Sales question

[mike_coreit1]

Hi I am looking to buy a new workstation/PC and also fit a good specification graphics card.

The machine needs to have a 400w PSU, Intel i5 or i7 CPU. The graphics card also needs to fit in it (card dimensions 7.6" x 4.5" x 1.5").

Can anyone give an example model which would be good with this? I have looked around myself but it seems a lot of the machines either have very low spec power supplies or they use proprietary PSU sizes or connectors.

My budget is around £500-£700

[DGroves]

without knowing what software you plan to run or the proposed use of the system, it's impossible to recomend a system or video card

you allready know what specs you want, so spend some time looking at the HP quickspecs and print them out for reference and then decide

hp workstations are not comsumer models, as such even a lowend workstation will be of better build quality than most consumer systems. But again, nobody can provide any usefull help due to your lack of information

[mike_coreit1]

The system will be used to run CAD software, and the software provider has specified the card ASUS-AREZ-PH-RX550-2G

I have looked at the quickspecs of most models but it does not tell me the dimensions of the PSU, whether the connector end is 24-pin ATX or 14-pin or has the needed 6-pin PCI-E power connector

[DGroves]

your going about the video card  power connector the wrong way

look at the quickspecs NOTE THE VIDEO CARD MODELS HP LISTS pick one or two from the end of the list  google that model

 you will then have the mfgr specs which will list the  power requirements for the card and also tell you if the card uses  one or two pwr connectors if it draws more than 75 watts and will usually show a picture of the conectors

also the service manuals for my HP z4600/z800/z820/840/z8 workstations plainly show the power supplies wattage and available connectors

last, HP workstations in some models will use custom power supplies and we will be happy to comment on this aspect ONCE YOU CHOOSE SEVERAL MODELS. i'm not going to list each model and state if it uses a custom supply or not as i have a life and it's not my job to do so

you have not stated which cad package, so the folowing comments are generic in nature

cad packages usually favor 2d video performance over 3d, so check a cards specs and note their 2d ratings

a cad program usually favors "IPC"  over core count, so a faster mhz is perfered over cpu's

unless working with cad which has many parts making up the image 2gb video ram is suitable

if using this system as a work/professional tool then used parts are not recomended,

and consumer video cards are not recomended

[mike_coreit1 · Accepted solution]

Hi I have since found out my distributor has the iQuote HPI configurator. I will use this since it means less time spent searching for supported parts.