System for Engineering Workstation / Media Center PC

[Woodrow65]

Hi, I'm about to build a system that will be used as an engineering workstation and media center PC (record TV, edit videos, some gaming). Here is my current list of components:

Asus A8N-E Motherboard (don't plan to use SLI in future)
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor
1 GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT Memory
MSI Radeon X800 Video Card (RX800TD128E)
Hauppauge WINTV-PVR 150 MCE TV Tuner
WD Caviar SE16 250GB Hard Drive (may add a second for RAID or for TV/vid recording)
Soundblaster Audigy (from current system)
NEC 3540A DVD Writer
Antec TPII-550 Power Supply
Antec P160 Case
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

I will likely try some overclocking, but stability is a must. Does anyone have suggestions for improvement or warnings as to which components might be problematic? Thanks.

 

[Furen]

I'd get a seasonic S12 PSU since they're quieter, cooler and higher quality, pretty much the cream of the crop at 100-180 dollars.

Maybe an extra gig of ram? This would be helpful with video editing. I'd get 2 Patriot 1GB modules (2-3-2 latency), since they're a bit cheaper than the rest and have pretty much the lowest timings out there.

 

[Woodrow65]

Thanks for the tips. I like the looks of the Seasonic PSU, but after I posted I jumped on a TPII-550 from Newegg for $79 after rebate--hopefully it will work out.

The Patriot RAM looks great. Will I lose any performance by starting with 2x512MB first and then adding another 2x512MB later (sorry for the noob question)?

How about the MSI Radeon X800--is it a good mid-range choice? The latest video card price guide alerted me to it ($145 with rebate). Thanks.

 

[imported_Kensai]

:thumbsup: Pretty okay system..

You'll suffer a 5-7% performance drop at most by using four sticks instead of two. (In comparison to 2 X 1GB)
Yes, the x800 is a pretty okay mid range choice.

Personally, I don't like Asus' consumer boards and I prefer DFI and MSI.

 

[Woodrow65]

Originally posted by: Kensai
:thumbsup: Pretty okay system..

You'll suffer a 5-7% performance drop at most by using four sticks instead of two. (In comparison to 2 X 1GB)
Yes, the x800 is a pretty okay mid range choice.

Personally, I don't like Asus' consumer boards and I prefer DFI and MSI.

Thanks. I did consider the MSI Neo4 Platinum or Neo4/SLI since they have great feature sets, but I've read a lot of negative comments about problems with USB and loud chipset fan. If those problems are fixed, I may reconsider. Do you agree that the Neo4/SLI is the one to get? It looks like it has a different chipset fan that the Platinum.

From what I've read, the Asus A8N-E had a bad chipset fan, but that has been fixed.

As I read more about memory, it seems that Athlon 64 platforms don't benefit much from low latency memory (see this thread), so going with Patriot isn't that important? See this poll for 2GB of memory for an A8N-E. Since Corsair is known to work, I'm leaning that way.

All comments welcome.