Business PC...

[moony1234]

Hi guys,


Can you check this spec for me? It won't be used for gaming, purely business but running lots of apps, skype video calls, uploading vids to youtube etc.


Thanks

AT


Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6670 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)

SSD CACHE DRIVE
20GB INTEL® SSD 311 SERIES - CACHE DRIVE FOR SYSTEM / 1st HDD

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

[Tom DWC]

Absolutely fine for this purpose, but I would recommend a standalone backup method in place of RAID. It's becoming increasingly outdated and isn't particularly efficient.

[moony1234]

Absolutely fine for this purpose, but I would recommend a standalone backup method in place of RAID. It's becoming increasingly outdated and isn't particularly efficient.

Thank you any suggestions? Just an external drive with a daily backup? That wouldn't be as up to date as a raid backup though..


Also would you replace the raid 1 with raid 0 or just get a different hdd? Thanks!!

[MadMan]

for faster speeds id opt for a caviar black

[Tom DWC]

By all means keep RAID 1, as long as you have another method of backup in place. A daily backup to external storage or online backup via the cloud, for example.

[Music Guy123]

Ok, do you have a budget? I would recommend this:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE Good case with good cooling
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics Very good cpu, probably overkill but very good integrated graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT) Again probably overkill but does future proof
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED INTEL HD GRAPHICS (HDMI, DVI, 1920 X 1200) This should be fine for everything apart from gaming and high end graphics work
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW) Very fast, good boot drive better than a cache drive
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) Good solid fast drives
3rd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9) I personally think this is very good although it probably would be recommended to keep an external backup drive.
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72) Very good quality, reliable psu
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19) Good quality and good value, worth it!
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) Can go for a sound card but probably isn't necessary
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) Well worth the fiver!
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,094.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/comput...ndy-bridge-pc/

Hope this helps! Please tell me what you think!

[moony1234]

That looks like a good setup to me

The biggest issue I have right now is I will often have over 20x windows open [mostly excel, skype, chrome, word, notepad, spotify, vnc, etc] and when I switch between everything just crawls.

The same happens within Chrome, lots and lots [30+] of tabs open at once, opening a new one or switching to an old one takes ages.


Current PC has 3gb ram and a dual core cpu, normal hard drive nothing fancy.

Budget is around £1k inc vat so the above fits into that nicely


I went for the 16gb ram as I thought it may help with the amount of apps I have open etc, what do you think? Should I go for less RAM but a higher spec RAM?

[Wozza365]

tbh i dont have loads of apps running but with general usage im never using more than 2GB out of my 8GB

currently running
Firefox - 3 tabs (one is facebook which always seems to use a lot of memory)
Steam - got downloads going so uses more memory as well as chat
AVG Free
AI Suite II - uses quite a bit of memory even when window is closed and its icon mode
MBAM - security software uses nothing really
Edimax wireless program

Firefox is using 400k of that memory, so a restart should halve that number

[Music Guy123]

Chrome uses a lot of memory for some reason, get the 16GB at 1600mhz, it is fairly cheap, you might as well! Also, seeing as you have multiple windows open, how about multiple screens? This will mean that the pc could cost a little more though!

[moony1234]

Good point on the multiple screens, which GFX card will I need to do that? Assuming I can't do it on the onboard...