Korean Job Discussion Forums

[the saint]

I looking to put together a desktop mostly for DV video editing and home audio recording. After browser shopping danawa.co.kr for the evening, I've come up with this, which I lay, humbly, before the higher beings in whose presence I type...

Board: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
CPU: Pentium P4 2.8C
Memory: DDR SDRAM 512Mb but not sure of this yet (advice anyone?)
Vid Card: ATI Radeon 9600DE Asus TD 128Mb
Sound Card: Audiotrack Maya II
HDD: Western Digital 1200JD S-ATA 120Gb 7200RPM
Multdrive: Sony DRU510A
Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 176N

The whole lot should set me back just over 1.5 million according to danawa but is this realistic?

Next thing is that I'd really like to build it myself but would love to have someone on hand with more experience of this in case I screw up. Any offers?

Finally, anyone want to recommend a particular dealer to go to in Yongsan. I may go this Monday. I may hike Chiaksan. I'm torn...

[Demophobe]

[Bulsajo]

Is the ASUS board SATA compatible and has a Promise FastTrak controller chipset on it?
It probably does (my ASUS board does) but you might want to check to be sure.

DDR Ram is industry standard now; you should think about getting 1024MB- it'll only increase the price marginally. (Basically echoing Demophobe's advice here).

I don't know about DV editing, but I suspect that if you're going to do a lot of video work you might want to splurge on one of the ATI All-in-Wonder cards. 9800 All-in-Wonder should be dropping in price now that the x800 series is out.

[Demophobe]

Ahhh....good call Bulsajo!
Yes, you will need some method of imputting your video.

Will you use a digital video camera? They will have connectors that will match up with the ATI all in wonder card.

I use a digital video camera, connected through Firewire DV, hosted on my mainboard.

The P4P800-E Deluxe has these ports hosted as well, so you don't HAVE to get an all in wonder. Most DV cameras have the iLink port.

It has a Promise PDC20378 RAID controller with simultaneous support for ParallelATA (1 channel) and SerialATA (two channels)

[Bulsajo]

Is the Syncmaster a flat panel LCD? Make sure it has a DVI port.
Edit: That's sort of a pet peeve of mine- LCDs that don't have DVI ports...

[the saint]

THanks guys...

THe Asus board comes with two firewire ports and, yes, I will be using a Sony Handycam to input digital video.

1Gb of RAM? Okeydokey...

I'd love a 19" monitor but I have to cut back somewhere.... unless you know where I can get a 19" for the price of the 17" here. I'll look into the graphics card.

Demophobe, going to the guy in Yongsan will be very helpful. Are you free this Monday (7th)? I was hoping to get this asap. If not, I can wait a week and then I get a week off work so have more free time.

[Demophobe]

Well, here is another possibility:

Radeon 9600XT: 200,000
Asus P4P800E Deluxe: 140,000
Kingmax PC3500 1 GB: 300,000
WD120GB SATA: 120,000
P4 2.8C: 210,000
Sony DRU530A: 150,000 (8x)
Floppy: 10,000 (optional)
AudioTrak Maya MK-II : 40,000
Samsung 176N : 514,000
Case: 30,000 (generic)

Total: 1,704,000 Approx.

More than you wanted to spend, but that's with 1GB of RAM and a faster DVD drive. Save 30,000 on the DVD drive if you want.

Personally, I would hold off on the sound card for a bit. The onboard sound isn't awful on the P4P...I have the P4C800 and record a lot of stuff via midi and microphone. Of course, it could be better, but I am not sure that a 40,000 won sound card will be much better than what's on the board. Feature-wise, for sure, but quality-wise, I don't know.
You can always pick that up later.

If you went with a CRT, you could save some cash and get a 19". Your choice. Syncmaster 915MB: 300,000...a nice monitor and 200,000 in your pocket.

[the saint]

Demophobe, thanks for the advice.

Where oh where can you get that soundcard for a mere 40,000? Danawa list it for 133,000. See this URL...
http://www.danawa.co.kr/comindex_right.php3?kindc=COM&typec=SCD&codec=AUDIOTRACKMAYA44MKII

Still, I was actually considering laying off the card until I'd heard the onboard sound. I love home recording but, let's face it, I don't think I need more than the onboard sound and I can always get the Maya II later on if I really want it.
CRT is tempting... and quite hard to nick should it ever happen to me...

[Demophobe]

Right...sorry man...wrong card.

Onboard sound leaves much to be desired, that's the truth, but it will do until you decide on something better. It's a good way to save a bit of money on the initial expense...you can always pick one up later.

The trouble with a CRT is just the size. I have a 21"...it's a monster. My reasoning was that if I do move back to Canada, there is no getting around the pile of stuff I have that will need shipping anyways, and one more box won't make that much of a difference.

LCD technology has come a long way, but they still scratch too easily for my liking, and honestly, the razor-sharp crispness and really drastic contrast levels hurt my eyes.

[the saint]

Well, I've decided in the interests of priorities to put the sound card on hold.
I've also decided that the Syncmaster 177X is the monitor for me. I toyed with CRT but I just can't cope with the weight and space requirements. ALso, the 177X has a refresh rate of 12ms which, for my needs, is well within my requirements. So LCD it is.

I've decided I can get away with 128Mb and go for a Radeon 9600SE which would be preferable to my original typo of the 9600DE!

The board is SATA compatible and has Promise.

So, to recap, here's how it stands now:

Video: ATI Radeon 9600SE Asus TD 128Mb W103,000
Motherboard: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe W140,000
RAM: Kingmax PC3500 1 GB W300,000
HDD: WD120GB SATA W120,000
CPU: P4 2.8C W210,000
DVD etc: Sony DRU510A W125,000
Monitor: Samsung 177X W660,000

Totalling.... W1,803,000... which will do...

How's that sound?

[Demophobe]

Looking good!

Yes, that is a nice monitor...very nice indeed!

Don't forget about a case and power. Case is about 30,000 and power about the same. So, add 60,000 to that.

Anyways, it's good that you have decided. It will be a nice setup and will last you for a while.

Congrats! You are 1/3 of the way there.

[ulsanchris]

I've heard that if you want to do audio-visual stuff than you are better off getting a Mac than using a PC.

I know a guy who has a band and he records, mixes and that stuff on a mac and he swears by them.

[Demophobe]

Yes, that's a good point.

There are pros and cons to both machines. A MAC is perhaps better for such work, the problem being that the availability of other software is somewhat limited.

MACs are not cheap as well, and somewhat limited in what you can upgrade.

This debate is a strong one, which I pray is not opened here....as I said, there are pros and cons to both Intel/AMD-based and MACs.

[ulsanchris]

Personally I am sick of PCs. At the moment I am ready to give Mac a try. I"m just waiting to get some money saved up.

[Demophobe]

Ok...I'll bite...

Why are you sick of Intel/AMD based machines?

BTW...Macs are PCs.