Building my own PC

**clintondavidn** · #1 30th Aug 2007, 11:58

My name is Clinton and I am building my own computer. I run my own company (Jackson Flagg Ent.) and I do video marketing production. I, guess a better way to say it is that I am starting my business. I have experience in this field, however, my knowledge extends to software not the hardware. I have built computers in the past, but none to the specs that I need this one. I suppose I should say the only steadfast hardware I have found is the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD2900XT 1GB DDR4 2DVI/VIVO HDCP PCI-Express Video Card. Aside from this I really am at a loss for what I need. I was thinking of running the arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor (Thoughts? How about the AMD?) And as far as sound card the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. As for motherboad's I am totally lost. I have done research, but everyone benchmarks them by gaming and I am not really sure how that translates into my industry. I am wanting to have the ability to put out HD quality products, but most of my stuff is just going to be local companies having me manipulate already captured video. I do not record the video myself, I merely edit existing works together. A very good example of this is Movie Trailers. I do not have a giant budget, but I am working a second job to save up for the computer. I don't want to have someone else put it together really; I want to know my computer inside and out. Not just set down at it and push buttons. Call it crazy, but I have always felt that when you put time and effort into anything, you reap a lot better reward from the product you put out. Not trying to sound to ZEN here, but it gives you a relationship beyond just a keyboard with the computer. Anyway, Any help that you all can give will be greatly appreciated. If any of you would like to contact me and offer advice or just to say hello my email is **Removed**

Thank you all once again and have a great day.
Clint

**alex** · #2 30th Aug 2007, 12:46

Okay, if the main usage is going to be video editing/production. Then you'll require a lot of storage, the more ram the better, quad core cpu won't give you any benefit at the moment as I don't know of any editing software that uses 4 cores currently.

The gpu is very much overkill, even for a gamer. Even upto a res of 1920x1200 1gb of ram is ridiculous.

If going for the 2900XT, go for the 512mb version, even if your monitor has the aforementioned resolution. You're not a gamer, so even the 2900XT (regardless of which version) is overkill. But it's obviously your choice.

As you haven't mentioned budget, overall, i'd be looking at this spec:

Core 2 E6750/E6850.
4gb ddr2 6400 (800mhz) ram, or should you purchase a motherboard that recognises 1066mhz ram then that would be better. The more bandwidth the better to be frank considering your stated usage.
I'll assume you're streaming your video at the highest possible quality so I'd be looking at 2 or 3 500gb drives. Cost per gb when compared to a 750gb or 1TB hdd is a lot better. If you don't keep hard copy's I'd also think about setting two of the hdd's up on a RAID 1(mirror) format.

Also, regarding the graphics card I'd be looking at Nvidia's Quadro series of cards as the architecture of these is more geared to your quoted usage.

**clintondavidn** · #3 30th Aug 2007, 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

Also, regarding the graphics card I'd be looking at Nvidia's Quadro series of cards as the architecture of these is more geared to your quoted usage.

Awesome thank you so much. The only reason I chose that video card was because of the reviews that I had read. I am wanting to stream the video at a the highest that I can. However, I love to learn and if I need to change my thinking then by all means advise away. I will check into this Nvidia one that you spoke of. Thanks again.

**alex** · #4 30th Aug 2007, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by clintondavidn

Awesome thank you so much. The only reason I chose that video card was because of the reviews that I had read. I am wanting to stream the video at a the highest that I can. However, I love to learn and if I need to change my thinking then by all means advise away. I will check into this Nvidia one that you spoke of. Thanks again.

In that case your main points of focus are going to be the ram and the cpu. And to a lesser degree the motherboard.

If you're running large files (I'll assume you are) then the E6850 is best bet. 1066mhz (PC 8500) ram is also best bet but check any motherboard's spec's that you look at to confirm it will default this speed ram to 1066mhz and not 800mhz or 667mhz.

For the ram, go for A-Data as your brand, some of the best 1066mhz ram out there. And the best I've seen for price. That could change though considering DDR3 is on its way in.

Regarding that, don't go for DDR3, the latency will kill you and it's also still very very pricey for what it is and it's (supposed) benefits currently over DDR2.

**clintondavidn** · #5 30th Aug 2007, 14:26

Alright, this video card does look like what I am going for . . . can't believe I hadn't heard of it. Guess I was blinded by the pretty flames on the other one hahahaha. So okay, The processor looks great too and I was going over motherboards and it would seem that ASUS P5K-VM LGA 775 Intel G33 uATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131187) would work great for me. However what do you think?

**clintondavidn** · #6 5th Sep 2007, 07:00

Anyone have any thoughts on this mother board?

**alex** · #7 5th Sep 2007, 07:06

Asus P5-K? Any revision. Yup.

.

My experience of this series of mobo's (so far) is nothing short of superb. Very stable and easy to build off.

**cyberspacegenie** · #8 5th Sep 2007, 07:39

I have a P5K-E. I was a first time builder and found it a great board to work with, and had virtually no problems. It overclocks easily too. overall I can say that I'm happy with it.

A few people have had a some problems with this series related the sata ports and cables, though I didn't experience any. These boards also run hotter than most because of the positioning of the motherboard sensor. its not a problem, but just to make you aware. When I got the board the temps were close to the cpu temps so I was a little worried about this, when I checked on the asus forums I found out about the sensor positioning.

**clintondavidn** · #9 5th Sep 2007, 08:13

Thanks so much for the advice and information. This is awesome you guys are the bomb!

**clintondavidn** · #10 5th Sep 2007, 10:40

okay, so I have looked high and low for 1066 2gb memory and have come up with only packs of two 1gb chips. I really wanted more than 4 gbs of memory because I am going to be running vista and the video card will take up a gig it says. So that would leave my system to run on 2 gb, but then again I always try to be the boyscout and get more than I really need. I just don't want to build a nice computer and then cheat myself on performance because I skimped on memory. Any suggestions?