Jeff, checked this card out. It looks like it only has internal SATA connections. What am I missing?

They can't all be bad as mine is also a Studio XPS 435MT and the eSATA does work. First one did fry but...so far.....so good.

Jeff, I had started looking at companies that would put together a customised system, wanting to avoid the pitfalls of DIY. The site you listed is one that I have been looking at. I also have been looking at this company Custom i7. They have many brands from which you can select components. Knowing the exact brand of what I am ordering is putting this one just in front of others at the moment. It seems they have a delivery time of about four weeks though. Reseller Ratings give them a 9.4/10 lifetime rating which is a plus.

Look at avadirect.com. Higher customer rating and choice of top-of-the line components.

Google any company first. Reseller ratings are HIGHLY questionable. Google "company name" + problems and you might be surprised what you find. Be careful, I NEVER trust reseller ratings, but that is just me, they can be manipulated by companies too easily.

I just googled the ones above, ava, cyberpc direct, etc and you should too. I'm almost sorry I brought them up now.

If you have a microcenter around you you can go there, pick out the parts, and they'll assemble it for you. Good luck. I'm going to stop bringing up names for companies I haven't dealt with!

Thanks Jeff. I always take negative review with a grain of salt because people are always more likely to write when they are upset than when they are happy. Having said that what I read about said companies made me a little concerned.

We have a Micro Center just up the interstate in Denver. Do you know roughly what they might charge to assemble a system?

Has anyone had any dealing with Puget Systems. I did what you suggested this time Jeff and went a little further than Reseller Ratings. I didn't find anything negative like I did with the other companies but wondered if there may be something hidden away somewhere.

I know what you mean about the negative reviews, and I take the same view. Dummies who don't know how to turn on a PC can make a company look bad. It's a shame. On the other hand, it really is a jungle on the net, and can be disheartening.

I do not know what Microcenter charges, but they'll tell you...call'em up.

If you are not sure what parts to buy, ask for some of us to post our specs, and more than a few (including me) will be happy to share.

I for one went with the PT6 Asus Motherboard Version 2 (new one) which microsoft doesn't carry, but they do carry they the P6T, which is a fine board according to many around here.

You probably must buy your parts at Microcenter for them to assemble, by the way.

Good afternoon,


I was putting a pci e firewire card in my xps studio. In the past I never needed to use a power plug in the old pci cards. The cord that came with it resembles no free plugs at all. Was wondering if it need an adapter to a smaller plug or such. Now I know why I opted to not build!!! I thought it would be easy, can't even figure out a simple card!!!

Thanks

Terry, my apologies, you want the 1225SA. Newegg.com - 1225sa adaptec

They list two versions and I have no idea of the differences.

Good afternoon,


The card said it needed poser and it works fine with out the extra power, go figure.


In the next year I am going to build my own one of these, and if the dell fails again it will be a lot sooner than later!!

Dale, I understand how you feel. While overall I've had pretty good experience with Dell, I bought underpowered systems that were not designed for video editing and that drove me to build my own again after a year off from DIY.

I believe for a while I even argued pretty adamantly that you couldn't do as well building your own as you could by buying pre-built. I was wrong, very wrong. I was even warned about certain brands having inferior power supplies, and I ignored it. And I paid the price.

I now have a monster of a case that will probably last for years, 1350 watts of power that will probably be adequate for a long time, and I feel great about it. I only need to upgrade the CPU and MOBO next time, (hopefully not the ram) and while that is a pain, I am proficient enough at it that I actually enjoyed doing it this time. Went without a hitch.

Darren, I was at Microcenter today and asked about charges to build a system. They quoted me $86. I think that is waay reasonalble.

Thanks Jeff. I was just going to send the Denver store an email for a quote but couldn't find a direct email address so will call them in the morning. After looking at their website this is what I am considering. I welcome any comments, suggestions and advice. I am using Sony Vegas so GPU isn't a major factor. Would love to hear what others have in their system.

* Intel i7 920
* ASUS P6T Deluxe
* 6Gb Triple Channel (DDR3) 1600MHz (Corsair)
* WD Caviar Black 500Gb (system)
* WD Caviar Black 750Gb or 1Tb (media)
* EVGA e-GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0
* Case: Antec 300
* PSU: Corsair TX 650 Watt ATX Power Supply

I must admit I wasn't overly impressed the the selection of DVD burners and card readers on their site. Jeff, Is what they have on their website the full selection or do they have others in stock.

Depending on the budget I am given I would consider upgrading to a velociRaptor for the system drive. Is there anything else I should look at upgrading?

If you are going to overclock, you should get at least 850W PSU. If not consider 750W. The i7 is power hungry.

You can buy a DVd burner and card reader elsewhere. If you get externals of both of those they can be quite handy. I personally have an external DVD burner that I love (Sony) and it has been more reliable than any internal drive I've ever owned.

I imagine if it is not listed it's not available, but remember they are going to have misc items laying around the store that might not be listed.

jeff, and others,




what would be really good now is to have a posting of those integrated systems that have successfully gone together well and work as high profile editing machines.


then someone like myself, can look at the lists of components and make solid decisions on what they want to invest in and actually know they can pull it off!!!!

I am sure I could build one, just do not have enough knowledge to know what components to acquire so i do not waste time and money in particular.



could be done on a spread sheet.


any takers???