Spec Check

1kiwi · 15 Jan 2009 at 18:30

Hi Guys,

Would like a second opinion with regards to the below spec. It's to replace my girlfriends ageing laptop. Use will be as follows:

Internet Browsing
Photoshop / Indesign (light to medium use - not commercial)
MS Office use

I know the E2200 overclocks pretty well. Just need to double check the below mobo and whether a video card is required. My feeling is perhaps not?

Budget is £300

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ConnectionFX · 15 Jan 2009 at 19:07

im a very heavy photoshop user. ive used photoshop on many systems including onboard graphic system and in my experiance get a seperate card with dedicated resources!

What you have in the spec will do the job but you will also see a great improvment over onboard if you go for a reasonable card for about £50 - £100 although that 3450 is an ok card for mild editing.

Also make sure your photoshop is CS or above as older version will not take advantage of dual core systems.

also... ive also purchase 3 of those akasa cases. although they are cheap and obviously not going to compare to a £150 case they are quite a nice little chassis.

PwnDirect · 15 Jan 2009 at 19:18

get the psu instead cheaper & better PCP&C

I would also get this hdd

And as the above poster said a decent grapics card would help maybe a 4670 or something similar second hand

1kiwi · 15 Jan 2009 at 20:30

Point taken with regards to the graphics card but i'm already over budget so i assume that it will suffice for low intensity use.

Any concerns with regards to the mobo?

ConnectionFX · 16 Jan 2009 at 02:05

should be ok

1kiwi · 16 Jan 2009 at 08:07

ConnectionFX said:
im a very heavy photoshop user. ive used photoshop on many systems including onboard graphic system and in my experiance get a seperate card with dedicated resources!

What you have in the spec will do the job but you will also see a great improvment over onboard if you go for a reasonable card for about £50 - £100 although that 3450 is an ok card for mild editing.

Also make sure your photoshop is CS or above as older version will not take advantage of dual core systems.

also... ive also purchase 3 of those akasa cases. although they are cheap and obviously not going to compare to a £150 case they are quite a nice little chassis.

With regards to the case did you find that there was room for cable tidying? I.e., could you put the cables behind the chassis's?