Building a new computer

[Culley]

I'm building my first computer. My current computer is a Dell system I got through work.

I have a few buddies who are going to walk me through this, but none of them do any video capturing, dvd authoring, or video editting.

As concerns video, I will be authoring DVDs and transferring 8mm, VHS, and digital video to the computer.

So, I hope this is a good place to post my prospective computer and ask for advice, compatibility issues, suggestions, improvements, concerns, etc.

Motherboard: ASUS "K8N Deluxe" NVIDIA nForce3 chipset motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512Kb L2 Cache 64 Bit Processor

Harddrive: Western Digital 250Gb 7200 RPM SATA, OEM only

Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800Pro, 128mb DDR, 256 bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

Capture Card: Canopus ADVC100

Memory: 1GB (2X512) Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 pin, PC3200OEM

DVD Burner: Plextor 12X DVD+/-RW, 8MB Buffer, SATA

Power Supply & Case: Antec solution series mid tower with 350w Power supply

Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi FE991SB-BK 19" Superbright Diamondtron CRT

Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech cordless comfort duo/black/105 keys

OS: Windows XP Pro w/ sp1 OEM


Thanks

[Cole]

Your hard drive is very large, but I would still be inclined to have a slave hard drive dedicated to video capture.

Hope that this is helpful.

[Culley]

This computer will be used exclusively for video capture... if I need a larger drive, that's doable...

My other computer will be used for word processing, gaming, etc.

[SLICK RICK]

Everything looks pretty good. But I would get an 80gb or a 120gb hard drive for you operating system and etc.... And use that Western Digital 250Gb 7200 RPM SATA hard drive for video only.

[Dr. DOS]

Is SATA built into MB ... if not you will need card to drive HD and Burner

[Culley]

Yeah... the motherboard takes two SATA and 4 IDE... I think I might go with two IDE harddrives (a 120 and a 250) instead, since one of the SATA connections will be used up by the burner.

[Soopafresh]

All looks good, except you might consider a case with a heftier power supply.

Here is a Lian Li knock off, aluminum, with slide-out mobo for $40

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-117-031&depa=1\

Pair it with one of the power supplies on this page

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=58&DEPA=0


I'd go at least 400W. Look for the quiet running ones, like this

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-159-023&DEPA=0



Notice the single 120mm fan. That means less RPMs for the same amount of air displacement, and much quieter running as a result.

Also, consider a quiet running CPU fan/heatsink- even something cheap like this will be quieter than the stock Athlon 64 cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-185-110&depa=0

You'll be happy you took the time to find components to make your system quieter. Makes a big difference when you don't have to hear the loud whir of fans.

[Culley]

Hey! Nice tip.

Hadn't even considered that, but... now the whir of this computer is gonna bother me! :P

I'll those components out... I was just now checking out Newegg power supplies and cases.

[rallynavvie]

This computer will be used exclusively for video capture... if I need a larger drive, that's doable...
My other computer will be used for word processing, gaming, etc.

I would switch that around and use the new computer for gaming and all the rest. All you'd need in your other system is another hard drive, a burner, and a clean 512MB of memory and you'd have a great video workstation. Games are going to take to that A64 a lot better anyway. Oh and ditch the expensive Plextor for a plain-jane Pioneer 108. You don't need a SATA interface on an optical drive anyway.

And just think of it this way: even if the other system does take a little bit longer to encode stuff with you can be playing games on the other one while you wait anyway. And you can tuck the loud one out of the way and KVM to it or put it in another room like I did with my old, loud video box

[Pop's]

Culley before who buy the Plextor PX-712SA drive make sure its compatable with the Mobo your buying. I have one and yes it works on most mobo's, but the dvd backups have a lot of pixilation on them if the mobo is not compatable. Did not work well on our ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and our ABIT AN7. Worked great on my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. I'm now useing it in my new mobo ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe its on Silicon SoftRaid 5 and I put the two Raptor drives on Nvidia Raid 0 and so far so good burning dvd's and cd's.

[Culley]

Thanks for the tip... I changed things up a bit... and decided to go with a Pioneer 108... little less cost. Allowed me to beef up on my harddrive storage.