New Office PC.. Please Help.. Advice Appreciated!

quintron

Hi all,
I need to get a new PC for work and I need one that has decent graphics capabilities as well as a decent large TFT as well. It will be used primarily for office applications as well as graphic intensive apps like photoshop & illustrator etc and quite a lot of daily multitasking.

I have not really looked to hard; I configured a few PC's on Dell's website but tonite I had a look at Elara and their Extreme PC's and it raised a few questions..

I need advice from fellow boardsters as to which of the following is better value for money . Indeed any other suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. Places I haven't looked or configurations I might not be aware of online?
I am supposed to order whichever PC tomorrow afternoon, so its kinda urgent..

Anyway,
Option 1: From Dell: Optiplex 745 with 19" TFT

*Base:
Intel® Core® 2 Duo® Processor E6400(2.13GHz,1066MHz FSB,2MB L2 cache)

*Microsoft Operating System:
Genuine Windows® XP Professional English, SP2 WITH Media

*Business Support:
Business Support 3yr (incl. e-Learning Pack)

*Memory:
1.0GB 667MHz Non-ECC DDR2 SDRAM (1*1,024MB DIMM) Memory

*Hard Drive:
160GB (7,200 rpm) Serial ATA2 Hard Drive

*CD/DVD Drives:
16x DVD+/-RW Drive

*Video Card:
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro PCIe 256MB, DVI (Full Height)

*Monitor:
Dell 19" UltraSharp Black (TCO99) Flat Panel Monitor (1907FP) UK/Irish

*Standard Warranty:
3Y NBD International (Next Business Day) On-site (incl. e-Learning Pack)

*Order Information:
OptiPlex Order - Ireland

*Speakers:
No speakers required

*Keyboard:
Enhanced Quiekey™ USB Spacesaver Black keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY layout)

*Mouse:
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Black Mouse

*Floppy Drives:
No floppy drive

*Protect It with CompleteCare:
English - CompleteCare 3Y NBD Accidental Damage Cover

*AntiVirus & Security Software:
No Anti-Virus software required

*Dell System Media Kit:
No RCD Option

Option 2: from Elara; Europa Extreme PC with 19" TFT

Your Customized PC
* Motherboard : ASUSTEK - P5W DH Dexluxe
* Processor : Intel® Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz FSB1066 2Mb Cache - Dual Core
* Memory : 1GB Dual Channel(2X512MB) DDR2 RAM PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
* Hard Disk : 200GB (7200rpm) S-ATA II Hard Disk
* Hard Disk : None Selected
* Optical Drive : 16X DVD Drive
* Optical Drive : 16x DVD±R/W Drive Dual Layer
* Sound Card : Integrated 7.1 Sound
* Network Card : Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Adaptor
* Video Card : RADEON X1600PRO 512MB DDR2 (1 Crossfire Ready Graphic Card)
* Keyboard : Gigabyte Keyboard and Optical Mouse PS/2
* Mouse : None Selected
* Monitor : No Monitor
* Monitor : 19" TFT Flat Panel 8ms Widescreen Black&Silver
* Speakers : None Selected
* Operating System : Windows XP Home with SP2b
* Productivity Software : None Selected
* Modem : None Selected
* Printer : None Selected
* Headset : None Selected
* Game Controller : None Selected
* Additional Games : None Selected
* Anti Virus Software : None Selected
* Warranty : 1 Year Return to Base Warranty


Thats about it. The Elara seems a better deal to me but Dell have a better complete service care setup and I can't seem to find any details on the Elara TFT screen bar the fact that its widescreen 8ms.

Any help, advice on this one appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
K.

Mr. Presentable

The *choke* Dell looks a better deal without knowing what you're paying, and Elara don't have the best after sales rep.

greglo23

you should also look here http://www.komplett.ie/k/cl.asp?bn=10627.
you can customize these to suit your requirements as well.

quintron

Cheers lads. As its a work PC the *choke* dell is yer standard option.
With 19" monitor included they both work out about €1500 incl vat.
So thats the ceiling on the price..

A Komplett Option: €1464 Komplett Intel Core 2

NorthQ 4775-400, ATX 400W Silent, 140mm
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket
Creative SB Audigy SE , Bulk
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2b
Crucial DDR2 Tenth Anniversary PC5300, (2048)
NEC DVD±recorder AD-5170 IDE Silver OEM
Samsung 20" LCD Syncmaster 205BW TCO03,
Norman IC, 1 year license Virus Control
PC box
SoftThinks Installation/Recovery
Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2
Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver
Gigabyte GA-945P-S3, I945P, Socket-775,
Gainward GeForce 7100GS TurboCache DDR2,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/config.asp?ConfigSystemId=10093

Komplett Option 2 (€1693) Komplett Intel Extreme

NorthQ 4775-400, ATX 400W Silent, 140mm
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket
Creative SB Audigy SE , Bulk
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2b
Crucial DDR2 Tenth Anniversary PC5300, (2048)
NEC DVD±recorder AD-7173 IDE Black OEM
Samsung 20" LCD Syncmaster 205BW TCO03,
Norman IC, 1 year license Virus Control
PC box
SoftThinks Installation/Recovery
Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2
Samsung DVD±RW burner, SH-S182M, 18x, (added to have lightscribe & labelflash burners)
Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver
Gigabyte GA-945P-S3, I945P, Socket-775,
POINT OF VIEW GeForce 7900GS 256MB,
Belkin PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

K.O.Kiki

Hmm... you'll want 2Gb RAM, minimum, for image editing & multi-tasking.
PCI Etheret adapter, mobo's built-in might be fast enough. Same goes for soundcard methinks.
Graphics card you can probably skimp on -- just don't get a TurboCache/HyperMemory one!
Oh, and Core 2 Duo's want 965-chip mobos.
Finally, consider getting 2 HDDs for RAID backups; maybe even a Raptor for performance.

Also, shouldn't your work be sorting you out with OS & software?

quintron

Cheers K.O.Kiki. Appreciate that.

Are you saying the built in ethernet and soundcard already provided on the mobo will suffice?
When I saw the options on Komplett for ethernet & soundcard and they were set to "none", I figured I had to add them myself.. That would save a few bob.

Oh, and Core 2 Duo's want 965-chip mobos.
Does that mean the selected mobo in options Komplett 1 & 2 above are not suitable? I didn't touch the mobo config from Kompletts stock options. Am I (or is Komplett) screwing up a vital component? I doubt Komplett would build a system from inconfigurable parts, no?

Work are sorting OS..

RangeR

If work are sorting the OS, then don't buy it off komplett, elara etc. That will shave a good 100 to 200 off the price.

3D cards are only good for 3D graphic applications like gaming. From what you've said, you don't need one. If the motherboard has built in graphics [not all of them do], then you don't need to buy the 3D option. That will shave another bit off the price.

With that saving, beef up the RAM and HDD.

quintron

Cheers IrishTLR,
So there is no improvement with the 3D cards for apps like Photoshop & Illustrator? Maybe I could get a better older graphics card more suitable to these types of apps?

RangeR

quintron wrote:

Cheers IrishTLR,
So there is no improvement with the 3D cards for apps like Photoshop & Illustrator? Maybe I could get a better older graphics card more suitable to these types of apps?

Pretty much any normal 2D graphics card should do. Onboard GFX chip will share it's RAM with your system RAM. Usually not much more than about 32MB. Not a huge amount but a dedicated 2D GFX card should have it's own RAM on board.