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Help with purchase of computer

Hello everyone,

I am in the market for a new computer.

The computer needs to do three major tasks.

1. Run AutoCAD newest version
2. Capture video from a DV camera with fairly high quality , run a good video editing program and can hook up to a TV for playback
3. Record music from turntables and run good audio editing program

Also it needs a big hardrive since the above mentioned things take up a lot of space.

I have been debating between Intel and AMD and I don't know yet.

I don't need a monitor just yet and my budget is between 1500 and 2000.

Also I'm not a gamer so I don't need any of that gamer extra stuff.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

I could have helped you about a year or so ago.

but..not anymore.

I dont know anything about computers

depending on how much you know about building pc's you have either the choice of buying the bits and asembling it yourself, or if you want to buy off a company i would recomend dell, mainly for there top notch customer support.

I would recomend if you can afford it go for a intel pentium 4 800 mhz fsb cpu, these come in 2.4,2.6,2.8,3 & 3.2 and all have c after the cpu name - eg. pentium 4 2.4C I recomend this as the higher fsb will give better perforance for the applications you want to run, and they also have hyperthreading which will also give a performance boost

memory will most likley be DDR, and if you get the cpu i recomend then it will be PC3200 ram. as you want to do a fair bit editing work, get either 512mb or even 1 gig (1024mb) of it

harddrives : idealy for perforamnce get a S-ATA drive, as to size you will need to calculate how much you need, if needed just get 2 drives (i have!!)

to record the music from decks the onboard sound (nearly every motherboard will have this) should be sufficent unless you want the very best in quality then a high-spec soundcard would have to be purchased. to run the decent audio software your system will be good enough as it can cope with autocad

if your not going to be gaming much then theres no need to get a top-spec video card, as these only increase perforamce of games, something along the lines of a radiao 8500 or nvidia geeforce 4 mx440 chip set would be fine, yet still powerfull enoguh to play a game on average or slightly lower quality settings.

do ask if you have any more questions

I built a pc two months ago...so yeah it's obsolete, but maybe it will give you ideas...

AMD Barton 2500 Processor
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
Asus 128meg Nvidia G-Force 4 Vid. Card
2 512 Meg Kingston memory chips
Allied 450 Watt Power Supply
2 60 gigHD's (to start)
2 CD-RW's
Case w/ cooling fans
Volcano Processor Cooling fan
Accessories, KB, Mouse...etc.

I shopped around pretty hard for these parts, but still ended up getting most at Newegg.com and some accessories from Directron.com.
Good Prices (sales), free shipping on many parts (so toal shipping was (10-15 dollars). Some outfits may have had a piece or two, for a couple dollars less, but it was easier to keep the main shipment in one delivery so I would get the bulk of the PC all at once.

The Deluxe Mobo has onboard sound and ethernet. I am happy with the onboard sound for the stuff I do...granted for a couple hundred extra the new sound cards may improve sound slightly (plus extra peripherals).

I did my box for just under $1000. Notice some of my parts were not top of the line, and some were...So if your budget is higher you can get more...i.e. better sound, a little faster processor, etc.

As far as which HD's, and CD-RW's to get...they are all similar...you can get em cheap after rebate and they all seem to work the same. Just make sure it's sorta name brand And as far as Pentium v. AMD...again to me 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other...I've had both, they both run...etc

Like jonsimmonds mentions above, dell is probably the best shelf dealer, because of service, but the computer I built would be twice the price according to the dell website. So, if customer service is worth a grand to you...by all means. Again, this one I built, and it was my first, and I had a couple hiccups, but about 4 hours total and I had it up and running...well..up and installing all the software. The savings was well worth it.

Good luck...ask questions as they come up...

I would go with intel since they switched to the 800mhz FSB. Also the new hyper threading technology. Lets face it, since they implemented those 2 concepts, AMD was being spanked left and right by intel. Still is...

Intel owns

quote:

Originally posted by Azz3D I would go with intel since they switched to the 800mhz FSB. Also the new hyper threading technology. Lets face it, since they implemented those 2 concepts, AMD was being spanked left and right by intel. Still is...

so will a regular person really see this difference?

like if i'm working on autocad will i really notice a difference with these chips.

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess so will a regular person really see this difference? like if i'm working on autocad will i really notice a difference with these chips.

yup if you was to have a system based on the AMD barton xp3200 and compared it to a system based on a P4 3.2 800mhz with the same ram, drives, video card etc, only 2 items being changed are motherboard + cpu you would notice a significant difference in cpu intensive applications and video encoding programs, with the intell being the better of the two.

and before people call me pro intel, i am pro performance and at the moment intel wins, although if you want do make a budget system base it on the amd xp1700 - xp2100 range cpu's

buyg a 1700xp with dlt3c setepping and OC to 2.5 ghz from 1.5

quote:

Originally posted by mndeg buyg a 1700xp with dlt3c setepping and OC to 2.5 ghz from 1.5

i did that but my is at 2.1 at 1.6 volts, idle at 37-38 c and load at 41c

sterio princess, if i were u i would get a dell precision workstation from dell. Sometimes there prices cant be beat any where except if u look hard enough. they gave me 200 gigs hard drive for free, the best deal ever.

I do DV editing too and I would suggest getting a Mac and using iMovie (home movies) or Final Cut Pro (professional movies).

If you going PC:

1. get 2 fast and large ATA hard dives (dont skimp here!).
2. obviously fire wire card.
3. dual monitors.
4. 1 gig of ram.
5. processor (dont waste you money on the top of line) just above the middle will do just fine.

I got a pc here cyber power they allow you to customize it and they are less money than a dell.

One big suggestion get as many of the devices that you need when u buy it cause they will make sure the system works. I ran into a lot of driver problems when i installed new stuff on my pc.

i searched through Dell and picked a system and went through all the options and always ended up with a system over 2000 dollars like closer to 3000. I don't need all the stuff that they are selling with the computer, for example a monitor. You can't chose no monitor. I personally think Dells are overpriced. The only thing good about them is the service and I never had to call a service person for a computer related question yet.

to record from turntables all you need is the input jack on the sound card. i have a SBlive x-gamer sound card that i got for like $20 and works like a charm. and big hdd's aren't too expensive.

So this is what i figure so far

ASUS P4C800 deluxe motherboard
P4 2.4C chip
as the base

then
120 gig harddrive
1024 mem (not sure what kind between 2700 and 3200 or whatever the hell that means)

soundblaster Audigy (just regular)
videocard - 128MB but don't know which one to choose

that's all so far.

you would need pc3200 ram, the pc2700 runs at 333mhz fsb (166 doubled) the pc3200 runs at 400mhz fsb (200 doubled) the P3 2.4C runs at 800mhz fsb (200 times 4)

as for the video card any on the market will be fine for what you need, i suggest you stick with a well known brand name. atm ATI are the better graphics card to choose

as for yoru hard drive i would recomend a Western Digital or maxtor, these to brands produce the most reliable high performance drives, if there is a difference between 8mb cache and 2mb cache select the 8mb cache, this will help loads for your video editing stuff (at the moment ive got a maxtor 80mb 8mb cache drive)

that motherboard is a good choice, have you considered the intel made boards as well? another board maker known to be good for P4's are abit

www.gamepc.com has some good workstations and they are very customizable but abit overprice depending on what u have/want.

for video card i would get a ati radeon9800 pro or 9700 pro. both are top of there class in gaming and some CAD and they dont cheat either like nvidia. I would avoid the geforce FX, these cards are a joke in performance and price, over price and under perform except for the fx 5900 pro which is overprice and standard performance.

quote:

Originally posted by yujie__ [url] for video card i would get a ati radeon9800 pro or 9700 pro. both are top of there class in gaming and some CAD and they dont cheat either like nvidia. I would avoid the geforce FX, these cards are a joke in performance and price, over price and under perform except for the fx 5900 pro which is overprice and standard performance.

your pretty much right about the nvidia being poo but wudnt the 9700 and 9800 be a bit to much for just cad use and windows use? these are the best for gaming, but as said in first post the box aint for gaming, and something not has high spec could be brought for less savin ��� (or $$$)

i got my 9700 non pro for 232. i flash it with the pro's bios and now i am , games and windows never look so prettier. the 9700np is getting rarer every day now. but some places have started to sell the 9800np for the same price as the 9700pro. its almost 1 year anniversary of the 9700pro.

http://www.ukgamer.com/article.php4?id=5&page=1 great to read if u are a newbie or curios or undecided on what to do/purchase

http://www.hanners.nildram.co.uk/sftu011_1.html lol

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess So this is what i figure so far ASUS P4C800 deluxe motherboard P4 2.4C chip as the base then 120 gig harddrive 1024 mem (not sure what kind between 2700 and 3200 or whatever the hell that means) soundblaster Audigy (just regular) videocard - 128MB but don't know which one to choose that's all so far.

First off get the P4P800 it offers the same performance as the other 875 mobos, secondly make sure you get 3200 ddr preferably cas 2, I recommend corsair low latency series, also due to the fact that these mobos are dual channel make sure you get 2 memory modules for the best performance. For a sound card you can't beat the M Audio Revolution 7.1 for price and quality, true 24 bit 96KHZ sampling or the Aureon 7.1 Space by terratec, it has more input options including optical in/out. I would run two hard drives, one for OS and the other for storage, get the Western Digital Raptor 10K 36GB for your OS and programs and a larger 7K drive for storage. Get a radeon 9700 pro for graphics. A good power supply and case are also needed. Just rememeber when putting together a computer the weakest link can slow down the sum of the parts, so don't think you can skimp on parts. Get a good recordable cdr/rw drive as well, the plextor is best although you can get a lite-on drive for the price/performance ratio...any other questions..just PM me.

Mizz1

quote:

Originally posted by mizzuno I would run two hard drives, one for OS and the other for storage, get the Western Digital Raptor 10K 36GB for your OS and programs and a larger 7K drive for storage.

pretty sensible advice there, those WD raptors are amazing and certanily the best non scsi harddrives out there.

as to the graphics cards i personally think its a bit to over powerfull for cad, video editing, general windows use etc, and a cheeper card would do the same job at a lower price, but thats what i think i suppose


another factor to remember when buying parts seperatly is to buy 'retail' packaging and not 'oem' retail nearly always comes with a return to manufracturer warenrty while oem doesnt, hence why oem is often cheeper than retail products

quote:

Originally posted by mizzuno First off get the P4P800 it offers the same performance as the other 875 mobos, secondly make sure you get 3200 ddr preferably cas 2, I recommend corsair low latency series, also due to the fact that these mobos are dual channel make sure you get 2 memory modules for the best performance. Mizz1

From what I read the P4P800 is not 875 its for 865PE. i dunno what difference it makes.

for the memory part you just mean to get two matching memory modules instead of one big one?

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess for the memory part you just mean to get two matching memory modules instead of one big one?

yeah, so if your going to get 1024 mb get 2 512mb modules

as to the motherboards ive never used a new p4 version one yet, your best bet is to check out some tech related sites just type the motherboard name + review in a google search and hopefully a load of links full of info will appear. also i do belive asus link all reviews on their products onthe motherboard specs page of their web site www.asus.com.tw

i would get the p4p800(865) or abit IS-7(865) instead of p4c800(875) to save couple of dollars for the same performance, if u used the bios/optimization. heres a good big article on intel mobo's http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831 . at the end they pick the abit is-7 for Editors Choice Gold Award for best overall Pentium 4 motherboard , p4p800 for best mid-range Pentium 4 motherboard

getting 2 different HD for OS and other stuff is safer. I got a 20 gig for OS/appz, 200 gigs 7200 rpm 8mb cache for mp3s, and a 120 gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache for other stuffs/appz/vidz/stuff

quote:

Originally posted by yujie__ i would get the p4p800(865) or abit IS-7(865) instead of p4c800(875) to save couple of dollars for the same performance, if u used the bios/optimization. heres a good big article on intel mobo's http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831 . at the end they pick the abit is-7 for Editors Choice Gold Award for best overall Pentium 4 motherboard , p4p800 for best mid-range Pentium 4 motherboard getting 2 different HD for OS and other stuff is safer. I got a 20 gig for OS/appz, 200 gigs 7200 rpm 8mb cache for mp3s, and a 120 gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache for other stuffs/appz/vidz/stuff

u got one for free?

yes i got the 200 gigs for free from dell. i bought the 120 from dell last year for 140s when it was cheap . i bought the 20 in Canada when i was on vacation. I also have a 60 unused right now, dunno what to do to it, give or sell it to someone or ebay it.

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