i need a new computer but i'm stoopid

[droon]

and ignorant too!


k. here goes.
i need to get a new system coz i'm getting these assignments my current setup just can't pull off. it's P3 800 ex-server, no videocard. i have no expierience putting a full system together and my knowledge about parts is pretty slim. n00b slim.

owkay, i can borrow whatever money i need to build this. so bang for the buck is what matters. as a pointer i'm guessing i'd be willing to go up to ?3000, but if all my needs can be covered for ?2000, so much for the better.

except for a HD i'm not gonna plunder my old computer, so all parts would be new.

i'd be doing 3D stuff and video editting. Right now i use Cinema 4D and after effects, but i'd deffinalty want to explore new grounds: shake, maya, combustion,... i'd be handling heavily cut-up and effected upon footage and lots of it. Feature film length.

ok. my biggest question mark is the videocard. the lists at the online stores make me dizzy. i need something stable, rather common (so i can find it locally, belgium, europe), but up to all the challenges.
i guess some importing-exporting connectability would be good. altho i have friends with all that gear, DV-readers and whatnots. and i could just move big files with an exterior HD. what i WON'T be doing is gaming. if that helps.

I have questions like.. what makes a "ati radeon 9200 256DDR non-pro dvi tv" 10 times worse then a FIREGL X2-256, wich costs 10 times as much? is it coz it's 20% faster? coz that's not what i'm looking for.

Then processor and motherboard, i guess they're all pretty fast by now, i was looking at dual systems but it just seems like a hassle. opteron dual seems to be a server targetted solution mostly. so i guess i just need something that can handle multiple tasks well, i want to work while rendering.

Simple things like Wattage. do i need more then 300-400watts and why?

fans? they allways seemed like a case mod geek type of thing.

Is there a reason why i shouldn't get the cheapest RAM i can find? i'd get a couple of gigs worth. 2gb?. same question for HD's. what's RAID? what's SATA?
should i get one of those 36 GB raptors?

DVD burners..?

things i'm forgetting?

any help would be good. especially on the video card.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Good god man that is a lot of not knowing for someone who wants to build a system.

First of all, for video editing Intel is still the way to go. DON"T get a celeron! Speed is up to your budget. Faster is faster.

I would suggest a 9600pro for video editing. a 9800 is better but necisarily a necesity. Any of your computer savy friends can help you if you get a 9800 to turn it into a FireGL9800. The more RAM on the chip the more information you can store on it at a time, so 256 would make a difference but only a very small one.

The motherboard won't matter as much. get a bigger brand though, not ecs or the likes.

For video editing you will definatly need raid unless you want the process to take FOREVER. RAID is a combination of atleast two drives that are working together as though they were one drive. RAID 0 will give you better speed becuase it will take the two hard drives and spread the information out so you have twice the bandwidth to get the information out, basically. RAID 1 will take all your information and put it on two drives exactly the same, so you could, in theory, take a hammer to one and still run your computer off the other alone. The 36GB raptors are good, but not that good, you would have to buy about 8 of them and put them in RAID 0 to get the storage you will need for video editing.

RAM, you will need atleast 1gb, 2 would not hurt you but will not double your perfomance. Get pc3200, no matter what, you are going to need the bandwidth. I would recomned corsair value or kingston valueram or something of that level. mihgt not be the cheapest but will not fry on you eigther.

PSU(power supply) If you are going to have a boot disk, RAID, a higher video card, a DVD burner and a pentium system, Get atleast a QUALITY 350watt power supply.

Fans. you need fans, you don't need extreme fans like overclockers have, but you do have to have fans. There is a general rule. Take the ammount of air they move, divide that by their noise volume. which ever one has highest number is the best. Don't get anything higher than about 35-40 DB unless you want a loud computer.

I hope this answered all your questions. Don't cut corners or you will notice it in the long run.

 

[Willoughbyva]

You could also think about getting a Dell. Wait for a good deal and see what happens. I take it that you are in Europe, so i don't know about Dell deals there.

If you are going to do it yourself then.
I would probably stay with Intel P4. If you are not overclocking then you might try a decent Intel motherboard or another that has been reviewed to be rock stable. The other components you can determine for yourself I guess. You seem to have some knowledge about what you are doing so go for it.

You might want to look more into dual cpu's if you are going to be doing a lot of 3D stuff it might pay off int the long run. I haven't really looked into duals in about 8 years. See how the programs perform with dual vs single.

 

[droon]

well this was allready pretty helpfull. tnx

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

hmm people are under stating for the price he is willing to pay. He wants bang for buck not bargan basement. With that said, might want to consider a 3.4 northwood p4, asus or other good quality mobo, an enermax or antec atleast 400 watt power supply. a gig 2x512 of good ram: corsair xms, muskin, or ocz. Radeon 9800 pro or whatever the equivalent nvidia card is[5900 ultra?(from a good company asus comes to mind)] Case is up to you it's a very personal choice. Optical drives are really dependant on what you want to do, but atleast get a 16x dvd rom. Cheap floppy drive[incase you need to use a boot disk(sata driver installs come to mind)] Harddrive is a tough issue and I'm not familar with video editing so I can't say. My setup is a 74 gig raptor(they are faster then the 36 gig ones due to changes made to the newer model) and a 200 gig 7200 ide drive. I wasn't keeping track and some of it is ambiguous, but a setup like this should run about 1600 usd.