Thinking of building this system, tell me if I am doing the right thing!

[astnfan]

Hey there,

Went to newegg today and picked out my new system. I havent built a computer in like 5 years but I am gunna give it a shot. I am not a hardware expert, but from my own experiences, this seemed like a good system. Please let me know what you think, and if you have heard of compatibility issues between these components. I will be doing video editing, video encoding, dvd burning, web type graphix work and misc day to day operations. Some games, but nothing spectacular. The p4 640 is a new processor, i got this one becuase of the extra cache, but I have yet to hear about performance increases becuase it is so new.

ASUS "P5GD2 Deluxe" 915P Chipset Motherboard For Intel LGA 775 CPU -RETAIL

Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor w/ Hyper Threading Technology - Retail

Aspire X-Dreamer II(Black) ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, With Window, Model "ATXB4KLW-BK/350"

NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3520A BK, OEM

Thermaltake Silent 775 CPU Cooler With Heatpipe Coling Tech for Intel LGA775 Prescott, Model "CL-P0092" -RETAIL

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only

Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model 6B200M0, OEM Drive Only

CORSAIR VALUESELECT Kit 240-Pin 1GB(2 x 512MB) DDR2 PC2-4200, Model VS1GBKIT533D2 - Retail

ABIT ATI RADEON X600 XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI Express, Model "RX600 XT-PCIE" - Retail

ACER AL1912b 19" Black LCD Monitor - Retail

the total cost after shipping was unter $1600
Heavy sound is not needed, and this mobo has integrated wifi. Am I missing anything else?


thanks a lot for your opinions!

 

[stevty2889]

I would get a much better power supply than what comes with the case. If you are doing any gaming at all, the 6600GT would be better than the x600 XT. Looks good other than that. The reviews show that the 600 series CPU's don't really have a performance advantage, but do at least run a little cooler and have EM64T.
EDIT: I don't the the 600 series CPU's will work correctly with a 915 chipset, need a 925x or XE chipset for 64bit compatiblity...

 

[mwmorph]

x600xt isnt up to the task of heavy video editing. use a 6800series gpu or x800series at least.

 

[windraider]

uhmm.. isn't video editing more dependant on CPU and drive system? The graphics cards has very little to do with actual editing, at least i don't remember it having much to do with it. . now, encoding on the other hand would have more benefits from a beefier GPU, the Geforce 6600/6800 w/ the working PVP, or the x800. not sure on actual benefits though, as i hardly pay attention to those parts of reviews as i am not interested in that as much as gaming performance.
if i'm incorrect i would appreciate anyone w/ info to correct me.
Cheers

 

[StrangerGuy]

Why not pay a $40 more for a 6600GT? The X600XT is really old (R9600) tech with a "new" fancy name, and the 6600GT eats it up for lunch in games.

 

[gunshy]

I would suggest you price everything on http://www.pricegrabber.com/
first... I bought all my stuff from zipzoomfly.com
They were cheaper, no sales tax, free 2nd shipping, very high ratings!

 

[astnfan]

After reading some more I am definately going to beef up my powersupply. But in regards to video cards, I am still up in the air. People are telling me 6600 and up, but other people tell me ATI cards outperform Nvidia.

I am not going to be doing gaming, just video editing, encoding, web graphics work, dvd ripping and burning, and high level multitasking.

 

[mwmorph]

nv usually outperforms ati at the same price point as of this generation. last, gen this was true aslo, but the fx series had so many frigging troubles with dx9 support, texture filtering, optimizations, etc, ati was much better. as of now, I know that anything from 6600gt and up outperforms the cmparable ati cards usually.

 

[astnfan]

the 6600gt looks a little out of my budget, how is this card?

Video Card: 190504 - ATI (Connect 3D) Radeon X700 PRO 128MB

 

[Gigante]

maybe the 6800gt is out of ur budget, I doubt the 6600gt is because it is fairly cheap.

 

[mwmorph]

x700 and 6600gt are a;most adentical price points.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

AnandTech just had an introduction to the new 600-series P4's -- Text -- showed very little performance improvement compared to the 500 series ... if you're looking at the 64-bit extensions, then I could see going with the 600-series, but otherwise not really.

 

[astnfan]

I found this card on zip zoom fly

Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X700 Pro PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI ***Free 2nd Day***

I am leaning towards this card over the 6600 GT whaddaya think?

 

[mwmorph]

6600gt,
pros-faster, supports direct x 9.0c instead of 9.0b on x700, ps3.0 instread of ps2.0
if you dont game and the x700 is signifigantly cheaper, then go x700. you'll hardly notice the difference.

 

[astnfan]

Actually on Zip zoom fly it didnt say that the x700 was retail version so it was probably just the card without the software and games for $169.99

On the other side, they had 3 retail versions of the 6600GT for only $15 bucks more, and every review i read said that it outperformed the ati in pretty much every aspect.

even though I dont play games, i think it would be a better investment anyways with the 6600GT, i just hear too many horror stories with nvidia, so I hope I wont have any problems.

Zip zoom fly had a few versions for around the same price ($189.99), do you guys have any recommendations on brand type I should get or are they all pretty much going to be the same?

eVGA e-GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***

XFX PVT43GND GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/TV-Out & Dual DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***

Chaintech SE6600G GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***

MSI NX6600GT-TD128E GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***


once again, thanks for all your help guys, I appreciate it!

adam

 

[Pixle]

I would definetly get an A64 build. You get more features, (in some peoples view) better motherboards and A64's beat intels in almost every benchmark. Although Intel wins at encoding (By a few)...think of the other 20 bench marks that amd wins.

Pixle.

 

[mwmorph]

xfx: STAY AWAY
msi is good.
evga is above average.
dont know about chaintech.

if you can, id go bfg. lifetime warranty and a stock oc(on most of their cards).

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Maybe I missed it, but what power supply will you be using? The Turbolink power supplies that come with the X-Dreamer are absolutely horrible, as I've had five of those cases, with three of the power supplies dead on arrival, and another died out after a week.

 

[tparker1]

:thumbsup:The 600 Series is brand new not many reviews yet to draw any real conclusion .I would go with a Lite-On DVD Burner they are priced right and mine has performed flawlessly.Son In law has a Plextor and it is very picky about Brand of DVD-R that it likes.Sony uses Lite-On transport.Make sure to get good name brand DVD-R I use verbatim and TDK Sony works well also Memorex has been worst NameBrand for my Burning expierence and I do a lot of rendering and copying.Just make sure you get a Dual layer version and 16X and you will be good to go.Blu-Ray will be out sometime so there is no real reason to pay 200 Dollars for a Burner.In April 64 Bit Operating System will be released so you deinetely want to go 64 Bit.Some like AMD and some Intel both will do the Job easily just don't get a Prescott there has been rumors of Throttling back Clock Speed when it reaches a certain Temperature.They run hotter than they should because of all Aluminum heatsink .I am going to post both Systems a AMD and Intel what i would Build I have a lot of expierence in this field and am not prejidious towards any Processor.

Intel System
Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor w/ Hyper Threading Technology $289.00
MSI "925X NEO PLATINUM 7053-010" 925X Chipset Motherboard For Intel LGA 775 CPU -RETAIL $165.00 or ASUS "P5GDC Deluxe" i915P Chipset Motherboard For Intel LGA 775 CPU -RETAIL $150.00

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver Mid-Tower Case with 350W PSU & Acrylic Side Window, Model "CAC-T05-WWA" -RETAIL $79.99

Seagate 7200.8 250GB 7200RPM SATA NCQ Hard Drive, Model ST3250823AS, OEM $160.00 5 Year Warranty

GEIL Value Series Dual Channel Kit 240-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR2 PC2-4300 w/ Aluminum Heat-spreader - OEM $182.50

Lite-On 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-1633S Black, Retail $72.00

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model MPF920, OEM $8.99

NEC/MITSUBISHI LCD1912 19" LCD Monitor ?RETAIL $339.00 after rebate of $60.00

Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, With Doom 3 Model "PX6600GT-128MB" $211.00

Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 $139.00


Total is 1632.00 yo will need Speakers/Keyboard/Mouse/


AMD System

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 90nm, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - OEM $269.00 ( make sure Winchester Core )

MSI "K8N Neo4 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL $159.00

Geil Value Series 184 Pin 2X 512MB DDR PC-3200
-OEM $137.00

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver Mid-Tower Case with 350W PSU & Acrylic Side Window, Model "CAC-T05-WWA" -RETAIL $79.99

Seagate 7200.8 250GB 7200RPM SATA NCQ Hard Drive, Model ST3250823AS, OEM $160.00 5 Year Warranty


Lite-On 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-1633S Black, Retail $72.00

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model MPF920, OEM $8.99

NEC/MITSUBISHI LCD1912 19" LCD Monitor ?RETAIL $339.00 after rebate of $60.00

Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, With Doom 3 Model "PX6600GT-128MB" $211.00

Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 $139.00

Need Speakers/Keyboard/Mouse/

Total $1635.00

 

[astnfan]

Hey guys thanks a lot for the replies, I'm learning more and more as I go.

Few things, I have changed so much of the original config, this is what I now have from zip zoom fly

101221-316603 Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer and Serial ATA Signal Cable Bundle *** Free 2nd Day *** 1 $124.00

110406 Mitsumi 7-in-1 USB 2.0 Media Drive *** Free 2nd Day *** 1 $29.00

80806 Intel Pentium® 4 540 Processor Prescott 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 775, 1MB Cache Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $229.00

240337 Asus P5GD2 Premium 915P P4 800FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $169.99

85016-33 Corsair VS1GBKIT533D2 1GB Kit DDR2-533 PC2-4200 Value Select Memory Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $184.00

101559 Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827AS 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $105.00

141757 Coolermaster CAV-T03 Cavalier 3 Aluminum Mid Tower Case (Silver) w/Window Retail 1 $55.99

239006 Acer AL1912B 19in Flat Panel LCD Monitor (Black) Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $321.98

Chaintech SE6600G GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***

172503 NEC ND-3520A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Bare Drive (Beige) ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $59.99

271007 Logisys PS500MSBL 500W Meshed Blue LED ATX/BTX Power Supply Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $36.99

total before shipping $1485.93 shipping was like $20 so this is just right on my budget of $1500.00

About the processor, Ive had an AMD tbird with no problems, but it seemed that everywhere I go to says AMD is only better for gaming than the p4, and I am not doing any gaming, only video encoding, video editing, dvd burning and ripping, and heavy multitasking. Should I still choose AMD? and good links to reviews of p4 3.2 ghz to comparable AMD?

I also switched from the p4 640 back down to the 540 because the reviews I read said that performance wise, it was pretty much the same, the extra cache didnt do much. As for the OS, I get a free copy of win xp pro from the university so that saves me money. What benefits will a 64 bit OS give me if I do get a 64 bit processor?

 

[Regs]

The 640 prescotts are worth little to desk top users. You're still better off getting the cheaper northwoods with less power leakage.

Edit - Ah - you noticed. I still wouldn't go near any prescott though.