Toying with the idea...

[SpungE]

of investing all of my money in an extremely powerful computer. On one hand it would help to have a computer I can edit and do all my uni work on whilst being awesome for playing games too . On the other it would be a huge amount to pay out.

Here's my mock up;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145748
Asus P5Q Deluxe P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
£152.56

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152394
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Socket 775 2.83GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache OEM Processor
£217.98

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133709
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 HyperX Memory Non-ECC CL5
£42.99

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150245
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Green Power
x4=£359.96

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159420
BFG GTX285 OCX Edition 1GB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card
£322.57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114941
Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
£98.08

titttle; 1194.14

It has a lot of storage I know but that's in anticipation of some HD work over the next few years. Processor I'm not overly sure about but seems to be a good quad which is what I'll need for rendering ect.

GFX card is just a lavish expense Obviously there are some bits and pieces no listed, ie cd drives fans ect.

Thoughts dudes?

ETA; I don't want to hear one word about vista 64bit in here Eugene.

[Sir. TheHeartSmasher]

Seems like it will do ok, I recommend installing Windows Vista 64bit Ultimate or Windows XP 64bit as using a 32bit operating system doesn't make since anymore for new builds. Or if you can wait use Windows 7 64bit Ultimate when it is released.

If you have more money I would recommend getting a nice i7 processor, and DDR3 RAM.
Then get three 1TB hard drives and run them in RAID 1 using the third drive for backups.
Or if you are going to use just the single 1TB drive partition it 80-100GBs just for Windows, the rest for games, software and data.

[SpungE]

So here's the i7 mockup since matdef convinced me to go for it;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151477
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz Socket 1366 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£241.50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159360
ASUS P6T iX58 Socket 1366 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
£211.00

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158578
OCZ 6GB (3X2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10666 Gold XTC Triple Channel Memory Kit For i7 Motherboards
£105.00

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150245
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Green Power
£89.99 x3=269.97

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159420
BFG GTX285 OCX Edition 1GB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card
£322.57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114941
Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
£98.08

omjonas: £1248.12

I might go vista 64bit too since I can get it free off msdn (only business though ). While I wait for windows 7

[Tasty]

Only thing I would say is maybe a slightly bigger PSU.

[Sir. Slug]

I'm pretty sure running a 32 bit OS doesn't make use of the full 4GB of RAM, only like 3.something?

Don't quote me on that, it's just what I seem to recall.

[Sir. TheHeartSmasher]

Yep pretty close, Windows 32bit client OS applications can only use 3.25,3.50 or 3.75 GBs of RAM. Sometimes you can get around 4GBs if you enable PAE but the chances are slim.

[Sir. XaliaS]

Actually I think you're find the Corsair HX620W can handle much more than its external specification of 620W, I'd say it has more in comparison with any other 750W model.

Don't get those OEM Green Power drives, the "green" is just a sticker for fags, take out a case fan if you want to save the amount of energy it does. The only good reason is that it's quiet but it's also sh*t slow and NOT for video editing, even in raid. There is better value to be had with a couple of 5000AAKS'

If you're indeed spending over £1000 on just the computer (not monitor) then I would be looking at an i7 system too, and don't forget the Noctua heatsink.

Don't get Vista.

No really, don't.

Use nlite to integrate your hard disk drivers onto a new XP disk so you can install a raid 0. (You can't otherwise) Then wait for 7.

[Sir. Slug]

Is 7 meant to be Vista but good? Or is it another flop?

[SpungE]

From what I hear it IS vista but good.

[golfman560]

It is Vista, but it actually has proper code instead of the crap they whipped up in like 3 months. Its faster basically and doesn't fail as much.