I haven't bought a new computer since my Socket 754 Athlon64 3000 in 2004. It's still going strong but I really can't justify the energy costs anymore; the bloody thing burns through 200W at idle and sounds like there's a hovercraft under the desk. So I need something new but I'm well down on my knowledge.

I'm looking to spend somewhere between £500 and £700. I've put together a spec and wondered if you could tell me how near I'd get to it for my money.

Or if I'm being delusional, please tell me

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Use case:

Editing Large image files
Audio editing
Video encoding
Code Compiling
Is in bedroom next to the bed
Will be running Linux

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Essential features:

Must be fairly quiet
>= 8GB RAM
>= 1TB HDD
>= 2 DVI/HDMI outputs
Intel Processor - I've suffered at the hands of AMD too many times
Some form of Graphics card i.e. not onboard graphics
Room for a couple of expansion cards
Motherboard can take 32GB RAM
Ability to install Linux - i.e. must be able to turn EFI Secureboot off

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Things that would be nice:

>=128GB SSD for the OS
>= 16GB RAM
>= 3 DVI/HDMI outputs
Sandybridge processor
Case that's not too massive or fugly
A workstation graphics card e.g. NVidia Quadro etc.

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Things I don't need:

Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
MS Windows
MS Office
Gaming capability
Wireless

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I can't really offer any suggestions, but I am curious about something. From the use case you've described, why is this



A requirement?

I intend to go to dual digital displays (or triple if possible) at some point in the near future esp. for coding

Best thing I ever did.

You might struggle to get a Quadro card and a SSD within the budget you've indicated.

A wee trip to the Scan 3XS website turned this up: clickety

Not an exact match but it does have a Quadro 400 graphics card and can be configured to come without Windows.
If you go for 8GB of RAM and knock off Windows it comes in at just over £820.

I'm not seeing anything in the useage list to warrant a Quadro or frankly even a dedicated GPU so far (unless you are going to be using CUDA). The onboard graphics for Sandybridge chips are actually pretty good (I've seen someone playing Battlefield 3 using it) so a serious dedicated card may not even be required, which would mean you could get a lot more out of the rest of your budget if all you need is a very basic card to give you the dual output.

As a starting point (and I'm guessing you are happy to assemble it yourself) I'd suggest looking at the following:

Intel Core i5 3570K - £179
Asus MAXIMUS V GENE - £150
16GB (4x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800 - £59
120GB OCZ Solid 3 SSD - £54
1TB Western Digital Caviar Green SATA III - £57
620W Enermax LibertyECO II, Modular, 86% Eff' - £95
1GB Asus GT 620 - £42
Fractal Design Arc Mid - £79

Total = £725 (prices from Scan)

Some components are a bit more than strictly neccessary to assist with efficiency and noise (PSU and Case in particular).

The graphic card will bump up the energy requirements back towards the 200W barrier...

The onboard Intel graphics should be fine for what you describe, unless you are using Photoshop effects which can use the GPGPU extensions of the video card.

For video encoding, specifically h.264, the onboard Intel graphics have an accelerator, which is very effocient - the last test I saw (Core i5 vs. top end AMD and nVidia graphics, the Core i5 on its own could encode the 5 minute HD film in around 30 seconds, the AMD and nVidia both needed over 2 minutes - the Intel encoding unit is automatically disabled when you plug in an external video card.

There are motherboards with dual digital outputs available. My last machine with onboard Intel graphics could do full HD video on one display, whilst I worked on the second display.

Just a thought...

Bloody hell!

That just shows how out of touch I am - I genuinely didn't realise just fast onboard graphics and processors had got.

In which case I can nix the graphics card - good ho! That's cool because it means I can use the nice Intel FOSS graphics drivers instead of the completely crap ATi and NVidia drivers

Since you specifically say you don't need gaming capabilities, then on-board should be fine I'd have thought. You can always stick a card in at a later date if needs change.


Not for gaming, only for hardware acceleration of things like video encoding.

Also I don't think many motherboards have 2 DVI outputs. That doesn't bother me because the quality through the analogue is usually acceptable, certainly for my second screen. It depends how critical you are though.

Also, I'm not entirely sure but it may limit your choice of processors. Perhaps someone else could clarify, but I remember the original i7 didn't have the graphics bit.

That Asus Maximus V Gene gives you both an HDMI out and a Display Port output, and as it's mATX you could use a much smaller case if desired as well.

The only thing I'm struggling to find information on is the Secure Boot controls, might require a phone call to Scan or someone similar.

For multi-threaded stuff (Cinebench, POVRay) and x264 Video transcoding the new Piledriver FX-8350 with be both cheaper and faster than the i5-3570k according to Anandtech.

So what I did was I ignored everything I said and splurged - but spread out over a few months so Mrs. Bucket didn't notice.

The trouble is that I didn't notice either. I may got a little bit carried away...

• Intel Core i5-3570
• Asus P8B75-V
• 16GB RAM
• Palint Geforce GTX 760
• Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
• WD Green 1TB HDD
• Zalman ZM650-XG 650W power supply
• Windows 8.1 Pro
• BenQ BL2411PT 1900x1200 Monitor
• Corsair Carbide 330R Black case
• Xbox 360 Wired controller
• Logitech M570 Trackball