I'm planning to put together a new pc sometime soon and need a little help. I'm perfectly capable of doing the assembly myself, I've built several comps including a mini-itx system stuffed inside a large cardboard beer can. The problem is, I don't have time to keep up with the latest in chips, hardware, etc which brings me here.
Anyone care to recommend some components? I'll be using it primarily for photo editing, internet (including torrents), some solidworks/cosmosworks fea although I try to do all of that at work, and the occasional video processing. I've got some components I may re-use including a case and power supply but new isn't out of the question. I've got some external hard drives that will stay in service but they are getting kind of small by today's standards.
My current comp is a Compaq R3200 laptop with an AMD 64 3000+, 1gb of ram and an 80 gig 5400rpm hard drive running xp pro. It handles most everything I do now except the fea. Also on the network is the mini-itx jukebox I mentioned above and my file server which is an AMD 1.2ghz system with 512mb of ram and a pair of 120gb drives running Win2k pro.
If it helps at all, I like AMD chips and have had good luck with them. I prefer to have one drive with the OS and installed programs and at least on other internal that is for data. I've had horrible luck with Seagate drives btw. Input devices, speakers, monitors, etc are all covered.
Fire away with suggestions. If I missed anything, let me know. I'll be at tomshardware.com if anyone needs me. Oh yeah, budget is say a grand and one stop shopping is a plus if you want to link to deals (ie. everything from newegg or zipzoomfly, etc)
Thanks in advance.
Anyone care to recommend some components? I'll be using it primarily for photo editing, internet (including torrents), some solidworks/cosmosworks fea although I try to do all of that at work, and the occasional video processing. I've got some components I may re-use including a case and power supply but new isn't out of the question. I've got some external hard drives that will stay in service but they are getting kind of small by today's standards.
My current comp is a Compaq R3200 laptop with an AMD 64 3000+, 1gb of ram and an 80 gig 5400rpm hard drive running xp pro. It handles most everything I do now except the fea. Also on the network is the mini-itx jukebox I mentioned above and my file server which is an AMD 1.2ghz system with 512mb of ram and a pair of 120gb drives running Win2k pro.
If it helps at all, I like AMD chips and have had good luck with them. I prefer to have one drive with the OS and installed programs and at least on other internal that is for data. I've had horrible luck with Seagate drives btw. Input devices, speakers, monitors, etc are all covered.
Fire away with suggestions. If I missed anything, let me know. I'll be at tomshardware.com if anyone needs me. Oh yeah, budget is say a grand and one stop shopping is a plus if you want to link to deals (ie. everything from newegg or zipzoomfly, etc)
Thanks in advance.
