[KoolDrew]

A freind of mine wants to build a new PC. He is going to be uisng it for mostly just web-surfing talking on aim and some video editing. He can spend up to $1,000. He also is not going to be doing any gaming on this thing so a cheap Radeon 9000 would do. This is what I chose for him. Tell me any suggestions.

ANTEC Black Performance Series II SOHO File Server Tower ATX Case with 400W Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ 1.8GHz "Newcastle" Processor Retail - $127
Chaintech VNF3-250 NForce3 250 Motherboard Retail - $73
Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC3200 Retail - $74
Samsung 160GB 7200RPM Hard Drive - $91.69
NEC 16X Double Layer DVD+/-RW Drive Black - $68
ATI RADEON 9000 Video Card - $39.00
NEC 1.44MB Black Internal Floppy Drive - $9.99
LG Silver 17" LCD Monitor 16ms DVI/VGA Input - $289
Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 -OEM - $143

He will also not be overclocking. I was thinking he could get a larger CRT. Like a 19" which would be better. He also does not need speakers, keyboard, mouse and floppy drive as he is using the ones from his old PC.

[ajrettke]

hmm, I'd say for sure goto 1gb of RAM
Consider Intel since he's going to be video editing
Does he need XP pro? Home is cheaper and it seems like he isn't gonna need the features of pro
oh and you listed a floppy drive and said he has the old floppy

Looks good

[Daewood]

go with intel for video editing and i would invest in a bigger hard drive like 200 to 300 gigs for massive video storage and i would ditch the lcd and then get a crt cheaper and no response time issues for video and even gaming...

[X1ggy]

Looks good so far. My 2 cents - go with XP Home SP1 OEM and download SP2. He probably won't need the minimal extra functionality of Pro, and you'll save over $50 that way. If you're only looking at 512 MB RAM, get 2 sticks of 256 MB and make it dual channel. Same thing if you decide to go to 1 GB - use 2 sticks of 512 MB in dual channel. If you're getting an LCD that takes DVI, you may want to splurge a little to get a video card that outputs DVI. Newegg has a Sapphire ATI Radeon 9200 SE for $51.

X1g

[KoolDrew]

Could you guys give me any suggestions on an Intel based system? I know nothing about Intel as I am all AMD.

[Mr.Guvernment]

if not overcloking he could go with prescott the xtra l2 cache of 1mb should help but a northwood C chip would probably do as well.
i have an Asus P4P800 and an ABit AI7 and i love them both - since he wont be overclocking and just doing standard things - i dont think you need anything too fancy.

[Grov]

I thought the Presscots were the choice when overclocking and Northwood's were better and stock speeds compared to Presscots.

[Mr.Guvernment]

Prescoot' tend to have the heat issues so you think a sotkc prescott running @ 50C with stock cooling possibly more - throw in .1 volts and a 800mhz O/C and you are up above 60C maybe even 70C!


Northwoords overclock very well and it is often advised to get a NOrthwood over a pressy - but i am not sure about the new prescott stepping that is out - or coming out?- my 3.0C goes to 3.8 with stock all and a decent cooler - the advanatge of the prescott is the 1mb l2 cache and something else - but ic an recall what..lol


If i was not overclocking at all - iwould of gone for a prescott over the 3.0C.

[KoolDrew]

Someone else told me it would not really matter what I choose (INtel or AMD) because he is only going to be doing casual video editing. It is something he just does for fun so it won't really matter what I choose. And considering this will be used for mostly internet and AIM use and some casual video editing wouldn't a Athlon XP system be sufficient? If so can you guys give me some suggestions?

[Mr.Guvernment]

and XP will be fine - if by casual you mean maybe editing the odd 200mb video file and reencoding then yes and AMD will be fine - if he is doing larger video files and more encoding / decoding the an intel would be better.

[KoolDrew]

Since I think an A64 would be overkill this is what I came up with.

APEX case w/350w PSU
AMD Sempron 2600+
CHAINTECH 7VIF4 mobo
Kingmax 512MB PC-3200
Western Digital 80GB IDE hard drive
NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive
SAMSUNG 17" DynaFlat CRT Monitor
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/SP2

What do you guys think? His PC is only really going to be used for web browsing, talking on AIM and some minor video editing so i think this should eb sufficient.

[diggingforgold]

The current setup looks nice. But I would avoid the sempron line altogether and just stick with a barton. Also, if you have the funds, look into the A7N8X-VM/400. It comes with slightly better GF4MX onboard graphics, and is based on the NF2 chipset.

[KoolDrew]

Why do you say stick with a barton? For his needs wouldn't a Sempron perform well?

[Sentential]

Originally Posted by KoolDrew

Why do you say stick with a barton? For his needs wouldn't a Sempron perform well?

There are a number of reasons. First... you could get a mobile barton and an NF7-S. That way you can use a extremely low speed fan making it perfectally slient.

Also, semprons are more expensive than a mobile barton and peform much worse.

[KoolDrew]

A NF7-2 would not be necessary for this system. You have to remembver this system is going to be used mostly for web surfing and minor video editing. He is also not going to be doing any gaming so a good mobo with onboard video would be much better in his case and cheaper. Motherboards with an nForce 2 chipset will perform better, but not enough so to justify the cost for an office system which this is. A NF7-S2 costs like $60 but then you ahve to add the $30 you would need to spend on the video card. He is trying to save as much money as possible.

And since this is the case I believe a Sempron would be fine. Am I right?

So the system I picked out is good?

[LmpPns]

The overclocking BIOS on the NF7-S are not its' only traits. It is a very fast board stock, along with lots of bells and whistles, including the famed nForce2 MCP2-T southbridge which has nVidia's Soundstorm.

Socket A Semprons are trash. They are nothing but basically renamed Thoroughbreds that operate at 333MHz FSB (which some Thoroughbreds already did). A Barton will be cheaper, faster and better.

I would consider getting him a better power supply. For an extra 10 bucks or so, you can buy a seperate power supply and a case together. Buying a decent power supply in the first place will help assure that it wont blow up down the road and having a finger pointed at you.

The Samsung you have selected looks pretty good, but if you wanted to look into other options the Viewsonic 19" monitors (E90FB) are supposed to be great. They sell for $206.00 on Newegg right now.

[KoolDrew]

The NF7-s is not an option at all as it is not needed for an office system, but I will consider chaning the CPU to a Athlon XP 2400+. What do you think about that? I was also thinking about the case and was a bit skeptical about the PSu myself and I ussualy stick with PSu's from well known companies but if you read the many reviews on newegg on that case I did not see one complaining about the PSU. As a matter of fact many said they were a bit skeptical at first too about the PSu but it has worked flawlessley.

The Viewsonic 19" moitor you are refering to is great if playing games at 1600x1200. You ahve to remember this is an office system so the 17" I picked out would be great.

[KoolDrew]

I decided to stay with a sempron as this is an office PC. A Barton (ie the Mobile 2400) of slower FSB and slightly slower clock speed will outperform that Semprons of around the same price in most applications, however video encoding would rarely be one of them as it's based almost enitrely on bandwidth, optimization, and clock speed. For gaming and most general office/normal desktop use, though, the Barton should perform better. If this were a gaming PC, I wouldn't even consider a Sempron, but it's not much worse in other areas. Since this is the case IMO a sempron would be fine.

[LmpPns]

Why pay the same (or possible more) for less in a CPU? And as far as the 19" monitor.. if you can get more real estate for not a whole lot of extra expendature I would go for it, gaming or not. Having a bigger monitor is usually better.

Why is the NF7-S not an option? Like I said earlier, it is fast, has lots of bells and whistles and great sound quality coming from the Soundstorm. It isn't exclusively for gamers/overclockers. Compared with lesser boards it is faster in everything, not just gaming/encoding/what have you. The NF7-S isn't the only fast Socket A motherboard out there, but I am just having trouble understanding your logic.

As far as the PSU... if you would look around at Allied PSU reviews on newegg, you will get the same people saying the same, good things about Allied PSU's. We all know Allied is crap and most people aren't experienced enough to distinguish a good PSU from a bad PSU. Of course they will have a hard time figuring out what's going wrong when their system is rebooting randomly down the road.

At any rate, for the few extra bucks a good PSU is a worthwhile investment.