recommend me...

[John Beaulieu]

my pc is pissing me off immensely so its time to build a new one, but i don't keep upto date on pc things so need help in deciding what to buy...

so any help in the following would be appreciated (this pc is not for gaming purposes - but it does need to be powerful enough to multi-task at a number of high cpu intensive tasks - such as decoding movies, ripping mp3's etc). Plus it has to be AMD

Case
Mobo
Cpu
Memory
GFX card

any other bits and pieces i might need i can salvage from this pc i have now (which is soon going in the bin)

cheers in advance

[Super Stu]

Easier to fit a spec to a rough spending limit tbh. You could build a 400 quid machine which does all that or a ?2000 machine.

[Moodmon]

He said it isn't for games, so you've just saved ?400 on the graphics card alone

[John Beaulieu]

looking to spend around ?700

cheers again

[superkully]

Camps,

Did just that this week ?800 including a 17" LCD monitor

Got a Antec Sonata Silent case (very quiet) which comes with a PSU and in a very nice shiny black finish.

AMD Barton XP2500+, because it is _so_ easy to make this a XP3200+ (increase FSB to 400) and save ?70 in the process.

1Gb of Corsair (Value Select) memory (512*2, PC3200)

Abit AN7 Motherboard, because it has everything I wanted (SATA conectors and good reputation)

err.. MSI DVD R/W+CD R/W and a Samung 160Gb SATA HDD and a ASUS 9200 SE/TD which was ?35 and had DVI output for the LCD and supported twin-VGA output if I ever want it in the future.

Oh and the LCD monitor is astounding value for ?299 all in for 17". It's made by LG in the UK and the finish and image quality is top-notch (compared with other LCDs). It's on Amazon if you're interested and I'm suprised it's not continually sold-out.

[[email protected]]

go get something from dell.

[Dache]

but it does need to be powerful enough to multi-task at a number of high cpu intensive tasks - such as decoding movies, ripping mp3's etc). Plus it has to be AMD

AMD for gaming, Intel for multimedia. Get a P4. They do better than Athlons for what you want.

[fifty?ballz]

A dual processor system may suit you. With only a single processor it's hard work
doing multitasking as any two applications will fight for 100% power. With
2 CPU's you can have one solely dedicated to a specific application whilst
the other does all the other menial things that you don't really care for, like
running the OS etc.

For the tasks you set, you could get away with an old dual 1Ghz Xeon system
easy, they're sold on ebay from time to time.

It isn't a conventional suggestion, but if you're feeling bored (like me), it may be more exciting than 1 CPU.

[replicant]

easy

MSI K8 Neo Platinum Motherboard
A64 3400
1 gig OCZ 3200 DDR
graphics - 900 pro
Antec Truepower 430 PSU


case - ur choice.
fans - ur choice.

[ThoseOfTheUnlight]

For sure go for Intel if youre not gaming, only ripping mp3s, movies etc.

Much much faster for that job.