PC About to Die. Spec help needed

photoshop

photoshop

photoshop

Soldato
Joined
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Location
Stockton on Tees
Alright guys,

My many many year old PC that i built is on its way out and i need a replacement.

Budget is £500/600 max.
It will be used for Surfing, Media consumption, and some Photoshop.

I already have the following:

- 24" Monitor
- Large Case
- 1.5Tb SATA backup drive.
- 1.0Tb SATA media drive

Everything else i will need and this includes fans, heatsinks, cables, keyboard, mouse.

I've been using WinXP SP3 all this time so im a little unsure as to what OS i should use now. I know Win8.1 is the latest but im not so sure about the "Metro". I like the conventional look and feel. I would like a SSD for my main drive for the speed. Also i wouldnt mind an SSD as my download/dump drive to make use of my 120MBit connection

Your help is appreciated.
 
How does this look:

MSI 970A-G46 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6350 Black Edition 3.90GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail
Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G)
MSI HD 7770 GHz Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K4000 4TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM - OEM (0S03356) HDD
Logitech Wireless MK520 Desktop (920-002606)
Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM

£639.00

Need to trim some money somewhere.....
 
There is a 3 month free trial for windows 8. You can use that to help make up your mind.

Going from your wishlist there.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £79.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £17.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.98
Total : £601.91 (includes shipping : FREE).



The intel CPUs have integrated graphics so you don't need to add a GPU. I'm sure you could find a 2nd hand bargain on the MM like a Nvidia 1GB 460 etc cheap enough should you want CUDA support or do some gaming later on.

The mobo allows overclocking of the i5K and also includes a decent heatsink. I've used a modular PSU as I have no idea what case you have, if it's old it might be lacking cable management features. You'll have to check the height of coolers it will allow too.

Hope this helps some what. If you can tell us what the case is we can help a bit more.
 
@honosuseri

Thanks very much!

The case is a Lian Li. Its a large tower. Dont know the model name but it has space for 5 IDE devices on the front plus space for 4 HDDs. I think my existing PSU is a seasonic 400W but its 2yr old.

Will the integrated GPU in the Intel be good enough for Photoshop and for 1080p video?
 
photoshop said:
Will the integrated GPU in the Intel be good enough for Photoshop and for 1080p video?
Click to expand...

Yes. But with Hono's spec you do of course have the headroom to add a GPU further down the line if you feel inclined to. :)

The only thing i'd change in that spec is the RAM. These have much tighter timings and are more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £53.99

 
Last edited:
acme15 said:
Yes. But with Hono's spec you do of course have the headroom to add a GPU further down the line if you feel inclined to. :)
Click to expand...

I probably wont add one later if its good enough to play 1080p MKV files stutter free.

Also, to shave some money off how about a...

Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

or would this not be a good idea?
 
Last edited:
photoshop said:
I probably wont add one later if its good enough to play 1080p MKV files stutter free.

Also, to shave some money off how about a...

Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

or would this not be a good idea?
Click to expand...

If you don't plan on gaming or overclocking you could probably save some money over Hono's spec.

I think a Richland APU based setup would be a good call for the OP's usage scenario, don't you think Hono?
 
photoshop said:
I dont plan on gaming or OC'ing.

The most intensive work it will do is run 1080p video files and Photoshop....
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought so... I think Hono's spec is a tad overkill.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x MSI B85-G43 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
Total : £361.50




That will do everything you want it to. The integrated graphics in the CPU are the same as on the i5 4670K/i7 4770K, and a dual core 3.5GHz Haswell with Hyperthreading, paired up with the Intel HD4600 graphics will be plenty. :)

Or if you felt inclined to up the spec to a native quad core i5 for the sake of £30, you can do. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x MSI B85-G43 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
Total : £391.50

 
Last edited:
acme15 said:
Yeah I thought so... I think Hono's spec is a tad overkill.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £53.99
1 x Asus H81-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £53.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
Total : £354.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).



That will do everything you want it to. The integrated graphics in the CPU are the same as on the i5 4670K/i7 4770K, and a dual core 3.5GHz Haswell with Hyperthreading, paired up with the Intel HD4600 graphics will be plenty. :)
Click to expand...

Excellant. That sure shaved a bit off :)

If later i wanted to add another 40Gb SSD and use it purely as a dump for files would the build still support it? Want to keep one SSD dedicated to the OS so dont want to partition it. Kind of like this set up:

SSD (OS) + SSD (Dump/Download/Temp) + HDD (Backup/Archive)
 
photoshop said:
Excellant. That sure shaved a bit off :)

If later i wanted to add another 40Gb SSD and use it purely as a dump for files would the build still support it? Want to keep one SSD dedicated to the OS so dont want to partition it. Kind of like this set up:

SSD (OS) + SSD (Dump/Download/Temp) + HDD (Backup/Archive)
Click to expand...

I have since edited my post as I noticed that the motherboard I chose only has VGA out for video. Check it again. :)

But yes, I see no reason why you couldn't do what you are proposing.
 
Current spec is E2200 @2.2Ghz, 2Gb DDR2, Gigabyte DS3.

Im getting disk read errors, PC hangs for ages sometimes when launching Chrome or Photoshop and then works....Its kind of freezing in windows from time to time and i have to restart it. Today i had a Boot Diskread error too.....Its been like this for the past week.
 
photoshop said:
@honosuseri

Thanks very much!

The case is a Lian Li. Its a large tower. Dont know the model name but it has space for 5 IDE devices on the front plus space for 4 HDDs. I think my existing PSU is a seasonic 400W but its 2yr old.

Will the integrated GPU in the Intel be good enough for Photoshop and for 1080p video?
Click to expand...

No worries fella.

Intel have improved the IGP for Haswell and it's memory controller is happy with faster RAM. With the price of 1600Mhz kits being so close to the faster stuff you might as well get the faster kit......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9KBL) £59.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £17.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.98
Total : £601.91 (includes shipping : FREE).



Might as well reuse your Seasonic PSU to be fair, it's a good make. I've changed the RAM to keep Acme happy but the free heatsink has a red LED fan (hence the red RAM in my last spec) so aesthetics are largely out the window anyway ;)

You might not be fussed about overclocking but it's not hard to do, it's as complicated as you want to make it. I'd like to have the extra ooomppf there incase you want to start doing video editing/encoding etc at some point, you never know what the future holds lol

That seems to be everything you need including the OS for the same price as my last spec, dropping the PSU has paid for the OS but remember you can use that trial first to help make up your mind.
 
honosuseri said:
No worries fella.

Intel have improved the IGP for Haswell and it's memory controller is happy with faster RAM. With the price of 1600Mhz kits being so close to the faster stuff you might as well get the faster kit......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9KBL) £59.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £17.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.98
Total : £601.91 (includes shipping : FREE).



Might as well reuse your Seasonic PSU to be fair, it's a good make. I've changed the RAM to keep Acme happy but the free heatsink has a red LED fan (hence the red RAM in my last spec) so aesthetics are largely out the window anyway ;)

You might not be fussed about overclocking but it's not hard to do, it's as complicated as you want to make it. I'd like to have the extra ooomppf there incase you want to start doing video editing/encoding etc at some point, you never know what the future holds lol

That seems to be everything you need including the OS for the same price as my last spec, dropping the PSU has paid for the OS but remember you can use that trial first to help make up your mind.
Click to expand...

Thanks Hono's. The faster kit for not much more seems like a good deal.
Would you say Win8.1 is friendly enough to use? Can you run it normal desktop mode and not with Metro?
 
photoshop said:
Thanks Hono's. The faster kit for not much more seems like a good deal.
Would you say Win8.1 is friendly enough to use? Can you run it normal desktop mode and not with Metro?
Click to expand...

You can set 8.1 to boot to desktop mode as default, a quick google search will show you how to do it :)
 
photoshop said:
Excellant :)
Last but not lease.....will all of my applications that are running on XP run on it?
Photoshop CS5 etc
Click to expand...

It's just a revamped Windows 7 really, the Metro UI is to make the interface for their phones and consoles all look similar to help people pick it up quickly. It still has the compatibility mode available to emulate older OS's. If you have legacy devices you might even find that windows 7 drivers work, they did for my MS webcam on the Win 8 preview.
 
honosuseri said:
It's just a revamped Windows 7 really, the Metro UI is to make the interface for their phones and consoles all look similar to help people pick it up quickly. It still has the compatibility mode available to emulate older OS's. If you have legacy devices you might even find that windows 7 drivers work, they did for my MS webcam on the Win 8 preview.
Click to expand...

Sweet. I'll give it a go. Thanks very much :)
 
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