I'm in desperate need of some professional advice. My knowledge of computers is terribly limited, and yet I need to make a decision in the next few months as to what new computer I need. I don't really want to take some salesmans word on what I should buy, so I must know at least a little bit before I go in.
Right now I have an ancient Toshiba satellite, with a Celeron 995 mhz processor and I think 240mb ram. It serves my current purpose of surfin the net.
However, I am purchasing a high def flash based camcorder, and want to download, edit and burn video. I've been told it takes a very powerful computer to edit and process HD video. I have no idea what that means. Other than that, maybe a couple games is the only thing I'd use it for.
I tried looking up some computers online, but the specs just baffle me. I see dual core, triple core and quad core, and I assume the more the better?
I'm most worried about getting something that can handle HD video, because I'm not sure what it takes. I am in NO way capable of building my own computer, but I know a guy who owns a computer shop and builds custom computers, so maybe that's an option.
I hate being ignorant about something I have to spend money on, so if you guys could give me some basic guidelines, that would be fantastic. I'm hoping to keep things under $750 or so, so I assume that means desktop. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Right now I have an ancient Toshiba satellite, with a Celeron 995 mhz processor and I think 240mb ram. It serves my current purpose of surfin the net.
However, I am purchasing a high def flash based camcorder, and want to download, edit and burn video. I've been told it takes a very powerful computer to edit and process HD video. I have no idea what that means. Other than that, maybe a couple games is the only thing I'd use it for.
I tried looking up some computers online, but the specs just baffle me. I see dual core, triple core and quad core, and I assume the more the better?
I'm most worried about getting something that can handle HD video, because I'm not sure what it takes. I am in NO way capable of building my own computer, but I know a guy who owns a computer shop and builds custom computers, so maybe that's an option.
I hate being ignorant about something I have to spend money on, so if you guys could give me some basic guidelines, that would be fantastic. I'm hoping to keep things under $750 or so, so I assume that means desktop. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.