New Office Rig

[Bob002]

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

Photoshop and InDesign probably 80%+ of the time.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

I don't have a set one. Getting feelers, but let's say around a grand. Could probably go more, but the last few built computers have been about that much and my boss mentioned cheaper.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

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

Probably everything but the monitor. Mobo, proc, fans, hdd, optical, GB NIC, RAM, Video Card, case
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

No.
6) Will you be overclocking?

No.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

23 inch Sony; no on the resolution.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Probably within a month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

Nothing that I know. Have no external peripherals beyond kb/mouse and an occasional external drive.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

No. Previous build was with an OEM version of XP in ~2005

Below is a screen of the current computer. Whilst everything seems so-so, it just literally drags ass anymore. Taking forever to shutdown or restart. Might be due to defrag, I'm not sure. But that also doesn't change the fact that it's going on ~6 year old equipment, either.

This might also be a case where a box store computer might work. I don't necessarily love the idea of being on the hook if something goes down. At the same time, I'm wary of all the bloatware that is the norm with said computers, as well.

 

[bigted]

an i7 920 build is not going to be as old as you are thinking, this is a pretty darn good processor to this day still. if you are having problems shuttind down and restarting, there is probably a process preventing something on the OS side.

Just based on that screenshot, i would recommend 3 things:

1) Upgrade to SSD
2) Throw in at least 6gbs RAM
3) Get Win7 x64 or some other 64-bit OS

now that i look at the name of the"registered to" being "New_Core2" it seems this PC was updated within the last 3 years from a Core2Duo build and the HDD was re-used.

going from that, first step before the ones i mentioned and before you upgrade the whole thing would be to give the OS a re-install, might have some bunk drivers from the old build getting in the way.

 

[THUMPer]

i7 is good.
I concur. SSD, or different mechanical Hard Drive. 500GB Black or so.
Win 7 x64
RAM.

 

[Dangman]

I have concur with bigted's recommendations. Upgrading to a SSD like the Samsung 840 Pro, Crucial M4, Plextor M5P, Or Intel 530 series would make a big difference in performance.

Find what motherboards is in that PC. Use CPU-Z to find out.

 

[tiraides]

See if you could find something that can confirm the native (if not maximum) resolution your monitor uses.

 

[Bob002]

an i7 920 build is not going to be as old as you are thinking, this is a pretty darn good processor to this day still. if you are having problems shuttind down and restarting, there is probably a process preventing something on the OS side.

Just based on that screenshot, i would recommend 3 things:

1) Upgrade to SSD
2) Throw in at least 6gbs RAM
3) Get Win7 x64 or some other 64-bit OS

now that i look at the name of the"registered to" being "New_Core2" it seems this PC was updated within the last 3 years from a Core2Duo build and the HDD was re-used.

going from that, first step before the ones i mentioned and before you upgrade the whole thing would be to give the OS a re-install, might have some bunk drivers from the old build getting in the way.

I don't know that SSD will be that big of a performance upgrade, but then again, it might be.

As far as I'm aware, the computer was a complete rebuild; HDD included. I think the vid card might be an issue too, depending on what is in it. I have like 4 different sheets sitting here for builds, and they are all using 256MB cards. I don't remember when exactly it was done at this point. And I can't find enough information to say when everything was done. I have 4 sheets here; one with an 05 date and two with an 06 date. The other is just a word document so it doesn't have a date on it.

We generally don't do any sort of heavy/huge graphics work in photoshop. The majority is done in InDesign. So I'm assuming a better vid card would probably help as well?

i7 is good.
I concur. SSD, or different mechanical Hard Drive. 500GB Black or so.
Win 7 x64
RAM.

I don't know that I like upgrading to Win7 simply because it'll be the only machine, BUT I'm also not opposed to it.

I have concur with bigted's recommendations. Upgrading to a SSD like the Samsung 840 Pro, Crucial M4, Plextor M5P, Or Intel 530 series would make a big difference in performance.

Find what motherboards is in that PC. Use CPU-Z to find out.

I probably could have found out; I was just time pressed at the time I posted this thread. I'll look in the next few days to give more details.

See if you could find something that can confirm the native (if not maximum) resolution your monitor uses.

I was time pressed it's a Sony SDM-P234. Max is 1920 x 1200. Let me put it this way. When I started here, the manager was using a non WS resolution. I changed it. She freaked out. It looked like ass and hurt my eyes. Just to glance at it.

 

[Bob002]

Specs/Info using Speccy.

Seems this was built in 08. I think there might be a couple other things at play, as well (software-wise) that I'm going to check on in a moment.

But, if anyone has suggestions on even some upgrades, the boss was much more receptive to that vs building a new comp.

 

[Dangman]

One piece of info missing: What power supply do you Have? You May Have to open up the PC to find out what exact power supply is in there.