Hi,
6 years ago I entered the world of PC building and found the advice on this forum helpful. Well in 6 years things have changed and the unit I assembled back then has had it's day and is regularly reminding me about its retirement.
To that end I'd like to build a new PC but haven't kept my eye on the ball and so don't know what's appropriate these days.
My requirements from a PC are to run a Windows OS with multiple (<8) accounts. Most of those will be basic web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. But I also use this as a development PC occasionally running the likes of MS Visual Studio, MS SQL Server, a couple of VMs, etc.. If that's not enough I also occasionally edit video. One thing I'm not is a gamer.
My current PC is an AMD Athlon II X4 630 running at 2.8GHz with 2MB L2 cache. This is plugged into an Asus M4A785TD-V EVO ATX mobo which also houses 8GB DDR3 1333MHz and is connected to a 1TB SATA II 7200rpm HDD. There are also various optical drives scattered around the case. I've many USB peripherals to plug in and use a USB hub to make port access easier. I'm not particularly constrained on space so a mini tower is acceptable, although I do like the look of the small form factor units available these days (no idea if they're any good or not).
This setup has served my needs well for the last 6 years and so I'm looking for a modern equivalent to replace it.
Ideally I'd like to reuse the opticals, HDD and possibly RAM but expect that the case, PSU, mobo and CPU will all need replacing.
Based on my anticipated usage can you spec me a suitable replacement?
6 years ago I entered the world of PC building and found the advice on this forum helpful. Well in 6 years things have changed and the unit I assembled back then has had it's day and is regularly reminding me about its retirement.
To that end I'd like to build a new PC but haven't kept my eye on the ball and so don't know what's appropriate these days.
My requirements from a PC are to run a Windows OS with multiple (<8) accounts. Most of those will be basic web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. But I also use this as a development PC occasionally running the likes of MS Visual Studio, MS SQL Server, a couple of VMs, etc.. If that's not enough I also occasionally edit video. One thing I'm not is a gamer.
My current PC is an AMD Athlon II X4 630 running at 2.8GHz with 2MB L2 cache. This is plugged into an Asus M4A785TD-V EVO ATX mobo which also houses 8GB DDR3 1333MHz and is connected to a 1TB SATA II 7200rpm HDD. There are also various optical drives scattered around the case. I've many USB peripherals to plug in and use a USB hub to make port access easier. I'm not particularly constrained on space so a mini tower is acceptable, although I do like the look of the small form factor units available these days (no idea if they're any good or not).
This setup has served my needs well for the last 6 years and so I'm looking for a modern equivalent to replace it.
Ideally I'd like to reuse the opticals, HDD and possibly RAM but expect that the case, PSU, mobo and CPU will all need replacing.
Based on my anticipated usage can you spec me a suitable replacement?
