Here is the story:
A friend has an old Dell laptop that is circling the drain and was talking about getting a new computer. During all of his talking of wally world and brand name computer crap I introduced the idea of building a computer from the ground up.
I may have spoke to soon now that I looked at all the different stuff I am finding it hard to know if I am making the right choices. I have been a parts changer for a few years but never a system builder/designer
I am looking at a budget of $500-$600 give or take with the following features
19" LCD and Windows XP that take like $200 right out of the gate.
his laptop has a Pentium III so anything at this point is going to be quicker
The main duties of this box are music storage(800-1200 Cd's eventually), music recording (Sonar producer 8, GTP3), Drafting Programs (auto-cad, solid-works) and basic other stuff.
So we are looking at
CPU - No preference
Motherboard - audio will be added at some point so a couple PCI and Video card possible at some point, upgrades to faster CPU later on would be a plus
Case - smaller the better, front access usb/audio
Power Supply - No preference
Memory - for the cost I figure maxed out at 4Gbs
Hard drive - Sata 500Gb and a 250Gb for now ( he wants to be able to back everything up as he saves it.)
Optical Drive - All in one DVD and a cheaper CD to get his music loaded
Video card - not sure in this area at all
FDD - in my research I found that a FDD is needed for XP and SATA drives.
I think I have everything listed. Basically looking for the quickest most reliable machine for the money.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Tony
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