Which desktop to buy

[TheFaQQer]

Hard drive in the current machine is dying, so rather than just fix that bit, I'm looking at getting a new desktop machine. I'll be moving two of the three existing hard drives into the new one, and putting Linux on it.

I don't do any real gaming. I do some video editing occasionally, but not too often. BUT I need something that will be powerful enough for all the development work I currently do - usually involves a couple of virtual machines.

(Current spec - Quad Core of some kind, 8GB RAM, 3x1TB HDD)

Here's two of the options so far:

Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
16GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
HDD - 80GB Intel® X25-M 2.5" SSD (34nm / upto 250MB/sR | 70MB/sW)***SPECIAL***
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply - CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£89)
Processor Cooling - SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Motherboard - ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Graphics Card - 1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI,mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Sound Card - ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities - ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options - 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

- 1140 incl VAT

OR

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-960 (3.20GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
24GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (6 X 4GB)
HDD - 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply - CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£89)
Processor Cooling - SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Motherboard - ASUS® P6X58D PREMIUM: DDR3, USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Graphics Card - 1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI,mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Sound Card - ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities - ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options - 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

- 1248 incl VAT

I have no idea what kind of graphics card I need - I think that I currently have 2x1GB ones, but one one is in use because I only have 2 monitors, which I need to keep.

Any thoughts anyone?

[d000hg]

I would not expect you need a dedicated GPU for the odd bit of video-editing, especially with the integrated graphics being much better in modern Intel chipsets (you can always buy one for £50 and throw it in later) - though I am not sure that dual-monitors are supported by integrated graphics.

Is dual-CPU to get 8 cores an option? Also have you looked into the AMD 6-core CPUs, the thought occurs that the more cores, the better, for your usage.

[TheFaQQer]

I would not expect you need a dedicated GPU for the odd bit of video-editing, especially with the integrated graphics being much better in modern Intel chipsets (you can always buy one for £50 and throw it in later) - though I am not sure that dual-monitors are supported by integrated graphics.

Is dual-CPU to get 8 cores an option? Also have you looked into the AMD 6-core CPUs, the thought occurs that the more cores, the better, for your usage.

I've not considered dual-CPU because the few websites I've been looking at haven't got any motherboards that will support them.

I've just quoted a AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T (3.30GHz/9MB CACHE) with 16GB RAM for £883 though, which might be the way forward. An i7 six core is ridiculously expensive.

[doodab]

I would hold off buying a P67 / i7-2600 until they have sorted the issue with the SATA ports.

You do need a dedicated graphics card simply because neither of those systems have integrated graphics. Pretty much any modern card will do the job, although if you are encoding or transcoding video you might want to look into CUDA etc accelerated encoding if your software supports it.

The first one has an SSD but the second doesn't. Is that deliberate?

[TheFaQQer]

I would hold off buying a P67 / i7-2600 until they have sorted the issue with the SATA ports.

I saw that - the website I was playing about with flagged it up when I asked for a quote. The second one has a different motherboard that isn't affected by the SATA ports, so it's looking the more realistic of the two.

You do need a dedicated graphics card simply because neither of those systems have integrated graphics. Pretty much any modern card will do the job, although if you are encoding or transcoding video you might want to look into CUDA etc accelerated encoding if your software supports it.

Ta - I'll probably take the ones I've plucked from the air. That said, I may even just take the one out of the current machine and use that, since they are less than a year old.

The first one has an SSD but the second doesn't. Is that deliberate?

Yes - I did the original quote last week and thought "oooooh, SSD" for no other reason than the geeky-tech side of things. Then when I did the second one, I figured that I'm going to need to replace the current faulty hard drive, so chose a drive with that one.

Oh, the decisions to make....

[Clippy]

Another consideration might be waiting until USB 3.0 ports begin to appear on hardware.

Is it worth waiting for USB 3.0?

[d000hg]

I've not considered dual-CPU because the few websites I've been looking at haven't got any motherboards that will support them.

I guess they are a little specialist, especially now multi-core is the norm, but anyone running a 3D rendering workstation (i.e 3D artists using 3DSMax, etc) is likely to have such a system I would guess so you might seek advice from anyone like that.

I've just quoted a AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T (3.30GHz/9MB CACHE) with 16GB RAM for £883 though, which might be the way forward. An i7 six core is ridiculously expensive.

Hadn't realised Intel had rolled out 6-core CPUs, interesting.

[TheFaQQer]

Another consideration might be waiting until USB 3.0 ports begin to appear on hardware.

Is it worth waiting for USB 3.0?

The new motherboards all have at least 2 USB3 sockets, and I have a PCI card in the current machine that I can move over with another 2.

There's not many peripherals though that need it, but it's worth considering

[TheFaQQer]

Hadn't realised Intel had rolled out 6-core CPUs, interesting.

I got a quote for the PC2 with an i7 6-core, and it was £1800 which is more than I really want to spend.

[d000hg]

Yeah that's slightly expensive . I bet it's bloody quick though since it's not just most cores, but cutting edge.