Can someone please Spec me a Quiet Photo Base Unit

[Belly]

My friend has agreed to build me a computer.

He wants me to buy the parts from OCUK take them to his home in North Wales where he will build it for me. To avoid unnecessary journeys I’d need to ensure that I have ALL the necessary components/cables etc to hand before I visit him.

I need the computer for general office applications, photo editing and Internet (Currently Virgin/NTL cable). It’s very unlikely I’ll ever use it for playing games.

I’d like a reasonably quiet one with plenty of RAM (allowable by the operating system). I already have a new (boxed) case ANTEC NSK 6500 which includes a 430 PSU and intend to use (purchase) Windows XP Home Addition (so the operating system doesn’t hog most of the available RAM) and I should still be able to use my trusty Agfa Snap-Scan Touch Scanner. I don’t need mouse, Keyboard or speakers.

I also like the look of the Dell Ultrasharp 2007 20.1 (1600 x 1200 pixels).

Could someone please spec me a computer based on the above? Obviously I’d prefer to pay as little as possible but I’m always prepared to pay more to avoid the aggravation factor. I’d expect to keep the computer for a number of years.


ANTEC NSK 6500 (Includes 1 x 120mm fan) – gratis
Windows XP Home Edition £56.39
Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP - £264.36

 

[semi-pro waster]

If you just want the basics then you could use something like the below. The graphics card is onboard, there is some potential for overclocking if you decide you want to but probably not a huge amount since it is a mATX motherboard. You could double the Ram fairly cheaply and accept that you won't see 100% of it, some of it would be used by the onboard graphics anyway.

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £43.99
(£51.69) £43.99
(£51.69)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) £52.99
(£62.26) £52.99
(£62.26)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Sub Total : £187.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £34.46
Total : £231.36

 

[Belly]

Thanx, I was thinking about something more like this: and a quality monitor either the Dell or the 24" Samsung which is currently on offer.

LiteON DH-20A4P-09C 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - Retail £20.99
(£24.66)
Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6600 2.40GHz Retail / Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3R / 2GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 DDR2 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle £231.97
(£272.56)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01991) £47.99
(£56.39)
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black £19.99
(£23.49)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £33.99
(£39.94)
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 250GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAJB) £37.99
(£44.64)
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 320GB ATA-100 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKB) £44.99
(£52.86)
Asus ATI Radeon EAH2600 Pro HTDP Silent 256MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86)
Sub Total : £482.90
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £86.25
Total : £579.10

If I were to order all these items would there be anything missing which would stop a build? Like a sata cable, eide lead. My friend has built his own in the past so I asume he has a screwdriver and Valium tables (for me).

From the Case Manual: Chassis Air Guide "The Antec Case come with one preinstalled 120 mm fan but it is possible to fit an additional 80mm intake fan between the air guide and the case's side panel".

Would one of these fans be really necessary or just an added luxury?

Again from the Antec Manual: "The case comes with two optional 92mm fan mounts in front of the HDD cage. We recommend using Antec TriCool 92mm fans and set the speed to LOW"

As above would fans be necessary

Would this system fit the bill?

 

[semi-pro waster]

You aren't missing anything obvious there, the IDE/SATA cables will come with the motherboard. I would definitely change the hard drives to SATA models though, WD AAKS drives are a good choice. You probably don't need any additional fans, the pre-installed 120mm one should be fine.

The system above would be fine but you are spending rather more than what I'd class as "pay(ing) as little as possible". However if that is your budget then you could go for the system below, it has a slightly faster CPU, 4gb Ram and SATA hard drives and a SATA optical drive as well but it costs about £80 less. The graphics card also comes with double the Ram but is entirely fanless so ought to be even quieter.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKS) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
OcUK Value IP35 Pro Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £108.99
(£128.06) £108.99
(£128.06)
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO SCS3 SILENT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £43.99
(£51.69) £43.99
(£51.69)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black £19.99
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01991) £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Sub Total : £416.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £74.53
Total : £500.39

 

[Fire Wizard]

Hello Belly, have you considered making the move to Windows Vista yet?

 

[Belly]

Hello Belly, have you considered making the move to Windows Vista yet?

Everyone I personally know who has had Vista installed on their computer and has been sufficiently knowledgeable to uninstall it and reinstall Windows XP has done so.

To be perfectly honest I don’t think I could put up with the aggravation.

 

[Belly]

Thanx, one other item I would like to add is a DVD ROM Drive. Would I be better getting an Eide one thereby leaving one of the SATA slots free for a possible 3rd HDD at a later date?

If I were to spend an additional (say) £100.00 would I get a significant improvement?

 

[semi-pro waster]

If the programs you use support quad core then that would be how I'd spend a bit of the extra cash, other than that I can't see any drastic improvements unless you wanted a better graphics card for games playing.

If you aren't going to be using any other IDE drives then one optical drive on the chain would be completely fine and you are right it would leave free a SATA port. You might be as well to buy another DVDRW though given the price difference between a DVD-Rom drive and a DVDRW is pretty negligible.