Planning a system for a friend, need advice

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:39 am

Hi guys and girls,

a friend of mine is building a home computer for himself. He will get the computer through his employer and because of this his component selection is somewhat limited regarding manufacturers. The "problem" is, that all components must remain in stock condition, so I cannot swap heatsinks etc... This person doesn't play at all, so a very lightweight GFX card is OK. He has a server, so he really doesn't need big chunks of storage space. The computer will mainly be used for surfing, movies, digital video cam encoding etc... "normal medium usage"

Below is a list of things I've gathered, I would appreciate your help on this one

Motherboard, S939
Possible manufacturers are ASUS, Abit, Asrock, MSI and Intel.

I'm planning on taking a Venice core Athlon64 3000/3200+ for his system. I've understood the stock HSF isn't THAT horrible...?

Are there any good boards out there that have four SATA connections onboard, RAID5 or RAID10 would be nice? C'n'Q appreciated also. Should we be looking at nForce3 or nForce4? AGP or PCI-E?

I've though about using two 1Gb/512mb sticks of RAM as DC. Kingston is the only viable manufacturer in this case. Are the HyperX memories worth considering or should just go with good ol' ValueRAM?

GFX card:
as stated, mainly 2D usage. So I think a GF6200 or similar will be OK.

HDD:
1-2pcs Samsung SP1614C (SATA, 160GB, 8mb). AFAIK, these newer Samsung drives should also be quite quiet?

The case will be one of Compucase, the choice would be between LX-6A21 and CI-6919. PSU will be a HEC, most likely the new Powermaster 480W (only HEC with a ready 24-pin ATX-connector)

So, if you got this far, thanks for reading! Suggestions especially on the motherboard selection would be very much appreciated. Thank you!

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 1:43 am

Anyone?

Not really sure why there hasn't been any answers... Stupid question(s)?

vertigo · Post by **vertigo** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:26 am

Since this PC is for your friend, it is likely that any problems it might have will be blamed on you. You are going to fashion this PC into a work of art and they are going to absolutely not appreciate it.

If this friend has any ingenuity, get them to build their own PC, or get them involved in choosing what to buy. I think people haven't given advice because they think it will be wasted. While we might be inclined to help you, most likely we won't be inclined to help you help your useless friend.

So again, get your friend to decide what components to buy, determine if they need the four SATA ports, etc. If this is for a girlfriend, believe me she doesn't care about how quiet the PC is. Buy her flowers, etc, not a quiet PC.

scara · Post by **scara** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:37 am

I'm not quite sure what balance your friends system needs (how much encoding is he going to be doing?), so here's my thoughts for a general purpose computer.

Motherboard, CPU + RAM
A Venice 3000+ would do fine, but if you're not overclocking go for the fastest within budget. No need to go above 3500+ really though.

Most SATA boards have at least four connectors. RAID5 still doesn't seem to be particularly standard but plenty of boards have it. I think you should be looking at the VIA chipsets. Most of them are passive at stock and they're not noticeably slower than the best nVidia's in general use.

There's nothing wrong with Kingston ValueRAM for a basic system. However if he's doing a lot of video work and the budget allows it, go for 2GB of HyperX.

Graphics
The 6200's are nice enough 2D desktop cards and of course you'll be looking for a passive one. I think there's a thread here with a highly recommended dual DVi card from GigaByte or similar. Go for PCI-E unless you find a really good AGP motherboard.

HDD
Yep, nothing wrong there. Consider the new 200GB models for a little more speed and space if the video encoding needs it.

Case + PSU
Both of those cases are good for the price, just get whichever your friend prefers the looks of. Is there a reason to get such a powerful PSU though? Are you not considering other brands?

Sorry I couldn't be more help for the motherboard. If you stick to one of the bigger names and check their forums for any problems you can't go wrong these days.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:02 am

Hi guys and thank you for the answers!

Vertigo: Somehow I get this feeling you've built a few systems for your friends/family

Scara: Thank you for the info, I think I'm mostly looking for re-assurance for my plans and to see if someone comes up with a thought I didn't think of. After all, I have to say I'm still using socket A, that's where my knowledge ends

I think the PCI-E should be the way to go, gives a bit more upgrade possibilities compared to AGP. Gigabyte isn't an option, but I remember ASUS made passive 6200's also. I'll have to find a passive one from one the available manufacturers.

The reason why I'm looking at a big PSU from this manufacturer, is that the HEC is the only PSU brand available through the distributor they use. Also, the they only have the 480W version of the Powermaster, which also happens to be the only model with a 24-pin ATX connector. The Powermaster has more up-to-date connectors (X * SATA, PCI-E) than the other HEC-models, which would be OK otherwise. Saves us from buying adapters.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:38 am

I remember reading about a passive GeForce 6200 PCI-E turbocache card that had 64mb on board memory and could use X amount of system memory - not too expensive, reasonable performance if he/ she does decide to do some gaming and should produce relatively little heat. Sounds ideal for your friend

vertigo · Post by **vertigo** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:58 am

Vertigo: Somehow I get this feeling you've built a few systems for your friends/family

When I was studying I built PC's for pocket money. The same thing always came up: "Why is your PC more expensive than this one in XXX shop?"

I always had to explain that my PC had more memory, bigger drive, better motherboard, better CPU, all for nearly the same price, a much better buy in other words. Not everybody was interested. Most opted for ugly celeron machines over XP1700's and such. I mean it was blatantly stupid.

The worst was when a friend of a friend wanted a PC, and I put together this mean Athlon64 PC, I would have killed to keep it. I set up the cooling nicely, everything. I gave him a reduced price, etc. The guy was never happy with it, I kept on hearing about how he wished he had done this or that, how we wasn't happy. What a loser! From then I figured no more favours for friends of friends. It just isn't worth it.

For friends I will do favours if I think they will appreciate it, otherwise I won't. Let them suffer, they just want to leech anyhow. I won't help a friend of a friend any more than I would help a stranger.

PS: I don't help people because they need it, I help them because they want and will appreciate it.