Building a system

[dwd3885]

So in efforts to save some money, I am selling my Powermac G5 and going to build a Windows machine! FUN! Well, I'm also selling my Xbox 360, so in essence I am building somewhat of a gaming machine, although I will just be playing games like Madden and NBA Live.

Was wondering if I could get some advice. I have no monitor, nothing. My budget is arond $1000 INCLUDING the monitor. I'd like to get a nice lcd, maybe 17 or 19 inches, but I'd rather get better system components than 21 inch Dell 2005FPW.

I am a student in the digital media field, doing video editing, audio editing/recording, lots of photoshop work. So I don't just want a gaming machine. I don't really care about the latest and greatest either, although dual core processor would be very nice since I do all that encoding.

I'd also like to be able to have a nice pvr for recording shows, although Windows MCE is not a must, a standalone, like Hauppauge WinTV would do just fine. So the under $1000 is including operating system too. Is that just too outlandish? Would I be better off just buying from Gateway or HP?

This would not be my first build, I've built two systems before moving to the Mac, but I just want a nice system that I can game a little on and do my work.

So what recommendations do you have?

 

[pj-schmidt]

You'll want an AMD Athlon 64 processor

$1000 for everything is a little tight, but I'll see if I can put together a list.

 

[dwd3885]

You'll want an AMD Athlon 64 processor

$1000 for everything is a little tight, but I'll see if I can put together a list.

thanks. i've got a few components in mind

 

[pj-schmidt]

Here's an initial list (it doesn't include mouse or keyboard)
I'm over you budget by a little...

AMD Athlon64 3200+ S939 $169
A dual core processor would be very nice for the stuff you do, but it's out of your budget.

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR PC3200 $84
1GB is at a pretty good sweet spot on the price/performance curve. I've only had good experiences with Corsair memory.

Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" ATA100 Hard Drive $79
It is PATA, but it was cheaper that way, and PATA still performs very well even if its a little slower than SATA. You'll want to a a second drive in the future with all of the media stuff you do.

Rosewill R911E 12ms Black 19" 12ms LCD Monitor $200 after MIR
Not the best monitor out there, but it should work fine. If you find a way to put a little more money in your budget, you might want too look at a better brand like Samsung.

LG Black E-IDE / ATAPI DVD Burner $41
It will burn almost any disk currently on the market. Comes with burning and DVD playing software.

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 ATX AMD Motherboard $76
I would have prefered an ASUS, but this was cheaper. Integrated onboard everything except video.

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1600PRO PCIe x16 $111
It will play everything out there with resonable settings. Good bang-for-your-buck.

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE 1042 Tuner Card $63
Nice TV tuner. Probably the first thing I'd trim if you need to save a couple bucks.

Antec Solution SLK1650B Black Computer Case $63
Nice basic case with a quiet 120mm fan in the back. I've used a handful of these for myself and friends, and everybody has been impressed with them. The power supply is a little small at 350W, but I've not had any problems with systems a lot bigger than yours. If you upgrade in the future, you could always but in a bigger one then.

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 $130
Windows...

$1020 + ~$55s/h = $1075 (after MIR)