desktop quote

[ron2fs]

Hi everyone!:sailor:

my first attempt at getting my hands on a desktop that is not someone else's idea. I got frustrated with high street retailers' selection. I'm not into gaming so this is to be a home-based workhorse for two people. One question, should I partition the hard-disc. look forward to your comments; regards Ron.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3470 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2013
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£119)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[EricShaun]

I'm no wiz mate, But that looks good for general use.

I'm sure the tech guys on here can give you a few changes to save some ££

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

If its not for gaming then I'd dispense with the graphics card and use the on-board graphics, which will be plenty good enough for normal use. That will save a little money and s few watts of power.

With regards to partitioning what were you thinking of doing?

 

[ron2fs]

Hi
Thanks for you comments; re partitioning - I had originally thought of 3 partitions - his, hers and common. However, I have read - and tried to understand - the pros and cons in Wikipedia and have decided against partitions. The choice of graphics card is an attempt to improve definition - old eyes, glasses etc. Also my wife's hobby is photography. My brother's opinion is that I have under-spec'd this item. Hopefully, he is looking for the right choice for me.

many thanks again
Ron

 

[SlickShoes]

What is your budget?

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

My suggestion to drop the GT210 and use on-board was mostly because the 210 is just a bit weedy to justify spending money on it if the processor has on-board. A decent budget card is the ATI7750 or you can go for the similarly priced GT640. I think that will be adequate for your needs.

As for creating multiple partitions bear in mind that you are creating physical borders so files in different partitions cannot be in adjacent sectors, in fact they'll most likely be quite far apart from each other and the heads will have to keep moving between locations to read and write. I'd suggest one partition and have different login accounts to Windows. Your stuff will stay separate anyway and you can always create a shared folder in the root of C: to put things to.

Just remember to regularly back up your important files.

 

[Music Guy123]

Ok, this is my advice! I think this should roughly add up to the same price. Here is what I suggest, if you would like me to explain why I chose these reasons, let me know!

Drop the mobo.
Ditch the GPU for integrated graphics
Get a Caviar Black HDD
Possibly upgrade the cooler to the tripple copper cooler
Upgrade the case to the CM elite 311
Instead of getting a wifi card, I would strongly recommend homeplugs.

Otherwise, I think that should be fine for you

 

[ron2fs]

Hi
many thanks for your suggestions.

I reconfigured my quote - with a budget of about £850; I upped the hard disk to 1tb (no partitions!), but would like to have 6 usbs; only four shows on the configure list from pcspecialist. This is how my spec looks now:

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 640 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£134)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

 

[Music Guy123]

Looks good to me !

I would still definately recommend a caviar black though as your main drive.
The other thing I would recommend is homeplugs over the wireless card, they are much more reliable!