hi everyone, i am an american living south africa temperarily and my pc was damaged. i built my pc back in 2001 and it was great back then. as some of you who have tried to help me know, ive been posting alot from my cellphone since internet is overpriced in africa. my computer has been messing up alot. theres also no good computer store or decent priced electronics stores like frys or circuit city so i cant get it repaired or replace anything. ive just decided to blame the old mobo. its time to upgrade anyway. im gonna move back to the states soon and would like to build a new digital audio workstation because music is my life and these past few days without being able to record music have been depressing. since i have been secluded and sheltered from technology and internet for 2 years, i was wondering if i could get a quote on the hardware i will require. i really dont know how to find hardware that is what i want without added stuff that i dont need. i just want the bare minimum. i dont know what is compatible with what, so if someone would want to do this for me or teach me how to search for stuff i would be very grateful. i need a motherboard with atleast 2 pci slots, 1 usb port, support for up to 8gigs ram. a small hdd and big, atleast 200gig, fast hdd. as for cpu, i dont know what is good. on the end of the list is a video card that supports multi display. i plan on using a pci soundcard that i already own. so i dont want onboard junk like sound, ethernet, or video. just for work. thanks again for any help or guidence.

Hi citizen,

I'm sure we'll be able to help you get some prices for a pc that meets your needs. What is your approx budget. Newegg are probably the best place to buy pc parts if your in USA these days.

Onboard ethernet is pretty much standard these days and it's better than getting a seperate ethernet card. Also what is the make/model of the sound card that you currently have. It may be better to get a new one - especially if you're really into music.

Awesome! i use an m-audio 2496 audiophile which is perfect for my right now. as for budget, i really am going for the cheapest thing i can find that can get me up and working again, but it should be upgradable. if i want to add a better soundcard or firewire later i want to be able.

Hello there.citizen. ^^ Everything else shouldnt be a problem, but there are virtually no motherboards without sound, and ethernet anymore. If nothing else, they are nice to have in case you need them. If you have a good sound card, I would recommend these parts for you. (As i really dont know much about them, other than M-Audio, Creative, and ASUS make good ones)
Im not sure if you meant you NEED 8 gigs of RAM or what... So i gave you 4 and XP32bit (so you will only be able to use 3.25GB of memory)

Processor: Newegg.com - AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors A Good AMD Processor, that draws low power, and runs cool

Motherboard:Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX All Solid Capacitor AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards Its Gigabyte. Nuff said lol. Ok, it has 2 PCI slots for future expansion, the venerable AMD 770 chipset, Onboard Firewire 400, Gigabit ethernet, and support for SATA Harddrives, and Triple and quad core AMD Phenom processors for future expansion

Memory: Newegg.com - A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory Cheap, Reliable, Fast. (make sure when you set it up the BIOS settings have it set to 800mhz, with 5-5-5-15 timings.

Graphics Card: Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100237L Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards Good Card. Successor to my 2600XT, it will run a bit cooler and draw less power, while giving your good performance.

Power Supply: Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Power Supplies Reliable, single 12V Rail (its a plus trust me) 120mm bottom mounted fan so its quiet.

Harddrive: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives Its one big, extremely fast harddrive. (Worth it) It is as fast as the old 150GB Raptor harddrive (10krpm) and it runs cool, and its Western Digital.

Case: Newegg.com - Thermaltake SopranoRS VG7000BWS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

OS: Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B for System Builders 1 Pack - Operating Systems

CD/DVD Drives: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135156

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827129020

Total (no shipping): $734.90

OPTIONAL (not needed but nice)

Speakers: Harmon/Kardon SoundsticksII Powered Speakers (extremely well performing speakers, i know someone who has them, they have incredible sound quality. A Little pricey, so i put them here.

Monitor: Newegg.com - Acer X193W+BD Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2000:1 (ACM) - LCD Monitors Good monitor, good size. didnt know if you needed one, so i put it here.

Total (w/optional) no shipping: $1034.88


If you have any questions or anything, just ask!

Wow, thanks so much! this quote has me excited to get back to the states. i dont really need the monitor, dvd drives, and possibly the power sup. ill have to check my current one since i have 3 of them. if they are of sufficient wattage, ill use one of those since they have never failed me. about the onboard sound, i heard in the audio rings that it is not good to have since it takes processing power from the other audio card. also, in audio recording, its risky to use a pci gpu with a pci sound card because if using the same irq can cause sound degradation when recording. im not sure if that is recent or how true it is. thanks again!

I would buy a new power supply. Not because you can, but because the efficiency will be higher, and for the most part its best to get a new power supply with a new computer. You dont have to worry about having an onboard sound card. Just disble it in the BIOS if you dont want to use it. BTW, its not a PCI video card. Its a PCI express. PCI shares all the slots with a 133MB/s interface through the southbridge. The PCIexpress 16x (2.0 in this case) has 8GB/s directly through the northbridge chipset, so you dont have to worry about that. In another time when video cards were used in PCI slots this may have been true. But nowadays, thats not the case. (oh btw, its impossible to find a motherboard that doesnt have integrated sound anyway ) Oh and i recommend teh DVD Drives because they use SATA interface instead of the old ribbon IDE Cables. SATA Cable as does the harddrive.