I am building a new computer for my church that will be used for powerpoint during our services. Potentially in a few months, we may begin recording the services while using power point and using it to compress the video so multitasking is a must. The budget is $675 and not a penny more. Less would be even better. I think I am going to trim the 8800gts 320 back to a 2600 xt or something. Any suggestions would be great. The only other concern I have is the power supply. I know it is big enough but is the quality ok? Don't need a monitor or OS - will be using XP pro

Linkworld 3210-04-C2628 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: 3210-04-C2628
Item #: N82E16811164040

$22.99


ASUS M3A AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: M3A
Item #: N82E16813131234

$89.99

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Model #: 320-P2-N811-AR
Item #: N82E16814130082

$144.99

Antec Earthwatts EA430 ATX12V v2.0 430W Power Supply - Retail
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Item #: N82E16817371006
49.99

AMD Phenom 9550 Agena 2.2GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HD9550WCGHBOX - Retail
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Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
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$99.99

With shipping it is just over $682 Need to trim a little back

i dont think you need that kind of video card try something like an 8600 series. RAM could be slower as that will save cost and get mainstream RAM like modules you could buy in best buy or some electronics store. Also the PSU is more than enough try scaling that back a little too.

Everything looks good. . Only thing you should change is the video card. You won't need a 8800GTS for vid. editing/presentation. Just get a cheap vid card that has about 256+ MB RAM. You might want to look in to a Q6600 + P35-DS3L with the saved money.

you could save alot of money by going with a cheaper video card. An 8800GTS would be a gaming-grade card. Look for something like an 8600GT, or even an ATi Radeon HD3650 or something similar.

You can get the Corsair VX450 for the same price after a rebate and using the google checkout. It's a lot better PSU.
http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX [...] 66485.html

^Agreed.

yes go with a midrange card, even a 8600 gts... but i'd honestly up the ram amount to 4 gigs, the stuff your going to be working with (movies, compressing and what not) i'd imagine would greatly benefit from more ram, it will also extend the life of the system while only increasing the cost by 20$

Well, you while your going the AMD way, and you want "some" video to play with, for the work your saying. Well, you can cheapen the video process with that new AMD chipset ( witch i forgot the reference, its the 780 or the 690, too tired atm to search) and a HD3450 (for example) and activate the Hybrid Crossfire on that board. Youll get several VGAs output and at least one HDMI.

You really dont need someting like 8800 to do video editing. These fancy 3D cards dont nothing in terms of video editing. You just need to rely on HDD and CPU power.

You got there your trim.

Yeah !! Its the 780G that makes HD Video playable even with a Sempron 3200+ CPU.


Youll save up some money that can give you a "free-lunch", or better , money for the Cheapest HDD you can find just to slap your SO. Your not trying to do video editing in your SO Installed HDD are ya ?

My 2cents

For a point of view on how low of system specs you could go to pull this of: It can be done on a Pentium D 805. Easily. Even a Pentium III, if using a hardware capture card and don't need to do post processing. The graphics cards listed here are a cruel joke. There is no gaiming here, only 2D. Video outputs are the deciding factor. What does the proxima you plan to use take for input? VGA? DVI? Integrated graphics gets the job done. Save your church some money; lower your specs a bit.

Now, for reality: Buy from a large OEM. You're 24 years old. Do you plan to stick around your church for the next few years? Who's gonna be the one on the phone doing tech support? Warranty? Dell is waiting.

that's a good point actually. just pick up a dell dimension 530 and get some extra memory and a video card for it. that should work just fine.

Yea, I probably be there for tech support. I don't graduate from college for another year and a half so I'll be around at least that long. There are other people at church that could help with support as well.

I will change the graphics card. If I go with the 78G, I don't have Crossfire experience. I need one VGA output for the main monitor and then a second VGA output that goes to the splitter for the 3 projectors and secondary monitor. Will that work ok if I use the onboard port for the main monitor and the 2400 for the secondary monitors?

Right now we have:
xp2100+
Some gigabyte mobo
512 ram
fx5600

Using the hardware you already have, the FX5600 supports twinview, so all you'd need is a DVI to VGA adapter to get dual vga output on that card. That will give you two VGA outputs like you need. The XP 2100 is a bit on the weak side, but it will put power points up like nobody's business. $8 for the adapter (or find someone to give you one locally, they come bundled with graphics cards quite often) and that old girl is ready to go for the time bieng. If nothing else, that will allow you to test this power point system, without having to spend money on a new rig just yet.

Now, about your capture setup, do you have an idea in mind about how you're going to capture this stuff? Will it be through DV camera, transferred to computer, and require encoding into the appropriate format, or will it be captured into the final format using a capture card of some sort? Will you be broadcasting this through streaming video via internet, or by other means, such as download only, or through DVD media? Will it be Flash, WMV, or some sort of mpeg/avi? I have a feeling these files will be pretty big if you want both audio and video. We're probably looking at around 300 MB for a 50 minute Church service, using the codec like WMV or DivX on low quality settings. That's gonna require some serious internet speed if it's going to be download only.

If you intend to build a new system, a dual core is perfect for what you want to do. Any AMD X2 chip will do very well or even a Pentium D dual core.

I have a media center setup with a Pentium D 940 presler and it plays a movie from the hard drive with power dvd, burns a dvd image to the hard drive with 1click dvd copy pro and also does folding @ home and the cpu is 60-80% load with 1g ram ddr2.

Im not a fan of ECS motherboards but Frys Electronics has a sweet deal on an ECS board with the GeForce 7050 onboard video and an AMD 5200 X2 cpu for $99. It also supports HD video playback and HD audio. Its a micro board and can fit in a micro atx case to fit in a tight area.

I also got a Corsair 450 watt psu for $79 and a $30 rebate making it $49. DDR2 memory, 1G $22.

You can easily get a system for around 500 at this level that will last a very long time to come. I just built this system as a spare to use for installing programs & downloading to keep from junking up my gaming rig...

Dunno how the tech support is in your country. But in my advice, a we are talking a low spec PC here, NEVER but NEVER buy from a large OEM. The PSUs are mostly refursbished ones, the are ussually loads of problems when taling about SO, and their always more expensive than mounting yourself just because they offer you stuff you DONT need, and you miss stuff you WILL need.

In laptops you cant run from them, but in Desktops, dont fall for it.