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

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Beware of killer hamsters and the random running dogs.

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...

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"I'd like to buy a techno song."

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

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Summary of an ASOT episode:

- The newest tunes selected!!!! the hottest tracks in a row!!!! here is your host arrrrrmin van buuuuuuuuhreeennnnnhnnhhn
- hello and welcome glad u cud join us this is a state of trance episode blah blah blah
- waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah waaaaaaaaaaaaah whineeeeeeeeeeeee blah blaaaaaaaaah
- that was the newest track by blah bla and before that was blaaaaaaah
- waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....the end
Vomit-inducing trifecta tunage: Zocalo | Summer Dream | Shivers

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

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Beware of killer hamsters and the random running dogs.

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

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soulful/latin/deep house + jazz

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

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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.

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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.

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GIGANTIC CUNT

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.