building a computer. heres the specs... any suggestions?

[Overture]

Motherboard: Asus P5kpl-Cm Lga775 1600fsb Core 2 Quad
Processor: intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz 8mb Cache
proc fan: Arctic Cooling Freezer
RAM: 4gb Pc2 6400 800mhz Ddr2 Kit 2x2gb Chips
Harddrive: 750gb Serial Ata 16mb 7200rpm Hard Drive
VIDEOCARD: Ati Radeon Hd4550 512mb Ddr3 Video Card
dvd drive: Samsung Ts-H653 20x Dvd±Rw Dl Sata Drive
Power Supply: Coolmax 700watt Cu-700b Power Supply
Plus a few misc stuff like fans and whatnot

those are what im gonna use to build my next computer since the one im using now is all old and doodoo:( this is my second time building but i still dont really kno crap about them. any suggestions or changes i should make?

btw, i DO use adobe programs including after effects(all cs4) and though nothing too extreme, i do a bit of 3d in ae. im mainly concerned about my VIDEOCARD and my MOTHERBOARD since i kinda blindly chose those two.

im buying it from barebonekit.net and they build it for you since im lazy to learn how to build it myself again:P but that aside this rig is gonna cost me $1066.88. so any suggestions for upgrades thatll be worth it but not too much more expensive or any downgrades from any uselessly expensive parts i have specified. any help would be awsome:)

btw, i have xp homeedition and i think i heard something about only the xp pro version can utilize quad cores or something. just wanted to clear that up:) please reply

[Kariudo]

xp home can utilize quad core, so no worries there.

Most of it looks just fine, but there are a few things...
Power supply is way more that what you need, don't know how much AE uses the graphics card but you'll want a beefier card if you want to do gaming

$1000 for that rig is waaay too much, you'd do better to put it together yourself.
Those parts (with a few upgrades to your current list) can be had on newegg for less than $700

Antec 300 case
1TB Western Digital Sata 3.0GB/s
HIS HD 4850
Corsair 550W psu
GSkill 4GB ddr2 800 dual channel kit
Asus P5kpl-cm
Q6600
Freezer 7 pro
$688 before rebates

[Overture]

thanx for the info:) newegg is where i got the parts for my current computer too:D well i was looking at this chart tho, and it says that the Q6600 was kinda doodoo with after effects' rendering speed compared to other Q models:
http://www.extremetech.com/image_popup/ ... 866,00.asp

though i guess rendering wont be such a huge issue if i had a better video card or ram. but could u take a look at this, i was looking through neweggs prebuilt since idk if i wanna chance screwing up and frying my motherboard or something building it, and i came across an interesting lookin acer computer for a decent price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883103154

any cons about that computer? cuz i think i mite be pretty set on that one. cheap yet great components. though its small and hard to upgrade, it does have a great 1g video card, great processor(by the graph better than the Q6600 for ae and encoding), 8gb ram so thats plenty. all in all, dont think ill have to upgrade for a few years anyways. any input though? i mite have to upgrade the power supply on this one though due to the crazy components, and buy a better fan or maybe ill just leave the case open forever:)

[Kariudo]

Like I said before, I'm not sure how much the video card is gonna play into things when rendering (from my reading it just looks like the preview window is gpu accelerated, not actual rendering).

That graph you linked to was photoshop (not AE), and by the looks of it I'd say that particular filter (or chain of filters) they used for the test wasn't multithreaded (the differences in time there being a result of clock speed and cpu architecture).

First thing I see about that computer is vista 64-bit. For how shaky 32-bit vista is, 64-bit vista is worse (side note: you'll have to jump through a lot of hoops if you want to use avisynth with a reasonable set of filters, 64-bit avisynth has some but it is severely limited). Everything else there looks fine, the power supply should do the job just fine (dunno if you could upgrade that if you wanted, psu specs weren't included :/ ) but it does look like you'd have to get some fans and spend a bit of time re-routing the wires so you don't set fire to your house.

I'd still go for building it yourself though, frying components shouldn't be much of a concern. All you really have to do is make sure you're grounded (and don't move around too much if you're working on carpet). Easiest (and cheapest) way to do this is to plug your psu into the wall outlet and touch the psu case, do that every time before touching a component and you'll be fine.

A big part of the Q6600 is how well it overclocks. People routinely get to 3.6Ghz, with a decent heatsink+fan, which is a lot of free performance. The Q9400 would be another good choice, but you'd need to get a different mobo (or flash the BIOS) to use it.

[Overture]

actually i was gonna re-install my windows xp reboot since i dont like vista for crap:P k well now you've really got me thinkin bout the q6600 model. but any suggestions for a good motherboard for it tho? i still didnt research on motherboards enough though. so i was thinking about sticking to a 8g ram and a 1g video card since i dont wanna upgrade for a while.

well to be more straightforward, and sorry for the trouble but i dont wanna screw this up, if i wanted an 8g ram 1g video, q6600 processor then what parts would YOU get to build something like that? maybe ill just go with YOUR suggestion of a rig and build that:) if thats kew with you since u kno alot more about parts then i do, and i dont know what motherboards and whatnot is best for that processor and blah blah. that would be a great help. ill just build wat u say is best since u kno alot more then i do:) nothing too expensive tho, as youve seen, the prebuilt rig was about 800 so maybe around the range of 700 to 900 dollars.thanx for the help:D sorry for being a nood at this, i dont really need to build very often

[Kariudo]

32-bit operating systems are limited to 4GB memory (the video card counts towards this as well), something to keep in mind.

That in mind, really anything from OCZ, Geil, GSkill, Adata, Corsair, Patriot, Crucial or Kingston should be fine. 8GB would be easiest to get as 4 x 2GB sticks, but putting 4 sticks of ram into a mobo has historically limited the overclocking you can do.

Video card-wise, I'm partial to HIS. The 1GB 4850 is probably the best price/performance card here. Keep in mind that a 1GB graphics card will mean you will see 3GB of ram at most. To help keep the inside of your case cooler, I'd go with a dual slot graphics card that blows air out of your case (instead of circulating it in your case).
It's also worth mentioning that the amount of ram a card has is usually not very important once you get above 512MB (for gaming performance).

As far as the mobo, the Asus P5Q pro or Gigabyte EP45 ud3p should be able to handle the Q6600 just fine, but you can cut back here if you don't want to overclock (in which case I don't really have a rec for ya, WC Annihilus would be a good person to ask)

[NeoQuixotic]

First thing I see about that computer is vista 64-bit. For how shaky 32-bit vista is, 64-bit vista is worse (side note: you'll have to jump through a lot of hoops if you want to use avisynth with a reasonable set of filters, 64-bit avisynth has some but it is severely limited).

After using XP, Vista, and 7, I'll never put XP on my machine again. Vista and 7 on any recent hardware runs so much smoother than XP. As for 64-bit, I recommend most people move to 64-bit for the additional RAM support and since it is what should of been standard 2 years ago. 64-bit Windows runs both 32 and 64-bit, so you don't need to worry much. I use Vista 64-bit and run 32-bit AviSynth and 32-bit Vegas even though there are 64-bit versions available. The main issue comes down to everything in your work flow needs to be 64-bit. More support for 64-bit will come, but you don't need to worry since you can run both 32 and 64-bit just fine. Oh yeah, do not get XP 64-bit, it was released late in XP's lifetime and has very poor support. Windows XP is going to be over 8 years old when Windows 7 comes out October 22nd. It's time to move on, plus there is the cheap pre-order going on. And if you buy a new computer or even a Vista copy, you should be able to get a free upgrade to Windows 7. I started out hating Vista, but now I love it and love 7 even more (except I want to move to a Mac and Snow Leopard now too, best of both worlds :P).

[Overture]

okay so hows about a rig like this...

q6600
p5q pro lga 775 mobo
HIS 512mb vid card
GSkill 4gb memory
and the rest of the parts ill just use the ones u picked in your ealier reply, with the corsair power supply and the antec 300 case. and thanx to anubis' reply, i think ill upgrade to windows 7 and try using 32-bit anisynth. i dont play online games btw so an extreme vid card isnt a must or anything. btw, overclocking isnt an entirely bad thing rite? tho a lil risky, is it especially bad for the life of my computer that i should be a little iffy about it? as long as i keep it cool and stuff it should be fine rite? and just wondering. and if i ever feel i need it, ill install 4 more gigs of the GSkill memory, then c how my computer does with that, IF i ever feel i need it, but prolly not until im more due for an upgrade.

oh and for the mobo, im guessing i should get the turbo with all the extra whatevers so i can overclock more easily rite? thanx for all the help man. if u approve of this rig then this is wat im gonna get:)

[Kariudo]

Looks good. The turbo version of the p5q pro probably won't make any difference. Only difference I can see is that it includes an OCing tool, doesn't have a floppy connector and is missing some usb ports in favor of esata (and 1 less internal sata connector)
Either one should be fine, go for the cheaper one.

Honestly, I just picked out the antec case at random...if you have another case in mind, go for it!

Overclocking can be risky, but most times the worst that'l happen is that you have to restart and change the settings in your BIOS.
Overclocking will generate more heat, but as you said, it'l be fine as long as you can keep your cpu cool (heat is primarily what decreases the lifespan of a cpu).
Intel stock hsf is junk, the Freezer 7 Pro is much better and should do fine.

The only thing overclocking routinely kills is warranties

[Overture]

woooo:3 now i finally gots my rig picked out:) thanx for all your help dude. i really learned quite a bit from u so i really appreciate it! now ima build me my new computer and live happily ever after:D ....... ...... till i need to upgrade:O



p.s. THANX AGAIN!!!! buh bye