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Building a system for the head of the company

Liet

Liet

Golden Member
Picture a rich French interior designer / architect whose idea of troubleshooting is either calling you and telling you "it's not working!", or banging his Blackberry against a wall because it's not downloading emails fast enough. That's my boss. For the past few months he's been using an HP Touchscreen, which is an impressive-looking system but runs a bit slow. He's sick of it, and so when I told him I could build a faster, cheaper system, he told me to go ahead... It's an excuse to have some fun on Newegg. 🙂

Bear in mind he only uses AOL (seriously!), and surfs. I figure this should be overkill, but I'd like some thoughts if anyone has any. I'm concerned about the power supply being mounted at the bottom of the case - I've had the same monster full-size case at home for the past 15 years and are unfamiliar with any pitfalls of cases with bottom-mounted PSU housings.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115036

ASUS V-60 92mm Vapo Bearing CPU Cooler - $45 (splurge item - I hate those damned plastic stock Intel heatsink pushpins)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835101011

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128359

mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996587 - $46
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146731

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136260

Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153036

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129025

SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - $29
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151173

Edit (forgot the list the graphics card!):EVGA 512-P3-N975-AR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130380



 
Why not a Q6600 @ 3GHz? As for bottom mounted PSU, I find it actually extends the life of the PSU since it is not sucking in warm air from CPU. But You tend you need to clean it more. The CPU is the only suggestion I have, other than that, it looks good.
 
It's a little embarassing, but I've never overclocked and don't want to start on the president's system. 🙂

It's something I keep meaning to do on my home Q6600, but never get around to it because performance is already stellar, you know? 🙂
 
Buy him a faster HP or Dell.

Otherwise, you're going to be the one providing tech support for the next three years whether you like it or not.

If you decide to ignore this advice, at least cut out some of those too expensive parts. Go for an e5200 + cheap G43/G45 motherboard, WD6400AAKS and a 500W (or less) PSU from one of the dependable makers (Seasonic/Corsair/Antec/PCP&C/OCZ). Throw in a BluRay/DVDRW so he can watch movies on his big-screen HDTV.

If you decide to get the EP45-UD3R don't forget to get a video card. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Denithor
Buy him a faster HP or Dell.

Otherwise, you're going to be the one providing tech support for the next three years whether you like it or not.

If you decide to ignore this advice, at least cut out some of those too expensive parts. Go for an e5200 + cheap G43/G45 motherboard, WD6400AAKS and a 500W (or less) PSU from one of the dependable makers (Seasonic/Corsair/Antec/PCP&C/OCZ). Throw in a BluRay/DVDRW so he can watch movies on his big-screen HDTV.

If you decide to get the EP45-UD3R don't forget to get a video card. 😉
Click to expand...

It seems to me that he's already providing technical support whether he likes it or not.
 
Way, way overkill on the PSU. 400W would be more than plenty for a system like that since any basic video card you buy would have plenty of power.

Since he doesn't need any real video power at all, have you thought about going with a micro-ATX board with integrated video? Then you could even get him a nice compact little case, which sounds like the kind of thing he might be into.
 
Originally posted by: Liet
Picture a rich French interior designer / architect whose idea of troubleshooting is either calling you and telling you "it's not working!", or banging his Blackberry against a wall because it's not downloading emails fast enough.

That's my boss. For the past few months he's been using an HP Touchscreen, which is an impressive-looking system but runs a bit slow. He's sick of it,
Click to expand...
> 24" iMac (3.06GHz) <

 
Originally posted by: zerogear
It seems to me that he's already providing technical support whether he likes it or not.
Click to expand...
100% correct! 🙂 It's a small company; while officially my job is Purchasing, that winds up being 20% of my day. The rest is updating our web site, dealing with odd personal matters for the boss, random troubleshooting for everyone in the company, etc etc. We have a tech support company who handles important things like emails and data backups, but little things fall on me to handle.

The boss spends far too much money on silly things, so I figured when it comes to his system, I might as well spend the little bit extra to ensure that I never have to hear "It's running slow!" again. Money is not really an issue here.
 
Originally posted by: Blain> 24" iMac (3.06GHz) <
Click to expand...
The man's been using AOL for 15 years... there's no way he's going to figure out another OS, and there's no way I want to be the one who has to run upstairs to show him what key to press to eject a CD. 😉

 
This sure seems like "" le piège "" to me.

The cpu speed won't really gain you anything with AOL. I agree with an mATX + and e5200 (or an X2 7750 and 780g). Your Raptor will help load times ... and I guess 4Gb will help with all those AOL open tabs.

Does AOL even have tabs? 😛
 
Tons of RAM, silent case/cooling (big low-speed fans, quiet/passive vidcard), Blu-Ray drive, and maybe even a SSD.

It's an office machine, not a gaming rig. No screaming parts like the stock 9800GT.

Also, a non-TN 24" monitor -- HP LP2475w or Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP... Is this really going to be cheaper?
 
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