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[Myoclonic Jerk]

I'm building a PC, mainly for photoshop..

this is what I've chosen so far

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JB 120GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM -- $74.00

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4-4X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail -- $85.00

Antec TRUE430 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail -- $85.00

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2PT - Retail -- $123.00

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX - Retail -- $219.00


Need:

-3D-Card, something between $60-100 (keep in mind its NOT for games)
-Case (buying it for my wife, so I think the looks is the most important thing here
-DVD burner + drive
-what else?


need your suggestions please.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jenov]

I'm building a PC, mainly for photoshop..

this is what I've chosen so far

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JB 120GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM -- $74.00

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4-4X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail -- $85.00

Antec TRUE430 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail -- $85.00

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2PT - Retail -- $123.00

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX - Retail -- $219.00


Need:

-3D-Card, something between $60-100 (keep in mind its NOT for games)
-Case (buying it for my wife, so I think the looks is the most important thing here
-DVD burner + drive
-what else?


need your suggestions please.

Thanks in advance

If she's not going to play games on it, do you really think she was some flashy neo-colored tricked out case?

Just buy normal old parts with crappy brand names. She can use explorer all she wants :arr

 

[Hooker]

If it's for your wife, the cute-factor needs to be factored in. Shuttles always tend to be big hits, take a look into those.


DVD-Burner, go for the NEC 3540 - Best bang for your buck, bar none!

Integrated graphics may be enough for you. Otherwise, look op some ATi x300 cards or something - your criteria here should be noise, so look into passively cooled cards

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I need it o be a decent PC, cuz she uses photoshop a lot

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Thanks Hooker, I don't care about noise, I just want the 3D-card to be able to handle photoshop.. oh and Sims2

 

[Hooker]

Sims2 is pretty taxing though. (well, if you crank the res and eye-candy)

Something like an x600/700 (depending on budget) should suffice I reckon.

 

[PotatoeMasher]

"Let me touch you"

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

help please

 

[element]

This is all from newegg:

AMD Sempron 64 3400+
MSI K8N NEO3-F Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4-4X
2 x CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
SAPPHIRE 100121L Radeon X700 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JS 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
COOLMAX CR-450B ATX 450W "140mm Fan" Power Supply
Total = $611.91 w/o shipping

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

thanks a lot...

so you think I should drop the XMS RAM?

most of the parts are like the ones I've chose right?

 

[element]

thanks a lot...

so you think I should drop the XMS RAM?

most of the parts are like the ones I've chose right?

No need to have the XMS RAM, especially if your getting a quality value label.

The new 3400+ Sempron 64 are pretty powerful for their price, and you can O/C them to outperform a AMD 3800+ 64. If your wife was doing more multimedia (video editing and such), then a full 64 might have been good. But this is a better price to performance chip.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I don't o/c cuz I don't know how, and I just like thigs as they are lol ...

How about that case, does it come with fans or I have to buy them separately?

This is it right?

 

[element]

I don't o/c cuz I don't know how, and I just like thigs as they are lol ...

How about that case, does it come with fans or I have to buy them separately?

This is it right?

that case comes with case fans, but no power supply.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

New order from higher authorities: Take down the price by a LOT

ok but she still wants it to run "stable" and "smooth" with photoshop, she can wait on Sims 2

 

[Hooker]

I have that same case (albeit modded) - And it IS available WITH a power supply. A 380W one. More than enough for modern PCs. It was €35 more than the plain one

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

How about THIS RAM, it says its faster.. and its cheaper

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I have that same case (albeit modded) - And it IS available WITH a power supply. A 380W one. More than enough for modern PCs. It was €35 more than the plain one

I think I'm buying a good PSU

 

[element]

How about THIS RAM, it says its faster.. and its cheaper

that is DDR2, won't work.

There really aren't too many places to take cost off, if you want a PC that lasts any good amount of time. I'd say you could knock of $40 or $50 by getting a case with a PSU. Outside of that, your getting into nickel and dime stuff.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I took it down to $472

I'll post the specs now

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

CD ROM/ DVD WR:

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM -- $39.99

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SOHD-16P9SBLK - Retail -- $19.99



HDD:

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JB 120GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM -- $74.00


Mobo:
MSI K8T Neo-V Socket 754 VIA K8T800 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail -- $61.00



3D-Card:
Rosewill RW5200-128D2 Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail -- $36.99



PSU:
Rosewill RV450 ATX 450W Power Supply - Retail -- $34.99



RAM:
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail --$90.50



Processor:
AMD Sempron 64 3400+ Palermo 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor Model SDA3400BXBOX - Retail -- $135.00


GAF... I need your approval

EDIT:

cancelled the case, cuz I have one that I'm not using

 

[element]

I'd spend the extra couple bucks and get the MSI K8N NEO3-F (pcie), and then get SAPPHIRE 586L Radeon X300SE 128MB. Also get the COOLMAX CX-400B ATX 400W Power Supply, not the rosewill. Stay way from rosewill :O

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I really don't care about PCI-E (whats teh benifits beside being future proof?)

I'll upgrade the PSU though...


she won't be playing games on it AT ALL, not even Sims 2

 

[Hooker]

You don't need a killer PSU, the whole thing is overrated too!!



I'm running a Northwood 2.4 @ 2.6, Radeon 9800 XT @ 440/380(760), 1 WD Raptor 74, 2 60 GB Deskstars, and a shitload of other expansion cards. And a 380W Coolermaster PSU does it's work perfectly. (And I'm very sure I'm taxing it a lot more than this rig will)

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Thanks a lot Hooker & element

I think the system is finalized now, I've changed the Rosewell with the COOLMAX


is everything there? am I missing anything before I place the order?

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Added Logitech mouse MX510 $ 28

 

[Shogmaster]

I'm gonna have to trump everyone in this thread since it's a PShop PC, and lord knows I built a ton of these over the years, and I use PShop and Painter for a living.

First of all, forget about the super low latency RAM. Not needed at all. This isn't gaming. Instead, jack up the amount of RAM. With regular 512MB DIMM of PC3200 going for less than $50, there is no reason to get less than 2GB of RAM in dual channel mode, even though right now PShop will only use about 1.5GB of that. The rest can go to Windows and other things she might be running.

Second, 939 A64 is GREAT choice. The best Pshop CPU right now (including Prescott P4s and G5) barring FX version or X2 version. Just make sure that it's the latest core (such as San Diego) that allows for all 4 DIMMs to go at full clockspeed.

Third, PShop does see a decent boost from dual channel mode RAM, so make sure you get that going for her.

Fourth, for flexibility and user friendliness, get a nVidia video card over ATI. And makes sure that the card has DVI if you plan to get her a LCD monitor.

Fifth, if you are going with LCD monitor, make sure it is a slow 24bit color TFT instead of fast 18bit color LCD. She isn't going to game with it, but she will need more accurate color. If a 24bit color LCD is too expensive, just get her a good Aperture Grille CRT instead.

Sixth, if this is strictly going to be a PShop workstation, 80GB hard drive is plenty big. If she will store music and videos too then go bigger. But whatever you do. Make sure to partition the HDD so that PShop scratch disc is not on the same partition as the Windows partition.

That's about it. There's no need to spend more than $1000 for this rig, BTW. And it will spank dual G5 PowerMac on everything but SMP enabled filters and actions.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Thank shogmaster,

but we're trying to go as cheap as possible while consintrating on photoshop..

if I would go with 939 it'll cost me more

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

I'm placing the order...

thanks guys

 

[CabbageRed]

Just getting caffine in me now so this might have already been pointed out but I'm not seeing an operating system in the costs.