PC specification. Whats good?

[DustyC]

My home PC is no in need of an overhaul.
Not got a lot to spend but what would you see as a minimum for viewing, manipulating, transfering and manipulating digital images?

(Digital images = up to 3MB JPEG, 8MB RAW)

To give you an idea of why I need an overhaul, current machine is 1.2GHz Duron with 384 MB RAM.

Looking for a barebone solution. WIll I also need a decent graphics card or is that a gaming thing?

When suggesting things please note the limited spending! Im in no need of an all singing all dancing virtual cyber gaming dancing singing tea making entertainment machine!


>> Edited by DustyC on Saturday 13th August 11:09

[FunkyNige]

You won't need a fantastic graphics card if you don't want to do any gaming. You will need lots of RAM (about 1GB) and a big hard drive (160GB+, make sure it's SATA as they're quicker), processor wise I don't think there's any point going overboard but don't get the cheaper versions of the main ones, i.e go for an Athlon instead of a Sempron (the new name for a Duron).

The difference between the cheap and better processors is mainly the cache, which is where instructions are stored ready to be processed, having a bigger cache will help processor intesnive applications like photoshop immensely

[DustyC]

Thanks for the advice.
Do you think that the cheapest Athlon system here is good enough?
www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html
(priced £151.03 ex VAT)
I already have drives and would add a larger harddrive to complete.
I could use my existing AGP graphics card.
As you suggest I would also need to increase the RAM but all in all does it look like a worthy system at a good price?

I live close to this place which is why I choose it.

[DustyC]

Also will the system I have choosen except the SATA hardrive?
If not then whats the best solution for a fast harddrive?

[FunkyNige]

DustyC said:

Thanks for the advice. Do you think that the cheapest Athlon system here is good enough? www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html (priced £151.03 ex VAT) I already have drives and would add a larger harddrive to complete. I could use my existing AGP graphics card. As you suggest I would also need to increase the RAM but all in all does it look like a worthy system at a good price? I live close to this place which is why I choose it.

That's a great system, the 64 bit processor isn't needed at the moment but everything will change to 64 bit in the next few years so you're prtecting yourself there. Here are the specs for the motherboard which is very good. The motherboard can take 4 SATA hard drives, but people do have trouble when trying to mix SATA and IDE (the old drives) in the same system. To be honest, there isn't much difference between IDE and SATA so if you have some old big drives at home I would use those for the time being. You can get 200GB SATA drives from that site for £70 so unless your old drives are huge you may as well get a big new one if you are going to get one anyway.

As you say, you'll probably need more RAM so get some the same as the type you get with the bundle. I see there's 512MB for £40 or 1Gig for £70, the more the better really, I would say spend the extra £30 but that's obviously your decision.

I'm assuming you have a PC you can take the DVD drives, etc. out of? You'll need a graphics card as that motherboard doesn't have onboard graphics, but if your old PC has one then you can use that. Check your old power supply is 400W or over and you should be all set

You could probably get that bundle a little bit cheaper (£20 cheaper maybe) if you looked around a lot, but if can collect it from them you'll save the difference on postage.

[DustyC]

Brilliant, thats great help thanks.

I thought I posted all this but guess it went wrong or I didn't so I'll do it again!...

My current hard drives are 10GB and a whopping 2GB!
I'll be copying them straight to the new drive and then not uising them in the new system. I choose a 200GB SATA drive (£60) and the 512MB extra memory from the same site and total price came to £280 inc VAT for the 3 purchases (inc motherboard bundle).

I currently have CD burner and an AGP graphics card which I can transfer. I'll leave out my older CD drive and replace it with a DVD burner later. I'll laso add a new monitor later. Currently have a 17"CRT which was considered good when I got it (a long time ago!).

Thanks for your help. Do you also know anything about robbing banks? Appears that after car and camera budgets are spent I don't have anything left!




>> Edited by DustyC on Saturday 13th August 14:25

[TimW]

If you can get DDR2 ram.. the latest. we got 1.5gigs of DDR2 ram on a 3.2ghz p4 with 160gb sata..
Only the latest motherboards are compatible with DDR2..

www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-L93251

[davidd]

One thing to consider is running two hard drives, one for all your program files and another to store your images and stuff on. It will make the system run faster when doing a lot of photo or video work.

D

[simpo two]

I have a 4-year-old 'mate-built' AMD Athlon 1800+ (1.5GHz) with 512Mb RAM and it runs PS CS and my files just fine. Noticeably slower with CS2 though, so I stick to CS.

[sstein]

You want a new computer cause yours is only a 1.2GHz...

Try using my machine :P a 500Mhz processor, Windows ME, 2HDs with total of 6GB and 128MB RAM.

Photoshop takes ages, and downloading from camera also takes forever!!

Buying a new computer is one thing i hate doing as they all seem to go wrong anyway, then the shop where you buy them arent interested and tell you to send part back to manufacturer!

Cheers

Stuart

[jimothy]

*cough* mac mini *cough*

[Podie]

jimothy said:

*cough* mac mini *cough*

Yeah, that's the noise those things make...



Dusty, take a nose at Dell's Outlet... you can often pick up a bargain in there... I know someone who just paid £250 for a P4 3.2, 120GB Hdd (arrive with a 160GB!), 512MB RAM and a CD writer...