My first build on a budget

[huggybear78]

this my first time building a pc i am college student on a strict budget and i just wanted a pc that runs good.

so i picked out some parts from new egg and i havent pulled the trigger on buying them yet cuz i wanted some input
about the stuff i picked, so im gonna put a screenshot of the stuff i wanna buy and any input about it would be nice.

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[antas]

What do you mean for runs good? Is it for college work? Or do you expect for gaming as well?

If it's purely for work, your system is decent enough. Try to consider increasing your budget a little bit for getting better mobo. Try GA-MA770-DS3 or GA-MA770-S3 or any other 770 series (or any AM2+ socket mobos) for future proofing ...

Also if you want only for work, then you can also consider to get any onboard graphic for pushing your budget lower ... E.g GA-MA78GM-S2H from Gigabyte ...

 

[Blackra1n]

Cheaper/Faster
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075

 

[vfpd]

I'm in basically the same boat--first build on a budget--and would also appreciate some feedback on my parts list below. I plan to buy the first four components assembled and tested from mwave.com. I plan to dual boot Linux and Windows XP SE. I am not a gamer but want to do some video editing, e-mail, word processing, web surfing etc. The motherboard below has onboard video and a PCI-Express expansion. Will I need/want to replace my old Linksys NC100 Fast Ethernet Adapter, which is connected to my DSL modem? Thanks.

# ANTEC NSK3480 Case w/ 380w PSU
# ASUS M2A-VM
# AMD ATHLON LE-1620 2.4G - ORLEANS
# Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 800MHz DDR2-SDRAM Unbuffered Non-ECC CL6 DIMM Memory Module

# Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB Hard Drive (Serial ATA-300, 7,200 RPM, 16MB - MPN: ST3250620AS)
# Samsung SyncMaster 740BX Black 17" LCD Monitor

 

[antas]

vfpd: guess nothing wrong with your system above ..

Several things from me:

First, the monitor
You can consider to get 19" wide instead of 17". Samsung is good, before I was using Samsung for years (it was still old CRT monitor) until I decided to build a brand new system. When I got it the price difference of 17-19" is only about 15-20$. Which is in my point of view it's worthy. Esp. if you're planning for video / image editing. Bigger monitor the more convenience.

Second, vga:
Are you going to do massive work video editing or just home/personal editing? In the case of personal, that's fine

Third, processor:
See in the newegg, it cost around 50$. In this case, you should consider the x2 series like AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO3800IAA5CU - OEM in addition for arround 10$. The dual core will work better for video editing

Fourth, the ethernet adapter:
I'm not sure if you need to replace. The 100 means 100mbps? It will be depend on your DSL modem, if the port on your modem capability >>100mbps (1000 let's say) then it might good to replace it. But your new mobo already have gigabit LAN attached. So you don't need to buy separate card unless if you plan to do some router or bridge setting.

Cheers ^^

 

[vfpd]

vfpd: guess nothing wrong with your system above ..

Second, vga:
Are you going to do massive work video editing or just home/personal editing? In the case of personal, that's fine

Antas, thanks for your reply and the pointer re: the Ethernet card. Re: vga do you mean to suggest that the motherboard VGA might be a drag and I may need to purchase a video card if I'm going to do a lot of video editing?

 

[antas]

vfpd: well, yes it might be. But sorry, in my reply before I'm mixing video editing with 3D graphics thinking.

I'm not sure on how are you going to expect the video editing capabilities. I will try put it short:

If you're purely doing video editing with image editing, better to boost the RAM, but the onboard card will be fine. If you're on Windows XP, you can use max 4GB RAM, and it will only be detected as 3.5GB. And dual core or quad core will help. In the current situation, dual core is much more efficient (price/performance ratio) since not all SW in the market already utilizing the quad core abilities.

In case you're planning for some 3D graphics (e.g using 3D Studio Max) then you will need serious card for this job. E.g NVIDIA quadro or ATi FireGL.

 

[vfpd]

Thanks again for your feedback, Antas.