A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build

blotsome · 09-23-2008, 07:25 PM

I'm working on a computer build. I haven't built myself a computer in 4 years. Sorry for the long back story, I have 5 questions below. But first, let me start with explaining my computer habits:

1) I mainly surf the internet.

2) Next, I watch various media, mostly DivX/XviD of TV shows (.avi, .mkv), but I also have a legit DVD collection. No Blu-Ray yet, but I have watched HD content on the internet (or downloaded). Sound (specifically 5.1 surround sound) is important to me. Listening to my extensive music collection is also part of this.

3) Lastly, I occasionally do graphic design work (photo editing, illustration, page layout). However, I am relatively satisfied with the speed and ability to work on large files with my current set up, and because I am only freelance, not professional, I believe any processor upgrade will be sufficient (as opposed to getting a high end set up).

4) I do not game. Over the past decade, I've played Oblivion, KotoR, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Theif 3, Black and White, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment, but I haven't finished any of those games, and I haven't played any game in literally 2 years. The only reason I mention this is there is a slight chance I may casually game sometime in the future, but it isn't a high priority at all.

5) Having a disk space is important to me. I have basically run out of disk space on all of my current drives, so every couple days I need to burn archive DVDs to clear up space. Therefore, currently, burning data DVDs is another task my computer regularly does. I don't have a TV or stand alone DVD player, so the ability to burn disks that a DVD player can read is not that important to me.

6) Because I use my PC for media, having a quiet PC is important to me. My PC now is fairly quiet, there is some audible fan noise, but it is mainly more of a low windy noise, not any whir, buzz or hums.

The last computer I built was an Athlon based osx86 hackintosh for my girlfriend last year. The last computer I built for myself was a:
Athlon 64 3000+
Asus K8V-SE Deluxe
1 GB OCZ PC3200 DDR
XFX|GF 6800 128 MB
NEC ND-3520A
LITEON Combo DVD reader/CD burner
200GB 7200 seagate
160GB 7200 WD
250GB 7200 WD
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers
Antec SLK3700-BQE
Dell 2001FP

The main parts of that computer were bought in September of 2004, with a few upgrades here and there. Also worth noting, I switched out the stock coolers on the processor and graphics card (for the purpose of producing a quieter PC). The biggest problem with that build was the motherboard. With the lack of PCI-Express and the 754 socket, major upgrading has been quite limited.

Here is what is in my newegg shopping cart so far:

ASUS M3A78-EM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ BE
GeIL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 GX24GB8500C5UDC
WD Green WD10EACS 1TB
Antec Solo
CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX

I intend to run Windows XP SP2 (32bit), but if I have this PC for a while, which I plan on doing, upgrading to Vista may be an option I'd want to leave open. I'd like to spend under $800, not including monitor, but I have a larger budget if necessary. Low heat, quiet PC, and low power consumption are more appealing to me than top of the line, bleeding edge technology (or gaming).

Questions:

1) I feel like I still have a pretty good audio card, the M-Audio 7.1 revolution, and paired with the Klipsch 5.1 speakers, I've been quite happy. Is this the case? Is the m-audio card better than the onboard audio of the M3A78-EM? or should I not bother installing the m-audio, and instead just use the onboard audio with my speakers?

2) I really have no idea what CD/DVD burner to get. I feel like since I have no blu-ray media right now, I can wait to purchase a blu-ray drive because prices will surely come down (if I ever do start collecting blu-ray, that is). I bought the NEC DVD burner at the time because it seemed to be the best recommended, but before that I was brand loyal to Lite-on. Seems like Lite-On and Pioneer have good models now a-days, but I really just needs some advice here. Keep in mind I almost exclusively burn data DVDs (occassionally mix audio CDs or ISOs), and I exclusively have been purchasing Taiyo Yuden blank media. I have half a dozen larger than 4GB files sitting on my old computer that I wish I could burn, but other than that, I don't really have a need for dual layer burning.

2.1) Speaking of CD/DVD drives, I have some old disks that I burned to some cheap media (probably the discount office max junk). Neither of my current drives can read these disks anymore (or they can read them for a few minutes, and then get an error message). However, my friend with an old dell laptop can watch those burned files fine. Is there a recommended drive that can read poorly burned disks, or poor media? It would be nice if it was also a good burner itself, but I don't mind buying two drives.

3) Any monitor recommendations? My current monitor, the Dell 2001FP has some pretty shotty backlight bleeding, and doesn't get dark enough when watching with the lights off. I want something bigger because I mostly watch TV/movies from 8-10 ft away. I also do some photo editing and design work (even some print work) so having good color and desktop real estate would be nice. I've been strongly leaning towards the Dell 3007WFP-HC, but a 24 inch Dell could be nice (and cheaper). I've even considered a 37" LVM-37W3SE westinghouse because the price right now is $600, but I'm worried that the display will be too pixelated for everyday web surfing and reading (but it might be great to watch movies and TV on a display that large!). Any other options? advice?

4) which processor? I have the 5400+ black edition in my shopping cart, but I had been considering the lower wattage 4850e. I prefer AMD, and feel the 780g chipset would work nice for a half-way HTPC such as mine, but I'd be open to other suggestions (processor or motherboard)

4.1) What heatsink/fan would you recommend I get to replace the stock AMD fan for the purposes of a quiet PC?

5) I have a 1TB hard drive in my shopping cart. I said having space is important, and I figure once that disk is almost full (which may take years), I can alway add another one, and by then prices will have gone down. However, I was considering getting a 2nd, smaller hard drive to hold the OS and applications. Is it worth having 2 hard drives, one for data storage and the other for applications/OS? if so, what should I get, I know every used to talk about the raptors, but I'm not sure what's new.

Thanks for sticking around this far. General comments and advice would also be welcomed. And if I left anything out (hopefully not), I'd be glad to answer questions. Thanks!

-b.

dai · 09-24-2008, 02:56 AM

your psu will start at 550w and up depending on the video card cpu combination

blotsome · 09-24-2008, 07:50 AM

I've been doing a little reading of the forum's recent posts. Looks like for 1) any stand alone audio card should be better than the onboard audio, so I'll keep the m-audio. Also seems like I don't need the 4MB of memory as windows XP can only use 3+ or so (and perhaps I don't need 1066?)? Also seems like the current raptors aren't really worth it, but should I still get a 2nd drive for the OS? any recommendations? As for the power supply, I was planning on using the motherboard's onboard video, and I'm focusing in on a low wattage CPU 45W or 65W max. Do I really need the larger power supply? Thanks for the reply!

dai · 09-24-2008, 07:57 AM

2g ram is usually ample for xp
a seperate sound card i find the best option
i prefer more than 1 hd and keep my program ect. seperate as it makes a reformat less of a hastle
i usually use wd drives as that is what my supplier has the best prices on
i would not drop below a quality 550w it will pay off in the long run and there is usually only a few dollars difference
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...corsair%2b550w

blotsome · 09-24-2008, 05:30 PM

Good advice. Thanks a lot. Right now I've updated my cart to add a WD Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320G 7200 drive for the OS/programs, and switched out the 4GB of RAM for OCZ Platinum OCZ2N10662GK. As for the power supply, I think I'll go with the SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT 550W. The Corsair 550vx apparently is quite different from the 450vx (which has seasonic interiors, but not the 550vx).

Any opinions on the CPU choice? Or recommendations for DVD drives?

Thanks again.

dai · 09-24-2008, 09:18 PM

dvd drives i prefer liteon,pioneer
don't know enough about amd to recommend a cpu
the black editions seem the popular choice if your m/b will run it
seasonic is top choice

yodamage · 09-25-2008, 11:16 AM

ok well on the processors i agree with dai the liteon is excelent, never heard of any problems with them. make shure you keep 4 gb of ram, trust me it helps (at minimum 3gb but 4 is really handy). also i dont really have an amd choice but there is really no reason to go top of the line if your not gamming and you dont model for a living, it helps with render time to have a better cpu but its not that crucial if its just a hobbie.

yodamage · 09-25-2008, 11:17 AM

srry ment dvd drives in the beggining not processors. lol

Tumbleweed36 · 09-25-2008, 03:36 PM

Just a comment. I never use anything but Seasonic in my personal builds anymore. They are top notch and will run as good as any you can buy and they are quiet also. Just wanted to throw that in.

blotsome · 10-01-2008, 02:06 PM

Ok, I got most of the parts on Monday, and I built it over a couple days, and just today loaded Windows XP.

I have some questions about tweaking the system and bios (and possibly overclocking). Keep in mind the motherboard is an ASUS M3A78-EM, the CPU is AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Black Edition, and the memory is OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) OCZ2N10662GK.

First the memory, the bios AUTO says the memory clock speed is 333. Would it be advisable to change it to 533 (which the memory is listed as, no?) Would it be beneficial to adjust any of the timings or try to overclock the memory, or as a first time overclocker, should I just live with the AUTO settings.

Next, the CPU. It is a black edition, and I've read that people have successfully overclocked this CPU without increasing the voltage and so on. Is this easy to do, and should I try it? If so, could someone explain what is involved in that. As for cooling issues, my heatsink fan is a Scythe Ninja 2 (which was rather hard to install, BTW).

Finally, I just installed Windows XP SP2. I intend to update the OS and drivers right away. Are there any specific tips or tweaks anyone recommends doing on a fresh install of XP? Or could someone recommend a webpage that lists tweaks (last time I did a fresh install, I followed tips from a webpage that gave advice like increasing the size of the paging file, and putting it on a separate hard drive, etc, but that was 4 years ago and I imagine things have changed somewhat over 4 years time).

Any other words of wisdom?
Thanks for your time and help!

09-23-2008, 07:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
blotsome Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 22 OS: WinXP	A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build I'm working on a computer build. I haven't built myself a computer in 4 years. Sorry for the long back story, I have 5 questions below. But first, let me start with explaining my computer habits: 1) I mainly surf the internet. 2) Next, I watch various media, mostly DivX/XviD of TV shows (.avi, .mkv), but I also have a legit DVD collection. No Blu-Ray yet, but I have watched HD content on the internet (or downloaded). Sound (specifically 5.1 surround sound) is important to me. Listening to my extensive music collection is also part of this. 3) Lastly, I occasionally do graphic design work (photo editing, illustration, page layout). However, I am relatively satisfied with the speed and ability to work on large files with my current set up, and because I am only freelance, not professional, I believe any processor upgrade will be sufficient (as opposed to getting a high end set up). 4) I do not game. Over the past decade, I've played Oblivion, KotoR, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Theif 3, Black and White, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment, but I haven't finished any of those games, and I haven't played any game in literally 2 years. The only reason I mention this is there is a slight chance I may casually game sometime in the future, but it isn't a high priority at all. 5) Having a disk space is important to me. I have basically run out of disk space on all of my current drives, so every couple days I need to burn archive DVDs to clear up space. Therefore, currently, burning data DVDs is another task my computer regularly does. I don't have a TV or stand alone DVD player, so the ability to burn disks that a DVD player can read is not that important to me. 6) Because I use my PC for media, having a quiet PC is important to me. My PC now is fairly quiet, there is some audible fan noise, but it is mainly more of a low windy noise, not any whir, buzz or hums. The last computer I built was an Athlon based osx86 hackintosh for my girlfriend last year. The last computer I built for myself was a: Athlon 64 3000+ Asus K8V-SE Deluxe 1 GB OCZ PC3200 DDR XFX\|GF 6800 128 MB NEC ND-3520A LITEON Combo DVD reader/CD burner 200GB 7200 seagate 160GB 7200 WD 250GB 7200 WD M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers Antec SLK3700-BQE Dell 2001FP The main parts of that computer were bought in September of 2004, with a few upgrades here and there. Also worth noting, I switched out the stock coolers on the processor and graphics card (for the purpose of producing a quieter PC). The biggest problem with that build was the motherboard. With the lack of PCI-Express and the 754 socket, major upgrading has been quite limited. Here is what is in my newegg shopping cart so far: ASUS M3A78-EM AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ BE GeIL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 GX24GB8500C5UDC WD Green WD10EACS 1TB Antec Solo CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX I intend to run Windows XP SP2 (32bit), but if I have this PC for a while, which I plan on doing, upgrading to Vista may be an option I'd want to leave open. I'd like to spend under $800, not including monitor, but I have a larger budget if necessary. Low heat, quiet PC, and low power consumption are more appealing to me than top of the line, bleeding edge technology (or gaming). Questions: 1) I feel like I still have a pretty good audio card, the M-Audio 7.1 revolution, and paired with the Klipsch 5.1 speakers, I've been quite happy. Is this the case? Is the m-audio card better than the onboard audio of the M3A78-EM? or should I not bother installing the m-audio, and instead just use the onboard audio with my speakers? 2) I really have no idea what CD/DVD burner to get. I feel like since I have no blu-ray media right now, I can wait to purchase a blu-ray drive because prices will surely come down (if I ever do start collecting blu-ray, that is). I bought the NEC DVD burner at the time because it seemed to be the best recommended, but before that I was brand loyal to Lite-on. Seems like Lite-On and Pioneer have good models now a-days, but I really just needs some advice here. Keep in mind I almost exclusively burn data DVDs (occassionally mix audio CDs or ISOs), and I exclusively have been purchasing Taiyo Yuden blank media. I have half a dozen larger than 4GB files sitting on my old computer that I wish I could burn, but other than that, I don't really have a need for dual layer burning. 2.1) Speaking of CD/DVD drives, I have some old disks that I burned to some cheap media (probably the discount office max junk). Neither of my current drives can read these disks anymore (or they can read them for a few minutes, and then get an error message). However, my friend with an old dell laptop can watch those burned files fine. Is there a recommended drive that can read poorly burned disks, or poor media? It would be nice if it was also a good burner itself, but I don't mind buying two drives. 3) Any monitor recommendations? My current monitor, the Dell 2001FP has some pretty shotty backlight bleeding, and doesn't get dark enough when watching with the lights off. I want something bigger because I mostly watch TV/movies from 8-10 ft away. I also do some photo editing and design work (even some print work) so having good color and desktop real estate would be nice. I've been strongly leaning towards the Dell 3007WFP-HC, but a 24 inch Dell could be nice (and cheaper). I've even considered a 37" LVM-37W3SE westinghouse because the price right now is $600, but I'm worried that the display will be too pixelated for everyday web surfing and reading (but it might be great to watch movies and TV on a display that large!). Any other options? advice? 4) which processor? I have the 5400+ black edition in my shopping cart, but I had been considering the lower wattage 4850e. I prefer AMD, and feel the 780g chipset would work nice for a half-way HTPC such as mine, but I'd be open to other suggestions (processor or motherboard) 4.1) What heatsink/fan would you recommend I get to replace the stock AMD fan for the purposes of a quiet PC? 5) I have a 1TB hard drive in my shopping cart. I said having space is important, and I figure once that disk is almost full (which may take years), I can alway add another one, and by then prices will have gone down. However, I was considering getting a 2nd, smaller hard drive to hold the OS and applications. Is it worth having 2 hard drives, one for data storage and the other for applications/OS? if so, what should I get, I know every used to talk about the raptors, but I'm not sure what's new. Thanks for sticking around this far. General comments and advice would also be welcomed. And if I left anything out (hopefully not), I'd be glad to answer questions. Thanks! -b. Last edited by blotsome; 09-23-2008 at 07:27 PM.

09-24-2008, 02:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,702 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build your psu will start at 550w and up depending on the video card cpu combination __________________

09-24-2008, 07:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
blotsome Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 22 OS: WinXP	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build I've been doing a little reading of the forum's recent posts. Looks like for 1) any stand alone audio card should be better than the onboard audio, so I'll keep the m-audio. Also seems like I don't need the 4MB of memory as windows XP can only use 3+ or so (and perhaps I don't need 1066?)? Also seems like the current raptors aren't really worth it, but should I still get a 2nd drive for the OS? any recommendations? As for the power supply, I was planning on using the motherboard's onboard video, and I'm focusing in on a low wattage CPU 45W or 65W max. Do I really need the larger power supply? Thanks for the reply!

09-24-2008, 07:57 AM	#4 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,702 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build 2g ram is usually ample for xp a seperate sound card i find the best option i prefer more than 1 hd and keep my program ect. seperate as it makes a reformat less of a hastle i usually use wd drives as that is what my supplier has the best prices on i would not drop below a quality 550w it will pay off in the long run and there is usually only a few dollars difference http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...corsair%2b550w __________________

09-24-2008, 05:30 PM	#5 (permalink)
blotsome Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 22 OS: WinXP	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build Good advice. Thanks a lot. Right now I've updated my cart to add a WD Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320G 7200 drive for the OS/programs, and switched out the 4GB of RAM for OCZ Platinum OCZ2N10662GK. As for the power supply, I think I'll go with the SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT 550W. The Corsair 550vx apparently is quite different from the 450vx (which has seasonic interiors, but not the 550vx). Any opinions on the CPU choice? Or recommendations for DVD drives? Thanks again.

09-24-2008, 09:18 PM	#6 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,702 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build dvd drives i prefer liteon,pioneer don't know enough about amd to recommend a cpu the black editions seem the popular choice if your m/b will run it seasonic is top choice __________________

09-25-2008, 11:16 AM	#7 (permalink)
yodamage Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 21 OS: vista 32bit	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build ok well on the processors i agree with dai the liteon is excelent, never heard of any problems with them. make shure you keep 4 gb of ram, trust me it helps (at minimum 3gb but 4 is really handy). also i dont really have an amd choice but there is really no reason to go top of the line if your not gamming and you dont model for a living, it helps with render time to have a better cpu but its not that crucial if its just a hobbie.

09-25-2008, 11:17 AM	#8 (permalink)
yodamage Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 21 OS: vista 32bit	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build srry ment dvd drives in the beggining not processors. lol

09-25-2008, 03:36 PM	#9 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,672 OS: XP Professional	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build Just a comment. I never use anything but Seasonic in my personal builds anymore. They are top notch and will run as good as any you can buy and they are quiet also. Just wanted to throw that in. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

10-01-2008, 02:06 PM	#10 (permalink)
blotsome Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 22 OS: WinXP	Re: A little out of the loop, would like 2nd opinion on build Ok, I got most of the parts on Monday, and I built it over a couple days, and just today loaded Windows XP. I have some questions about tweaking the system and bios (and possibly overclocking). Keep in mind the motherboard is an ASUS M3A78-EM, the CPU is AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Black Edition, and the memory is OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) OCZ2N10662GK. First the memory, the bios AUTO says the memory clock speed is 333. Would it be advisable to change it to 533 (which the memory is listed as, no?) Would it be beneficial to adjust any of the timings or try to overclock the memory, or as a first time overclocker, should I just live with the AUTO settings. Next, the CPU. It is a black edition, and I've read that people have successfully overclocked this CPU without increasing the voltage and so on. Is this easy to do, and should I try it? If so, could someone explain what is involved in that. As for cooling issues, my heatsink fan is a Scythe Ninja 2 (which was rather hard to install, BTW). Finally, I just installed Windows XP SP2. I intend to update the OS and drivers right away. Are there any specific tips or tweaks anyone recommends doing on a fresh install of XP? Or could someone recommend a webpage that lists tweaks (last time I did a fresh install, I followed tips from a webpage that gave advice like increasing the size of the paging file, and putting it on a separate hard drive, etc, but that was 4 years ago and I imagine things have changed somewhat over 4 years time). Any other words of wisdom? Thanks for your time and help!