I have on a budget and on reading some user reviews built the following system
AMD A64 X2 5000+ Brisbane
ASUS|M2A-VM HDMI AMD 690G
Gskill 2X1024 GB memory 5-5-5-15
Seagate 7200.10 320 GB HDD
Antec 430w PSU

Currently I am in USA and will leave for India Oct end. I will buy case, DVD ( a HD later) burner etc in India. On reading many other reviews subsequent to my ordering components I got many questions which I will appreciate if are cleared. I am retired and having a hobby of Home Video processing. I was having a Samsung MinDV camcorder, but a few days back I got a gift of Sony HDR- SR5 Camcorder. This has AVCHD format output for high definition.

My doubts are
1. Is the Asus integrated mobo good enough for this processing?
2. Will it run faster(atleast twice) than my old AMD 2000+ with a Geforce6000 graphic card?
3. If I need to add a graphic card within my budget of around $120 which card I should go for.
4 I am looking for a Geforce 8500 or equivalent. Will it help at all?
5. If I use graphic card will power required goes beyond what I would have needed had I gone for a mobo without integrated graphics.
6. Is the system configured by me cost effective?

1_Yes
2_Yes , even more than twice , maybe 4x or 5x
3 and 4 and 5_ for $120 , go for a 8600GT , its better than 8500gt and has a good price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150230

Video editing is very CPU intensive, not GPU. If you are using this computer for picture/video editing only you should invest in a better CPU, and use the integrated graphics, or an entry-level current generation video card (this will increase the visual quality of the videos, when played on the computer). If you are doing gaming as well, you should definitely have a discrete video card (high-end last generation, or mid-to-high current generation). Please let us know what you use your computer for exactly and we can spec out the best system for your needs.

especially for video the athlon x2 is way faster than the 2000+

get an hd2600xt. it's just as fast as a 8600gt but it's better for video in HD. and it's in your budget.

together with the HD2600xt your system will run perfect with the antec 430w psu.

price versus performance for that system is great! anything faster will be costing you much more and will be probably overkill.

coming from an 2000+ and a geforce 6600 you won't be dissapointed.

if you plan to tun current games on it : take the x1950pro videocard (no dx10, but in your budget allmost) or the 8600gts (slower,more expensive but support for dx10)

the hd2600xt will also run current games (and directx 10!) but will be to slow in some cases for descent settings.
if you don't play any current games: go for the hd2400pro! just as perfect for video and dirt cheap!

I do not intend to do any gaming. It will be purely for video encoding and watching videos during and after encoding.

Many thanks for the replies.

Unless you're opposed to Intel, I would definitely say to get a Q6600 from Intel (if the budget allows it), and a nVidia 8400/8500/8600 graphics card or ATI/AMD 2400/2600. Many of these graphics cards are passively cooler, so the silent operation would be a plus for your use.

Another qualifier is if you intend on watching these movies from the computer (say, on a big LCD or Plasma tv, or the monitor itself). If this is the case, you would definitely want to go for one of the discreet video cards I mentioned above. If you're planning on burning all final products to dvd when the editing is done, an on-board graphics chip would be sufficient.

It sound like all of what you'll be doing is processor-intensive, and wouldn't need the high GPU horsepower.

I have now the system with
AMD A64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHZ dual core
ASUS|M2A-VM HDMI AMD 690G mother board (FSB 2000/1600MTs)
Gskill PCI 800MHZ 2X1024 GB memory 5-5-5-15
Seagate 7200.10 320 GB HDD
Gigabyte Radeon HD2400 PRO
Antec 430w PSU

I am confused at what BIOS settings for freq and CPU multiplier I need to set. The available options for freq is 200MHZ to 400MHz in steps of 1 and for multiplier default , 5,6,7,8,9
I can get 2.6GHZ by multiplying 325 by 8. So should I set 325 and 8?
What settings I need to use for no overclocking and for very slight overclocking?
What these freq and multipliers denote?

Frequency set at 200Mhz
Multiplier: stock is 13, set it to 14, 15 or even 16 for a good overclock (if this is indeed the black edition with the unlocked multiplier). I would recommend 15 if it's stable. I think there's a sticky in the overclocking section that would help if you've never done it before. You could probably do 14 without adjusting any other parameter, so that would be the easiest. However if you don't want to overclock, set it to the default 13.

In the BIOS settings page Multiplier settings available are default, 5,6,7,8,9 only. Eventhough in some reviews I have seen 11 and above mentioned I do not see those numbers. I do not know whether this is a black edition. Nowhere on the package it was mentioned. The color of package is green. If this is not a black edition then if I set multiplier to some other number than default what will happen?

Can someone a little more experienced with the new AMD processors chime in?

Sorry. The printed users manual shows multiplier settings as default, 5,6,7,8,9 only while actually multiplier settings are from 5 to 13 in .5 increments. Many thanks for reply.

Set to 13 then (default). And 200Mhz (default).

Can I not slightly overclock by altering to say 205Mhz and 13? Or set to 300Mhz and 9?

Sure, but you should find resources on how to overclock before attempting it.

I used EverestUltimate to check the system. I get following results
CPU stepping BH-G1

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2599.9 MHz (original: [ TRIAL VERSION ] MHz)
CPU Multiplier 13.0x
CPU FSB 200.0 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
Memory Bus 371.4 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio CPU/7
Effective memory speed 743MHz
The memory I have is supposed to be 800MHz. Why a lower freq is shown? The reported benchmarks for memory are also consistant with the lower freq.
I am using default settings in the BIOS

If this post should be in overclocking request moderator to bump it.

The way a memory frequency is determined by a current-generation AMD cpu is as follows:

[cpu freq - mhz] / [integer] = [memory freq - mhz]

So in the case of 65nm Brisbane Athlon X2 cpus (in your case)-
2600 / 7 = 371 mhz (single channel) = 743 mhz (DDR)
or
2600 / 6 = 433 mhz (single channel) = 866 mhz (DDR)

Since AMD decided to go with half multipliers and odd multipliers with the 65nm parts (9.5,10.5,11.5,12.5,13) you can only get 760 DDR or 743 DDR, respectively. With even multipliers that exist on some of the Windsor parts you can acheive 800mhz DDR.

So, everything with your system is normal and everything is running at stock speed.