My mother's computer.

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oldschool

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My mother told me that she wants me to build her a computer. All she wants/needs is the tower and I have to keep it as near to $2000USD as I can.(That's after tax. Tax is 8.6% in washington state.)


So I came up with the following list of parts. All parts are bought from www.infotechnow.com, unless otherwise noted. Infotech is a computer store about a hour away from my house. I will be driving and picking up the parts from infotech.

Here is the list of parts.

Mother Board:
Gigabyte K8VNXP, Athlon 64
$172.99

Video Card
MSI GeForce FX5700-LE 256M (Retail)
$146.99

Power Supply
Fortron ATX 530W
$67.99

Modem
Internal V9.2/V.90 PCI Modem
$7.99

Ram(3 Gigs)
PDP SYSTEMS DDR Memory 184-Pin 1GB PC-3200, Model PSD1G400 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-030&depa=0
$163.00
$163.00
$163.00

Hard Drives
Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA WD2500JD (OEM)
$154.99
Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA WD2500JD (OEM)
$154.99

CPU
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Retail)
$199.99

PCI Slot Fan
AOC System Blower (Ball Bearing)
$9.99

Case Fans
Sunbeam Crystal LED Fan Red
$9.99
Sunbeam Crystal LED Fan Red
$9.99

DVDRW
Sony 16X DVD +-RW Recordable Drive Black (OEM)
$89.99

CDRW/DVD(read only on the DVD)
Sony CRX320E 52x24x52x16 CDRW+DVD Combo Black
$49.99

Case:
Scorpio 868W Blue or Black
$65.99

Standard cold cathode Light kit w/dual inverter
$13.99

Access Bulk Screw Pack
$4.99

Anti-Static Wrist Strap
$4.99

http://www.compuplus.com/insidepage.php3?id=1003409&refer=pricewatch.com
CANOPUS ADVC-100 ADVANCED DIGITAL VIDEO CONVERTER -
$237.95

Molex Y-Splitter, Male to 2 Female
$1.99
Molex Y-Splitter, Male to 2 Female
$1.99
Molex Y-Splitter, Male to 2 Female
$1.99

SATA Power to Molex Adapter, Single
$4.99
SATA Power to Molex Adapter, Single
$4.99

$1908.74 Before Tax
$2072.89 After Tax


As you can see I have two 250GB sata drives.
I plan on useing them as a raid 0.
Then after making the raid I plan on partitioning the raid drive
and making a 40 gig partition for the OS and partitioning the rest
as one big drive for videos and whatnot.

One quetion I have is. I understand that SATA has it's own power
plug and does not use a 4 pin power plug.
Will this convert the 4 pin to the SATA?:
http://www.infotechnow.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=2295

Does anyone see anything wrong with this system?

And before someone asks. Yes this is for my mother. And yes
she will not only be useing it, but she will be useing it for
all kinds of video work.

Please write me back and I will check up soon.
 
Photo Editing.(Digital Rebel)
Converting Audio Video (VHS/Cable) to video and then maybe to DVD.
DV Camcorder that she would then edit and play around with cool video software and then convert to ether AVI or DVD.
Maybe 3d cad some day.
 
alright, first of all you are getting a ton of stuff you dont need, where as one of the most important parts needed for anything to do with video is a good video card. $2000 is a LOT to play with nowadays, compared back to when it would get you a 333meg processor and "oh my gosh, A DVD DRIVE!" :p. I would recommend cutting some corners on ram, HD, and MB and go for a much better video card (ex: 6800 gt). If im not mistaken, 3 gigs of ram is never really going to be needed more than a video card.
good luck!
 
Hum, over kill..? I was kinda going for that. It is alot of ram but... GOOD! As far as hard drive space, It seems like alot, but it's not alot when it comes to ripping a 3 hour vhs with a near losses codec, editing it to your likeing and then converting to divx or dvd. Or recording hours on your camcoder in dv format, ripping that toyour hard drive and editing it to your liking. Or ripping dvd's that you legaly own to your hard drive and editing out parts that you don't like or just leaving it on your hard drive and useing the tv out on your video card to watch it that way.

As far as a better video card, I don't think she will ever use it. She thinks she might get into cad, but I don't think it's likely. She'll play video games, but she's not playing doom 3. She's more likely to play "PACMAN 3D 3001!". I just made that up, but you get the idea.
 
You do not need a high end video card for editing photos and videos. Nothing is being rendered, which is the only advantage of a high end card. Some photo effects are rendered, but only on the CPU and yes lots of RAM would be ideal for this. The motherboard you are getting is socket 754, so I would recommend dropping the RAM to 2 gigs and get a socket 939 board with an Athlon 64 3500+. You will get better performance this way at the CPU is much faster, plus your RAM can be run in dual channel mode, which will give you a lot of extra speed. Other than that, I think you are good to go my friend
 
ok my bad, thanks for fixin me :)

but he could easily cut down the cost a bit. I mean if your mom says $2000 budget, it really doesnt HAVE to cost 2000 lol.
 
Thank you FuriousYellow. So you think running the 2 gigs at dual channel mode would be faster then 3 gigs? Also is the dual channel a setting in bios or does it auto turn on?

I will look into the price change of socket 939 3500+.

Thankyou beedubaya again for you input.
 
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