OK, so my ageing P4 3Ghz tower system is reaching the end of it's useful life so the time has come to build again :-)
I want to build small this time, my back can't take moving the tower systems anymore! So I'm thinking about a Shuttle set-up. The PC will be for dye sub so I'll be running Coreldraw X4, Adobe CS3 suite etc. nothing too powerful, no games, don't even want it hooked to the net. Mainly photo/vector work.
Whilst I like the Shuttle idea I'll be working on a very small budget so maybe get a lot more for my money buying good budget mobo/case.
CPU
Don't think there's any need to go mad, a 3Ghz dual core AMD should suffice for what I need, quad core I'd probably never see the benefit.
GRAPHICS CARD
I've always put a fair bit of emphasis on this but is physical RAM more important?
MEMORY
4gb, decent brand in a dual channel kit. Is it worth going to 8Gb? Would have to look at the Windows version for this.
HARD DRIVE
Just gone back to running my OS from a small Raptor which is blisteringly quick but very unreliable (been through 4 of the monkeys)
I like the idea of playing with a new SSD, expecially in a shuttle case. Anyone using these yet? Prob only need a small one, something like this.
If I build into a larger case I'll think about RAID again, tried this with the Raptors and whilst quick it collapsed very quickly.
MONITOR
I have a decent screen, could probably do with calibrating properly though.
What do you guys think? Any advice on what to/not to go for?
Cheers,
Justin :-)