Please find the below mentioned specification which is given by my colleague and kindly advise whether i have go with this or not or else suggest me a best specification.
Note : this is my son who is studying Eng in com.science
PROCESSOR - Core i 5 3470 (3.2 GHZ)
MEM - 4GB DDR 3
HARD DISK - 500GB (1 TB)
DVD R/W - REQUIRED
GRAPHICS CARD - 1 GB DEDICATED
OS - WIN 8 PRO OEM
MONITOR - 18.5 " LED BACKLIT
FORM FACTOR - MEDIEUM
Regards / Raja
“Best” spec is relative to the purpose of the system. If all you need is something for email and browsing the web, you don’t need “bleeding edge” technology. On the other hand, if you’re thinking of becoming a self-employed web and/or multimedia programmer, and want a system that can be used for virtualizing a web server (like ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, JSP, etc) and a database server (Oracle, MySQL, MS-SQL) and running a CAD-CAM system, then you’ll want something with a TON of RAM and the fastest-bus CPU available.
With what is this system going to be tasked?
@WolfShade; is right. This specification is OK. It is a medium range computer. But is it too much or too little? Depends on the needs you (in this case, your son) have.
With no more information, I would say that it is fine. I have one of those and work with it and it’s cool.
4GB is way too low. You need at least 8 if you’re going to build a new computer. 4GB is about bare minimum right now, if you want the machine to last as long as possible, 8 is a good number.
I’m not sure what HARD DISK - 500GB (1 TB) means. 500GB is half of 1TB. I highly recommend a Solid State (SSD) at least 120GB, maybe a second larger drive for extra storage. This may not be possible, but it’s well worth a little extra cost.
This is freaking tiny: MONITOR - 18.5 " LED BACKLIT I’d say 20" is about minimum.
The processor is pretty good though, it’s kind of out of place with the other parts. I wouldn’t pay more than $300 for this entire machine. If you’re on a budget, find a good recent i3 and fix at least the RAM and the Monitor.
I’m in a bit of disagreement about what’s a minimum.
It works fine for me and I even use photoshop. Obviously the more RAM the better
Sorry that I don’t agree with this. I use a 20" and a 22" (I have two always connected) but I also have a 17" and it’s fine.
I would say $300 is a good price for a tower but at least here you would at least pay 500 Euro if it is a laptop.
Also keep in mind that this is for his son who is studying computer engeneering.
Yeah, I just meant for a little future proofing. IMHO, RAM is one of the most important things when building a new computer. It stopped being important for a few years between 2005-2010, but now it’s back to being pretty important. ESPECIALLY if you ever upgrade to an SSD where you need to remove all paging files and put everything into RAM.
Also… remember I’m a Java dev so my opinions here may be a little skewed. 
My development environment is a RAM hog between IntelliJ, Jetty, and the JVM. I only have 6GB in my home computer running on Ubuntu 14.04 and it’s not nearly enough.
If he’s studying computer engineering, it’s a pretty good chance he’s going to be doing Java at some point or another. Maybe a lot, depending on the school.
Again, better for initial setups so you’re not stuck with tiny monitors. There isn’t a huge price difference between an 18.5" and a 22".
I agree, but I have a feeling he’s going to pay a lot more than that though. The processor alone is about $200.
Maybe I’m just too picky. I’ve honestly never purchased a prebuilt desktop computer before.
Just curious. If a user (the OP) clearly posts a message, shouldn’t their post count >= 1? Why does OP post count = 0?
So many questions. Does he know what the syllabus is? Will it require .NET development? Will it be Java/Linux based? C++, C? None of the above?
I know at work, we just went to 16 GB of RAM for our developer PCs, because we are a .NET shop and Windows and .NET (and its IDEs) can be memory intensive.
At home where I do little .NET development (and primarily PHP, Bash, Perl, etc), I also have 16 GB but that is because I also treat it as a media server. So I have a 8 core 16 GB behemoth that runs very well. It usually has 6 gigs in RAM at any given point and still permits me to load up development VMs as needed.
Although SSDs are awesome (I do have one), I wouldn’t focus on it. It isn’t critical. You can save your money by not getting one. If you do get one though, get a typical hard drive and an SSD. Install the operating system on the SSD and keep all of your personal data on the traditional drive. Also relocate your paging file to the traditional drive or turn it off entirely.
Another factor to take into account is how long you need this computer to function. 4 years? So he can get through school? 2 years and then you’ll replace/upgrade it?
When I built my current setup, I bought the Processor, Motherboard, 8 GB of RAM, that I knew I’d need when I was ready to upgrade my RAM and Hard Drive. I saved roughly 300 dollar up front by waiting on those items and then bought them a year later.
[ot]
Because posts made in General Discussions aren’t included in the post count. :)[/ot]
Oh. 
Did not know that. Thanks, TechnoBear and molona.
[/ot]