Hey guys...been awhile...looking to build about 10 systems

[DravisAR]

Just got a great job in southern California, building the tech infrastructure for a small business making TV shows for CNBC. I've been tasked with building all the PC systems, excluding macintosh. So here are the parameters:

All sharing the same hardware (for the most part)
Our minimum budget is around 1200 bucks per unit, max budget is around 1600 per unit, but the lower I go, the higher my bonus is...so technically, lets say im sticking around 1300 per unit.

The machines are being used primarily for some video editing, code compiling, etc...things the quad macs are better at, but these machines are more for test and poweruser tasks. They have to be rock stable, have great data transfer (for instance, we are on gigabyte LAN) and have huge hard drives. This is what ive put together so far. If you recommend a different peice of hardware, please, feel free to respond. Ive been out of the loop with the latest hardware since the opteron 165 craze. We are about 10 miles from Mwave, and ive been using them for years for all my computer hardware, so we will be building the machines through them.

Thanks guys, heres my specs so far.


AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4200+ (ADA4200BVBOX) DUAL CORE W/512KB X 2 CACHE 90NM (MANCHESTER) 64-BIT SOCKET 939 RETAIL BOXED W/COOLING FAN (3 YEARS WARRANTY)

$355.00
SKU: BA21463 -BA22054 -



ABIT KN8 ULTRA nVIDIA nFORCE4 ULTRA CHIPSET SERIAL ATA150 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xPCI-E(X16)/3xPCI-E(X1)/3xPCI/4xDDR W/SATA RAID,LAN(Gb),USB 2.0 & AUDIO (CPU TYPE:AMD ATHLON 64 - SOCKET 939)

$92.00




CORSAIR TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB KIT (1GB x 2) MATCHED PAIR 400MHZ CL2 184-PIN DDR DIMM W/HEAT SPREADER ($50.00 Mail-In Manufacturer Rebate Available from 3/24/06 to 3/31/06) (NO STOCK - ESTIMATE ARRIVAL ON 4/4/06).
$195.00




SEAGATE 250GB ST3250824AS SATA 8MB 7200RPM (Bare drive)*SATA power cord is required
0.5m SATA CABLE

$91.40
SKU: AA33200 -BA00305 -



PIONEER DVR-110D/111DBK 16X DVD RW DRIVE W/SW BLACK (White box)

$40.90
SKU: AA36700 - - - -



XION XON-003 (SILVER) MID TOWER W/450W POWER SUPPLY 4x5.25" 2x3.5" 4x3.5"(hidden) W/ FRONT I/O PORTS, 120mm CASE FAN x 1 & 80mm LED CASE FAN x 1


$64.00
SKU: BA30158 - -



ATI RADEON X1900XTX 512MB PCI EXPRESS DDR3 w/DUAL DVI & VIVO #X1900XTX512OEM (OEM-POWERED BY ATI)
$489.00

Total: $1327
So that about does it....I wont be overclocking the machines, so getting opterons and adding juice wont jive with the bossman. The case was kind of a hit and miss thing, so I went with one with a 120mm vent and an intake or two. We are getting some awesome 23" monitors to go with them, that are around 1300 a pop.

Thanks guys,

Alex

[oasked]

Why do you need the X1900XTX? You're doing video editing right? In which case, such a high end, expensive card is a waste of money.

Ditch it and get a cheaper card. Even a nVidia 7300 would suffice. Use the extra money to get either a larger hard drive or another hard drive - 250Gb isn't that much.

If you want reliability you need a decent PSU, ditch the generic one with that case and get a 400W+ unit from Antec, Enermax, Tagan, OCZ, Seasonic or PC Power& Cooling. I also don't think that going for a case with LED fans is going to look particularly professional either.

The rest of it looks good to me though!

Revised list IMO:

AMD64 X2 4400+ Retail - $458
Abit KN8 Ultra - $92.00
EVGA nVidia 6600 PCI-E - $89.00
Corsair 2Gb kit - $178.00
Pioneer DVR-110D DVD-RW (Black) - $40.90
Antec Sonata II with 450W PSU - $99.00
Seagate 400Gb 16mb cache - $191.00

Total: $1148

Under budget with a faster CPU, larger hard drive and a better case that comes with a great power supply and a 120mm exhaust fan. What more could you ask for?

[DravisAR]

Well that is why I asked Thanks!

I think ill probably keep the video cards a couple hundred more expensive...this boss and I worked at microsoft for 3 years in games, and are still into them, so we will probably spend alot of time messing around playing em still.

Thanks again

Alex

[oasked]

Sounds like you should get crap cards for most of the systems but then hold back the X1900XTX's for you and your boss?

The 6600's can play most current games pretty well and can do all of nVidia's video processing things that they have enabled in recent drivers.

[DravisAR]

I also see a problem with the case you mentioned: it has the 120mm exhaust fan that I love, but no intake fans, or even locations for expansion fans, as far as I can see.

What about motherboards? Is that Abit even worthwhile? Ill be overclocking my system because im...well just like that, but the rest will stay stock.

[DravisAR]

And yeah...I think I will talk the boss into the XTX for just us good call

[Senor Panadero]

I also see a problem with the case you mentioned: it has the 120mm exhaust fan that I love, but no intake fans, or even locations for expansion fans, as far as I can see.

That case uses a pretty advanced airflow plan. It is more than effective enough for an office system. You will probably decide to set the fan on the lowest of the three speeds.

[DravisAR]

Thanks pandero...sounds good to me.

[grumblemarc]

I would go with either a Matrox Parhelia PH-A8X128, ATI FireGL V3100 or Nvidia Quadro FX 540 cards. Thos are all work station and not gamer cards. Much more suited to what you need to do and cost half or nearly half as much as what your 1900 would've run you.

[DravisAR]

Well like I said...we have macs running quad processors for everything to do with serious video editing, encoding, etc

They do it ALOT faster than the PCs ever will as far as ive been told buy the guys.