Opinions on buying a new PC

[Rudyard]

Hopefully getting a new PC in the next month or 2 and am trying to do the research so I get the best I can afford. I was hoping for the opinions of computer people at this site.

Hoping to spend $2-2500(aussie dollars) on a desktop. Primary uses are:

* Lots of Video editing - making music DVD's, VHS-DVD, DV transfers. Really enjoy that stuff.
* CIVILIZATION 4 - I know this series of games should run on a 286 but for some reason they tried to make it all 3d graphicsy in the new version and it doesnt run on my laptop. Maybe some other games but I save FPS and stuff for the xbox. Mostly CIV and maybe command and conquer or age of empires style games.
*CAD and RENDERING - Computer Aided Design and rendereing programs.
* Music recording - making some noise on the guitar with my mates, we record some of the noise sometimes!

My current experince is with 2 PC's:
at work 2.6ghz P4 1 gig ram Gforce FX 5200 NVIDIA compatible videocard.

*Does good with video editing, but capturing through the internal TV tuner capture card audio and video is WAY out of synch and is sh*t. I think it is more to do with the software than the hardware but trying to get VHS to PC is useless. The hard drive needs to be defragged but it says it is done and barely anything changes and the program says it needs to be defragged straight after it. I think this maybe hurting my analogue capture.
*Civ4 runs on it but as it is a work PC i have never actually played it for more than 1 minute so I dont know how it runs on it.
*CAD and rendering is fine and operates well on it.
* Music recording, I havent done on it so I dont know.

at home 3ghz P4 1 gig ram inbuilt graphics card LAPTOP.

*Does good with video editing, not as good in Adobe premier as the work PC but I dont really like premier much so not a big deal. Capturing is horrible as I only have a USB Capture device. No good for transfering VHS. Have never used the Firewire capture on it so dont know if it keeps up.
* CIV 4 runs but has the terrain black due to the video card not supporting TNL (common problem in the game I have read on forums). Dont know how it would actually play later in the game if it worked.
* CAD and Rendering run vrey good and I am happy with the performance.
* Music recording is also good through a USB audio interface that lets me connect a mic and guitar. No MIDI though which isnt a huge deal but would be nice.

So with all that in mind here is what I have been given at the local store:

NEW PC - 3.2Ghz hyper threading P4
Abit Ni8 Nvidia SLi chipset motherboard Is this good?
2xPCi express video slots What do these do?
10xUSB ports
1gb DDR2533Mhz RAM Fast enough?
Dual Channel memory What does this do?
160gb HDD 7200rpm Capture fast enough?
1 IDE interface standard What does this do?
2 SATA interfaces Standard (with raid) What does this do?
16x Dual layer DVD
256mb GF6600GT PCi express with SLi Decent card or crap?
DVI/VGA outputs with TV out
PCi express 16x What does this do?
HDTV suppoort
17inch LCD
7.1 digital surround sound
Gigabit network connector broadband ready What does this do?

A mouse, keyboard and small asoftware - $2395

Is this a good price and is there certain parts I should upgrade? I know I have to find a captrue card to add in, are there any good ones that double as a video card or is it best to go seperate?

Also is FSB (front side bus) super important? Is 800mhz what I should be looking for?

I know it was a mouthful but thanks for any help

[yoda313]

Get a larger harddrive!!!! If your going to do hdtv capturing its a must! A one hour capture can be up to 9gb!!!!!!!

[JerryB]

Hopefully getting a new PC in the next month or 2 and am trying to do the research so I get the best I can afford. I was hoping for the opinions of computer people at this site.

Hoping to spend $2-2500(aussie dollars) on a desktop. Primary uses are:

* Lots of Video editing - making music DVD's, VHS-DVD, DV transfers. Really enjoy that stuff.
* CIVILIZATION 4 - I know this series of games should run on a 286 but for some reason they tried to make it all 3d graphicsy in the new version and it doesnt run on my laptop. Maybe some other games but I save FPS and stuff for the xbox. Mostly CIV and maybe command and conquer or age of empires style games.
*CAD and RENDERING - Computer Aided Design and rendereing programs.
* Music recording - making some noise on the guitar with my mates, we record some of the noise sometimes!

My current experince is with 2 PC's:
at work 2.6ghz P4 1 gig ram Gforce FX 5200 NVIDIA compatible videocard.

*Does good with video editing, but capturing through the internal TV tuner capture card audio and video is WAY out of synch and is sh*t. I think it is more to do with the software than the hardware but trying to get VHS to PC is useless. The hard drive needs to be defragged but it says it is done and barely anything changes and the program says it needs to be defragged straight after it. I think this maybe hurting my analogue capture.
*Civ4 runs on it but as it is a work PC i have never actually played it for more than 1 minute so I dont know how it runs on it.
*CAD and rendering is fine and operates well on it.
* Music recording, I havent done on it so I dont know.

at home 3ghz P4 1 gig ram inbuilt graphics card LAPTOP.

*Does good with video editing, not as good in Adobe premier as the work PC but I dont really like premier much so not a big deal. Capturing is horrible as I only have a USB Capture device. No good for transfering VHS. Have never used the Firewire capture on it so dont know if it keeps up.
* CIV 4 runs but has the terrain black due to the video card not supporting TNL (common problem in the game I have read on forums). Dont know how it would actually play later in the game if it worked.
* CAD and Rendering run vrey good and I am happy with the performance.
* Music recording is also good through a USB audio interface that lets me connect a mic and guitar. No MIDI though which isnt a huge deal but would be nice.

So with all that in mind here is what I have been given at the local store:

NEW PC - 3.2Ghz hyper threading P4
Abit Ni8 Nvidia SLi chipset motherboard Is this good?
2xPCi express video slots What do these do?
10xUSB ports
1gb DDR2533Mhz RAM Fast enough?
Dual Channel memory What does this do?
160gb HDD 7200rpm Capture fast enough?
1 IDE interface standard What does this do?
2 SATA interfaces Standard (with raid) What does this do?
16x Dual layer DVD
256mb GF6600GT PCi express with SLi Decent card or crap?
DVI/VGA outputs with TV out
PCi express 16x What does this do?
HDTV suppoort
17inch LCD
7.1 digital surround sound
Gigabit network connector broadband ready What does this do?

A mouse, keyboard and small asoftware - $2395

Is this a good price and is there certain parts I should upgrade? I know I have to find a captrue card to add in, are there any good ones that double as a video card or is it best to go seperate?

Also is FSB (front side bus) super important? Is 800mhz what I should be looking for?

I know it was a mouthful but thanks for any help

Hi,

note: don't know if that a good price because sure about currency exchange rate......
note1: when doing editing turn off all needless programs that running in the background that can cause issue with capturing and editing... you need all the speed you can get.. smile......

the two big items are cad and video editing... they require the most
.... the music recording/editing that simple and that relatively minor requirements.... needed....

1. GET lots of ram.... video editing requires it and you'll find your good cad programs they want a lot of ram.. things goes faster.. get as musch you can afford... and the system can take... many of my friend they put in 4 gigs.... worth... smile...

2. hard drives.. the sata hard drives are faster than your ata/ultra hardrives..... also if your going to do video editing...... get a big hard drive... for example... just capture 2 hour movie can eatup 50 gigs easily... i pick up a 80 gig and i wish i had at least 160 gig HD.. smile....
3. graphic card.... myself i prefer ATI ... also I don't like embedded chips sets in the motherboard........ make it a seperate graphic card with at least 128 megs of ram....

4. sync issues... that always fun.... preferably if you can... commin out of the vcr use s-video out.... that better than using a seperate line for vidio and audio.....

well those are my thoughts good luck and have fun with your new system....

[redwudz]

The short version of questions posed. Not 100% guaranteed accuracy. I typed it fast.

Abit Ni8 Nvidia SLi chipset motherboard Is this good?
Sure, though I prefer Asus motherboards. And I would look into a AMD 64 CPU as an optional setup.

2xPCi express video slots What do these do?
Replaces the AGP video slots. Two PCI-E video cards can be linked together for increased performance.

1gb DDR2533Mhz RAM Fast enough?
Yes. And 1GB is plenty for video. If you use Photoshop, then more might help.

Dual Channel memory What does this do?
Uses matched RAM modules to split the memory load better than regular single channel. Must be matched modules.

160gb HDD 7200rpm Capture fast enough?
Doesn't indicate the speed. Access time and buffer size are more important. 2 hard drives are a better idea. one (smaller) for the operating system. One (or more) larger for video and editing. SATA drives are more common now and on paper faster than PATA.

1 IDE interface standard What does this do?
Interface for PATA hard drives, CD and DVD drives. Parallel ATA drives.

2 SATA interfaces Standard (with raid) What does this do?
Serial ATA hard drive interface. RAID is an option to join several drives for more speed, capacity or data security.

256mb GF6600GT PCi express with SLi Decent card or crap?
Good. You can use 2 if wanted for even more performance.

PCi express 16x What does this do?
Newer motherboards have the faster PCI-E card sockets. That one is probably for the video cards. Replaces AGP video interface.

Gigabit network connector broadband ready What does this do?
LAN connection used for communication between computers and to a cable modem for internet access. The standard used to be 10Mb/sec, then 100Mb/sec and Gigabit is 1000Mb/sec. Faster LAN.