Build your own computer, save $1773.10

[Endeavor]

Lots of people have been asking about what computer to buy. I say, save yourself 40-50% and build your own! It’s actually easy and allows you to get all good parts. Here is a great article about building your own PC:
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

I decided to put together a sample system to show you the savings. This system has:
Pentium 4 3.2Ghz Hyper Threading
2 GB RAM (2x 1GB DIMMS)
80BG System HD
640 GB RAID-0 for Video storage (2 x 320 GB with onboard RAID controller)
256Mb Radeon x550
2 – DVD-RW 16x Drives
Win XP Pro
19″ Acer LCD Monitor

Here are links to the items I configured (all at newegg.com):
Case – 56.99 – ASPIRE X-Infinity – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144076
Mobo – 114.00 – ASUS ATX Intel Motherboard – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131492
RAM – 194.00 – OCZ Performance 2GB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146970
HD Storage x2 – 162.00 – Western Digital Caviar 320GB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003
HD System – 55.00 – Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106
Processor – 232.00 – Intel Pentium 4 3.2E – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116172
Video Card – 70.99 – MSI Radeon X550 256MB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127091
DVD-RW Drive x2 – 45.99 – LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106256
Operating System – 146.95 – Windows Xp Pro (if you don’t have windows already 🙂 – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102062
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse – 18.99 Rosewill – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823201020
Acer 19″ LCD Monitor – 245.99 – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009066

Your Price:
$1304.00!!

Out of curiosity, I decided to try configuring a comparable system at Dell to see how much price difference there was. Dells system has a few differences but mostly the same (the main difference is the Dell has a 500GB Storage drive instead of the 640GB RAID on mine)

Dell XPS 600 Pentium 4 (3.20GHz, 800FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows XP Professional
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz – 2 DIMMs
Keyboard Dell Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Monitors FEATURED UPGRADE!! 19 inch E196FP Analog Flat Panel
Video Cards 256MB PCI Express x16 nVidia GeForce 6800
Hard Drive 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (10000RPM)
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
Sound Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
2nd Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA2 Hard Drive (7200RPM)

Dell’s Price: $3078.00

You save $1773.10 (57%! Thats a GL2!) by building your own and you have a better system!

We should have a little contest to see who can put together the best system for the money! Just list links to the pages to verify prices!

[Anonymous]

I am new to computer editing. I worked my way through college doing 3/4″ tape editing. what are your thoughts on the hp media center pc’s. I was considering buying a pretty loaded version, aroung $2500. Also, I was planning on using pinnacle media suite.

[Anonymous]

Endeavor Wrote:

We should have a little contest to see who can put together the best system for the money! Just list links to the pages to verify prices!

I like it! Maybe we could get the magazine to throw in a prize. 😀

Nice job BTW! I know this has been kicked around on some other post and I for one build my own. In fact I built two. Your example above is the reason why. That and my wife ragging on me for spending all this money on my toys. X-D

[Endeavor]

rbradleyc Wrote:

I am new to computer editing. I worked my way through college doing 3/4″ tape editing. what are your thoughts on the hp media center pc’s. I was considering buying a pretty loaded version, aroung $2500. Also, I was planning on using pinnacle media suite.

HP makes a good computer, I’ll give them that but the point of the above post was to show that you can build your own and pay way less. For what you get in the HP PC you listed, you could probably make a better system for around $1200-$1500 (then you could use the extra to get Adobe Collection). I would stay away from Pinnacle software also. Look around on this site for posts about it and you will see why.

[Anonymous]

not to menton build your own and you can make it look way sweet 😀

P.S. old pic wires are nicer now lmao

[Anonymous]

Where are the fuzzy dice?

X-D

[Anonymous]

rbradleyc Wrote:

I am new to computer editing. I worked my way through college doing 3/4" tape editing. what are your thoughts on the hp media center pc’s. I was considering buying a pretty loaded version, aroung $2500. Also, I was planning on using pinnacle media suite.

i bought a hp media center m1270n (3.0 gigahertz) for $800 after shipping on ebay around a year ago on ebay. It came with 1 gig ram, 250 gig hd and an ati 128mb video card. I later upgraded to 2 gig ram(2 x 512mb $50 total after mail in rebates) and got more hard drive storage

$2,500 seems too much…unless preloaded with tons of vid editing software.

For my next computer, i am taking the advice from Endeavor and building my own.

[Jackal]

Here’s my stuff. It cost me enough. And I scaled back and made cuts! 😯

N/A = Already had it. I still have to get the Shuttle Pro and a new mouse. And maybe a sound card down the road. :'(

Case:
Chenbro SR10568 – $113

Mobo:
Tiger i7525 (S2672) S2672ANR – $283.58

Processors:
2 – Intel XEON 3.0GHZ 1M 800FSB EM64T mPGA 604 $541.60

Monitors:
2 – 20 Samsung 204T – $1051.85

Optical Drive:
Samsung 16x Double Layer DVDRW ATAPI/IDE Drive N/A

Media Card Reader
mediaGear 9 in 4 Internal USB 2.0 Drive – $20

Video Card:
Matrox Parhelia APVe – $300.73

Sound Card:
Onboard N/A

Hard Drive:
System Maxtor Diamondback Plus 60GB ATA/133 (Old drive) N/A
Storage – 2 Samsung 250GB SATA II 8 MB Buffer – $219.00

RAM:
2 – Infineon 1GB Registered PC2 – 3200 DDR2-400 memory with ECC – $244.09

Keyboard:
Saitek Eclipse – $43

Contour Designs
ShuttlePRO V.2 – $99

Power Supply:
XFinity 600 Watt ATX 12V ULT31848 9x4x7 – $120

Total to date: $2836.85

[Author]

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