New System

[SeaJay]

I'm contemplating building a new system with the following hardware, and am looking for advice and input on the below hardware and the OS. I plan to do video & photo editing on it. The most demanding game I have to play on it is Jane's USAF flight sim. Other than that, I have no huge system requirements.

Asus M4A78T-E Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz. Processor
ANTEC 500W ATX Power (BP500U)
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
Western Digital 1TB Green SATA II Drive (WD10EARS)
LiteOn DVDRW (DVDRW24XSATA-LS)
Radeon HD5750 1GB PCIE graphics adapter
Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

The mobo has onboard video that can be disabled when using an add-on video card. Should I look for a mobo that doesn’t have onboard video, or does it really matter?

I understand some older apps won’t run on the 64bit OSs. The guy at the computer place told me that Window 7 Professional has a built-in virtual-machine-like application that runs in Win7 that will run older apps. Is that true? What are my options with regard to older apps?

Thanks,

Cj

[Shinma]

Suggest another brand of power supply.
The suppliers/manufacturers for Antec changes.
Alternative, Seasonic is a decent manufacturer.

The Western Digital Caviar Green series is intended more for storage rather than functioning as the primary drive.
The Western Digital Caviar Black and Blue is popular as primary drives.

LITE-ON dvd writers are good for ripping,
However, for burning, Sony Optiarc AD-7240 series should provide better performance.

[Robertjr]

Here is a link for windows 7 compatibilty
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/com...s/default.aspx

I have been using 7 64 bit for a couple of months it does have some issues, but for the most part it is stable on my machine.

I agree with Shinma. I use Antec cases I change the power supply. I suggest getting a mb without the video built in.

Best wishes on your system

[SuperSparks]

My favourite brands of PSU are; Corsair, Tagan, OCZ, Thermaltake, Enermax, Hiper, Xion, PC Power & Cooling.

[SeaJay]

Thank you all very much for your input. This is what I'll be doing:

Researching a different primary drive, optical RW drive, and an alternate power supply.

I'll gladly accept suggestions on a mobo without onboard graphics. :-) Even a higher-end video card.


Cj

[Ridgerunr]

I've been running the setup in my sig for about 2 months now. I have no problems with any of it. Asus mobo has no built in video. The Zotac card is a great card for the price. All hardware bought at Newegg. You might want to check their prices...
http://www.newegg.com/Store/Computer...puter-Hardware

[SpywareDr]

Tom's Hardware > Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2521-8.html

Tom's Hardware > Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pu,2570-7.html

[Shinma]

The most current chipset for mobos with AMD processors would be the AMD 8 series.
e.g. GIGABYTE 890GPA-UD3H

[SuperSparks]

You may be better off looking at an Intel CPU for video encoding work. All the Core i series blow the socks off AMD for that:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...-CS4,1404.html