Budget Ripping Machine

[bkam]

A friend and I are tossing the idea around of making a ripping machine and we're trying to get the most bang for our buck. I'm not the hardware guy exactly but I have a list we've worked out and was hoping for some extra input. Note that we're trying to stick around $500-$600. Here is what we have so far. Also, I would like to know whether the prices are good or what, since he is the one who knows the hardware.

Power Supply and Case
Enlight Mid tower with Power Supply ($42)

Motherboard
ABIT NF7-S ($125)

Video Card
Matrox G550 (he has one lying around)

Memory
Corsair TwinMos 512MB 333MHz ($187)

CPU
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ Retail ($108)
(comes with heatsink fan unit)

Hard Drive
Western Digital 120GB (he has one)

CD-Rom Drive
LG 48/24/48/16 ($87)

That brings us to $549, we don't think we'll have a problem getting a cheap monitor/keyboard/mouse. So any input would be greatly appreciated. This undoubtedly will be great compared to encoding on my 1.2ghz celeron laptop (256 ram) but I would like to know if this is the best value we can get (also, any input from someone with a similar setup about time to encode divx would be appreciated). EDIT: Also, in terms of ripping, are all drives created relatively equal, and if not, how does this one compare? I have no experience.

Thanks again.

[doaa]

why 512MB RAM, I'd say you'd get better performance with 256mb and spend the differance on faster processor

[bkam]

We thought vdub could use it. Is it true we'll get better performance that way?

[doaa]

When I do a dvd-rip vdub only uses around 100-150mb ram while cpu is 100%, I don't belive ram makes that much difference when converting video.

[jwu42]

I would be wary of the enlight case since it likely has a 300watt PSU :mad:

I would suggest a 400 watt as a minimum for now.

You could also save about $40-$50 on a cheaper Motherboard. NForce2 is nice and will be my next board, but if price is a major concern check out an ECS K7S5A.

Seeing you have a XP2100+ (assuming a Tbred B) you are gonna OC it then the Abit board makes more sense ;)

[Jackie A$$]

You might want to consider an inexpensive DVD-RW (Pricewatch had a Toshiba 2x for US$180 or a Pioneer 6x for US$198). The prices are always dropping for the drives as well as the media. Why settle for just the movie when you could have all the added features of a DVD?

[FranchiseJuan]

If you are going a XP2100+ (T-bred B) and overclocking then an Epox 8RDA+ and a good HSF is in order...

[jwu42]

Don't necessarily need the 8rda+, the 8rda at $30 less would be fine too...

[Xayd]

No need for a monitor. If the machines will be networked (no reason not to!) Use a program such as this one here (http://www.radmin.com) to control it remotely.

For that matter it doesn't need a keyboard or mouse either, just tell the BIOS to ignore the no-keyboard errors and off you go.

[jwu42]

Or just use the remote desktop built into XP. Having used radmin and VNC, it works just as well - especially on a lan.