HELP Building New Rig

[ChrisinTO]

I'm looking to buy a new system and would appreciate any comments/feedback/recomendations you might have.
I plan to use the system for some gaming (HL2, CS) but mostly for video editing (from DV tapes) and video conversion (various formats to mpeg2).
Based on what I'll be using this system for, would you recommend I go with AMD or Intel? Also note that I don't plan on overclocking at all.

Here is something a local shop is offering (in Canadian $'s):

Case/Power:
Enlight Mid Tower ATX Case w/ 7 Bays w/o Power Supply, Black
Enlight 450W ATX Power Supply
*I plan to upgrade to Antec® Sonata Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower w/ 380W Power Supply

Motherboard:
Asus® P5GD1, Socket 775, Intel® i915P Chipset w/ PCI Express x16 (ATX)
OR
Asus® A8N-SLI Deluxe, Socket 939, NVIDIA nForce®4 SLI? Chipset w/ PCI Express x16 (ATX)

Memory:
512Mb DDR SDRAM Ram Module, PC3200
512Mb DDR SDRAM Ram Module, PC3200

Drives:
200 GB Western Digital® Cavier® SE SATA-150 7200RPM 8Mb OEM
Panasonic 3½ in (1.44Mb) Floppy Disk Drive, Black
Sony 16X DVD-ROM Drive OEM, Black
Sony DWD22A Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (IDE) OEM, Black

Video:
Asus® Extreme EN6600GT/TD - GeForce? 6600GT GPU w/128Mb DDR3 & PCI Express Retail Box
*Is this a good card? For what I need, should I upgrade to something else?

Monitor:
Viewsonic® VP191b, 19in 1280 x 1024 Digital Active Matrix TFT LCD, Black

Other:
USR® / 3Com® 56K Fax/Modem (PCI) v.90
On-Board PCI Sound built-into motherboard
On-Board 10/100Mb Lan built-into motherboard
KeyTronic® KT800 Keyboard w/ Windows keys, Black
Logitech® Blue Optical Mouse (OEM) w/ Wheel
Economy TechCraft® Turquoise Mouse Pad
MS Windows® XP Home w/ CD & Manual (OEM) <-- I will upgrade to XP Prof.
Logitech® X-530 Speaker System (Retail Box)
Arctic Silver® Thermal Compound (3g Tube - multiple applications)
Blue Cold Cathode Neon Light
5 Year Labour & 1 Year Parts Warranty

Finally, for the amount of performace gain you get, what would be the best value?

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ ............................... $2264.99
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ ............................... $2349.99
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ ............................... $2799.99
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ ............................... $2899.99
Intel Pentium 4-530 ............................... $2129.99
Intel Pentium 4-540 ............................... $2174.99
Intel Pentium 4-550 ............................... $2249.99
Intel Pentium 4-560J .............................. $2439.99

 

[flamingspinach]

Athlon64 3200+ would be the best value there. Definitely upgrade your case to the Antec. Generic cases are bad, especially when you use the generic PSU that comes with them.

In terms of Intel vs. AMD, at the Pentium 4 Northwood level, P4 would probably be better for video editing. However, it seems you're more into the higher-end CPUs such as Athlon64 or the Intel socket 775. I'd go with the Athlon64.

If you want DVD+/-RW DL, go for the NEC ND-3520A.

I'd stay away from SLI if I were you. Either go with Athlon64 socket 939 + MSI Neo2 Platinum motherboard, or Athlon64 socket 754 + Asus K8N-E Deluxe motherboard.

Just IMHO.

-fs

 

[Edward Lee]

AMD 64 3200 SOCKET 939 $200
ASUS MOTHERBOARD $120
2 GIGS OF CORSAIR VALUE RAM $280
160 X 2 GIG HARD DRIVE $150
6600 GT $180
DVD-RW $66
DVD DRIVE $25
FLOPPY $10
19" LCD VIEWSONIC OR SAMSUNG $450
CASE + 450 WATT PSU = $150
WINDOWS PRO $130
LOGITECH MX DUO $89

TOTAL: $1850 EST. USD

 

[Relion]

Nice build...go for the 3500+ if you can afford...Asus video must be Ok...I can recommend you leadtek 6600 gt...its a nice card ...but asus should be fine...