Upgrading computer

[pburness]

Originally Posted by MattUK

There's no point in getting an expensive graphics card with lots of RAM - they're specifically designed for 3D gaming, and will make little to no difference for 2D desktop work. Any old ATI or nVidia will do the job as long as you're not looking for a games machine.

As for storage: http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=135

These are awesome. Two drives that automatically mirror, low power consumption. It just appears as a single network drive that you work from, and everything it automatically replicated across the two drives by RAID. It's also always on, so you can use any device to read from it - tablet, phone, laptop, desktop etc.

As for your question - is it any good? The answer is: It's ok. It's got a lot of fancy phrases in the name, but at the end of the day it's a fairly low budget pre-built system, and it's AMD - which has slipped behind Intel (unfortunately).

Provided your not doing any video work then Matt is right about the video card, but the benefit of not using shared RAM is the real point. like I say ESPECIALLY if you are using Lightroom.

Phil

[J A Mortram]

Matt... might you have an example of what is good... or better for the same money?

[J A Mortram]

Not using Lightroom... just CS3... and I'd be adding a higher grade Nvidia card.

[J A Mortram]

...meaning higher than the one listed in the spec for that build : )

Apparently Adobe prefer Nvidia cards... so I read!

[J A Mortram]

...and that link is great Matt... but way out of my price range... I was looking at 1tb external hard drives for 40 pounds... just for archive.... but a new PC is the must as at the moment, I've nothing to edit with.

[MattUK]

Sorry Jim, I'm a bit old school and build my own PCs rather than buy them pre-built - so I don't know many places for what you're looking for. You'll probably struggle to find a similar Intel for that price range though.

Think of it this way: The PC you've found is like an entry level Sony DSLR. It's pretty good (hence me saying it's "ok"), but it's no Nikon or Canon

[J A Mortram]

Ahhhh... bu**ger! If I could self build, i would... but way out of my depth! Thanks anyways!

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by J A Mortram

...and that link is great Matt... but way out of my price range... I was looking at 1tb external hard drives for 40 pounds... just for archive.... but a new PC is the must as at the moment, I've nothing to edit with.

How about this machine. http://www.dabs.com/products/zoostor...-bit-79YR.html

[nick_gray]

Hi Jim,

You can get an AMD quad core cheaper (£219 inc. VAT and delivery) here http://www.cube247.co.uk/products.asp?partno=Sigma+GT5 plus it's got 8Gb of RAM. You will have to add an operating system to that price though, but it will still be cheaper than the ebay one.

Or how about something like this http://www.cube247.co.uk/products.asp?partno=Dorado+GT4 you might want to 'upgrade' the processor to the Intel i5, again you'll have to add an operating system.

Like Matt, I used to build my own PCs, but after seeing the prices that Cube build systems for, I let them do it now. BTW I don't work for them.

Regards

Nick

[J A Mortram]

Interesting! Thanks OldBBoy : )