MB / CPU / RAM Combo: $350-400

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bamaholic

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Apr 2, 2010
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What are your suggestions to get the most bang for the buck given the requirements below? Everything will be purchased from Newegg. Thanks!


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
LIGHT Gaming (Pop Cap style games), Basic HD video editing and Blu-ray authoring - this is pretty much all this PC will be used for. Archiving HD sports broadcasts from Tivo.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$350 - $400 not including tax and shipping
3) Where do you live?
FL
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
MB, CPU, RAM
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
40 GB SSD for OS, 2x 1 TB WD Green for data in RAID 1, optical drives, ASUS GT 220 video card, antec P180, Antec Neo HE550
6) Will you be overclocking?
NO
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
RAID 1 for data disk
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Win 7 x64
 
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bamaholic said:
What are your suggestions to get the most bang for the buck given the requirements below? Everything will be purchased from Newegg. Thanks!


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
LIGHT Gaming (Pop Cap style games), Basic HD video editing and Blu-ray authoring - this is pretty much all this PC will be used for. Archiving HD sports broadcasts from Tivo.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$350 - $400 not including tax and shipping
3) Where do you live?
FL
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
MB, CPU, RAM
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
40 GB SSD for OS, 2x 1 TB WD Green for data in RAID 1, optical drives, antec P180, I think my PS is an Enermax 750W
6) Will you be overclocking?
NO
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
RAID 1 for data disk
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Win 7 x64
Click to expand...

With that kind of a budget for the CPU, motherboard and memory, you might be able to squeeze in an Intel i5-750 processor with 4GB (2 x 2GB) of DDR3 memory and a P55 motherboard in that budget. Otherwise, an AMD Phenom X4 processor on an AM3 motherboard with the 4GB (2 x 2GB) of DDR3 memory would easily fit in that budget.

The above assumes that you already have a suitable graphics card that you'll be carrying over to the newer system. But if you don't, then you'll either have to factor in the cost of a graphics card or you'll have to settle for a relatively weak (dual-core) processor and a motherboard with onboard graphics.

One more thing:
Do you mean HD sports programs recorded with Tivo from cable or satellite? If so, then most such programs have been very heavily DRM'd. This means that you cannot archive such programs at all (with the DRM flag either allowing playback only on the same device which recorded it or not allowing any recording at all whatsoever). Other times, the DRM will only allow you to export (and therefore archive) a downconverted standard-definition copy of the program.
 
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E4g1e said:
With that kind of a budget for the CPU, motherboard and memory, you might be able to squeeze in an Intel i5-750 processor with 4GB (2 x 2GB) of DDR3 memory and a P55 motherboard in that budget. Otherwise, an AMD Phenom X4 processor on an AM3 motherboard with the 4GB (2 x 2GB) of DDR3 memory would easily fit in that budget.

The above assumes that you already have a suitable graphics card that you'll be carrying over to the newer system. But if you don't, then you'll either have to factor in the cost of a graphics card or you'll have to settle for a relatively weak (dual-core) processor and a motherboard with onboard graphics.

One more thing:
Do you mean HD sports programs recorded with Tivo from cable or satellite? If so, then most such programs have been very heavily DRM'd. This means that you cannot archive such programs at all (with the DRM flag either allowing playback only on the same device which recorded it or not allowing any recording at all whatsoever). Other times, the DRM will only allow you to export (and therefore archive) a downconverted standard-definition copy of the program.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to add the video card to question 5 (edited to add) but I do have a ASUS GT220 which I think would be okay for my needs. I was leaning towards an "i" series combo but wasn't sure if dual core would be enough for HD editing.

As for the Tivo video I was thinking of using this app: http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/

Apparently it will remove the .tivo wrapper and leave a plain old .mpg file behind.
 
 
bamaholic said:
I was leaning towards an "i" series combo but wasn't sure if dual core would be enough for HD editing.
Click to expand...

Not really. hence why lt_shiro went for the quad-core i5 750.

Oh and I totally concur with lt_shiro's setup.

However can you find out exactly what PSU you have? Make and model, etc.
 
And thats why I always ask about the PSU :). Anyway, the Neo HE 550 will be enough.
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