[Closed] Computer geeks needed, help me upgrade!

You may be better off looking at a SSD for the Video editing disc

Power supply looks a bit weedy, you may want to look at a 500W or greater if you want to drive a decent graphics card. I think the ICH7D controller on your motherboard supports some sort of RAID which given the current price of discs might be more cost-effective than an SSD if your video files are big.

I'd seriously consider something from the Apple brand, they just seem to work

Or just buy a new box - what's the price difference?

SSD would be good for the system drive but to use it as a video drive you'd have to spend so much money on a big SSD as HD video files are generally quite big. Of course you could leave enough space on the SSD for one video project at a time and then move the files off that drive onto a "normal" one, seems like a bit of a faff though.

hmmm yeah i know apples are gorgeous for editing on, but out of my price range 🙁 if the upgrades get to the point where its going to cost more than 400, would it be worth just getting a new unit? power supply is a good point, didnt even think about that!

I'm not interested enough to investigate the spec - all I know is for the HDMI editing, you also need an HDMI compatible monitor.
My local geek emporium, Novatech.co.uk is a good place to get parts. I think they might have an online help to assist with your upgrade question too?

Most modern graphics cards/monitors are DVI which is as good as HDMI isn't it? I may be wrong though..

Macs are good for video but you need a pretty powerful one to get the best out of it which means spending £1500+ 🙁

running a 32" PC as a second monitor so the hdmi thing is covered 🙂

Pentium Ds are a lot slower clock for clock than anything core 2 or i3 based. I'd be looking at a low end new box from dell with about £60 spent on a gfx card upgrade.

If doing it on the cheap, just up the ram to 4g, get a copy of win 7 (know a student or teacher? 30 then...), spend about £60 on a gfx card that doesnt need an extra power connection.

how low end is low?

i've possibly got the option (just had a text, hows that for timing!)of picking up a mac with a duffed hardrive for pretty cheap, but would need a new hardrive installed, when it comes to macs i have no idea if thats even possible or cost effective!

Pentium Ds are a lot slower clock for clock than anything core 2 or i3 based

You could slip a core 2 duo in there for about £100 but you would definitely be getting to the point where a new system might be cheaper.

Replacing a hard drive on a Mac shouldn't be any harder than on a PC. Whether it's worth it depends on the spec of the Mac.

Which model mac and how much? Some are a bit of a hassle to change the drive. Also might be no faster than what you have depending on vintage.

Upgrade to Windows 7? Is that a typing error?

I think you would be better off with a whole new box. Whats would you keep of your original set up?

Novatech will build you a nice box and you could keep you monitor and bits?

Upgrade to Windows 7? Is that a typing error?

Best version of Windows. Without a doubt. What would you suggest Waderider?

Upgrade to Windows 7? Is that a typing error?

I'm a hardcore OSX/*nix user and even I think win 7 is "quite good".

XP, OSX, or linux are all better.

I ran build 7100 (I think that was the number) and it suffered from many of the problems my junked copy of Vista suffered from - resource hog, weighed down by drm and other useless bells and whistles, with driver issues, and file copying issues.

Of course, if you're the type of person when asked "what sort of car do you have" answer "a red one" then no doubt it's the OS for you. After all its a nice UI veneer over a load of creaking cobblers.

Its loads better than XP runs faster on most machines. OSX isn't an option really, now is it? if hes getting a PC. I agree most Linus distributions are faster than Windows but this guy would be better with Windows 7.

I agree Windows 7 is probably the OS for the OP. I'll admit I am prone to making these posts because it annoys me that Windows holds onto such a large market share with a product that is broadly inferior.

Edit: I disagree that Windows 7 runs faster than XP. I'd say you'd be comparing an old slow XP installation against a new clean Windows 7 installation in that case. There you go, actually another minus point for Windows, it slows over time......

waiting for the guy to let me know the spec of the mac, i know he's upgraded it to 3gb of ram as it came with one. other than that he knows nothing of the spec so is waiting for the wife to get home and dig up the reciept.

Well I've been using W7 since last October doing fairly computer intensive stuff (video, audio and a lot of 3d graphics/rendering with GI etc) and it's still fine.. runs better than XP ever did and looks/feels a lot nicer. Mine's only 32 bit as well, planning on the 64 bit when I can be bothered to sort it all out.

I've got it and Snow Leopard on the same machine and they both run about the same in regards to time for boot up, programs loading up etc. Both are good, with the adobe suite there's a lot of overlap. 7 will probably be faster when I finally get round to buying a SSD 😛 Oh and no blue screens as yet.

http://www.chillblast.com/product.php?productid=19591&cat=262&page=1

Job done

XP is simply awful after you've been using W7 for a while. Love it.

3gb [i]suggests[/i] an early core 2 duo or core duo based model. If it's Core 2 duo, it should be decent and depending on price a good deal. All intel macs are easy enough to change the HD in, apart from minis which are a bit of a tit, but it you're mechanically minded I'd give it a go. Check ifixit.com for very good how-tos.

Also, Win7 is much better than XP, on clean installs of both. Multitasks so much better, feels a lot more like OSX (on the same hardware) in that respect. Doesn't stall and lag all the time, and much more stable IME.

i've possibly got the option (just had a text, hows that for timing!)of picking up a mac with a duffed hardrive for pretty cheap, but would need a new hardrive installed, when it comes to macs i have no idea if thats even possible or cost effective!

replaced em in an iMac (Intel) and a Macbook Pro (intel).
Both fiddly, and you should be aware thatyou'll need to run Diskutility fromthe boot media to create a volume to install to, but nothing a bit of patience, an internet connection and a big pot of tea can't fix

hmmm well i think he's been quoted 200 from apple, and an extra 50 for fitting, but to be honest if the specs capable of editing then even with the 250 quoted by apple it'd still come in cheaper than buying all the components to upgrade my home pc.... but until i find out the current specs of the machine to find out its graphics capabilities and cpu speed i'm not committing myself to anything.

[img] [/img]

ok, i'm back 😀

[url= http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-p6565uk-06318506-pdt.html ]stumbled accross this..... [/url]

convince me not to go out and buy this before arriving home!

the iMac details are here:
[url= https://support.apple.com/specs/imac/iMac_Late_2006.html ]the iMac[/url] looking at the 20" version with RAM upgraded to 3gb.

opinions oh tech gurus please

thank you 🙂

Seriously Phil, take a look at the chillblast site above. You'll get a very good spec base unit for the same cash as that HP.

Like [url= http://www.chillblast.com/product.php?productid=19621&cat=363&page=1 ]this one[/url] for example

The HP looks OK but the one on the Chillblast site looks loads better.

cheers woody 🙂 i'm probably being dumb beyond belief but... that one you linked to has less RAM and the graphics card appears to be much less powerful too? its 50quid more and doesnt come with a card reader (handy for taking footage off the helmet cam) and another thing that i'm unsure about is the whole overclocking thing, back when i was young that was something people did that although made a slight difference, invalidated warranties and risked it breaking?

please dont read this as me arguing, its a genuine level of dumbness from me so i can only comment on my limited knowledge and the apparent specs as they're worded for dummies like me!

no warranty issues with the overclocking, the graphics card on the HP is crap, RAM is cheap if 4GB isn't enough 🙂

What I like about this thread is that the OP asks people for help by addressing them as [i]geeks[/i]

[i]Computer [b]geeks[/b] needed, [b]help[/b] me upgrade![/i]

Priceless !, 😆

"Geek" isn't a perjorative term. You're thinking of "nerd." I'm a geek and proud of it.

I was going to suggest upgrades, but it seems the subject's moved on since then. As you were.

back when i was a child geek was an insult.... but is geek now a bad term? i'm a geek with certain subjects, i've got friends who are music geeks, production geeks, gaming geeks and so on.... none of them are ashamed of using the term geek as it suggests a level of dedication and understanding within that subject 🙂

cougar... dont hold back from suggesting upgrades 🙂 its still very much an option, one that mrsconsequence would be happier witnessing than me buying a whole new unit and moving more stuff into the loft!

apologies to anyone i did offend by using the term geek, i genuinely didnt think it would cause offence as so many people i know use the term as a positive.

Just to be clear, I'm not having a go, and yes, in certain circles the word geek has come a fair way into the realms of acceptability, etc.

I was just amused at the title.

I'm liking the IT-cat pics too, more please.

😀

The cat bit is easy

http://www.google.co.uk/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1256&bih=299&q=cat+computer&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g4g-m3&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

oh back to the main topic, would give another vote for Novatech. I have delt with them in the past and have been very good.

novatech do some "gaming" desktop units that seem to fit the spec, would that be cheaper than upgrading nearly everything inside my current box?

There's cheaper and there's less hassle. A whole new box will save you time/hassles for sure... worth considering? E.g. would you pay an extra £50 to save an afternoon's arsing about?

Guess it come down to how comforatable you are in building / upgrading it yourself. Looks nice and easy online but its when things go wrong that you need to have a bit of understanding

well, i've got close friends who would happily spend hours building a pc for me if i bought the components.... but they have no concept of time and if something goes wrong i dont want to have to ask the kind friend to do even more work on it.

a built up box does have its appeal and for about 50quid then yeah i'd say its probably worth the peace of mind 🙂 saying that mrsconsequence is quite happy to put extra RAM and a second Hard drive in a box providing the rest is all sorted (as in all she'd have to do is open it up and stick something in the right slot), i cant see her wanting to build something from scratch... maybe a couple of years ago but she definitely doesn't have the time.

the trick is providing a strong enough argument to mrsconsequence (and myself) that buying a built up box is cheaper in the long run because my current box is limited by its motherboard and processor or something confusing like that.

well thats easy, it will not support any of the current new intel i series processors

any thoughts on the link to the mac's spec? will that even handle HD footage?

Win7 works nicely on older hardware.

Running a media centre at home, on a 2.6G P4 from 2003, with W7 Ultimate.

The mac will handle HD, but is a little long in the tooth. Changing the HDD on imacs is a bit of a mission, check the guide for that exact model on ifixit. (this i think http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iMac-Intel-20-Inch-EMC-2105-and-2118-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1092/1 )

Mostly editing HD will be a PITA with long transcode/render times whatever you do it on, unless it's very high end. If I was buying a machine specifically for this, I'd be looking at a raid array or SSD for a scratch disk at least. Having said that, I'd also tend to look more at higher end machines than low end in general (spending 2k on a machine doesn't seem ridiculous to me).

So is the mac worth it? Well, depends how much it'll cost you and if you're prepared to swap the HD yourself...

OH, also you cant view 1080p content on that mac at 100% as it doesn't have a big enough monitor... if that's an issue? Having said that, if you want space for 1080p content at 1:1 + tool pallettes etc you really need a 27 or 30" monitor, and that's starting at about £900 really gonna blow the budget... so maybe not as much of an issue as it might be.

i know it wont be viewable as HD on the screen, even on a home pc i'd be limited to viewing it at 720p due to the monitors i have and both tvs that can be run as a second monitor are 720p. but i trust that if the files set to HD and then uploaded in HD others will be able to see it the quality providing they have the right screens 🙂

what ive noticed is trying to watch a full HD file on a computer with bad graphics card jsut provides a jumpy experience and doesnt handle the images at any watchable frame rate.... was assuming (and hoping!) that either the iMac or a new box with decent graphics card would be able to handle it, even if the screen doesnt quite make the msot of the resolution?

bit like playing decent music through a decent amp but not so decent speakers i suppose... once i upgrade the home TV then if i stick with a PC instead of mac i'd run it as a second monitor i think 🙂

GPU isn't the only deciding factor on if you can view HD content. Depends how the content is served too. Flash based HD content beasts nearly any system.

Checked and that iFixit guide is the right one BTW. For your needs (and in general) I don't think that quoted repair price for the mac is worth it, you'd want to be willing & able to repair yourself, and be getting the mac cheap.

New system is probably best for you I suspect.

Your cam does 60fps only at 720p yes? I'd stick with that res anyhow, for fast movement a more fluid framerate will be more useful than the extra pixels. 720p is enough video res for most anyhow...

BTW TVs make grim monitors. Way too low DPI. On a 32" 720p panel you've a DPI of about 46, compare this to 100ish on a typical monitor....

the mac is cheap... but i definitely wouldn't feel comfortable changing the HD myself. the tech in new units is confusing, i still dont really understand why those chilliblast ones are better than that HP i posted... he numbers (to an idiot like me) all seem better in the HP.

put me in a room with murderers and paedophiles and i'm fine, ask me to work out which PC is better and i'm lost haha!