building a pc

[duane.mosley]

ok computer gurus, momma(wife) is buying me the parts I want to build a new show computer. what are some of the things I am not going to want to go with out? I know I want dual monitor capability so that I can work on stuff in the garage as well as in the house. I plan on putting my pc in my audio visual closet and using wireless keyboard and mouse. I am wanting to use hdmi for my video out because I use wireless hdmi for my tv's now.

1. processor ?
2. 8gb or higher megs of ram I am assuming?
3. video card? I will be using a 32'' monitor majority of the time but the house tv is 46''
4. audio?
5. hard drive?
6. power supply?
7. network card? will be hard wired
8. modem? netgear I have now really stinks.
9. best place to shop for parts?

any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I have a friend that is going to help assemble everything, he just wanted me to ask you guys what is working best for our set ups. I will have close to 20,000 pixel channels for next years show.

thanks in advance,

duane

[Steve Gase]

A motherboard with RAID, and SATA3 6.0 Gbit/s
[/size]SSD drives would be a nice choice... at least 2 for the raid.[/color]
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[/size]what is a modem?  do they make them anymore?[/color]
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i like newegg for the gear.


last I looked, Intel icore 7 was the best...  you can get fast speeds, at an increasing price.
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[arw01]

Well I disagree on the raid, it adds a lot of cost, a radical amount of complexity a lot of the time, and MAYBE it's implemented correctly in both software and hardware.

16 gigs of RAM
256gb SSD drive  (if you need more space pick up a 2 tb drive to be a second drive and to back up the shows, etc on the first drive and have a box.com or dropbox account for the off site backup)
i7 like Steve said
Your video card will not be as big of a deal, something in the mid-range will be lovely as those TV's only handle 1080 vertical lines as that is all 1080p is.

You might be able to pick up some water cooling equipment reasonable to make the computer even quieter, but honestly my i5 pc with 16 gigs and a hybrid disk drive is completely silent.

I like good sound on a computer, so look for a MB with a higher quality audio section, LOTS of 3.0 USB ports

gigabit lan connector, unless you are totally wireless.

I second Newegg.com  and have bought from tigerdirect.com as well.

[caretaker]

Power Supply, make sure to get a good brand and at least 750 watts, check warranties.

as the above have mentioned:

SSD for your primary C: drive
1 or 2 TB drive for storage
Check out mid range video cards and look for the best deal features vs price point.

[tbone321]

Actually, if you intend to actually use the visualizer, a good vid card is required or the machine will be slooooow when using it.  It is not the resolution, but the processing speed that is important there.  Everyone is jumping on SSD but lets not forget that even they wear out and unless you are ready to spend some $$$$, the cheap ones are not all that much faster than standard drives. 

[keitha43]

A descent video card is a must. If you can't afford a good ssd then try a hybrid hard drive. The more you use a program it caches that program into the memory part of the drive. Windows 8 on my laptop loads much faster on this hybrid drive than the standard hard drive this laptop came with. Newegg has user ratings and reviews for all their equipment.

[chrisatpsu]

make sure your closet is well ventilated...  all the cooling in the world wont help if the environment is too hot to begin with.

[MazdaFan]

For purchase of your computer parts, check out You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.  The different online vendors submit their prices to them and they list them all according to price.  I have found some pretty sweet deals there.  (Good place to look for PC Power Supplys for your active hubs/Zeus' as well)

Jamie

[duane.mosley]

thanks gentlemen, what video card do you guys recommend?

[chrisatpsu]

in most circumstances, just about any nvidia video card which is designed for 3d gaming is way more than any Christmas lighting software would ever demand.

[arw01]

thanks gentlemen, what video card do you guys recommend?

+1 for me, anything in the mid $150 to $200 range is the equivalent of $450 two years ago, unless you are trying to run 3 monitors at 1600 resolution mid range cards are MORE than adequate.  If you want to get some comparisons in frame rates and 2d applications, then head over to tom's hardware and check their video card reviews.  They run them ad naseum.

Alan

[Rogelio]

It doesn't take much computer to run a show.  The Rasberry Pi does a good job of that. 
But I know what you really mean.

[Nonamefril]

I run a Nvidia GT430 on mine and it does outstanding...I got 32gb of ram and an AMD FX 8150...I had to speak up since those Intel guy were talking trash....lol SSD drive have come down alot and are great for your operating system ...its all in what you wanna do.

[t.jo13]

PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti VCGGTX780T3XPB Video Card is a good example. Buy the best card you can afford as it will help with  playback on your sequencer and using it with your tv. A good one is pricy but it makes a world of difference