Budget build - advice on remaining parts
Indio22 Oct 20, 2010 7:31 PMHaving gotten some good advice here and read through many posts (great info), I have collected several parts for my relatively budget build (close to $1000 dollars as possible). The PC will be used for CS5, Visual Studio 2006 (.net coding), and some average office apps and web surfing. Not ideal I know, but for now, one PC will have to do.
My primary goal in terms of the CS5 video editing/effects capability, is that the PC can accomplish the tasks, and do it in reasonable time. I only have SD video camera now for live action. Will be doing animations also. Can't comment on type of files yet, just starting out. Since I am an amateur, I don't have time constraints like the professionals. But I would rather not find the PC is in-capable of accomplishing a task, for some technical reason, or because it bogs down.
Here are the parts I already have:
Item Part
------------------- -----------------------------------
Motherboard GA-X58A-UD3R Gigabyte
Power Supply TX650W Corsair
Graphics Card GTX 460 Gigabyte
Memory 3x4MB (12MB) Mushkin
Storage Drives (2) SpinPoint F3 1TB Samsung 1TB 7200rpm
Total cost so far is: $722.94 (USD). (Assuming I get all the rebates returned, lol)
I am hung up a bit on the following items:
CPU: Nearby MicroCenter helps with the i7 price. I don't know whether I should get the 200 dollar i7 930, or spend the extra 30 dollars for the i7 950. This is my first built PC, and as of now, I don't plan to overclock. Is the 950 worth the extra 30 dollars?
Main Drive: The two Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB drives listed above are for secondary drives as detailed in one of Harm's storage guides. I don't really want to spend a lot on an SSD or Raptor at this time. Would it be all that bad to use a third F3 1TB for the boot drive? Is another manufacturer recommended? Should I try for a 500GB single platter drive for the boot drive? (Maybe go SSD down the road when prices drop and technology is fully worked out.)
Case: Considering either the Antex 300 or the CoolerMaster Elite 335. Former seems to get better reviews for being more sturdy, latter is 20 dollars cheaper and I kind of like the way it looks. (Although I have seen some nice 300 builds recently.)
If there is any advice on the above, it would be welcome. I hope to at least decide on the CPU for this weekend.



