New build for GF and her Adobe package.

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Ok, so my girlfriend has just won the entire Adobe suite package and is eager to get using it. At the moment she has a poor laptop and it just wont cut it. I was going to fix up an old pc of mine but I want her to have a bit more of a speedy experience, especially as this is all to help her in her art degree. I don't want to spend more than I need to though.

I have come up with this so far.
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £93.98
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £83.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM £79.99
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM £61.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £50.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply £37.99

Total £423

I don't need a graphics card as I will be supplying her with an HD5750, which I imagine will suffice for her needs. I dont mind if its AMD or Intel. I have the monitor, keyboard and mouse already. So what do you guys think? Thanks in advance.
 
You can squeeze a quad core in the budget,


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Silverstone Precision PS03B Midi Tower Case - Black £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Sub Total : £322.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £66.84
Total : £401.04


http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300.html


£386.94 with your free delivery.

You might need a SATA DVD drive to as the motherboard has no IDE connectors.

Is that RAM better than Corsairs offerings?

Its the cheapest 8GB kit, the motherboard supports a maximum memory speed of 1333MHz, so it will run at that speed, the 8GB 1333MHz kit is actually more expensive.
 
Last edited:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £78.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £474.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).




£459, so slightly more than your spec... But it'll annihilate it...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/143?vs=288

Comparison between CPU's.
Look in particular at CS4 retouch, and the encode speeds :p

As above? Do you have RAM? You'll need DDR3, and again because of the Adobe spec, I'd recommend 8GB...
4GB would be a preference over downgrading the CPU though if budget is tight, as adding another 4GB at a later date is much easier/cheaper :)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=8&subid=1517

Pick the cheapest you can find of 4/8GB in there...

Just as a side point, if you want Vengeance RAM, you'd struggle to find a suitable aftermarket cooler for it!

kd
 
You can squeeze a quad core in the budget,


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Silverstone Precision PS03B Midi Tower Case - Black £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Sub Total : £322.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £66.84
Total : £401.04


http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300.html


£386.94 with your free delivery.

You might need a SATA DVD drive to as the motherboard has no IDE connectors.



Its the cheapest 8GB kit, the motherboard supports a maximum memory speed of 1333MHz, so it will run at that speed, the 8GB 1333MHz kit is actually more expensive.


That becomes nearly £500 once you add in a disk drive and operating system, which is quite a bit out of what I want to spend. Was aiming for around £350-£450.
 
That becomes nearly £500 once you add in a disk drive and operating system, which is quite a bit out of what I want to spend. Was aiming for around £350-£450.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Silverstone Precision PS03B Midi Tower Case - Black £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Sub Total : £366.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £75.89
Total : £455.34

£440.34 with free delivery.

1TB is enough?
 
As it stands, I'm probably going to go for:

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £61.99 MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £42.98
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
Cooler Master Elite 360 Mini Tower Case - Black £30.98
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99

Total £423.91

What do you guys reckon?
 
Been fiddling with an AMD build. Saves a few quid. Worth the saving?

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £83.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £45.98
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £42.98
Silverstone Precision PS02B Midi Case - Black £38.99
Asus M5A78L-M LX AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £37.58
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99

Total £380.90
 
We have put our heads together and decided that as she is going to be needing the work for her degree (which includes being away from the PC and at Uni), then a Laptop is more what she needs. But they all seem so expensive :|

But then what sort of power does it need to do reasonably well with photoshop etc?
 
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