New System - suggestions

mrnothersan1 · 12 Jan 2014 at 08:32

Hello,

So I bought a new system for a web design course that I'm currently doing. The computer is being used for coursework (Office Suite, Photoshop, Dreamweaver). It was just a cheap system. This is what I went for:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £37.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
1 x Asus A55BM-E AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard III Windowed Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £31.99
1 x EVGA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB Passive GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (512-P3-1301-KR) £20.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.95
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.95
3 x Arctic F12 TC Case Fan - 120mm £4.99 (£14.97)
1 x Speedlink Mousepad Basic - Black £2.99
Total : £284.80 (includes shipping : FREE).

Is there anything else you think I should get (without changing any of the above, as it's already ordered) that would be beneficial to me? I have also ordered an after-market cooler (Arctic Cooling Alpine 64). I was thinking of an SSD for the OS - what do you reckon?

Thanks in advance

Tokin · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:12

mrnothersan1 · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:15

Tokin said:
SSD.

That's what I was thinking.

Any other suggestions?

Havana_UK · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:33

As you don't need raw performance for anything particular then I would say that what you've specified is perfectly fine.

The only benefit you'll get from an SSD is faster OS load time, and it will load apps faster, but bear in mind you'll be paying £65+ for that benefit, and it will be the single most expensive component in your system.

Personally, I wouldn't bother.

mrnothersan1 · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:37

Havana_UK said:
As you don't need raw performance for anything particular then I would say that what you've specified is perfectly fine.

The only benefit you'll get from an SSD is faster OS load time, and it will load apps faster, but bear in mind you'll be paying £65+ for that benefit, and it will be the single most expensive component in your system.

Personally, I wouldn't bother.

Thanks for the comments.
I was thinking about getting a 60GB or so SSD for around £30-40 (I don't pay VAT) for the OS. Not sure yet.

Havana_UK · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:40

mrnothersan1 said:
Thanks for the comments.
I was thinking about getting a 60GB or so SSD for around £30-40 (I don't pay VAT) for the OS. Not sure yet.

It's really the only thing "missing" from your build, and there's no question that the system will boot faster and load the apps installed on it faster, but whether you'd actually gain (beyond the feeling of speed you'll get) is debatable.

mrnothersan1 · 12 Jan 2014 at 09:59

Havana_UK said:
It's really the only thing "missing" from your build, and there's no question that the system will boot faster and load the apps installed on it faster, but whether you'd actually gain (beyond the feeling of speed you'll get) is debatable.

Does Photoshop benefit from SSD's?