First Build need advice

[thedreamlord]

Hello all...

I'm new to these forums as well as to PC building itself.

Anyway needing a new computer Vista based. Gonna wait a few months until I get a "workable" copy of Vista.

So what I would be doing on said Vista based computer primarily is writing, internet, photoshop, video games (i'm not a huge online rpg gamer though), but I MAY need to eventually do some video editing. I'm also a music lover, so I'll be putting a LOT of music on here as well as burning a lot of discs as well.

I was using the guide to building a basic PC on here and found it very helpful as I compiled a wish list on tiger direct.

My main intial questions have to do with reccomendations. I would LIKE a nice system. Fast. Lots of memory, but I don't want to sell my first born to do it. (I'm sure you get this question a lot.)

Here's My Wish List...

Hard Drive - Seagate / 320GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300 / OEM/

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.20GHz / 1MB Cache / 1000MHz FSB / Socket AM2 / Dual-Core (Windsor) / Processor with Fan

Motherboard - ECS KA3 MVP ATI Socket AM2 ATX Motherboard / Audio / PCI Express / Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID

Media Reader - Xtatix 3.5" All-In-One Media Reader with SATA Port and USB Port - Black

Power Supply - Ultra / V-Series / 350-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / 20/24-Pin / SATA Ready /

CD/DVD Drive - Lite-On Super-Multi LH20A1H / 20x DVD±R Burn / 16x DVD±R Read / 8x DVD+RW / 6x DVD-RW / 8x DVD±R DL / 12x DVD-RAM / Internal / Black&Beige / DVD Burner with Lightscribe

Video Card - EVGA GeForce 7300 GT / 512MB GDDR2 / SLI / PCI Express / DVI / VGA / TV Out

Memory - Corsair Value Select 256MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (was thinking either 2 or 4 of these)

....

My budget.... i would say is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700-800

Now I haven't added cables to this. Do a lot of these parts come with cables? (i assume they do.)

Again... first time... so ANY thoughts, comments, reccomendations etc... would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!!!

[Cricket]

Do yourself a favor and look for parts at Newegg.com instead of TigerDirect...TigerDirect is one of the worst places to get parts from.

And you really don't want to get a ECS motherboard as the quality will be pretty poor. See if you can fit a ASUS or ABIT motherboard into your budget.

And you also don't want to get a Ultra power supply...they aren't very good or reliable. See this thread for a list of good power supply brands. I prefer to use Fortron Source and Sparkle Power power supplies in my own computers.

Cricket

[moodyblues100]

If you are planning on running Vista I would get at least 1 GB of ram. 2 or 4 256 sticks won't give you much room for upgrade, especially if there are only 2 slots for ram. With 4 slots you would be filling it with 4 256 sticks which means trashing those sticks to upgrade. I wouldn't put less than 2 512 sticks in (if there are 4 slots)

[LeftyAce]

I'd suggest you look into the intel Core 2 Duo processor line; much more bang/buck.

Something along these lines would serve you well:

processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115005

motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131030

ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145098

video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130075

HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140

CD/DVD burner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106057

That comes to $678, but the video card has a $20 mail in rebate. Also, this gives you 2GB ram, and room to upgrade. You're going to need some kind of operating system; do you already have something, or are you going to wait 'till vista is more stable?

Plan to budget another 80-90 dollars for the powersupply, and you're going to need a case.

Welcome to PCMech!

*EDIT* Yes, the cables come with. (Both the motherboard and some of the components come with cables; you'll have more than you need).

[thedreamlord]

Thanks for the help and advice! Much appreciated.

[thedreamlord]

My friend told me about newegg.com and mwave.com. I had gotten used to zipping through the TigerDirect website I guess.

So what's the deal with Tiger Direct... not reputable?!?

[glc]

They sell a lot of overpriced garbage - their ad writers make crap sound like gold. They also have bad customer service and do everything they can to refuse rebates.

If you really do want an AMD AM2 build, you need DDR2-800 ram or you will lose performance. Intel builds are happy with DDR2-667 value ram.

[thedreamlord]

Originally Posted by Cricket Do yourself a favor and look for parts at Newegg.com instead of TigerDirect...TigerDirect is one of the worst places to get parts from. And you really don't want to get a ECS motherboard as the quality will be pretty poor. See if you can fit a ASUS or ABIT motherboard into your budget. And you also don't want to get a Ultra power supply...they aren't very good or reliable. See this thread for a list of good power supply brands. I prefer to use Fortron Source and Sparkle Power power supplies in my own computers. Cricket

Now what about power supply wattage issues? Is 350 too little... too much? Like I said I'm not an online RPGer... but I'll be doing some photoshop and MAY end up video editing down the line.

Just curious...

[Alaron]

Power supplies depend heavily on the video card. It is the largest power draw for most systems. I would go a bit higher to give yourself some headroom. This 450w FSP is a great choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

Also, photoshop and video editing don't need much in the way of video cards. They depend more on ram and CPU.

[glc]

You also don't need a 512mb video card - 256 is all you will ever need, and make sure it's discrete ram, not Hypermemory or Turbocache. ATI X1xxx cards are the best bet for video and graphics work, Nvidia is more gaming oriented. Your money is better spent on ram quantity and processor speed.

[thedreamlord]

Thanks for the advice!! All of you have been really helpful.