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I am building my father a new machine for his small business, and I'd like to get some advice from the community before I jump into it. I used to build machines with some regularity back in the day, but in the past 8 or so years I have only used laptops and have not paid much attention to the current market and technology.
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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
The machine will be the server for three other computers in the network. He writes books and makes illustrations for a living, and at any given time he has many taxing programs open, which tends to push the limits of his current computer. For example, he often has open Photoshop, Pagemaker, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Indesign, Outlook, as well as many PDFs, images, and internet windows.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1,500 for everything (HDDs not included).
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Asheville, NC USA.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
An entire machine, minus the hard drives. This includes motherboard, CPU, RAM, CD drive, case and PSU.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing anything.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No overclocking.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I am looking to get him a new monitor, but this is not included in this machine's budget (looking for 1920x1080). Probably 25" or so.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 days hopefully.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Needs to have USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s with RAID capabilities (machine will have RAID 1). I would like the machine to have an onboard GPU if possible to serve as the main GPU, however if the machine will perform faster with a separate GPU I am willing to do this as well.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will be purchasing a new Windows 7 64-bit license.
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Essentially, this machine will need to be able to handle anything that can be thrown at it. Due to the nature of my father's business, he needs to have many intensive programs open simultaneously, and the computer should be able to handle all of them quickly.
My biggest concern is which motherboard/CPU I should get, as I am not up to date on the current technology. I was originally thinking to get him a dual processor motherboard with Xeon CPUs, but I am not sure that this is necessary. From my research, I am considering the following two CPUs:
Intel Core i7-3930K 6-core @ 3.2GHz (3.8GHz turbo) $560
Intel Core i7-4770K 4-core @ 3.50GHz (3.9GHz turbo) $345
I am more inclined to go with the 3930K, as it tends to benchmark better and has two more cores. However, the 4770K is newer, and has onboard video processing.
For memory, I am thinking of getting 16GB of DDR in the form of two DIMMs, however since memory is cheap nowadays, if it will make a difference I might get 32GB in the form of four DIMMs. I am not sure if this will make a difference or is worth it. Thoughts on this? Haven't decided on a brand/speed yet, as I want it to match the bus speed on the mobo.
Any advice/comments? Thanks as always!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
The machine will be the server for three other computers in the network. He writes books and makes illustrations for a living, and at any given time he has many taxing programs open, which tends to push the limits of his current computer. For example, he often has open Photoshop, Pagemaker, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Indesign, Outlook, as well as many PDFs, images, and internet windows.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1,500 for everything (HDDs not included).
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Asheville, NC USA.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
An entire machine, minus the hard drives. This includes motherboard, CPU, RAM, CD drive, case and PSU.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing anything.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No overclocking.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I am looking to get him a new monitor, but this is not included in this machine's budget (looking for 1920x1080). Probably 25" or so.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 days hopefully.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Needs to have USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s with RAID capabilities (machine will have RAID 1). I would like the machine to have an onboard GPU if possible to serve as the main GPU, however if the machine will perform faster with a separate GPU I am willing to do this as well.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will be purchasing a new Windows 7 64-bit license.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Essentially, this machine will need to be able to handle anything that can be thrown at it. Due to the nature of my father's business, he needs to have many intensive programs open simultaneously, and the computer should be able to handle all of them quickly.
My biggest concern is which motherboard/CPU I should get, as I am not up to date on the current technology. I was originally thinking to get him a dual processor motherboard with Xeon CPUs, but I am not sure that this is necessary. From my research, I am considering the following two CPUs:
Intel Core i7-3930K 6-core @ 3.2GHz (3.8GHz turbo) $560
Intel Core i7-4770K 4-core @ 3.50GHz (3.9GHz turbo) $345
I am more inclined to go with the 3930K, as it tends to benchmark better and has two more cores. However, the 4770K is newer, and has onboard video processing.
For memory, I am thinking of getting 16GB of DDR in the form of two DIMMs, however since memory is cheap nowadays, if it will make a difference I might get 32GB in the form of four DIMMs. I am not sure if this will make a difference or is worth it. Thoughts on this? Haven't decided on a brand/speed yet, as I want it to match the bus speed on the mobo.
Any advice/comments? Thanks as always!!
