Non gaming computer advice

P

Paolo Pignatelli

I have never built my own computer before, but would like to. My main use
of the computer now is for programming (SQL Server and Visual Studio) Photo
editing (Adobe Photoshop CS) and perhaps a little movie editing (Adobe
Premiere). I never play games on the computer (except for online chess.) A
major objective, other than good power, is that the system be as quiet as
practicable (not necessarily silent, but living 12 hrs a day with the fan
nose is annoying).
Preliminarily, I have come up with the following configuration:
--------
ASUS P5AD2-E Premium $235.00

Antec Sonata $99.00

CrucialCT12864AA53E 1GB (2) $310.00

LGA 775 Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor $287.00

ZALMAN Copper CPU Cooler for Socket 775/478/754/939/940, Model
"CNPS7700-CU" -RETAIL $52.00

The Crucial RADEON X300SE 128MB PCI Express -$73 $73.00

Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD2500JD-$131 (2)
$262.00

TOSHIBA 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive Black, Model SD-R5372 BLK W/SW,
OEM $53.00

-----------

I am not wed to either Intel or AMD, just being an old programmer, I am more
familiar with Intel.
Could you please comment on, or suggest possible alternatives that stay
within the price range of less than aprox $1400?
TIA,

Paolo
 
J

Justin Case

I have never built my own computer before, but would like to. My main use
of the computer now is for programming (SQL Server and Visual Studio) Photo
editing (Adobe Photoshop CS) and perhaps a little movie editing (Adobe
Premiere). I never play games on the computer (except for online chess.) A
major objective, other than good power, is that the system be as quiet as
practicable (not necessarily silent, but living 12 hrs a day with the fan
nose is annoying).
Preliminarily, I have come up with the following configuration:
--------
ASUS P5AD2-E Premium $235.00

Antec Sonata $99.00

CrucialCT12864AA53E 1GB (2) $310.00

LGA 775 Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor $287.00

ZALMAN Copper CPU Cooler for Socket 775/478/754/939/940, Model
"CNPS7700-CU" -RETAIL $52.00

The Crucial RADEON X300SE 128MB PCI Express -$73 $73.00

Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD2500JD-$131 (2)
$262.00

TOSHIBA 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive Black, Model SD-R5372 BLK W/SW,
OEM $53.00

-----------

I am not wed to either Intel or AMD, just being an old programmer, I am more
familiar with Intel.
Could you please comment on, or suggest possible alternatives that stay
within the price range of less than aprox $1400?
TIA,
Click to expand...
Looks good to me. No criticism on any of your choices.
As far being a non gaming machine, you're only 1 step away from
it being a decent gaming rig. That being the video card.
 
R

RBM

Excellent choices IMHO, but two things to consider. The board is for Intel
processors. Prescott CPU's run real hot and cooling solutions can be noisy.
Check with Zalman to be sure it will fit, with what you have in the box. The
board requires a 24 pin power connector (depending on your PCIE graphics
card ) and I don't believe the sonata power supply has one. Lastly the board
doesn't necessarily come with the bios version (1004) that's needed to
support the 640 CPU, so you'd have to upgrade the bios before it will
recognize the CPU. Check here:
http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx These are just
things to be aware of, don't be discouraged by them. HTH
 
P

Paolo Pignatelli

Thanks, man!

I am an absolute first timer in the build-it-yourself computers, so would
like to avoid too many complications. If it is a software complication,
like a BIOS, then I may be able to handle it, (I remember well loading OSes
onto OS2 1.1..., and for that matter, the first Amigas...) But if it has to
do with power connections, etc...I am not quite so sure, so if you have any
recommendations with a cooler running CPU and board, please let me know.
This is exactly the kind of help I am looking for,
Thanks again,

Paolo
--
 
R

RBM

Part of me believes in getting the latest board with the most options, which
certainly you've got with the P5AD2-E Premium, and the other side of me
wants tried and true. I'm no expert, but I think in the PC world, you go for
the latest. I've built five machines in the last two years and all have
worked flawlessly, but as I read this and other newsgroups I've found much
of my success was just dumb luck. I'm not sure if you can check with a
seller, what bios version a board has, which might help. I love Antec cases,
the only problem is that so many come with power supplies that aren't
exactly what I want. Most boards with PCIE graphics cards require the 24 pin
connector which is called ATX 12V 2.0 . In my PC with the above mentioned
board I have the stock cooler, which at times sounds like its gonna take
off. I ordered a Swiftech MCX 775 V cooler, because it doesn't come with a
fan so you can choose whatever 80 mm fan you like. I'll be installing it
next weekend so I'll see how quiet it is. Good Luck
 
J

johns

You've pretty much described the DELL 8200. Why
build your own if you are not ... trying to save money
on a high end PC ... or a gamer. What you describe
as your needs is perfectly met by the 8200, and you
are up and running with a good warranty. Instead,
you are going to "try" to make an ASUS ( kid stuff )
mobo work with a lot of expensive parts. That is just
asking for it ... and ASUS doesn't live up to their
warranties at all. Wait till you get their hate mail, and
"I dare you to send it back" mail. You should also
look at the DELL 4700. It is almost exactly what you
want ... caution .. 1 year warranty, but you can buy
a 3 year warranty. If you are determined to build your
own, go to Mwave.com, and spec out a mobo bundle
around a hyperthreading P4, and tell them to assemble
and test the mobo bundle. That way you get a send
back the whole bundle warranty. I find when I make
them test it, it tends to work nearly all of the time.
Then you can save about $300 on the box. Note the
savings on the AOC 19 inch LCD monitor. Even then,
I'd find a local tech to put it in the box for you ...
especially the ordeal of loading the drivers for the SATA
disk as you install WinXP Pro !!!!!!! Note: that's
why the DELL 8200 will cost more at first. And you
are nuts to put that X300 SE card in your box. Get
the 6800 .. good grief.

johns
 
R

Ric

johns said:
You've pretty much described the DELL 8200. Why
build your own if you are not ... trying to save money
on a high end PC ... or a gamer. What you describe
as your needs is perfectly met by the 8200, and you
are up and running with a good warranty. Instead,
you are going to "try" to make an ASUS ( kid stuff )
mobo work with a lot of expensive parts. That is just
asking for it ... and ASUS doesn't live up to their
warranties at all. Wait till you get their hate mail, and
"I dare you to send it back" mail. You should also
look at the DELL 4700. It is almost exactly what you
want ... caution .. 1 year warranty, but you can buy
a 3 year warranty. If you are determined to build your
own, go to Mwave.com, and spec out a mobo bundle
around a hyperthreading P4, and tell them to assemble
and test the mobo bundle. That way you get a send
back the whole bundle warranty. I find when I make
them test it, it tends to work nearly all of the time.
Then you can save about $300 on the box. Note the
savings on the AOC 19 inch LCD monitor. Even then,
I'd find a local tech to put it in the box for you ...
especially the ordeal of loading the drivers for the SATA
disk as you install WinXP Pro !!!!!!! Note: that's
why the DELL 8200 will cost more at first. And you
are nuts to put that X300 SE card in your box. Get
the 6800 .. good grief.

johns
Click to expand...
well, you can safely ignore this fool.

perhaps he doesn't want a box that's been built down to the lowest
common denominator, or wants some quality like an antec sonata.
asus is kids stuff is it? bollocks.
as for testing it, just buy quality kit.
adding sata drivers a) takes 30 seconds and b) isn't necessary if you've
got sp2 slipstreamed in.

ric
 
T

Timbertea

Paolo said:
I have never built my own computer before, but would like to. My main use
of the computer now is for programming (SQL Server and Visual Studio) Photo
editing (Adobe Photoshop CS) and perhaps a little movie editing (Adobe
Premiere). I never play games on the computer (except for online chess.) A
major objective, other than good power, is that the system be as quiet as
practicable (not necessarily silent, but living 12 hrs a day with the fan
nose is annoying).
Preliminarily, I have come up with the following configuration:
--------
ASUS P5AD2-E Premium $235.00

Antec Sonata $99.00

CrucialCT12864AA53E 1GB (2) $310.00

LGA 775 Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor $287.00

ZALMAN Copper CPU Cooler for Socket 775/478/754/939/940, Model
"CNPS7700-CU" -RETAIL $52.00

The Crucial RADEON X300SE 128MB PCI Express -$73 $73.00

Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD2500JD-$131 (2)
$262.00

TOSHIBA 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive Black, Model SD-R5372 BLK W/SW,
OEM $53.00

-----------

I am not wed to either Intel or AMD, just being an old programmer, I am more
familiar with Intel.
Could you please comment on, or suggest possible alternatives that stay
within the price range of less than aprox $1400?
TIA,

Paolo
Click to expand...

These are not budget busting changes.

Only two things I think you might want to change. I think you'll be
really disappointed with the Crucial X300SE, for about $5 more you can
get an Asus Extreme AX300/TD (Seach for EAX300/TD). Unlike the SE it
offers real dual monitor support (not just you can use a VGA and a DVI
monitor but not at the same time support. It's nice to have for
programming and editing), a 128 bit memory interface (versus 64 bit in
the SE), and it's clocked a little faster. It's well worth the $5
difference, especially since you said you wanted to run Adobe products.

The other change I would make is to get a drive with NCQ support. You
have a 925XE/ICH6R chipset and your board supports it, you might as well
take advantage of it. (I know you are thinking it says SATA-150, yes, it
does, but it's SATA-150 with NCQ support, it's a feature of the chipset
and the drives are backwards compatable.)

Though you wont get the 300MB burst, you can still use the NCQ features
on your board which opens up much better choices in hard drives than the
2500JD you are looking at. I'm partial to Hitachis myself and they make
a quite spiffy T7K250 with NCQ support & it wont break your budget to do
it, it's about the same (if not a little less) than the Western Digital.
They are usually a lot quieter than the WDs as well, but if it's still
too loud you can put them into quiet mode at a cost of about 2MB on read
in a Raid-1).

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100594-2&affiliate=yahoo


You might also consider Seagates 7200.8 with NCQ, and the Maxtor NCQ
(Maxline III series) though I tend to stay away from Maxtors, it's
probably the fasest of the trio.


--Timbertea
 
P

Paolo Pignatelli

Hi there.

Could you recommend a case with the same general characteristics as the
Sonata, but with a compatible power supply?

TIA,

Paolo

--
 
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