New Computer, views on pre-built comps?

[RufusW]

Hey guys,​

I’m looking for a bit of advice on the computer I’m planning to get. I want to do quite a lot of video editing, DV camcorder stuff and DVD editing, ripping, burning, but also play stuff like UT2004, hopefully UT2006 at a high rate when it comes out, also t’internet and word etc… I’ve been told Pentium are best for video editing which is my focus. I’ve got around £850-900 to spend and I was wondering what you guys thought of this selection...

PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - £850​

INTEL® PENTIUM® 4 630 (64 BIT) @ 3.0GHZ 800mhz FSB/HTT/2MB​

1024 MB DDR400 PC3200 (LIFETIME WARRANTY!)​

HIGH END ASUS®: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, x16 slot, 3 PCI, 3 PCI-EX

SATA 200 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 8mb cache​

52 X 32 X 52 CD WRITER + 16X DVD ROM (COMBI DRIVE)
4x +R DUAL LYR DVD WRITER (16x +/-R) (& RW) + 40x CD-RW
256MB RADEON X550 PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 Player
ONBOARD LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G NETWORK CARD
Silent 400W PSU + 80mm internal Fan
MICROSOFT® WINDOWS® XP HOME
3 PORT FIREWIRE CARD
17 INCH TFT SILVER/BLACK 1280 X 1024 RES: 12MS
Black Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Mouse


DELL.CO.UK - £782


Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 630 with HT technology (3.00GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® Media Center Edition 2005
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 400MHz (2x512) Memory
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives
Dell 19" Value Flat Panel (E193FP)
256MB ATI Radeon® X600 HyperMemory graphics card
IEEE 1394 PCI Adapter card
Keyboard, Mouse, Rubbish Speakers
Only 2 PCI-E devices allowed!!



ECLIPSECOMPUTERS.CO.UK - £670

Intel Pentium 4 630, 3.0GHz 2MB Cache 800Mhz LGA775 ​

1024Mb (2x512Mb) Dual Channel DDR2 533Mhz Memory
XFX 128Mb DDR3 GeForce 6600GT PCI-Express TVo Dual DVI
Wireless 54Mbps PCI LAN

PCI Full Rate ADSL MODEM

Pioneer DVR-110DB 16xDVD+/-R Dual Layer DVD Writer
Briza ATX Black Case with 450w PSU

19 Inch TFT

Windows XP Home Edition​

MESHCOMPUTERS.CO.UK - £703

ASUS A8N-VM Mainboard - DDR400, IEEE 1394, SATA, PCIEX16​

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ ​

1024MB PC3200 DDR Memory 400MHz​

200GB Serial ATA (150MB/s) Ultra Fast HDD with 8MB Buffer​

128MB nVIDIA GeForce 6100 PCI Express (on-board SMA) (non-DVI)​

17'' TFT Flat Panel LCD Monitor (Analogue)​

SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-Re-Writable +R/-R/RW​

Onboard 5.1 Surround Sound 6 Channel Audio​

ASUS 54MBps 802.11G Wi-Fi PCI Card ​

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition​

Sorry about the dodgy typeset....Cut and paste...

I've searched this board for these companies, all seem reputable with decent kit etc....
Do you guys think what I'm aiming for it going to be good enough for problem-free video editing and FPS games? Should 3 GHz do? Should I get 2G RAM for it if I've got enough cash? If I'm going to upgrade any of these what should i use my extra cash on?

Sorry for all the questions.. Any advice you guys with the knowledge could give me would be much appreciated. I don't know a huge amount about computers at the moment but am learning...

I'm new to this board but will be using it a lot to fine tune my comp etc....an excellent resource, good work ​

Rufus

p.s if anyone on the board lives around Bath and wants to build a comp for me.... they're welcome, I'll pay any labour etc...



​

 

[floppybootstomp]

One quick comment:

It's a myth Pentiums are better for video editing, CPU speed is not the be all and end all of how intensively a processor can work.

I'm using a Socket A AMD XP3200 (2.2Ghz) for video capture and editing.

A Pinnacle TV Card captures composite video and digital video is captured through firewire port.

Using a 9800 Pro vid card and a gig of memory, Pinnacle Studio 9 software and also Nero.

It works flawlessly.

It also plays Far Cry, Doom 3, UT2004 & HL2 Ok.

As for prebuilt systems, I can't really comment as I have no experience of them.

But were you to opt for building your own machine, I could make a few recommendations.

PS: Buy from Mesh at your own risk. Browse these forums for many tales of woe from people who've purchased from that company.

Dell are relatively good.

 

[Me__2001]

pentiums aren't that great at encoding

you want a system with an Athlon64 something like a 3500 a 3700 if you can stretch to it, atleast 1GB of RAM, a 6600GT and a decent DVDRW, pair that with some decent software like floppy suggested and it should do all of the above fine

 

[CITech]

Buy from Mesh at your own risk. Browse these forums for many tales of woe from people who've purchased from that company.

Agree with Floppy, the MESH machines can be very good, but if you hit unlucky, then you better have plenty of patience. There are plenty of tales of woe on here, but keep in mind that some(?) of their customers must be happy (or am i wearing the rose-tinted specs again?)

 

[muckshifter]

ASUS A8N-VM Mainboard = Crap

No way ... it's a micro-board ... not upgradeable.



... Floppy will build you one ... but you'll have to meet him inside the M25 as he don't know how to get any further.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I’ve looked at all the systems in the first post and whilst some are better than others, they’re all flawed and have weak points. The main drawback is many of the parts aren't identified by manufacturer, meaning you could be getting low end components.


Here’s a suggested system to cover all your needs, the 6600GT vid card will play most latest games but may not cope with UT2006, I don’t know.


The system comes in black, which is not to everybody’s taste, but it is just a suggestion.

The Monitor is good value, in my opinion, at 4ms and with a DVI input, it seems good value to me. However, for fifty pounds less you could get same thing with only VGA input.

This is just to give an idea, you could quite easily go higher or lower in price.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 930BF TCO-99 Monitor, DVI-D, D-sub, 4ms £249.00
Asus A8N-SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard £88.07
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) – Retail £117.44
Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB) £70.44
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU £78.02
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache – OEM £83.13
Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive – Black £16.39
NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) – OEM £31.49
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) – Retail £105.69
Logitech Cordless Optical Desktop Rechargeable Black/Silver – OEM £35.19
Logitech Z-3e 2.1 40 Watts Speakers – Retail £55.17

Total: £930.03 inc VAT but not shipping.

All components priced from overclockers.co.uk except monitor, from Komplett.

Options/considerations:

For 19” TFT Monitor without DVI input, deduct £50.00

For 2Gb RAM, add £100.00

For Hauppage TV Tuner/FM Radio tuner, add £50.42 (to capture composite video)

For external Ethernet ADSL Modem, add around £45.00

For Windows XP or other operating system, shop around.

Motherboard has onboard sound & LAN

You’ll need to pay somebody to put it together for you, prices vary per individual.

 

[Reefsmoka]

From all the benchmarks i've seen Intel chips crap on AMD on video editing and other CPU hungry tasks by quite abit. I had a Pentium 4 not long ago and it was faster than my AMD64 3700+ for genral tasks, like MP3 converting, using windows media player and just genral stuff.

Though it was a hot little bugger!

If your serious about gaming, then you should build your own computer, no pre built machine from dell, mesh or who ever will do any game justice. Only if you shop around at them rip off merchants like Alienware and the others alike will you get a gaming monster.

Build your own computer, you have the net obviously, so just google any quearies you might have about building, or post your problems here and they WILL be sorted .

 

[floppybootstomp]

From all the benchmarks i've seen Intel chips crap on AMD on video editing and other CPU hungry tasks by quite abit. I had a Pentium 4 not long ago and it was faster than my AMD64 3700+ for genral tasks, like MP3 converting, using windows media player and just genral stuff.

Well, there we have it, from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

I was referring mostly to the way Intel always quoted it's CPU speed as being all that counted when lesser clocked AMD's actually outperformed them.

But I guess them P4's may have their uses.

I couldn't have actually got something wrong, could I?

My goodness Perish the thought

Must be all that hyper-threading

 

[RufusW]

Thanks guys

Hey,

thanks a lot for your replies. should have guessed you guys wouldn't really endorse a pre-built system I've been having a little think and i reckon I might build the PC myself, will learna lot and stop myself getting ripped off, and choose myself a pimp case Thanks Floppy for the specs, damn useful. Will need to take down the price a little, think i'm going to buy XP. also I reckon I'll change to a P4, that means changing the motherboard, anything else need changing? Reckon P4 will be better for the video editing, and hopefully a decent graphics card will take care of UT2006...hmmm...

I'll post in a bit with specs for my comp.... then I'll post a bit later when I need help putting it together... then i'll post when I can't get the damn thing to work... then I'll post when it crashes running Firefox...

Thanks for the info so far guys...

Rufus

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, I ain't exactly busy atm, so:

Different, cheaper, 19" TFT, VGA input only, 8ms
Cheaper motherboard, still an Asus board but not Nvidia 4 chipset
Smaller hard drive, 200Gb instead of 250Gb
Pentium 3Ghz CPU:

VideoSeven E19PS 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £187.94
Asus P5GPL Intel 915PL (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard £70.44
Intel Pentium 4 630 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology – Retail £123.32
Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB) £70.44
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU £78.02
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache – OEM £65.21
Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive – Black £16.39
NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) – OEM £31.49
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) – Retail £105.69
Logitech Cordless Optical Desktop Rechargeable Black/Silver – OEM £35.19
Logitech Z-3e 2.1 40 Watts Speakers – Retail £55.17

Total: £839.30

You could do away with the floppy drive/media reader and save £16.50
You could get a cheapo pair of 2.0 speakers and save about forty quid
You could get cheapo keyboard and mouse and save about twenty quid

All small savings and sacrificing quality - you will notice the difference.

You could buy a cheapo case but then you'd have to buy a decent power supply and it would only work out the same as buying the Antec case with good 450W PSU.

To get a complete, quality system with 19" TFT Monitor that's capable of playing games and editing video, I don't see how you can drop below the above specs. Make a compromise anywhere above and your machine won't do all you want it to efficiently.

To capture/edit video you need a big hard disk. And games also take up a lot of disk space.

You may be able to save yourself some more money by shopping at E-Buyer. Four day delivery and, from my experience, iffy after sales service.

You know what you want your machine to do, what I've suggested is cutting it close but it should do the job.

If anybody else can make a better suggestion, please do, I'd be really pleased to be proved wrong

And by that I don't mean 'Aria Value case with 500W PSU' 'Asrock Sis chipset motherboard' and the like

 

[RufusW]

Wicked Floppy,

was thinking about adding these components...

Keyboard £19.92

Logitech Media Keyboard Elite - Retail (KB-066-LG) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Keyboards_2.html



Mouse £6.46

Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Sea Grey - OEM (KB-047-LG) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Optical_Mice.html


Windows XP Home Amazon £70



Sound Card £28.79

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - Retail (SC-039-CL) –http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/creative_soundcards.html



Firewire Card £28.53

Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394 FireWire PCI Card -

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12600252779&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=56272



Wireless Internet Card £23.44

Belkin F5D7000UK 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter (NW-007-BE) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/PCI_Wireless_Network_Cards.html




TV Card £50.42
Hauppauge WinTV-PCI-FM Adapter (GX-017-HA) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/TV_Cards.html

any thoughts? I don't need the speakers btw. When it comes to upgrading memory, having 2*512 will restrict me right? Can I fit a second graphics card or would I need to replace the 6600? And if I wanted to have a second hard drive I presume I'd have space. Sorry for so many questions... Thanks a lot for the help, when I finalise the parts hopefully the build will go a fair bit smoother...

Rufus

 

[floppybootstomp]

Keyboard: That's the one I'm using right now Only advantages of wireless keyboard, imo, is if you regularly use a gaming steering wheel or you use Media software and want to change stuff on big screen from sofa. I prefer a wired keyboard myself.

Mouse - adequate.

Windoze - Ok.

Sound card - no need, I'd gamble that the onboard sound is actually better than that cheap Creative card.

Firewire/USB2 card - The motherboard already has those functions I believe, not worth buying.

Wireless network card - if you really want a wireless network, Ok.

TV Card - good choice.

You could add another 6600GT at a later date (check if motherboard has two card function, I think it does)

Or you could get a 6800GT now and get about the same performance.

Yes, you can add another hard drive later. I was going to suggest small hard drive for Windows, about 40 to 80Gb, and large drive for storage, video files and stuff, but your budget was restrictive.

 

[RufusW]

Final component list

Okay,

I reckon I've finalised components for my build... few questions...though

Good value build? £900's a lot and want to make sure it's worth me spending that much. It's all compatable right? After ordering this there'll be everything I need... so cables etc... The neovo has DVI-input... worth it? I've got enough PCI-E slots right? any left over? Looking at the photo of it, there loooks to be only 2. Hmmm.... that's it


Intel Build



Processor £123.32

Intel Pentium 4 630 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) HT Technology - Retail (CP-094-IN)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Pentium_4_LGA775.html



Motherboard £82.19

Asus P5LD2-VM Intel 945G Micro ATX (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-110-AS)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ASUS_Socket_LGA775.html



RAM £70.44

Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_Value_Select.html



Graphics Card £105.69
Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_GT.html



Hard drive £83.13

Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache – OEM

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Samsung.html


Monitor £187.94
VideoSeven E19PS 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/lcd19.html



OR



AG Neovo F419 19" TFT 12ms 500:1 (1280x1024) (Analogue/DVI) Monitor - Black (3 Years Warranty

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12650628199&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=55183



Case £78.02

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html



DVD Drive £31.49

NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) – OEM

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/DVD_RW_Drives.html


Keyboard £19.92

Logitech Media Keyboard Elite - Retail (KB-066-LG)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Keyboards_2.html



Mouse £6.46

Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Sea Grey - OEM (KB-047-LG)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Optical_Mice.html



Floppy Drive £16.39

Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive – Black

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Other_Drives.html


Windows XP Home £70

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00061H588/qid=1130954559/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/202-6022617-4010200



Wireless Internet Card £23.44

Belkin F5D7000UK 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter (NW-007-BE) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/PCI_Wireless_Network_Cards.html



£898.43

The help from this board has been wicked... bit of a big step me building my own, but I reckon I can do it, wish me luck

Rufus

 

[muckshifter]

Well I'm sorry but I just looked at the MB ... the rest I don't care about ... but.

Crap!

Yes we hype on about building your own, yes we KNOW it aint cheaper, but you get ALL THE RIGHT PARTS needed.

Now you just chose the one MB that any proprietary manufacturer would choose ... on price.

Sorry but you START with the best MB you can afford ... cut the other corners but NOT that one ... everything connects to the MB, get that wrong ... you is eFFted.

 

[muckshifter]

Sorry to sound harsh there ... but that's me ... pick the first MB one on that link.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Lol, I think what Mucks is so politely trying to say is you've picked a motherboard with an integrated graphics chip, which is fine for an office machine but not exactly what you're after.

The motherboard I specced was based on price and is a good motherboard but I've just had a look at it and it does not support dual graphics cards. It costs £70.00 and it will do you but it's obviously not the best choice.

The one Mucks has reccomended is twice that price, so, doing a quick calculation here, if you can stretch to another sixty quid or so on top of your above price, it would be worth it.

Why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar, as they say?

The motherboard DOES make a difference, I've learnt that one the hard way, and quite a surprise it was to me as well when I first realised.

Anyway, the choice is yours.

Spend £70.44 on the P5GPL, you'll have a good machine. Spend £140.94 on the P5ND2 and you'll have a wicked machine.

As for the monitors, I'd go for the AG Neovo one as it has a DVI input, although I know nothing of that particular brand. Find out if the monitor is supplied with a DVI cable or not. If it isn't, a cable will cost you around £15.00. And remember if you order from two different suppliers you'll pay a little more total in shipping charges.

When you have all the pieces in front of you, if you're not sure what to do, post here, there will be several people on this forum probably willing to talk you through it.

Good luck.

 

[RufusW]

Cool, just kinda picked the one that looked like it'd go with the processor. I'll make the change and add a bit of cash to the kitty...

Does a better mobo actually improave performance or just improve reliability/upgradability?

I suppose you guys thought the rest of the system was okay?

Will be finalising the parts and where I'm getting them from v.soon, then maybe another thread (hmmm...) just to ask some final questions, prepare myself fully for the task ahead

thanks again

Rufus