[boyce101175]

Hi, I am v interested in getting in to web design but i don't know what would be the best machine to start with. I have a budget of about 1,500 pounds. If u don't think that is enough please say, as i will carry on saving until i can do it right.. I have been reading up on dual processors and had thought that the best option but then i read an artical on the AMD FX57, that artical said otherwise. I understand the more memory i have the better but when is enough enough?

[Thorian]

This is my rig that I built for about $1500US in june prices have probally dropped since then seeing as the new 7XXX series Geforces have been released. and the new dual core athlon 64's

Athon 64 3200+ winchester (single core 90nm process)
Zalman Cu7000 cooler
DFI lanparty sli - dr (3/10/05 bios Rev AAO) supports dual cores with a bios update also raid 0 1 and 5 with dual raid controllers
1 gig Geil PC3200
leadtec gForce 6800 (refrence card)
160 SATA Segate Baricudda
Pioneer 109 DVD burner
Thermaltake Viking Case
OCZ mod stream 520
2 UV cold cathodes
8ns ViewSonic 17 inch LCD

IF you go dual core make sure it is amd the pentium D's were rushed through R&D and according to arstechnica can corrupt data between the 2 cores sort of like cross talk on ethernet. But If you go single core with a socket 939 motherboard do your homework to ensure that it will support a dual core athlon 64. 90% of em will however with my luck I usually get teh 10% that dosent maby some of the other guys can comment on how the above would be for designing.

I know if you want to dev in java with websphere you need at least 1GB of ram for it to even run.

[pioSko]

1500 quid is currently around $2,700 which should be enough to get you a VERY good PC plus a monitor.

From experience, you do NOT need a killer machine for design, especially if it's just web design. I have WinXP on an AMD Athlon 1600+, 512Mb ram, 2 x 40Gb disks and Radeon 9600 Pro and THAT is enough for me to run Photoshop, Illustrator, WinAMP, Notepad++, Firefox, Opera and IE all at the same time. I bought this for around 600 quid... 3 years ago (video card I bought a year ago).

I'm not saying get that. By all means. If I had 1500 pounds to spend on a PC, I'd probably spend it all, too

[Nova Dragoon]

Dual processors are not needed for web desgin. If you were doing 3d animation or video processing then yes.

Mostly you need fast harddrives (sata) and a butt-load of ram for all the apps you'll be using.

[BlueCube]

Nova Dragoon, on Aug 25 2005, 06:23 AM, said:

Dual processors are not needed for web desgin. If you were doing 3d animation or video processing then yes.

Mostly you need fast harddrives (sata) and a butt-load of ram for all the apps you'll be using.

Especially if you are editing large images. It's all in the RAM for graphics boyce. I'm running 2g. If you are doing basic graphics for website, it's not that big of a deal, but if you start doing anything large or print, you'll want to up that ram. For your needs, I wouldn't invest anymore than $1200-$1300 US in a computer. Save the rest for upgrades down the road, or for a new comp a few years later.