I was considering going down the self build route as I'm thinking the time has come for an upgrade and CS2 & Bridge struggle a bit - particularly Bridge when asked to cache 100+ RAW files that have just been uploaded (currently using AMD Thunderbird 1Ghz with 1Gb RAM).
I have two local PC shops (dont expect "proper" advice in PC World) who have been recommended to me. I went into one about a week ago and they are happy to either build to my spec or design & supply components for me to build - am I'm just waiting for them to come back to me with a recommendation and prices. I'm thinking of building something around an AMD Athlon 64 3500+/3800+ socket 939 but need a recommendation of motherboard - anyone any suggestions what might have good compatibility
Also this shop is recommending IDE hard drives rather than SATA - anyone got views on that
Then yesterday I went into the second shop. Their approach is either they will build for me, or if I have a list of components they will supply (although they admitted that I would be able to source more cheaply off the net), but they won't recommend a spec. Apparently they use to but have got into problems when a customer had a faulty motherboard or damaged it through mis-installation (who knows which) so now they don't. Me thinks they are touting for the build business themselves but no. His actual recommendation for a non games machine with primary power application being Photoshop/Bridge was a Dell Dimension 5150 Pentium dual core 2.8Ghz processor, 512 Mb RAM (yes would need to increase to 1/1.5Gb £25/50), 160Gb SATA hard drive (would want to add a second 160Gb ~£40 300Gb ~£70)& 256Mb graphics, DVD writer, 7 x USB - £520 with 3 year
ON SITE warranty. He reconed that he could not built to that spec for that price and even then I would only have a 1 yr warranty!
So now I'm in a bit of a quandry. The self build route has attractions, pay for just what I want, use some of existing components (eg Hard drives) to keep initial cost down, potentially could upgrade processor/mobo and leave everything else to a later date
but then the 3 year on site warranty has got to be worth something
Decisions, decisions