Fox: regarding ShinyMode graphics, the -minimum- listed specs are juuuuuust barely met by my current card, an Nvidia 9500GT. For true Shiny, you'll want better. So you're looking at probably $150+ right there just for the card. You can get a GTS 250 w/512MB onboard for $145, before shipping... if you're going to spend that sort of dough, I'd go better than that if I could, honestly. If you're satisfied for the moment with bare-minimum graphics then the 9500GT series meets it, according to a Posi post on the subject (link to it somewheres on this forum, I don't remember where exactly). 9500GT is about $60, depending on bells, whistles, and source.
I'm not sure why you specify 'at least 2 hard drives'. A 1.5TB (TERAbyte, yes) drive is only $100. Yes, granted, one can fill that, but as a starting point it's hard to beat 1500 gigs of space. As for the optical drive/burner... I don't personally think it matters much these days. Unless you go seriously high-end, they're just replaceable parts anyway. Budget $50 to $75 for it and just remind yourself that you may have to replace it a couple years down the road.
Memory... figure roughly $25 / gigabyte, in 2-gig chunks (best price/performance ratio; buying 1 GB at a time gets more expensive than it's worth). More expensive = better, but you can get by well enough with the cheap stuff. Corsair or PNY are the two brands I'm most familiar with, but there may well be better out there that I don't know about.
Most motherboards come with onboard audio, which is plenty "good enough" unless you're an audiophile. Speaking of motherboards, you want something that supports dual-core at a minimum. The links at the top are still my favorite for entry-level. I trust Wire's opinion on these things, heh.
The OS is where you're going to be stuck, unless you have an XP license key lying around that you can re-use. Simply put, your choice these days if you don't go Linux or Mac is Windows 7. Which is $200. You can get a deal if you're a student, but it's still on the pricey side.
And finally... if you're going to make your own case, keep in mind that wood tends to swell and contract and retain moisture. I can't really recommend it. (You mentioned Pulp-Tech, so...) Also, you really do want metal around your motherboard, at the very least. RF interference is no joke, and it can go both ways unless you've got something stopping all those friendly electromagnetic waves. I've seen a caseless computer mess up a satellite box from across the room, and let's not even joke about what a vacuum cleaner (all those juicy DC brush motors, mm!) made Windows do. Remember, FCC Class B, more specifically this bit: "This device must accept any
interference received, including interference
that may cause undesired operation."
Without a metallic shroud, you're going to have hella fun tracking down that stuff, if you run into it.
For best asthetics/practicality tradeoff, I'd buy a regular no-frills case and just re-skin it, if I were you.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
I'm not sure why you specify 'at least 2 hard drives'. A 1.5TB (TERAbyte, yes) drive is only $100. Yes, granted, one can fill that, but as a starting point it's hard to beat 1500 gigs of space. As for the optical drive/burner... I don't personally think it matters much these days. Unless you go seriously high-end, they're just replaceable parts anyway. Budget $50 to $75 for it and just remind yourself that you may have to replace it a couple years down the road.
Memory... figure roughly $25 / gigabyte, in 2-gig chunks (best price/performance ratio; buying 1 GB at a time gets more expensive than it's worth). More expensive = better, but you can get by well enough with the cheap stuff. Corsair or PNY are the two brands I'm most familiar with, but there may well be better out there that I don't know about.
Most motherboards come with onboard audio, which is plenty "good enough" unless you're an audiophile. Speaking of motherboards, you want something that supports dual-core at a minimum. The links at the top are still my favorite for entry-level. I trust Wire's opinion on these things, heh.
The OS is where you're going to be stuck, unless you have an XP license key lying around that you can re-use. Simply put, your choice these days if you don't go Linux or Mac is Windows 7. Which is $200. You can get a deal if you're a student, but it's still on the pricey side.
And finally... if you're going to make your own case, keep in mind that wood tends to swell and contract and retain moisture. I can't really recommend it. (You mentioned Pulp-Tech, so...) Also, you really do want metal around your motherboard, at the very least. RF interference is no joke, and it can go both ways unless you've got something stopping all those friendly electromagnetic waves. I've seen a caseless computer mess up a satellite box from across the room, and let's not even joke about what a vacuum cleaner (all those juicy DC brush motors, mm!) made Windows do. Remember, FCC Class B, more specifically this bit: "This device must accept any
interference received, including interference
that may cause undesired operation."
Without a metallic shroud, you're going to have hella fun tracking down that stuff, if you run into it.
For best asthetics/practicality tradeoff, I'd buy a regular no-frills case and just re-skin it, if I were you.--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs