Help me configure my computer and time my purchases

[slackerinabox]

So I got a job and I want to do a little shopping to upgrade my computer. I'm looking for both suggestions for parts and an order to buy them buy. Here's the deal: I'm only going to buy one major component every week or two. So, I'll be done in about 5 weeks. I would hate for one part to be 1/2 the price or obsolete (relatively speaking) when I'm done with the month... So help me figure out the order and the parts based on your knowledge of the industry!

My current order:

1) LCD monitory - I doubt the price will change from month to month much, unless there's some major price cuts planned that I haven't heard about. Any suggestions for a decent but affordable 17-19" that I can use for video editing and light gaming?

2) DVD-R drive. Figure that a good $80 DL drive will be $80 in a month. Think I'll go with an NEC or a SONY

3) Hard drive - prices have been pretty stable. Figure I'll go with either a Maxtor or Seagate 180 gigger

4) Case - I'm totally clueless on this one. I don't want to spend too much but I don't want it to sound like a lawnmower. I'm thinking about getting one of those Shuttle like barebones because I'm tired having this huge cause taking up my limited space.

5) Motherboard - Socket 939 is the way to go? I'm thinking about getting an AMD A64 so I guess it's my only choice, right? When will PCI xpress boards be availble? PCI-X with SLI? Hmmm...

6) CPU - I'm assuming it's best to wait until the last possible moment for this one... Is there supposed to be any major CPU related news in the next month or two?

7) Video card - I'm not a gamer so I may just stick to my current all in wonder radeon.. I do video editing and such so 2D quality is very important to me.

8) ram - I have a stick of ddr333 512mb ram.. Can I just buy another 512 or should I ditch my old chip and buy 1g of new ram?

Thanks alot for any help guys!

 

[DaveSimmons]

4) Case - I'm totally clueless on this one. I don't want to spend too much but I don't want it to sound like a lawnmower. I'm thinking about getting one of those Shuttle like barebones because I'm tired having this huge cause taking up my limited space.

Size is nice, but many cubes have whiny little power supplies (custom size so not replaceable), and they only have 2 card slots (1- AGP, 1- PCI).

The Antec Sonata is quiet, comes with a good power supply, and is fairly small for a mid-tower case.

When will PCI xpress boards be availble? PCI-X with SLI? Hmmm...

If you aren't gaming, why would you care about SLI?

 

[tjaisv]

1) LCD monitor - Hyundai ImageQuest L70S 17" 16ms ($267)

2) DVD-R drive - Pioneer DVR-108D Multi-format (4xDL/16x+-R) DVD Writer ($75)

3) Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB ($120)

4) Case - too many to choose from, check out tomshardware.com for ongoing reviews (personally i'd go with the Lian-Li PC60 or PC61, it's expensive at $100, but ever since it came out a couple years ago it's definitely remained as one of the best cases out there, IMO)

5) Motherboard - MSI K8N NEO-FSR Socket 754 nForce3-250gb chipset ($97) - the performance benefit of Socket 939 over 754 is marginal, and 754 cpus are comparatively cheaper in price...for PCI Express and SLI, you can wait for nForce4 motherboards which should be out soon

6) CPU - Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754 ($151)

7) Video card - your current card, or Radeon 9600XT ($150)

8) ram - your current ddr333 512MB ram will likely suffice