Help choose multiple new components!

[Wandere]

Hi, I'm building a PC for personal use and can use a hand.

Tasks:
-Video editing/encoding (new babies in family...woohoo!)
-Net/email, etc. On home network.
-Database work (Access)
-Photo editing/long term storage.
-Some gaming, not hardcore. (FPS and RTS)
-P2P file sharing
-MP3 station

Current Rig:
-AMD 1600+
-Soyo Dragon Plus board
-GeForce3 ti200 AGP video card
-Antec tower with 330W smartpower supply
-512 RAM
-110 Gigs across 3 3.5" drives. CD-ROM and CDRW drives
-19" KDS VS monitor (dying...flywheel screams!)
Note: System currently unstable

What I'm looking for:
-Small computer to sit on my desk. Thinking of using a quiet nmediapc case...thoughts? NMediaPC case

What I've purchased so far:
-19" Dell 1905 LCD monitor (recent great deal)

What I need help with:
-Motherboard (microatx probably). Passive northbridge cooling preferred
-Processor (thinking 3200+?)
-Video card, preferrably passive cooling. DVI a huge plus to match the new monitor. Inexpensive.
-Elegant case for desktop use in living area...d-vine, etc are too expensive.
-Drive setup (250GB+): Thinking RAID1 for safety...OR....would it be better to use a single internal drive and an external drive and do periodic backups? Which is safer?

Budget:
I'm a bang-for-your-buck kinda guy. Don't want junk but won't pay hundreds of dollars more for a few extra framerates.

Overclocking: Probably not, but I used to quite a bit. Celery 300 to 450? Those were the days.

Aesthetics and noise are kinda big issues. ANY advice is welcome! I typically build new rigs once every 3 years...so it should be "good enough" to last at least 2. The need for growing storage is some concern, we'll see.

Thanks! I really appreciate the hand. (and yeah, I've searched my butt off and have looked at comparison charts until my eyes bled...really, they're still bleeding now...ouch)

-Wandere

 

[Tostada]

That's a little too vague. The problem is that video editing and gaming are probably the two things that require the best hardware you can get, so at the very least you need to provide a budget so that people can tell you the best bang-for-your-buck in that range.

How much of a priority is it to have a cute little tiny system?

The Antec Aria is very similar to what you were looking at:
yhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129146

You could get one of the really small SFF boxes, but that really limits your upgradability and adds about another $100 to the overall price. The NMEDIAPC boxes fall into that category:
http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/Vi...Desc.asp?description=56-160-004&depa=0

If you want something small, the Biostar SFF would probably be a better choice, and can actually fit 2 drives if you're serious about wanting RAID (which I don't think is necessary):
http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/vi...desc.asp?description=56-115-019&DEPA=0

As far as SFF machines are concerned, I'd be looking at:

CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ Retail $83.49 (ChiefValue)
SFF: Biostar IDEQ S754 NF3 250Gb $249 (newegg)
video: Sapphire Radeon 9600 128MB $69 (ChiefValue)
HDD: Seagate 250GB SATA 7200.8 $133.95 (ChiefValue)
RAM: Corsair 2 x 512MB DDR400 $81 (ZipZoomFly)
CD: Pioneer DVR-109 black DVD-R $55.99 (newegg)

$672.43 delivered

That's going to be a good system if you want something really quiet and you're not getting into the gaming too much. It's really not a bad card for gaming, though. It's DX9, passive, has DVI, and it's good enough to play FarCry in 1024x768 just fine. The Sempron is plenty fast for putting together videos ... it just depends how much actual editing of the videos you're doing. The Socket 754 Semprons are very nice CPUs that run very cool, and if you used one you'd probably understand that there's not much reason to spend twice as much for something that's a little faster. That Seagate is probably the best bang for the buck right now as far as hard drives are concerned. You're not going to do better than $0.50/GB, and the 7200.8 has 133GB platters and a sequential transfer up to 70MB/sec, which will be good for the video editing. If you wanted to spend more, I'd be looking at:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ OEM $149 (newegg)
SFF: Shuttle SN95G5 S939 NF3 Ultra $289 (ZipZoomFly)
video: GigaByte GeForce 6600 256MB $142.95 (ZipZoomFly)
HDD: Seagate 250GB SATA 7200.8 $133.95 (ChiefValue)
RAM: Corsair 2 x 512MB DDR400 $81 (ZipZoomFly)
CD: Pioneer DVR-109 black DVD-R $55.99 (newegg)

$851.89 delivered

The Venice Athlon 64s are the next best bang for the buck. That's about the fastest passive video you can get. There are faster passive PCI-E cards, but nobody makes a good SFF with PCI-E that I know of (there's the Radeon Xpress SFF, but that's a slow chipset in certain things and it's just not catching on and probably won't ever get much support). Besides, just because something has a huge heatsink doesn't mean it's not making as much heat as the version with a fan, so you really want to be carful with SFF boxes.

 

[Wandere]

Ahh...thanks for helping with the homework!

The Aria is very tempting and I like that it's microATX and not a proprietary form factor for the mobo. It does have some heat/noise issues that might be mitigated by a more traditional HTPC case with good venting on the top cover. Decisions decisions...

Hmmm...the external drive might be better than RAID 1 for security as long as I remember to backup. Less heat/noise from case. This means I need a mobo with a rock-solid USB implementation too. Looking at a couple of mATX with PCI-e (MSI/Foxconn). If the XPress chipsets aren't doing too well, I should focus on Nforce 4? ATI's may have USB hiccups too, can't afford to lose data during transfers.

I'm going to pull the trigger on the Memory right now (DDR400).

Think a 939 board is necessary or is the 754 about the same in speed/features. I don't need voltage tuning, etc but decent onboard sound and ANY help when gaming in 1280x1024 would help (Hmm....PCIe?). Like your Venice/Sempron ideas, anything to cool the CPU with least amount of noise is good...zalman7000 or similar probably. I need to hit some video encoding comparisons between the two chips.

I like the seagates...and fewer platters means less noise. Great suggestions! Cruising the hot deals forum for goodies on the drives. Was thinking of waiting for Samsung's SATAII products too, they're supposed to go up to 250GB I think.

Thanks Tostada, I appreciate the great reply!

-Wandere

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: Wandere
Ahh...thanks for helping with the homework!

The Aria is very tempting and I like that it's microATX and not a proprietary form factor for the mobo. It does have some heat/noise issues that might be mitigated by a more traditional HTPC case with good venting on the top cover. Decisions decisions...

Yeah... The Aria is nice, but I think in the end you'd probably be better off with one of the quieter true SFF models or else just get a small regular MATX tower.

Hmmm...the external drive might be better than RAID 1 for security as long as I remember to backup. Less heat/noise from case. This means I need a mobo with a rock-solid USB implementation too. Looking at a couple of mATX with PCI-e (MSI/Foxconn). If the XPress chipsets aren't doing too well, I should focus on Nforce 4? ATI's may have USB hiccups too, can't afford to lose data during transfers.

RAID 1 just doesn't make sense for anything you're doing video editing on. You have to have serious need of a real-time full backup, and you haven't said anything to justify that.

I'm going to pull the trigger on the Memory right now (DDR400).

Think a 939 board is necessary or is the 754 about the same in speed/features. I don't need voltage tuning, etc but decent onboard sound and ANY help when gaming in 1280x1024 would help (Hmm....PCIe?). Like your Venice/Sempron ideas, anything to cool the CPU with least amount of noise is good...zalman7000 or similar probably. I need to hit some video encoding comparisons between the two chips.

You're certainly not going to fit a Zalman 7000 in anything small.

I really haven't seen many good benchmarks of the new 90nm Semprons. Most of them never retested after they benchmarked the 130nm ones. The performance is very similar to the Winchester 90nm Athlon 64s that they're based off (although I'd stick with the 256K cache Sempron 2800, not the 128K cache 2600 or 3000).

I like the seagates...and fewer platters means less noise. Great suggestions! Cruising the hot deals forum for goodies on the drives. Was thinking of waiting for Samsung's SATAII products too, they're supposed to go up to 250GB I think.

Samsung makes great drives if you're looking for something cheap, but I wouldn't count on them being better than the good Seagates, and Seagate has a 5-year warranty.

Thanks Tostada, I appreciate the great reply!

-Wandere

NP. I really wouldn't think too hard about any of the little details until you decide on what kind of case you need, though.