new pc help / thoughts please
Guest
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I'm gonna build myself a hometheater pc (dvd, mp3, pvr, tv ect...)
I've never built a pc before but I've been doing some reasearch and have picked out what I think should be pretty good
so I'll list it and maybe some of you computer guru's can tell me if it looks compatable and some ways to improve it before I buy the stuff
CASE
ANTEC OVERTURE DESKTOP ATX CASE 2X5.25 2X3.5 3X3.5INT 380W PIANO BLACK
CPU
AMD ATHLON XP 3200+ 512K 400FSB BARTON SOCKET A
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE SOCKETA USB2 NFORCE2 AGP8X FIREWIRE SERIAL ATA AUDIO LAN
MEMORY
CORSAIR VALUE SELECT DUAL CHANNEL 1024MB KIT PC3200 DDR CAS2.5 2X512MB
HARD DRIVES
2 x WD RAPTOR 74GB SATA 10000RPM 5.9MS 8MB
1 x WD CAVIAR SE 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8.9MS 8MB
VIDEO CARD
ATI RADEON ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO 128MB
MOUSE / KEYBOARD
LOGITECH CORDLESS MX DUO MX700 MOUSE KEYBOARD USB PS/2
OPERATING SYSTEM
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME
OPTICAL DRIVES
BLACK PLEXTOR PX-708A DVD+R/RW 8X/4X/12X DVD-R/RW 4X/2X/12X CDRW 42X24X40
LG BLACK 52X24X52 CDRW& 16X DVD COMBO INT EIDE ATAPI
MISC
SONY BLACK 1.44MB 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE
6in1 INTERNAL MEDIA CARD READER (BLACK)
[ December 15, 2003, 07:39 AM: Message edited by: dodgeram ]
I've never built a pc before but I've been doing some reasearch and have picked out what I think should be pretty good
so I'll list it and maybe some of you computer guru's can tell me if it looks compatable and some ways to improve it before I buy the stuff
CASE
ANTEC OVERTURE DESKTOP ATX CASE 2X5.25 2X3.5 3X3.5INT 380W PIANO BLACK
CPU
AMD ATHLON XP 3200+ 512K 400FSB BARTON SOCKET A
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE SOCKETA USB2 NFORCE2 AGP8X FIREWIRE SERIAL ATA AUDIO LAN
MEMORY
CORSAIR VALUE SELECT DUAL CHANNEL 1024MB KIT PC3200 DDR CAS2.5 2X512MB
HARD DRIVES
2 x WD RAPTOR 74GB SATA 10000RPM 5.9MS 8MB
1 x WD CAVIAR SE 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8.9MS 8MB
VIDEO CARD
ATI RADEON ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO 128MB
MOUSE / KEYBOARD
LOGITECH CORDLESS MX DUO MX700 MOUSE KEYBOARD USB PS/2
OPERATING SYSTEM
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME
OPTICAL DRIVES
BLACK PLEXTOR PX-708A DVD+R/RW 8X/4X/12X DVD-R/RW 4X/2X/12X CDRW 42X24X40
LG BLACK 52X24X52 CDRW& 16X DVD COMBO INT EIDE ATAPI
MISC
SONY BLACK 1.44MB 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE
6in1 INTERNAL MEDIA CARD READER (BLACK)
[ December 15, 2003, 07:39 AM: Message edited by: dodgeram ]
2000 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 3,260
do you plan on playing games on this comp at all? if not, and if its to serve music only, its WAYYYYY too bling bling, and you could get a decent rig for like 1/4 the price. Spend the $$$ on a decent soundcard though. Ive heard really good things about soundblaster audigys, and they have a new 6.1 surround card.
Guest
Posts: n/a
well .... I'll have to pick up half life 2 when it launches and supposedly its pretty hardware hungry from what maximum pc says
other than that not much gaming
but I want to do video editing and use the pvr (tivo) lots and from what I've read you need fast drives
I'd love to dump those raptors and just run 2 caviar's but I'm scared they won't be fast enought to record on high quality video mode
killer, thanks that's just the kind of stuff I wanted to know ........that's very dissapointing as I was looking foward to the on the fly 5.1 conversion and using the spdif out to my amp
any bod use this m-audio revolution 7.1 it's the only sound card I can find with on the fly 5.1 conversion........... and it does dts too [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
hmmm the only reason I went with that mb was the built in 5.1 audio with on the fly 5.1 encoding (with out the encoding only movies are in 5.1 via the spdif out, the rest is stereo ac3)
maybe I should go with a p4 system ......back to the reasearch
[ December 15, 2003, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: dodgeram ]
other than that not much gaming
but I want to do video editing and use the pvr (tivo) lots and from what I've read you need fast drives
I'd love to dump those raptors and just run 2 caviar's but I'm scared they won't be fast enought to record on high quality video mode
killer, thanks that's just the kind of stuff I wanted to know ........that's very dissapointing as I was looking foward to the on the fly 5.1 conversion and using the spdif out to my amp
any bod use this m-audio revolution 7.1 it's the only sound card I can find with on the fly 5.1 conversion........... and it does dts too [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
hmmm the only reason I went with that mb was the built in 5.1 audio with on the fly 5.1 encoding (with out the encoding only movies are in 5.1 via the spdif out, the rest is stereo ac3)
maybe I should go with a p4 system ......back to the reasearch
[ December 15, 2003, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: dodgeram ]
You'll be happy with the choices you're making. I'm in favour of having nothing onboard, so I'll suggest an add on PCI sound card. Even as cheap as the Live! Value, it's a rocking card. I have an Audigy X-Gamer, and SQ wise it differs little in the analog section compared to my old Live.
Looks like you'll be needing a desktop case, I suppose to fit your desk the best? Otherwise, towers are the more common and less expensive way out.
Good choice on the CDRW and DVD drives, I wouldn't change to much other myself. It justifies paying for good reputable quality.
Just one question, why 2 identical SATA drives and a third 120 seperate? Are you going to do a RAID setup and keep the third for backup?
I think you'll have a PC worth keeping for quite some time.
Looks like you'll be needing a desktop case, I suppose to fit your desk the best? Otherwise, towers are the more common and less expensive way out.
Good choice on the CDRW and DVD drives, I wouldn't change to much other myself. It justifies paying for good reputable quality.
Just one question, why 2 identical SATA drives and a third 120 seperate? Are you going to do a RAID setup and keep the third for backup?
I think you'll have a PC worth keeping for quite some time.
I've had issues with Abit mobos, and none with Asus nor Gigabyte.
Although I use Intel, I think they're overpriced, overmarketed, and basically not really that different compared to buying a Retail CPU apart from performance, which the price negates anyways.
Although I use Intel, I think they're overpriced, overmarketed, and basically not really that different compared to buying a Retail CPU apart from performance, which the price negates anyways.
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well the reason for the 3 drives is this
one raptor for my main system drive, holds the OS and all programs/games ect and is the main drive for video editing ( as I understand a fast drive makes for faster video editing and fast load times on games ect)
the second raptor for pvr duties should give me about 20hours of record time on high quality(everthing I read tells me I want the fastest drive possible for high quality video recording with no frame dropout)
the 120 gig is for mass storage and system back up, it'll hold all the video files I want to keep (I like keeping music videos), my mp3's and I'll do a system backup on there too
well as for the amd I have no experience with em and probaly have seen too much marketing so I believe the p4 is better ...... I'll have to do some reasearch on that
I want to build a machine that I will keep for a long time with no need for upgrades so I figured go all out the first time
as for the desktop case I'm gonna have this in my living room in the stereo stand, I kind of want it to blend in
here's another case I found
http://www.modsynergy.com/Review%20108.htm
it looks a bit better
one raptor for my main system drive, holds the OS and all programs/games ect and is the main drive for video editing ( as I understand a fast drive makes for faster video editing and fast load times on games ect)
the second raptor for pvr duties should give me about 20hours of record time on high quality(everthing I read tells me I want the fastest drive possible for high quality video recording with no frame dropout)
the 120 gig is for mass storage and system back up, it'll hold all the video files I want to keep (I like keeping music videos), my mp3's and I'll do a system backup on there too
well as for the amd I have no experience with em and probaly have seen too much marketing so I believe the p4 is better ...... I'll have to do some reasearch on that
I want to build a machine that I will keep for a long time with no need for upgrades so I figured go all out the first time
as for the desktop case I'm gonna have this in my living room in the stereo stand, I kind of want it to blend in
here's another case I found
http://www.modsynergy.com/Review%20108.htm
it looks a bit better
Originally posted by dodgeram:
well the reason for the 3 drives is this
one raptor for my main system drive, holds the OS and all programs/games ect and is the main drive for video editing ( as I understand a fast drive makes for faster video editing and fast load times on games ect)
the second raptor for pvr duties should give me about 20hours of record time on high quality(everthing I read tells me I want the fastest drive possible for high quality video recording with no frame dropout)
the 120 gig is for mass storage and system back up, it'll hold all the video files I want to keep (I like keeping music videos), my mp3's and I'll do a system backup on there too
well as for the amd I have no experience with em and probaly have seen too much marketing so I believe the p4 is better ...... I'll have to do some reasearch on that
I want to build a machine that I will keep for a long time with no need for upgrades so I figured go all out the first time
as for the desktop case I'm gonna have this in my living room in the stereo stand, I kind of want it to blend in
here's another case I found
http://www.modsynergy.com/Review%20108.htm
it looks a bit better
well the reason for the 3 drives is this
one raptor for my main system drive, holds the OS and all programs/games ect and is the main drive for video editing ( as I understand a fast drive makes for faster video editing and fast load times on games ect)
the second raptor for pvr duties should give me about 20hours of record time on high quality(everthing I read tells me I want the fastest drive possible for high quality video recording with no frame dropout)
the 120 gig is for mass storage and system back up, it'll hold all the video files I want to keep (I like keeping music videos), my mp3's and I'll do a system backup on there too
well as for the amd I have no experience with em and probaly have seen too much marketing so I believe the p4 is better ...... I'll have to do some reasearch on that
I want to build a machine that I will keep for a long time with no need for upgrades so I figured go all out the first time
as for the desktop case I'm gonna have this in my living room in the stereo stand, I kind of want it to blend in
here's another case I found
http://www.modsynergy.com/Review%20108.htm
it looks a bit better
