I'm having my own Computer built, Recamendations?

[mongoo13]

I have an old friend who works at a computer shop and a tech background that I ran into the other day. I told him about my interest in movie editing and he told me he could build me a top of the line computer at cost for $1,000.

So, I'm trying to figure out what would be the best computer. I want to use it primarily for video and audio editng.

My question to you is what would you recamend for:

- Mother board
- Processor
- Processor speed
- Hard drive - size, brand, multipule
- RAM - amount and type
- Video Card - size, brand
- Sound Card - type, brand
- Catch size
- Operating system with what file system
- Ports
- CD and DVD Burner brands
- anything else I can't think of right now


Any and all information would be of great help. If you know of any sites that would be a good resource for what I trying to find out, please leave those too.


Thank you

Mongoo

[Treebeard]

Okay this is a wide open topic w/ endless choices.

Personally I would buy an AMD based setup, but that just opinion so here we go.

A nice nforce2 ultra base motherboard
Athlon XP 2800+ or higher
512mb of ram (min) get 1gb if you can (mushkin, cosair, kingston)
2 x 120gb hard drives (western digital work for me)
Video card doesnt matter much unless you want to play games, then get a geforcefx 5700 at least.
XP pro as your OS using NTFS of course
NEC 8x dvd burner.
maybe get a dvd rom for just ripping.

that should be a good start.

Good places to shop

www.newegg.com
www.zipzoomfly.com

[handyguy]

Try building the computer you want from Dell.com & compare prices. Does that $1000 include a monitor? Cause thats gonna set you back $500 or so for a nice one.

[Treebeard]

Try building the computer you want from Dell.com & compare prices. Does that $1000 include a monitor? Cause thats gonna set you back $500 or so for a nice one.

What monitor is going to cost $500??? an LCD?? LCD is not what you want anyway, Go w/ a 19'' flat CRT monitor and it will blow away the LCD monitors in every way. and thats gonna run you $250-$300 for a large nice CRT. get a 17" and save some money also.

[thecoalman]

Guess it depends on what top of the line means to your friend. A truly top of the line machine *starts* at around $2000 grand and that doesn't include monitor, speakers, keyboard..... Most smaller local shops don't even have top of the line components, at least where I live.

I'd look around, go hear and configure a decent machine www.abspc.com, compare it to what your friend is offering. Cost a few more dollars than building it yourself but you get a warranty with it. You can get a machine with the specs treebeard suggested for about $1000 there. Tech support isn't the best but which company does have good tech support?

Edit:Just saw the Dell post, Dell is for suckers unless your buying there bottom of the line machines for $500 or $600 bucks. Just a decal.

[Cobra]

Mother board
- Processor
- Processor speed
- Hard drive - size, brand, multipule
- RAM - amount and type
- Video Card - size, brand
- Sound Card - type, brand
- Catch size
- Operating system with what file system
- Ports
- CD and DVD Burner brands
- anything else I can't think of right now

- Asus, maybe an A7N8X-E?
- AMD Athlon, maybe an XP Mobile and overclock it?
- 250GB isn't too expensive now. Maxtor are pretty nice, so are Western Digital.
- 1GB of RAM isn't too expensive either, but 512MB will suffice. PC3200 - no more expensive than lower speeds now.
- A budget card (mainly video work, right? No games?), maybe a more expensive one with ViVo?
- Motherboards normally have decent sound cards integrated, otherwise you can't go wrong with a Creative Audigy.
- Windows XP Home will be fine, use NTFS.
- The Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe has 6 x USB 2.0 and 2 x FireWire as standard. So will most high-end motherboards.
- Most DVD-ROM drives are good, but LiteOn drives are particularly nice. As for DVD+/-RW, Pioneers are the most solid burners in my opinion.

Cobra

EDIT - I wouldn't buy a Dell. They're harder to upgrade, and use substandard components. They don't look as good, either. Plus, it's nice to be able to say "I built this - it's mine, and unique".

Having said that, Dell do well for the price.

[DVD_Ripper]

- 1GB of RAM isn't too expensive either, but 512MB will suffice. PC3200 - no more expensive than lower speeds now.

- Windows XP Home will be fine, use NTFS.

- Most DVD-ROM drives are good, but LiteOn drives are particularly nice. As for DVD+/-RW, Pioneers are the most solid burners in my opinion.

I have head some people having anamolies with two 512M sticks in their machine.

Is there an advantage (for the home user) regarding XP Pro vs XP Home... I've never seen home version so I don't know what I would miss if I went to he home release

To expand on what Cobra denoted ... get a DVDROM and burner separate ... maybe a DVD_ROM or DVDROM / CDRW and Internal / external DVDRW drivers

[gitreel]

- 1GB of RAM isn't too expensive either, but 512MB will suffice. PC3200 - no more expensive than lower speeds now.

- Windows XP Home will be fine, use NTFS.

- Most DVD-ROM drives are good, but LiteOn drives are particularly nice. As for DVD+/-RW, Pioneers are the most solid burners in my opinion.

I have head some people having anamolies with two 512M sticks in their machine.

Is there an advantage (for the home user) regarding XP Pro vs XP Home... I've never seen home version so I don't know what I would miss if I went to he home release

To expand on what Cobra denoted ... get a DVDROM and burner separate ... maybe a DVD_ROM or DVDROM / CDRW and Internal / external DVDRW drivers

To the average user, home is fine. Pro is for advanced users.

[stiltman]

Pro is for advanced users.

Cool, I'm advanced, Kwel

[4smiley20]

One big difference between xp pro and home is that you can't set up or log into a server domain. You can still network with the home version but many of the networking features that pro has were left out of the home edition.

[stiltman]

Here's the differences between XP home and XP Pro

[DVD_Ripper]

Here's the differences between XP home and XP Pro

Home Edition does not include the Logical Disk Manager.

That would blow... no home edition for me...

[mongoo13]

What is better about atholon then intel? I was under the impression that a Pentium 4 with HT was the best out there for performance, speed, and compatibility.

[gitreel]

Amd chips are usually cheaper, and sometimes beat out the pentium 4 on some benchmarks. Amd processors usually give you more bang for the buck. With intel, you are paying more for the name.

Every computer I build uses either a duron or athlon xp. Pretty soon I will have to buy an athlon64.

I only use xp pro on all my systems.

[Cobra]

Bang for your buck. AMD chips are much cheaper than Intel chips, and so give a better performancerice ratio.

There have been raging debates over which is better, but in the end it is what your wallet can handle. Personally, I will always use AMD CPUs until Intel offer me more value for money.

Cobra

[mongoo13]

what benchmarks does AMD beat Intel at?

[stiltman]

what benchmarks does AMD beat Intel at?

Freecell and Minesweeper are the only ones I know of

[Cobra]

This is well-documented on the internet - search on "AMD vs Intel" or something on Google and you'll see.

I tend to look at benchmarks and tests semi-seriously - they can twist the reality of things. I believe both types of CPU are slightly better/worse than each other for different things, but the major factor for yourself as the end user is value for money. AMDs give you more speed per unit currency overall.

Cobra

[gitreel]

06/25/04 Is Itanium the first 64-bit casualty? - Info World
"By the time 64-bit apps become ubiquitous, we’re looking at 2006 or later, and that’s plenty of time for some new silicon strategy to wander down the pike. Itanium may be a sexy feat of engineering, but 64-bit x86 extensions are not only the safer bet, they’re just plain more useful"

06/14/04 AMD and Intel 64-bit architecture ‘almost identical’ - Electronic News
"Intel’s reverse-engineering of [AMD’s 64-bit processors] marks a major turning point in the historical relationship between the companies,” says Halfhill. “Although AMD has in the past introduced some innovations to the x86 architecture … this is the first time AMD has truly steered the direction of the world’s most important microprocessor architecture, which Intel invented in 1978 and has closely guarded for 26 years"

06/04/04 Intel says so far, so good for second quarter - CNET
"I don't think we have to look forward too far to see AMD gaining (market) share," said Peter Glaskowsky, the former Microprocessor Report editor who now owns his own consulting company. Intel is "at a disadvantage today in the PC space, and I think that situation is only going to get worse."

05/18/04 Intel changes course after hitting technical wall - Arizona Republic
"Late last month, Current Analysis, a research firm in La Jolla, Calif., reported that for the week of April 24, the percentage of personal computers sold using AMD chips had surpassed those using Intel chips, with Advanced Micro at 52 percent of PCs sold vs. Intel at 47 percent. It was the first time in recent history that Intel had lost its lead."

02/18/04 Intel Concedes 64-Bit Chips Are Wave of the Future - NYT
"The Intel Corporation, which has long dominated the computer microprocessor market it created in 1971, did an abrupt about-face on Tuesday, announcing that it would follow the lead of its much smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices, by building 64-bit capability into its most popular chips. The strategy reversal is a setback for Intel, the world's largest chip maker, which had been trying to convince computer users that more powerful 64-bit processing aimed at heavy-duty corporate and scientific computing should be handled exclusively by its ambitious, but incompatible, Itanium processors."

02/12/04 Itanium not living up to Intel's promise - EETimes
"It has been apparent for some time that Intel's Itanium pro-cessor has not met expectations, despite billions of dollars of investment by Intel over the past 10 years. The "next generation" 64-bit processor has garnered only a portion of the server market and has no presence on the desktop. Embarrassingly, Itanium is not even the best-selling 64-bit processor with X86 compatibility. AMD's Opteron, introduced just last year, already outsells it."

12/03/03 How Intel Wrecked Itanium - TechUser
"Intel should have read the signal and responded by conceding some market share to AMD. Instead, Intel unwisely and arrogantly chose to start a price war. If Intel had allowed AMD to take 25-27 percent market share, the industry might have settled into a duopoly. AMD did not want a price war and would have settled at that. "

10/17/03 Intel before the fall - MSNBC
Intel, he adds, "is facing a huge loss of market share." Remains to be seen if AMD will finally have the last laugh, but that's Hickey's bet. And before you go saying that Hickey is a washed-up perma-bear, just remember this: That's what I used to hear when I would quote him in the mid-to-late '90s."

09/30/03 AMD has the answer for Intel - Business Standard
"If you're Intel, that should be a scary number. Sure, AMD's chips are not true 64-bit in the same sense that the 386sx was not true 32-bit. But does anybody really care? I suspect not. After all, AMD's chips can take advantage of the overriding benefit of 64-bit computing that of being able to directly address over 4GB of memory. With Itanium, Intel is attempting to wrench users away from 32-bit software in one uncomfortable movement."

08/26/03 Intel CEO sees no low-price edge for AMD in China - Reuters
"AMD, with a 20 percent slice of the global market for computer microprocessors, took a major step into China in June when Hewlett-Packard Co, the sixth-biggest computer seller in the country with three percent of the market, began selling two models in China using AMD chips"

07/30/03 Intel, AMD accused of cooking the books - the inquirer
"No one publicly questions how Intel arrives at their claimed scores. It is a poorly kept secret that everyone in the industry knows that Intel uses special 'hot box' motherboards and 'reference compilers' to get the scores", he said."

05/26/03 A Chip War of EPIC Proportions - InternetNews
"It was during this time that Intel continued to improve its x86 line of chips, which had been primarily made for desktop PCs, and begin to win much of the mid-range market with its Xeon processors. Recently, AMD has challenged that thinking with its 64-bit Opteron. That processor, launched in April, is backwards compatible with 32-bit based systems and is considered more of a CISC than a RISC chip"

02/18/03 PCs 2002: Big Gambles Await 2003 - In-Stats
"In our estimation, AMD is about to change the PC landscape and set the future of the x86 instruction set. Intel is using Hyper-Threading to hide memory latency on multitasking and multithreaded software, but AMD’s on-chip memory controller simply eliminates much of that latency."

02/11/03 Intel hits back at AMD desktop performance claims - the inquirer
"Chip giant Intel reacted swiftly to the release of a Barton 3000+ processor from AMD today
and said vendor claims should not be used to decide the performance of a chip"

02/03/03 CHIP BATTLE: See This Chip? - Fortune
"It's Intel's most powerful processor ever. It has the ability to take on IBM, sink Sun, make or break HP, and crush or revive AMD. It's keeping every CEO in computing up at night. And it's just getting started. The multibillion-dollar battle between Itanium 2 and its rivals has "

01/30/03 Intel may delay technology licensing for SiS P4-compatible chipsets - Hoover
"If SiS begins to increase output of chipsets compatible with AMD processors, the cooperation among the three chip companies may threaten Intel's leadership in the world processor market"

01/17/02 Some AMD & Intel ponderings - Geek
"In closing I say this: I want AMD to succeed. I need AMD to succeed. Without a strong
presence in the marketplace, we will all be paying outrageous fortunes for microprocessors and related parts, just like we did back in the pre-1 GHz days. Intel's monopoly will become absolute,
and our pocketbooks will become absolutely empty. We should all wish the best for AMD"

01/11/02 One More Time for AMD - CRN
"For the second year in a row, price leadership helped chip maker AMD beat rival Intel in CRN's Channel Champions survey. AMD earned an overall satisfaction rating of 84, almost 8 points higher than Intel's 76.2, and the victor shone brightest in the areas of price, profitability and return on investment. In price, AMD stomped Intel by a resounding 28.3 points"

12/12/02 AMD's future plans: Keep annoying Intel - BWO
"Two additional papers will discuss AMD's ideas on building transistors that use metal, rather than silicon gates. Using nickel for the gate improves electrical current flow through the transistor, AMD said, and could also end up costing less than using other metals"

11/19/02 AMD Stands Tough - Forbes
"AMD has in recent months been on the losing side of a punishing price war with Intel. Both have suffered over the last two years from an overall decline in PC demand that has slowed demand for its chips. But Intel has attacked AMD both on the overall performance front, pushing its chips past the 3-gigahertz mark for overall clock speed, and on price"

11/19/02 AMD Has Fallen and It Can't Get Up - thestreet
"In fact, over the long run, AMD's returns have been astonishingly meager. Over the past 20 years, the company spent $25 billion to reap a $2 billion increase in market capitalization, notes Parker. 'They've destroyed $23 billion of value' he says"

10/11/02 Intel's $10 Billion Gamble - Fortune
"Intel has a phobia about capacity," says SSB analyst Jonathan Joseph. "They're very concerned that they'll miss the next upturn. But they clearly have too much capacity coming online; they aimed forward to hit the duck, and the duck isn't there. Sooner or later they'll have to adjust to maintain profitability, and that will mean closing some existing plants."

09/16/02 AMD – some of our chips are missing - the inquirer
"Third party industry players we talk to are agreed that AMD is a necessary counterbalance to Intel, keeping the latter on its toes and forcing it to produce better products at more competitive prices. They're not cheerleaders for AMD but want to see Intel face stiff competition to keep Chipzilla in check"

08/22/02 Processor wars heat up amid slumping PC market - SS
"The moves are in response to AMD, which stunned the microprocessor giant on Wednesday. AMD bruised Intel's ego by announcing a new microprocessor--which is said to be faster than competitive chips from rival Intel."

07/15/02 Second Hand Smoke - RE: Stop Smothering AMD - Part II - THG
"typical Tom's hardware bull ******* shit trying to get a rise out of each side of the intel/amd battle. <A lot of personal attacks on Tom followed, which I found offensive and it takes a lot to offend me> Perhaps you should leave that sinking ship and stop publishing propaganda."

07/16/02 AMD: 30 Years of Pursuing the Leader - Digital-Daily
"Intel was really outraged and sued for breaching the patents. But another court had confirmed the AMD's right to use the fruits of the agreement of 1982, and AMD used it saying that the agreement gave the right to copy the microcode of ALL Intel's processors. It worked. And in March 1991 the company developed a clone of the i386 - Am386. It had a different circuit, but it coinsided entirely in the microcode with the Intel'one"

07/10/02 Why IBM could win the processor wars - ZDNet UK
07/04/02 Second Hand Smoke - Stop Smothering AMD! - Part I - THG
07/03/02 AMD's Computer Chip Power Play - NewsFactor
06/24/02 AMD vs. Intel - AMD World
06/14/02 Weekly Platform Trends: AMD's Thoroughbred Anticlimax - HardwareCentral
06/05/02 The Battle of the 64-Bit Computer Chips - NewsFactor
05/21/02 How Intel Subverts Journalists - VHJ
05/16/02 Despite word-war, Intel, AMD costs close - CNET
04/28/02 AMD/Intel CPU Release History - Ace's Hardware
04/21/02 Intel vs. AMD - TweakTown
02/01/02 Intel Can't Get Rid of AMD So Easily - Red Herring
01/30/02 Looking over AMD's shoulder - ZDNet
01/24/02 Intel's Plan B chip stirs internal debate - Silicon Valley
01/24/02 Intel has secret weapon against AMD chips - Best Computer Builders
01/23/02 One Socket To Rule Them All - Hardware Central
01/09/02 AMD vs. Intel: your PC wins - ZDNet India
12/27/01 Recovery heats up AMD-Intel rivalry - Tapei Times
12/11/01 Intel Today - Two Steps Forward... - Penstarsys
11/23/01 Intel Insides: Anand Chandrasekher in the interview - tecchanel
11/16/01 A Colossal Wreck - Austin Chronicle
11/15/01 Intel might be having financial problems - Geek
11/14/01 Interview with Intel President & CEO Craig Barrett - NewsFactor
11/15/01 Interview with Intel President & CEO Craig Barrett (Part 2) - NewsFactor
11/08/01 Intel's sacred river Alf talks AMD talk - the inquirer
10/30/01 How Intel plans to survive the downturn - CNET
09/28/01 Guest Opinion: The Deconstruction of Falling Stars - VHJ
02/09/00 A Titan Falls - AMD Plays David to Intel's Goliath - Van Smith

[DVD_Ripper]

what benchmarks does AMD beat Intel at?

Freecell and Minesweeper are the only ones I know of

Good one

Also, keep in mind that AMD CPU's tend to run very hot (even at idle). The packaged fan should be upgraded at the time of installation.

[mongoo13]

I talked with a rep at bestbuy yesterday and he strongly recammended using a pentium chip over athlon. Saying that athlons are better for games but intel is better for video.

Do you guys agree or disagree?


Also to my suprise, Duel Layer DVD burners are avalible now. Sony has a system they sell with it. It only burns DVD + R duel layered discs though, not DVD-R. Any thoughts on this, or comments on this?

[Treebeard]

oohh nooo, dont listen to them at BestTry. and dont be concerned w/ dual layer burning, its in stages of infancy and not practical yet. at most get a drive thats capable but you wont be utilizing that feature for a while.

and

AMD all the waaaaaaaayyyy!!!

[gitreel]

Mongoo,

At Bestbuy, the people work off commission, unless you are a cashier.

He is trying to get you to spend a wad of money on a brand name and more expensive processor.

Vote with your wallet. I build systems and administer them as a side business. I only use Amd processors.

[rallynavvie]

OMG did I not make a thread devoted to computer building that's pinned to the top of this forum?

I'll have to go in and update some to include what I think would be a killer single processor computer. If you want to build a dual CPU system I can be of a little more assistance.

Don't do the Intel/AMD thing here, it's like comparing apples to oranges. The only thing they share is that they're x86 CPUs. The comparison pretty much ends there. Intel's have been the standard for video thus far because video programs have been optimized for Intel instruction sets. AMD have tended toward the gaming market because of their speeds and 3D instructions on-chip for the price offered. Both overclock well but that will soon be ending. So far I'm impressed with my Intels over the AMD box I had but that wouldn't stop me from getting another AMD machine in the future.

Best single processor system would be built around an Athlon FX processor. Those things are mad fast. I'm very impressed with the 74GB Raptor SATA drives as a quieter solution to SCSI for a boot drive. SATA connectors leave room to be improved upon though, they are easy to break. Make sure to have one other larger hard drive for storage on your system as well. Don't worry about RAID, it really isn't necessary for most applications. If you really want a machine that will last you may want to wait a while and get one with PCI-E and get a PCI-E video card. AGP is done so don't look for many video card updates past the current X800 and 6800 offerings. Still these latest AGP cards should last a couple years at least. Don't cheap out on memory. Get all identical, branded sticks. Mushkin and Corsair are standouts. Be sure to get a good power supply most of all. PC Power and Computing and the Antec True series are both great PSUs. Sound cards are hit-and-miss. If you're gaming get a good Sound Blaster for its EAX capabilities. If you're an audiophile look into Turtle Beach cards. In between are the Hercules cards like the GTXP.

I'll update the sticky in this forum with some new picks later tonight.

[thecoalman]

I talked with a rep at bestbuy yesterday and he strongly recammended using a pentium chip over athlon. Saying that athlons are better for games but intel is better for video.

Here's a link for BestBuy http://www.bestbuysux.org/index1.html I purchase stuff there but I wouldn't listen to a thing that a salesman says. I walked into the computer section there one day and alomost left because the guy wouldn't leave alone. There looking to sell the most expensive product, regardless of whether you need it or not.

[AND1]

Mother board - Abit IC7

Processor - 2.8E and OC it to 3.4 - Runs very stable at this speed

Processor speed - see above

Hard drive - 120-160 Sata should be enough

RAM - 512MB of PC3200

Video Card - ATI Radeon 9800 PRO - its 199 at newwegg (very cheap/great card)

Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Operating system: XP Pro

CD and DVD Burner - Nec 8X DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW recorder and 16x/48x

Anything else: Zalman 7000CU Heatsink.

[miksu]

I would go AMD way, be it 32- or 64bit. Chaintech makes really good motherboards, I tried Asus A7N8X-X and it was one of the worst boards I have ever seen. Chaintech 7NJL4 is really nice, nForce2-based.

Socket A boards are still good choice, good upgradeability, too, since AMD has introduced Sempron processors (32bit mode only cores based on technology borrowed from 64bit Athlons) for socket A. Likely to be cheap processor and fast, as is current XP line. nVidia nForce-series chipsets are best you can get (unless it's original one), it beats s**t out of Intel things.

Overclocking Prescott processors is calling trouble. They have such high thermal power. Take a look at
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16952
it's rather self explanatory. One test ended with melted mobo-support blocks

[lacywest]

- 1GB of RAM isn't too expensive either, but 512MB will suffice. PC3200 - no more expensive than lower speeds now.

- Windows XP Home will be fine, use NTFS.

- Most DVD-ROM drives are good, but LiteOn drives are particularly nice. As for DVD+/-RW, Pioneers are the most solid burners in my opinion.

I have head some people having anamolies with two 512M sticks in their machine.

Is there an advantage (for the home user) regarding XP Pro vs XP Home... I've never seen home version so I don't know what I would miss if I went to he home release

To expand on what Cobra denoted ... get a DVDROM and burner separate ... maybe a DVD_ROM or DVDROM / CDRW and Internal / external DVDRW drivers

There are some video editing programs that wont work unless you have the "WinXP PRO" version installed

[rallynavvie]

I don't think there's a "best" chipset out there, it will depend on what you're doing. The 875 chipset is on par with the nVidia ones and you can't argue with the bus speeds it allows for. I can get 1066 FSB out of my chipset from each processor. The nForce chipset seems set more toward gaming and home computing, the 875 more toward workstations. I don't think you can beat the 7505 for server chipsets unless you go to 64-bit.

As for 64-bit platforms the Opterons rule the server market so far. Itaniums are a purpose-built CPU and have specific applications they are used for, but they do well by them. The Athlon FX is a powerhouse for gaming but still seems to be lacking in multimedia behind a 32-bit Intel system. The Nocona Xeons, Intel's 64-bit capable 800 FSB Xeon processor is so far sounding like a bad release so they've messed up big there. Hopefully the E1 revision later this fall will fix all that.

As for an OS I don't have a choice between XP Home and Pro, I can only run Pro on both my workstations. Home won't work

[mongoo13]

I'm going to need a duel monitor setup. Any reccomendations on a graphics card? How about the Nividia 6800?


When Will be the best time to buy a computer? or computer parts? I mean are new models of stuff going to be released in the next month or two and if so, wouldn't that drop the price on all current componets?

Or is now the best time to buy for a good while?

Thanks

Mongoo