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Suggestions for a new build on $1000 budget

1

100Core

Member
Hello all,

I just got asked by a coworker to build him a new smokin' fast computer. He gave me a $1000 budget and he already has a moniter. Sweet! I accepted gladly of course, what fun!

I thought I would check out what you guys thought before I placed my order. I have basically deciding between two paths, i7 or not i7. I could easily build an i7 system for less than a grand, but I was thinking it might be worth it to stick to socket775 and use the extra cash for a super fast Intel SSD. What do you guys think? These are my two possible builds:

i7 build - $1000

i7 920 OC'd to 3.5
Asus P6t
Corsair 6gb DDR3 1600
WD - 500Gb 7200rpm (for OS + media)

or....

IC2 build - $1000

Q9550 OC'd to 3.5
GB-EP45-UD3L
Corsair 8GB DDR2 1066
Intel X25-M 80Gb (for OS)
WD - 320Gb 7200 (for media)

From what I gathered, no gaming will be done on this PC (hes a doctor and it will be his personal comp in his office). My goal is to maximize performance for basic programs including IE, Office, Outlook, etc.

So the way I see it, the difference in processors is more or less negligable. The i7 is obviously supperior, but I feel like the bottleneck will not be dependent on the processor. Is this a fair assumption? Where is the bottleneck most like to occur?

The ram is also superior on the i7 build, but again, how important is this for overall productivity?

On my personal computer, which is more or less the second system mentioned here, I find myself constantly slowed down by my 7200rpm hard drive. If i had a choice, I think i would upgrade to the super-fast Intel SSD's before I got an i7 system. How bout you guys?

Any light you could shine on the pros/cons of these builds would be great as well!

Thank you ahead of time for your input

 
I'd go with the Q9550 build, sure it's not top tech but what you list as his needs I feel even the Q9550 far exceeds. I just got a Phenom II 940 Friday, and I honestly feel there was little reason to purchase it as I see almost no performance difference using that in a Win7 build compared to my Phenom 9850 powered Vista build. I'm talking general use, load times, etc. Personally I think there will be a better performance increase that is actually noticeable with the SSD than with the I7.

I also don't get why your going to overclock the processor, just makes no sense to me on an office machine.
 
1. the Q9550 is overpriced as hell
2. I would be hesistant to overclock someone elses computer, especially a non tech who needs everything tip top (like, say, a doctor).
3. i7 has very little difference in GAMES, it DOES make a big difference in general programs like the ones you listed.
4. there is no reason to get DDR2-1066 or DDR3-1600, cut that down. going from DDR3-1600 to -1333 you lose slightly LESS THAN ONE PERCENT! of performance... just one.
5. you can save some money on a vertex.
6. if you do some minor cutting you can have the best of both worlds... an i7 system with 3x2GB DDR3-1333, and a cheap mobo, and a VERTEX instead of an intel... both SSD and i7
7. just because he says his budget is 1000$ doesn't mean he needs to be at EXACTLY 1000$, if he saves 200$ he might be happy...
8. Make a few build suggestions at different price points around 1000$, and then show them to him and give him a general idea of what is faster and in what it is faster, and let him choose.
 
Alright, valid points. Regarding the Overclocking, I wasn't completely set on this, but why not do it? I have my system running at 4.1 and its completely stable, Im positive i can get 3.2Ghz - 3.5Ghz 100% stable with no risk of crashing or whatever, so why not? It should give it a little boost, and the lifespan on the processor is long enough...

I disagree that the q9550 is overpriced. with double the cache of a 9400, i think its a pretty solid buy. Its price similarity to the i7 I think is a reflection on the i7 being Underpriced so that it is accessable to the average consumer (especially with the mobo/ddr3 expenses)

And why cut down ddr2-1066?, there's literally a $5 difference from the 800 on several models.

Im not familiar with the Vertex, but my understanding was that the X25-M was a head above the rest (tomshardware, others...). I'll definately look more into this though, thank you

I admit that this build is excessive for his needs, but i know this guy, and he appreciates luxuries like this... he was insistent on making it a monster... I was planning on giving him a few options in price ranges between 800-1000, but bigger decisions like this i think I'll decide for him.

So so far Im leaning towards the Q9550/SSD build, any objections? Anyone think the i7/ddr3 is more valuable than a high-end ssd?


 
Why not overclock it? Because you're building this system for somebody else who's not a relative and obviously not very tech savvy himself. Have fun when his system fails for ANY reason as he will always be able to blame it on your overclock and ultimately has the right to charge you for anything that went wrong. Are you in a business of any kind? I suspect not because overclocking PCs that you build for a job is absolutely taboo.

Furthermore, no, I do not think you should invest in Core i7 rather than a fast SSD. However, I don't think you should invest in a fast SSD either. The difference even in Windows 7 isn't as noticeable as you would wish unless you really look for it, which he won't. Especially if you don't play games. Do you think he will notice a 30% time decrease when launching up FireFox, Office or even Photoshop (if he uses it)? No, since the launch time on a modern system is already short to begin with.

Put together a top-end Core 2 Duo system and tell him if he thinks he needs any more than that for regular office use, he's a complete and utter moron and should give you the spare money instead.
 
Is this thread serious? 😕

A. You want to put in a high-end hard drive that is overkill for the stated use

B. You are thinking about overclocking a computer that has no need for it


If he is using it for office work, he will thank you when you save him some cash by getting a long-lasting 1TB 7200RPM HDD.

Q9550 is solid, but probably overkill as well. E8400 is what I would drop in personally.




Seriously...Outlook, IE, etc.....you need to rethink the whole thing, and save your guy some cash.
 
Again, HE WANTS A BEAST SYSTEM. Can you offer anything besides that its overkill?

point taken on the OC. A risk i dont have to take. I'm not building it for profit, just want to hook him up... might as well make the best comp I can right? that would include an OC. I guess I dont realize how big a risk OC'ing is. I personally have never had a problem in the handful of builds ive made.


Is the condescending tone necessary?
 
SSDs are still being improved.

Regular HD's on the other hand are getting larger.

You need to think do you have the storage capacity for a SSD?

i7 is great, most likely very future proof, has 8 workable threads, and 4 cores.

The 920 D0 can most likely do 4ghz with a good board with acceptable heat levels, if you change to an after market sink.

I would look at a gigabyte board, UD4P series, as there built more durable then ASSUS. (sorry i have a peeve with ASUS lately, and im an ASUS owner also)

For the ram, i highly doubt you'll need more then 3 x 2gigs, and its fairly cheap right now.

Everyone will say its overkill, so the guy on this forum who has the most overkill computer (ME) is gonna say, good luck with your NICE build. 😛

dont look at lga775. Its a dying and soon to be dead platform. Why would you want to upgrade your friend on a platform thats been outdated?
 
Originally posted by: 100Core
Again, HE WANTS A BEAST SYSTEM. Can you offer anything besides that its overkill?

point taken on the OC. A risk i dont have to take. I'm not building it for profit, just want to hook him up... might as well make the best comp I can right? that would include an OC. I guess I dont realize how big a risk OC'ing is. I personally have never had a problem in the handful of builds ive made.


Is the condescending tone necessary?
Click to expand...

A beast system for outlook and IE means a E8400, a 1TB drive, and a $40 GPU. Anything more than that and you are doing him a disservice, sorry.
 
Originally posted by: OCguy
Originally posted by: 100Core
Again, HE WANTS A BEAST SYSTEM. Can you offer anything besides that its overkill?

point taken on the OC. A risk i dont have to take. I'm not building it for profit, just want to hook him up... might as well make the best comp I can right? that would include an OC. I guess I dont realize how big a risk OC'ing is. I personally have never had a problem in the handful of builds ive made.


Is the condescending tone necessary?
Click to expand...

A beast system for outlook and IE means a E8400, a 1TB drive, and a $40 GPU. Anything more than that and you are doing him a disservice, sorry.
Click to expand...

My point exactly.

If you can't convince him that he doesn't need/shouldn't need all this processing power, then fine. Otherwise, if it makes no monetary difference to yourself, convince him to settle on the suggested configurations.
 
I've got a third idea. Go with a lower-level system (CPU+GPU), and spend the rest of the money on HDs, and either a decent mobo with onboard Intel RAID, or a real hardware RAID controller. Give him a nice desktop case like the Antec 300, and fill it with HDs (1 boot/OS drive, and 4-5 HDs for data drives). The reason for the Antec 300, is that it has 6 internal HD bays, and it has two 120mm fans that can be installed to blow over the HDs to keep them cool. Very important feature.

Spend the money on what's important. Perhaps processing performance or video performance is not what you need here. Instead, consider tons of RAID-protected data storage. After all, this is a doctor's office, and his data should be protected.)

Something like a G31 board with onboard video, and an E5200, and a hardware PCI-E raid controller card + HDs, or possibly an EP45-UD3P, an E5200 (or possibly an E8400), and either a hardware PCI-E raid card for the secondary PCI-E slot on that board, or use the onboard Intel RAID.

I honestly would tend to avoid overclocking at all costs on an office machine, but if you do, stick to mild overclocks, like 3.2Ghz on an E5200, or 3.6Ghz on an E8400. Don't try to push balls to the wall. In a similar vein, set RAM timings conservatively.

For a real-world example of that, consider my E2140s @ 3.2Ghz (400x8). They pass every 24hr stress-test known to man, but they spontainously reboot after a number of days. I don't know why, and I'm in the middle of testing, but I've been running it at 350x8 (2.8Ghz), and so far it hasn't rebooted after 15 days. I need to test for 50 days before I'll declare it stable at that speed, since last time at 400x8, it rebooted at 28 days.
 

My point exactly. If you can't convince him that he doesn't need/shouldn't need all this processing power, then fine. Otherwise, if it makes no monetary difference to yourself, convince him to settle on the suggested configurations.
Click to expand...

what suggested configurations? you and OCguy are too busy talking about how stupid this thread is...

So far, Ive recieved one vote for Q9550, and two votes for the i7 system. Thank you for your input. The i7 is looking more and more appealing.

OCguy, is it unheard of for someone to want the latest and greatest? It doesnt matter that he isnt a video editor, he wants to blow $1000 on a computer. Im not doing him a disservice, Im doing what he asked me to do. He and I already had the overkill discussion... Ive tried to make this as clear as possible. Theres no need for you to mock the thread and talk about something completely different. If you dont have a suggestion, then just resist the urge to post.
 
Originally posted by: 100Core
Alright, valid points. Regarding the Overclocking, I wasn't completely set on this, but why not do it? I have my system running at 4.1 and its completely stable, Im positive i can get 3.2Ghz - 3.5Ghz 100% stable with no risk of crashing or whatever, so why not? It should give it a little boost, and the lifespan on the processor is long enough...

I disagree that the q9550 is overpriced. with double the cache of a 9400, i think its a pretty solid buy. Its price similarity to the i7 I think is a reflection on the i7 being Underpriced so that it is accessable to the average consumer (especially with the mobo/ddr3 expenses)

And why cut down ddr2-1066?, there's literally a $5 difference from the 800 on several models.

Im not familiar with the Vertex, but my understanding was that the X25-M was a head above the rest (tomshardware, others...). I'll definately look more into this though, thank you

I admit that this build is excessive for his needs, but i know this guy, and he appreciates luxuries like this... he was insistent on making it a monster... I was planning on giving him a few options in price ranges between 800-1000, but bigger decisions like this i think I'll decide for him.

So so far Im leaning towards the Q9550/SSD build, any objections? Anyone think the i7/ddr3 is more valuable than a high-end ssd?
Click to expand...

You never overclock a production machine. Especially one used in a mission critical environment like a Doctors office.

Overclocking puts extra stress on the components and could lead to stability issues down the line and may shorten the life of the PC.

I vote i7, skip the SSD since the technology is too new and may backfire in a business environment. and just use Intel onboard graphics since he will be using it in a office environment. You don't build a gaming machine for a office environment and you don't use cutting edge tech like SSD's.
 
VirtualLarry, thats a great point. Im not completely up to speed on Raiding, but ill learn.

He mentioned that huge storage was not necessary, but that protected data is a plus. Ill look into good data back-up options...

Definately a mild OC if any at all, thank you.

So Ill rethink how much processing power I can afford considering the data-back up neccessity.

so maybe something like

Q8200/EP45-UD3P/Intel SSD for OS/500gb 7200rpm / second 500gb 7200 for back up/8800 gt 512mb (spare I have not being used)

or...

i7920/EX58-UD/500gb 7200rpm / second 500gb 7200 for back up / 8800gt 512mb
 
Originally posted by: 100Core

My point exactly. If you can't convince him that he doesn't need/shouldn't need all this processing power, then fine. Otherwise, if it makes no monetary difference to yourself, convince him to settle on the suggested configurations.
Click to expand...

what suggested configurations? you and OCguy are too busy talking about how stupid this thread is...

So far, Ive recieved one vote for Q9550, and two votes for the i7 system. Thank you for your input. The i7 is looking more and more appealing.

OCguy, is it unheard of for someone to want the latest and greatest? It doesnt matter that he isnt a video editor, he wants to blow $1000 on a computer. Im not doing him a disservice, Im doing what he asked me to do. He and I already had the overkill discussion... Ive tried to make this as clear as possible. Theres no need for you to mock the thread and talk about something completely different. If you dont have a suggestion, then just resist the urge to post.
Click to expand...

Um, we suggested to you that you build a top-end Core 2 Duo machine instead of a quad-core based system. The E8400 was a more precise recommendation but as it's in the budget I'd just go with the fastest dual core ever built, the E8600. Couple that with two WD 1TB Blacks in Raid 1 (for obvious reasons...you said what your client does but apparently you are oblivious to it). The rest is up to your personal preference (e.g. ASUS or Gigabyte...). If he wants Win7 in the future I also recommend 4GB of RAM. That will be plenty for 32bit.

And I'm sorry to break it to you but you obviously don't know what you are doing, so next time do your homework when you're building a PC for something as sensitive as a doctor's office machine. This isn't your buddys gaming rig. I put together mass computer specs and designed network infrastructure for lawfirms, and if I approached them with a Core i7 + SSD Raid 0 config, they would not only fire me, but most likely ruin my reputation and chance at any new position in this industry.
 
I havent built the PC yet, I am doing my homework by reading/forum posting, am I not?

So apparently I should tell this guy that hes a moron, and that I will only build him a speedy dual core system
 
Originally posted by: jandlecack
Um, we suggested to you that you build a top-end Core 2 Duo machine instead of a quad-core based system. The E8400 was a more precise recommendation but as it's in the budget I'd just go with the fastest dual core ever built, the E8600. Couple that with two WD 1TB Blacks in Raid 1 (for obvious reasons...you said what your client does but apparently you are oblivious to it). The rest is up to your personal preference (e.g. ASUS or Gigabyte...). If he wants Win7 in the future I also recommend 4GB of RAM. That will be plenty for 32bit.

And I'm sorry to break it to you but you obviously don't know what you are doing, so next time do your homework when you're building a PC for something as sensitive as a doctor's office machine. This isn't your buddys gaming rig. I put together mass computer specs and designed network infrastructure for lawfirms, and if I approached them with a Core i7 + SSD Raid 0 config, they would not only fire me, but most likely ruin my reputation and chance at any new position in this industry.
Click to expand...

This!

:thumbsup:

I retract the i7 and suggest this with no SSD and two TB drives in RAID 1.
 
Antec 300 $55 free ship
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P $115 AR + ship
GSkill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15 2.0v $59 free ship
Intel E5200 retail 2.5Ghz 2MB L2 800FSB $70 free ship
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU $70 free ship
Asus 3450 512MB DVI/HDMI/VGA $23 AR free ship

$392 so far for the base components, all you need to add are drives.

This rig could also be turned into a gaming rig, just by dropping in a more powerful CPU (or overclocking the E5200), and a graphics card.
You could also drop in a Blu-Ray reader, and DVD burner drive.

WD 1TB Black (OS drive) $100 free ship
5x WD 1TB Green (data drives) $93x5 = $465 free ship

There you go, a nice RAID5 build for under $1000, with 4TB+1TB HD space.

Edit: needs a DVD burner, and a couple of 120mm fans. Still have $43 left in budget for those.
Samsung 22X SATA DVD burner $25 free ship
$18 left for a pair of case fans. Newegg has a whole list of them, some with free shipping. Pick out your CFM rating and noise ratings to suit.

Edit: Could go with one less data drive, and spend that money on a 1.5TB external HD.
 
Originally posted by: 100Core
I havent built the PC yet, I am doing my homework right now, am I not?

So apparently I should tell this guy that hes a moron, and that I will only build him a speedy dual core system
Click to expand...

You don't tell him he is moron. You tell him this is the best solution for the type of environment he is working in. You also tell him that the redundancy of the mirrored drives will protect his data in case of drive failure.

I also suggest a external backup drive to be used once a week and moved off site in case of natural disaster.
 
Originally posted by: 100Core
I havent built the PC yet, I am doing my homework by reading/forum posting, am I not?

So apparently I should tell this guy that hes a moron, and that I will only build him a speedy dual core system
Click to expand...

It's good that you're willing to get second opinions but we've been telling you to change your plans several times now and when you just block it out I don't get why you even ask, so I have to say if you want to do it the right way you need to be more open to suggestions as you admitted you don't have that much experience with this type of system.

Don't call him a moron, just explain to him why spending that much on processing power will not be beneficial to what he plans to do with the machine. If he was using applications 4 years from now for office work, their demands will not have gone up so significantly that he would be able to tell the difference from using them on a Core i7 rig or a C2D rig, especially as layman.

As aforementioned if he insists then it's not up to you but I would definitely make sure of it before settling on any configuration, so that you know the ballpark more precisely. Then you can go in-depth and select components.
 
I didn't read others' postings, but if someone asked me to build/find a system for $1000 I'd get him a Dell Studio XPS ($999)

That thing comes with i7 920, 6GB tri-channel, 750GB HDD, HD 4850 or 9800 GT, etc.. You really can't beat that deal even if you shop at the Egg. Sure it must have proprietary OEM stuff (like PSU) and upgrades may be limited, but if it's for a Joe-six doctor then does it really matter? Plus it comes with a base warranty, and no hassle to trouble-shoot. If something goes wrong -> tell him to call Dell.
 
i'd go with a low power athlon 64 x2, on board graphics, mirrored hard drives, and a nice larger 24-27 inch monitor. Seems a doctor may have use for a large monitor and a reliable HD system, as opposed to the other things that were mentioned.

If he already has a nice monitor, I say double up. Having two screens makes you look busy and professional 🙂
 
OP, does your doctor friend view many X-rays ( or CT or any imaging file - in DICOM format of course, not jpg or any regular image file format) at once on the computer often? If so, I'd consider advising him to get a machine with plenty of RAM ( 4GB +), and two good IPS monitors (very, very helpful, especially if you're working on a CT or MR scan images). Processor wise, go for the i7 - even if the viewing software can't spawn more than 2 threads, the i7 with turbo on ( 2.8GHz) is very similarly clocked to the Q9550 ( 2.83GHz), and i7 has greater IPC than core 2 ( in most cases, anyway). But if I were your friend, I'd prioritise RAM and more so the monitors over the CPU - an E8400 should be more than enough unless he opens 10 images at once like radiologists do ( in which case he'd need a dual socket system to be comfortable).

 
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