Suggestions for a new build on $1000 budget

[cusideabelincoln]

Here's what I suggest:

1. RAID 1 for whatever drives you decide on. If you go with an SSD, I do suggest the OCZ Vertex since they are a bit cheaper and compete with the Intel ones. I'd also suggest you get a single SSD and a single hard drive and just use software to make sure everything on the SSD is backed up on the hard drive.

2. Might as well get him a quad core. They aren't much more expensive than some of the dual core processors recommended (E8400). But I do agree the Q9550 is overkill for this build; the extra cache makes little difference in office applications and is really most helpful in gaming. The Q8200 is the same price as the E8400 and you can get an AMD 9650 for $120. No reason to not go quad. Operating systems are multithreaded and more programs will join the party over time. Core i7 would be further future proof but definitely much more expensive (due to motherboard costs). I'd say the best bet would be to get a Q8400.

3. You could probably load up on RAM if he's using a 64-bit operating system. The speed of the RAM won't make much of a difference, so get whatever is affordable.

 

[imported_Asianman]

I think your doctor friend probably has more money than common sense
Get him a nice i7 system, rather than closing the upgrade door. Doesn't matter if i7 is hardly faster than lg775 right now, that will probably change in the future. Do without an extravagent graphics card, a $60 9600GT would do, keep the 6GB ram, get a SSD, and do without the other stuff.
What ever you do, do NOT overclock it. The last thing you need is to go to his office everyday and maintain that overclock. there's the loss of warrenty, the extra heat and noise (do not underestimate this in an office) and the fact that every piece of hardware is different. Just because every other person's i7 overclocked well doesn't mean this one definitely will.
Or you can listen to everyone else and pocket that cash for yourself.😀

 

[edplayer]

I'm gonna be the one guy in this thread that says overclock his cpu.

 

[100Core]

Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

 

[jandlecack]

Originally posted by: 100Core
I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

Nobody has, because they aren't in use for long and haven't proven themselves to be as reliable as regular HDDs. That's a risk I wouldn't want in my office.

Other than that sounds pretty good.

 

[100Core]

Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

 

[100Core]

thanks everyone for the input!

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: 100Core
Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

who gave you that idea? low quality ssds are too SLOW for office environment, not too unreliable. and that is why you buy a HIGH QUALITY SSD, like the vertex or intel (i have not seen any reviews of the falcons but it SHOULD be the same as the vertex due to same controller, but i am not recommending it without some confirmation)...
the high quality ones are much faster than regular drives...

but any SSD is more RELIABLE than a mechanical drive

 

[DarkAmeba]

Originally posted by: 100Core
Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

I am deploying 2 of them in a law firm next week. SSDs have just now reached the point where they could function in an office environment. I use the X25-M at home myself, and I have to disagree with some of the other posters. SSD systems are far snappier and load times are light years shorter. I agree with the other specs you've finally settled on, but I would go raid 5 storage drives with offsite backup and an X25-M or vertex for the OS. Outside of gaming or video work you can feel the difference from an SSD more than just about any other upgrade.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba

Originally posted by: 100Core
Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

I am deploying 2 of them in a law firm next week. SSDs have just now reached the point where they could function in an office environment. I use the X25-M at home myself, and I have to disagree with some of the other posters. SSD systems are far snappier and load times are light years shorter. I agree with the other specs you've finally settled on, but I would go raid 5 storage drives with offsite backup and an X25-M or vertex for the OS. Outside of gaming or video work you can feel the difference from an SSD more than just about any other upgrade.

I haven't noticed a single person who said the intel X25-M is LESS snappy then a regular hard drive, it is one of the only two SSD models to actually be FASTER than a spindle drive in 4K random writes (snappiness), although there are many models which are faster in sequential writes and reads (large file copy from drive A to drive B).
And SSDs only now reached the point in terms of SPEED, they were ALWAYS safe enough in terms of reliability.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba

Originally posted by: 100Core
Alright I think I got it. I think 5TB will be a bit much for his needs, but I will definafely have at least 2 redundent Hard drives. If I can, I'll use the extra cash for either a processor upgrade (like e8400, or maybe q8200), or blue-ray which is an intriguing option as well, I'll get his input there. So regarding the SSD, I guess the conscenses is that it's too new and risky for an office environment? I haven't picked up on them being unreliable, but if you insist...

I am deploying 2 of them in a law firm next week. SSDs have just now reached the point where they could function in an office environment. I use the X25-M at home myself, and I have to disagree with some of the other posters. SSD systems are far snappier and load times are light years shorter. I agree with the other specs you've finally settled on, but I would go raid 5 storage drives with offsite backup and an X25-M or vertex for the OS. Outside of gaming or video work you can feel the difference from an SSD more than just about any other upgrade.

You do know that light years is a measure of distance right?

 

[ShawnD1]

The SSD might be a bad idea due to the size. If this doctor is storing very large amounts of data, a 1TB RAID 1 would work a lot better. It wouldn't be faster, but he will never need to worry about space.

Also, when someone says they want a "fast" computer, that means ram. People with slow computers are not bitching about their frame rate in Quake; it's usually about the computer grinding to a halt when trying to multitask. The computer starts making noise, the hard drive light is flashing, but nothing is happening. This computer is so slow! Not enough ram. I'm thinking you should look for a motherboard that has 4 ram slots so you can do 4 x 2gb = 8gb total.

I also think you should include a UPS with this computer. I've been using this one for about 2 years now and it has saved my butt quite a few times. Remember to look at the watts rating of the power supply. The VA rating means basically nothing.

 

[Idontcare]

I can't be the only one reading this thread and thinking to themselves "dear god, please don't let this be my doctor..."

What sort of professional is operating an office dealing with health issues of their clients and would bring in such a complete unknown external threat vector as an externally built rig, but won't spend more than $1k on it, to use for anything remotely critical to their patient's care?

This isn't a slight against you OP, I'd jump at the chance to spend someone else's money too. But this doctor friend of yours is really taking the fiducial out of fiducial responsibility when it comes to his clients.

Zero controls here to say his rig isn't infested with keylogger and malware (he's just trusting you to be a good guy, wonder if his clients were asked if they have the same trust), zero criterion for data redundancy and backup, etc. The guy who recommend the DELL XPS above was spot on, liability is all on DELL should this guy get sued because one of his patients has their identity stolen and their lawyer paints a trail back to this computer that "doctor's friend built with some forumz advices". Not the kind of liability I'd want on my back to say the least.

Please dear god do not let this guy be my doctor...

Oh, and my vote is for a PhII 940, 8GB DDR2, raid-0 three to four Vertex drives, and any $125 dual-head DVI-out video card. (presumably he's not cranking up Crysis in his office, but dual-monitor support could be useful)

 

[taltamir]

i thought he said his doctor friend wants a GAMING RIG.

But yea if he is cranking up crysis in his office and this IS a computer for his office, then this is really really bad as you said.

There are plenty of people out there which instead of helping them build a machine I just say "get a dell", if this is gonna have his patients records then he should.

PS. i think you mean have their medical history stolen, not identity... medical histories are hot stuff, if you have problems an employer wouldn't want to hire you due to it ruining his insurance premiums.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

I vote i7, skip the SSD since the technology is too new

+1

 

[100Core]

My thoughts on the Dell setup: 1k will get you an entry level i7 system, which is nice, but it could just go so much further self-built. i.e. Vertex/Intel SSD for OS, TB storage drive with a second TB back-up drive, quad cpu, quick ram, etc. And I have full intentions of building a very safe, malware-proof system for this guy. I personally would have no qualms if my doctor had a self-built system....at all. I dont really know the legal legistics of what would happen if delicate info somehow did leak, but im pretty sure he wouldnt be grilled because he hired someone other than dell to build a comp for him. He will have Windows Firewall + Nortan 360... thats fine.

So I am going with my gut on this, and opting for the Vertex SSD, and a 775socket system.

My intended build: (still open for tweaking/suggestions)

Antec300
550W PSU
Q8200
EP45T-UD3P
3x 2Gb DDR3 Corsair-1600
Vertex SSD (for OS+apps)
2x 1TB WD 7200rpm storage drives (1 primary, 1 for backup via software)
LG 22x DVD-Burner
Geforce 8800gt (spare part I already have, but this should be fine right? overkill if anything, but it does offer dual-dvi)
PCI wireless card

I think he will be quite happy with this. It will definately be fast (hopefully he will appreciate the quick boot/load times the SSD can offer), it will have tons of backed-up storage, and it will be able to handle any video tasks he throws at it, and its also pretty upgradeable if that ever becomes neccesary (I've been impressed by the GB EP45 mobo series)

Thanks again for all the suggestions

 

[VirtualLarry]

If he ever plans on running Windows 7, and using the "Virtual XP" feature, you're going to want to use a CPU with VT support. Which means something higher than a Q8200. Supposedly, the Q8400 has VT support added. I know that the Q9400 does, and that's available at Microcenter for $160. (I picked up two of them today.)

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: 100Core
Antec300
550W PSU
Q8200
EP45T-UD3P
3x 2Gb DDR3 Corsair-1600
Vertex SSD (for OS+apps)
2x 1TB WD 7200rpm storage drives (1 primary, 1 for backup via software)
LG 22x DVD-Burner
Geforce 8800gt (spare part I already have, but this should be fine right? overkill if anything, but it does offer dual-dvi)
PCI wireless card

1). I think you should fill the entire 8gb of ram instead of only 6. It's only another $30 but it could extend the life of the computer by quite a bit.

2). The SSD still seems like a waste of money. If you have the OS and apps as part of the RAID 1, you don't really need any more reliability than that. As for speed, it's hard to justify that added cost since most programs (except for 10gb video games) already open in the blink of an eye. I really think you should ask the doctor about this one before buying it. Since he's a wealthy doctor, he might agree to paying an extra $100 to save 3 seconds of load time. Then again you have a $1000 budget to build a "monster" computer, so maybe he's as cheap as I am.

3). You might want to use a weaker graphics card. Even though I'm in cold as hell Canada, I've had a few problems with my 8800GTX video card overheating and crashing the computer when it gets too much dust in it. I don't know where you live, but if you're in a warmer region than me and that computer has any dust problems, it might start crashing and the doctor likely won't understand why. If you sort newegg's video cards by cost, you can find some pretty cheap solutions to this potential problem. $36 fanless ATI or $40 fanless Nvidia.


Other than that I think your system looks really good.

 

[taltamir]

HA, fanless is not a solution to heat problems, it has WORSE heat problems than a fan.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: 100Core
Antec300
550W PSU
Q8200
EP45T-UD3P
3x 2Gb DDR3 Corsair-1600
Vertex SSD (for OS+apps)
2x 1TB WD 7200rpm storage drives (1 primary, 1 for backup via software)
LG 22x DVD-Burner
Geforce 8800gt (spare part I already have, but this should be fine right? overkill if anything, but it does offer dual-dvi)
PCI wireless card

1). I think you should fill the entire 8gb of ram instead of only 6. It's only another $30 but it could extend the life of the computer by quite a bit.

2). The SSD still seems like a waste of money. If you have the OS and apps as part of the RAID 1, you don't really need any more reliability than that. As for speed, it's hard to justify that added cost since most programs (except for 10gb video games) already open in the blink of an eye. I really think you should ask the doctor about this one before buying it. Since he's a wealthy doctor, he might agree to paying an extra $100 to save 3 seconds of load time. Then again you have a $1000 budget to build a "monster" computer, so maybe he's as cheap as I am.

3). You might want to use a weaker graphics card. Even though I'm in cold as hell Canada, I've had a few problems with my 8800GTX video card overheating and crashing the computer when it gets too much dust in it. I don't know where you live, but if you're in a warmer region than me and that computer has any dust problems, it might start crashing and the doctor likely won't understand why. If you sort newegg's video cards by cost, you can find some pretty cheap solutions to this potential problem. $36 fanless ATI or $40 fanless Nvidia.


Other than that I think your system looks really good.

What the hell? If you could tell me how IE and outlook will EVER use more than 3GB of RAM, I will paypal you $50.

No wonder people have 1K PSUs and too much RAM. Some people are so out of touch it is insane...

 

[taltamir]

what if he uses mozilla and chrome with their "save open tabs" feature? i got those to use more than 3GB of ram...

Also... 3x2GB ram is a very bad idea for a dual chanell cpu like the Q8200... so is using DDR3 for that manner. Get DUAL CHANEL (pairs not triplets of ram) DDR2, either 4GB or 8GB... the reason 8GB is better is because that way he will not experience slowdowns in two years when the ram starts to run out. its cheap as hell now anyways.
running three modules forces it to single chanel mode, and will decrease your speed a lot.

Having 100 open tabs in IE does not count.

Why not? have you ever visited a wiki before?, you just keep on opening tabs ...

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: taltamir
what if he uses mozilla and chrome with their "save open tabs" feature? i got those to use more than 3GB of ram...

Also... 3x2GB ram is a very bad idea for a dual chanell cpu like the Q8200... so is using DDR3 for that manner. Get DUAL CHANEL (pairs not triplets of ram) DDR2, either 4GB or 8GB... the reason 8GB is better is because that way he will not experience slowdowns in two years when the ram starts to run out. its cheap as hell now anyways.
running three modules forces it to single chanel mode, and will decrease your speed a lot.

What is going to happen within the next 2 years that will cause an office computer to use over 4GB?


Having 100 open tabs in IE does not count.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: taltamir
running three modules forces it to single chanel mode, and will decrease your speed a lot.

I think you are over-emphasising the effect of memory bandwidth (single vs dual channel). It's usually only a couple of percent. No real reason not to go dual channel, but single isn't a performance killer.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Kind of side topic but you are never really going to use more (at the extreme most) than 30 tabs at once. Anything more and you have them open for the hell of it. In that case, drive your car in circles, just for the hell of it.

And the effect of single-vs-dual channel ram is huge. It is usually a bit more then a couple percent. Also, even it it was a couple percent, its a COUPLE percent. On huge loads that could mean a few minutes. For a doctor, that's huge.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Having 100 open tabs in IE does not count.

Why not? have you ever visited a wiki before?, you just keep on opening tabs ...

I know exactly what you mean...I refer to it as "chasing the rabbit down the rabbit hole". Usually I just find the Mad Hatter at the end, then IE8 crashes and all my tabs are lost.