Help purchasing components for a new machine. (OPINIONS?)

[HeXploiT]

Within the next two months i'll be building a new computer for my aunt, she's into photography and her husband hogs their primary rig so she desperately wants a machine of her own. Not sure on price yet but it'll be a ballpark figure of around $1200-$1400 although i'm hoping for more. The primary purposes of this machine will be photo editing and backup. I've been thinking i'd like to make a nice compact machine and have been seriously considering the compact cases that shuttle makes.
(Like these)
I'm far from making up my mind on this however.
Most likely i'm going to go with AMD and i'd prefer the newest firmware when it comes to the MB(really have no clue what to get in this area) with a lower end Athlon 64. Top of the line power is not necessary but i definetely want to be able to upgrade the cpu in a couple of years.
Below are some must haves for this machine:

Dvd burner
17" monitor (possibly 19") hopefully a flatpanel.
Small nice looking case but this is not for a computer geek.
512mb ram
Front access to whatever case is decided upon(usb/firewire etc)
A quiet cooling system. Not dead silent but reasonably quiet.

Other generalites i'm not certain of as of yet. Very flexible here.

Video- I'm thinking of something like a 128mb 9600 pro. Plenty of performance for a non-gamer at a decent price(kinda).
Standard el'cheapo soundcard. Sound isn't all that important.
Small set of speakers
Thinking about an 80gb 7200rpm drive. moderate storage capacity with decent speed.

I really want to put some love into this project and I hope it's going to be plausable on this budget.
Any and all help is greatly appriciated here as i have a ton of homework to do on this project. I'm open to all kinds of suggestions.

 

[chilled]

- Get a 19" monitor - you'll need it for photograph editing.
- Make sure the shuttle is based on a S754 A64. It will come with the cooling system.
- Get 1GB RAM
- Compensate for this by getting the 9600 non-pro
- get a A64 2800+ (S754) and then you can swap in a 3700+ at a later date.
- Onboard sound should be fine.

 

[HeXploiT]

You mean something like this?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...OD&CMP=OTC-FROOGLE

Good idea about 9600 and onboard sound thanks.

 

[lrmat]

i agree with chilled. 1gig for photo editing, onboard sound and maybe checkout gotapex, they will occasionally post a good deal on dell lcd's you might even get the highly rated 2001fp 20" lcd for a little over $700.

 

[HeXploiT]

You're probably right about the ram. As far as the monitor goes it'll primarily depend upon the cash i have left after building this machine. Right now it's looking like this,

SN85G4V2 $350
1gig ram $152.00
HD (80-120gb?) $100 (Not sure on size yet)
dvdrw $100
kb $35
speakers $25
Athlon 64 3000+ $169.00
Floppy $10
ROSEWILL RADEON 9600 $77.00
Various cables $25
(I'm sure i've overlooked a few small things here so probably slightly more)

Sofar that comes to $943 which looks fantastic to be but even with a budget of $1500 that leaves me $557. Now when it comes to a monitor i'm definetely going to want a good warranty. Something like this would be really nice if i could pull it off though.

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=24-001-160&DEPA=1

 

[HeXploiT]

Bump. Still looking for suggestions...

 

[PCHPlayer]

I am no expert, but I have read that LCD's are not good for photo editing. They cannot be tuned for acurate color reproduction. Perhaps the latest LCDs have fixed this issue. Any photo editing experts out there?

 

[HeXploiT]

Someone else mentioned this as well. So my question is, if CRT's are better for Games, movies and photos, then why in the hell would anyone want to spend $1000 on a 21" lcd when they can spend $400 for a superior 21" crt? What are they good for, staring at text all day?

 

[HeXploiT]

Well i decided against the Shuttle SN85G4V2 as after some research i found that it is based on the Nforce3 150 chipset. So instead i think i'll go for the Soltek EQ3801A with the Nforce3 250 chipset. The only major loss was the card reader on the front of the case(and the nice finish).

It looks like this sofar-

Soltek Barebone EQ3801A $295.00 mb/case/psu/cables
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=56-150-011&depa=0


AMD Athlon 64 2800+ $142.00
Kingston valueram 184 Pin 1024MB DDR PC3200 $150.00
KB/mouse $30
el cheapo Speakers $25
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM $73.00
Lite-On 12X DVD±RW Drive $78.00
ROSEWILL RADEON 9600 $78.00
910T-Silver 19" LCD Monitor $545.00

$1436

This is unless i decide to go with a crt which i'm not sure of yet....anyone?

 

[Neptune3000]

go for the CRT!