Thread: building a new computer

ok so im thinking of getting another computer and gonna have dell build it to my specifications. Problem is, i dont know a whole lot about them so i dont know what i need as far as equipment. so what i need from yall is to help me with that. Ill tell yall what i mainly use it for and need it for and yall tell me what i need. I want a computer specific to my needs that will hold up as i am hard on them but want one as cheap as poss.

ok here i go

1. I do alot of converting movie files and such.

2. I use my computer to stream to my ps3 using ps3 media server and it trancodes as it goes so its like converting or something in real time. this was great at first but now i guess my prossesser is worn down (only been 2 years) and now it will jitter and stuff when i try to play movies so now i really cant dot it.

3. i do ALOT of dl and uploading. I NEVER turn my computer off, i restart it every once in a while but thats it.

4. when im online i usually have about 8 to 10 tabs up top open at once (mainly trackers and what not)

5. i do alot of transfering stuff like to flash drives and external drives.

6. Not only do i have a bunch of tabs up top running but ill have mirc and my documents open so i multitask alot.

7. i listen to music on it

ok thinks i dont do so i wont need

i dont do alot of gaming on my computer. some but barely.

i dont watch movies on my computer. ill watch videos like post fight presser from ufc on it or something on utube but thats about it.

i dont do any coding or anything like that.

basicly i dont do anything fancy or non torrent related.

so what i need is something that can handle the stress of all the converting and do it fast.



can handle being on all the time

and can handle streaming to my ps3 or xbox without wearing out easily


SO WHAT DO I NEED

If you get a new sandy bridge board you should be fine. They support core i5 and i7 and have usb 3.0 support.Mostly you will need a strong cpu and a lot of memory. Well maybe not a lot of memory but I would suggest getting triple channel for the extra bandwidth as that might help out with the on the fly transcoding, but I would venture to guess that's more a network issue. Basically nothing else you want or do is of any significance selecting a pc.

Sum up: Get a pc with usb 3.0 for ext hdd transfers 6GB triple channel ram and as strong a cpu as you can afford.

Just my suggestion as you can't pick and choose exactly what you want like you could building yourself.

I just built a core I7 Bloomfield and it works great (don't bother with SATAIII yet though, put the money into a higher RPM SATAII drive). Also this is off-the-beaten-course thinking, but I also built a fantastic little box with dual-core Intel Atom. If you're looking to put together something cheap that won't be used for high performance things like gaming, then you can get something together for just a few hundred bucks if you go intel Atom. For example, it's good for a media box to stick next to a TV.

A good CPU with 4 GB of memory, ddr2 or dd3 doesn't matther, and 2 identical disk drives in RAID 0 (SATA ||). And if you have more fund you can get a small SSD for windows.

Go with an Intel Core series setup, either core i5 or i7. Even the i3s are good if you're on a budget and are looking to build a good bang for buck setup.

For under $800 you can build a really good pc with no compromises. See if you have a micro center in your area, otherwise buy from newegg.

Go all out on the CPU if you're encoding, save on the video card if you arn't gaming.