deano87
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Registered: 21st Oct 06
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I used to be well up on computers and even built my current one for myself on my 17th or 18th birthday. But now I don't really have any idea what is on the market etc.
Basically Dad needs a new PC for his business, but we also want a good one for editing biking videos and making half decent films. Budget is what ever you recommend but nothing over £1500 and must include a monitor.
I would have immediate gone to the Dell XPS range but are they all their cracked up to be or can they be a bit 'look at me I have an XPS' and all show, no go?!
It MUST be Windows based because dad is a bit slow with computers as it is so changing to a Mac will just confuse him.
So yeah, must have good video processing power, rather than gaming - what product ranges out there are good?
Any help much appreciated!
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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What sort of the video footage are you dealing with? SD/HD?
I'm assuming you'd rather buy a complete system that build something yourself? It's worth looking at the Dells XPS range, i've used them in the past (with Nvidia Quadro cards) for 3D Max work and they seemed to be pretty happy processing HD material.
As a base spec i'd look for something with an Intel i7 (say the i7 930), at least 4GB DDR3 and plenty of storage for video/media. If you're going to be doing a lot of video work then i would look at a dedicated working drive - this isn't storage, just a fast drive to work from whilst editing. In my case i've got a pair of Seagates in Raid 0 (drive is constantly backed up to multiple drives, internal and external. Not worried if array dies etc). Ultimately you'd get SSDs for this working drive, but it gets costly very quickly.
If you're planning to do a lot of HD then look at increasing the ram to 8GB and obviously increase storage.
Also if you're using the Adobe Suite (premiere/after effects) then they do off load a little bit of the processing to the GPU (most recent ATI/Nvidia cards are supported).
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deano87
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Well currently it is just a Samsung headcam and camcorder, so nothing major. Also only use Ulead Videostudio 9.0. I'm not talking major video editing, just a mountain bike downhill run on headcam with music and the odd shot etc cut in.
But I guess one day it will be HD so need to go for something that will cope. But cheers 
Anyone else?
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Something with a decent high speed 2.7+ dual core/i7 processor, 4GB RAM, Windows 7 64bit, 1GB graphics. Bam
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adiohead
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Registered: 28th Sep 01
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I get my work PCs from Mesh Computers.
I could build my own but their prices aren't too bad. Especially if you get one of their special offers.
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ssj_kakarot
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Registered: 29th Apr 03
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wow £1500 could get you a hell of a system, tbh honest anything in that price range store bought will do the job your after.
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ssj_kakarot
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Registered: 29th Apr 03
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something like this
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/iriss.html
i like novatech then just buy any monitor you like, but pretty much any online retailer will do something like that.
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deano87
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Cheers guys
And would a 'gaming' PC have the same capability as a 'multimedia' PC etc?
[Edited on 16-03-2010 by deano87]
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Doug
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quote:
Originally posted by ssj_kakarot
something like this
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/iriss.html
i like novatech then just buy any monitor you like, but pretty much any online retailer will do something like that.
Looks good that!
I have that Lian Li case. Its a cracker!
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Dom
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Just saw this over on The Register - YoYoTech Warbird i750CX 4GHz. It's in your budget and it should last you a while (it will happily cope with video editing). The only downer to it is the fact that it's got a single 500GB drive (and perhaps could do with have 8GB of ram instead of 4GB. You probably could drop one of the graphics cards and use that cash on the extra 4GB of ram). Personally i would get a few more drives (1TB etc) for (media) storage and use the 500GB as the OS/Programs drive.
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deano87
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We have an external HDD which could be usd for the storage I guess - however not sure how quick the transfer rate will be at USB2.0.
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deano87
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Just specced this on Dell.
Base:
StudioXPS 8100 - Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB)
Microsoft Operating System:
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64bit- English
Microsoft Application Software:
Microsoft® Office 2007 Basic - English
Monitor:
DELL™ 20”W HD MONITOR ST2010 - BLACK - UK
Memory:
8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Hard Drive:
1.2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x640GB - 7200rpm)
Video Card:
1GB ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 Graphics Card
Optical Devices:
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write) & DVD ROM (Win 7 Only)
Sound Cards:
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Plus all the other gumph you get with it like mouse and keyboard.
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Dom
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I'd be warry about using a Raid 0 array as your main partition. They are useful as 'work drives' due to the increase in speed, but if one of the drives goes you loose all your data and it'll a little more than difficult to get your data back. Would get a smaller drive for your OS/Programs and a bigger one for storage (+ something for backups on top of this - beit DVDs or external drives etc). If money allows and you think you'll warrant it, look at getting a dedicated quick drive or raid array for video work.
Looks like a good system though
[Edited on 16-03-2010 by Dom]
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deano87
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Dell doesn't give you that option though  but Dad's current Dell is about 8 years old and going strong, just can't do much.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
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I don't really like RAID for home appilcations
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ssj_kakarot
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Registered: 29th Apr 03
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quote:
Originally posted by deano87
Cheers guys
And would a 'gaming' PC have the same capability as a 'multimedia' PC etc?
[Edited on 16-03-2010 by deano87]
yup, more so in my cases, gaming pcs tend to be the top tear as in general games sytems are built to a higher spec than media pcs.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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A gaming graphics card doesn't do workstation graphics though. I couldn't give you a technical reason why, just that some programs don't work too well if you aren't using a Quadro...
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Though my comment is totally irrelevant now I've re-read the question 
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chris_uk
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Registered: 8th Jul 03
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quote:
Originally posted by deano87
Just specced this on Dell.
Base:
StudioXPS 8100 - Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB)
get the i7920 or i7930, you can overclock them to over 4Ghz where the i7860 cant be overclocked
Microsoft Operating System:
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64bit- English
fine
Microsoft Application Software:
Microsoft® Office 2007 Basic - English
if its free fine, if not download it for free
Monitor:
DELL™ 20”W HD MONITOR ST2010 - BLACK - UK
fine (reccomend This)
Memory:
8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
fine
Hard Drive:
1.2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x640GB - 7200rpm)
fine
Video Card:
1GB ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 Graphics Card
im an nvidia boy personally, i had lots of driver issues with all the ati cards ive used in the past, im not sure if that is a problem anymore tho
Optical Devices:
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write) & DVD ROM (Win 7 Only)
fine
Sound Cards:
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
fine
Plus all the other gumph you get with it like mouse and keyboard.
i would look at this CPU/MB and Ram
i7920 @ £215.66 here
X58 asus rampage II extreme m/b with 7.1 surround sound inc @ £294.02 here
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel @ £135.99 here
dont forget tho, you need a decent powerpack to power all this stuff, and you would need some decent cooling on the case if you want to overclock it in the future.. i would reccomend the Corsair H50 watercooled kit @ £65
[Edited on 18-03-2010 by chris_uk]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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That's not built with a warranty though.
The days of custom building PC's for all but a few are nearly over.
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deano87
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Registered: 21st Oct 06
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Cheers chris_uk. But they'll be no overclocking and it'll be bought with piece of mind and warranty in mind.
I've had an ATI card in my PC for over 5 years and never gone wrong
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PhilC
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Registered: 21st Jan 06
Location: Lancs, UK
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ATi driver issues seem to be a thing of the past... At least in my experience. I moved away from them for this reason, and went with Nvidia cards for a few years. My current card is a Radeon HD 4850, and it's awesome. Gonna stick with ATi.
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John
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Never understood why people stick with anybody.
I go with whoever makes the best component when I need it, couldn't care less who used to be what.
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PhilC
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Yeah, but it might look the best on paper, but you go with what you know to be reliable, rather than make a punt on something that looks good, but is really pretty shite, like a peugeot??
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Obviously research it before you buy, because you've had no problem with ati until now that doesn't mean that something hasn't changed since then and they are now really bad.
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