Multimedia PC Help

Nekrawulf, could you give us an idea of your budget?

I think you could do very well at less than $1800 for the tasks you indicate.

I haven't tried to put together many "multimedia" systems myself, but concentrating on what you said you wanted this to do, and trying to keep cost down as much as possible, I came to this:

$1466

Upgrading to ultimate would add a little to the cost, but if you really like the features, that still leaves you well under $1800.


Edited by Tyler Lowe - 03 Apr 2008 at 1:11am

Better cooling for the quad core was the primary motivation for the switch. The DSO guys, and Dave in particular, seem to very much like the 650i as an economic choice without sacrificing on quality, and I have come to take note of when Dave says something is a great buy for the money.

You probably *could* get away with a 256MB card, but I see there was the occasional game that might find it's way onto this machine, and the 9600GT is a tremendous value for a mainstream card. Still, I have been pretty happy with my 8600GT 256MB card. If you wanted to knock the price down yet further, I can't say anything bad about that card, and especially not at that price. I'd be lying if I said I thought the two were even remotely similar in performance, and if you do think you'll sneak in a  couple of FPS games, the 9600GT is, again, an amazing card for not much money.

I show $1442 in the configurator if you go with the 256MB 8600GT and Vista Ultimate. If you think there is even the most remote possibility you will *ever* game on this machine, avoid the 8500 like the plague.


Edited by Tyler Lowe - 03 Apr 2008 at 2:01am

This is up to you naturally, but the difference in price is less than $20, and the 8600GT is roughly twice the card the 8500 is. The 8500 will definitely display desktop and allow photo edits, just not much more.