Music Organizer / General Use

[dirkpitt45]

Friend of mine runs a DJ company in town, and was just using some generic Dell pc as his office/home (same place; some people are lucky ) machine. He's starting to notice it slowing down as its a couple years old and there's a lot of old programs and such on it.

I tried to clean it up a bit using some programs (spybot, installed AVG to scan, and few others) helped a bit. So he came over to my place later and used mine for a bit, now he's sold on a quad core pc. I told him I could try to put something together for to consider instead of buying another pre-built. Not exactly sure on his budget but I'm guessing it'd be around $600-700 max.

Basically its just going to be a surfing, media, multitasking, and storage build. So no overclocking or gaming or anything really cpu intensive. He's also knows almost nothing about computers so it just has to run, and run well.

CPU/Processor
Newegg.ca - AMD Phenom 9650 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Just an older phenom, but it should be more than enough I'm thinking. The Q8200 is $50 more and I'm pretty sure the difference wouldn't be worth it.

MOBO
Newegg.ca - ASRock A780LM AM2+/AM2 AMD RS780L (760G) Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
Never really heard of AsRock before, but its got good reviews, simple, and inexpensive.

RAM
Newegg.ca - OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model OCZ2B800C44GK - Desktop Memory
Cheapest 4gb kit with a good name I could find.

PSU
Newegg.ca - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies
Should be more than enough; and Corsair FTW.

GPU
Newegg.ca - SAPPHIRE 100254HDMI Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Not really sure here, all I'd like it to do is run Aero and keep videos smooth.

Case
Newegg.ca - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
Thought this one might be good, cheaper, and it has a window which he said he'd like.

CD/DVD Burner
Newegg.ca - Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - CD / DVD Burners
Not much choice in these.

As for the Hard Drive/Drives I was thinking this Seagate 5900rpm drive for the majority of his songs. Newegg.ca - Seagate Barracuda LP ST31000520AS 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Then maybe this WD for the OS + programs and data. Newegg.ca - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

I guess we'll probably go with Vista for now as the OS.


Any improvements/suggestions/price cuts?

Thanks.

Edit: Ooo ends up at $760 without an OS, maybe just the one HDD then.

 

[Yami]

He'd be much better with a Phenom II than a Phenom - possibly also better off with just a triple- or dual-core (such as the Phenom II 720 or 550), if room in the budget is needed for adequate storage space.

ASRock is ASUS' budget brand - however if you get a Phenom II the board will need to support that (i.e. AM3 processors).

Decent RAM.

Good choice on PSU, will be plenty.

GPU is a little much actually, if he's not gonna be gaming at all then an HD4350 or 9500GT will be plenty.

Everything else is fine.

 

[dirkpitt45]

The old Phenoms really are that bad? Never used one before but I heard they were garbage compared to Intels quads. The 550 looks like it would be perfect though. The combo deals on newegg list it with DDR2 RAM, I was under the impression that AM3 boards needed DDR3, has newegg made a mistake or is it just a case of performance DDR2 vs DDR3?

Edit: All of the listen AM3 boards only support DDR3, so the DDR2 would be for the AM2+ and AM3 mobos then?

 

[Yami]

Some AM2+ chipsets support AM3 processors, for example 785G (I recently put together a build for my grandfather with PII 550 and an ASUS 785G).

 

[dirkpitt45]

Ah ok, now I get it. Anyways revised a bit and managed to shave off $50.

DVD/CD Drive
Newegg.ca - Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - CD / DVD Burners

Sata Cable
Newegg.ca - Nippon Labs Premium 18" (1.5 ft.) SATA II Cable with locking latch for SATA I and SATA II Hard Drive Model SATA-L0.5-R - Cables Needed an extra as the mobo only comes with two

Case
Newegg.ca - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases Same as before

HDDs
Newegg.ca - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives WD 640gb
Newegg.ca - Seagate Barracuda LP ST31000520AS 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives Seagate 1Tb

PSU
Newegg.ca - CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies Found a 400w corsair for $60 and with a $20 MIR

CPU/Ram
Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! Went with the non Black edition Callisto, not going to be overclocked at all so why pay an extra $15? Along with some OCZ DDR3.

Mobo/GPU
Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! Just a basic Gigabyte board, not doing anything that stressful soo. Along with a 4350, which should be enough to run videos and Aero nice and smooth.

Probably going to order on monday so just some last checks would be nice .