[megabyte]

Hi

I am just about to buy a new PC (this one is 6 years old).

I have been looking for weeks now and no joy or you could say Too much info.

I want a desktop for a small office and photography on a smallish scale, i will be having a seperate hard drive to back my system up as well probably around 500gb's.

I have been looking at the PC building companies on the web and seen some of the latest specs such as Intel 6600 with 4g memory which i believe is one of the latest specs, but i have been told that that spec is well over the top for what i need and should go for something like an Intell 4500 with 2g max of memory as that would be more than enough-------I know i need a decent sized hard drive but it was the processor bit that concerned me because if i buy the Intel 4500 2g model am i buying an old spec?, as from what i can see with ready built systems they appear to not have the latest equipment inside but dont appear to be all that cheaper either or is there some thing else i have missed.

Thanks.

[megabyte]

Sorry should read 4500 with 2mb of memory and 6600 with 4mb of memory but cant find out how to edit post.

[Krlll]

Should say.
Intel E4500 with 2GB Memory.
Yeah thats enough for you but take note of the graphical abilities of these PCs.
E6600 is better that E4500 but if all you are doing is a little photography and office work the E4500 is fine.

[mcbee]

The E4500 with 2Gb memory will suit your needs. It is a newer processor than the E6600 but less powerful. Most ready built computers now come with Windows Vista and you need to be sure that any software that you need is Vista compatable. At the moment XP may still be a better choice and it would be faster than Vista.

[alex]

I agree with Mcbee.

You're not getting old technology, you're getting bang upto date tech in the E4500 as it's exactly the same architecture as the E6600 (and all core2's) except it has a smaller cache.

The large cache would come in useful for editing purposes as it would speed things up, but not enough to offset the cost in your situation.

2GB is the right amount of ram. Both Vista and XP can't make use of over 3gb ram (okay Vista 64bit can see around 3.5gb but which home user would be dumb enough to go for that o.s?) due to memory mapping and i/o requirements.

A 500gb hdd sounds about right, but also think about a separate external hdd or second internal for backing up your work, unless you just backup to disc.

I'd recommend a Samsung T166 or Hitachi Deskstar.

[megabyte]

Great thanks for that i think it will be the 4500 and 2mb and you can get these off the shelf.

You mention graphics, should i go for a big graphics card?? can anybody give me a model number??

Is there anything else? most of these come with it's own built in sound card and a 19"screen, is there anything to avoid/look out for here??

Thanks

[alex]

As you don't mention gaming you're not going to need a card that's all that. I'd say go for a 8500GT or 8600GT, cost-effective solutions. They also support HDCP (Hi Definition Content Protection) so should you fancy some HiDef video your card will support it.

Monitor. If you can get hold of one, as they're discontinued now, get a Samsung 930bf. Awesome screen; good colour rendition (important to you I would have thought) and decent contrast ratio. They'll also be quiet as they won't be pushed to peak, and having the pc in the office that can only be good. There's even passively cooled one's now becoming more mainstream (just a heatsink, no fan) if you were to get one of those then you'd have no noise from the card.

But if you're into photo editing it's going to be beneficial to you to get the most desktop space you can so, lets say you're editing a picture in paint shop, you can have all the toolbars on screen and still have a large rendition of the image you're working on. Asus P220 or P202........dammit, forgot the model number ........is a superb widescreen tft at 1680x1050 pixels......PW2......nope, still can't remember it. Err....help?

I wouldn't worry about a soundcard, you'll have 5.1 sound on the motherboard (no doubt) and integrated sound chipsets have come a long way. It's just more cost and not necessary in my opinion.

Speakers?

[megabyte]

Thanks Alex

Speakers well they are cheap and some screens have them so i thought i would wait untill all the essentials are correct first, but your point on the widescreen is a very good one never thought of that.

Cheers.