New Computer

[wolfstone636]

I am using PowerDirector16 on a 7 year old PC with an i3 cpu. I am thinking about buying a new DellComputer. I am trying to decide between an i5-7400 cpu with a 1tb sata drive and 12g RAM versus a i7-7700 cpu, 16G RAM, with a SDD drive for the OS and a 1tb SATA for storage. The price difference is $540. It is a big price difference and I am not sure if it is worth it to edit home videos and burn them to DVD. I am not using any special effects or special audio editing or 3d videos.


What does everyone think?

[redwudz]

Wrong forum. Moving you to our Computer Forum.

Moderator redwudz

[usually_quiet]

I am using PowerDirector16 on a 7 year old PC with an i3 cpu. I am thinking about buying a new DellComputer. I am trying to decide between an i5-7400 cpu with a 1tb sata drive and 12g RAM versus a i7-7700 cpu, 16G RAM, with a SDD drive for the OS and a 1tb SATA for storage. The price difference is $540. It is a big price difference and I am not sure if it is worth it to edit home videos and burn them to DVD. I am not using any special effects or special audio editing or 3d videos.


What does everyone think?

An i5-7400 with 12 GB of RAM would be adequate for editing HD and SD video. If you think that there is a chance that you will be editing 4K video with the computer in the foreseeable future, the i7 7700 would be a better choice. You should consider adding additional HDD drives (internal or external) for storage no matter which of these you choose.

[sophisticles]

I am using PowerDirector16 on a 7 year old PC with an i3 cpu. I am thinking about buying a new DellComputer. I am trying to decide between an i5-7400 cpu with a 1tb sata drive and 12g RAM versus a i7-7700 cpu, 16G RAM, with a SDD drive for the OS and a 1tb SATA for storage. The price difference is $540. It is a big price difference and I am not sure if it is worth it to edit home videos and burn them to DVD. I am not using any special effects or special audio editing or 3d videos.


What does everyone think?

You don't say how much each system actually costs, just that the i7 costs $540 more. This leads me to believe that both systems are way over priced for what you are getting.

For instance, checking out microcenter's website gives us this:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/503298/Pavilion_580-137c_Desktop_Computer_Refurbished

Yes it's a refurb but for $550 you get an 8C/16T Ryzen 1700, 16GB ddr4, and a 4GB Radeon RX550.

I would shop around, I like Dell's but they tend to be overpriced for the hardware you get, consider building your own, the $540 difference between the 2 systems you are considering can build you a pretty nice setup if you do it yourself.

[usually_quiet]

consider building your own, the $540 difference between the 2 systems you are considering can build you a pretty nice setup if you do it yourself.

I wish people here would be more honest with newbies about the cost of building your own system. I built my last two computers and have been pricing parts for a new i5 build. I know what component parts currently cost at online stores.

Even using a mid-level AMD Ryzen for the build, a $540 estimated cost is overly optimistic unless someone can re-use components from his/her old PC and buy parts on sale in person from a discount store like Microcenter or Fry's. Add another $200 to $300 to the estimate for a case, a good PSU, and a new Windows 10 system builder's OS license. (If someone is starting with a seven-year-old pre-built desktop system, it is likely that not much will be re-usable. If someone has a pre-built Windows desktop, buying a new Windows 10 license for a new build is a necessity for those who are not comfortable switching to Linux.)

That being said, building your own PC can be worth the extra cost and work, especially if it is the only way to get exactly what you want.

[ozymango]

I am using PowerDirector16 on a 7 year old PC with an i3 cpu. I am thinking about buying a new DellComputer. I am trying to decide between an i5-7400 cpu with a 1tb sata drive and 12g RAM versus a i7-7700 cpu, 16G RAM, with a SDD drive for the OS and a 1tb SATA for storage.

Hi. I install/configure/support Dell computers for a living (tech support at a university) so I thought I'd offer my two cents -- for starters, are you talking "new" new Dell PC, ordered from their site, or a new Dell as in "new to me but previously used by somebody else"? I ask because, frankly, Dell offers all sorts of complex and complicated builds/configurations and there are lots of ways to save $$$ on Dells if you really focus on what you need. And you could definitely save money by buying a good used Dell vs. new-new Dell, even if you still need/want a longer warranty.

So if I were putting together a computer for you at my work, if you came to me for advice and you told me your situation, I'd ask the following questions:

* What's your budget? Gimme some idea of what you can realistically afford to spend right now.
* What don't you like about your current machine? Be as specific as you can be ("it takes five minutes to boot" is better than "it's slow").
* What do you hope your new machine will be able to do?
* How comfortable are you with hardware/software installation and configuration? Do you like to tinker?
* Do you have existing hardware/software you want to have "moved" to this new computer? If so, I'll need specifics to verify it'll all work on the new machine.
* Do you see yourself keeping this machine and expanding it over time (i.e. adding new hardware/software to it) or are you more likely to just sell it and move on to a newer machine if you need additional features?

For video editing, I'll throw out a few of my own experiences:

* Multicore CPUs make a *huge* difference in editing/rendering speed, if you're not just editing/rendering for the occasional fun home video but need to get work done on any kind of schedule. So if you really groove on editing/rendering, it's worth it to go for an i7 over an i5, more hardware cores. BUT you can get a slightly older i7 vs. a brand-new i7 and save $$$.

* You'll want at least two physical drives for editing/rendering -- save your original files on Drive 1, edit/output to Drive 2, much faster than same-drive editing/rendering. I like using an SSD to boot OS, and then two SATA spinner drives for editing/rendering, so three drives minimum, but that's just me because drives are cheap and time/data are precious.

* Lots of RAM is nice, 16gb is a sweet spot, but beyond that I've not seen much improvement in editing/rendering speeds. But I don't edit feature films either.

* Desktop case definitely, you'll want room to open it up and replace drives in the future. I prefer a big case so I can use full height PCI/E cards if needed plus a bunch of spinner drives, but at least a small form-factor case you can run (or at least have room for) two full-size hard drives.

If you let me know the model(s) of Dell computers you're looking at and any configuration options you're interested in, I'll be happy to talk more!

[Nelson37]

Here's one way to look at it.

You can very easily add RAM to an existing PC. You can very easily add an SSD to an existing PC.

You cannot cost effectively convert a slower CPU to a faster CPU.

So, put the money into components that cannot be easily upgraded, and spend the money on the extra's later.

Would recommend you price the same unit at Newegg. Significant difference.