Suggestions and critques please

[dsheely]

This is what I am considering building for light to moderate gaming, video editing,office apps,net surfing and just overall general computing.Don't need the best but don't want a dog either Your thoughts and suggestions as always are appreciated. First time for AMD system I have built a couple of Intel systems previously with very good success.

ANTEC Performance Plus Case with 430W Power Supply, Model "PLUS1080AMG" - Retail $116.50

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS PRO" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL $94.00
ATI AIW RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/CATV/VIVO, 8X AGP, Model "ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO" -RETAIL $239.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail $146.00

Crucial 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - OEM $79.00

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model MPF920, OEM $7.00

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only $65.79

NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3520A BK, OEM $64.99
Subtotal » $812.28

Thanks

 

[tweebel]

Maybe 1 GB instead of 512 MB RAM, you will benefit from that with new games and video editing.
HD is a bit small, maybe go with a bigger one or get another 80 GB to put them in RAID0, the speed is great for video editing and everything that needs the HD.
If you intend to overclock and/or upgrade CPU later, get a socket 939 mainboard with a 90nm processor.
I think you need the All in Wonder, if you don't need TV etc. the 6600 GT is faster for the same money.

 

[o1die]

For about $10 more, you can get an athlon 64 3000 socket 939 (retail boxed) with epox nforce3 board at mwave. Socket 754 has a higher overall clock speed, which is good if you don't overclock. But I would still gamble and try overclocking the 939.

 

[pat]

As I said in another post, overclocking and video editing doesnt mix well because of the heavy HDD use when editing big files and risk of data corruption, especially with nforce controller in RAID0.

He is better with a socket 754 3000+ with a mild overclock, like I did on mine(2.1 GHz instead of 2.0GHz for my 3000+ 754) AND raid 0 with 2 SATA disk for better performance.

He will get better speed for lower price, lower heat(HDD when editing become very hot too) in his case, higher stability and less risk of corruption.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[pat]

I did myself a video editing, lite gaming and some office/internet use system.

Look like what you intend to do too! The most demanding task you'll do with your system will be video editing. The 754 3000+ is a good choice. That what I got. As for your board, I dont know it but it should be good. I went with the Soltek k8an2e-gr because it was inexpensive, and from past experience with Soltek, rock stable and fast and all I needed from a motherboard. But make sur you have SATA RAID connector with the nvidia controller. Get at least one gigs RAM. And get SATA HDD and RAID them to speed up data acces...because your movies sure wont fit in RAM, you will have to work from HDD..That what matter most in a video editing system. Another consern is heat, from the HDD while editing. make sure thay are well vented, as heat can make them to crash...It happened on mine one time when I mounted them to close each other. Get them as big as you can afford...because you'll need less of them! See, I have 4 in my computer, for 560 gigs...put the OS on one partition of the RAID array, and work on the other. use the IDE connector for optical device, like DVD burner. Dont overclock, you dont want your dydtem to become instable while editing a big 7 gigs video files...

I use the RADEON AIW 9600XT and very pleased with it. it has the nice remote wonder2.





-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[dsheely]

Thanks for your response. I think I will bump the ram to 1 gig. I have a 80 gig wd ide drive laying around . What if I use it for OS and get another 80 gig sata drive and raid those for data?

 

[pat]

Well to go RAID you need 2 HDD. On my system, I have 2 160 Seagate SATA HDD. I did one 60 gigs partition for OS and software, one 100 gigs for capturing and editing, one 100 gigs for multimedia storage, one 40 for misc stuff, and a 5 gigs for downloaded stuff. By going with the os on another drive, that may help too if you want to do something else with your computer when you are renderiing the final movie.

The other 40 gigs is for DVD rip as well as the 200 gigs maxtor.

So, in order to keep your cost low, I would buy 2 120 gigs and partition them as you like. that will speed un boot time, windows XP will be faster too. remember that the first partition will be the fastest and the last one, the slowest.

I dont know how big your movie may be, but, you always need more space. with 2 120, you'll end up with 240 gigs, which I would partition as 60 gigs for th OS,80 for capturing, and what remain for storage and other stuff as you like. If you are like me, I like to have my montage and movie on HDD for rapide acces when I do editing. And I hate running out of space in the middle of a project!

And definitively go with 1 gigs of ram.



-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!