Novice build

[pally01]

Good day to all.

After experiencing frustration with the configuration limitations and high $$$ Dell, Hp and others like to saddle us consumers with, I have decided I would like to tackle my first build.

I do zero gaming with my computer. I do substantial amounts of video editing, compression etc and also heavily utilize the media center aspects of my current Pentium IV Dell 4400. I am looking for speed, reliability but not necessarily cutting-edge. I would like the new rig's video to be able to utilize my Samsung's LCD televisions' PC-In capability as well. I am not a millionaire but don't mind spending well-placed $$$.

Here's what I am thinking about. Any/all input very much welcomed...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ w/ 2x1MB Cache @ $349.00 Canadian
Asus M2NPV-VM w/ Geforce 6150, DualDDR2 800, Audio, Gigabit Lan @ $100.00 CDN
OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Special Ops Edition Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 1GB) @ $275.00 CDN
Antec New Solution Series NSK6500 Super Mid Tower w/ 430W P. Supply @ $120.00 CDN
Samsung SH-S182M Lightscribe 18x18 Dual Layer DVD+/-RW @ $45.00 CDN
Seagate 250GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache @ $100.00 CDN
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x86 (32-bit) DVD, OEM @ $240.00 CDN

I look forward to all feedback.

[flanzig1]

I would think about an Intel build with:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5B or P5B-E
Corsair Value Select DDR2 667
ATI X1300 Pro video card
The other parts are good.

[pally01]

Thanks for the speedy reply, flanzig 1.

I'm wondering about the Corsair suggestion you make for ram. I did some additional sleuthing and have found references to OCZ ram I spec'd being somewhat unstable and users having boot problems while using it. Is there truth to this?

Also, my p.c. parts supplier does not carry Corsair Value Select DDR2 667 and I would need to purchase via on-line vendor. Any recomendations for a Canadian supplier?

I looked at the P5B board as suggested and they do seem to pack a load of features in them. Very nice! I found 5 different varieties of the P5B however. Would it be a safe assumption that they are all reliable, recommended etc and that the difference between them is more features?

The Intel Core 2 6600 also looks very good. I am wondering how much of an impact the cache size of the chips has on overall performance. Is 4mb vs 2mb a night/day sort of thing? The reason I ask this is I see the P5B board is capable of handling the Core Extreme chips and I could very well want to upgrade in a year or two. With that in mind, I would maybe settle on an E6300 chip so long as the performance is not a big drop from a 6600.

Any thoughts?

[flanzig1]

The P5B is the basic board in the series, the rest have options like RAID,Firewire,more slots.etc. They are all quailty boards.
I selected the E6600 to give you the most CPU power for the buck with the editing

Canadian on-line seller: http://www.ncix.com/index.php
This forum talks about some others. http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=147140

[pally01]

Thanks, flanzig 1.

I am making a run to my supplier this a.m. to get started. I like the suggestions you've provided me and will follow up on them....