Where to buy next computer & hardware recs

[shivohum]

Hi. I'm interested in buying a prebuilt computer. I want a place that knows how to assemble computers that work really well, without bugs or incompatibilities or the like, and that has solid service.

Some specific hardware questions:

1) Which case, given that I want a case which allows for the extremely easy addition of new drives (esp. hard drives but also CD-ROMs, etc.)

2) Which CPU, given that the most CPU-intensive task I will be doing is MPEG encoding?

3) Which video card, given that I want to be able to connect in my cable connection and record tv shows, TIVO-style.

4) I want a motherboard that supports firewire and has plenty of USB 2.0 ports.

That's about it. Thanks!

 

[shivohum]

bump

 

[alimoalem]

do u have a budget?

 

[shivohum]

Yeah... it's somewhat flexible, but I'd say really I'd rather spend no more than around $1500, and the lower the better. I don't need a monitor and I don't need a gonzo video card (just a good one). I'm looking for reliability, exceptional ease-of-upgradeability (so I can transfer old hard drives and other drives over now and in the future), and the multimedia stuff I talked about. Thanks.

 

[stevty2889]

Hmm, video encoding will take advantage of a dual core, so an X2 3800+ would be good. An ATI AIW x700 for the video card. Plenty of motherboards that meet your needs. I have the DFI lanparty ultra-d and it works great for me, and has firewire. Antec Sonata II for the case, I have 2 of them. The hard drives mount sideways, so they are easy to install, and the case comes with a 450w Antec PSU. You'll most likely be plenty fine with 1gb of ram, so 2x512mb sticks of ram, or 2x1gb sticks if you want 2gb.

EDIT: By the way, to answer one more question, Monarch computers will pre-assemble and test the system for you, so try pricing things out over there.