Development/Design PC specs advice

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Dm7

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I need to buy a relatively "budget" PC for work. The applications I'll primarily be using are Photoshop and Illustrator CS5, Visual Studio 2010 and one of the PHP IDEs. I'll also have several different browsers open at the same time. So it needn't be a "beast" gaming machine. The only game I'll use it for will be Starcraft II and maybe the new Age of Empires. Running Ableton Live easily would be a bonus.

I haven't looked at PC components for ages, but could I get something decent for around 5k (excluding a monitor)?

I'm guessing an AMD CPU and motherboard would be the way to go, and it would be better to get a decent power supply.

Is 5k too low for a decent work machine? I could go a bitter higher, but also need to get a legal copy of Win7 Professional 64-bit.

Thanks in advance.
 
Go for an intel i3 (its a "latest" CPU plus Intel core i-series kicks AMD in heat management, reliability, power usage and a pletora of other bus related things - yet AMD make better gfx cards)) with 4 Gigs RAM.

Something like this: http://computersonly.co.za/gaming_pc.aspx?categoryid=37293 (TOP LEFT = R4300 - use the balance to get bigger Hard drive. If you are gonna run ableton, ilustrator and VC at the same time, you probably should get 4 more gigs RAM otherwise rather get better (1Gb) AMD gfx card. )

Even with an extra drive and 1Gb gfx card the PSU should only be pushing 350 - 400 Watts. So some room for more hardware upgrades for the PSU in the example link.
 
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I have always believed that you get more bang for your $$ by going AMD, especially since the apps mentioned can use multi-processors.

I agree on the minimum 4 GB RAM & a graphics card of 1GB.

Dual monitors would be better than good, but are beyond your current budget.
 
I suggest doing a quick forum search for new PC builds. A lot of community advice is littered in the threads of history.
 
you mention VS2010. what type of development are you planning on doing? if it is your general type applications my little SU7300 (which is the older dual core cpu's) processor with 4gb of ram is not performing too badly actually. however if you are considering sharepoint dev in future, a budget pc wont quite cut it, especially if you are going to run virtual machines.
 
Thanks for the replies.

stricken said:
Something like this: http://computersonly.co.za/gaming_pc.aspx?categoryid=37293 (TOP LEFT = R4300 - use the balance to get bigger Hard drive. If you are gonna run ableton, ilustrator and VC at the same time, you probably should get 4 more gigs RAM otherwise rather get better (1Gb) AMD gfx card. )
Click to expand...

That looks pretty good for its price. When I use Ableton I won't be running it with any other apps open.

Nefertiti said:
you mention VS2010. what type of development are you planning on doing? if it is your general type applications my little SU7300 (which is the older dual core cpu's) processor with 4gb of ram is not performing too badly actually. however if you are considering sharepoint dev in future, a budget pc wont quite cut it, especially if you are going to run virtual machines.
Click to expand...

Will be using VS2010 mostly for ASP.NET and some WinForms/WPF stuff. No Sharepoint.
 
Visual Studio & CS5 simply won't work on a budget CPU & graphics card.
These applications that you're using are quite expensive, so you should also fork out a decent amount on your PC...

Something that I'd recommend would be:
Intel Core i5 2400 ~ R1600
H61 chipset motherboard ~ R800
2x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz 1.5V RAM kit ~ R650
HD 5770 1GB ~ R1000
MUKii Asroc 470W / Corsair CX430W ~ R450 * You can actually go for the MUKii Asroc 400W ( 12v: 264w/22A ) which retails for under R300.
Coolermaster RC-343 case ~ R260
WD Caviar Black 1TB ~ R550
Shipping ~ R200
Total: ~R5500
* Prices was estimates from Wootware & Rebeltech.

For only a few hundred more, you can really up your CPU performance by getting an i5 2500k, P67 chipset motherboard and like a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ cooler so that you can overclock the CPU to 4 - 4.5GHz.

If you have to join a Windows Domain, then you'll need at least Windows 7 Pro x64, otherwise Home Premium x64 would suffice.
 
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Pada said:
Visual Studio & CS5 simply won't work on a budget CPU & graphics card.
These applications that you're using are quite expensive, so you should also fork out a decent amount on your PC...
Click to expand...

I'd normally look at spending more on a PC, but I'm facing a bit of a cashflow problem.

Those specs are nice though.
 
How does this look? Prices from rebeltech:

Intel Sandybridge lga1155 i5-2500 - Quad core R1,732.52
Coolermaster RC-343-KKN1 R257.60
Western Digital caviar blacK WD7502AAEX , 750gb R570.31
Sapphire HD5770 R1,196.94
Corsair CX430 , Eps12V , ATX 12V V2.3 - 430w R425.34
Intel P67DE Deer flat Retail pack ; LGA1155 mb R945.33
Corsair CMV8GX3M2A1333C9 , value select , 4Gb x 2 R555.94

Total (without shipping): R5,683.98

Is that value select RAM decent?
 
For Photoshop I would get two HD 7200RPM drives.
 
nfbs said:
For Photoshop I would get two HD 7200RPM drives.
Click to expand...

I can add a second drive at a later stage. Just looking for opinions on those components, it's been a long time since I built/bought a PC.
 
You could perhaps save a few bucks by going for the HD6750 graphics card instead.
That Corsair memory is fine, as long as its rated for 1.5V.

If you're not going for the i5 2500k, then an H67/H61 chipset motherboard would suffice. The H61 chipsets really lack features.

You could also save a few more bucks by going for the MUKii Asroc 400W, which retails for under R300, but then its fan might be running loud when the PC is under full load.

I most definitely won't get 2x 7200rpm drives. Rather just get a SSD instead - eg. ADATA S511 60GB SSD (max speeds: 550MB/s read & 500MB/s write )
 
Another recommendation:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA1155 32nm Quad-Core - Retail
Estimated Stock Level: In stock with Supplier
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R1949.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R1949.00 Incl. VAT

Biostar TZ68A+ LGA1155 ATX Intel Desktop Motherboard
Estimated Stock Level: Stock level unknown
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R1120.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R1120.00 Incl. VAT

G.Skill F3-10666CL9D-8GBXL 2x4GB DDR3-1333 Ripjaws X - Desktop Memory
Estimated Stock Level: In stock with Wootware
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R517.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R517.00 Incl. VAT

CoolerMaster RS550-ACAAE3 GX 550W (12V: 528W), ATX 12V V2.31
Estimated Stock Level: In stock with Supplier
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R662.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R662.00 Incl. VAT

Western-Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Estimated Stock Level: In stock with Wootware
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R549.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R549.00 Incl. VAT

CoolerMaster RC-430, Elite 430, Windowed Side Panel, No PSU, Black - ATX
Estimated Stock Level: In stock with Supplier
QTY: 1 Price (Each): R436.00 Incl. VAT Price (All): R436.00 Incl. VAT

TOTAL: R 5233.00 Incl. VAT (excl. delivery)

Graphics card is omitted, the integrated HD3000 on the 2500K is roughly the equivalent of an HD5450 in terms of performance. You can always slot in a discrete card, as your budget (and hunger for more FPS in games ;) ) allows for it. The integrated graphics should be adequate for the Adobe programs that you've mentioned. You could also add an SSD later (for OS, dev tools, Adobe, etc) and then use the 1TB as a storage drive.

With this setup, you'll have a very good foundation and will be able to upgrade nicely in future, as you see fit. Hope that I've managed to add something useful to this thread for you. You can feel free to PM me, if you'd like any other assistance or advice (I'm from Wootware).
 
Thanks Ratwiz.

Anyone (Pada?) have opinions on that setup? I'm a bit wary of using an integrated graphics card, but the machine is primarily going to be for work, not gaming.

Would I not need a separate/better heatsink for the 2500k?
 
The i5 2500k comes with a heatsink & fan (or at least my colleague's on did), and you won't need anything better unless you're going to overclock it to like 4.0GHz+ (from 3.3GHz stock).

You can opt for a smaller case though & PSU, like the RC-310 case and Corsair CX430.
The Elite 430 is nice to have if you're going to install a big graphics card.

The IGP (integrated graphics processor) of the i5 2500k should work just fine, unless you're doing fancy stuff with Adobe Photoshop, in which case I'll recommend that you get a fairly decent AMD graphics card (HD 5770).

You can always go with the IGP, and if you see that its too slow you can simply buy an AMD graphics card on its own.
 
I recently bought an Acer laptop from Incredible Connection that was on special for R5678. It has 1GB Nvidia GT520, I5-480 & 4GB Ram ... currently I am using it for dev and graphic design running Photoshop CS5, Netbeans IDE and then I am running A virtual box installation with Ubuntu 10 acting as my web server, and I gave the Virtualbox almost 2gb of dedicated RAM and I don't struggle at all even if all items are open at the same time and running.

When working with Vectors, being numbers I would definitely take a Core i5 at minimum ... from what I've seen around, the performance drop of the AMD is not worth the 1k saving for a Quad Core AMD.

In short, I would recommend a laptop for your purposes ... has the screen built in, and you can plug in more screens using the HDMI and VGA slots ... just make sure it is a Core i5 with a fairly decent graphics card. Go look at Incredible to see if they have specials ... I found this laptop cheaper than I could get it for from Axiz.
What's really cool about me having my Dev on my laptop, is I can take it with me to meetings to show off what I have created so far on the local server.
 
I went with Ratwiz's suggestion and bought through Wootware who provide good, responsive service.

The IGP seems fine for Photoshop and the IDEs I'm using, but I'll need to get a dedicated card to run SCII on decent settings.
 
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