New computer

[Parsifal]

Seasons greetings from Australia.

I am trying to organise a new computer before Christmas as my PC has died and a niece spilled wine into the laptop. I recently sold my Mac Pro with a view to returning to PC for home sound recording and video editing. With a A$2000 budget in mind (current exchange rate A$1 = approximately US$1) I have organised something along the lines of this:

CPU: Intel I7-950 Processor
RAM: Corsair 6 GB of DDR3 1600 Dominator Cas7
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E Motherboard
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon 5770 Vapor-X
Hard Drive: Western Digital 2 Terabyte Black Caviar Hard Drive
Media: LG Blu-Ray Writer
Power Supply: 660 Watt ACBell Power Supply/other
Case: Fractal R3 Case
Operation System: Win 7 64 Bit Professional

Total: A$2000 with Bitdefender Internet Security 12 Month Subscription

Alternatively, my brother-in-law has an i7 920 CPU-based machine he no longer requires and will offload for A$1500. The specs on his machine are:

CPU: Intel i7-920 processor
RAM: KVR1333D3N9K3/6G Kingston DDR3 6Gb
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4R Mainboard
Graphics card: GTX 275
Hard drive: Samsung 1.0TB (would need 2 TB) SATA 2 HDD
DVD burner: LG 22x DVD burner Black OEM (would need Blu-Ray burner)
Power supply: AITO 650 watt
Case: Coolermaster RC690
Other Pinnacle 250i DVB-T PCI HDTV Tuner
Operating system: Microsoft Vista Home Premium
Software: Bullguard Antivirus OEM

I think he would throw in an Acer LCD monitor too (prefer LED but later on perhaps) with the total for the machine and monitor:

A$1500

Which would be the better purchase? I'd have to upgrade my brother-in-law's to Windows 7 64-bit Pro from currently-installed Vista and possibly add 1.0TB to hard drive and I'd prefer a Blu-Ray burner to his DVD burner. It cost him just under $3000 18-months ago but prices for components have obviously dropped and he is offering the opportunity to pay in installments which is handy, especially at this time of year. With the new machine I'd need to add a monitor so, say, an extra $200.

I'm tempted to go with the new machine but any advice on the merits/otherwise of the components would be much appreciated.

[arraknid]

Personally, I'd go for the new option, purely because it's newer and will be covered by guarantees and has better components. It's also the one you specified, and as the cost is almost the same, why go for something older that you've got to add to?

A couple of points I'd make...

You talk about doing home sound recording, yet there's no sound card evident in your list. The on-board Realtek sound chip won't be good enough.

Having a 2Tb HDD sounds great, but bigger isn't always best. As you'll have SATA connections available, I'd opt for fitting 4 x 500Gb drives. Slightly more expensive, but you'll spread your risk of loss in the event of HDD failure. Remember that when HDD's were first introduced they were no more than a few Gb in size, yet today they fit 2000 Gb's in the same space! Considering that they are mechanical devices, that places an awful lot of strain on the mechanical parts and can lead to early failure. And when you lose 2Tb of data, you lose a hell of a lot, so also consider an external back-up drive.

I'm sure others will add their comments.