Graphic Design Build help

[NobleX13]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Adobe Creative Suite 5, Maya rendering, etc.​

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$650, shipping/tax included.​

3) Where do you live?

Wayne, NE​

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

CPU, RAM, GPU, Optical Drive, Power Supply, case as an afterthought​

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

I will be reusing two 7200 RPM Samsung 1TB hard drives, and a case if necessary.​

6) Will you be overclocking?

Moderately, just enough to squeeze out a few more FPS.​

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

Something adequate but not overkill, probably in the 20-22" range.​

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Within the next three weeks.​

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

I need RAID, but not crossfire/sli.​

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?

I have Windows 7 64-bit ready to go.​

In addition to those questions, here are some more thoughts of mine for this rig:

• This isn't for me, so no gaming will happen on this computer. As such, I figure a decent card that will accellerate maya/CS5 will do the job.
• As far as CPU choice goes, I would probably go AMD. The person this is for is going from a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo Dell laptop to this, so she won't know what she's missing.
• I also have an Abit Fata1ity Socket 775 board laying around, but I would rather not give her a used mainboard that's out of warranty.
• In my opinion, she needs 4GB of ram to start, with two more slots for upgradeability.

 

[tiraides]

I have a few more questions....

Which specific case and (model name/number) HDDs are you reusing?

Are you buying the monitor separately?

What will you(r friend) use RAID for?

 

[NobleX13]

I forgot to include the monitor in the above questionnaire; but yes, a monitor is necessary as well. Something inexpensive is more favorable than an S-IPS with better color accuracy. The hard drives are two Samsung 1TB HD102UJ 7200 RPM drives, and the RAID0 is for increased sequential write speeds, for the occasional bit of video editing.

 

[bpizzle1]

Bah, I had a nice Phenom II x6 system put together for you, but now I see you need a monitor too....back to the drawing board....

In all seriousness though, if you need a monitor as well, you're not going to get a whole lot with a $600 budget (you basically get $400 for the actual PC). You may want to talk to your friend to see if she is willing to up the budget at all. It's understandable if they can't but make sure you explain the limitations of the current budget. For design work she will definitely appreciate any extra horsepower that you can squeeze in.

If the budget is definitely a firm $600, you probably want to also consider looking at some Dells or other pre-built systems. Advantage is you'll get a monitor going this route. Downside is that you probably won't be getting a decent video card.

 

[NobleX13]

I've been looking over some builds on newegg and and am pretty close to her budget at the moment; as I got a 9600 GSO purchased secondhand for cheap, which meets the recommendation from Adobe. I had no issues with my ASROCK 770 EXTREME3, so I might pick one of their matx boards for this build that supports 125 Watt CPU. Also, I am almost dead-set on Phenom II X6 right now, as they are a good value for rendering/encoding.

 

[Dangman]

Since the build time isn't for another three weeks, hit/bump this thread up again in about a week and half. By then, Newegg's new combo deals should be out and therefore save your friend a lot of money.