Building PC -- need opinions/input on my components

[SSJpn]

My girlfriend wants a new computer for the sole purpose of
burning CD's like crazy of the mp3s she will be d/ling. Here are the components I have found on the web from various online sites. Prices include shipping (seattle WA, 98105)

MotherBoard - ASUS P4T $161.36
CPU + RAM combo - P4-1.7GHz
- 2x 128MB Samsung PC-800
Rambus Non-ECC $279.84
Power Supply - Enermax 350W EG365P $59.50
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda ATAIV
40GB, ATA/100, 7200RPM $112.81
CD-ROM - Acer model?
56x, 8,400KB/s $33.63
CD-RW - Lite On model?
24x10x40 $90.63
Video Card - Apollo GeForce2 GTS 64MB $99.90
Sound Card - SB Live Value PCI 256 $33.61
NIC - Netgear FA310tx N/A
Monitor - Trinitron P990 (refurbished)
19"(17.952&quot, .24, 1600x1200 $223.96
----------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: $1095,24


*No case yet, already have keyboard, mouse, speakers.

I want to get the best CD-ROM/CD-RW combo to burn mad fast CD's.. any input on what i chose? I only got the CD-RW cuz of the 24x10x40.
She doesn't need a good video card cuz she could care less, but I put in the Geforce2 so i can play games ^.^
I don't know anything about monitors so how is the one i chose?? is it a good monitor and a fair price?
Any last comments on my components and/or are any of them overpriced? Oh yeah, her budget is around so $1,200 ~ 1,300 so please keep any upgrades within this price range.

Sorry for the long post.. THANKS for ANY input would be great!!!!

 

[stuartd]

I can burn quite happily with my Cele 300.

Above system sounds like over-kill for "sole purpose of
burning CD's"

Looks like you are over-spec'ing all the components, but then you go for the cheapest CDRW around!!!

 

[bujin]

My first thought is exactly the same as stuart's - overkill. Why on earth would you need a 1.7GHz PC to be able to burn cd's?

My second thought is that this computer isn't going to be for "the sole purpose of burning CD's", is it?. As stuartd said, you've maxed out all of the other specs except the CD writer (and the graphics card, but hey, a GeForce 2 is hardly a bad card!). You go on to say that you put this GeForce 2 in so you can play games...

So, if you want a computer for playing games, then yes, it's a decent system. However, if you want a computer for burning CDs, get an AMD K6-2 500MHz computer with 128-256Mb RAM, a decent CD writer and spend the rest of the money on beer!

 

[ceh4702]

For burning CD's you may want to invest in SCSI interface. and SCSI CDROM's and 1 or 2 high capacity HARD DRIVES.

If you are going to download songs, you either need a NIC card to connect to a Cable/DSL modem or an internal modem; so dont get both. It takes a lot of space to store music files.

You may want to try copying files in a different manner. It may be possible to copy a cd as a single image rather than as one file at a time. This works a lot faster when copying an entire hard drive, but I don't have a cd burner to test it on. Norton may have a utility that speeds the burning process up. Norton GHOST copies a harddrive in minutes.

Check for hardware sites that sell CD Burners. I think they make 16X CDRW's now. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[faust13]

You know, for a thousand bucks, you could buy a 3 bay CDRW array and a cheap system off eBay. Install a SCSI interface, and your girlfriend could go into business burning CDs.

Opinions are like [fill in the blank]. ----------------------------------------
Is George Lucas Kidding...

 

[SSJpn]

hmm i guess the CD-RW i picked was no good. CAn any suggest a faster, better one?? And are you all saying that i should spend her money more on a SCSI Harddrive, CD-rom, and CD-RW?

 

[ceh4702]

I was at a site that rated CDRW's and they say that TDK and Yamaha are the 2 top CDRW's.

Go to the site "

http://www.idg.net"

they had a site "

http://www.idg.net/ic_723121_6108_1-3596.html",

which was a review of the top 10 CDRW drives.

From my point of view if the speed of the Drive and the quality of the music recorded is the most important factor of the new system, then the CDRW choice should not be the cheapest you can find.

Another factor is the software that comes with the drive. They were talking about ripping songs at 40X speeds, and software to keep from burning blank CD's. I guess a SCSI interface may not be too important.

Next to that is listening to the CD's. A nice speaker system and the best quality sound card may be a factor. For instance, being able to plug in a stereo headphone jack on the front of a case may be worth the purchase. There may be a kit you can buy to do that. I think you can just get a jack and mount it on one of the knockouts to accomplish this. Radio Shack may have a jack you can install by just drilling a hole and screwing in a connector. I remember seeing a soundblaster kit that helps with this. There may be some cases with this design in mind. It is a real pain trying to plug in a headphone jack in the rear of a Desktop computer. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[SSJpn]

Great, ill look into TDK and Yamaha, thanks for mentioning the namebrands. As for sound card and speakers, they are not really important - she wants to listen to the CD's on a CD player, not her computer.

Thanks again though...

 

[nlm9802]

is this just for burning cd's?
reccomendation:

atx mid tower case - $30
350w ps - $35
tyan trinity s2390 mb - $80
900mhz socket a amd athlon - $75
256 mb pc133 sdram - $20
hdd- yours is good- $112
netgear 10/100 NIC - $10
geforce2 vid card - $70
sblive value sound card - $25
your choice of cd and cdrw $30 and $80-300*
monitor - yours is good - $224
------------------------------------------
total- $790-1010

this leaves you $$ for shipping, cdr's and whatever else you want.

*the 80-300 depends on what you want, for 80 you can get a nice 8x4x32 burner, or for 300 a 24x16x40, yeah it will burn 3x's faster, but are you just going to sit there while they burn? speed is overrated, yeah I'd like to burn a cd in 6 minutes instead of 18, but is it worth 220$ to me? no.
my burner is reliable, and is fairly quick for the small $$ invested. you may even be able to find them cheaper on sale or something.

for a gaming machine, yours would be pretty nice, except for another 50$ you could upgrade to an ati radeon 64 mb ddr, and another 50 beyond that a radeon 8500, which is a darn good card.

 

[ceh4702]

Not too bad for $150.00

Price breaks are seemingly the norm when it comes to CD-RW drives. But this month we see an extraordinary reduction that slices $95 from the selling price of TDK's 24/10/40 VeloCD ReWriter. Formerly ranked second on the chart, the drive jumps to the number one spot on the strength of its new $150 price, simultaneously pushing the Yamaha LightSpeed CRW2200EZ down one notch. Meanwhile, three new drives debut on the chart--including units from CenDyne and QPS that write to CD-R discs at 24X, and a 16X/10X/40X model from LG Electronics.

I would be on the lookout for other price slashing. Times may be getting tough in the retail industry. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[SSJpn]

ceh4702 you were right,

i found the TDK VeloCD 24x10x40 for $134.00. looks good to me.

thanks