I'm pretty hell bent on getting a bluray burner but I guess I don't have to start with that now since I don't know what my need and use will be. A dvd burner would be fine and I wouldn't be burning RW media anyways. Anything that we burn is for permanent storage.
Cody, the software for my work gets very few updates and until about 5 min ago it wasn't compatible with win7 so I was looking at the XP mode on the professional edition. However I just installed my software on my moms laptop and it works so I guess i only need home premium.
Dean, I would be perfectly happy backing everything up on an external drive and just scrap the entire RAID idea. That would in fact work better since my wife would like to be able to take the data with here when she shoots out of town.
Despite the items that I have chosen, my goal is not a gaming computer. I am currently foggy on what to look for in a video card when dealing with video rendering and editing large images. Maybe I should get a cheap card and load up on the memory instead. Maybe I can get away with a fast dual core vs. a quad. I really appreciate the advice and this is the exact reason I posted.
I feel that you guys have given me a lot to think about and once I hear back from Cody's forum I will better know what to do. Either way the budget is around $1500 so I would like to get the best bang for that buck. Obviously if I can do it for 1k, I am not going to spend the extra $500 just because its in the budget.
The absolute #1 most important part of this computer is the monitor. All images go to print so the monitor needs to be as accurate as possible while in the budget.
Cody here is the info the forum wants. I think its pretty much all the details I have but, if they need anything else let me know.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
1.This computer will be used for HD Video and RAW image editing, web browsing, and playing audio/video media all at the same time. An example would be editing RAW images in photoshop while streaming a TV show and cruising internet forums. The editing programs being used are mainly Adobe Creative Suite 4 products. ie Photoshop, lightroom, premiere, flash. Also Corel Draw and Vegas Pro.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
2. Budget is up to $1500.
3) Where do you live?
3. Reno NV
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
4. Everything. Case, power supply, processor, memory, hard drive, video card, OS, motherboard, Monitor, DVD burner
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
5. The only part I will be reusing is a small card reader that fits into a 2.5 slot on my current computer and a 1TB 7200rpm HD that can be factored into the calculation for a power supply but not into the budget. So this would be a second internal drive.
6) Will you be overclocking?
6.No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
7. I would like a 23"+ monitor. The monitor is the most important part of the build since all images edited go to print and the color needs to be reproduced as accurately as possible for the budget.
When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
8. I plan to build this PC within the month.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
9. I don't know what features I need. What I want to do is transfer large amounts of files quickly both internally and to an external drive. Also quickly capture media from devices to the computer mainly from my wife's Canon 5d Mark II. I want to be able to run a video editing program or picture editing program with very large file sizes while listening to music, browsing the web, or watching a video. And I want it to run as smooth as possible for my budget.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
10. I would like to buy windows 7 64-bit (include that in the $1500 budget).