Looking to spend 2 grand on desktop..

03tiburonz · 03-16-2005, 05:36 PM

Hey guys. Ive got 2grand to get a desktop that i plan on using for multimedia purposes. It must burn dvd's and have alot of storage. I dont want to pay for a bunch of crap put together to make the computer "look" like a good deal. What reccomendations can you fellas offer?

**Lax** · 03-16-2005, 05:49 PM

So you're not going to be using it for gaming at all? If this is the case you should probably get an intel, generally cheaper and in most benchmarks preform better in multimedia/cpu intensive things. As for a mobo Abit/Asus/DFI all make good boards for relatively cheap, can't think of any specs/nice ones off the top of my head and I can't really look either (in school). For memory if you're going to be doing graphically intense tings such as rendering video and what not you might wanna load it up, but 1 Gb should be fine also, some nice companies in my mind are Kingston/Crucial/Micron/Samsung/Corsair. Case doesn't really matter if you don't want it for looks, just get a generic server tower or something of the like (mid/full). As for HDD space it depends how you want it allocated. If you want it as one big chunk you might want to look into RAID arrays and SATA drives. If you want to just have a lot of space spread across a few drives I would stick with PATA (IDE) depending on how many drives and how much space you want. For a graphics card (if you're not gaming) the ATI 9600 or 9700 are nice cards along with the Nvidia FX 5960 (not an Nvidia guy). As for audio if you want to use the stock audio on the motherboard usually it's Dolby 5.1 or 6.1 (I never see a need to buy an extra card). Can't think of anything I missed or messed up on. I'm sure Prae will have some good advice for you, he's usually very knowledgable on building computers for specific functions.

691175002 · 03-17-2005, 12:04 AM

If you want a lot of storage i'd sugest looking into raid 5. Otherwise Lord AnthraX has the idea.

Blue · 03-17-2005, 12:53 AM

I'd assume that by multimedia you mean a computer for watching movies and listening to music? or video editing?

Quote:

Case doesn't really matter if you don't want it for looks, just get a generic server tower or something of the like (mid/full).

Although I'd argue that case is very important as you want excellent airflow and and room for many fans or watercooling as you'll start to generate a fair amount of heat with such a setup.

Also if you have the money which it sounds as though you do I'd pick up one of the Nvidia 6800gt or Ultra as your building a multimedia centre pc the PureVideo feature of these cards is a pretty neat feature. Also I'd prob. instal a slightly higher end sound card here as you would find better performance overal over the onboard which as suggested is pretty good in most cases anyhow. Aslo the raid option is a nice thought and used alot on multimedia and gaming pcs which is really sorta useless on a gaming pc. I'd suggest all SATA drives as you'll realize better performance.

mgoldb2 · 03-17-2005, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 03tiburonz

Hey guys. Ive got 2grand to get a desktop that i plan on using for multimedia purposes. It must burn dvd's and have alot of storage. I dont want to pay for a bunch of crap put together to make the computer "look" like a good deal. What reccomendations can you fellas offer?

Can you be a little more specific on exactly what you plan on doing with the computer. Like is it for viewing multimedia or for creating multimedia or both.

03-16-2005, 05:36 PM	#1 (permalink)
03tiburonz New Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 1	Looking to spend 2 grand on desktop.. Hey guys. Ive got 2grand to get a desktop that i plan on using for multimedia purposes. It must burn dvd's and have alot of storage. I dont want to pay for a bunch of crap put together to make the computer "look" like a good deal. What reccomendations can you fellas offer?

03-17-2005, 12:04 AM	#3 (permalink)
691175002 Gold Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Calgary, Canada Age: 17 Posts: 376	If you want a lot of storage i'd sugest looking into raid 5. Otherwise Lord AnthraX has the idea. __________________

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

03-16-2005, 05:49 PM	#2 (permalink)
Lax Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Snow country Age: 21 Posts: 2,278	So you're not going to be using it for gaming at all? If this is the case you should probably get an intel, generally cheaper and in most benchmarks preform better in multimedia/cpu intensive things. As for a mobo Abit/Asus/DFI all make good boards for relatively cheap, can't think of any specs/nice ones off the top of my head and I can't really look either (in school). For memory if you're going to be doing graphically intense tings such as rendering video and what not you might wanna load it up, but 1 Gb should be fine also, some nice companies in my mind are Kingston/Crucial/Micron/Samsung/Corsair. Case doesn't really matter if you don't want it for looks, just get a generic server tower or something of the like (mid/full). As for HDD space it depends how you want it allocated. If you want it as one big chunk you might want to look into RAID arrays and SATA drives. If you want to just have a lot of space spread across a few drives I would stick with PATA (IDE) depending on how many drives and how much space you want. For a graphics card (if you're not gaming) the ATI 9600 or 9700 are nice cards along with the Nvidia FX 5960 (not an Nvidia guy). As for audio if you want to use the stock audio on the motherboard usually it's Dolby 5.1 or 6.1 (I never see a need to buy an extra card). Can't think of anything I missed or messed up on. I'm sure Prae will have some good advice for you, he's usually very knowledgable on building computers for specific functions.