New Gaming/Video Editing System... For Review

[Cassius]

System Usage: Play new games(Bioshock, COD4, Dirt, Crysis, etc) at 1680x1050, Photo/Video editing, good overclocking ability.


Budget: ~$1000


What I have already:

WD 500GB SE16
Soundblaster Audigy2 (does this need upgrading?)
Keyboard/Mouse


What I need: (prices include shipping)

Case: Antec Performance One P180B ..... $149 - $40 rebate

Power Supply: Corsair 520HX ..... $90 - $10 rebate

DVD Burner: SAMSUNG Black 20X ..... $31

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ..... $$$

Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E ..... $162

Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) ..... $115 - $40 rebate

Video Card: eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB ..... $336 after 10% off - $30 rebate


TOTAL: $833 - $120 rebates ..... $713 (without CPU)


Notes: What I was hoping you guys/girls could do was to let me know if you see anything I should change, or add to the system. I'm spending a lot for me, so if I can save some or spend a little more to get better results I'll do it. Thanks for the help.

 

[MarcVenice]

p5k-e ? Need wifi? Otherwise go p5k vanilla or even gigabyte ds3l for 100$. For photo/video editing I would throw 4gb of ram in there. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146565 4gb of that stuff should do ^^

Nice videocard for the money. For a case, I would buy this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129017 Ordered one of those myself, and DAMN for 90$ it's such a no brainer, my p182, which is almost identical if not completely to the p180b costs me 115 euro's, and I still bought it ^^ That looks so good, and will be AWESOMELY quiet, and comes with 3 antec tricool 120mm case fans, or 1 of them is 92mm, not sure, and at low they are pretty darn quiet, not THE quietest, but still up there with the most quiet casefans.

Oh and, my x2 3800+ @ 2.6ghz and 8800gts STOCK speeds runs BioShock just fine at high @ 1680*1050, same for MoH: AirBorne with SLIGHT slowdowns when I look down when jumping out of the plane. nothing that can't be fixed though, especially since you've got a faster videocard and cpu.

 

[Cassius]

That is a nice case I'll have to look into it more. About the ram the after rebate price is only $7 less than the corsair, so is it better quality memory or is the corsair better, since the prices are almost the same I'd just go with the better of the 2, and yeah 4 gigs sounds good, but then I'd need 64bit vista correct?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[MarcVenice]

Toss up between either ram I'd say. I guess you can go by which you feel saver or which are prettier or have more confidence of receiving the rebates. And yeah you would need vista 64x, and for more info on the p180b, go here; http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81802 and click on the demo animation and you can see how it works and stuff. It's definately a better case then the cooler master with the different compartments, HD trays and what not. And they cost the same, so then it's all about looks. And even there the p180b wins it if you ask me

- oh one last thing, if you got 100$ to spare, a q6600 might be a nice cpu for you, if you do a fair bit of video editing that is. Or spend 40$ or so on a good HSF and overclock that e6750 to 3.2ghz or so. Or do both, and overclock the q6600 to 3.2 ghz ^^

 

[DarkManX4lf]

Your audigy 2 card will do fine.

 

[Modelworks]

I would probably get the 640mb version of the video card.
Newer games are using more textures and for just a bit more your insured you have enough for the future.

 

[Cassius]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I would probably get the 640mb version of the video card.
Newer games are using more textures and for just a bit more your insured you have enough for the future.

Yeah I was a little worried about that but then I learned about the "step up" program that eVGA has, where basically within 90 days of purchase you can trade in your card towards a newer one and only pay the difference in price. I decided that that might work better since after 3 months I'd hope the cards would come down in price so I could get something pretty nice for the $100 I'm saving now.

 

[asdftt123]

You should keep the 320mb version of the card...1680*1050 isn't going to show much of a difference (if any) between the two versions. Personally, you can save some cash by purchasing the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard over the Asus, unless you need firewire or don't have a firewire card (I assume you would need firewire for video editing). For a relatively reliable and inexpensive case, try the Centurion Cooler Master 5 ($50). If you manage to save enough on each of the components, I suggest grabbing a Quad-core Q6600 because it will really do you wonders with video editing. Benchmarks have shown it's almost 2x faster than the Dual-cores.

 

[nwrigley]

You will DEFINITELY want to get a quad core Q6600 for video editing - the price difference is less than $100 and I would cut corners anywhere else (if necessary) to get a quad.

No need to upgrade the Audigy 2.

 

[Cassius]

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking about the Q6600 as an option, but wasn't sure if the drop in gaming would be worth the increase in video editing, since I don't do it as often, but its definitely a good option.

 

[MarcVenice]

Agreed with asdftt123, as I mentioned, my 8800gts 320mb at stock speeds holds up just fine in games at 1680*1050, that's including BioShock, MoH: Airborne, DiRT, Stalker and World in Conflict.

 

[gsellis]

Pay for the Q6600 by using only 2GB of memory. With video editing, it is tuned for sparse memory. I can have my editor (Avid Liquid) open with 4 lines of HDV (1080i) and have 800MB free. I have a 2GB system.

What editor? If the answer is Sony's or Adobe's, change nothing. If the answer involves Pinnacle (or Avid Liquid), consider an ATI card. There were issues with the 8800 that I am not sure are resolved yet. The issues with the 1950 cards (ATI) were fixed with Cat. 6.6 (randon spots of white in a GPU transition).

You need more HDD too. I have 3 500's (and one has 30GB free at the moment). C: can be a smaller drive, but your video drive should be the 500 and the 3rd drive can be 250-500 as the working/render drive. OS/Apps on C:, capture on E:, working on F:.

 

[Cassius]

Originally posted by: gsellis
Pay for the Q6600 by using only 2GB of memory. With video editing, it is tuned for sparse memory. I can have my editor (Avid Liquid) open with 4 lines of HDV (1080i) and have 800MB free. I have a 2GB system.

What editor? If the answer is Sony's or Adobe's, change nothing. If the answer involves Pinnacle (or Avid Liquid), consider an ATI card. There were issues with the 8800 that I am not sure are resolved yet. The issues with the 1950 cards (ATI) were fixed with Cat. 6.6 (randon spots of white in a GPU transition).

You need more HDD too. I have 3 500's (and one has 30GB free at the moment). C: can be a smaller drive, but your video drive should be the 500 and the 3rd drive can be 250-500 as the working/render drive. OS/Apps on C:, capture on E:, working on F:.

Thanks for the info gsellis. Yeah I'm using adobe products for video/photo editing, I might check out Avid since you're using that and see what I think. So with the hard drive situation you're saying I should have the program open off of the C drive, and then load in the raw video files from E drive, and then save any work I do to the F drive right? That should allow for the maximum speed for rendering since it would be reading off of one drive and writing onto another, but would it also work to have the raw video files on the C drive so that I would only have 2 drives instead of 3?

 

[gsellis]

C: gets reserved for app loads and the OS (enough memory that only normal page writes)

If you think of it as the app doing playback, it will make sense. The raw files are running for E: and any you have "effected" are running from F:. So playback can stream better. I am not sure of the setup on Premiere (last time I used it was 6.0), but it does allow video capture to one drive and using another for effects from what I understand. Then you can also output to the F: or even C: (which usually is no big chore - playback in realtime while editing is the killer). I use C: as a store too for finished work (wmv's, ISO's).

 

[Cassius]

Ok thanks for all the feedback guys. I've gone ahead and updated my original post with changes to a bunch of stuff based on what you said. For the hard drives I'll do that over time most likely when hot deals show up.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Cassius
System Usage: Play new games(Bioshock, COD4, Dirt, Crysis, etc) at 1680x1050, Photo/Video editing, good overclocking ability.


Budget: ~$1000


What I have already:

WD 500GB SE16
Soundblaster Audigy2 (does this need upgrading?)
Keyboard/Mouse


What I need: (prices include shipping)

Case: Antec Performance One P180B ..... $149 - $40 rebate

Power Supply: Corsair 520HX ..... $90 - $10 rebate

DVD Burner: SAMSUNG Black 20X ..... $31

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ..... $145

Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E ..... $162

Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) ..... $115 - $40 rebate

Video Card: eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB ..... $336 after 10% off - $30 rebate


TOTAL: TOTAL: $1028 - $120 rebates ..... $908


Notes: What I was hoping you guys/girls could do was to let me know if you see anything I should change, or add to the system. I'm spending a lot for me, so if I can save some or spend a little more to get better results I'll do it. Thanks for the help.

Where do you get a q6600 for $145? I'll take a dozen please

 

[Cassius]

price mistake.