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Help a Struggling Purchaser

D

DaMutha

Member
Hello all-first post (though I've been reading for weeks). I am currently in the process of pulling out my hair while trying to decide what new PC to buy. I've toyed with the idea of building my own, but I'm quite doubtful of my ability to do it in an efficient manner, and I'm willing to spend a couple of hundred extra to avoid any major headaches. I'm looking in the $2,000 range, sans monitor, and want a pretty jacked system that I can upgrade fairly easily--the latter point is making me very hesitant to buy from a Dell, etc. I keep getting drawn to ABS, and was looking for your input on the following set-up for $2009.99. FYI, I'm looking to do home video editing and some moderate gaming, along with the usual everyday stuff.

Antec Performance PLUS 660AMG 330W (P4 & AMD Ready) Tower Case
Asus P4T533-C 850E 533MHz FSB Socket 478 ATA100 AC97 Sound LAN Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 512K Socket 478 533MHz Processor
Thermaltake P4 Volcano Socket 478 Heatsink & Fan
Kingston 256MB 1066MHZ RAMBUS RAM 2 pieces
Western Digital 100GB 7200RPM Hard Drive - 8MB Cache Special Edition
Western Digital 100GB 7200RPM Hard Drive - 8MB Cache Special Edition
HighPoint RAID Controller Card Rocket133
Sapphire ATI RADEON 9700 Atlantis PRO 128MB DDR,325/310, DVI/TV-out/CRT AGP BULK
Toshiba 16X DVD-ROM (48X CD-ROM Speed) Drive
Lite-On 48x24x48 LTR-4824S CD-RW Drive (I'll also be adding the new Sony DVD burner, but I had to pick something here)
Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card w/1394 Firewire Port
Altec Lansing AVS300W Speakers with Subwoofer (Don't need speakers, but this was the cheapest option)
Ambient (Intel) 56K V.92 PCI Modem
Mitsumi 1.44MB Floppy Drive - WHITE
Logitech Cordless Elite Duo Keyboard and Mouse
MS Windows XP Home OEM
Microsoft Works Suite 2003 - OEM Full Version

Thanks for any advice.
 
All kick butt items. Not sure on price cause i dont wanna sit and figure it up though 😀 Someone else will probably do that..hehe
 
get either 80gb se's or the 120 gb se's because the 100gb use a different platter than the 80 and 120, thus causing them to be much less sufficient


also i am bored, and will have some other options for you in a few minutes
 
Everything looks good to me. Being an AMD fan (not fanboy, just fan), I would definitely advocate going that route, but I'm sure I'm barking up the wrong tree. Though it would save you plenty money....

I couldn't quite understand from the post, but I'm assuming that you meant that you were getting 2 sticks of 256MB RDRAM, not just one. If you are only getting one, then... don't. Get two.

The 1000JB's don't use different platters. They use the same 40GB platters as the 1200JB and the 800JB. However, they limit the size of one or more of their platters. As far as I know, nobody has been able to prove shich they do, but they either limit the size of each of the platters to 33.3GB or they cut one platter in half, to 20GB. If 100JB is the right price/size level for you, then so be it. It's a great drive.

The only other thing I'd suggest is getting a different sound card. Many have had compatibility problems with Audigys, including myself and a friend of mine. I would recommend the Philips Acoustic Edge. It's an incredible card, costs less, and has no issues I've ever heard of. Here's the thing: every time I see this card discussed in this forum, there are losts of people that come in and recommend it. There are also some that recommend the Audigy. However, while many site having compatibility problems with the Audigy, nobody ever says, "Don't get that Acoustic Edge because....." You can search for yourself above. It's just my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. If your computer crashed like mine did because of an Audigy card, you wouldn't recommend one either.
 
Thanks for the input so far. I might as well go for the 120GB drives--they're not much more expensive (another $28 total). As for the sound card, they only offer 3 choices, and they are all Audigy (XGamer and Audigy 2 are the other 2 choices). They guarantee the setup for compatability, so hopefully it wouldn't be a problem. Honestly, I don't crank the sound system too much, so I'm more interested in the firewire port. I am definitely getting at least 512MB of RDRAM. I'm considering getting a gig, but I'm not sure it would be worth it--anyone have thoughts on that?

Has anyone had dealings with ABS? I get the sense that they are pretty reputable.
Also, am I correct in thinking that this is a set-up that I could upgrade pretty easily?
 
Depending on how intense the video editing is that you plan on doing, it may be wise to get that extra half gig if you have the money 🙂

Bill
 
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