Need advice on a PC being built for me

[richardautz]

Thanks in advance to any who can help and apologies if I am doing this wrong. I was amazed when I saw this site as, if you can review my intended purchase and give advice, it will mean a ton to me. It sounds to good to be true. Anyway, it is time for a new family PC, multimedia I guess (music, blu-ray movies, and stored home movies and pictures, plus expert use of excel/access db for my work). I went to a local store for a quote and here is what they came up with. Main questions are:
1) What do you think? any changes?
2) I would like to connect it to my harmon kardon receiver and polk speakers, should I get a sound card?
3) Do you think I, with OK experience with PCs but never having built one, could try to build myself (as they are just buying parts from NewEgg and charging $500)

Here is what they recommend (my budget is around $2000 - I know it is probably overkill, but it has been a LOOONG time since I have had a new PC and I need this one to last a looong time):

Optical Drive:
LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model UH12LS28
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

Case:
Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case

Hard Drive Primary:
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
OR
($200 more) Hard Drive Primary:
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD4500HLHX 450GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Video Card:
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Maximum Graphics Edition Crysis 2 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Power Supply:
Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W 80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready

Memory:
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

Motherboard:
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor:
Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Wifi Card:
Rosewill RNX-N300X PCI Wireless Adapter

Sub-Total: $ 1947.98
Tax: $ 163.14
Total: $ 2111.12 (or $2300 with extra HD memory/second internal drive)
2 year warranty on labor
Manufactures warranty applies
Free Data Transfer
Full Initial software set up
1 Yr Free On-line Support

THank you SO SO SO much.
RIchard

 

[internetlad]

I doubt you need a 560Ti to run a media PC. Swap that out for a 5670. Performs pretty well at mid-tier gaming and has VGA, DVI and a HDMI port, and it's about 175 bucks cheaper than the 560Ti

2000 for a PC, even from a retailer is pretty much enthusiast level gaming. Total overkill for what you need. I'd price it at about half, maybe even a third.

 

[richardautz]

Oops, I messed up and just saw the correct way to post a request. Please ignore and I will repost, again very sorry.

 

[Ubrales]

Definitely change the PSU from Rosewill to a Corsair.

 

[richardautz]

OK, here is the description the proper way:

Thanks in advance to any who can help and apologies if I am doing this wrong. I was amazed when I saw this site as, if you can review my intended purchase and give advice, it will mean a ton to me. It sounds to good to be true. Anyway, it is time for a new family PC, multimedia I guess (music, blu-ray movies, and stored home movies and pictures, plus expert use of excel/access db for my work). I went to a local store for a quote and here is what they came up with. Main questions are:
1) What do you think? any changes?
2) I would like to connect it to my harmon kardon receiver and polk speakers, should I get a sound card?
3) Do you think I, with OK experience with PCs but never having built one, could try to build myself (as they are just buying parts from NewEgg and charging $500)

Here is what they recommend (my budget is around $2000 - I know it is probably overkill, but it has been a LOOONG time since I have had a new PC and I need this one to last a looong time):

Approximate Purchase Date: I would like to order it from the local PC store this week, unless you think I can build (OK with PCs but never built one before –they will charge about $500 premium to build

Budget Range: approx $2000 Before / After Not sure if these parts have rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Multimedia, watching online/torrent movies (VLC), netflix, internet, music (iphone/itunes), storing tons of family home HD movies and pictures

Parts Not Required: only need CPU – I have mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, power supply – I think you mean what I plug into (sorry if wrong) Monster power center av700 **Include Power Supply Make & Model If Re-using**

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: the shop is using egghead

Country of Origin: United States (CA - bay area)

Parts Preferences: I like the intel processor (sandy bridge), since I have six year olds they want an open case to see the parts and to add colored tubes/fans if possible

Overclocking: I don’t know enough to do it I guess

SLI or Crossfire: Don’t know what this means (sorry)

Monitor Resolution: connecting to one monitor and a TV: Acer AL2216W (1680x1050) and Sharp Aquos 37” (1024x768)

Additional Comments: I guess “need window and bling” like the example says for my kids (of course secretly I would like it too)

Here is what they recommended:
Optical Drive:
LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model UH12LS28
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
Case:
Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
Hard Drive Primary:
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

OR (For $200 more)
Hard Drive Primary:
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD4500HLHX 450GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Maximum Graphics Edition Crysis 2 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Power Supply:
Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W 80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready
Memory:
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Motherboard:
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor:
Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield 3.2GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Wifi Card:
Rosewill RNX-N300X PCI Wireless Adapter
Sub-Total: $ 1947.98
Tax: $ 163.14
Total: $ 2111.12
2 year warranty on labor
Manufactures warranty applies
Free Data Transfer
Full Initial software set up
1 Yr Free On-line Support

Thank you SO SO SO SO much,
Richard

 

[internetlad]

hold up, As I said before, is this over the top on purpose? If it's truly just a media PC this is very, very overboard.

 

[Cerealkiller45_86]

Way too much for med pc, u can put one at around $600-700 with Sandybridge.
Get yourself z68 mobo or p67.

Many samples of media pc builds on youtube: here's a pretty good one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyffmImiyek

 

[richardautz]

Thanks so much for all the input so far. No, it wasn't over the top on purpose, just what the shop recommended. It looks like I should scrap this attempt and start over from scratch. Thank you internetlad, ubrales and cerealkiller45-86, I cannot overstate how much help you guys are being.

 

[internetlad]

no problem. Yeah i'm not sure if the guy at the shop wanted to go for the big sell on this one or just got a little overeager, but you sure as heck don't need both a BLU-Ray player AND a DVD burner in your media PC. Just a big ol hard drive, one optical, a midrange GPU, maybe 4 gigs of ram, and probably a dual core processor.

Heck if you go with a sandy bridge build you might even be able to skip the GPU altogether. They've got video processing built into the chip IIRC.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Check the stickies on the frontpage of this section theres a media pc one amongst other builds,
You should be looking at the sandy chips, a 2400 would do you fine but nothing wrong with getting the 2500 either, just dont get the 2600, way overkill for htpc
standard 2400/2500/ chips, you dont need to overclock so dont pay the premium on a k suffix chip imo
btw sli and crossfire are nvidia and ati's multiple graphics card systems, if you have two or more nvid cards its referred to as running S.L.I. (Scalable link interface)
and I would say put a gpu in there, a 5670 minimum for an ati/amd card or a nvid 450 if nvidia
4Gb of ram as mentioned is plenty
corsairs cx series psu, 400w should be fine
one optical, dvd burner does fine unless you 'need' Bluray
and if the kids want cathode lights, make sure you can switch them off while watching your movies
and yes, if your confident enough to build it, you get props from us and possibly any help you may need too
Moto

 

[Cerealkiller45_86]

Glad to help, feel free to ask more questions so we can try helping. I think the salesman was working for commission.