Budget PC Help

[djfrankym]

Hi everyone I'm 16 and new to the tg forums. Im not even sure if this is where this post belongs so if it doesn't belong here I'm sorry. I was just wondering if this computer:

Power Up Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case
Thermaltake Pure Power 430W ATX Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz
Biostar Tforce4 Socket AM2 ATX Socket AM2 Motherboard
Kingston 1024MB (1GB) PC5400 DDR2 667MHz RAM
GeCube Radeon X1600 Pro 256MB GDDR2 512HyperMemory
Maxtor 80GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
Western Digital 120GB IDE 7200RPM Hard Drive
BenQ DW1655 16x DL DVD+/-RW Lite Scribe Burner
BenQ DW1620 16x DVD+/-RW Burner
Generic Floppy Drive

Sub-Total Cost:
$766.90
Tax:
$107.36
Total:
$874.26

(WD 120GB, DW1620, and Floppy Donated From Cousin)

would run some demanding programs. I know they aren't the best choices but I'm on a very strict budget. I pretty much have chosen these components so that I can upgrade down the line. But what I really need to know is if that setup will run Adobe Production Studio 2, Pinnacle Titanium Edition 10.5, Avid Liquid 7, and/or Maya 8. I'm not too conserned about Maya but just the other video editing software. The respective software sites say the requirement but everyone knows thats not always the case. I'm not a heavy gamer either. This setup will cost about Canadian $700 ($800 After Tax). I would like some professional advice before I buy it. Also I wouldn't mind any critisism about this system.

 

[ChrisBond]

Alright, I use Maya but for the other video editing software go with a 3400+ X2 (AM2) if u can overclock cpus that will help and get atleast 2 gigs of ram because video software is ram hungry, i would i tried using it on my computer and it was just too slow, (i have 512mb =[ ) But whats ur budget tho? I can't really help you if i don't know the budget and i'm not too inform on canadian websites for computer parts either but i can tell the specs ull need and i would advise you to go with an ATI card that has AVIVO which might help with some of the editing and quality. And also whats the specs on ur older computer, u might not need a new computer, probably just ram and new video card and ur good to go.

 

[Mondoman]

As mentioned above, more RAM will help a lot in those apps, but at least you can add more later. It seems a bit silly to go with a single-core processor; again, dual-core seems most helpful in heavy-crunching encoding/decoding apps, so go with an x2.
I would avoid getting a generic PS. Take a look in the Power Supply forum here for links to reasons why generics are a bad idea and some suggestions on decent PSs for $50 and up.

 

[djfrankym]

Thanks a lot everyone. My budget is about $900 Canadian. I've also done some shopping around and updated that system.

Power Up Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case
Thermaltake Pure Power 430W ATX Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz
Biostar Tforce4 Socket AM2 ATX Socket AM2 Motherboard
Kingston 1024MB (1GB) PC5400 DDR2 667MHz RAM
EVGA GeForce 7600GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI-Express
Maxtor 80GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
Western Digital 120GB IDE 7200RPM Hard Drive
BenQ DW1655 16x DL DVD+/-RW Lite Scribe Burner
BenQ DW1620 16x DVD+/-RW Burner
Generic Floppy Drive

Sub-Total Cost:
$759.86
Tax:
$106.38
Total:
$866.24
(The Western Digital 120GB IDE drive, DW 1620, and Floppy are scrap parts I found that still work (Cousin Owns And Is Willing To Give))

 

[Lowsky]

you should use DDR2-800, and why do you need 2 DVD burners... use an old dvd or burner if you got one, save som money there. also save some cash and buy one hard drive.. get another later... BTW that mobo has onboard video.. i know it sucks but if you get 2GB of RAM it will be OK for a little while til you get enough cash for a video card

edit: did read through and notice some part you got lying around my bad

 

[Mondoman]

...
Maxtor 80GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
...

Not sure where you are shopping, but it can't be very much more for a 250GB-300GB SATA drive (in the US, the price would be around $80). 80GB is so tiny these days (remember a single DVD contains about 5GB!).

 

[joefriday]

I'm pretty sure your 1 GB of ram will do fine with these apps. Even THG's "how much ram do you really need" shows that the difference between 512 MB of ram and 2GB of ram to be failrly small in most encoding applications. Granted the applications used were not the exact same applications you will be using, so take them with a grain of salt. However, since you'll be using 1GB of ram, I think it's safe to say that ram won't be a bottleneck for you.

 

[djfrankym]

...
Maxtor 80GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
...

Not sure where you are shopping, but it can't be very much more for a 250GB-300GB SATA drive (in the US, the price would be around $80). 80GB is so tiny these days (remember a single DVD contains about 5GB!).

I wish I lived In The States

 

[ChrisBond]

But I would also adivse to go with an ATI card in the 1k Series with AVIVO might take off the load from the cpu for encoding/decoding videos. If do get ATI card get a x1600 or x1300 since your not going to do heavy gaming.

I wish I lived in Canada. -__-

 

[djfrankym]

And also whats the specs on ur older computer, u might not need a new computer, probably just ram and new video card and ur good to go.

Pentium 3 700MHz, 384MB of PC100 RAM, 20GB Hard Drive, ATI 9250SE PCI Video Card - - - New Computer

 

[ChrisBond]

Uh.. I like Sapphire alot, just got one for my friend plays almost everything on max and picture quality is good. X1600XT should be good enough for you but might be to expensive so maybe a standard X1600 would do. =] Hope that helps.

 

[djfrankym]

Which ATI X1600 Model Would You Have In Mind?
How about the GeCube Radeon X1600 Pro with Hyper Memory
256MB GDDR2 --> 512 With Hyper Memory
AVIVO
Vista Ready
$146.99
Suggestions?

*Edit I'm Running Dual CRT's, I Need Full Support Of The Monitors and Programs