First computer build please help

[Atomic Rooster]

I played around with your build a bit and came up with this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz

Foxconn ELA LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

2x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R DVD Burner

PNY VCQFX370-PCIE-PB Quadro FX370 256MB Workstation Video Card

Rosewill R5717 BK Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 450W Power Supply

Total - $575.92

Now, I went with a slightly slower CPU which saved you $20. If you need any more speed out of it, the motherboard I selected can easily overclock it. I selected a larger drive for around the same price as a 500GB as doing CAD work is going to need some space to roam. Got you a better quality case/PSU combo in the Rosewill unit. 8GB of memory as those types of programs are going to need as much as possible. Most importantly, I selected the PNY Quadro FX370 video card as doing CAD work will require a precise rendering card designed for those types of uses.

 

[ndatoxicity]

looks really good atomic...i dont know how you do it, but....

anyways, now all he needs are monitors/os

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Monitors aint cheap, but here's a good one: Acer X193W+BD Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

OS, I would just go with Vista x64: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit

 

[edgab2020]

thanks for the help im not a fan of acer i just feel like they are a cheap brand i mean do you think they are worth it though? also I have a question I was told that if I was thinking about getting such products and for such use that I might want to just go with an AMD CPU instead of an INTEL what do you think about that.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

We have two Acer monitors here. They are both very good monitors with great image quality.

You could go with an AMD quad core setup, but it will be a bit more expensive.

 

[edgab2020]

after looking this was my guess for AMD

CPU(AMD) : AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
Motherboard(AMD): ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A (V1.0) AM2+/AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

now also what is ur opinion on AMD vs Intel do you have a preference

my os is already vista until the new 7 comes out

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Great CPU, not so great motherboard. I would suggest something with an AMD 790 chipset. Like this: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P.

You could just swap out the Intel CPU/mobo for the AMD CPU/mobo in the build I posted. Everything else is compatible.

Personally, I prefer AMD CPUs. They fairly inexpensive compared to their Intel counterparts and they have always performed well for me.

 

[edgab2020]

oh also since im stayin in a dorm i also want to have a tv tuner on it lol i kno this adds to complexity do u think though it is asking for to much if so its not a big deal but i was wonderin would that be possible

also would it be better to go with ddr3 ram or ddr2 ram n is the different in price worth it?

there will be a lot of stuff saved on this because i will also be downloading and saving class videos which are around 650 MB each so would a second hard drive to store this stuff be a good idea?

 

[ndatoxicity]

for that board u can only go ddr2 RAM....ddr3 isnt always compatible

yeah, u can always add another drive for storage (like a 320gb main drive, then a 1tb drive for storage)

 

[Atomic Rooster]

You can go with DDR3 memory, but then you will need a socket AM3 board. I'm not to sure how the performance/price ratio works out compared to a DDR2 AM2+ mobo/AM3 CPU combo.

You could add a TV tuner to that setup, but most of the better ones are a bit pricey.

AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe ATSC/NTSC/QAM TV Tuner Card