Rate this budget HTCP rig. - have less than 10 days to decide

[DGizzle]

I did it. I walked into Fry's to look at video cards only and came out with a new computer... Ok I still have to put it together and buy a case but tell me what you think.

MOBO: $219 ECS G33T-M2 paired with Core 2 Duo E6750 (retail box)
MEM: $70 (100-30 rebate) Corsair 2gig DDR2 kit - Twin2X2048-6400 (CM2X1024-640) XMS6405v5.1 5-5-5-12 800MHZ 1024MB XMS2-6400 (2 more sets of numbers on the modules so tell me if you need them as well) I want to buy more memory so is this good mem. at a good price?
HARDDRIVE: $110 Seagate SATA/300 - 500gb, 16 mb cache, 3gb/s data rate, 72 rpm
That's $399 so far

Plan to use onboard video since no gaming will be done on this computer and video is already HDCP compliant, DirectX9. This is just for video recording, editing, and authoring, high-def. and analog. Already have a hd/analog tuner and psu. Just in case, I picked up a EVGA e-GeForce 8500 GT (512mb) for $120. If I don't like the quality of the video, or I take to big of a CPU hit, I might just put it in. Would rather wait though for more budget video board options.

This was not the rig. I planned. But when I saw the board and CPU for the same price as just the CPU on Newegg, I had to get it. Also, was not going to get an SATA hardrive this soon but this board has no IDE. Bought an EDI controller card for $30 in case I have trouble setting up SATA and to run my 'legacy' NEC ND-3550A dvd recorder.

That's an additional $150 which brings us to $549.

I've got a rebate to send out (hateful rebates) and Fry's has a 15 day return policy so any input is welcome! 😉

Thanks in advance.
D-Gizzle

 

[Spoelie]

You have pretty strange reasoning, buying hardware without planning to use it, "just in case". Instead of the IDE controller, you could have gotten a nice samsung SATA writer for less and be completely rid of IDE devices.

You overpaid for the gpu, just because it has 512mb onboard ram, which is useless to it anyway. You can get 256mb versions for 70-80$

mem is good, hd is satisfactory but the new WD seems better

 

[lookouthere]

is ECS G33T-M2 reliable?

 

[DGizzle]

Spoelie:
You are right about the strang reasoning! I walked in to check out the 8600 GTS video card only and pickup a whole system.
So now I can ditch the IDE card and will pickup up the SATA writer. Yeah! The board only has 2 PCI, 1 PCI-e, 1 PCI-e 16x so I'm hurting for slots. Also, I wasn't sure about the gpu. And you're right, I got it because of the additional ram. Back it goes and I'll wait to see how the onboard holds up. Will check into the Western Digitial that they have in stock. Edit: I take it you mean the Western Digital Caviar SE16, WD7500AAKS 750GB? Sounds like one sweet drive! Went with the Seagate because I read they were better in general but I need good seek times since I'm recording/encoding video. Most helpful and thanks for the quick reply!

lookouthere:
I checked reviews as soon as I got home and found in general the board is well liked. There were lots of reviews on it with the only issue being the lack of IDE onboard. It has no OC potential which is fine with me but saw 2 reviews that say the board performs on par with the P35 when pair with a fast graphics card like the Gefore 8800 GTS and a Core 2 Duo E6700. One of the reviews test rigs was similar to what I purchased so it seemed reasonable that I would get similar results. Take a look and tell me if I'm wrong. Edit: All most forgot, NO RAID.
http://www.pcstats.com/article...?articleid=2147&page=3
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/472/7

Thanks for both your input. Keep it coming folks!

D-Gizzle
(sorry for any typos. I type fast but my aim is bad)