can you better this spec?

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 09:46

hi

im building pc for my photography wife - she uses Lightroom and photohop

my max budget is £1200 so far i have the follwoing spec - is this okay?

Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2C1) £179.99

Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Napoleon Total War £156.99

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 (1333MHz) Dual-Channel (KHX1333C7D3K2/4GX) £114.99

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £87.98
(
OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W Power Supply £73.99

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £69.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £55.99

Zalman Z7 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black £42.99

LG GH22LS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter Lightscribe Drive - Retail £20.99

The SSD drive is for the OS - i might purchase and use raid 0. the 4 1TB drives will be used on RAID 5

crisbduck · 14 Jun 2010 at 09:57

I think an i7 build would be much better, get rid of the ssd if you need to.

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:04

crisbduck said:
I think an i7 build would be much better, get rid of the ssd if you need to.

could not fit the I7 in to my budget, also i wanted a SSD as ive heard they are worth it.

correction my budget is £1100

crisbduck · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:11

Well how about something like this X6 build
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-029-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=
Leaving £100 to add an ssd

or this i7 build
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-025-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1712
Leaving £260 for an ssd

obviously you could save some more getting the parts
hope it helped at least

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:15

crisbduck said:
Well how about something like this X6 build
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-029-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=
Leaving £100 to add an ssd

or this i7 build
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-025-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1712
Leaving £260 for an ssd

obviously you could save some more getting the parts
hope it helped at least

Only 500GB HDD's - must ahve more space

Bremmy · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:57

mtdmitchell said:
also i wanted a SSD as ive heard they are worth it.

For Lightroom it certainly is. Installed on the SSD, and with its catalogue db also located there, everything happens instantly. I'd suggest doubling the RAM to 8GB too; processing large RAWs can be memory-intensive.

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 11:20

Bremmy said:
For Lightroom it certainly is. Installed on the SSD, and with its catalogue db also located there, everything happens instantly. I'd suggest doubling the RAM to 8GB too; processing large RAWs can be memory-intensive.

thanks - yes i already had 8gb in

infernox · 14 Jun 2010 at 14:40

seems good for what your wife is going to be doing...

Have Fun

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 15:10

if i put 4 of these in (8gb)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 (1333MHz) Dual-Channel (KHX1333C7D3K2/4GX) £114.99

do they still act as dual channel

Destination · 14 Jun 2010 at 15:28

crisbduck said:
or this i7 build
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-025-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1712
Leaving £260 for an ssd

COnsder this.

Ring them up and ask them to sub the 500gb disk for a sansumg f3 1 tb, or samsung eco 2tb, both good disks and are very well priced depening on how much storage you actually want.

GFx is better than you've specified, and its preOCed and watercooled, guarentted to actually work or they'll fix it. Couple with the intel sdd you cna choose on the dropdown, and you're in budget and done. There is 6Gb of ram, only occupying 3 slots, and its triple channel.

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 16:05

Hikari Kisugi said:
COnsder this.

Ring them up and ask them to sub the 500gb disk for a sansumg f3 1 tb, or samsung eco 2tb, both good disks and are very well priced depening on how much storage you actually want.

GFx is better than you've specified, and its preOCed and watercooled, guarentted to actually work or they'll fix it. Couple with the intel sdd you cna choose on the dropdown, and you're in budget and done. There is 6Gb of ram, only occupying 3 slots, and its triple channel.

Im also looking to build a system with raid 5 - 4 x 1 TB disks - sorry i didnt put the quantity on my first post

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 16:07

Hikari Kisugi said:
COnsder this.

Ring them up and ask them to sub the 500gb disk for a sansumg f3 1 tb, or samsung eco 2tb, both good disks and are very well priced depening on how much storage you actually want.

GFx is better than you've specified, and its preOCed and watercooled, guarentted to actually work or they'll fix it. Couple with the intel sdd you cna choose on the dropdown, and you're in budget and done. There is 6Gb of ram, only occupying 3 slots, and its triple channel.

im not really keen on an overclocked CPU either as my past experience has shown them to not last as long as an untouched CPU.

NathWraith · 14 Jun 2010 at 17:21

mtdmitchell said:
im not really keen on an overclocked CPU either as my past experience has shown them to not last as long as an untouched CPU.

If overclocked correctly, you will have nothing to worry about. A CPU will far outlast the period of time you will actually keep it.

Destination · 14 Jun 2010 at 17:36

mtdmitchell said:
im not really keen on an overclocked CPU either as my past experience has shown them to not last as long as an untouched CPU.

Right so keep the i7, dump the OC, keep its core processing abilities, its triple channel ram, and put the money you save into 4*1tb samsung f3's, they're only 55 each.

What OS you planning for the system? Have you got a retail version you wish to use, or will that be part of your spec?

Cold Fusion · 14 Jun 2010 at 17:37

Do you really need a 700W PSU for all that? Could save some money by dropping to a lesser wattage?

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 18:45

Hikari Kisugi said:
Right so keep the i7, dump the OC, keep its core processing abilities, its triple channel ram, and put the money you save into 4*1tb samsung f3's, they're only 55 each.

What OS you planning for the system? Have you got a retail version you wish to use, or will that be part of your spec?

Ive already got Windows 7 as part of my works MS Licensing (school) agreement

mtdmitchell · 14 Jun 2010 at 18:46

Cold Fusion said:
Do you really need a 700W PSU for all that? Could save some money by dropping to a lesser wattage?

Could probably save about £20 but wanted to make sure i have enough power -

there is 4 sata drives
1 dvd drive
1 ssd and i will probably add one more in the near future as well

Buchanan0204 · 14 Jun 2010 at 23:59

Hikari Kisugi said:
COnsder this.

Ring them up and ask them to sub the 500gb disk for a sansumg f3 1 tb, or samsung eco 2tb, both good disks and are very well priced depening on how much storage you actually want.

GFx is better than you've specified, and its preOCed and watercooled, guarentted to actually work or they'll fix it. Couple with the intel sdd you cna choose on the dropdown, and you're in budget and done. There is 6Gb of ram, only occupying 3 slots, and its triple channel.

I'm with him, this is a much better build than the one you stated, plus OCUK are doing all the leg work for you, like he said it is pre overclocked aswell as liquid cooled. Also the RAM is clocked quicker than yours.