First PC Build (under $3500)

[Culley]

Hey, I'm the new guy. I don't want to give the impression that $$$ is no object, considering I'm spending $3500, because I'm all for saving a buck.

Priorities:
1. Speed (I spend a lot of time in front of the computer multitasking, i.e. downloading, encoding video, watching a movie, extracting large files).
2. Storage (I need space for storage. I don't need to access it as quickly as possible, but I want to have the extra space on hand).
3. Video & Sound Quality (My PC is my home theater system).
4. Gaming (I don't wear diapers, if you get my drift. In fact, I tend to play ROMs, text adventure, and older PC games).

I'm fairly sure I would not benefit from an SLI setup with 2 7800GTX gfx cards. I've priced it out and am not convinced it will be in my budget, nor really what I need.

I'm torn between what motherboard to get... I've been looking at these 3 and all meet my needs.

Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 ATX
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
lDFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D

I'm not opposed to getting an SLI board and 7800GTX gfx card. However, it is a bit pricier and I've read some reviews saying running SLI with only one gfx card may yield lower results than running a 6800GT on a non-SLI board. I've also read that the gaming world is behind the technology at this point.

I'm unsure as to which of the these processors to go with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo

I can afford either CPU, but... I haven't read anything definitive on which provides better OC results... nor what cooling device is preferred. I've been looking at both Thermaltake and Zalman fans and heatsinks.

My third and final problem is RAM. I've been advised to get 1, 2, and 4gigs. I'm fairly sure I will go with OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Platinum, but am uncertain if 2GB will be sufficient or if 4GB is excessive. It's an expensive mistake to make either way.

The rest of the money is going into the following:

eVGA Geforce 6800GT 256MB PCI Express x16
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150
Seagate 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
OCZ 520W Power Supply
Pioneer IDE DVD Burner DVR-109
Thermaltake XASER, Armor Series
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker
D-Link Wireless Router
HYUNDAI L90D+ Silver 19"
Audigy X-fi Sound Card (pending release)

And some additional modding.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[imported_Kensai]

WTFBBQ

With 3500$, you better fit a 7800GTX in your budget.
Get a DFI Ultra-D and an XP-90 with a medium panaflo.
Yes, do get that 2GB kit of OCZ EL Platinum PC3200. I like the sets that I've got, you probably will too.
Ditch the Raptor, it's a waste of money in my opinion. If you want speed, get onto the 15K RPM SCSI bandwagon. Get Seagate 7200.8s instead.
Get any Toledo based CPU, it'll be slightly faster than it's Manchester counterpart.

 

[CraigRT]

$3500 are you freaking nuts!!??
you can build an amazing machine for like $2500 or less.

but hey if you really do wanna spend $3500 all the power to ya.

 

[pulsedrive]

*points to Kensai*

What he said.

 

[confidentcalm]

and get a better lcd. Both Dell and sonicview have great deals on them now.

 

[DerelictDev]

Wow.... $3500 on a computer. Makes me feel poor

 

[suicidalpigeon]

you shouldnt really pass $2000 on a new system.

 

[JSLIM]

big baller

 

[ShadowBlade]

get an apple 30" monitor and spend the other $500 on your comp

 

[imported_michealo]

might as well get an alienware if you're wasting that much money

 

[suicidalpigeon]

if i had that money i would be getting an opteron/tyan setup.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Culley
3. Video & Sound Quality (My PC is my home theater system).

The magic words

If you really have $3500 to spend, you could get a very nice $1500 to $2000 computer system going and spend the rest on audio/video.

I don't know if spending like $1000 on sound would be something you'd want to do, but if you do, I know I and some others around here would have some suggestions.

The fastest $3500 computer you can buy right now will be nothing special a few years down the line, but a quality audio system will last you much longer. (the way I justified spending about 3.5 times as much on audio than my computer is worth)

 

[The Pentium Guy]

4. Gaming (I don't wear diapers, if you get my drift. In fact, I tend to play ROMs, text adventure, and older PC games).

You know? If you play text games you really should consider integrated graphics and spend $500 on your computer.
Just kidding about the $500 part. But consider spending less on your graphics card, and more on your CPU: get an X2 (multitasking and encoding performance is excellent).

-The Pentium Guy

 

[suicidalpigeon]

how are those rockets treatin ya? and yes, your system isnt badass if it doesnt have at least $400 spent on the audio section.

 

[Matthias99]

As others have noted, $3500 is a bit of a high number.

However, for those of you scoffing, he's including a monitor, surround sound speakers, wireless router, etc. in this package, so it's not JUST $3500 for a system.

1. Speed (I spend a lot of time in front of the computer multitasking, i.e. downloading, encoding video, watching a movie, extracting large files).
2. Storage (I need space for storage. I don't need to access it as quickly as possible, but I want to have the extra space on hand).
3. Video & Sound Quality (My PC is my home theater system).
4. Gaming (I don't wear diapers, if you get my drift. In fact, I tend to play ROMs, text adventure, and older PC games).

1. If you want multitasking/encoding speed, you want either AMD or Intel dual-cores at a decent speed grade (if you have specific apps/codecs you use, you might want to look for benchmarks to see if AMD or Intel is better at them). Currently, Intel dual-core chips are cheaper (and slower) than AMD dual-core chips. And I'd go for at least 1GB of RAM, preferably 2GB.

2. For a *lot* of storage (enough that you need more than 1-2 hard drives), you might consider a SATA RAID5 array (since you probably don't want to lose hundreds of gigs of data if a drive dies on you). If you do a lot of video editing, setting up a couple of decent-sized RAID0 arrays ('decent-sized' being dependent on the file sizes you use) -- or even just having multiple non-RAIDed hard drives -- to encode to/from/between can speed things up quite a bit.

3. You're going to want a really nice sound card (I hear good things about VIA Envy, but I'm not an audio freak), really nice speakers (I'd suggest 'real' home theater speakers, but that's not going to fit in a $3500 budget unless you cut the system down considerably), and a nice monitor as well (although you might want to consider hooking it up to a nice HDTV set or projector if this is intended to be watched by multiple people). If you want a monitor, it's hard to argue against the Dell 2405FPW (1900x1200 -- true 1080p resolution, good response time, doesn't totally break the bank). Are you going to put tuner(s) in this and use it as a PVR with Windows XP MCE (or other software)? I guess I'm unclear on what you mean by saying the PC is your 'home theater system'.

4. If you're not playing the latest games, you definitely don't need to go overboard with your video card. An X800XL or 6800GT would probably be MORE than enough power for you. You can always upgrade to a 7800GTX or R520 (or whatever) later if you decide you need more oomph.

 

[Culley]

I'm all for saving, but... I'd kinda like to get a 64bit dual core processor, which requires some extra $$$.

This price includes everything... router, speakers, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, fan, thermal paste, sound card, video card, cpu, case, monitor, hard drive, power supply, power strip, motherboard, dvd drive, printer, scanner, RAM, tax, and shipping & handling.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

ups? os?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
how are those rockets treatin ya? and yes, your system isnt badass if it doesnt have at least $400 spent on the audio section.

rockets = :thumbsup:

 

[JMoore]

You can pimp a PC for around $1500. Anything else is going to be overkill. Anyways, you'd be a lot happier (IMO) if you bout about a $1500 machine now, and then bought a new $1500 PC in 2 years or so. If you buy top, top of the line stuff you'll just be paying a sh*tload on stuff that is going to be overkill for you now. Unless you are a MAJOR HC gamer I wouldn't spend that much. Spread some of that money out on other cool electronics.

Edit: and if you play older games you don't need a $300 Video card

 

[Nek802]

if this is your first build, I wouldn't go all that high, unless you really know what you are doing
if you multitask alot, they you might want to get 2 monitors or something

I kind of feel bad for the people who spends lots of money on their first build... it's like buying a porsche 911 for a 16 year old

 

[Bona Fide]

If you're willing to spend that much...don't cheap out. Here are the essentials.

X2 4800+ Toledo
7800GTX PCIe
DFI motherboard
2x1GB RAM (OCZ is best)
Big hard drive (Don't waste money on a Raptor)

Don't wait for an X-Fi card unless you're highly audio-intensive, like a music producer or something.

 

[Culley]

I don't have to spend $3500 and don't really want to.

Right now, at home I have a Dell Dimension 8200 series with 256MB of RDRAM, a 2.53Ghz processor, an 80GB harddrive, and a GeForce 4200TI videocard... it's simply not enough machine.

I've been researching this build for over a year now. This is the fourth "tech support" forum I've consulted, I've talked to the IT department at work, and to several people who build for local companies.

I haven't turned my TV on in over 6 months as I watch DVDs and TV shows on the PC I have now, which is why I'm willing to spend some extra money on a good sound card, speakers, and monitor. Also, I don't want my computer lagging and crashing everytime I try to multitask, i.e. while watching a DVD, I want to be able to transfer files, have videos encoding in the background, etc.

Perhaps just having the second PC will help, but... right now. I can't watch a DVD or surf the internet, while I'm working on my video/sound editting at the same time.

Anyhow, yeah.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Is your computer fast enough for you when it's only doing a single task?

It almost sounds like to me that if you're keeping your system you already have (which isn't too shabby afterall), you could get away with just a $1000-ish new computer with lots of storage and use one computer to do one thing while you use the other to do something else (instead of spending a lot more money and using the new computer to do two or more things as once and not using the current one at all).

I don't know if this would be a good idea for you, but since I've turned from a computer nerd to more of a HT nerd, I would get a single core $1000-ish computer and then spend the rest of it on a great HT system that would allow for nice DVD viewing.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Culley
3. Video & Sound Quality (My PC is my home theater system).

The magic words

If you really have $3500 to spend, you could get a very nice $1500 to $2000 computer system going and spend the rest on audio/video.

I don't know if spending like $1000 on sound would be something you'd want to do, but if you do, I know I and some others around here would have some suggestions.

The fastest $3500 computer you can buy right now will be nothing special a few years down the line, but a quality audio system will last you much longer. (the way I justified spending about 3.5 times as much on audio than my computer is worth)

Aggggreeeeed. Spending money on items that last longer is a much better idea. Computer components become outdated fairly quickly. Audio components...MUCH less so.

 

[Culley]

Actually, what I may end up doing is use my current PC as my home theater system (perhaps change the monitor over) and use my new PC as my work station.

My current PC crashes on me regularly when trying to encode large audio and image files, let alone doing video work.

The problem I run into now, is when my computer is "working" I can't use it to do anything... surf the net, watch a movie, etc. I know that's obvious, but I need a second PC for that reason. And I really would like to have 64bit machine ready to handle video editting and the new Windows OS due out next year.