These are some very good advice. I'm glad to find some reasonable replies here and it's a refreshing change from
Tilted Politics. Thank you. Now, I use the threaded view so it would make sense for me to reply to each person, individually, but I don't think this is a popular view so I will lump my responses in one post...
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Originally Posted by skaven
Another suggestion (though ones that's probably more expensive than what you've listed), is to go with an AMD Athlon64 solution. Not only do the Athlon64 processors leave most Intel processors behind, you won't have to worry about upgrading your CPU/motherboard when the 64-bit edition of Windows comes out. Just load it up and you're good to go. Since Intel's 64-bit implementation is actually copied from AMD's, chances are Intel's will actually be buggier than AMD's in the new 64-bit apps.
The one caveat to this suggestion is if you're planning on using this rig to do a lot of video encoding (the DVD recorder might indicate this). In that case, the P4's simply put the Athlon in the dust. This is mostly due to most encoders supporting the P4's SSE-2 extensions, which the Athlon-XP does not have. Also, the HT helps a lot if you're encoding in the background and don't want your foreground apps lagging.
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Yeah, I'm only going with Intel because that's the "tried and true" where I come from and many people have reported phantom problems with AMD. You have me somewhat worried about the new 64 bit age that's a little closer than I had thought but I'm sure it's no big deal. I'm usually the last to upgrade their OS (I'm using Win2000 as I type) and the N64 used a 64 bit processor... A larger integer is rarely a big deal. I
do "plan" to do video editing and DVD authoring but I plan to do a lot of things... that never seem to happen, so I wouldn't take this claim too seriously.
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Originally Posted by skaven
As for the chassis, the best suggestion I can make is to go with something time-tested and sure to deliver. I got myself a <a href="http://www.antec-inc.com/Search.bok?category=Enclosures"> PlusView 1000 AMG</a> enclosure, and married it with an Antec Tru380 380W power suply. The chassis is built like a tank, and has plenty of space inside for all your peripherals. As far as power supplies, the only ones I trust are from Antec. I have an Atec Tru380 PSU in my system, and it has delivered clean, reliable power for several years now.
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It does look like everything the P160 is except not aluminum but (and, as a
man, I'm embarrrassed to say this) it really is ugly. This is one of those situations where I have to honestly ask myself how much money is fashion worth to me. Do I just get something that works or do I get something that also pleases me, aesthetically. I don't like the weird intake vents. They look like the gills of a shark and kind of disturb me. I like really plain looking cases. Something that sits on the floor and is easily forgotten. The P160 isn't exactly this but it has so many other nice features and no creepy gills. As I said, I'm really open to suggestions on this!
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Originally Posted by skaven
I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for as far as monitoring power usage, but most (if not all) motherboards have onboard sensors to report the current voltages on the board. I'm not really sure what the benefit of knowing how many watts of power you're using would be, aside from the "bells and whistles" factor.
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I'm a bit of an environmentalist, so I don't like using more power than I have to. I'd like to know how much power my computer is using and how much less energy it uses when the hard drives power down or when the processor sleeps, and whatnot. It's also a pretty geeky bell or whistle.
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Originally Posted by skaven
Well that's a lot to digest...no matter what you decide on building, just make sure you have fun with it!!
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I like this attitude! In fact, this is the very first computer I'm putting together, myself! Thanks for the sentiment...
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Originally Posted by Lasereth
I'd save money and buy an "old fashioned" AGP/PCI mobo instead of the LGA 775. That much for a motherboard is insane. PCI-E isn't useful yet and LGA requires DDR2 memory on most boards.
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But PCI-E
will be useful soon, won't it? I'm kind of hoping this computer will last me the next four years, considering this dual P3 800MHz system has lasted me about that long and it still works fine! My reasons for getting a new computer are subtle but numerous, sort of like
Adobe's reasons for dropping
Mac support for
Premiere Pro.
Also, what's wrong with DDR2? Is it no better than DDR? I really think the performance bottle neck on computers these days is the RAM. I mean, the fact that my P4 2GHz system at work is no more responsive than my P3 800MHz system at home is really dumb...
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Originally Posted by Lasereth
The processor is fine, but I'd get a Socket 478 version and possibly the 3.4 GHz Northwood. That processor won't need upgrading for years.
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If that's true, then surely a 3.0GHz system won't need upgrading for about as long, right? I mean, it's only 13% difference. Besides, you know what I think of processor speed...
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Originally Posted by Lasereth
What's the deal with the shitcan videocard!? If you're gonna get 1 GB of RAM and a super fast processor, the only obvious thing to do is to get a blazing fast videocard (unless you're not gonna play videogames at all). If you are gonna play games, I'll recommend some videocards later!
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It's funny you should ask, because
skaven had asked:
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Originally Posted by skaven
Finally, are you planning on doing any gaming with this rig? Remember that most games depend more on a good video card than they do a fast processor.
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In fact, I don't plan to do any gaming on my computer, at all. I'm more likely to play
Gish than I am something like
Half Life 2. I was surprised that the cheapest PCI-E video card I could find had TV/out. Maybe I can watch my anime fansubs on my TV!