Proposed new build

I'm scoping a cheap system to replace the one I assembled four years ago,
which chokes on blu ray movies. Here is what I came up with:


Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473

Mainly I want something that can handle HD video - playing, ripping, and
rendering. For now I am going to stick with XP, although I will probably
want to add more RAM and install a 64-bit OS down the road. I will want to
overclock but not to the absolute max. I have two good optical drives,
including a blu ray drive, as well as a new 650w antec PSU.

Can I do much better than this without spending much more money?

The 1600 mhz RAM is the same price as the 1333 mhz. Is there any reason why
I might want 1333 mhz instead of the 1600?

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes
wrote:

Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473


* I have the Caviar Black 1TB drive and it's outstanding - Faster than
any non SCSI drive I've ever owned. Quite and cool as well.

* If you're running Win7 double up on the memory.

A_C

On 3/25/2010 5:20 AM, Agent_C wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes
wrote:

Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473


* I have the Caviar Black 1TB drive and it's outstanding - Faster than
any non SCSI drive I've ever owned. Quite and cool as well.

* If you're running Win7 double up on the memory.

A_C

I also have that Caviar drive - true, fast and no problems. Btw, Windows
7 *will* run nicely with 2 gigs of memory, but since you're planning to
all that HD video work, A_C's right, 4 gigs will make a difference,
especially since you're sacrificing a little of your RAM with the 1GB
video card.

Ron Moore

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes typed this message:

I'm scoping a cheap system to replace the one I assembled four years
ago, which chokes on blu ray movies. Here is what I came up with:


Board Asus M4A77TD $
84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
$105 RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2
GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59 Graphics card 1GB HP/
Asus Radeon Hd 4850
DDR3 256bit $100 HDD Western Digital
Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS
$ 66 Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O
PSU $ 59

TOTAL
$473

Mainly I want something that can handle HD video - playing, ripping, and
rendering. For now I am going to stick with XP, although I will probably
want to add more RAM and install a 64-bit OS down the road. I will want
to overclock but not to the absolute max. I have two good optical
drives, including a blu ray drive, as well as a new 650w antec PSU.

Can I do much better than this without spending much more money?

The 1600 mhz RAM is the same price as the 1333 mhz. Is there any reason
why I might want 1333 mhz instead of the 1600?

Larger HD 1TB and more memory 4gb. Especially for graphics work, ripping,
editing and future Win7. I assume HD4850 adequate for HD editing.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:45:47 -0700, Ron wrote:

On 3/25/2010 5:20 AM, Agent_C wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes
wrote:

Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473


* I have the Caviar Black 1TB drive and it's outstanding - Faster than
any non SCSI drive I've ever owned. Quite and cool as well.

* If you're running Win7 double up on the memory.

A_C

I also have that Caviar drive - true, fast and no problems. Btw, Windows
7 *will* run nicely with 2 gigs of memory, but since you're planning to
all that HD video work, A_C's right, 4 gigs will make a difference,
especially since you're sacrificing a little of your RAM with the 1GB
video card.

Ron Moore

If I'm running 32bit windows with the right updates, doesn't the OS use the
full 2gb of RAM plus the 1gb on the card?

On 3/25/2010 5:55 PM, Charlie Wilkes wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:45:47 -0700, Ron wrote:

On 3/25/2010 5:20 AM, Agent_C wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes
wrote:

Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473


* I have the Caviar Black 1TB drive and it's outstanding - Faster than
any non SCSI drive I've ever owned. Quite and cool as well.

* If you're running Win7 double up on the memory.

A_C

I also have that Caviar drive - true, fast and no problems. Btw, Windows
7 *will* run nicely with 2 gigs of memory, but since you're planning to
all that HD video work, A_C's right, 4 gigs will make a difference,
especially since you're sacrificing a little of your RAM with the 1GB
video card.

Ron Moore

If I'm running 32bit windows with the right updates, doesn't the OS use the
full 2gb of RAM plus the 1gb on the card?

The video graphic card doesn't do much of the work when it comes to
video-editing, although there are exceptions. Increasing the memory size
gives you more resolution and color depth options, but no increase in
overall speed. The OS uses its' RAM to run the video card; the work the
card does depends on that RAM. In other words, a 1GB card will do your
video work nicely, but it needs the system RAM to operate and draws down
on that.

hth

Ron

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:28:24 -0700, Ron wrote:

On 3/25/2010 5:55 PM, Charlie Wilkes wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:45:47 -0700, Ron wrote:

On 3/25/2010 5:20 AM, Agent_C wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:08:04 -0700, Charlie Wilkes
wrote:

Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473


* I have the Caviar Black 1TB drive and it's outstanding - Faster than
any non SCSI drive I've ever owned. Quite and cool as well.

* If you're running Win7 double up on the memory.

A_C

I also have that Caviar drive - true, fast and no problems. Btw, Windows
7 *will* run nicely with 2 gigs of memory, but since you're planning to
all that HD video work, A_C's right, 4 gigs will make a difference,
especially since you're sacrificing a little of your RAM with the 1GB
video card.

Ron Moore

If I'm running 32bit windows with the right updates, doesn't the OS use the
full 2gb of RAM plus the 1gb on the card?

The video graphic card doesn't do much of the work when it comes to
video-editing, although there are exceptions. Increasing the memory size
gives you more resolution and color depth options, but no increase in
overall speed. The OS uses its' RAM to run the video card; the work the
card does depends on that RAM. In other words, a 1GB card will do your
video work nicely, but it needs the system RAM to operate and draws down
on that.

hth

Ron

Thanks, that is helpful. ATI claims this card speeds up rendering. For $100
the 1gb OEM pulls look like the best value. If the XFX card wasn't $15
more, I'd go with it because it has better cooling. But I can rig up extra
cooling if I need it.

Steve wrote:
In article ,
says...
I'm scoping a cheap system to replace the one I assembled four years ago,
which chokes on blu ray movies. Here is what I came up with:


Board Asus M4A77TD $ 84
CPU AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition $105
RAM Corsair XMS3 DHX 2 GB - 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) $ 59
Graphics card 1GB HP/Asus Radeon Hd 4850 DDR3 256bit $100
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB WD5001AALS $ 66
Case Antec THREE HUNDRED CASE ATX MID TOWER BLACK W/O PSU $ 59

TOTAL $473

Mainly I want something that can handle HD video - playing, ripping, and
rendering. For now I am going to stick with XP, although I will probably
want to add more RAM and install a 64-bit OS down the road. I will want to
overclock but not to the absolute max. I have two good optical drives,
including a blu ray drive, as well as a new 650w antec PSU.

Can I do much better than this without spending much more money?

The 1600 mhz RAM is the same price as the 1333 mhz. Is there any reason why
I might want 1333 mhz instead of the 1600?

Max out the processor for another 50 bucks.


Or get lucky like I did.

I have the ASUS M4A78T-E mobo and a Phenom X2 545.(Black Box version)
When I first put it together, the mobo was on BIOS version 1603. After
updating to version 2503, the BIOS splash screen said "Press 4 to
activate 4 cores".

I "pressed 4". Wow...Yowza...Holy Smokes, Batman...

I now have a Deneb X4 B45!

I've run stress tests of all kinds on this "new development" 4 core, and
it appears it's all good.

I'm not planning on overclocking at this point.