Budget C2D

[DKramar]

Good Evening Everyone:

Please rate my new system build:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p4y9p4xmaJybVKgpErEPPdg

New Egg Wish List: https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=10558032

Total before MIR: 603.93
After MIR: 543.93

Quick Specs:

OCZ 500W PSU
XMS2 4GB Ram
Zalman 9700
EVGA 9800 GTX+
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3LR
E7400
Seagate Barracuda 250 GB 7200.10
Samsung DVD Burner 22X


System Goal: I would like to OC to 3.2 - 3.5 on air. I just built a q6600 system with similar components (8800GT, p35 DS3L being the other main differences.)

My main questions are:

- Do you think the C2D system will compete comparably when video editing on Adobe CS4?
- Are there any places to trim some more fat?
- Is it worth going to an AMD based system? Since I own the q6600 as my home system and this sytem will only see 5 months of use a year I figure redundancy is better in case of a failure in my main system.

Also, I'm not on the up and up on PSUs. Will my older reusable 350w Antec PSU run all these toys? I think not but I figured its worth asking. If not, will the PSU I selected be reliable?


I will be editing SD Video Running Premier CS4, DVDSanta, Adobe Media Encoder, and editing while DVDs are encoding or burning.

Thanks for the input in advance,

David

 

[xthekidx]

Couple changes:
Change the HDD to this one, its faster and larger for the same price.

Change the PSU to this one; cheaper, better, modular

What case will you be using? If its 8" wide or perhaps larger, consider this cooler instead, similar if not better performance and cheaper, and free shipping is so nice.

Consider a GPU upgrade to a 4870. If you cannot quite fit it in budget, you might go with a cheaper CPU like an E5200, after overclocking it will not be a bottleneck in your system. The 9800 GTX+ is overpriced IMO, you get a lot more out of the 4870. Even if you don't go with the 4870, get a GTS 250, you can get them for cheaper than that GTX+ and they will be more efficient and run cooler, some games show small performance gains as well.

Now to address your questions, In video editing this system might struggle. If that is important to you then you should go with a PII 720BE, the tri-core will do much better at that and will beat the E7400 in gaming as well.

You could consider a cheaper MB like the GA-G31M-ESL2 to cut the price down, but its a microATX so expansion options are kinda limited. That board you are looking at is a good buy.