Quick Business PC

[kenmid]

My current desktop PC definitely needs updated it is 4/5 years old. Still working on bog standard SATA and when backing up the PC gets to more than 1 day and normal PC operations are slowed down I think it is time. I am an old PC guy and have had a few but this is the first I have kind of spec'd it up myself and since hardware has moved on significantly I could do with some help.

I don't use the PC for gaming/downloading videos/watching tv but run a number of internal servers (CF10 and MySQL5) to help manage my wee business creating web sites etc. which entails some photo work and related stuff. What I am looking for is something that will run a number of processes without adversely affecting the normal operation of the PC, and will do me for 4/5 years, so I am looking at something affordable that should have a relatively fast core speed (hence a fast(ish) processor and SSD and big RAM) but am unsure of the most suitable processor/motherboard combination. The case is anything suitable really but I would like an SD card reader on the front so think I may have the correct one. I have gone for a cheap graphics card just to reduce any load on the CPU.

Case
SHARKOON VG4-W GAMING CASE (Green LED)
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-8370 Eight Core CPU (4.00-4.30GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97 R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media

 

[SpyderTracks]

What's your max budget?

The AMD cpu's although they have a high clock speed are very inefficient and you'd probably get better performance off an intel rig.

 

[kenmid]

@ SpyderTracks,

Thanks, I don't have a specific budget in mind but I don't have bottomless pockets to fund my wee business. I normally buy say one down from a top spec and make it last a few years. My current PC is an old AMD quad core. So I need at least a quad core since there are a few processes running at the same time which is why I thought the 8 core AMD could be good. I think I got to the point where the AMD seems like it is out though so an Intel processor should probably be the choice. So I suppose it should be at least an i5 but I don't mind paying extra for an i7 if that helps to future proof the PC. So intel processor of some sort but which motherboard.

Kenny

 

[SpyderTracks]

@ SpyderTracks,

Thanks, I don't have a specific budget in mind but I don't have bottomless pockets to fund my wee business. I normally buy say one down from a top spec and make it last a few years. My current PC is an old AMD quad core. So I need at least a quad core since there are a few processes running at the same time which is why I thought the 8 core AMD could be good. I think I got to the point where the AMD seems like it is out though so an Intel processor should probably be the choice. So I suppose it should be at least an i5 but I don't mind paying extra for an i7 if that helps to future proof the PC. So intel processor of some sort but which motherboard.

Kenny

Give me a bit and I'll put something together for you to look at.

 

[kenmid]

@ SpyderTracks - thanks. Sorry it took a couple of days to reply but I don't seem to be getting emails when the thread is added to, however I am not in a mega hurry (unless a Black Friday deal comes along).

I have got to this point which is £700 (inc win10), maybe need to change the case though as I would like an SD card reader on the front. You will notice no Seagate SSD hard disk as I already have a 2Tb currently running the OS on my current system. My aim is to get a reasonably quick multicore PC which will last a few years to which I will be able to add a few bits and pieces over time.

Case
SHARKOON VG4-W GAMING CASE (Green LED)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4590 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97P-D3: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 720 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
EXTERNAL MEMORY CARD READER (READS MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve

 

[SpyderTracks]

On the whole looks good, couple of points though:

1/. Up the CPU cooler to the next one, the basic ones are very inefficient and loud.

2/. Do you need a dedicated graphics card? The on board graphics on the i5 will do all general use and media processes just fine. If you want it to draw away processes from the CPU, then that makes sense to keep it though.

 

[kenmid]

@SpyderTracks - Sorry to take so long to reply, definitely having issues with this forum since I checked this morning and didn't even see your reply.

However I have completely upped the ante in bangs for bucks and gone with this which I have added as another thread (since this one doesn't seem to work for me) - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?46306-Quick(er)-Business-Machine

Thinking about the CPU cooler I will take your advice and go one up anyway, I have taken away the graphics card on the updated build for the reasons that you stated, reckoned that trading the GPU for a faster CPU would pay off. Can always add one later.

The new build costs less than £750 at the moment which seems to me to be tremendously powerful for the money, the first IBM clone (as we used to call them)that I ever had was twice as expensive and came from a company called Zenith and had a 5Mhz processor and 5Mbit hard drive with 640K of RAM - who could want more.

 

[SpyderTracks]

@SpyderTracks - Sorry to take so long to reply, definitely having issues with this forum since I checked this morning and didn't even see your reply.

However I have completely upped the ante in bangs for bucks and gone with this which I have added as another thread (since this one doesn't seem to work for me) - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?46306-Quick(er)-Business-Machine

Thinking about the CPU cooler I will take your advice and go one up anyway, I have taken away the graphics card on the updated build for the reasons that you stated, reckoned that trading the GPU for a faster CPU would pay off. Can always add one later.

The new build costs less than £750 at the moment which seems to me to be tremendously powerful for the money, the first IBM clone (as we used to call them)that I ever had was twice as expensive and came from a company called Zenith and had a 5Mhz processor and 5Mbit hard drive with 640K of RAM - who could want more.

Oooooo those were the days! I just read an article saying the £4 raspberry pi is more powerful than desktops 10 years ago, it's crazy how quick stuff has progressed!