Building a new computer and need advice...

[ddemaray]

I am building a second computer which will not be used for gaming. Its primary use will be for photo and video editing.

The system that I have configured so far is as follows...

(2) samsung dvd burner drives
Thermaltake armor full tower
Samsung floppy drive
150gb raptor x
(3) 250gb wd caviar drives 16mb cache sata II
Antec true power trio 550w psu
Zalman cnps9500 cpu fan
4gb ocz s.o.e ddr2 800 memory
Asus p5w dh deluxe wifi mobo
Intel core 2 duo e6600
Radeon x1300pro
Windows xp pro
(2) hans g 19" lcd monitors 5ms

Please feel free to critique my configuration. I am trying to get the best system possible. Thanks.

Also is there any place that is better than newegg on price. Right now I am planning on ordering from them and my total for this system is $2,615. That includes shipping. This is my max budget... If at all possible I would like to lower it.

[ksimp88]

OK, why XP PRO? it's nothing special, I ould save money and go for XP home, if your just for gaming.
I would change the C2D to a E6700ES, and get a better GPU, at least an X1800 or better (7600Gt or better for nvidia), while lowering the RAM to 2GB (2x1GB)
Why two DVD burners? Are you likely to be burning two DVDs at the same time? if not, turn the second one into a DVD-ROM
Are you going to use the wifi on the board? if not, get the non wifi version for a bit cheaper, and do you really need a floppy drive?
That's all I have for tonight, I don't have time to dig up links/prices, sorry

[ddemaray]

Because I am using small business server on one of my other computers and need pro for the networking options.

[perkam]

Buy a cheap mac for photo editing...no need making a multimedia monster for just simple multimedia functions.

Perkam

[ddemaray]

You are absolutely right however I despise mac's and would not buy one if my life depended on it. I had some really bad experiences with them.

[Nazu]

OK, why XP PRO? it's nothing special, I ould save money and go for XP home, if your just for gaming.
I would change the C2D to a E6700ES, and get a better GPU, at least an X1800 or better (7600Gt or better for nvidia), while lowering the RAM to 2GB (2x1GB)
Why two DVD burners? Are you likely to be burning two DVDs at the same time? if not, turn the second one into a DVD-ROM
Are you going to use the wifi on the board? if not, get the non wifi version for a bit cheaper, and do you really need a floppy drive?
That's all I have for tonight, I don't have time to dig up links/prices, sorry
You cant buy engineering sample cpu's from retailer's and there's very few sold buy users. As he said "I am building a second computer which will not be used for gaming" so there's no need for X1800 series videocard or even 7600GT, they just consume power and heat more. 7300GT or other cheap videocard is good for that kind of system, just check that they have just a heatsink without a fan. I would swap the TT Armor to Antec P180 as it's much more silent and has better cooling, also swap the psu for Seasonic S12 430w or M12 500w, superb effiency and very little noise. Antec P150 is also a good choice and it comes with a Antec Neo HE 430w psu. For heatsink I'd choose Scythe Ninja and use it without fan which would be possible in P180 as it has two 120mm fans very close to the cpu socket. For photo editing 4GB of memory is good and I wouldn't reduce that. Maybe a cheaper mobo like Asus P5B-E which has good overclocking abilities and has 6 sata ports, 1gb lan and good onboard audio. If the computer is being used for photo editing a better monitors would be good. Look models with MVA or S-IPS panels because those cheaper tft's with TN panels have bad colors which isn't very desireable when working with photos. Check this (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/20-21inch-2.html) article about tft monitors and see if you can find that NEC MultiSync LCD2190UXi.

[BlueBiker]

Historically LCD monitors haven't provided color fidelity comparable to a good CRT. Some inferior ones even use 6-bit RGB rather than 8-bit. If color accuracy is important in your photo & video editing, suggest you choose your monitors carefully.

[ksimp88]

You cant buy engineering sample cpu's from retailer's and there's very few sold buy users. As he said "I am building a second computer which will not be used for gaming" so there's no need for X1800 series videocard or even 7600GT, they just consume power and heat more. 7300GT or other cheap videocard is good for that kind of system, just check that they have just a heatsink without a fan. I would swap the TT Armor to Antec P180 as it's much more silent and has better cooling, also swap the psu for Seasonic S12 430w or M12 500w, superb effiency and very little noise. Antec P150 is also a good choice and it comes with a Antec Neo HE 430w psu. For heatsink I'd choose Scythe Ninja and use it without fan which would be possible in P180 as it has two 120mm fans very close to the cpu socket. For photo editing 4GB of memory is good and I wouldn't reduce that. Maybe a cheaper mobo like Asus P5B-E which has good overclocking abilities and has 6 sata ports, 1gb lan and good onboard audio. If the computer is being used for photo editing a better monitors would be good. Look models with MVA or S-IPS panels because those cheaper tft's with TN panels have bad colors which isn't very desireable when working with photos. Check this (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/20-21inch-2.html) article about tft monitors and see if you can find that NEC MultiSync LCD2190UXi.
:doh: My bad, missed that part, lol

[Serra]

Only 2 things:
1. You may find marginally better performance with some Seagate 7200.10 16MB cache SATA II drives than the WD. Realistically I don't think it will be really noticable, but Seagate has the better name anyway.

2. I agree with the above poster that commented on the LCD's. For the most part LCDs just don't have the same colour display capabilities as CRTs, and as I don't know anything at all about that particular type you suggested all I will say is that I would look into them carefully. Samsung recently released a model with 97% colour accuracy (at least according to them - the 931c), which would put it easily in the #1 spot for LCD reproduction if true. If you're making a rig for the sole purpose of video editing and photo work, that's something you should take a good long look at.