Advice on Building a Web-Conferencing PC

nogoodreason · 27 Dec 2011 at 20:07

Hi all. Hope you've had a good Xmas and all that.

My boss has tasked me with building a PC capable of web-conferencing for our meeting room. While running Skype and iVisit won't require top of the line hardware, I still want to make a machine that will be reliable and perform well for years to come.

I already have all of the peripherals (minus a table microphone) but am wondering what hardware to get, particularly GFX, motherboard and CPU. The case is an Antec 300 with an Antec TruePower New Modular 550W PSU. Got an X-Fi Extreme Audio card to ensure good sound quality, and I have an old Nvidia 7800GTX I could donate - but wondering whether it might be better to just order a smaller, newer GFX with HDMI connection. Will be connecting to both a monitor and a large TV.

What would you recommend? Go with a Sandy Bridge mobo and an i5 (if so, which ones) or something less powerful?

Budget is around £250. While cheaper is obviously better, number one priority is a reliable machine.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

nogoodreason · 27 Dec 2011 at 20:21

Reckon this little thing would be better than the 7800GTX?

OcUK GeForce GT 430 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

edscdk · 27 Dec 2011 at 20:26

No one will thank you for cobbling something together, get a prebuilt machine if it goes wrong it's the sellers fault not yours...

nogoodreason · 27 Dec 2011 at 20:29

edscdk said:
No one will thank you for cobbling something together, get a prebuilt machine if it goes wrong it's the sellers fault not yours...

There is certainly wisdom in your words. But that's just...boring. :/ I don't want to pass up on the opportunity to get paid to play with components for a day.

lewism · 27 Dec 2011 at 20:45

nogoodreason said:
There is certainly wisdom in your words. But that's just...boring. :/ I don't want to pass up on the opportunity to get paid to play with components for a day.

Just be ready at somepoint down the line when someone breaks something it will be your fault and your responsibility to fix it.

nogoodreason · 27 Dec 2011 at 23:10

lewism said:
Just be ready at somepoint down the line when someone breaks something it will be your fault and your responsibility to fix it.

Sounds like you guys speak from experience.

Well OcUK offer a system which is pretty similar to my proposed spec. I assume OcUK can offer cover if I get it from you pre-built? I'm just conscious that buying pre-assembled will bump up the price. (Using the system configurator, I don't seem to see an option to buy cover for the system...)

nogoodreason · 27 Dec 2011 at 23:15

Of course, next question then is: what sort of spec would suit my needs?

Would the Primo 6100a AMD Llano A4-3300 2.50GHz DDR3 Dual Core System be good enough, or should I aim higher?

Aid4nTheNoob · 28 Dec 2011 at 08:51

Alright, I found this spec. If I were you, I would use an optical SATA drive from another system to save money. So I didnt include it there. Im also asssuming you have a copy of windows 7 or something also

Someone is going to say I'm wrong about something, most likely.

Asus M5A78L-M LX AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-485-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=

£36.00 inc VAT

OcUK GeForce GT 430 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

£49.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single-Channel Module

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-287-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=

£19.99

AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 455 3.30GHz

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-283-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1945

£71.99

Samsung SpinPoint F4 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-101-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=

£59.99

Total cost: £237.96

OR just go and buy that system you linked us, that would be more than good enough for Skype and conferencing or whatever. I was just bored and wanted a little task to do

However, I think the system I specced you would be slightly better or about the same, perhaps not the RAM though. But I dont think it really matters since you're going to be conferencing.