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Need a good system builder recommendation

B

boing

Senior member
My dad needs a new desktop for moderate photoshop work and emailing, I said I would put something together for him around the £400 mark but having looked at a few pre-built systems it seems like I'm not gong to be able to save much/get a better spec by building it myself. I don't really want to go to the hassle of ordering everything from different locations and building the thing just to save £20....

After nearly ordering a system from Mesh.com then reading a barrage of terrible reviews at the last minute I thought I'd get some recommendations on decent sites that will build and deliver to the UK (Northern Ireland)

Can anyone recommend anything?
 
Exactly what is included in that £400 budget? Just the tower, or do you also need to buy any peripherals? Do you have the OS covered?
 
He's on an old 2005 laptop at the minute so I told him I'd donate an old monitor keyboard and mouse, he needs the tower and internals.

He's a photographer and does a bit of minor adjustments to pics so he doesn't need a lot of horsepower but because he's moving and opening a lot of RAW files and pics he needs USB 3.0 for his card reader and backup drive and a decent lump of RAM.

Off the top of my head I thought the spec below would get the job done.

CPU - Core i3 4130/4340.
GPU - Integrated graphics.
RAM - 8Gb DDR3.
HD - 1Tb SATA3 HDD.
MB - I thought an H81 chipset board would cover as he won't need a graphics card and only needs 2 USB 3 ports.
PSU - 400W.
OS - Win 7 64 bit.
Audio - Integrated.
Case - dependent on MB form factor.

As I say I think this is easily doable for £400 but if I can get something decent off the shelf it'll avoid the hassle of sourcing everything and building it all.
 
Yeah that looks about right. I'd get a board with internal USB 3.0 so he can connect the card reader into the case front panel. I don't think the i3-4340 is worth it over the 4130. But I would try to fit in a small SSD, it'll make working with Photoshop, along with everything else really, a bit more responsive and fluid.

e.g.

i3-4130 £80
MSI H81M-E33 V2 £39
Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB £55
Seagate 1TB £42
1x8GB kingston hyperx 1600Mhz £55 (leaves one slot free)
XFX 450W £35
Cooler Master N200 £33
Win 7 64 £70

= £409 + shipping

I thought an H81 chipset board would cover as he won't need a graphics card and only needs 2 USB 3 ports.
Click to expand...
A h81 chipset board can handle a graphics card the same as any other.

Case - dependent on MB form factor.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. You can get a microATX board and put it in an ATX case if you wish. The CM N200 above is microATX
 
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Thanks for the feedback, I especially appreciate the MB recommendation as I was getting swamped going through the options.

Would it reduce memory bandwidth to only go with 1 stick of RAM? I know Photoshop holds a lot of info in memory especially with a lot of history states.

Also, I haven't heard of XFX for the PSU, are they decent enough?
 
XFX is good stuff; most if not all are Seasonic-manufactured, which is probably the best name out there.

A single stick of RAM might make a minor difference in a benchmark, but I doubt you'd notice it in real-world usage.
 
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