Build Suggestions?

[Abhinav]

Hi!

I just landed here :D
I searched a lot for forums that help in building assembled PCs and I found this site. My friend and I own a Media Company and we need new PCs. We make websites, desktop applications, design using photoshop and all that kind of stuff. Currently I have 2 ancient PCs.


My MySQL Server
Specs:

Processor: Pentium III @ 500Mhz
Mobo: Jetway J7BXAN
RAM: 512MB SDRAM
HDD1: 80 GB PATA
HDD2: 250GB SATA using an external SATA controller
OS: Ubuntu Minimal 11.04 and Windows 98SE
Graphics Card: Nvidia Quadro NVS 280 SD 64MB AGP4x
Bought in the year 1998
Usage:
I currently use this PC as my MySQL server and other networking experiments. I also use it to play really old games like Unreal, NFS 2 SE, MSDOS Games like skyroads, Hocus Pocus, etc.


My Workstation PC

Brand: Dell
Model: Precision Workstation 360
Processor: Pentium 4 HT @ 3.0 Ghz
RAM: 1.5 GB DDR @400Mhz
HDD1: 80 GB PATA
HDD2: 250 GB SATA
OS: Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 5500FX 256MB AGP8x
Bought in the year 2003
Usage:
I mainly use it programming and compiling stuff. A little bit of entertainment, video editing, photoshop and developing apps for ARM based mobos like Beagleboard. I also use it for web designing.



Yes thats a Pentium 3 and I still use it for various stuff. But come on its 2012 right? Time for an upgrade. Its time to throw away my P3 and get two new PCs. I searched for many different components and got two builds. I want your honest opinion about these builds.


My Friend's PC

Processor: AMD 3.6 GHz AM3+ FX 8150 Processor
Mobo: ASUS M5A99X EVO Motherboard
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) PC RAM
Graphics Card: XFX AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6450 1 GB DDR3 Graphics Card
HDD: 1TB Seagate/WD
Programs which are going to run on this PC:

Adobe Photoshop CS5
Autodesk AutoCAD 2012
A couple of IDEs like NetBeans and Eclipse

This PC will be used as:

Media Server
Video editing machine
MySQL Server
Backup PC if anything goes wrong with my PC.
and a Web Server at home. (I got a 10mbps uplink)



My PC:

Processor: Intel 3.6 GHz FCLGA2011 Core i7 3820 Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Motherboard
RAM: 2 x Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) PC RAM
Graphics Card: Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (I like to game sometimes ;))
HDD: 1TB Seagate/WD
Programs which are going to run on this PC:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for students.
Autodesk AutoCAD 2012
(Virtualization) VirtualBox with Ubuntu installed.
A couple of IDEs like NetBeans and Eclipse
Some games which require descent graphics cards.





Cost of Friends's PC: $773.64
Cost of my PC: $1074.46

Yes I know I have not considered the Cabinet and PSU. But that I think it will cost an additional $200+. PSUs I am going for Cooler Master.
Well I think thats it. So, do these builds look ok? :)

Abhinav

[RickyTick]

Both are solid builds. I would suggest more ram. Instead of 4gb (4x1gb), go with 8gb (2x4gb). It will make a big difference using photoshop and doing video editing.

Why AMD for the 1st build? Just curious.

[Abhinav]

Both are solid builds. I would suggest more ram. Instead of 4gb (4x1gb), go with 8gb (2x4gb). It will make a big difference using photoshop and doing video editing.

Why AMD for the 1st build? Just curious.

I went for AMD because it's the only 8 core processor. I know Windows 7 even with hot fixes doesn't handle 8 cores properly. I need more cores because I wanted to dedicate 2 cores to Ubuntu on a virtual machine which is going to be my webserver. Remaining 6 cores will be for the rest of the processes. And yes you are right I will need 8 gigs of ram if I want ubuntu to run on a vm properly.

Any other suggestions?

[RickyTick]

Any other suggestions?

Nope. Looks good. I think you already know that the 550Ti is not powerhouse gpu, but it should be fine for casual gaming.