Building an Athlon 64 PC for audio rec, plz help!

Hi,
Im trying to build a computer dedicated to mostly home audio recording. Can someone please review my setup and suggest alternative or give me advise? I’m a noob in PC building and so im concerned about compatablity of the items I picked from reading tons of reviews and forums. All items were priced at newegg for reference.

CASE : Antec sonata II ($99.00) (I want a quiet case)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor ($219.00)
MOTHERBOARD : DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ($95.99) (Is this a good match with the AMD? Alternatives?)
MEMORY : G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) ($104.00) (I know little about memory, please help!)
HARD DRIVE : 2 x Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (95 each= $190.00)
VIDEO CARD : DIAMOND Stealth S80PCI Radeon 9200SE 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Video Card ($48) (Im not a gamer...but im into value. Are there better cards that I should consider for video/movies/photoshop use, etc?)
The whole computer is running at less than 600.00. Thats awesome, but I wouldnt mind spending maybe 100 more if it would make a significant difference. What would be upgrades that would make this a better all around machine?

I have an audio card and DVD burner already. Is this it? Do I need to buy anything else?

I appreciate any and all thoughts about this set up.
Thanks,
kar

 

Looks good to me (but I am a noob too ) If your sound card is not a good one you might want to upgrade that.

 

DFI make good boards for gaming, but I have heard they often require some tweaking to get stable. I know from experience that the Asus A8N series are rock solid out of the box, so if you're a novice I'd certainly go that way.

here is the Asus A8N-E since you're not gaming you probably have no desire for SLI.

as for your RAM, i'm not sure which chips the Gskill you mentioned are running, but I know that this set of OCZ and this Gskill set are running some nice TCCD or TCC5 chips which have excellent memory timings, and for ~$150 are a great value.

as for the video card, be certain you get a PCI-Express card (PCI-E) and not just PCI, I couldnt tell which one the one you had in mind was.

I know Woot had an awesome deal on nVidia 6600's a week or so ago, if you could snag one of those for around $60 that would be ideal.

you're definetly off to a good start though! that will be a nice system especially for the price.

 

I feel dumb now lol

 

haha don't by any means feel dumb. I've built over 30 computers and do quite a bit of reading in addition to my own trial and error. after a while you just get a general sense of what would be most ideal for specific situations... and even that is somewhat based on opinion. I'm sure there would be a few other great recomendations as well

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I've changed a few things based onthe suggestions. My only concern now is the motherboard. The ASUS A8N-E has really mixed reviews on newegg. Maybe another suggestion on a board that is stable, quiet, and compatable withthe Athlon 64? thanks guys!

CASE : Antec sonata II (includes 450watts power and quiet)
CPU : AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor
MOTHERBOARD : ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra (Reviews at newegg are mixed)
MEMORY : G.SKILL Extreme Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Samsung
VIDEO CARD : SAPPHIRE 100121 Radeon X700 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
HARD DRIVE : 2 x Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

I have a Delta66/Omnistudio a pretty high end audio card marketed for audio recording studios.

 

hmm, only mixed reviews on newegg for the A8N-E I see are some people who got DOA's. Beyond that they are all great reviews, and in general Asus boards are very reliable and few end up DOA.

My recommendation stands, its a solid board that doesnt require tweaking to make it run stable and well.

what also is curious and catching my eye is the A8N5X which is on sale at newegg right now http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569 though there dont seem to be many reviews for it going around, it seems to be a slightly modified A8N-E.