I’m looking to buy a new desktop for the office which will be used for CAD, InDesign, 3DSMax etc. and want to find one with dual monitor capability. We’ve previously had them built by a local computer shop but the reliability of their machines has been a little poor so we’re not going to go back this time.

For that reason we’re looking at off the shelf options from Amazon, eBuyer, Dell etc. but a lot of the time there is little information on whether the particular graphics card is capable. Ideally I’m hoping for an i5 processor, 8-16gb RAM, small hard drive (files are stored on a remote server), windows 7 and the dual monitor capable graphics card that will handle graphics heavy programs as mentioned. Budget is probably no more than £450 max.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Anyone spotted any bargains recently? Thanks 🙂

Very hard to get win 7 these days, if you still have a license you could probably re install.

Quick scan through the Dell site and you might struggle there at £450, have a look at the outlet store, quick google of the graphics card should tell you what out’s it has.

Not seen a graphics card recently without multiple outs

Anything with a modern 3D card will support dual monitors. Most on-chip GPUs support it these days.

Anything with Win8 pro should come with win 7 downgrade rights IIRC.

Bargains to be had in the Dell outlet store.

However, CAD/3D work on a £450 budget….?! That budget would barely buy a decent GPU for that sort of use*.

* you’ll maybe get something with consumer grade parts for that money.

In the past two or three years we have used USB adaptors for secondary screens though the current batch of Lenovos we use have an HDMI out for the secondary. Mind you these are for bog standard office work not CAD.

How about this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-7270-3012-i5-4460-3-2GHz-Operating/dp/B00K8TKW0G/ref=pd_sim_147_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0SKYE1SCM6E128YPDM6A

I’ve never heard of Zoostorm before but they seem to receive good reviews. I appreciate the budget is fairly limited but it’s really just a workstation for a summer employee to do some CAD and sketchup on rather than something that’s going to churning out huge renders etc.

This Dell Precision is on the outlet for £439+vat. not Windows 7 but you should be able to downgrade and its a Xeon not an i5 but should be fast enough.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb&brandid=6&fid=1518

Dell Precision T1700
Windows® 8.1 Pro
Processor: Intel® Xeon® E3-1220 v3 (Quad Core, 3.10GHz Turbo, 8MB)
500 GB 3.5inch SATA III Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
8 GB DDR3 Dual Channel 1600MHz Memory (2x4GB)
1 GB Nvidia Quadro K420 (DP, DL-DVI-I) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter)

Thanks for the suggestion, it looks like a contender but what makes it particularly better than the Zoostorm one? Does an integrated graphics card allow dual monitor capability or is it only separate graphics gards that do that?

That Dell is a Workstation (albeit a bottom end one). They’re typically designed with high end specs, be upgradeable and better suited to run high end applications.

The Quadro range of graphics cards are designed for CAD stuff amongst other things.

Oh and the Dell has a 3 year warranty

I appreciate the budget is fairly limited but it’s really just a workstation for a summer employee to do some CAD and sketchup on rather than something that’s going to churning out huge renders etc.

Yes, but whether you use it for one day or every day you still require the same functionality.

Why not buy a new machine for a current employee and push their older machine to the Summer person?