Advice on building a Vista machine? (non-gaming)

[Drumble]

I'm looking to build a new PC, but it's been 7 years since I made my last one and I would really appreciate some help picking out the main parts.

I can get Vista Ultimate from my college bookstore for 20 bucks, so that seems like a no-brainer. I don't game on my PC anymore, so I don't need a beast. Mostly just use Photoshop, Office, internet stuff, and a bit of video editing. Outputting video to my TV would be cool too.

My budget is $1000 but I'm guessing I won't need to spend that much on a non-gaming rig. I just want to make sure I can handle Vista's bells and whistles and still hum along at a good clip. (Would I want a DX10 capable video card?)


Any suggestions would be a huge help. My GeForce2 and Athlon Classic knowledge is lost in this multi-core world.

 

[Solariscs]

Hey you should be able to put together a pretty nice basic system for less than that if you don't game or anything.

If you have aim or yahoo hit me up and I can suggest some things, it would be a little easier than on here.

Something like:

NZXT APPLLO
Corsair 520
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz
GIGABYTE MB GA-P35-DS3L
STT DDR2-800 2GB (2x1GB)
Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB
LG Electronics GSA-H62NK 18X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950Pro 256MB

Would be around $900 and be more than you need. You can just get a cheap 8600GT graphics card and be just fine since your applications don't use graphics cards.

 

[ausch30]

Although your not gaming with the machine when choosing a video card something to consider is AVIVO vs. Purevideo. Take a look at this http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2551 I don't know how important video playback is to you but you did mention running a TV off your system so you might want to consider a quality video card that would give you good quality video playback. And if you have a HD screen there is AVIVO HD and Purevideo HD to consider.

 

[Drumble]

Ah, thanks for the help!

The processor looks like a beast. I could probably do with something cheaper there. No idea what I'm looking for in a motherboard.

Looking at those graphics cards, I like this 8600GT. Probably still overkill for me but it's fairly cheap. I'm not sure if you meant a cheaper one than that.

The AVIVO vs Purevideo stuff looks like more than I need to worry about, but thanks for the info!


I'll try to shoot you an IM after I get back from lunch, Solaris.

 

[Rabidpeanut]

The first step in putting a vista machine together is to not do so. EVER.

 

[Solariscs]

Haha all you people trying to scare others from using Vista. I don't get what all the complaints are about. Pretty much all the issues that arise are hard ware or driver and that's all the manufactures faults. Almost everyone supports vista now, so its really no big deal.

I've been using it since beta and have no complaints. It's worked great since day one. I upgraded to Vista 64 after that and have had 0 problems.

 

[royalcrown]

...because some of the people want to USE their software, not look at the windows flip....and on that note, it's still iffy. Buy Xp pro too since your getting vista so cheap, then if it sucks, you can go xp, if not you can mail me the XP disk and we'll call it good

 

[Solariscs]

haha I use all my software just fine and the new vista 64 nvidia drivers work just great.

 

[Drumble]

Heh. I can always go back to XP, but I figure Vista's worth a shot for 20 bucks.

Anyway, I've been talking to Solariscs (thanks man!) and this is what we came up with:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
Mother Board: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
RAM: SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Video Card: XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000AAKS 400GB
PSU: FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN ATX12V 450W
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel

Total: $705 + shipping

Any thoughts?

 

[Solariscs]

looks good, I prefer seagate over WD though. you also need a DVDRW drive.

 

[Drumble]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I have a BenQ DVDRW drive already. Just gonna use that.

 

[Solariscs]

ah sounds good

 

[Maziar]

nice rig , enjoy

 

[GenericName]

You want 4 gigs or Ram running Vista - its memory Hog

I'm 29% on my Memory just idle - 4 Gigs (64 Bit)