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New Work PC

Pyroman

By Pyroman
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Pyroman

Pyroman

Posted
Posted

Woohoo! Work are finally allowing me a new desktop machine in this years budget, so can people help to spec me?

 

I do a hell of a lot of multitasking, i recently bought a £30 graphics card to do dual monitors and don't need anything any better.

 

After something powerful that'll last me until the next time i'm allowed an upgrade (when pigs fly!)

 

I've provisionally said about £700 but in that i need a monitor and probably *shudders* windows 8 pro but less would obviously be better.

 

I was thinking something down the route of an i5 with 8/16GB RAM maybe micro ATX. Needs to have a reasonable size SSD and at some extra storage 500GB/1TB

 

HELP!

abillybob

abillybob

Posted
Posted
Woohoo! Work are finally allowing me a new desktop machine in this years budget, so can people help to spec me?

 

I do a hell of a lot of multitasking, i recently bought a £30 graphics card to do dual monitors and don't need anything any better.

 

After something powerful that'll last me until the next time i'm allowed an upgrade (when pigs fly!)

 

I've provisionally said about £700 but in that i need a monitor and probably *shudders* windows 8 pro but less would obviously be better.

 

I was thinking something down the route of an i5 with 8/16GB RAM maybe micro ATX. Needs to have a reasonable size SSD and at some extra storage 500GB/1TB

 

HELP!

 

Meh this maybe a bit OTT but you may want more. I have a MBP and it has an i5, 8GB Ram, HD 3000 GPU, Mavericks, 500GB HDD. Today I have got mentally frustrated with it, my (and I'm sure your job) requires a lot of heavy multi-tasking there was a moment today that I was researching and watching a video on YouTube about BootCamp, writing an ISO file to a USB stick using my Windows VM, converting some music from .flac to .mp3 for a teacher, I was connected to AD and connected to the Mac Server and I had Microsoft OneNote trying to make notes of everything and creating a new job list.

 

As you can imagine this computer can't handle it and it crashed for about half hour with the silly swirly thing from Apple going. If you're like me you may require something along the lines of:

i7 Processor

Decent but discrete GPU with at 1GB of it own memory

8GB Ram minimum

SSD for booting into Windows 8

1TB Storage for media and files

 

Just a thought :)

  • Thanks 1
ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

Posted
Posted

Thanks for doing my job guys! :D

 

I'd suggest you get a Z800 :)

 

2 x Quad Core Xeon X5560 2.80Ghz

24GB 10600R ECC RAM

240GB Enterprise SSD Drive

500GB HDD

DVD R/RW

Quadro NVS290 Dual screen GFX

Windows 8.1 Pro

New Keyboard & Mouse

2 Years RTB

 

£690 Ex VAT :)

 

If you could find the extra cash, why not take it up to 48GB RAm for an extra £105

  • Thanks 1
Pyroman

Pyroman

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Meh this maybe a bit OTT but you may want more. I have a MBP and it has an i5, 8GB Ram, HD 3000 GPU, Mavericks, 500GB HDD. Today I have got mentally frustrated with it, my (and I'm sure your job) requires a lot of heavy multi-tasking there was a moment today that I was researching and watching a video on YouTube about BootCamp, writing an ISO file to a USB stick using my Windows VM, converting some music from .flac to .mp3 for a teacher, I was connected to AD and connected to the Mac Server and I had Microsoft OneNote trying to make notes of everything and creating a new job list.

 

As you can imagine this computer can't handle it and it crashed for about half hour with the silly swirly thing from Apple going. If you're like me you may require something along the lines of:

i7 Processor

Decent but discrete GPU with at 1GB of it own memory

8GB Ram minimum

SSD for booting into Windows 8

1TB Storage for media and files

 

Just a thought :)

 

Haha! Correct, that sounds EXACTLY like my style of working! Okay something with more oomph! Thanks for the suggestions guys i'll have a look @ICTDirect_Dave's machines too :-)

  • Thanks 1
Sephiroth

Sephiroth

Posted
Posted (edited)

Personally I would go AMD route as they're considerably cheaper at the moment. I recently got some money for a decent spec pc;

 

  • AMD FX 8320 (8 core 8 thread, 3.5 GHz, 16MB cache)
  • Basic motherboard to go with it (full ATX with 2 PCIe slots)
  • 4 320GB Standard hard drives 7200RPM
  • ATI FirePro W600 graphics for 6 screens (6 x mini display port - Extremely useful and a good price)
  • 16GB RAM (Crucial DDR3)
  • 2 PCI NICs
  • 500W PSU (XFX Full cabled)
  • Cheap and cheerful case

The lot came in at less than £1000. the graphics card was nearly £400, so you shold be able to get a very good machine for your budget.

 

Of course that involves actually building the thing!

Edited by Sephiroth
Pyroman

Pyroman

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Personally I would go AMD route as they're considerably cheaper at the moment. I recently got some money for a decent spec pc;

 

  • AMD FX 8320 (8 core 8 thread, 3.5 GHz, 16MB cache)
  • Basic motherboard to go with it (full ATX with 2 PCIe slots)
  • 4 320GB Standard hard drives 7200RPM
  • ATI FirePro W600 graphics for 6 screens (6 x mini display port - Extremely useful and a good price)
  • 16GB RAM (Crucial DDR3)
  • 2 PCI NICs
  • 500W PSU (XFX Full cabled)
  • Cheap and cheerful case

The lot came in at less than £1000. the graphics card was nearly £400, so you shold be able to get a very good machine for your budget.

 

Of course that involves actually building the thing!

 

Not worried about the building of it myself :-) i was dead chuffed the other month, spent £1200 on a gaming rig, put it all together and it started first time, no issues. That never happens to me!

abillybob

abillybob

Posted
Posted
The xeons are new to me, what's the advantage of them over an i7, is is just more power with having two of them?

A lot more power Xeon's are most commonly used in servers and two of them would make a beast of a Machine, assuming they're the socket 2011 and not the older versions.

Personally I wouldn't touch AMD you get what you pay for and I'd rather spend a little more and get an equivalent Intel Chip.

StevieM

StevieM

Posted
Posted

If you're like me you may require something along the lines of:

i7 Processor

Decent but discrete GPU with at 1GB of it own memory

8GB Ram minimum

SSD for booting into Windows 8

1TB Storage for media and files

 

Sounds like my VeryPC Pocket Rocket 13" laptop. I also bought a 24" Benq Monitor and a keyboard and mouse so I also have a decent desktop outfit. :D

 

EDIT: 2GB GPU and 3yr RTB warranty.

SHimmer45

SHimmer45

Posted
Posted

the biggest thing with those xeon workstations is you would get 16threads in total (Hyperthread enabled)

a later i7 on paper is going to be quicker but you would have less cores, and depending on your work load that might make a difference

ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

Posted
Posted

The main bonus is the second CPU giving you a whole extra bunch of cores, but also you'll be getting more cache per processor also. Not to mention more fans, more heatsinks, more awesomeness in general. I've been borrowing a Z800 for home gaming for a while now and ABSOLUTELY nothing slows it down :)

 

I can do single Hex Core Systems for less also.

 

It all depends on what you want :)

  • Thanks 1
Griff

Griff

Posted
Posted
I've been borrowing a Z800 for home gaming for a while now and ABSOLUTELY nothing slows it down :)

 

;) long term borrow...?

Sephiroth

Sephiroth

Posted
Posted
Personally I wouldn't touch AMD you get what you pay for and I'd rather spend a little more and get an equivalent Intel Chip.

For me the FX series chips are brilliant for the cost. Intel equivalents generally have more technology in them to make them better, but cost more because of that.

 

I'm not trying to start a flame war, it's all personal prefference, but don't discount AMD as IME they are very reliable.

abillybob

abillybob

Posted
Posted
For me the FX series chips are brilliant for the cost. Intel equivalents generally have more technology in them to make them better, but cost more because of that.

 

I'm not trying to start a flame war, it's all personal prefference, but don't discount AMD as IME they are very reliable.

 

I would argue the case they're reliable against their competition who is Intel! They tend to get a lot hotter and generally have more issues than Intel chips! AMD are fine if you're on a budget but if the school's buying it Intel all the way ;)

mac_shinobi

mac_shinobi

Posted
Posted
The main bonus is the second CPU giving you a whole extra bunch of cores, but also you'll be getting more cache per processor also. Not to mention more fans, more heatsinks, more awesomeness in general. I've been borrowing a Z800 for home gaming for a while now and ABSOLUTELY nothing slows it down :)

 

I can do single Hex Core Systems for less also.

 

It all depends on what you want :)

 

Can I long term borrow one ??

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