Seeking advice on new build

[Gellidius]

Found out this site about 1 month ago, looking for advice on building a new pc; since then, i've done lots of reading but still don't understand many things, and so, cannot make choices on a few things. As you can understand by now, i'm not very knowledgeable as regards the innards of a pc case, so i ask you people for any help you can give me; it will be most appreciated.

I intend to buy and build this thing in a few months (it will be assembled by someone else, as i tried my hand at it once, and ruined 2 new RAM sticks)

Here's what i've come up with so far for the new pc:

MoBo: Asus P5Q Deluxe
CPU: Intel E8400
PSU: Corsair HX520W
CPU fan: OCZ Vendetta 2 with a bolt through kit
HDD: 1 or 2 WD Caviar black - 640GB
Case: Lian-li PC-A17B


I would like to keep these i'm already using:

Radeon 7500
Optical: Plextor PX-760A

The Radeon, because it fulfills my needs, using a Sony 20" crt;
The Plextor, because i'm completely satisfied with it.
Those 2 are IDE, not SATA, will that work?



What i can't make up my mind about is what RAM i should get; only thing i know for sure is that it will be DDR2, 2GB total. I don't want it to be a bottleneck for the rest of the system either.
Also, i suppose the Corsair HX520W will be sufficient, right?

Will all those fit nicely in the case and work well together?


The PC will be used mainly for watching movies - Photoshop - Winrar - burning - encoding, and lots of ul's/dl's, and often some multitasking.
It will not be oc'd.

[Soultribunal]

My First question, is what OS will you be operating under?
XP will only recognize so much RAM where as Vista Can see a lot more, and is also more resource Intensive (from what I've heard, I'm an XP user after all).

As for the Video Card, that is only listed (according to AMD's Website) at 64meg of DDR. That could very well be a bottleneck on the system as far as I can see. Otherwise it is a well thought out build, good choices on parts and such.
But considering you can get decent nVidia or ATI cards that have many more features for not a lot of capital invested. I'd look into something like that.
HIS makes a good Line of 2600 series Cards that usually retail for under $100 (depending on what version) that would ensure you get the most out of what you build.

Best of luck,
Regards,
ST

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Soultribunal

My First question, is what OS will you be operating under?
XP will only recognize so much RAM where as Vista Can see a lot more, and is also more resource Intensive (from what I've heard, I'm an XP user after all).

As for the Video Card, that is only listed (according to AMD's Website) at 64meg of DDR. That could very well be a bottleneck on the system as far as I can see. Otherwise it is a well thought out build, good choices on parts and such.
But considering you can get decent nVidia or ATI cards that have many more features for not a lot of capital invested. I'd look into something like that.
HIS makes a good Line of 2600 series Cards that usually retail for under $100 (depending on what version) that would ensure you get the most out of what you build.

Best of luck,
Regards,
ST

A OS seeing amounts of ram has nothing to do with it being XP or Vista it has to do with being a 32bit or 64bit OS. For his day to day terms a 32bit OS is perfectly fine with 2gb of memory; their not asking a lot from their system but if they decide to go with Vista I do highly suggest 4gb.

That power supply will be MORE than ample for that system.

RAM? NCIX has 4gb G.Skill PC2-8000 no for $64 right now which is a great deal.

No point in IDE drives get the SATA ones.

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by enaberif

A OS seeing amounts of ram has nothing to do with it being XP or Vista it has to do with being a 32bit or 64bit OS. For his day to day terms a 32bit OS is perfectly fine with 2gb of memory; their not asking a lot from their system but if they decide to go with Vista I do highly suggest 4gb.

That power supply will be MORE than ample for that system.

RAM? NCIX has 4gb G.Skill PC2-8000 no for $64 right now which is a great deal.

No point in IDE drives get the SATA ones.

Sorry Ena, I type faster sometimes than I think, wouldn't be the first time.
That was what I was trying to say, along with Vista being more resource Intensive!

Thanks for correcting my error,

ST

[Gellidius]

I will be using XP-Pro 32bits

I sure would like some recommendations on 2GB RAM: high quality/reasonable prices (not the cheap unreliable ones). I have read very good things about Corsair and Mushkin, but there are so many models, or specs.

Enaberif says: "no point in IDE drives get the SATA ones";
do you mean: get a new optical drive and a new video card, as those i have now won't work because the new build will have SATA?
As for the HDD's, i WILL get new WD Caviar black (SATA).

[frontier204]

IIRC the Radeon 7500 is a VERY VERY old card... I'm pretty sure it is not capable of offloading the load of playing video from the CPU. A low end DirectX10 capable GPU (or even integrated graphics) will help keep CPU loads low while watching movies. Also if you are running Vista, you will NOT get the Aero interface because of the old GPU. Look for an nVidia 8xxx or higher, or ATI 2xxx or higher chip; I can't recommend any Intel GMA because every time I see a computer with one, the IGP is the bottleneck :P

RAM
Since you are not overclocking, you can choose any RAM at that's DDR2 667 (PC2-5400) coming from a decent brand like Kingston or OCZ. I have no real brand preference so I just wait for sale prices
I say to use at least DDR2-667 because the Intel E8400 runs a 333Mhz bus which is the same as the clock speed that DDR2-667 runs at. I myself am using cheapo RAM (see my sig) and I know for sure that my CPU will bottleneck me long before the RAM does.

POWER SUPPLY
You didn't mention a high-end graphics card or anything truely power-hungry, the 520W is probably overkill. My friend runs a similar system in terms of power requirements off an Antec Earthwatts 370W power supply.

Good luck!

[Squeetard]

get a Q6600 for what you are doing.

[geokilla]

You may want to get a motherboard with integrated graphics if you're not gaming. However, a GPU should be able to speed up some of the tasks that you're doing, depending on what programs you use of course.

Get the Intel Q6600. It'll be better than your E8400 for what you're doing.

Any decent 4GB RAM kit will do.

Alas, don't forget to use the price match feature to get the lowest prices.

[Gellidius]

Thanks all for the advice, i will take it all into account; and i learned something in the process too. :-)