to help you decide:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=191

Seems that for you want, the i5 is the best route to go down.

snaggster · 14 Nov 2010 at 15:12

I ould go i5. But change the cpu to the 760 i5. And also Just have 4gb of 1600mhz memory, so you can overclock in the future if you ever decide to. I would also look at the cheaper asus sound cards as they get really good reviews

Savvy · 14 Nov 2010 at 15:22

If you wanted to go down AMD route, a Phenom x4 and pretty decent sound card will suffice

Cookeh · 14 Nov 2010 at 15:36

Savvy said:
If you wanted to go down AMD route, a Phenom x4 and pretty decent sound card will suffice

But gets trashed by the i5.

I would buy an i5 760, reasons are shown in the benchmark I provided.

Savvy · 14 Nov 2010 at 16:33

Cookeh said:
But gets trashed by the i5.

I would buy an i5 760, reasons are shown in the benchmark I provided.

True

but socket 1156 will be replaced with 1155 next year. Current am3 cpu's will work in am3+ boards.

For OP go with what you most comfortable with...

Cookeh · 14 Nov 2010 at 17:07

Savvy said:
True

but socket 1156 will be replaced with 1155 next year. Current am3 cpu's will work in am3+ boards.

For OP go with what you most comfortable with...

Also true, however, based on that won't you be wasting £££ on a mobo now seeing as you won't be able to use it with AM3+ next year?

Its swings and roundabouts really.

In terms of the best performance now, i5 is the way to go.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 14 Nov 2010 at 17:18

The Core i5 650 is a dual core CPU with HT.

The 2.8GHZ Phenom II X6 1055T is faster in Photoshop CS4 than a Core i5 650:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=191

OTH,a Core i5 quad core would probably be faster.

The AMD build also has a better sound card too.

I assume the OP is looking at the XPS7100 which has AMD processors and XPS8100 which has Intel processors??

The XPS8100 build the OP has listed is £100 more expensive than the XPS7100 they have listed excluding the cost of the monitor.

Upgrading to a Core i5 750 costs £5 more.

If you do intend to use Photoshop a lot you will need to consider your disk setup too.

However,if you only do occasional image editing even a Core i3 or Athlon II X4 based setup would do the job fine.

Modern CPUs are not that slow and all this talk of trashing is just e-peen TBH.