Building a Media Server/Value Workstation

[G9]

Components:

CASE (x1 for $45)*: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Computer Case OR
the Silverstone Evolution for $145

OPTICAL DRIVES (X2 for $79.5): NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model PX-740A/SW-BL

COOLING (X1 FOR $34.99): ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro Cooling Fan with Heatsink

HARDDRIVE (X2 FOR RAID 1 FOR $192): Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

MOTHERBOARD (X1 FOR $83.99): ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

POWER SUPPLY (X1 FOR $39.99)*: Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W Power Supply

PROCESSOR (X1 FOR $213): AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

SOUND CARD (X1 FOR $121.99): Creative Labs Xtreme Music

VIDEO CARD (X1)*: I need someone to help me here

MEMORY (X1 FOR $69.99): CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory

*
CASE: I'm looking for small form-factor here. Firstly, for the silverstone I need to find out if all the above components will fit. Secondly, I need suggestions for other small form-factor cases.

POWER SUPPLY: Do power supplies generally come with the case?

VIDEO CARD: I need a card that can play Halo at high settings.

TOTAL: $899 without definite case, power supply, OS, or video card.

 

[G9]

Somebody please help out.

 

[Half Evil]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130265

Anyways.. Why not socket 939?

And get two Gigs of ram.

 

[G9]

I just edited it.

Why 2GB? It's just a media server.

Gaming-wise, the most it will play is Halo, and it won't be doing much developmentally... is the 2 GB there because it will act as a server while being used as a workstation?

 

[Half Evil]

Oh man.. sorry! I just totally delete my explination.. Give me a few more mins


Okay.. Anyways.. Shit.. I totally lost that.


Here it goes...

The 6800gs makes the whole machine more future proof. Sure with the 6600gt, that would suit you fine. Although, if you were ever to pick up another game, a bit more demanding then that it would be nice to have a better card.

Okay, with the workstations, you want at least 2gb ram, to turn off the page file. The page file runs off the hard drive. But with a workstartion, you are always using the hard drive. Saving.. opening ect.. And its really hard for your hard drive to do all that at once. But with the 2gb of ram, windows will turn off the page file. So your not using the VM on the hard drive; your using it straight from the memory controller. Hence, making loading, opeing, saving ect alot faster. And easier on the hard drive, so it has a longer life span.

As for the processor, if you are going to be using this for a multitasking machine. Get at least a 939 socket. And one of the X2 Processors. But as halo will be pretty much your only game, you could easily straight up get an Intel. As for that processor you have. Its still single core. Get a dual core. Its so much better. I can reccomend some to you if you like..

 

[G9]

Gah, I hate it when the happens.

 

[Half Evil]

Lol me too!

Anyways.. there you go.

 

[G9]

Oh man.. sorry! I just totally delete my explination.. Give me a few more mins


Okay.. Anyways.. Shit.. I totally lost that.


Here it goes...

The 6800gs makes the whole machine more future proof. Sure with the 6600gt, that would suit you fine. Although, if you were ever to pick up another game, a bit more demanding then that it would be nice to have a better card.

Okay, with the workstations, you want at least 2gb ram, to turn off the page file. The page file runs off the hard drive. But with a workstartion, you are always using the hard drive. Saving.. opening ect.. And its really hard for your hard drive to do all that at once. But with the 2gb of ram, windows will turn off the page file. So your not using the VM on the hard drive; your using it straight from the memory controller. Hence, making loading, opeing, saving ect alot faster. And easier on the hard drive, so it has a longer life span.

As for the processor, if you are going to be using this for a multitasking machine. Get at least a 939 socket. And one of the X2 Processors. But as halo will be pretty much your only game, you could easily straight up get an Intel. As for that processor you have. Its still single core. Get a dual core. Its so much better. I can reccomend some to you if you like..

This is supposed to a budget system. Developmentally, it won't be used much. Microsoft Office and some other financial recording programs will be used frequently, and Halo will played occasionally. This computer will also be used as a media server, so I'm not sure about all that memory or the X2 processors.

 

[Half Evil]

OK then. Budget. 2gb value ram. Intel Xeon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819117052

And
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121550

Although that only has 4 pixle piplines. But the 256 onboard ram, makes up for it. That can handle halo easily.

 

[joxley1990]

Why not get an intel processor, you will find in most servers they use intel because of the clock speeds, and they are alot better for multi-tasking