My Co-worker told me something today that blew my mind ($500)

[rohani]

Alright so I'm talking to my co-worker today and he told me that he needed a $500 pc that would do audio recording for him. I told him that I could build him a pc that would top every other company store bought pc. Now keep in mind that we are both techies and work at an IT company in GA. So I know he isn't a stupid person... ANYWAYS...

I really want to prove him wrong!

Here are the requirments:

1) This PC will be ripping , recording, and making MUSIC , So memory and cpu will be high priorities
2) Needs a solid Soundcard
3) Firewire support
4) A Decent sized HardDrive

Here is the kicker...

5) Needs to include a Monitor , Keyboard , and Mouse!

Guys I'm used to building $1500 dollar gaming machines... BUT I know for a FACT that a store bought PC will ALWAYS loose to a custom built pc...

Please prove my co-worker wrong LOL. I know that you guys are absolute GENIUS with computer parts.

Beat the powers of DELL AND HP. You the man...

 

[smithereen]

e5200, Xonar DX, 4gb cheap DDR2-800. Squeeze a Ph2 720 in if humanly possible, but I doubt it. Antec 300, or a cheap combo PSU-case. I'll set something up when I have time.

 

[radiowars]

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072
70$

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357
60$

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
75$

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail newegg

Antec earthwatts EA380 380W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply ***COMBO DEAL***
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.193753
110$

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269
:b: Ten Dollar Mail In Rebate :b:
35$ w/ MIR

Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098
50$

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152
24$

Acer V173 b Black 17" 5ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 2000:1 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009136
100$

Linkworld LK1700E Black 104 Normal Keys 6 Function Keys USB or PS/2 Standard Keyboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823164014
5$

Microsoft N71-00007S Black 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Wheel Mouse - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105026
10$

Comes to around 525$ WITH a bloody monitor. If you want to save money, get a cheaper monitor

 

[smithereen]

The man bloody did it... I'd get a Xonar instead, but other than that, it's picture-perfect.

 

[radiowars]

Yeah, get the Sonar. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006&Tpk=Xonar%20DX
Cheaper (W/ MIR), and looks good for audio recording. I'll admit, that was definitely one of the harder setups I've had to do lol.

 

[sassan]

For sound card get this http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_forte.php

It's awesome.

 

[smithereen]

Yes, but it's almost twice as much.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Any e5200 would be happy, probably wouldn't break a sweat, to rip or record music.

 

[jitpublisher]

Yeah but see you are missing a couple of expenses here that most people who offer to build on the cheap "better" than a prebuild often never think of, and it will become and issue.
Warranty and Support.
How much are you going to charge every time this guy calls you with a problem after you build for him? What if the GPU goes bad in 3 months, are you willing to go buy another for him and install it for free?
These are reasons people buy prebuilds, and the reason it can be a bad scenerio to suggest building, or offering to build for someone who maybe should not be building a PC. At least foolish if you don't take these circumstances into consideration. If there are problems, and you don't handle them, in his eys now you are an idiot, he should have just bought a Dell, and he wasted $500.
Piece of mind, and NOT having to mess with it is worth a lot to some people.

Like last week, I had to have a starter put on my Durango. Cost me $300.
Had a couple of friends say, "christ Scott, you could have bought it and put it on yourself for less than half that! Or we would have done it for less.....
Okay, the starter on a Durango is HARD to change. Not easy at all to get to, takes a lot of time.
A day after it was installed, it starts sounding like a blender full of rocks. The new one was defective.
Do you know what it was worth to me to simply drive it back to the shop and say..."your starter is crap, fix it." That was well worth the extra money.
What would my friends have thought if they put it on for me? Would they have came back and done it again for free? Should I even expect them to?
Should I end up doing it myself over again not even call them, at my own expense and time? See where this starts heading? Not a fun situation.

Until you understand the complete circle, you cannot say "I can build a better computer for the same or less" you may be able to build a faster computer, but you cannot build a better computer. The 2 are not the same.

 

[rohani]

@Radiowars great setup it really looks solid! We're both busy atm, but I'll let you guys know what he thinks...

@jitpublisher Right I def see what your saying about the importance of a Warranty and Support. In this case its not as much of an issue. We are troubleshooting IT masters and he builds pcs all the time. IF something did go bad... Newegg is notorious for solid customer support. Thats really my take on it... feel free to try to convince me otherwise