I am constructing a new computer dedicated to audio and video editing (audio mainly at this point in time). I will be recording music at this time with a PreSonus Firepod which will be hooked up to the machine via Firewire (a card will be purchased). I have chosen the following parts for this new machine. Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Socket 939 $190.00 Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4-F $88.00 Memory: CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered TWINX1024-3200C2PT $121.00 Storage: HITACHI 7K250 250GB SATA Hard Drive $100.00-$130.00 HITACHI 7K250 80GB SATA Hard Drive $50.00-$60.00 Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100591L Radeon X300 128MB DDR PCI-Express x16 $65.00 Media Drive: NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A-KIT-BLU $53.99 Processor Cooling: THERMALTAKE Silent Boost K8 $31.99 Power Supply: PCMCIS PSP4ATX50F ATX 500W Power Supply $64.00 Case: CODEGEN 4U-500-CA Black Aluminum/Steel 4U Rackmount Case $80.00 Has anyone had any experience with the TR2TT TR2 M6 SE(K8) heatsink? I was considering using that to lower the heatsink price a bit. That's the set-up so far... Any suggestions? I am trying to stay within a $900.00 budget. This computer will not be used for gaming and nothing extremely graphics intensive will be done on it. I may have more to add later...
Get a reliable brand name for your hard drives instead of Hitachi; preferably you will get Seagate. Purchase an Antec, Enermax, or reliable brand name 400 watt PSU; it will be much more reliable than that no-name 500 watter. MSI has a motherboard that uses ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipset and has X300 graphics integrated, and it costs less than your motherboard alone.
I actually think that this PSU is a relabled Topower PSU. Topower PSUs seem rather nice if you ask me. If you go to Topower's web site, you can see that they have models that look exactly like this one. There was one other company relabling their PSUs too... Don't recall who it was. But, whatever. I should get one I know I can rely on. According to the reviews at Newegg, this PSU has been reliable.
seagate = major player in the hdd department last time i checked? cheap aswell.. (Unless its a case of *I had one and it died therefore all seagate hdds=t3h sux0r)
Seagate disks Zalman CPU cooler Antec/Enermax/Hyper etc PSU, not non-branded ATI Xpress200 chipset mobo with x300 IGP: no need to buy separate x300 and soundcard and if you get one with ULI southbridge you get HD Audio with dolby digital support.
seagate not reliable? riiiiiiighto then well, i would say go for seagate if you want reliable disks, and most definatly dont try saving on the cash when it comes to the psu, as how annoying would it be having all these loverly bits sittting on your desk with you being unable to connect/run them....once again antec/sparkle both make good psu's and very reliable (not 100% sure about the new enermax's but then again they could only get better, so im sure you would be fine with one of those also!)
im guessing that was a typo and he meant, get a reliable brand, LIKE Seagate INSTEAD of Hitachi... I agree with the powersupply point, and that an integrated motherboard and gfx might be a possible route, but then you are eating into the RAM and imho, if you are editing, you should have as much RAM as possible!
Hitachi can't be that bad. Their SATA drives have had some of the highest performance ratings out of all SATA drives, at least from what I've seen in reviews. I have one of their 250GB PATA drives in this computer for over a year, and it hasn't given me any trouble.
well... they bought out IBM and with them came their bad reputation! Their *Deskstars* are known as Deathstars because they all die prematurely! Atleast i had 5 die on me, RMA after RMA. Stick with Seagate, especially if you can get the drives with their 5 year warrenty
Just because 1 model from like 5 years ago was bad, does not mean the whole brand is crap. if that was true, Ford would of went out of bussiness decades ago.
basically do what he said , but for the psu/case get a antec soneta or soneta 2 they are only $100 in the usa also if your Overclocking it might be an idea to save money on the processor by buying a winchester or newcastle core which are comming down in price a little bit but also run a tad warmer... although it your not bothered about the cost too much it's best to go with the venice
Yes, there was a time when they used to call them Deathstar rather than Deskstars in the time when they and IBM were partners, but they have since gone to great lengths to make their drives better. That being said, I'm putting in another bid for Seagate. As much as I love Hitachi, I still think Seagate is better.
