Need help selecting parts for an office system

[Indus]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

mainly photoshop and heavy graphic use in the office

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$1300 approx, $1500 at the most

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
I'm thinking this for motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16813128083

And a intel 45nm quad core.

So Gigabyte and Intel


5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Monitor, Speakers, Keyboard, Mouse, Printer

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Stock settings

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

2 weeks


Additional information:

I need something that has very good cooling (not water, but enough to work in 120-125F degree heat with some humidity without problems).

Another thing I require is lots of USB slots and a case where the front USB actually work (had problems with this in the past) and wireless networking capable.

Decent video card and sound card (or onboard sound)

So what do you guys suggest? ($1500 or so should be reasonable, and please suggest good dvd burners too, I don't want coasters at work)

Can you guys suggest the rest?

Thanks a lot.

 

[themisfit610]

Okay, here's question number one - do you need to have a lot of 3d performance? Photoshop will take advantage of Direct3d to a certain extent, but not hugely. If you do lots of 3d work, then get a powerful graphics card. If not, something simple like a Radeon 3650. It's got good performance and is pretty damned cheap.

I usually recommend passive cooling for everyday GPUs for silence's sake, but in your case (given the high temperature environment) active cooling everywhere will be a necessity.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102726

There's a good 3650 with dual DVI and a decent cooler.


Now to the more important bits. Let's start with the case. You require lots of USBs, and specifically some front panel USB ports. No problem, most cases these days have at least two.
The Lian Li PC-K7B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112154

Is a solid case with 3 120mm fans, plenty of room, and a subdued yet attractive appearance. It's not a flashy gamer case, but it's built extremely well, has a removable motherboard tray, and fits the bill nicely. It's also fairly priced at $100.

I would suggest replacing the fans, as the stock fans seem to be weak, at least per the opinions of the newegg reviewers - whatever that's worth. I tend to like Scythe fans, but that's because they're quiet. I'm a big noise freak, so do some of your own research on this subject.

You're planning on using a Gigabyte DS3 and a 45nm quad. You really can't go wrong there. Love it. As far as cooling that sucker - the stock cooler would probably be fine. Though, since you have such high ambient temperatures you might want to invest in a stronger cooler. I have a Scythe Ninja, and love it. There are many CPU coolers to choose from. The Thermalright Ultra 120 (extreme) are well liked by the overclocking community, and they generally know what's what in air cooling - so you can't go wrong there.

RAM - get yourself at least 4 gigs of DDR2. Get a full 8 gigs if you're going to run Photoshop under x64, as Photoshop will do some funky stuff and grab all that extra RAM to use as scratch. I would suggest 64 bit vista, but that's just me DDR2 800 seems to be the cheapest at the moment, and there's no need for anything other than that. Get some modules with a heatspreader on them. They might not do much, but peace of mind is a grand thing.

Storage - This all depends on your needs. For sure get one of the new generation hard drives like the Samsung F1 series. Get at least one, more if you need more space. They're very fast, beating the older Raptors in almost every test.

Power Supply - I am a huge fan of Corsair power supplies. You don't need more than 500W, so a 520HX is a good fit, but again this is an area where I don't want to order you to buy a specific model. There are lots to choose from in this range. The Antec Earthwatts line would probably be just fine as well.

Sound - Onboard. You don't need more unless you're really into audio, and this is a work PC, so I doubt that's a huge priority. If you want silky smooth sound while you're working, grab an external USB sound card like the E-Mu 0202 and roll that puppy with headphones. I take mine with me between work and home. It's _really_ nice.

DVDRW - They're all very good these days to be perfectly honest. My Lite-ON that I've had for 3 years hasn't burned a single coaster ever... So... yeah cdfreaks is a good place to go if you're really into cd burners. They do in-depth comparisons, and really get into the low level stuff that sets optical drives apart. Chances are you'll be fine with whatever you choose.

This system shouldn't cost you anywhere near your budget. Even with 8 gigs of ram, a good CPU cooler and a couple hard drives you should be under budget.

~MiSfit

 

[Indus]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Okay, here's question number one - do you need to have a lot of 3d performance? Photoshop will take advantage of Direct3d to a certain extent, but not hugely. If you do lots of 3d work, then get a powerful graphics card. If not, something simple like a Radeon 3650. It's got good performance and is pretty damned cheap.
~MiSfit

Yes that's fine, don't need one for playing games, just the occasional surfing, movies, some java stuff. Most of this pc's use will be image editing and transforming.

Yes I thought 4 gigs might be good but 8? hmm I planned on using Win XP.

Thanks a lot, keep the suggestions coming

 

[Winterpool]

Wait, 120 to 125 F heat? Is that the ambient temperature you expect in your office? Or what you hope the system itself will be running at? 50 C (which is the range you're talking about) is about the max temp at which computer PSUs are supposed to be operating. 50 C is also a good cpu temp for a contemporary cpu working under moderately heavy load.

I'm not sure most consumer parts will work very well (or very long) at 50 C. Maybe a Toughbook or something else specially constructed...

Is your office in the Green Zone?

 

[Indus]

125F is the ambient heat outside. It'll be a bit cooler inside and hopefully with an Air Conditioner but still I want to take care that if I have to run it with a generator in the high heat and without the air conditioner, it'll still work ok.

I'd like to cool it to about 100 F or lower if possible on Air. I looked into the Scythe Ninja and that seems fine.

 

[Indus]

So how is this?

Case: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16811112154
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817194009 (it needed to be 220v compatible as well)
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16813128083
Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16819115043
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16835185038
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16820231145
Video card: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16814150252
Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16822136218
Burner: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16827151153
O/S: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16832116056

 

[Winterpool]

So is it Dubai, Djibouti, or Da Green Zone? Ha...

Anyhow, most of the parts look fine, but I am no expert on kit for extreme conditions. If the ambient temperature in your office ever does reach 50 C... well, personally, I'd probably shut off the computer (the cpu will probably cross the 70 C danger threshold under any load). The fans are just going to push more hot air through your computer at that point.

You may want to look up sites like SilentPC Review to get a good idea how well a case cools or a power supply works at max rated temp (usually 50 C, ugh). Enermax has a decent rep, but I don't generally see them mentioned in the same breath as Seasonic, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, etc. Spend some time in the case/cooling and power supply forums on this and other sites to get more raw data...

Storage Review has data on the power and heat levels of different hard drives. Western Digitals do tend to run cooler than Seagates, helas (I'm a Seagate man owing to their warranties). That two-platter WD may run fairly cool, though I've not yet read any reviews yet. By the way, if you're doing a lot of heavy editing, you'll probably need more than one hard drive.

You don't appear to need a GeForce 8800 GT. And even if you did play a modern game on it, the default coolers on those cards are inadequate, especially for the climate you're describing. So I'd definitely look at another card, probably less powerful, definitely better cooled. Your video card, not your cpu, is probably going to be the hottest component in your system. Also, I believe that the ATi 3850 and 3870 run cooler at idle than the nVidia midrange cards.

Perhaps those more experienced than I could chime in on the heat of a quadcore (even a Penryn) versus, say, an E8400. If a top-of-the-line dualcore is sufficient for your processing needs, I suspect it will give off less heat than a quad.

 

[Indus]

Its for Las Vegas (home) , Korea, Green Zone and possibly other parts of Iraq if you must know, I just want to be sure it'll work ok if air conditioning isn't available.

The only reason I selected that card was because of HDCP and 2 dvi outputs. I couldn't find that on the ATI cards I looked at but you're welcome to suggest me something.

I am also looking at this for case but its a bit too much for my budget I think: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119103