Please check over these specs?

[jinfis]

Hello,
Do these specs look OK for someone not so young who likes to stream and download video a fair bit, but doesn't game at all? Other than that it is mostly office-type work and music. I have a wireless router and I will be running a second router as an access point, connecting via ethernet/homeplug, then wirelessly (if i can get it all to work....:sweatdrop

I've included upgraded cooling to cut down annoying noise. Have I done enough there?

Thanks for any help....
Jinny





Case STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU) AMD A4-5300 Dual Core APU (3.4GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7480D Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® F2A85-M: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM) 4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card Integrated AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
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
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe AMD CPU Cooler
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
Wireless Router NONE
USB Options 2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI-EX CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Power Cable 1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE



Maximum Required Power 227W

 

[mantadog]

Looks fine to me, the cooling upgrade is ideal for your needs so that is spot on. Did you also upgrade the PSU so it was quieter? If not then you can safely drop it to the 350w, I have the 450w quiet PSU but honestly I doubt it is much quieter than the 350w one, but I cant back it up just a hunch. Also the HDD could be upgraded to a caviar black, this will help with things like startup times, opening files and generally makes the computer feel faster to use, many people overlook the HDD.

Some might advise a better case, I don't see the need in your situation. You wont ever be pushing it that hard and by the looks of it don't have any plans to expand it in the future so I would say it will be fine.

 

[jinfis]

Looks fine to me, the cooling upgrade is ideal for your needs so that is spot on. Did you also upgrade the PSU so it was quieter? If not then you can safely drop it to the 350w, I have the 450w quiet PSU but honestly I doubt it is much quieter than the 350w one, but I cant back it up just a hunch. Also the HDD could be upgraded to a caviar black, this will help with things like startup times, opening files and generally makes the computer feel faster to use, many people overlook the HDD.

Some might advise a better case, I don't see the need in your situation. You wont ever be pushing it that hard and by the looks of it don't have any plans to expand it in the future so I would say it will be fine.

Thanks. My son and a friend agree that I am "not at the optimum point for price/performance trade-off." Son says I should have SSD and also should keep the 8 GB of RAM and that a dual core processor these days is "pushing it". So -- if I change to

AMD A8-5600K Quad Core APU (3.6GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7560D Graphics,
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB), and
240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W),

that increases the price from £447 to £599. Seems a lot to me (!) but if it all lasts for 3 years, that is about £50 p.a. extra....

Thoughts?

 

[mantadog]

Honestly, you don't NEED any of those things, they are nice but certainly not needed for your needs. If you can stomach the cost of a SSD you will probably never look back they are really very nice indeed, but a caviar black (I have one myself) is all the drive you will ever need for your stated tasks.

likes to stream and download video a fair bit, but doesn't game at all? Other than that it is mostly office-type work and music

Again for those needs you don't NEED 8GB of RAM, for normal day to day tasks like yours you will really be pushing hard to get past 2-2.5GB of usage. I'm running 4Gb myself and if I try hard I can make it hit 3GB when i'm not gaming but really i have a silly amount of programmes open and i still have loads of room to spare.

Lastly the CPU, your not doing anything particularly CPU intensive, probably streaming video is about the hardest thing you say you do and your dual core will handle it fine.

Overall if your looking at a 3 year upgrade horizon then i would stick with your original build, possibly with the addition of a caviar black/SSD to make the system feel better to use but the other stuff is probably (in my opinion anyway) money down the drain if your looking at a 3 year upgrade cycle.

 

[jinfis]

Honestly, you don't NEED any of those things, they are nice but certainly not needed for your needs. If you can stomach the cost of a SSD you will probably never look back they are really very nice indeed, but a caviar black (I have one myself) is all the drive you will ever need for your stated tasks.



Again for those needs you don't NEED 8GB of RAM, for normal day to day tasks like yours you will really be pushing hard to get past 2-2.5GB of usage. I'm running 4Gb myself and if I try hard I can make it hit 3GB when i'm not gaming but really i have a silly amount of programmes open and i still have loads of room to spare.

Lastly the CPU, your not doing anything particularly CPU intensive, probably streaming video is about the hardest thing you say you do and your dual core will handle it fine.

Overall if your looking at a 3 year upgrade horizon then i would stick with your original build, possibly with the addition of a caviar black/SSD to make the system feel better to use but the other stuff is probably (in my opinion anyway) money down the drain if your looking at a 3 year upgrade cycle.

Hmmmm you are saying much what I was thinking. I have 4GB RAM now and it seems fine ..and I seem to mostly use about 30% (dual-core) CPU. I think I am victim of a geek son whose work requires 3 monitors and mega-power all round. However I am not wedded to a 3 yr cycle -- longer would be fine so I'll think about it. Will probably go for the SSD anyway.
Of course I might suddenly morph into a fanatical gamer....

Many thanks for your help!

 

[mantadog]

Well you could try something like this....

Slightly different spec but worth a look...

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USBThis is the bigger of the 2 cases with the same name, I might even advise an elite 311
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-3240 (3.40GHz) 3MB Cache 2 X the performance of your selected CPU so will last longer even though it is only a dual core. Wont go into too much detail but it is a much better CPU
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB) 8GB of ram, you wont need more than this.
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) I stuck with the caviar black because it is keeps the cost down but still gives great performance and plenty of room for video storage
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
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan Only the 350w, but plenty for your spec
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19) Same upgraded cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 150Mbps PCI-E CARD (Special Offer) (£6)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £475.00 including VAT and delivery.

Comes out somewhere between the 2 price wise, but for the money it is real bargain. The SSD would push it up to the same price as the AMD spec but I would still go for this one +/- the SSD. I don't think you will ever seriously test it but it does give much more performance for just a little more money

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/NvcyPxf2xu/

 

[jinfis]

OK thanks. Still considering the options, but just a final question -- why is the bigger case better? Is it the increased size of the case fan?

 

[mantadog]

It's how the air is managed through the case more than anything. If you go up to spending £100 on the case it starts being less about the case and more about what extras they have thrown in, like LED fans, fan controllers etc.

You had originally chosen the STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE. The problem with that can be you have nowhere to hide the wires, wires get in the way of the air flowing in from the front of your case and the cooling suffers as a result. Granted for your uses it wont matter too much, because of the work you intend to do being much less intensive than full on gaming, and PCS do the best job they can to hide the wires anyway. It would be more of a problem if you had a GPU in your spec and were running a high end CPU.

In a nutshell, smaller case = less volume of air inside it = easier to heat. Couple that with wires getting in the way, poor ventilation and you can end up with a noisy system as all the fans kick up in speed to try and keep the components cool.

But just to be clear the above probably has more of an effect on higher end system than your proposed mainly low intensity work machine. if you would rather save the money you will be served perfectly well by the smaller case, just as a best practice I would recommend something slightly bigger.

 

[jinfis]

Well many thanks for all your help. I have done some tests and it turns out I am more of a multi-tasker than I thought. So I'm staying AMD Quad-core after all and 8 GB RAM. I'm adding a second disk (HDD) to the SSD which if I don't get, my son will disown me! The second drive is so the app I use to organise iTunes can do its job -- it doesn't access external drives...

All done and dusted! Now wondering whether I should use my current Windows licence (could save a few quid...) on the new setup and install Ubuntu instead on the old laptop that I will be using for travel only now. Pastures new, maybe.

 

[mantadog]

Is it a retail copy of windows? if not then you cant move it. if it came pre installed then it is almost certainly an OEM copy and cannot be transferred to a new machine...

With regards to the AMD quadcore, whichone n particular, because I would wager it still isn't as good as the intel dual core in my build above...

Post up your latest spec and I will have a look, and back it up with the benchmarks if needed.