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gradyhawks

gradyhawks

gradyhawks

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So,

I have been tasked with getting a PC for my GFs family. Their current Dell sounds like a train when its on and I recently installed ubuntu on it as the windows vista that it came with was running so so slow.

Anyway, her mum is pestering me that it doesnt run programs like the old one did... yes, its linux, not windows! *sigh* anyway, this means I get to build another PC which is good stuff. Don't need an OS I currently have a *ahem* licence for windows 8 that I can use. Need everything else however, I best add in a damned DVD drive as well as she will only question why it doesn't have one.

The cheaper the better, but I want it to run super smooth with out any problems or much noise. It needs to run office etc. as well as potentially AutoCad (but only for small jobs and 2D cad work runs on anything).

Thinking that an AMD might be the way forward to get some GPU grunt, but open to suggestions as I know nothing of AMD. The PC is to be hooked up to a 1080p monitor.

Finally, smaller the better as well!

Cheers,

Grady

EDIT: My go, overkill with the i5 I think, but can't hurt. Just need to add a £15 cooler or something to it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £228.97
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Antec ISK600M mATX Cube Case - Black £56.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 430W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Samsung Ultra slim SU-208DB/BEBE 8x Slim internal DVD Writer with SATA - OEM £19.99
Total : £501.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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I don't think I'd look beyond the Pentium-K for the purpose of this rig. An overclocked Pentium is faster for Autocad than locked i5. Combined with a GTX 750 - even better. There might be a better combination for the money that others can suggest.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N750-2GD5/OCV1) £95.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x BeQuiet SFX Power 2 400W '80 Plus Bronze' SFX Power Supply £53.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
1 x Silverstone SST-SG05W-Lite Sugo USB 3.0 - White £31.99
1 x Samsung SN-208FB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £14.99
1 x Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable, 40cm (AK-CB050-40) £2.99
Total : £505.38 (includes shipping : £11.25).




You wanted quiet so Noctua CPU cooler. Don't think this will be necessary with a GTX 750 - but can tinker with Afterburner if needed to quieten the GPU. And as for PSU, even with CPU overclocked there'll be plenty of headroom so that should keep it nice and quiet.

The Antec ISK600M is pretty chunky (check out vids of it). If you want smaller then get the mini-ITX version, or something like the even smaller Silverstone Sugo in the spec above (also available in black).

You could probably leave out the GPU altogether to begin with, as well as the Noctua cooler, and only add them later if there are any noise complaints or Autocad speed complaints. Saves £130.
 
I think I could be convinced on the G3258.. but its going to hurt to spend £60 on one considering the last one I got for my mates PC cost me £45..!

How did you find out about the G3258 beating autocad? Is autocad all about the clock speed?

I do like the look of everything though! I think I will go for a 250gb SSD however, as I am sure it will get filled with crap soon enough. As for the case, I think I am going to try and convince her mother that they do NOT need a disk drive OR just supply an external one.
 
gradyhawks said:
How did you find out about the G3258 beating autocad? Is autocad all about the clock speed?
Click to expand...

Basically yes. And their knowledge base confirms that it's not designed to take advantage of multicores. There are also a few benchmarks* comparing them out there, plus several users' feedback on OcUK forum talking about how little of their i5 or i7 Autocad was using, and yet others stating how well the Pentium-K was working out for them.

* http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://pclab.pl/art57691.html

No. 13 in Table of Contents. Even an i3 with higher clock than an i5 is better at it.


In order to fully benefit from multi-core processors, you need to use multi-threaded software and AutoCAD is predominantly a single-threaded application.

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...t-for-multi-core-processors-with-AutoCAD.html
Click to expand...
 
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