Entry Level CPU Build Guide for Word Processing and Browsing; for October 2013 (Pakistan Market Prices and Parts Availability)

 

 

This is the least expensive, the most basic build guide, based on the parts available in Pakistan. This build is recommended for casual users and students wanting a basic computer for Microsoft® Office™ work. And for those who run games on consoles.

CPU

Intel® Pentium™ G-2020 Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz) ~6,500 PKR, It has 2 cores and no HT technology, will perform everyday tasks like charm! It will struggle a with the running games at medium-low resolution. Just recommended for word processing and Internet.

Motherboard

Intel® Desktop Board DH61CR ~5,500 PKR, using 3rd party mother boards is not recommended in Pakistan because of no-warranty issues. Most of the importers buy from Intel and they come with warranty, others simply don't. This board supports 4 3 GB/s SATA, USB and PCI-e 2.1.

PSU + Case + Extra Fan

~3,000 PKR. For this build you can go for the built in 300 Watt power supply that comes with you casing, but due to large time spent gaming and/or rendering and due to hot temperature in Pakistan, the system heats up pretty bad, so be SURE to buy and add an extra 90 mm fan.

RAM

Kingston® KVR16N11/2 2 GB DDR 3 1600 MHz, ~2,000PKR  x1, as RAM is expensive these days, was at around half the price last year, so go for 1 DIMM 2 GB memory. (capacity of the recommended motherboard is 8GBx2 = 16 GB maximum).

HD

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 32 MB Cache 500 GB ~6,500 PKR. Buy the smallest/cheapest capacity/price available because most of us pre own portable hard drives anyway, use them for backup.

Optical Drive

Yeah, it was something too, something dinosaurs used! NOT recommended. Just wastage of money! We use USB ports to install any of the current OS, obviously. but of you don't have the ability to install the OS from USB port, or are afraid to make changes to your BIOS, please buy yourself a Super Drive.

WIFI

TP Link® WN722N ~1,000 PKR, it is a must as most of us have WIFI routers these days, so to get internet to your desktop, you will have to use this or a ~2,500 PKR 50+ meter LAN cable. The choice is yours! This isn't even a hard one!

This all adds up to 27,000 PKR without Graphics Card, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and a Monitor which most of us pre own and do not change for ~8-10 years.

If you are buying everything from start, add ~2,500 PKR for keyboard and mouse, and ~12,000 for 900p monitor (Dell® or HP® only because of warranty issues).

 

 

For suggestions, send an email to fadoobaba@live.com , tweet @fadoobaba, PM at https://www.facebook.com/ThreeDimensionalDesign or https://grabcad.com/fahad.rafi.butt or comment with your contact details and I will contact you!. Thank you for reading!

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Haswell Powered CPU Build Guide for Low End Gaming, Word Processing and Browsing; for October 2013 (Pakistan Market Prices and Parts Availability)

This build is recommended for casual CAD users, rendering at very high resolution will take lot of time on this build, nearly impossible and very casual gamers.

CPU

Intel® Core™ i3-4130 Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) ~15,000 PKR, average rendering performance, it will stay for 3 years easy! It has 2 cores and HT technology, will perform everyday tasks and simple CAD tasks like charm! It will struggle a bit with the rendering software and large CAD assemblies, and of course running games at high resolution.

Motherboard

Intel® Desktop Board DB85FL ~10,000 PKR, using 3rd party mother boards is not recommended in Pakistan because of no-warranty issues. Most of the importers buy from Intel and they come with warranty, others simply don't. This board supports 4 6 GB/s SATA, USB and PCI-e 3.0.

PSU + Case + Extra Fan

~3,000 PKR. For this build you can go for the built in 300 Watt power supply that comes with you casing, but due to large time spent gaming and/or rendering and due to hot temperature in Pakistan, the system heats up pretty bad, so be SURE to buy and add an extra 120 mm fan.

RAM

Kingston® KVR16N11/4 4 GB DDR 3 1600 MHz, ~4,000PKR  x1, as RAM is expensive these days, was at around half the price last year, so go for 1 DIMM 4 GB memory. I don't recommend buying 2x DIMM of 2GB capacity, because if you want to upgrade to full capacity later (and most of you will, that's why one buys a Desktop and not a Craptop), (capacity of the recommended motherboard is 8GBx4 = 32 GB maximum) it will not use up extra DIMM slot.

HD

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 32 MB Cache 500 GB ~6,500 PKR. Buy the smallest/cheapest capacity/price available because most of us pre own portable hard drives anyway, use them for backup.

Optical Drive

Yeah, it was something too, something dinosaurs used! NOT recommended. Just wastage of money! We use USB ports to install any of the current OS, obviously. but of you don't have the ability to install the OS from USB port, or are afraid to make changes to your BIOS, please buy yourself a Super Drive.

WIFI

TP Link® WN722N ~1,000 PKR, it is a must as most of us have WIFI routers these days, so to get internet to your desktop, you will have to use this or a ~2,500 PKR 50+ meter LAN cable. The choice is yours! This isn't even a hard one!

This all adds up to 40,000 PKR without Graphics Card, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and a Monitor which most of us pre own and do not change for ~8-10 years.

If you are buying everything from start, add ~2,500 PKR for keyboard and mouse, and ~12,000 for 900p monitor (Dell® or HP® only because of warranty issues).

 

For suggestions, send an email to fadoobaba@live.com , tweet @fadoobaba, PM at https://www.facebook.com/ThreeDimensionalDesign or https://grabcad.com/fahad.rafi.butt or comment with your contact details and I will contact you!. Thank you for reading!

Do comment and share!

 

Haswell Powered CPU Build Guide for Medium Gaming and Entry Level CAD; for October 2013 (Pakistan Market Prices and Parts Availability)

 

This build is recommended for regular CAD users, rendering at very high resolutionwill take lot of time on this build. and casual gamers (which most of us are).

CPU

Intel® Core™ i5-4670 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) ~22,000 PKR, exceptional value for money, average rendering performance, it will stay for 4 years easy! It has 4 cores and no HT technology, but will perform everyday gaming and CAD tasks like charm!

Motherboard

Intel® Desktop Board DB85FL ~11,000 PKR, using 3rd party mother boards is not recommended in Pakistan because of no-warranty issues. Most of the importers buy from Intel and they come with warranty, others simply don't. This board supports 4 6 GB/s SATA, USB and PCI-e 3.0.

GPU

MSI® NVidia™ GeForce GT 640 GDDR3 2 GB ~10,000 PKR, great value for money too, will easily run all existing games (~30 fps), and all to be released games at low-medium settings at a minimum of ~30 fps for at least 2 more years.

PSU + Case + Extra Fan

Corsair® VS 450 400 Watt PSU + Casing ~5,000 PKR (after the price for built-in PSU is subtracted). In Rendering, the CPU goes to full power and beyond (Intel® Turbo Boost) so power consumption increases, same applies to GPU when gaming, you will probably use 300 Watt maximum, but as PSU gets older (after 3-4 years minimum) the output wattage decrease, so to make up for that, initially buy a slightly larger wattage PSU. Also due to large time spent gaming and/or rendering, the system heats up pretty bad, so be SURE to buy and add an extra 90 mm fan.

RAM

Kingston® KVR16N11/8 8 GB DDR 3 1600 MHz, ~8,000PKR  x1, as RAM is expensive these days, was at around half the price last year, so go for 1 DIMM 8 GB memory. I don't recommend buying 2x DIMM of 4GB capacity, because if you want to upgrade to full capacity later (and most of you will, that's why one buys a Desktop and not a Craptop), (capacity of the recommended motherboard is 8GBx4 = 32 GB maximum) it will not use up extra DIMM slot.

HD

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 32 MB Cache 500 GB ~6,500 PKR. I don't recommend buying a hard disk anymore because it will slow your system down, buy a 180 GB SSD instead. Believe me, 180 GB is enough space, most of us pre own Portable HD anyway, so use that for back up. If you want a HD buy the smallest/cheapest capacity/price available.

Optical Drive

Yeah, it was something too, something dinosaurs used! NOT recommended. Just wastage of money! We use USB ports to install any of the current OS, obviously.

WIFI

TP Link® WN722N ~1,000 PKR, it is a must as most of us have WIFI routers these days, so to get internet to your desktop, you will have to use this or a ~2,500 PKR 50+ meter LAN cable. The choice is yours! This isn't even a hard one!

This all adds up to 70,000 PKR without SSD, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and a Monitor which most of us pre own and do not change for ~8-10 years.

If you are buying everything from start, add ~2,500 PKR for keyboard and mouse, and ~12,000 for 900p monitor (Dell® or HP® only because of warranty issues).

 

For suggestions, send an email to fadoobaba@live.com , tweet @fadoobaba, PM at https://www.facebook.com/ThreeDimensionalDesign or https://grabcad.com/fahad.rafi.butt or comment with your contact details and I will contact you!. Thank you for reading!

Do comment and share!

Haswell Powered CPU Build Guide for Hi-End Gaming and CAD; for October 2013 (Pakistan Market Prices and Parts Availability)

 

This build is recommended for those who use CAD software daily and render their models as well at a high resolution. And do PC gaming as well.

CPU

Intel® Core™ i7-4770 Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz) ~34,000 PKR, exceptional value for money, excellent render performance, it will stay for 5 years easy! Comes with 8 cores! Do I need say more? :)

Motherboard

Intel® Desktop Board DH87MC ~12,000 PKR, using 3rd party mother boards is not recommended in Pakistan because of no-warranty issues. Most of the importers buy from Intel and they come with warranty, others simply don't. This board supports 6 6 GB/s SATA, USB and PCI-e 3.0.

GPU

MSI® NVidia™ GeForce GTX 650 GDDR5 2 GB ~15,000 PKR, great value for money too, will easily run all existing games (50+ fps), and all to be released games at maximum settings at a minimum of ~30 fps for at least 2 more years. And lets face it, AMD is crap! ;)

PSU + Case + Extra Fan

Corsair® VS 500 500 Watt PSU + Casing ~6,000 PKR (after the price for built-in PSU is subtracted). In Rendering, the CPU goes to full power and beyond (Intel® Turbo Boost) so power consumption increases, same applies to GPU when gaming, you will probably use 400 Watt maximum, but as PSU gets older (after 3-4 years minimum) the output wattage decrease, so to make up for that, initially buy a slightly larger wattage PSU. Also due to large time spent gaming and/or rendering, the system heats up pretty bad, so be SURE to buy and add an extra 120 mm fan.

RAM

Kingston® KVR16N11/8 8 GB DDR 3 1600 MHz, ~8,000PKR  x1, as RAM is expensive these days, was at around half the price last year, so go for 1 DIMM 8 GB memory. I don't recommend buying 2x DIMM of 4GB capacity, because if you want to upgrade to full capacity later (and most of you will, that's why one buys a Desktop and not a Craptop), (capacity of the recommended motherboard is 8GBx4 = 32 GB maximum) it will not use up extra DIMM slot.

HD

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 32 MB Cache 500 GB ~6,500 PKR. I don't recommend buying a hard disk anymore because it will slow your system down, buy a 180 GB SSD instead. Believe me, 180 GB is enough space, most of us pre own Portable HD anyway, so use that for back up. If you want a HD buy the smallest/cheapest capacity/price available.

SSD

Kingston® SV300S37A/60G 60 GB ~6,500PKR. This 6GB/s SSD boots Microsoft's® Windows™ 8.1 RTM in 10 seconds ONLY! Get the point I was making earlier? Go for Kingston because warranty issues, again importers do not buy from Intel in case of SSD, but from Corsair and Kingston.

Optical Drive

Yeah, it was something too, something dinosaurs used! NOT recommended. Just wastage of money! We use USB ports to install any of the current OS, obviously.

WIFI

TP Link® WN722N ~1,000 PKR, it is a must as most of us have WIFI routers these days, so to get internet to your desktop, you will have to use this or a ~2,500 PKR 50+ meter LAN cable. The choice is yours! This isn't even a hard one!

This all adds up to 89,000 PKR without Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and a Monitor which most of us pre own and do not change for ~8-10 years. And with 60 GB SSD and 500 GB HD.

If you are buying everything from start, add ~2,500 PKR for keyboard and mouse, and ~12,000 for 900p monitor (Dell® or HP® only because of warranty issues).

 

For suggestions, send an email to fadoobaba@live.com , tweet @fadoobaba, PM at https://www.facebook.com/ThreeDimensionalDesign or https://grabcad.com/fahad.rafi.butt or comment with your contact details and I will contact you!. Thank you for reading!

Do comment and share!

The Work-Station

Work Station Specifications

In this post I will post my current computer specifications and current related software I have installed.

 

The Hardware

Intel® Core™ i5-750 (8M Cache, 4 x 2.66 GHz, 3.2 GHz with Turbo) + Intel® DP55WB.

I chose this processor because it's a quad core, and it has a lot of cache, and it was within the budget, very very important for renderings and simulation modeling applications, like Simulation Premium. The motherboard is one thing that should be strong and should have lots of expansion options, this was the best available within my budget so I went for it, it has 4 RAM slots (4GB/slot) and PCI-e slot (for graphics card), both very important for CAD and rendering applications.

Kingston® 10 GB (1 x KVR1333D3N9/2G + 2 x KVR1333D3N9/4G).

Now when I bought it, I had 2 GB of RAM installed, then gradually up graded to 10 GB, plans are in motion for 4 GB more. RAM is important for FEA, specially for generating matrices, for renderings for iterations and for gaming too.

MSI® AMD® Radeon™ HD6770 (MD1GD5)

The original build had NVidia® GeForce™ GT 240 installed, it got burned. So this current card was the replacement. and I have to say it is very smooth in performance.

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 500 GB

Hard disk is not so much important in CAD work, as designs of single parts may never exceed 500 MB in size, usually stay below 50 MB, so I saved some money and went for 500 GB instead of more.

Intel® 2.1 Channel

The audio is of absolutely no use in CAD and related fields, so I prefer not to waste money on 3rd party sound cards, and go for built-in solution by Intel.

Dell® E1910H

High resolution monitors are icing on the cake, really, in CAD related applications, but are costly, so I chose this one from Dell, it has a maximum resolution of 1366*768 which is fairly good for work and gaming too on a budget.

A4Tech® X6-10D

Mouse is of extreme importance as its your primary input device, machine design and CAD are tough fields and require a lot of concentration, long hours and hard work, so have a nice mouse so that it works smoothly and dose not divert you attention, choose a mouse with high DPI for CAD applications, such as AutoCAD, 1000+ DPI recommended.

Dell® RT7D60

Keyboard must have soft keys, if you plan on using keyboard shortcuts for CAD and long hours of work. This is one thing I will change soon.

Cooler Master® Extreme Power Plus 460W

Good power supply keeps your graphic card and processor at full power and prevent overall system temperature from rising. So spend some money on 3rd party power supply must.

APC 1.5 KVA UPS (as backup power)

You know! Electric power cuts in Pakistan :)