Building a new PC

[Justin]

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

[castlegategiftcreations]

sorry Justin but it is all gobbledegook to me - don't understand any of it.

[Justin]

Lol, stay tuned! I'm no expert but have learn't over the years, it's a bit of a curse really, building & fixing PC's for family and friends!

I've not had to build one for a long while so want to make sure i'm up to date on the tech.

Cheers,
Justin

[JSR]

"Ageing P4 3GHz reaching the end of its useful life..."

Lol!

My ageing P4 3.06GHz PC hasn't been turned on for a year and a half because I've been doing everything on my netbook since August 2008. You don't get much lighter than that!

The days of me chasing after the "latest and greatest" multi-billion-core systems with gazillion gigabytes of RAM and several trillion terabytes of hard drive are long gone...

Mind you, I don't run Photoshop or Corel Draw.

[Justin]

I find I do most of my work on the laptop, Centrino Duo 1.6 or something like that! It handles everything I throw at it really which is why I don't want to build an over the top PC.

When it's running well (which it sometimes does) my current PC handles most things pretty easily, it's just been playing up for months now, I think the Mobo has a few problems. I debated swapping buts and bobs but feel it may be better to move the tech. forward a little.

Justin

[Paul]

with respect Justin but whats wrong with P4 3ghz??? for that work you want to do is perfect machine! add some ram and bit biger HDD and you have a perfect PC for sublimation printing.

[Justin]

The P4 3Ghz is certainly up to the job but I've been having a lot of problems recently that point to either (or both) the mobo and cpu. Not much point in spending on old technology really. I have 3Gb RAM and plenty of drive space.

Justin

[GoldRapt]

Shuttle?

[JSR]

Shuttle?

http://uk.shuttle.com/

[bms]

Had a shuttle sometime ago - was fine, but very cramped inside and awkward to build compared to standard cases. You're not going to be doing huge amounts of complex graphics, i.e. moving graphics like games play so a half decent 512meg graphics card would be fine. I'd recommend one with dual output though as having 2 screens working off a pc is a massive help.
RAM - check compatibility on 3gig + with your Windows version.
As for RAID - yes great, but backing up regularly to an external hard drive is always better as if the whole pc goes belly up then at least all your main files are stored elsewhere (preferably in a different physical location to the main pc).