Need help with new build

[The Mailman]

Hi guys

I've been tasked with building a new computer for my cousin. Thing is, he's aiming low budget and that's kind of out of my area of knowledge


Budget = $600 or less; so far no parts have been picked out; it will be running Windows XP and it's primary use will be general use + burning dvds

The point he stressed was wanting to be able to burn DVDs as quick as possible so I guess we can throw majority of the budget at that (no blu ray burner wanted, he said)

I have a MSI MS-7071 M-Atx board laying around I could use, but would DDR2 be better or be an insignificant upgrade?

so yeah, need parts recommendations, if i'm being too vague just say so and ill help give more specifics to narrow things down

thanks

 

[jaqie]

First off, you didn't say if you need a new monitor, keyboard, speakers, and mouse... which of those do you have that you want to re-use? That makes a very big difference in the parts to be recommended.
Windows XP will need to be purchased unless it is already owned, changing the cost of the parts even more.

Second, what is it to be used for? That makes a huge difference, and no saying "burning" is not enough here.

DDR2 is so cheap that not running it is going to cost you, even if you can 'save' by having a DDR mobo already.

 

[Roguestar]

Low budget + no specific gaming needs + possible warranty & OS needed + build for family or friends = Dell Outlet

Edit: lolr i spel gud

 

[The Mailman]

keyboard, mouse, XP license, monitor, all that doesn't matter. i've got spare parts laying around if he needs it and im just going to assume he has XP

whats the fastest DVD burner out there? cpu speed bottleneck this at all?

 

[DSF]

20x is the fastest they go I believe, and we're beyond the point of CPU mattering as far as I know.

 

[jaqie]

Originally posted by: The Mailman
cpu speed bottleneck this at all?

NO!

The bottleneck for fast burning (when a system has proper drivers and DMA acceleration is properly enabled) is always in the sytem I/O and specifically the hard drive. Get a nice high capacity hard drive (for the high arial density and thus high transfer rates) which is sata2.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

A $600 dollar budget for copying dvds can be handled nicely- if it is constrained to the box, like many have noted above
here is my recommendations:

psu: use one laying around >380 watts, or an antec earthwatts/truepower
gigabyte ep35 mobo- $89 on newegg
if no gaming, get a mobo with integrated gfx. CSS-CD4, 8600gt-9600gt and the above mobo


for harddrives: (two in raid-0 would be nice) 32mb cache each, w/ RAID-0 total of 1/2 TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148309 $79

For optical drives:
if 1 disc-disc transfer:
DVD-ROM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827135151
DVD-Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151171 (same as well-liked http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151153 , but with faster burn speed of 22x)
For 2 discs at once, double the 2 above

for ram: 2gigs of cas-4, or 4gigs of cas-5 (or 3 gigs really, xp-32 cannot properly use 4 gigs). No need to go above 800mhz unless ur overclocking
set up the ram in dual-channel for max bandwidth

Definitely check out slysoft software for any copying of personal discs

really, the specifics comes down to how the dvds will be copied.
disc-disc is gonna be memory size, memory bandwidth, I/O speed, and rom/burner speeds (def go sata to reduce overhead + latency)
disc-drive-burner is gonna play on HDD speeds, and CPU cache (no e2xxx allendales- only have 1mb cache, if going up in cpu choice, 3 or 6 mb wolfdales would be good)
disc imaging, and then multiple burns (at the same time) will be the most memory bandwidth intensive, and cpu-loading- cache and bus speed will be important

if insane dvd-burning is necessary, throw in four of these - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822135106 - in a raid0, find a mobo with lots of sata ports, do the two dvd-rom, two dvd-burner, 3-gigs of cas-5 ram (1000mhz speed), and perhaps a E6850 or the like. The E7200 might be worth a look. good speed to it, cool, and 3mb of ram is more than you'll get from an allendale core. good luck

 

[Blain]

Your cuz must remember that it's not only the drive speed that determines how fast disks burn, but it's Media Quality also.
Even if he has the fastest drive on the planet but uses cheap media... You guessed it... :laugh:
Not all media is created equal. Two different brands rated for the same speed may actually burn at quite different rates.

My best advice is to pick a brand like Taiyo Yuden, then research back to find which DVD burners work best with them.
Yes you read it correctly... Start with the "Media" first


BTW, Roguestar will totally agree with my assessment. :thumbsup::laugh:

 

[Roguestar]

Beep boop beep

Blain post detected

:thumbsup: what he said :thumbsup:

Return to hibernate mode

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

Totally agree about media. Don't just look at the brands selling them- check out the manufacturer of the discs themselves.

 

[cparker]

Since this is low budget and high end cpu performance isn't needed you might consider an AMD 780g platform. You would get great integrated graphics for vista/multimedia with blu ray capability (I know, he doesn't want vista/blu ray....yet) and with the monitor/os/keyboard/mouse you already have, should fit well below your budget.