Maxed out entertainment rig, need help!!!

[GameRGeeK]

I have decided to leave my pure gaming experience to consoles and have found what I really want from my new computer that I am building.

I hope to do the following things and hope that anyone could lend a tip or two:thumbsup:

Burn dvd and Blu-ray movies (home made of course ex: family parties/b-days)
Mp3 hog
Video/movie Editing (creating movies/videos like to stuff to put on youtube)
Photoshop activities(rendering photos,drawings,paintings, comic book making)
Music Editing and creating music
recording shows from TV networks with ease
able to read almost all media (different memory cards,ipods,digital cameras,etc)
and finally, although I mentioned that I will not have this rig for gaming, I must at least get a good all around gaming card, just in case I would dabble in some pc games here and there.

Brand of CPU: INTEL
Motherboard: what ever is most recommended by you all and with a lot of multimedia options that I could add to it
memory: 8GB DDR2 800mhz? brand recommended?
Harddisk: 2 300GB WD Veloci raptors and 1 1TB slave drive
Soundcard: Creative (for movies and music playback) dunno which model though
Videocard: just 1 card preferably one of the high-end cards
Casing: doesn't really matter, although I likethe Lian-Li brand
PSU: I am guessing a good all around 750W
aftermarket cpu cooler: would I still need one?
Speakers: Creative 5.1 speakers to match the soundcard
Monitor: something that can fit to my needs and wants with what I'll be doing. I know I may need something big, maybe a 26 or 27 inch? or I guess I could somehow sacrifice for a 30" inch

OS: windows XP 64-bit
Other software that I will be using: Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe illustrator, Adobe soundbooth, Nero 8 Ultra Edition, Sony Vegas Pro 8

Budget: for everything (tower,speakers,monitor,keyboard,mouse) = around $3000 *keyword to look at "monitor" need a good one for nice display of movies,photos,videos*

I will start ordering the parts as soon as I have found all the solid input given by you cool people!

Hoping for a sound reply,
GameRGeek

 

[DSF]

Is this going to be sitting at a desk, or in an entertainment center? If it's going to be situated in an entertainment center in a common area like the living room, you might consider using an HDTV for the monitor so that other people (kids? wife? roommates? obviously I know nothing about you) can use the setup to watch TV/movies without necessarily having to go through your computer. If it's something for your own room/study it's not a concern obviously.

Part of the reason I ask is that the higher the resolution of your display (great for photo work obviously) the harder it is for a graphics card to deliver acceptable performance in games. This can lead to expensive, hot, noisy graphics card setups, which works at cross-purposes to the quiet machine most people think of as a media center.

As far as the PSU, it will depend on what graphics card(s) you choose, as will the motherboard. I would first nail down what display you'll be using, and decide how much graphical power you want to drive it.

If I'm not mistaken, there are other good options besides Creative for movie and music sound output. I don't consider myself an audiophile though, so I'm not the guy to ask.

 

[modoheo]

Get the quad core Core 2 CPU of your choice, since photo/video editing/rendering is where the quads really shine over the dual cores. The Q9300 or Q6600 are nice chips.

I'd consider a crossfire configuration on the GPU's since you'll be powering a huge, high-rez monitor like a 27 or 30 inch (Dell makes great monitors of that size BTW). The ATI 4850X2 in crossfire should do quite nicely.

Pair the above with a good p45 chipset board like the Asus P5Q Deluxe p45 and you'll be in business.

RAID 0 and the VelociRaptors are a waste of money for the small additional performance imho. I'd go with the WD AAKS 640 HD X 2 or 3, or at most one VelociRaptor (it might make some difference for the jobs your system will be handling).

The Antec Quadro 850w PSU is a great buy right now and should give you plenty of juice for all of the above.

8 gigs of RAM is probably overkill, but Vista 64 will recognize it and it won't hurt for the jobs you're doing - G.Skill, Corsair, and Patriot are my favorite brands. DDR2 800 should be plenty unless you're overclocking (and probably even then, if not extremely aggressively overclocking).

Don't forget to get a TV tuner PCI card if you want to record TV programs.

 

[tuteja1986]

Powersupply : CORSAIR 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817139006

Video card : 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814129113

CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115042

RAM : G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1100 5-5-5-15
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231194

Motherboard : DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136047

Sound Card : HT OMEGA STRIKER 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16829271001

Optical Drive 1 : LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Black SATA Model GGW-H20L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827136137

Optical Drive 2 : DVDRW :! buy which ever

OS : Microsoft Windows Vista Premium


You don't need 8GB of ram for gaming :! its useless

 

[GameRGeeK]

Originally posted by: DSF
Is this going to be sitting at a desk, or in an entertainment center?

Part of the reason I ask is that the higher the resolution of your display (great for photo work obviously) the harder it is for a graphics card to deliver acceptable performance in games. This can lead to expensive, hot, noisy graphics card setups, which works at cross-purposes to the quiet machine most people think of as a media center.

As far as the PSU, it will depend on what graphics card(s) you choose, as will the motherboard. I would first nail down what display you'll be using, and decide how much graphical power you want to drive it.

If I'm not mistaken, there are other good options besides Creative for movie and music sound output. I don't consider myself an audiophile though, so I'm not the guy to ask.

As for being what it will be, it will in a work room, since more than one person will be using it. a)One of my brothers will be mixing/creating music as this computer will also be for a studio type of use b)I will somewhat do the same thing but mostly do video editing (love videotaping parties/bdays/weddings/etc. c)my older sister loves to keep tons of photos and loves rendering them for network websites such as myspace. d) it will in a way be used for slight gaming every now and then (my 15 year old son), but not total hardcore gaming (ex: SLI/CF) thats why I am for just 1 card and focus more of the budget on other parts, but atleast have it run some of the high-end games *just to be up to date* e) my dad will use it from time to time to work on his magazine pages, he works part time as a graphics designer for a publishing company.

As for PSU = Videocard, I am considering now a Corsair 750W and a HD4870x2 (since it will be out by next month, I will be using a temporary card)

regarding soundcards, since you have said that their are other good options aside from creative, I will look into that, its just I have only known about creative being most popular.

 

[GameRGeeK]

Originally posted by: modoheo

I'd consider a crossfire configuration on the GPU's since you'll be powering a huge, high-rez monitor like a 27 or 30 inch (Dell makes great monitors of that size BTW). The ATI 4850X2 in crossfire should do quite nicely.

Pair the above with a good p45 chipset board like the Asus P5Q Deluxe p45 and you'll be in business.

RAID 0 and the VelociRaptors are a waste of money for the small additional performance imho. I'd go with the WD AAKS 640 HD X 2 or 3, or at most one VelociRaptor (it might make some difference for the jobs your system will be handling).


8 gigs of RAM is probably overkill, but Vista 64 will recognize it and it won't hurt for the jobs you're doing - G.Skill, Corsair, and Patriot are my favorite brands. DDR2 800 should be plenty unless you're overclocking (and probably even then, if not extremely aggressively overclocking).

Don't forget to get a TV tuner PCI card if you want to record TV programs.

hmmm I dont see a need to be going into CF with 2 cards, just need one, so that I could focus my budget for a nice set of speakers and monitor $400+ could go a long way with other parts *since this system is not mainly aimed for gaming* Thanks for the tip though!

So your saying I should use Vista 64-bit over XP 64-bit? the reason for 8GB is not actually focused on the gaming aspect of this rig, but for the videoediting/graphical design work among other things and looking a 8GB *4GB 2x2GB x2* of 800mhz ram seems affordable enough. As for overclocking, I may not focus on OC this rig, but if i need to to get better performance overall for everthing, then I will OC, other than that, I plan to leave OCing alone. *would you recommend me using an aftermarket cooler or rather the stock kind that comes with the processor?