Advice on this setup?

zane · Rated PG Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 3

I'm hoping that some of the experts out there can give me some advice about the following setup. I don't know very much about computers, so I've spent the last couple of months familiarizing myself with the terminology. I don't have a computer at all right now, so I need to buy all the necessary components (although I won't be assembling it myself). I'm not into gaming, but I am interested in using the computer to play/create music. Mostly it will be used for accessing the Internet and such. I know that I could easily spend a lot less, but I thought I would spend a little extra now (such as getting a 64-bit processor) so I won't need to upgrade for a while. I'm more interested in getting a decent system than in saving a few bucks here or there. Any suggestions would be appreciated..thanks..zane.
(all prices are Cdn.)

MOBO: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (socket 939) - $220
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz - $240
RAM: Corsair TWINX XMS3200 DDR400 2x512 MB 184-pin DIMM - $272
VIDEO CARD: Asus EN5900/TVD GeForce PCX5900 128MB - $200
SOUND CARD: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum - $208
HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Caviar SATA 200GB 7200 8MB Buffer (OEM) - $136
DVD DRIVE: Plextor PX-716-A - $154
FLOPPY DRIVE: Panasonic 1.44MB - $16
POWER SUPPLY: Antec TruePower True480 480W ATX 12v - $111
MONITOR: Viewsonic VP211b LCD Pro Series 21.3" - $1190
KEYBOARD & MOUSE: Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700 w/ rechargeable opt. mouse - $83
SPEAKERS: Logitech Z-5300 5.1 280W - $180
PRINTER: haven't decided yet

IceNine · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:02:02 Post Subject:

For the other regulars, I googled the DVD Drive and it is a 16x burner.

LaTech · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:00:38 Post Subject:

Single layer or dual layer? For that price, I hope it's dual!

As for the baord, I've read/heard good things about it...good choice.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:18:47 Post Subject:

I would suggest changing that WD hard drive for a Seagate one. Seagate OEM's still come with a 5yr warranty.

dadx2mj · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:25:00 Post Subject:

Even if that DVD burner is dual layer that is a lot for one. I have several dual layer DVD burners for under $60

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:29:02 Post Subject:

LaTech · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:29:26 Post Subject:

I know, that was really my point. I got my dual layer for $75 several months ago...

BeerCheeze · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:31:09 Post Subject:

The Plextor's are very high quality drives. If your not planning an upgrade anytime soon, and you just want something 100% rock solid.. then the Plextor's are the way to go if you're willing to plunk down the extra $$$$

IceNine · Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:55:56 Post Subject:

I got a 16x Dual-layer Toshiba for $99. I paid extra for the name and I have to say it's the best drive I've ever purchased.

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

I'm annoyed that the newbie computer users and computer illiterate people have a better system for 'internet and playing music' than my 4 year old gaming system. Bang Head

You do realize, Zane, that your system is overpowered for your intended use, right? You could easily get by with a POS Smell (Dell) computer for less than half the cost for your intended purposes. In fact, for internet and music, you may as well get a system designed for use in your living room. I understand that EC has something like that. Those units use your normal TV to display web pages and will be very effective as a multimedia console with your existing surround sound. You seem to be pricing out a lot of equipment that seems to be above and beyond your stated requirements. If you move in to gaming later on, and who won't, you'll likely want to upgrade this system a bit more at that time which means that you're going to waste cash now on a system that's OK for gaming, but will frustrate you in 6-8 months.

Allow me to explain. As a gaming rig, this is an OK system, good for playing starcraft, Halo, etc. Almost all the games that are out now with a few notable exceptions (Doom3 may be dodgy). In 6-8 months, and for the holiday season, we'll see new games with higher requirements and needing better video cards. The card you've chosen, the 5900, uses an onboard chip to interface from an AGP reference design to the pci express, not even taking advantage of the higher throughput or lane technology really and yet you've specced this card out with a motherboard for SLI capability. That's like buying a ferrari and putting a lawn mower engine in it with enough room to put ANOTHER lawn mower engine in it. WTF

Sure, it'll work, and later on you can rip out the card in favor of something more powerful, but now you've spent $200 on a card that you're tossing. Now, given the fact that you're spending over three grand on a system for 'internet and music' and putting such criminal parts in I don't think that's right. On top of that, you've chosen a 2.0Ghz CPU. Why not shoot yourself in the foot too? Present processors are up to almost 4 Ghz and you're buying 18 month old tech to fit in to this choice motherboard. I think that should be outlawed. It's offensive to the motherboard makers, all of them. And why are we getting a 200 gig hard drive? On my own personal 4 year old system, I have a whopping 40 gig of storage and only half filled. You must be planning on a lot of music (my collection, although mediocre, is only 32 gigs on my network server). I guess I could see a 200 in a primary system, but you might consider the recommendation of a seagate sata for less cash and get 2 of them for raid0+1 because you don't want your primary system to have a hard drive failure.

I think you need to look at other options.

Why not a laptop? I can recommend IBM's T42 it's 2/3rds of the cost that you've specced out and should serve nicely for your requirements. It even has wireless lan capability and bluetooth so you can hook up to a broadband connection when you get it and if you have a bluetooth phone, mouse, keyboard, etc, you can connect to it. And it's portable so you can take it with you. Imagine browsing the internet, playing your music, and watching the hotties at the mall using the wireless connection from Starbucks.

Also, who's building your system? If it's some "computer guy" neighbour, be sure to ask for a resume; one of those arseholes fixed my mom's computer less than 24 hours after I'd spent 3 hours on the phone reinstalling windows (good ol' ren win.com so you needn't format) by using fdisk. FDISK. TO FIX A DRIVER. My poor mom lost all her quicken data for 3 years, turbotax, pac-man (the only game she plays), photos, etc. She was pissed. That killed her friendship with that guy real quick. So, before you let some random dude build you a system, get some credentials and references. And family friends don't count; I just read a report about a guy that "upgraded" his girlfriend's mom's PC by removing half the ram, removing the agp video for a PCI (non-3d) card, exchanging the lan card for a rockwell modem and then installing windows 98a. The dude broke up with said girlfriend a month later and vanished. Said woman is now wondering why her computer is so slow.

So... Yeah. Make sure you get dual layer CDR technology. Myself, I'm going to get a lightscribe from newegg when I upgrade especially since they're <$90.

Incidentally, did you try using www.pricewatch.com for prices or anything? I've found that, generally, I can build a machine for around a grand that's usually pretty close to the bleeding edge using that site.

What sort of case are you going to use?