massive spending - prepare for a special event

[UALOneKPlus]

I made some major purchases the last few days.

I have to confess I'm a tightwad most of the time, as I haven't bought a new PC since 1998, never had a Camcorder, and never had a DVD player until a year ago.

Well, I bought a Canon A70 digital camera last Friday (as a gift for my wife in addition to my Nikon Coolpix 4300 which was a Xmas gift) to myself, a Canon ZR70MC digital camcorder the same day, and today ordered a sweet PC.

The reason I'm buying these is cause my wife is gonna give birth to our first child in a few weeks, and I wanted the digital tools to capture and burn to DVD those special moments.

Well, the system I picked up is a custom PC from www.MonarchComputer.com. I chose them based upon their high resellerratings.com rating (their customers rave about them). My PC is a highly customized PC. The specs:

Cases: 100605 - No PS - Lian-Li PC-60 Aluminum $112.00 $112.00
Case Fan: None
Motherboards: 110523 - Asus P4C800 Deluxe (i875 Canterwood 800/5 $192.00 $192.00
Processor: 120443 - Intel P4 478 2.8 GHz 800 FSB (Retail Box- $299.00 $299.00
Heat Sink Fan: None
Memory: 140845 - DDR (400) 3200 - 512 MB CAS-2 Corsair CMX $105.00 $105.00
Hard Drive: 150512 - IBM 120 GB 7200 $159.00 $159.00
2nd Hard Drive: None
RAID Setup: None
CD-ROM: None
DVD: None
CD-RW/DVD-RW: None
Floppy Drive: None
More Storage: None
Sound Card: None
Video Card: 190607 - ATI (Power Color) Radeon 7500 128MB DDR 2 $79.00 $79.00
Modem: None
Operating System: 210112 - Windows XP Home Edition $89.00 $89.00
Network Card: None
Add On Card: None
2nd Memory: None
Power Supply: 100934 - Enermax Whisper EG465P-VE(FC) (No Knob) 4

Total is about $1,400 with some extra accessories.

I'm adding 3 additional hard drives, a DVD Rom, a DVD+RW (special from OfficeMax this week for $150 after rebates), 2 Lite-On 52x24x52's to this sweet baby.

It's primary purpose: to capture digital video from my Canon ZR70MC and burn DVDs. Gaming is not necessary since I got an XBOX as a birthday gift.

What do you guys think?

I looked at Best Buy, CompUSA, Dell, etc -- didn't like anything they had - I didn't need any monitors, keyboards, mouses, etc. I just wanted a hardcore PC with lots of space for Optical drives and hard drives...

[tazdevl]

Dont bother with a 2.8C, get a 2.4C. The minimum overclock people are getting is 3.2GHZ. Saves you a few bucks.

Also I'd spend a few extra bucks and pick up some matched TwinX Corsair XMS 3200... worth the investment with a Canterwood motherboard.

I also think that graphic card is a waste on that system. I'd recommend a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro based product.

Other thing I saw... I'd pick up a Antec Truepower 480, quieter, cheaper, more power and voltages are tighter.

Sink a few extra bucks and pick up XP Pro as well.

[UALOneKPlus]

Cool, thanks for the advice!!!

Can you also elaborate on how the ATI Radeon is much better than the 7500, if I'm not going to use the PC for gaming?

Thanks...

Dont bother with a 2.8C, get a 2.4C. The minimum overclock people are getting is 3.2GHZ. Saves you a few bucks.

Also I'd spend a few extra bucks and pick up some matched TwinX Corsair XMS 3200... worth the investment with a Canterwood motherboard.

I also think that graphic card is a waste on that system. I'd recommend a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro based product.

Other thing I saw... I'd pick up a Antec Truepower 480, quieter, cheaper, more power and voltages are tighter.

Sink a few extra bucks and pick up XP Pro as well.

[CignaXI]

I agree with tazdevl, get the TwinX Corsair XMS 3200 your P4 800fsb will thank you a lot. Also that Ati 7500 it's a little overpriced unless it is a AIW. Still you should get something newer, at least try with the 8500DV or 8500 AIW(double check that, I don't think a 7500 will have DDR 2 in it).

Most video devices connect to the pc through firewire, you should check that your motherboard includes onboard firewire IEEE1394 interface.

PS: Great PC Case choice.

[UALOneKPlus]

Thanks CignaXI. I'm curious about the memory. How much of a practical speed differential would it be, if I didn't overclock my CPU, and I mainly use the PC for importing video from the digital camcorder, and burning DVD's?

The case you're showing looks awesome! I'm considering an Aquarium display, believe it or not, since all I've had to date are just plain old vanilla cases!

I agree with tazdevl, get the TwinX Corsair XMS 3200 your P4 800fsb will thank you a lot. Also that Ati 7500 it's a little overpriced unless it is a AIW. Still you should get something newer, at least try with the 8500DV or 8500 AIW(double check that, I don't think a 7500 will have DDR 2 in it).

Most video devices connect to the pc through firewire, you should check that your motherboard includes onboard firewire IEEE1394 interface.

PS: Great PC Case choice.

[CignaXI]

from xbitlas:

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Modern CPUs put much higher demands onto the memory subsystem than it can meet. Today's 533MHz FSB of Pentium 4 CPUs delivers 4.3GB/s bandwidth. The upcoming 800MHz FSB will notch 6.4GB/s. At the same time, the maximum bandwidth of a standard DDR module is 3.2GB/s. This is not enough even for the current system bus and we can't hope for any significant advances in the near future.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/qbm.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually this bandwidth in theory is achieved using dual channel mode, which your mobo supports. For this you will need two sticks of the same capacity. Video editing software loads the CPU a lot, so if you want a little more performance this will be good.

TwinX Corsair XMS 3200 are high frequency and with really good timings supplying the necessary bandwidth to the CPU.

[BuddhaTB]

I love that case!! Next time around, I want an aquarium or something built into my case.

Everything else looks good to me except for that hard drive. $159 on an IBM 120GB hard drive is a rip. There have been some incredible deals on 120GB HD's with 8MB cache for around $100 the past few weeks. I would suggest getting the cheapest hard drive possible from the website and then adding an addition larger capacity one you find for a very good price later on.

[CignaXI]

Here is another great link if want more info about memory:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/memory_basics/153707/index.html

[CignaXI]

The bad thing about these cases is that you have to mod your drives or else your PC would look like this:



Also it would be good to add some firewire and speakers jack to the front panel beside the usb.

[UALOneKPlus]

Thanks guys!! I did change the HD from the 120GB to a 40GB HD, just because I've already got great deals on several HD's throughout the last few months ready to go into the case.

I inquired about the XMS memory, and it seems the XMS memory is incompatible with the Mobo set up I selected for now, so I'll stick with the dual CMS memory sticks and hope it works okay.

The acquarium case is gonna be awesome! My baby is gonna love looking at it when I'm editing videos of the family

I can't believe I blew through so much money on this PC and the digital video stuff so quick, but fortunately saved a lot of money with coupons

[UALOneKPlus]

Ok I've had my new PC for 2 days now. After getting it set up w/ the 4 Optical drives, and swapped out the 40 GB for an 80 GB SE Western Digital HD, 120 GB SE Western Digital HD, and an 80 GB 8MB Cache Maxtor drive (all are on the RocketRaid 404 Raid PCI card), I can't believe how fast this mobo is!!

To jump from my old AMD k6 233 Mhz PC to this new Pentium 800 Mhz FSB PC is like going from a bicycle to a jet fighter!!

Monarch Computer provided pretty good support on this, although I did have to wait for a while on the phone to get some questions answered.

I installed the Aquarium case yesterday ( http://scasp.webnow.biz/upload/a0000010 ... d_1107.jpg ), and the thing is pretty sweet. The air pump makes some noise, so I may disconnect it when I need to focus on work.

The only other thing I'm considering right now is some type of temperature monitor for one of the spare 3.5" bays, but I'm not sure if that's worth the money.

Wow, it feels good to be back on the current edge of technology after being a laggard for 5 years!!!

[TheWizard]

Temperature monitor? Hmm, not sure. Just get some fans in there and you'll be fine. The three hard drives are going to heat up the case like a mother, not to mention the heat emanating from the other hardware.