Graphics & sound PC for $600 - your input needed!

[Maverick2002]

Ok, here's the story. My website (Mikhailtech) is being redesigned in ColdFusion. I won't go into details, but it's a costly endeavour and part of the payment comes in the form of building a system for the coder's daughter. The limit is $600 and I need to get as close to that as possible.

This needs to be a fully functional PC, only the box though: no keyboard, mouse, monitor, or speakers. It doesn't have to be top of the line (duh, $600 budget) but the work done on it will be mainly Photoshop, StudioMax and sound stuff. This means a good video card and a good sound card, neither of which can be integrated.

If you have a few minutes please give me your input as to what specs/prices/components can be had for the given amount of money. I assume shipping a box costs $20-40 via UPS ground, so please take that into account in keeping it under $600. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[tweakmm]

I would make sure to get globs and globs of ram

 

[Maverick2002]

I assume 256mb is too little. Will 512mb (2x256) do it? Any suggestions on the other stuff?

 

[oLLie]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
I assume 256mb is too little. Will 512mb (2x256) do it? Any suggestions on the other stuff?

512 would probably be average for a computer that's gonna be doing 3dSMax. All I can do is give ya a bump.

 

[WTT0001]

Enermax, CS-003-01WB $59 + $10
Lite On 32x12x40 CDRW $70 + $7
MITSUMI FDD 1.44MB 3.5INCH $ 9 + $4
Seagate Barracuda IV 40gb $70 + $7
KINGSTON 512MB PC2100 RAM $120 + $9
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP +RAID +LAN $110 + $10
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Retail $114 + Free
CL SB AUDIGY WITH 1394 $60 + $5
GAINWARD GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB $124 + $7

Cheapest decent system I could get, roughly $740 + Shipping ($40),

Modify as desired. All from newegg

 

[Maverick2002]

I think I could knock off some by going with a non-RAID board (but onboard LAN), smaller HDD (Maxtor's ATA133 fluid bearing is best I hear?) and a slower burner. As for the video card, what kind of features should I look for when I know it'll be used for digital editing? I mean, I can't get a Quadro or anything, but does memory bandwidth matter that much in these apps?

 

[tweakmm]

As for the video card, what kind of features should I look for when I know it'll be used for digital editing? I mean, I can't get a Quadro or anything, but does memory bandwidth matter that much in these apps?

you are not going to have much of a choice in the matter, 600 is not alot to work with

 

[DanFungus]

I uh hear that there's a thing called (opposite of hard = sof... and then quadro) for GeForce cards...I know it works on GeForce 3, and maybe Geforce 2 (never used it..) Geforce 3 would be a good card for what you want to do.

 

[dude8604]

Will you be building the PC or do you want a pre-built one?

 

[Ionizer86]

Athlon XP 1600+ chips are getting cheap; they're like $80 before shipping now. For video, I checked newegg, and the Radeon DDR is available for $37, which isn't bad at all for gaming. It's even faster than the GTS-V card! If you dish out a bit more, I think some places sell Ti200 cards for $90ish.

Audigies are around $60, and so are Santa Cruz cards. The Audigy has a 1394 port though Then 256mb Crucial 2100 ram is like $48 after the coupon.

Let's see...what else? Seagate Barracuda IV 40gb drives are $70 at Newegg. I don't feel like piecing a whole system, but this should give a decent idea of what to have in the comp.

 

[ultimatebob]

I like the mwave.com barebone kits, because they mount the mount the motherboard and CPU for you. All you need to do is plug in the cards, and add the hard drive. The CPU fan, cables, CD-ROM, and even the floppy are included. You didn't say if you needed a modem, so I threw in a crappy one for good measure.

Here's what I found for $550, which you gives you $50 to cover shipping:

AB02-B37-59-9-A12910-A02602- AMD DURON & SDRAM SYSTEMS
1.44MB FDD (AOPEN AK73 PROASpecs; AMD DURON 1200(200MHZ); 64X64 512MB PC133; ACER 56X CDROM-Specs; CG 6016L-P5-Specs; NO MONITOR) $292.44 $292.44

A14730 CREATIVE LABS SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! PCI DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 SB0102 (White box) $32.00 $32.00

695762 PINE EXCALIBER GEFORCE3 TI-200 64MB AGP DDR NVIDIA W/TV & DVI-OUT $115.11

543535 D-LINK 10BT/100BTX DFE530TX+ PCI W/WAKE-ON-LAN 1-PK (Bare card) $8.99

226379 CNET 56K V.90 INTERNAL MODEM $13.50

A13380 IBM 60GB UATA-100 #35L60AVVA07 DESKSTAR 120GXP 7200RPM 2MB (Bare drive) $86.00

 

[Maverick2002]

After looking at some other suggestions I think I'll need more memory for the 3D apps, probably 512mb. HDD doesn't need to be that large, 40gb is more than enough. I probably will need a CR Audigy though for the sound stuff. And it has Firewire which will help for editing. AXP1600-1800 seems to be the choice so I think I'll settle for something in that department. As for the video card, do those programs really require something with a ton of bandwidth or just packed full of features? I mean, I could throw in a cheaper card if that means I can put in more memory.

I guess the question I'm asking is exactly what those programs require most of. Video card memory? System memory? HDD speed?

Also, I think I'll go for the Audigy. Isn't Maxtor's ATA133 drive a better choice? Also, I don't need a lot of space I don't think, 40gb should be sufficient. Will 256mb do it or do I need 512? I will be piecing this together myself.

 

[ultimatebob]

Why on earth do you need an SB Audigy? Unless you have a killer set of 5.1 speakers or a video camera with Firewire output, all of those extra features are going to go to waste.

Photoshop needs a ton of memory, so you'll want at least 512MB for that. You'll also want a good monitor, and a precise mouse. Unless you already have a 19+ inch monitor and an optical mouse already, you'll want to set aside some money to purchase them later.

3D StudioMax needs a good video card, so you'll want at least a GeForce 3 or a Radeon 8500. A fast CPU helps, as well, so you'll want at least a 1 Ghz processor.

You never said what kind of sound stuff you were doing. Depending upon what kind of audio inputs you need, an old SoundBlaster Live! with a Live Drive audio connector would be a better choice than an Audigy.