HELP, Need list of components for new rig.

[refueler1]

Hello, new to the site and have been reading posts for a few weeks now. I want to build a "Middle of the road" pc. I dont do much gaming. I do a lot of photo editing and graphics manipulation using Photoshop Elements and Corel Paintshop Pro and I like to make music cds. All the "help me" posts have been geared towards gaming and speed so they have been little help for what I am looking for. I just want a solid system. Not worried about purchasing a video or sound card on the initial purchase. I will upgrade that later. Can anyone make a list of a desent bare bones system they would build. Would like it to be Intel C2D. Thanks.

 

[spet3r]

Hey refueler... I help a lot of people I know to build "middle of the road" systems... I use mine for gaming and it was originally built "middle of the road" (upgraded since then). I'd say it would run you around $950 for the base system to do "middle of the road". Highend is around $1500... Low end is $700.

For what your doing, I'd look at the Pentium D 805 processor with a Gigabyte Motherboard combo... its relatively cheap-- $90 for the chip and $82 for the board. For a heat sink you can rely on the stock but when I build them I look for the quietest CPU fan I can find... Artic Cooling has been pretty good in this area however its been tough to find inventory lately...

Look at performance DDR-2 667Mhz ram... that will really make a difference in everything you do on this machine. I found 1 GB (2 x 512mb) for around $105 to $130 depending on what name brand you prefer

I always buy Seagate Hard Drives... depends on how much you need, but a 250 GB SATA 3.0/s drive runs $80

You don't need a top of the line video card, but I wouldn't go low end on this area either.... a lot of on board solutions just won't cut it. You want at least a Geforce 7300GS... I'd go with the Gigabyte 7600GS Silence Pipe II card... runs for around $100 and since there isn't a fan there isn't any noise.

I found a reasonably priced SATA DVD burner made by Samsung, it goes for $45. Having a Sata plug over IDE will improve air flow in the case keeping that system nice and cool...

You don't need a fancy case necassarily but I've been pretty happy with Cooler Master's Centerium 5s (run around $50). Straightforward and simple... but you need a Powersupply, which is fine because a lot of the stock Power Supplies are cheap noisy things which I replace anyway. I'd go with the Cooler Master 500 W eXtreme RP-500 which goes for $30.

As far as monitors go, I'd get a 19'' or 20'' LCDs you can view all your pictures. The key when looking for an LCD is make sure it has a high Contrast ratio and a low refresh rate. I recommend a 1000:1 contrast or better so you can see your blacks clearly. Namebrand is tough in this area because they are all trying to establish name recognition... Samsung is reliable but BenQ and Planar are pretty good also. ViewSonic and Sony generally are expensive and the specs don't compare...

I've built several systems and been pretty happy finding all the parts I need right on newegg.com. I have bought at other places like mwave but neweggs price and service can't be beat.

Hope this helps you?

 

[refueler1]

Thanks for the advise. I will look around and see what I can put together using a PD and Gigabyte system.