Productivity PC, a few questions.

[IronMentality]

I am building a PC for a friend who needs to get some productivity work done. He'll also be running a few programs that certainly pushed the limits of his old Intel Celeron M in his now deceased Dell laptop.

He'd prefer to get a little extra pep for his buck - and he's willing to spend for it. But, I don't think what he's willing to blow ($1000+) is really necessary. I'm tempted to go the standard Celeron D route for him, because it should be enough power for writing papers and browsing the internet.

However, with all of the new CPUs out now from Intel, and having seen the Pentium D drop dramatically in price, and the new Intel "Core" line of chips now being out, this changes things.

I think the Pentium D route is the way to go... If I were to do it, this is what I would be running with so far:

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116213

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Plus a random Seagate hard drive of whatever size he wants, a Lite-On DVD Burner, and a nice cheap Logitech keyboard/mouse/speaker combination.

A few questions/comments of where I am lost:

- What is the best motherboard for a Pentium D build? I don't think DVI is necessary for his LCD, but I guess it'd be an added bonus.
- A video card isn't necessary, because he isn't doing any gaming
- How big of a power supply do I need? Is 350W plenty?

Once I've got that all figured out, I can do some cost cutting (perhaps get an Antec case/PSU combo) or what not, and put together a nice little system for him...

Or should I just forget all of that, go the Celeron D route (I personally think going an old P4 would be dumb, if the Pentium D I pasted is just $50 more then what a 2.66 or 2.8 GHz Celly would cost), or should I spring for the cheapest Intel "Core" CPU?

An AMD build seems viable here too as well.

What do you think? Comments and suggestions are appreciated, thank you.

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

AMD! Sorry, lol.

"A video card isn't necessary, because he isn't doing any gaming" Get one, even id its 32 Mb, at lease you have something.

"Or should I just forget all of that, go the Celeron D route (I personally think going an old P4 would be dumb, if the Pentium D I pasted is just $50 more then what a 2.66 or 2.8 GHz Celly would cost), or should I spring for the cheapest Intel "Core" CPU?"

Humm, get a decent dual processor. The AMD Dual Core processor, is good, and about £120. Not too sure in U.S.D. Or get something slightly cheaper. (thats amd tho)

Get case with seprate PSU, psu should NOT BE MISSED! 400w range is not enought spec, you need dual railings and stuff, altho i dont know much in that area, so someone elce will need to tell you.

Thats a decent case

CPU is good, but doent have Hyper Threading.

RAM is good, dual channel is the way to go.

EDIT: good luck :)

[blue60007]

You might look at a Core 2 Duo build...problem is, all the good mature boards are expensive (there are 965 chipset boards, cheaper, but too new to really recommend for these uses.

I'd recommend a Intel 930, and a gig (maybe 2, I don't know what programs will be run) of DDR2 RAM. I'd look at the ASUS P5LD2 motherboard and a cheapie PCI-E video card (NO Hypermemory or Turbocache cards) or the board with on-board video (P5LD2-VM I think).

Look at the Antec Sonata II case - it's a nice quiet case with a good 450W power supply.

[jayb1234]

Newegg has that Sonata II (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155) case on sale for 75 bucks after rebate. As far as the motherboard, either Intel or ASUS with an Intel chipset and without SLI or Crossfire. Onboard video should be fine. The ASUS that blue mentioned would good, or there are quite a few Intel boards with the same 945g chipset and onboard video.

[glc]

Okay, here's my suggestion for PSU, processor, mobo, and ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104901
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116253
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247101
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145568

That motherboard is Core 2 Duo-ready for a future upgrade. NOTE the "R 2.0".

[jimmyrules712]

I think core duo is a waste of money for him since none of the tasks you listed are CPU intensive.

I would either get a pentium D 805 (best bang for the buck for under $100) or if your going to spend any more, get an AMD X2 3800 for around $150. (the X2 outperforms the PentiumD 915 by a decent amount, and they aren't too far from each other in price, I can't see there being a noticable difference between the PentiumD 805 and 915).

Other then that same other parts GLC listed (except if you go with the AMD, you need a diff mobo and memory)

[glc]

There is a considerable difference between a 805 and 915 - 533 FSB vs. 800 FSB and twice the cache. The 915 and 820 have similar performance, but the 915 has twice the cache and it runs cooler. I'm not suggesting a C2D right now, just the ability to put one in as a future upgrade.

[IronMentality]

Operating System: XP Home

Office Suite: 2003 Small Business

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104901

Motherboard: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247101

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116253

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145568

DVD Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226

Speakers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121124

Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126167

Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826105185

Floppy Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103203

In summary:

- Cooler Master High Quality Case w/120mm fan
- FSP PSU, 350W, Dual Rail, 24-pin connector
- Reliable Asus motherboard with onboard video and DVI connector
- Intel Pentium D 915 CPU
- Seagate 80GB SATA 7200.9 HD
- Corsair 1GB (2x512) Dual Channel DDR2 667 Memory
- NEC DVD Burner
- 20.1" Samsung LCD Monitor
- Cheap Logitech 2.0 Speaker Set
- Cheap but functional Logitech keyboard
- Good quality two button optical mouse from Microsoft
- Standard cheap Floppy Drive for troubleshooting

Just a few questions to ensure everything is good...

- With 16MB cache hard drives now much less expensive, is that particular upgrade worth the extra $40 for the extra performance?
- I either go NEC or Lite-On for the DVD burner, I just want to make sure that is still the way to go
- Is there any cheaper keyboard/mouse combinations up for sale on NewEgg or ZZF I didn't see? I used to remember NewEgg having keyboard/mouse combos for corded optical mice (they seem to currently only sell them in pairs for wireless mice)
- Do I need the floppy drive? I have put them in all my computers, but I still always have to ask :)
- Am I missing something? I don't think I am =)

Thanks!

[IronMentality]

Any suggestions anybody?

[blue60007]

Looks good to me.

[IronMentality]

Should I get a floppy drive - anyone? :)

[Cricket]

I would get one even if you don't install it in the computer. They're good to have for troubleshooting purposes...although you could also use the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) to do your troubleshooting nowadays. I'd still get the floppy drive though...just in case.

:) Cricket

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

Altho there old, we still have a soft spot for them, and its easy to use for a BIOS update.