ok. point taken. soz.
Regardless of Mac or PC, my vague suggestion would be i7 in the 2.8-3.3Ghz range.
16 - 32GB ram
256/512 GB SSD
Some half decent graphics card, dunno much about these, HDMI or DisplayPort/Mini Display Port output ideally.
As for the 4K question, the monitors are realtively affordable, and if we’re looking to provide a decent machine for people to work on photoshop etc… Then a decent IPS 4K screen would be worth while, having used HiDPI screens at work against normal ones.
In that case I think the 4K Dell in toby’s link would be a good bet, I was eyeing that one for myself at some point in the future!
I’d go for a small ssd, it will be big enough for software and discourage files being stored locally, 128 or 256 is fine
32 gig ram is overkill, 16 will be fine
real world costed example, with links or screenshot
True but considering a 128GB SSD is like £30…
Having just looked at Dell, and Scan I can tell you from a quick look that £500 is a tough budget and £300 machines are basic home use word processing/internet machines.
to be honest I’d upcycle at least a case, PSU and cables from what we have, don’t we have enough pc savvy people around to fix it if something goes wrong ? that would save a couple hundred pounds surely
plus we’d be doing the good thing by saving electronic waste
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Okay so baring in mind I have not built a PC since 2000s, but have configured a few Macs…
CPU
Intel Core i7 Haswell 4790 3.60GHz
£276.97
Memory
HyperX Fury Black Series 16GB 1600MHz DDR3
£69.99
SSD
Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5"
£63.04
Graphics
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 4GB
£126.92
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H
£69.99
Total: £606.91, would need some power, a case, and some cables, depending on what comes with the motherboard, i.e. SATA cables etc…
that would make quite a beefy pc
You’d need a radiator for the i7 though, doubt we have a good one lying around
Retail ones come with the heatsink / fan normally.
Novatech NTI192 Workstation
6th Gen Intel Core i5 6400 Processor | 8GB DDR4 Memory | 1TB Hard Drive | SanDisk 120GB Solid State Drive | NVIDIA PNY Quadro K420 2GB Graphics
£589.99 inc vat (no OS)
{Or £60.91 for 11 months}
Blurb:
Built by Experts + Lifetime Support
We engineer and build systems that last, and we do it for some of the leading names in the Security, Aviation, Defence and Marine industries. Every one of our systems is extensively tested and inspected before it leaves our doors. Should anything ever go wrong we offer UK based telephone tech support for the life of the machine.
This PC:
Novatech Quadro Workstations are custom built from the ground up with the latest NVIDIA and Intel hardware. Designed to effortlessly handle the most demanding tasks from graphic design, video editing, 3D modeling to rendering and compositing. Do more in less time with a Novatech Professional Workstation.
Specs:
PROCESSOR
Description :
Intel Core i5 6400 6th Generation
Cache :
6 MB
Manufacturer :
Intel
No. of Cores :
4
MEMORY
Description :
8GB DDR4 2133MHz
HARDDRIVE
Description :
120GB Solid State Drive
Description :
1TB 3.5" 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Interface :
SATA
Interface :
CASE
Description :
Novatech SFF Micro ATX Case (w/ Delta 300W 80plus Bronze TFX PSU)
Colour :
Black
Dimensions :
333 (W) x 380 (D) x 95 (H) mm
Drive Bays 3 1/2" :
x3
Drive Bays 5 1/4" :
x1
Front Panel Connections :
2x USB 3.0
Audio Connections
OPTICAL DRIVES
Description :
24x DVD Writer
Interface :
SATA
GRAPHICS
Description :
PNY Quadro K420 2GB
MOTHERBOARD
Description :
Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2H Motherboard
Form Factor :
Micro ATX Form Factor; 22.6cm x 17.4cm
CPU Support :
i3, i5, i7 ,Intel Pentium ,Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1151
Chipset :
H110
IO :
1 x PS/2 Keyboard port
1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port
1 x HDMI port
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x RJ-45 port
3 x audio jacks (Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
LAN :
Realtek GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Socket Type :
1151
USB :
1.4 x USB 3.0/2.0, 8 x USB 2.0/1.1
SATA Ports :
4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
PCI-EX :
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
(The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) - 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All of the PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
Memory Slots :
2 x DDR4 DIMM sockets
Max Memory Capacity :
32 GB
OS Compliance :
Windows 10/8.1 64-bit/ Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit
Accessories Included :
GA-H110M-S2H
Link
Personal view is it seems like a substancial step down, and perhaps has issues with things like the graphics not being quite right.
CPU: The 6400 is substantially slower than the 4790
RAM: Half the amount, 16GB is an absolute requirement in my view.
Graphics: The Quatro cards are more typical of a workstation but they tend to be slower for normal use, and more aimed at rendering for video. Additionally it’s half the Graphics RAM which can be important depending on the task.
SSD: Theres no details on what type of SSD it has, but it’s half the size again.
i know nothing about what spec we need so just making suggestions.
but liked this site coz you can build your own machine and the blurb about we make PCs for the army made me think we would be able to hack like in a Bourne Movie! we get a free case!
there are options on the site to change all the features…
@boldaslove Novatech are a good brand.
Personally I still think this thread/idea is suffering from a bit of +1/hands up syndrome… Yeah sure we all think its a nice idea, but what it needs is some specification of what it is for and who.
The needs of having illustrator, a web browser etc are served by the computers we already have.
What you are proposing is a more powerful machine for the creative suite, but to do what, because you could spend £2k if its for After Effects, but then what has that got to do with Makerspace, who would use it?
In reality it seems like you’re asking for Photoshop and a bit of CAD so a less powerful machine is needed, but again aside from people just raising a hands, can these people perhaps commit a bit of effort into saying what they want to do on a machine.
Frankly if they can’t find a few minutes to say what they want to do then perhaps the demand isn’t that substancial.
Probably seems a bit harsh, but it’s a lot of money to spend on half a dozen people saying +1 to an unclear brief, when what is needed is a idea of what they want to do with it.
Please everyone, I said I’d make this order about 30 posts ago. I buy CAD/graphics machines at work so I know what to get. Relax. I got this 
2 Likes
i dont think i did. i think you implied that at some point.
i was thinking we should get a new pc for £350 and a 2nd hand monitor from ebay for £50.
and spend the change on the suite.
a new pc would be good. whatever the reason. and we pretty much know what we want it for.
Maybe I have mixed up posts, but I am failing to see what we need it for then, there are 9 machines in Makerspace and a number of monitors, they are all capable of going online, and doing basic drawing in inkscape etc…
No one seems to have let that get in the way of some forum ping pong. This is Olympic level this…
2 Likes
bah!
we got a PC out of it i think!!
