Hardware Discussions

[FiSH]

My wife is debating between getting a laptop or having me build her a Micro ATX machine.  Target performance should accomodate using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop.  I'm thinking a 2Ghz + cpu and mnimum 4 gigs of RAM.  Hard drive can be between 300-500GB.  My first attempt at choosing parts + W7 + monitor came to just over $700, making the $500+ laptop we were looking at the more ideal choice price-wise.  Show me how low I can go by laying out a build for me, yet still taking quality into account.  Thanks!

case:

motherboard:

cpu:

ram:

hdd:

gpu:

psu:

[Stalker_Loner]

Without a monitor and operating system, I came to $463 because hard drives are expensive as SHIT. The SATA 6.0 is cheaper than the SATA 3.0 >.>

Case - Rosewill Challenger

Motherboard - Asus P8H61 

CPU - Intel G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6Ghz, one model lower available as well

RAM - 4Gb Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3-1333

HDD - Caviar Blue 320Gb

GPU - Asus HD 6670 1Gb 

PSU - Antec 430w 

Looks like the laptop may be a better option unless you can somehow shave more from these parts without losing too much performance. You can drop the GPU to a lower HD model or a GTX 4xx series for ~$50-75ish. 

[jacobvandy]

If Photoshop and other editing programs, even for video, are going to be the most the machine will be used for, you should just leave out the graphics card entirely. Sandy Bridge graphics would be more than enough for that, right?

[Synchronous Failure]

The integrated GPU is supposedly pretty kick-ass for video rendering and other software tasks.

[Stalker_Loner]

I wasn't entirely sure on that so I put a cheaper one in. Dropping that will obviously make way for your OS, and only a bit more for a pretty decent monitor.

How'd I do on the rest?

[FiSH]

Getting there! Still, as much fin as I'd like thrown my way to put it together, a laptop might be the way to go.

[dolynick]

Motherboard:  Asus P8H61-I - $80

CPU:  Intel i3-2125 Dual Core CPU - $150

RAM:  Kingston Hyper-X 8GB DDR3-1600 - $40

HDD:  Hitachi Deskstar 500GB 7200rpm sata 6.0 - $80

Case:  Lian-Li PC-Q07 Black Aluminum - $70

PSU:  Seasonic SS-300-ET 300W 120mm fan - $40

DVD-R:  Samsung 22x sata DVD-R - $16

OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit - $100

Total:  $576

Upgrade to Intel i5-2320 Quad Core CPU for $190 - Total:  $616

Upgrade to  Intel i5-2500K for $230 - Total:  $656

(All three CPU choices come with intel HD3000 upper level integrated video, going HD2000 will lower prices even more)

Guarranteed to kick the crap out of any $500 laptop you can find.  Even comes with a sweet all-alluminum Lian-Li case and twice as much (8GB) memory!

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Edit:  Forgot you wanted the monitor included...

Let's revise then....

Motherboard:  Asus P8H61-I - $80

CPU:  Intel i3-2125 Dual Core CPU - $150

RAM:  Kingston Hyper-X 4GB DDR3-1600 - $25

HDD:  Hitachi Deskstar 500GB 7200rpm sata 6.0 - $80

Case:  Foxconn Mini ITX case w/ 150W PSU - $45

DVD-R:  Samsung 22x sata DVD-R - $16

OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit - $100

LCD:  Acer 20" 5ms 1600x900 - $100

Total:  $596

The 150W PSU in that case is a bit low but it is a Sparkle unit at least... a brand that can be half-decent.  The others with 250W models were laid out kinda wonky.  I think you'd get far better results with the better laid out case and full ATX Seasonic PSU (much easier to replace with known quality if need be) I originally listed... but if you must have the monitor included in the $500-ish range it's the best I can find on Newegg at 3 AM.

As for the monitor... It's inexpensive?  It's LED lit?  It's on sale $40 off?  It hopefully will be somewhat color-accurate and won't sear your wife's eyes out?

As with the first part, upgrade to a Quad for $40 more or full i5-2500K-photoshop-crunching-power for $80 more.

-dolynick

[jwhx]

I slapped together a system for my ex-wife a few months ago. For the life of me I cannot remember what the hell I built. All I remember was that I used this case. Rosewell Ranger-M

I liked it a lot. Looks good...feels sturdy...easy to work with.....and is pretty damned cheap.

[FiSH]

$596 is gives the argument for a Mcro ATX build more balls.  Thanks a bunch!  God looking Rosewill case too.

[Egglick]

If you're tryin to go small, why not wow her with Mini-ITX??  Something like this Shuttle covers the case, motherboard, and PSU.  Just slap in an i3, some RAM, and a HDD and you're good to go. 

[FiSH]

^ That's a thought. Thanks!

[Egglick]

65W limits you to an i3 or one of the i5 "S" models, but I doubt you were goin higher than an i3 anyway.

[FiSH]

Ended up buying a Toshiba laptop for a little over $500.  Should be a good machine for her.  I can even do some light gaming on it if we take it on vacation.

17.3" LED display at 1600 x 900

AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M with AMD Radeon HD 6520G Graphics at 2.3 GHz

4GB DDR3 1333MHz

640GB hard disk

[Egglick]

I've tried pricing out a couple higher low-end machines for friends/family lately (AMD, i3).  In the end, I can't in good faith recommend that I do a build for them.  Some of the deals on these laptops are impossible to beat, not to mention they don't have to buy a monitor (or copy of Win7) and the added benefit of portability.

Plus they can always plug in an HDMI cable and keyboard/mouse if they want a desktop feel.

[jwhx]

^ Most people that want me to build machines for them only need a basic computer. Internet, email, office, maybe photoshop. I tell them that there's no way I can build a machine for less than what they can snag one from the store. Often, they'll still have me build one because I don't use cheap parts so the machines tend to last a very long time.

[FiSH]

The cpu sits at 1.4GHz idle, with turbo boost at 2.3GHz. You think there'd be any issues if I turn off the boost and let it sit at 2.3GHz?

[Egglick]

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FiSH wrote:
The cpu sits at 1.4GHz idle, with turbo boost at 2.3GHz. You think there'd be any issues if I turn off the boost and let it sit at 2.3GHz?

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It would use alot more battery power without much benefit. 

[FiSH]

^ Yeah, I suppose so. Anyway, I went ahead and got 8GB Corsair RAM to replace the existing 4GB of what is likely cheapo memory. Should make for a decent boost in performance.