Brainstorming a computer, consultants wanted

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neuralmop · #1 Post by **neuralmop** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:20 pm

Four weeks from now (two if I'm lucky) I'll have stockpiled enough money to build a computer in the $1,000 range. The sole reason I'm building it is to work on audio editing applications, such as Reason or Ignite, and also for filesharing purposes - hence a great sound card, big hard drive, and not too much attention focused on the video card.

Case/Motherboard:
($139.99)Wintergreen Socket A Barebone Kit / Socket A MotherBoards / 52x CDRW Drive

DVD Burner:
($59.99)Toshiba / 16x4x16x DVD+RW / 12x4x16xDVD-RW / 5x DVD+R DL / 48x24x48x CD-RW / OEM Black DVD Burner

Processor:
($139.99)AMD Athlon XP 3000+ / 512KB Cache / 333MHz FSB / Socket A / Barton Core / Processor

Main Hard Drive:
($79.99)Maxtor / DiamondMax Plus 9 / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / Ultra ATA-133 / IDE / OEM / Refurbished Hard Drive

Video Card:
($69.99)Chaintech GeForce FX 5200 / 256MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / DVI / TV Out / Video Card

Memory:
($89.98)(2)Ultra 512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz Memory

Sound:
($199.95)Audiophile 192 High Definition 4-in/4-out Audio Card with Digital I/O and MIDI

I expect to spend, liberally, $150 more finding cables, blank media, and sales tax.

Total: $929.88

I'm iffy about the video card - is it the right one? Do I need it? I'll be using my old monitor, either pirating Windows or using Gentoo for the Operating System, and I plan to run Reason and Ignite commonly. Any alterations you guys would make?

#2 Post by **palmboy5** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 5:07 pm

DVD burner is a rip, try this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=482
its what me and dragon use, and yes, it works perfectly, and its the sister product to the original favorite 3500 praised by everyone

Socket A is officially dead, whatever socket A CPUs and motherboards still avaliable are leftovers and prices will be high due to no new replacements will be coming in. for this i suggest considering a socket 754 build with a sempron processor. it will be cheaper. or at least the CPU definently. i mean holy shit $140 for a 2 year old second-best is a fucking rip.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1279
omg nice, lol ur mobo and CPU sum up to $280, that is also $280, with RAM, and from a glance, it seems to be the similar RAM model. just change ur RAM order to that same model, but.. yeah make it 1GB (make sure theyre the same model for best compatibility)

not comfortable with the Maxtor brand, or the fact that its $80 for a 200GB when i got a 200GB for $50 (on sale) from frys...

perhaps a Radeon 9000/9200 would be a better video card choice, leaning more towards the 9000 because it definently has linux support. the entire FX series is bad because nvidia was arrogant thinking they could change the market with their edited incompatible standards.
OR
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 56&CatId=0
it still has DX9 like the 5200 SORTA has, but its still not a gamer card at all, but if you ever need to see DX9 features, you have it. im pretty sure linux has drivers for that card?

from the changes i esimate you lowered the price by about $100, either keep that, or upgrade the specs, ur choice.

actually all the prices seem to be a little high, tigerdirect must be on drugs. try www.zipzoomfly.com and www.newegg.com

mannyace · #3 Post by **mannyace** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:11 pm

dude check out E-MU soundcards

404 is similar to what you have now for only $100 and 1212m is $200 but its better than what you have

i work with audio creation/editing/mixing and all that so i kno a lil bit... if u do decide to get that 1212m make sure its 1212m not 1212 (without m)

neuralmop · #4 Post by **neuralmop** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:04 pm

Thanks, I'll look deeper into that from work tomorrow. This whole idea came from me, who has no experience, so naturally I don't know anything about extinct processors and such. :b

Thanks for the replies, though.

neuralmop · #5 Post by **neuralmop** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:16 pm

actually all the prices seem to be a little high, tigerdirect must be on drugs. try www.zipzoomfly.com and www.newegg.com

I couldn't find a good starting point from those sites. The closest thing I found had a 64-bit processor compatability, and I'm not sure I'll need that. Would I? If so..

Barebones:
($114)ASUS Vintage-AE1 Socket 754 Barebone

DVD+RW:
($38)NEC Beige IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A BG - OEM

Processor:
($137)AMD Sempron 3300+ Palermo 1.6GHz FSB 128KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor

Main Hard Drive:
($79.99)Maxtor / DiamondMax Plus 9 / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / Ultra ATA-133 / IDE / OEM / Refurbished Hard Drive (couldn't find a hard drive for => the price)

Video:
($118)ATI 100-436011 Radeon 9200 128MB DDR PCI Video Card

Memory:
($36.75)pqi TURBO 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

Sound:
($199.99)EMU 1212M Soundcard

TOTAL: $643.73 plus tax, shipping, etc.

Wow, I definitely notice a difference. I think that in the future I could add on a 400GB hard drive for filesharing purposes. Any other alterations you guys would make?

#6 Post by **palmboy5** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:04 pm

yeah ok first of all, you miscalculated your total, and the links for the DVD burner and barebone are mixed.
secondly, consider this video card, its cheaper and faster:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102289
otherwise, did you notice the barebone has integrated graphics?

only 1 stick of 512MB RAM?

the barebone's 250W power supply worries me, i would say at LEAST 350W, 400+ recommended

Directive · #7 Post by **Directive** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:15 pm

Ya know, its not so much the wattage of the PS, its the Ampres. Most importantly the 12V rail. You could have a 500watt PS with only 16A on the 12 volt rail whitch is useless for todays CPU's and video cards. So a 350-400watt PS is good only if it has at least 20A on the 12V rail.

#8 Post by **palmboy5** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:23 pm

restin, you never know if that PSU is one with crazy high Amps for its wattage, rather be safe and go with this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129157
with this mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813135170

yes that means you screw the motherboard into the case. only piece of advice i can give you is, there are these special screws where the "nut" part is quite long, this lifts the board above teh case's metal so the board's little pins that stick out on the bottom do NOT touch the case and short out everything, killing about $700. those screws go between the motherboard and the case.

one thing im not sure of though is the ATX connector for the powersupply, it may be the version with the ATX connector being longer than the older ones. one of them somewhere should come with a converter if tahts the case, but maybe not.

2005 · #9 Post by **2005** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:58 pm

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... pNo=914142

Id sooner go with a processor like this one. I wouldnt go AMD unless you wanted to go 64bit, which I cant see why you would... because in then you would need the 64 bit edition of windows xp which is extra money. I would say just got with a 200-300$ P4 in this case.

neuralmop · #10 Post by **neuralmop** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:25 pm

yes that means you screw the motherboard into the case. only piece of advice i can give you is, there are these special screws where the "nut" part is quite long, this lifts the board above teh case's metal so the board's little pins that stick out on the bottom do NOT touch the case and short out everything, killing about $700. those screws go between the motherboard and the case.

Are you sure these are going to be easy to find? Do they come with the motherboard?

I would say just got with a 200-300$ P4 in this case.

Well, Intel is one of my political enemies, one that I enjoy boycotting. :twisted:

So, setup 3.0 is:

Case:
($99)Antec PERFORMANCE TX640B Black Steel ATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply - Retail

Motherboard:
($50.99)ECS K8M800-M2 Socket 754 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

DVD+RW:
($38)NEC Beige IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A BG - OEM

Processor:
($137)AMD Sempron 3300+ Palermo 1.6GHz FSB 128KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor

Main Hard Drive:
($79.99)Maxtor / DiamondMax Plus 9 / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / Ultra ATA-133 / IDE / OEM / Refurbished Hard Drive (couldn't find a hard drive for => the price)

Video:
($118)SAPPHIRE ATLANTIS RADEON 9600 Radeon 9600 128MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

Memory:
($36.75)pqi TURBO 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

Sound:
($199.99)EMU 1212M Soundcard

TOTAL: $796.47 plus tax, shipping, etc.

/me adds another thanks for you guys' assistance.

#11 Post by **palmboy5** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:16 pm

2005, wtf? that CPU costs like 2 times more for maybe 100-200MHz (Intel worth) better performance... who said you needed 64bit windows with a AMD64? they can run 32 too...
besides, semprons (as they are now) have 64bit turned off, for good, so who cares?

yeah, the case should come with all the screws, from my experience, either in a small ziplock plastic bag inside a small cardboard box, or just in a ziplock plastic bag ^^

it IS 1GB RAM total, right? that and i dont like maxtor (AND its refurbished??)... otherwise it looks good.

mannyace · #12 Post by **mannyace** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:22 pm

yo i should tell u that e-mu software is confusing once u start but ull get it, plus u can ask me for help, theres actually whole forums jus by e-mu users...

no matter how confusing it is, its still better than m-adiuo unless u have mac, but u dont so yea, good soundcard u chose, remember to make sure u get 1212M, it has the master grade convertors = high qual, and not a plain 1212

mannyace · #13 Post by **mannyace** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:16 am

jus realized that any e-mu software needs windows 2k/xp... no other os will work

and without the software (and i dont mean the drivers) you cant do anything at all

the software is like a virtual mixer, it will turn all ur inputs/outputs on or off and control everything

#14 Post by **palmboy5** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:54 am

uh ohhhhh lol and he will be running linux? hm :[

mannyace · #15 Post by **mannyace** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:10 am

yea that would be a waste of money gettin that soundcard... did he already order his stuff? lol