System I'm considering - your recommendations appreciated

[Greenwald]

Hi. I'm looking to put together a system mainly for general home use and video editing. I mainly use my current PC (FIC VA503+, AMD 450mz K6-3+ oc@550, 256 pc100, Nvidia mx200, SB awe64 gold) for surfing the net, listening to mp3's (hooked up to my stereo) and running MS apps every once in a while. It works great for that. However, I am getting into video editing and need more power to render video. I don't do any gaming so that's not a consideration.

Due to the program I run (Pinnacle Studio), the two main things I want are the Intel chipset and an Nvidia video card (help me select which one). Here's what I've put together so far, what do you think? What suggestions do you have? Bear in mind I want to keep costs within reason.

- Giga Byte 8IEXP motherboard (i845E chipset)
- P4 2.4G Processor
- 512 Crutial ram (what's the best speed, 2100/2700)??
- Video card - PNY GeForce 4 TI4200 64M /TV OEM (any suggestions here?)
- Sound Card - Phillips Seismic Edge
- CDRW - Install my current TDK 12-10-32
- Case/ps (undecided but need 350-400w)
- HDs - new WD 100G 7200 and my current WD 80G 7200 for video plus my 30G 7200 Maxtor drive for my OS
- OS - Windows XP home or pro (what's your suggestion - New egg has xp pro on sale for $133)
- Keyboard/mouse/monitor - use my existing MS natural ps2 Keyboard and intelimouse and 17" monitor.

I'm a little up in the air on a few things:

- Should I get a mb that has the 845G chipset over the 845E for purposes of future upgrading?
- What speed of ram DDR 2100, 2600, 2700, would give me better results? Is higher going to give me 'significant' performance increase?
- What do I have to do to take advantage of the 400/533 mhz bus?
- Would I be better off buying a cheaper 2G processor and just overclocking it?

I'll probably buy all my stuff from New Egg since I've had really good luck with them in the past, unless you have any other sources you suggest.

Thanks much for your help.

Mark Greenwald

 

[bjc112]

Well so far everything looks O.K.

I would first change my ram to Samsung Original 2700... that way you can overclock like a monster

As for the choice of your Mobo... *I* would get the Epox 4g4a.... IF you want to overclock... thats the board to get...

And yes... i would buy the 2.0A and try and hit 2.6 or higher...

Although if you get the 2.4, your prolly gonna come close to 3ghz

Everything else looks good...

Any other questions...ASK away..

BTW... I like your name, that was the name of my gradeschool.... hehe

 

[MikeMike]

for power supply get a quiet Antec True Power ps i got a 430 watt(overkill but will be useble in later systems) and maybe a nice chieftec case(antec clone)

 

[fade2black]

Case: Antec SX840 (400 Watt PS) [Plenty of expansion space, well laid out, well built]
Sound Card: Seismic Edge is a good choice ($30 from pcmicrostore.com)
OS: I recommend XP Pro. You can get it at OEM price ($30 ??)
if you buy it along with any hardware.