dev/vm machine

[Lancid]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Basic power user stuff:
-Multiple VMs in vmware (debian, windows, centos) on win7 host
--private webhost (i.e., not a lot of traffic: 1-10 people) in a vm using lamp, rails, django + misc python scripts (mod_python)
-netbeans with 10-20 tabs and a few projects open
-foobar
-opera and either firefox or chrome. opera with ~15 tabs, the other with 1-5


intermittently:
-photoshop, editing raws (not just simple resizing)
-basic editing in soundbooth, most files <2GB
-streaming music/videos
-transcoding bd to h.264


Also watching movies (bd and 720/1080 h.264 rips), but since my x200t (1.86ghz c2d, 4gb ram, 4500mhd) can handle that, I assume anything I buy will have no problem.

And I do a surprising (at least to me) amount of decompressing.

I don't play any games, and don't really want the ability to. So the only reason I can think of to use a non integrated gpu is to accelerate video playback. Any thoughts on this? Something else a vid card would be useful for?
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$700 shipped
3) Where do you live?
usa
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
cpu, ram, motherboard, psu, case, hdd
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
optical drive
6) Will you be overclocking?
maybe a little if it is worth it
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
25.5" 1920x1200 & 17" crt & 12" 1280x800
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
between now and march
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
other than a digital audio out, nothing that I can think of
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
legion



For the processor, I'm leaning toward intel because from what I've read, it's currently faster than amd. I don't mind waiting until march if any new processors are coming out.

 

[Lancid]

Also, I probably will never upgrade this machine. Out of all the computers I've had over the past ten years, the extent of my upgrading has been either ram or hard drives.

So, upgradability is irrelevant for me.

 

[engiNURD]

Thats a tight budget for some demanding tasks. An i7 build would be best, but its a tight fit. Can you afford a bit more?

PhenomII's are on par with Core2's. However, both get outperformed by Core i5/i7. i7 would be better for you, since you're running multiple VMs.

For vidcard, since you'll be encoding, you'll want a discrete card, IMO.

Do you live near a Microcenter?

to get you started...
$240 - i7 or Xeon w/ HT
$130 - P55 board
$95 - 8GB of DDR3
$80 - F3 1TB
$50 - 9500GT
$50 - Corsair 400W
$30 - Some CM or Rosewill case w/ Free shipping and 2x120mm fans
======
$675 + tax and shipping

 

[Lancid]

I can afford more, but don't want to spend more for a small improvement.

I can't see a reason to spend more than $1000, so I guess that can be my upper limit.

For encoding, that will be rare. And when I do, I can leave it running over night, so speed is of little concern. But if the video card would benefit something else, I'd be amiable to it.

The nearest microcenter is ~200mi away.

About the case, I'd like to use something like the lian li v350.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[engiNURD]

Then you'll need a mATX board. There's a gigabyte P55M-UD2 for around $105, IIRC.