help

[jonle]

How Do, having spent the last few months trying to configure a small format pc that can cope with photoshop well enough to make me smile whilst staying unobtrusive and quiet i think i need some imput before i sign up. I intend on running xp to begin with and just wanted a system that would last any help/suggestions would be gratefully recieved.

Jon
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-660 Dual Core (3.33GHz, 4MB Cache) + HD Graphics + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
INTEL® DH57JG: H57 Express Chipset, 10-Channel HD Audio, 2x DDR3
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD + Clear Video HD Technology
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

 

[Meds]

There isn't much you can really change with the mini-pc's. The specification looks good, in a full desktop I would probably recommend going for a cheap dedicated graphics card but this is not an option here.

I also tried swapping between CPU/RAM configurations, trying to drop the CPU and go for 8GB RAM but I came to the conclusion you have selected the best value for money already

 

[Sleinous]

can u upgrade the hdd to a 16mb cached version in the minipcs?

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, it would be a better idea to go for the 640gb western digital caviar green drive (64mb cache) as it's exactly the same price as the serial ata (16mb cache) 640gb drive but offers far better performance.

 

[Sleinous]

yup, not sure if its available on minipc thouh as im on iphone.Maybe u can only have up to 16mb cache like on laptop is what i thought