Am wanting to build a new computer by purchasing separate parts. It will be used for editing pictures, MS office, ACad, Email and general internet surfing.
I know I want a Sonata II case with min 500watt PS, 2gb ram, DVD and CD burner 250gb HD, above average video card and motherboard with Intel CPU.
Anyone have any suggestions for component manufacturers and part #s? Also will be getting a 22/24" monitor.
Thanks for any input,
Jon

motherboard abit, asus to name a couple
Video card if not onboard ATI or Nvidia based cards several manufactures and levels. Get the best card for main/most intensive application (ACad I assume) your budget will allow.
CPU biggest and best avaliable dual core.
Here are a couple of sites that have forums and daily reviews of the latest greatest.
www.overclockers.com www.hardocp.com

-Intel Core 2 Duo (many to choose from, all are good, just some faster)
-Quality Brand Name (Kingston, Cosair, etc) Dual Channel 2gb kit 667mhz DDR2
-Quality Brand Name (Asus, etc) Motherboard that suports DDR2, LGA775, SATA, On-board Sound, and PCI-Express.
-PCI Express Video Card, ATI or NVIDIA, X1650Pro is decent.
-SATA Hard Drive, I recomend Western Digital for brand.
-DVD Burners are cheap and brand doesn't really matter, I usually get LG though.
-22" Screen will be better value than the 24", I have a Samsung 22" with 1680X1050 resolution, make sure you set it to the native resoultion on LCDs otherwise it will look bad.
-Hmm... I guess thats it, not sure if you've made a computer before but it's really easy, especially compared to working on a car.

Am wanting to build a new computer by purchasing separate parts. It will be used for editing pictures, MS office, ACad, Email and general internet surfing.
I know I want a Sonata II case with min 500watt PS, 2gb ram, DVD and CD burner 250gb HD, above average video card and motherboard with Intel CPU.
Anyone have any suggestions for component manufacturers and part #s? Also will be getting a 22/24" monitor.
Thanks for any input,
Jon

I would get at least a 700watt power supply with a intel dual core chip. 2gb is good, but 4 would be better. Get two drives, 1 a DVD and the other DVD Burner. If you are into gaming or ARCgis get two matched video cards, otherwise just still to a midrange Nvidia card (PCI express), HD I would go with larger, 500 or so, if you have the cash get two and set them up in raid1 so you always have a backup. Mother board, I like MSI. I like great sound, and have klipsch speakers on my PC, so if that is your bag as well, get a decent sound card like a Sound Blaster Audigy or xifi. extra cooling fans...
I like to have a digital temperature display in my PC's as well, they are pretty inexpensive.

This might be more than you need though, but get something that kicks arse and you won't need a replacement for several years.

Big D

I've heard that Windows XP has a 2gb limit. I've never gone over 2gb so I wouldn't know but I have 2gb and virtual memory turned off and I've never run out of memory, personally I think 4gb is overkill especially if your operating system can't even reconize it. Ram is easy to add later, start with 2gb. Benchmarks for dual video cards running together aren't terribly good, unless you want over 2 monitors I'd say just get one really good video card. I've tried X1650pro and 7900gs and both are good but if you want something really good get an 8800. Chaosenvy is right about the RAID if you are doing important work, get a motherboard with raid and two identical drives. On board sound is a lot better than it used to be, but if you are really into audio an xifi is awsome. Not to sound rude to Chaosenvy but I don't really see the need for two DVD drives, not that it matters they are so cheap now. Costs more to fill my chevelle with gas than buy a dvd burner.

Thank you for the replies. Should I install Vista? and which version?
Thanks again,
Jon

I believe Windows XP has a 4GB limit.

Jon, building a computer all boils down to your budget and how fast you want to go. If I had an idea of what you'd like to spend, I could make some suggestions.

But like was stated, these Intel Core 2 Duo processors are really the cream of the crop. I run an E6600 at home, and it's a screamer. I never bought into the dual crossfire/SLI video card theory. Video cards are constantly evolving. Buying 2 cards doesn't mean you'll be faster than just 1 card in a year or so. I currently run an ATI X1950 pro 512mb card. Suits all my needs, and can handle any game or graphic application out there. They have a good price/performance ratio. Power supplies are pretty crucial, and if you plan on running a decent graphics card, you have to pay more attention to the amps per power rail than the wattage rating. Higher end video cards require around 20 amps per rail. Corsair power supply units are a top rated brand. I run an HX520 watt, but if I had to do it again, I would have went with the 620 watt. They have great specs, and it's probably all the power you'll ever need. They come with a 5 year warranty to boot.

For a mother board, you'd probably want something that's upgradeble. I would look for one with the highest FSB rating. 1333Mhz would do you for a while, and allow you plenty of upgrading headroom. MSI, Asus, and Gigabyte seem to be some of the top rated brands.

For memory, if you're running a Core 2 Duo with a FSB of 1066 Mhz, I'd get some memory that runs at that frequency, too. Some DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) would last you a while. Technically you could get away running 533 Mhz, since DDR2 memory is double pumped, but why tax the memory. Plus it'd allow for upgradeability in the future. Corsair, Patriot, G Skill are brands I trust. They also have DDR3 memory out now, but I don't know much about that...

As for the OS, I'd go ahead and take the plunge into Vista. It's the latest and "greatest" and will be around for quite a while. I'd go with the 32 bit Home Premium. But then again, if you're running ACAD, the 64 bit might be better supported by CAD software in the future, and might allow you a little faster rendering times.

Oh, and stay away from Sceptre monitors... I bought a 20.1" for the folks, and I'm less than impressed with it. The lit logo bleeds through onto the screen, and for some reason when it goes into sleep mode, you can't wake it back up!

Mark,
Thank you for your reply. I have another post here "under will this work"
I had the parts ordered at Newegg but they cancelled the order because they could not provide one of the parts ordered. I know I want the E6700 Intel processor and onboard sound. I want the computer to turn 10,000 RPM min. Money to spend $1500/$2000. I already have a viewsonic 22" LCD monitor VX2255WM. Your input is very much appreciated.
Regards,
Jon

Not to sound rude to Chaosenvy but I don't really see the need for two DVD drives, not that it matters they are so cheap now. Costs more to fill my chevelle with gas than buy a dvd burner.

1 DVD Burner and 1 DVD Drive. I prefer it that way, if I am making "backup" copies of cd/dvd I don't have to copy to the HD first. Switch discs then copy back to the DVD. I just do it in one fell swoop. A DVD drive depending on where you go is very inexpensive.

As for on sound, I have the Sound Blaster Audigy II ZS Platinum, with a Kilipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 speaker setup. It sound insane. The exhaust thread that was around, or pypesexhaust.com sounds killer.

There are definately something to gain by have sli with 2 graphics cards. For instance a few years back, the Geforce 6800 was over 400.00. But by picking up two 6600GT for much less and using sli, my graphics processor was faster than the 6800. So not only did I save money, I have a better GPU, and a boat load of memory with the combined cards.

Now there are physics processors as well. I think I'll wait for the prices to drop on those before I pick one up.

Here's a few suggestions:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129017

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029&Tpk=e6750

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002&Tpk=620HX

MB:
Something w/ a 1333 FSB, also dependant on the features you'd like... firewire, Wi-Fi, SLI, etc...

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145033
(I'd think 2 Gb would do you fine, even with Vista.)

GPU:
WOW! If you go with that 8800, more power to ya!

HD's:
2 of these in RAID 0-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106

and this one for storage-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140


Sound:
This gets good reviews -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829127002

Now Jon, when you put this screamer together you WILL help cancer research by Folding with the Classic Chevy Team, won't ya? ;)
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=53803

Here's a few suggestions:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129017

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029&Tpk=e6750

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002&Tpk=620HX

MB:
Something w/ a 1333 FSB, also dependant on the features you'd like... firewire, Wi-Fi, SLI, etc...

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145033
(I'd think 2 Gb would do you fine, even with Vista.)

GPU:
WOW! If you go with that 8800, more power to ya!

HD's:
2 of these in RAID 0-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106

and this one for storage-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140


Sound:
This gets good reviews -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829127002

Now Jon, when you put this screamer together you WILL help cancer research by Folding with the Classic Chevy Team, won't ya? ;)
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=53803


Decent selection.. I would go a little bit different though.

I would get a different drive setup. I would want my storage to be mirrored.

The GPU, yeah that baby is a monster.

I am running vista Business and it is steadily using 1.10 GB of Ram. If I were to run a high end game, compile a major program, I could easily use 2GB of RAM. That is why I have 4GB.

If you go with the raid option make sure your mobo has that integrated or you will need a seperate card.

ChaosEnvy

Will raid do me any good for speed. What is the raid option?
Got my computer parts today and have it 98% set up. Sure is good. It appears Vista will not be that bad.
Thanks,
Jon

ChaosEnvy

Will raid do me any good for speed. What is the raid option?
Got my computer parts today and have it 98% set up. Sure is good. It appears Vista will not be that bad.
Thanks,
Jon

Raid is has several levels, the Most commong being raid 1 and 5
Using raid is not speed related; it is for redundancy and backup.

with raid 1, you have 2 drives that mirror each other. Meaning if the first drive fails for some reason, you will have a backup drive that will work just like the first. When you replace the bad drive the mirroring starts over again.

With raid 5, you have a hot spare. i.e. three 160 gb hd. You will have a 320 GB hard drive with a hotspare. If one drive fails, the Hot spare automatically steps in so that there isn't an interuption. You simply replace the bad drive and it becomes the new hot spare.

Big D

Can the drives be different sizes? How hard is it to set up.
Thanks again,
Jon

Can the drives be different sizes? How hard is it to set up.
Thanks again,
Jon

Drives need to be the same size.

Not to hard to setup. You just need a raid controller card or a mobo with built in raid capability. There is usually an easy to use gui to set up your arrays.

Big D

xp pro has 4gig mem limit.

Raid scenario is for performance and redunantcy. Raid 1 (2 disk) is simpler to configure but has 100% over head as you waste 1 disk to mirror. It does allow simultaneous reads and writes to two drives at once though which is a performance gain considering there is a raid 0 stripe across them. Raid 5 is one step up the chain and really not common in home computers but has less overhead and with the write configuration and number of disk min 3 can perform very well. With raid 5 you loose one disk to parity so if you have 3 disk the total amount of space for one disk is used up for parity but spread across all 3 disk. So if a disk fails you can reuild it and all the data will be reconstructed from the parity. In the IT world on servers and San storage 5-7 disk raid 5's will out perform a raid 1 due to the ability to write to 5-7 disk at a time even though there is small lag since raid 5 writes parity to allow a disk recovery. For home use I would say raid 1 for a business I would say a raid 5. It just depends on what your doing?

Oh one more thing. I'm referring to hardware raid with a onboard or pci raid or promise type card. I don't like windows raid and would recommend not using software level raid.

Faulk,
I have onboard raid and just installed the drivers. I will be getting another hard drive to match the one I have and try to carry on from there.
Thanks,
Jon

sounds good you probably configure it in the raid bios which is entered at post. You will setup a logical drive or drives. For example logical drive 1 is what you specify in space. So by default it will show you the whole disk space if supported you can say no and choose a different amount of space. The remaining space can be chopped up into logicals as well. The first logical will be where the os lives. The rest are just drives and windows will not see the logicals as partitions but as seperate drives. so if windows blows up your drive d will be seperate in windows eyes even though they are on the same disk. When you setup the array just say raid one and do your logicals. I'm assuming it supports logical drives but it depends on the controller it may make you use the whole drive. Once that is setup you will exit boot up hit F6 during the load of windows and add the driver for your raid card. I'm basing this off the assumption windows will not have a built in driver but it may to know for sure consult your raid card manual.