A couple of months ago, we've written something about setting up a CPU for a workstation that its main use is supposed to be for processing digital images, video editing, graphic and web stuff. Unfortunately we are still have not been able to purchase, and right now there's a lot of new hardware offered on the market which is really great because there's a lot of choices to from and it's gonna much faster and more advanced compared to other older release of hardware. So what we did was we researched again for a good and budget friendly setup for CPU.
CPU Setup. We've omitted the LED monitor on the list, as we first bought it so we can have external output from the netbook that we're using (small screen is really is not enough if you're into images, graphics and motion). Actually we are going for a dual monitor setup, but right now what fits into the budget is just the CPU.
Motherboard - Asrock 880GM-LE AMD880G Motherboard
AsRock motherboards is really bang for the buck because of its huge list of motherboard features and not to mention the cheap price. Also chose because of the number of slots for memory is 4. We've used this brand already, tried and tested and we even setup computers for clients with AsRock motherboards and so far, there was no trouble reported. This has onboard AVL (audio, video, lan) for this motherboard also.
AMD fan by heart, no need for so much detailed explanation. AMD just works for us, quality, selection wise and competitive price. Just opted for Sempron for now, as we are more into fattening the system memory instead of the processor speed. Maybe in time we'll gonna upgrade to AMD X4 or what will be the new processor around that will fit into the budget but right now sticking to Sempron.
We're making a comeback to Kingston products. We used to embrace their products before because of its quality. Picked the HyperX series from their memory products which is known this is used for gaming. Though Kingston HyperX blu is just an entry level, this is a good choice also for media work. This brings to a total of 16GB for the memory which is already massive setup for the regular user.
Hard Drive - (System) Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB SATA Hard Drive ( WD6402AAEX)
External Hard Drive - Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB Hard Drives ( WDBACW0010HBK)
This external drive will be used mainly for backups and stuff so we chose this one so that it will be just steady on the desktop table.
PSU (Power Supply Unit) - CoolerMaster EX 500W
This power supply is the cheapest and quality power supply in the market. That will be good enough to power up the CPU effeciently.
UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) - Apollo Blast 650VA
Casing - any ATX case will do.
Notes
*Opted for onboard video setup for the mean time as we still can't pick any specific video card model that will be suited for dual monitor setup.
*Onboard audio will be fine, since we will not be focusing into music production.
