Building a system

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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
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So in efforts to save some money, I am selling my Powermac G5 and going to build a Windows machine! FUN! Well, I'm also selling my Xbox 360, so in essence I am building somewhat of a gaming machine, although I will just be playing games like Madden and NBA Live.

Was wondering if I could get some advice. I have no monitor, nothing. My budget is arond $1000 INCLUDING the monitor. I'd like to get a nice lcd, maybe 17 or 19 inches, but I'd rather get better system components than 21 inch Dell 2005FPW.

I am a student in the digital media field, doing video editing, audio editing/recording, lots of photoshop work. So I don't just want a gaming machine. I don't really care about the latest and greatest either, although dual core processor would be very nice since I do all that encoding.

I'd also like to be able to have a nice pvr for recording shows, although Windows MCE is not a must, a standalone, like Hauppauge WinTV would do just fine. So the under $1000 is including operating system too. Is that just too outlandish? Would I be better off just buying from Gateway or HP?

This would not be my first build, I've built two systems before moving to the Mac, but I just want a nice system that I can game a little on and do my work.

So what recommendations do you have?
 
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LarryK

Senior member
Jul 30, 2005
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Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano $100

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 $89

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ $295

mushkin Green 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) $160

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JS 120GB SATA Hard Drive $82 (depends on what you need raptor would be nice.)

OS $90

Video?

LCD?
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
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thanks for the quicky reply and the advice! Is the PSU that comes with that case good enough?
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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The sonata II is a very good case, the PSU is nothing special but it's good enough.

Not sure about your motherboard choice, for a start you don't need/want a SLI board. But it'll do.
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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are there any non-sli motherboards that have firewire? since i want a pvr card, i want to have enough slots in there so i don't know if buying a pci-firewire card is a good solution
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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would that support the X2? It doesn't say on newegg, but since it's s939, i assume an easy bios update and it would
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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It would, no BIOS update needed. DFI make the best enthusiat boards, just in case you ever do want to overclock a bit ;)
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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ok. i'm getting that board!

here's what i got so far:

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS2GBKIT400C3 - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX - Retail

$664 total.
I need vid card, dvd burner, pvr, os and monitor. ugh no way i'm going to get under $1000
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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Hmm, try and stretch the budget for a dual core CPU. You would see the benifits for your work related apps.

DVDRW = BenQ 1655 or 1640 or NEC (any). The BenQ burners are better by far if you use stock firmware, but if you flash it with a hacked version then the NEC is almost as good.

But you're right, at the moment you aren't going to stay under $1000. Could you live with 2nd hand parts and/or less RAM?
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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i could get second hand parts. but it's just really hard to go into ebay or buy/sell forum when buying stuff. i usually just sell stuff there.
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
4,360
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Yeah i've got that one myself, it's a good drive but can't do bitsetting without using hacked firmware (which voids the waranty). If you burn DVDR- then don't worry about it.
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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would the 3800+ X2 be that much better than the 3500+? I have just heard about issues affecting some gaming and Windows MCE. I'd love not to have to troubleshoot all those problems by getting it now
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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There are some issues, but the benifits are fairly impressive too. The advice is to go for it if you can afford it. But for MCE? Not sure.
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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ok, so what about video cards? the 6600gt seems to be a popular choice. i think nvidia is what's best for most games, no? i know the new radeon x1600s are newer technology though.
 
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dwdty9

Senior member
Dec 8, 2004
535
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i guess i don't really need Windows MCE, I can use Hauppauge's WinTV pvr app, I don't think they have ever had any issues
 
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Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
4,360
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Hauppauge is terrible, i use a 3rd party recorder on XP. Much better.

I haven't got a clue about the 1600 range, not a scoobies. The 6600GT is an ok card.
 
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