from nz: building a new athlon64 3200+ rig

[alsyed]

as i'm upgrading piecewise, from my old workhorse in my sig, i have parts in that which i will be using in the new build.... my main thing i do is do video editing/encoding and authoring, and i know that while intel is supposed to be the leader in this video work, i'm not so worried about saving a few seconds on small encodes, and 10 minutes on overnight encodes... authoring is basically hard disk intensive, and plus the athlon64 runs cooler, following from this, much more quiet.

I play a few older games, need for speed kinda guy, i suppose one day i'll get the bug for those doom3 type of games... i used to really like doom2 and duke nukem3d hehehe so the graphics card does not need to the be the best, but having video in functionality and dual monitor and video out is virtually a must.


i'm in NZ so i'll be buying obviously with NZ dollars... our dollar currently buys US$0.70 so the prices will be a lot different, so here goes..


case:
Antec P-160WF $377
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=155273

cpu:
athlon64 3200+ s939 venice core (might overclock it since it seems to overclock wonderfully well with the right mobo) $340
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=339175

mobo:
DFI LANPARTY NF4 Ultra-D $278
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=339324

psu:
i'm keeping my current one
Enermax EG425P-VE SFMA, Dual Fan, 420W ATX PSU
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=144941

hdd:
keep my 160GB sata hdd for projects, i'm thinking of a WD raptor 74GB for the boot drive and temp files for video and authoring

ram:
i need some advice here... i wanna get this first to put in my current system (mobo is ECS L7VTA and the manual says i can install ddr400 in it but only 2 sticks, whereas Sisoft sandra says i can have maximum 768MB), i want 2 x 512MB sticks, pref a good brand name, i'm thinking of corsair this one:

corsair value select
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=341536

or seems to be better ...
Corsair TwinX Dual Channel Memory Kit, XMS3200C2
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=341541

graphics card:
suggestions please

as for optical drives, i'll just make do with what i got now, and i'll find a nice keyboard for it...


thanks everyone

 

[SHAWN]

Graphics card - Depends on your budget but guess what I am going to recommend......



6600GT

 

[alsyed]

Graphics card - Depends on your budget but guess what I am going to recommend......



6600GT

doing a search on that one, with video in functionality i come up with this one what do you reckon? this price is around the budget mark

Calibre A650 Video Card, GeForce 6600 GT
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=343262

 

[SHAWN]

Go with these brands:

Evga, Gigabyte, MSI, BFG, Leadtek.

 

[alsyed]

thanks mate

pity none of those brands come up with video in functionality, at least not on this ascent website, though to be honest, the chip is still the same no?

 

[SHAWN]

Chip is yes, but depending on the maker is how dependable the card lasts and performs

 

[alsyed]

thanks, but in all honesty, i would be thinking that most of the time, this card will be under utilised in dvd work. My current card, hasn't given me any trouble so far, and i have no idea what the brand is lol!

 

[SHAWN]

To each his own.

 

[alsyed]

any more graphics card and ram suggestions?

 

[Flanker2]

Are you sure you want to spend that much on a case?

RAM is fine.

If the Calibre 6600GT is the only one you can get, then go with it. All manufacturers come out with atleast some realiable cards.