Another first time builder

[weavsticks]

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to build my own PC after not being satisfied with what you could purchase and the big price tags from Dell and Gateway for custom PC's. I've been lurking around this website for awhile and now I am ready to throw out what I think should make a decent multitasking machine. I am not a gamer and this PC will never see any games most likely. It will be my everyday college pc and I would like to make it a pvr as well. So far the components I have leaned towards are:

Case: Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX

CPU: Intel Pentium D 930 Presler 800MHz FSB 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual Core Processor

Mobo: Intel BOXD945PSNLK Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard

Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N562-AX Geforce 7900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card (am also considering 7600GS since its not a hardcore gamer but I will probably watch a lot of tv throught Nvidia's dual tv.)

HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (still not sure if I could do raid??)

Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory

Optical drive: NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner

The monitor will eaither be a viewsonic or dell 20" widescreen. Again I'm looking for advice from more experienced users. I'm not too worried about the building process after reading many how to guides and being a fairly hands on person (built nitro R/C cars growing up). I guess my biggest concern is BIOS. I don't plan to overclock as well if that helps out. Lastly, I currently run MS XP pro OS and wondered with this new pc if I should get pro again or just home edition. Thanks for any help.

[Kareeser]

Wowza, a 20" widescreen... don't those go up to about $500? .

For operating systems, choose whichever one suits your needs. Will you have use of the extra networking tools and optional security features available on XP Pro? If not, then use XP Home, it's just as good

For the record, I have XP Pro, and I haven't found any use of its OS-specific features

[GraemeM]

Originally Posted by weavsticks The monitor will eaither be a viewsonic or dell 20" widescreen. Again I'm looking for advice from more experienced users. I'm not too worried about the building process after reading many how to guides and being a fairly hands on person (built nitro R/C cars growing up). I guess my biggest concern is BIOS. I don't plan to overclock as well if that helps out. Lastly, I currently run MS XP pro OS and wondered with this new pc if I should get pro again or just home edition. Thanks for any help.

Don't worry about BIOS, you will have to change little if anything and it is all very straightforward

WIth Windows, do you already have a pro cd? If so, just install that.

As for Home vs. Pro, pro is better, but home will be fine as well. So I wouldn't spend $200 extra or something to get Pro, but all things equal, take it

[jayb1234]

Check the 16 mb cache hard drives from Seagate and Western Digital for a little better performance. Here is a 16Mb WD that is 7 bucks less after 10 buck rebate than the 8Mb Seagate in your list.

Download the motherboard manual and check whether you are going to need a floppy drive during the setup. If not they are still handy to have for troubleshooting.

As far as the XP version check with the school, some of them want you to have XP pro and others are fine with Home Edition.

For PVR look at the Hauppage pvr cards.

Does that NEC burner include burning software? If not Liteon's come with Nero and powerDVD.

A burner with lightscribe might be nice to have if you will be turning work in to profs on disks.

[blue60007]

Any reason why you are getting a gaming video card if you are not going to play games...? You could probably get away with a lower end card, like a 7600.

Speaking of schools and OS's - you might check with your bookstore(s) there - a lot of colleges have deals with MS and you can usually get Home or Pro for extremely cheap (like $25) - it's worth a look around.

[weavsticks]

I guess I wasn't sure if I could reload windows XP pro that I currently have on my computer. I actually only have 4 classes left so the school thing really isn't a huge concern. I know I may have went overboard on graphics card but I would still like to get the best picture through DVI. I might even just look at the 6600 since its not a gamer rig. So far the advice has been great, keep it coming. Even tear my suggestion apart. I'll also proabably ditch the plastic cooling tower in the Antec case as well.

[weavsticks]

I have also been trying to learn more about RAID. would it be hard for a first timer to set up? I like the advantages of having instant backup and speed. By stepping down to a lower vid card I could easily get two of the same HD's in the 200-250GB range. My budget is around 1000 give or take without monitor. I have a 17inch LCD currently, the 20 inch will be later.

[LeftyAce]

Instant backup, yes good idea. Around here, raid striping (using two drives like they're one to increase performance) is not recommended. It doesnt give a significant performance increase, and if one drive fails, all you're data is gone. (chunks of information is written to alternating drives). A raid mirror array is a good backup option, but does not offer speed advantages.

[blue60007]

I don't think it will be easy to set up - I've never done it, but I've heard plenty of horror stories. As said, the only useful use for RAID is mirroring the same data to two drives for redundant backup - however, I feel it's kinda overboard unless the data on there is abesolutely critcal. You can always do regular back-ups to a CD/DVD-R/RW or a flash drive, etc...

[glc]

If all you want is a great picture through DVI, you can throw a Radeon X1300 in there to get that, just don't get a Hypermemory variant. If you want a TV tuner, Powercolor has an excellent tuner card that goes into a PCI-Ex1 slot.

[weavsticks]

Ok So i've looked some more and some things have stayed the same and some have changed. Here is my new list:
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower

Intel Pentium D 930 Presler 800MHz FSB 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual Core Processor

Intel BOXD945PSNLK Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard

POWERCOLOR Radeon X1600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
or
SAPPHIRE 100145L-GN Radeon X1600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
CORSAIR VALUE SELECT 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16XDVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner With LightScribe

I'm not sure if I should go with 1gb or 2gm for memory. I see that the Intel 915 Pentium D is only 139.xx at newegg right now. Is there much of a difference between it and the 930 to warrant the $52 more for 930? I'm also going to get a Powercolor PVR card that GLC reccomended. let me know what you think about the update. Current build is around $720 for those who are wondering.

[glc]

I think the 915 is a steal - but the D945PSN does not support it yet!