Under $600 Music and Video Editing Rig

[venusinfurs]

Approximate Purchase Date: March

Budget Range: Around $600 after rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video Editing (Vegas, Premiere, After Effects), Music Editing + Mixing (Sonar x1), Gaming (mass effect)

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg, amazon, microcenter

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: AMD cpu

Overclocking: maybe? probably not

SLI or Crossfire: again, probably not


Additional Comments: I'd like it to be quiet and a space saver

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX $199

ASRock 880GMH/USB3 R2.0 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $82.99

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 $74.99 after $20 rebate

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active power supply $44.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136767[/url] $60 after $15 off promo ending 3/2

APEX TX-381-C Black Steel Micro ATX Tower Computer Case $24.99

Grand Total: $538.73 shipped

Hello. I'd like to build a fast, quiet machine for making music videos and short films. Currently I'm mixing audio on my macbook and it works fine, so I figure the extra power should be used for the video editing. I read a lot of build requests from this forum and used to those as a basis for my list above. I didn't go too deep into the combo deals on newegg but I did see that there is a windows 7 combo with the cpu thats $25 off. May be able to get a free Motherboard if I buy the cpu from microcenter though but which one? I'd like the system to be small so I've chosen micro atx.

The thing I'm unsure about is whether or not to get a cheaper motherboard without onboard graphics and go with a good GPU, or stick with the motherboard with onboard graphics and upgrade to a better video card later on if its necessary. I've been reading about Nvidia Cuda and Vegas helping rendering times, how fast are we talking here? I do want something fast, but I also want it quiet. I don't do video professionally, its more for my own personal music/art and other bands in the area.

Also not sure if the power supply is strong enough.

Lastly, I want to play the Mass Effect series, I heard its very good.

Thank you.

 

[WR2]

Mass Effect will need a graphics card more powerful than the onboard graphics chip of the 880G motherboard.

 

[venusinfurs]

I could go to around $650 and add a 1gb graphics card.

 

[batuchka]

Since Microceneter is an option

1090T + Gigabyte 880G mATX $235
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

Items off Egg $363AR

$598AR in total

 

[venusinfurs]

Hey thanks man. That looks like a really great build. Is the Gskills ram a better choice than the Corsair? The CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 is $69.99 after the mail in rebate.

Also the hard drive - I heard good things about the Samsung Spinpoint 1TB and its priced pretty good. Theres also the WD Blue 1TB. Would those be better or is it kind of an insignificant difference?

 

[WR2]

The Corsair XMS RAM is a good deal on good RAM. And Corsair is reliable with the rebates.

If you work with large files or want the extra storage the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is an excellent choice. I think some of those options were chosen with an eye on your budget.

 

[venusinfurs]

I thought the spinpoint was a good price but the 1tb is $100. Not really working with the budget. I'll definitely be using large files. I'm looking the WD caviar black 500gb for $59.99 and the Spinpoint 500gb for $49.99. The Spinpoint is 3gb/s and the WD is 6gb/s. Worth the $10 difference?

 

[WR2]

IMO not worth the difference. The deal on the Seagate 500GB is $10 less ATM

 

[WR2]

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD $65

 

[venusinfurs]

Oh cool thanks. There seems to be 2 1tb spinpoints on newegg. Thanks guys it looks like I'm pretty much set.. if only microcenter would pick up the damn phone cause their site says the cpu is out of stock at every store in the country.

 

[batuchka]

Hit either 500 7200.12 or F3 1TB - these offer best value for respective storage points for me and u are welcomed ^^

 

[venusinfurs]

Best answer selected by venusinfurs.

 

[batuchka]

Yep happy building and cheers ^^