Request for lookover before ordering

[viewton]

So a week or two ago I asked for input on pre-built PC's, but the more I looked into pre-built PC's, the more I wanted the control of building my own with the parts I wanted. After reading up on building your own, I think I'm up to the task even though it's been 10 years since my last build. I'm not going to be gaming much, if any...just photo editing and some video editing. I think most of these parts have been listed on the site in the past two weeks or in the stickied threads, but does it look ok?

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Retail $119.00

Mobo: ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $129.99

Mobo/CPU COMBO Discount -$54.00

Case: Antec Mini P180 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower - Retail $79.99 (needed a case under 18" tall otherwise I would have gone with something bigger)

Power Supply: Antec earthwatts EA500 500W $74.99

Case/PS COMBO Discount -$30.00

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit $64.99 (had trouble finding the correct 1600 on the ASUS QVL)

HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - OEM $69.99 x 2 HD's = $139.98

DVD/CD Burner: LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50 - OEM $25.99

SPEAKERS: Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - OEM $23.99

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade - Retail $49.99 (currently have WIN XP)

TOTAL = $625 + S&H

Two questions, if someone might help? I got the 2nd HD for the photos and video editing. How would you recommend partitioning my first drive though? I read I should allot maybe 100 GB for the OS, and then the remaining goes for programs only, does that sound about right?

Also, if I do a clean install of Windows 7 RC on this, do I still need to reinstall 7 over it when I get my upgrade disk later this year? Not sure how that works...if that's the case, I might as well just use XP for now which I know works with my programs. The wording on MS site makes me nervous about using Windows 7 RC for your home PC, I have to imagine that's an early msg and it's been tested plenty by now though, right?

Thank you guys.

 

[Porter21]

I guess that case will fit your atx motherboard even though it is labeled micro atx?

Sorry to jump to the second part, but I would go ahead and install the OS on the entire Hard Drive. The programs will install within that partition itself alongside the OS. I guess you could partition the drive into two separate partitions and install the OS on one and then when installing programs choose the other, but I probably wouldn't do that. The second drive can always be used for storage.

As far as windows 8, I was under that impression that if you have the RC, that the upgrade would be quite simple.

I would maybe use XP for now if you don't have a lot of experience in the area. Windows 7 isn't hard to catch on to though and it would be good to test out before official release.

-Porter

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Porter21
I guess that case will fit your atx motherboard even though it is labeled micro atx?

Looks like it requires a micro atx motherboard.

 

[viewton]

Doh, thank you guys...completely missed that on the case. That could have been a pain.

Maybe I'll play around with Win 7 RC for a week and see how it goes...if I don't catch on to it easily or am having problems with programs, I can wipe it and go back to XP.

 

[viewton]

So I'm sitting here waiting for Windows 7 RC to download on my old PC...wish I had thought of downloading it earlier! On the brightside, I've got the new PC built and I'm playing around in the BIOS right now. I went with the Antec Sonata III (nice case!).

Can I just say, I love SATA! lol....last time I built my pc was with IDE cables, SATA is so much easier and the size of the cables in comparison isamazing. Anyway, had some time to kill and wanted to thank you guys again for the input from this thread and my last one:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=27&threadid=2311872

The build went surprisingly smooth considering how out of date I was on this stuff....lots of good resources on this board came in handy and the link someone gave in another thread to the techreport building guide.

Off to do some research and RAID setups now...does anyone do RAID 1 with their mobo? The last time I heard about RAID, it was being done using SCSI cards (I think).

I wasn't planning on it originally, but considering how cheap these WD 640 GB's were, I'm now thinking of using the two I have in RAID and buying a 3rd for storage, photos, videos, etc.