Need help choosing computer upgrade!

[rbailey]

Let me start by saying I am new to the site and hello to all and thanks in advance for your help/advise.

I am wanting to replace my Sony Viao PC with a new or newer model. Current specs are Intel P4 @ 2.4ghz/533 FSB/1gm DDR PC2700 ram/80gb HDD/nVIDIA MX440 4X AGP 64mb card. I figure I will hand this down to the kids.

What I feel like I mainly need is a PC for video editing. I am not much of a gamer, but do play MS2004 now and then. Even this is choppy at times on the P4. The most CPU hungry apps I do are converting video from my digital camcorder (tape) to DVD and .avi files to DVD. So I know there is alot of converting going on and DVD burning. I have been researching on the best CPU type (Core 2 duo vs. Quad) but am starting to get a little confused on which way to go.

I thought someone who uses their PC for this type of work could tell me what works good for them. Or some who has this experience and knows what works best for these types of conversions. Please keep in mind I don't know anything about overclocking so not sure i want to go that way. Your advise would be greatly appreciated

 

[rohan23]

First of all, welcome! If you are doing any sort of editing you want a quad core CPU and a lot of RAM. I do some video editing myself. Get a 64 bit operating system. What exactly is your budget? Where do you live in the world? Are you comfortable in building a computer? What size monitor are you using?

 

[rbailey]

I live in Texas. I have never built a computer before but Iam pretty good at figuring things out. Don't think it would be too hard, especially with this site and it's help. I use a Samsung 19" FP (can't remember the resolution without looking). I have not given too much thought on budget yet but have seen some used HP's with the Q6600 Quad for $500-$600. I know people have complained about Vista over the years so didn't know if I should stick with XP? But do know Vista supports 8gb of ram and I am sure I would want the max ram.

 

[rohan23]

Vista supports around 128GB, I think. You can only go as high as your motherboard can handle. What exactly is your budget?

 

[rbailey]

would like to stay under $1000. I wasn't sure if a store bought computer with the Q6600 would work just fine?

 

[worshipme]

I wasn't sure if a store bought computer with the Q6600 would work just fine?

You could get a better performing and more future proof system if you built it yourself. If you feel like you're not up to it, we all remember our first builds and as long as you have a decent amount of common sense everything will go fine.

Also, is it just me, or do pre-builts always have the strangest selection of components that don't go together at all?

If I were you, I'd go with one of the new Phenon II X4s, a 790GX board and 2x2GB of DDR2 1066/

Are there any parts you can bring over from your current system, HDD maybe? That could save you some money.

 

[Holysky]

You might want to try an AMD build because they just came out with a new line of CPU's that are almost as good as the core i7's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472-CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157141- for the motherboard. I ave only heard good things about this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003 With an awesome cpu, you would probably
want to overclock after awhile, even after you said you don't want to, it is VERY tempting This is one of the best Air coolers on the market and its at an awesome price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019- a very good Power supply unit that gives you room to upgrade later on

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395- a very good Hard drive. I know that from experience

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137 one of the best cases IMO is the RC-690. It is quite big, but it can hold all of the hardware, have good wire management, and keep this machine cool

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236 A great price for an 4870 and they are very good cards and should do fine with all of the video edditing you do

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166 A well know brand, and also the fastest that the Motherboard can handle. 4GB is plenty enough for years to come

Last but not least The operating system. In order to get the most out of your system, you need to upgrade to Vista. Don't worry, after a couple of years all of the problems have been smoothed out, 64-bit will let you upgrade to as much as 128GB of RAM. Yet 4GB is the most performance you can get and 16GB is the limit on the motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488




this all comes out to about 717.94 dollars.

this computer will last a long time and will deliver the best performance for under 1000 dollars

 

[rbailey]

Thanks Holysky! After reading your comments I am really tempted to try to build myself. I didn't quiet understand why people were having to manually set their fans on the 4870, hopefully it's something simple in the provided software for the card. With building myseelf I do like the fact that I am better off for future expansion, plus the ability to really keep the system cool.

From what I have read, the AMD processors are pretty good for OC'ing. How much increase on performance do you think I would see if the Phenom II x 4 940 is OC'd and up to what speed?

 

[Holysky]

with the xigmatek i might say about 3.6GHZ without straining it to much

you might notice like 10 fps increase in games

believe me once you relize the power that computer has, you will be loading it up with games and video editing should be very quick

 

[worshipme]

you might notice like 10 fps increase in games