First time builder - please help

[skylane]

I need a computer that will be used almost exclusively for forensic imaging of hard drives through Firewire connections using Windows tools.

I am considering building a high end machine as follows:

Case - Antec Super LANBoy Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
Motherboard - Abit AA8-DuraMAX Motherboard (supports 3 Firewire 800 ports)
Processor - Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz
Power Supply - Antec 480 watt 120mm fan ATX 12V v2.0 power supply Active PFC
Model NeoPower
RAM - 2 Kingston 1GB 533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC 4-4-4 DIMM and 2 Kingston 512 MB
533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC 4-4-4 DIMM
Hard Drive - one of the many I have lying around
DVD Burner - Sony 16X DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive

Please don't bother bashing Microsoft in your reply - these are the tools I need.

Any comments? Am I overlooking anything? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[hercules_upw]

You are going to need a video card for this "high end machine".

That motherboard needs a PCI-Express video card.

It is my opinion that 3+ Gigs of RAM is overkill. 1 gig should be plenty unless you're running some kind of CAD program.

 

[baronvongogo]

He`s only using it for forensic imaging he wont need a great graphics card, and 3 gig of RAM might be overkill but it`ll certainly help with any imaging he does and speed up the process. It sounds good to me and choosing a pentium is also a wise move with its hyper threading that pc will be great for what you need it for.

 

[hercules_upw]

perhaps I misunderstood his purpose.

he/she states it is for "forensic imaging of hard drives". I was thinking that the user would be trying to examine a hard drive; not actual an actual imaging process.

 

[baronvongogo]

im also confused lol but it sounds like a processor and memory hungry activity im sure what they have chosen fits those needs.

 

[skylane]

Thanks for the replies. The machine will be used for some analysis, but the same constraints apply - lots of I/O, heavy CPU and memory intensive work. I realize I'll need a video board - just planning on using some old board and an old 17" CRT I have lying around.

I saw a major speed increase when I went from 512 to 1 GB RAM on the imaging machine I'm using now. I realize there will probably be diminishing returns, but any speed increase will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[matthab]

Case - Antec Super LANBoy Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
Motherboard - Abit AA8-DuraMAX Motherboard (supports 3 Firewire 800 ports)
Processor - Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz
Power Supply - Antec 480 watt 120mm fan ATX 12V v2.0 power supply Active PFC
Model NeoPower
RAM - 1gb corsair (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145480)

Hard Drive - one of the many I have lying around
DVD Burner - Sony 16X DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive

This is what i came up with!!!

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Just go with 2 gigs of ram because your config with 3 gig may have problems running in dual channel.

Pick up a cheap PCI-E card like a 6200 to go with your PC too.