Setup Question

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  • W00DY
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Jul 2003
    • 28

    Setup Question

    Hi all,

    Firstly let me say I am VERY new to Digital Video... so I will have a lot of questions as time goes on

    My first question is regarding a good PC setup. I currently have a PIII 650 with 384mg RAM and a Nvidia TNT2 video card.

    I want to upgrade my system but would like your thoughts on what you think is a minimum setup. Especially on the video card aspect. How much does your video card play a role in digital video? or should you spend your money more on the processor and RAM?

    Thanks in advance for any replies.

    W00DY
  • Enchanter
    Old member
    • Feb 2002
    • 5417

    #2
    Welcome to the forum.

    Have a look at this similar thread. It should answer most of your questions.

    Cheers.

    Comment

    • jedimaster
      Junior Member
      Junior Member
      • Jul 2003
      • 8

      #3
      Minimum setup for a video editing box:

      AMD XP 2000+ ( get it Retail ...comes with 3 year warranty and heatsink and fan included ) ... dirt cheap nowadays

      512 Mb PC 2700 Ram ( Samsung, Micron, Crucial brands ONLY )... $ 75

      60 Gb hard drive ( 7200 rpm if possible ) UDMA 133 ( Seagate, Maxtor or Western Digital ... no Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, etc )... $ 70

      SB Audigy 2 soundcard ( not the Platinum Edition )... $ 55

      ATI All in Wonder 8500 DV video card ( comes with all the necessary inputs and outputs ) ... $ 170

      the biggest monitor you can get your hands on ( 21" Viewsonic retails for about $ 600, 19" for arround $ 250 )

      Sony or Pioneer latest DVD burner ( both 4x for -R+R and 2x for -RW+RW ) Sony burns CD's @ 24X, the Pioneer @ 16X... $ 250 to $ 300

      As motherboard, I suggest Asus A7N8X Deluxe ( nforce chipset, comes with all the trimmings ). If you get that, use 2 sticks of ram ( for double the speed ). It comes with dual NIC's, SATA connectors in RAID, firewire, and sound card built in. ... $ 125

      I'd personally go with a 2500+ or better 333Mhz fsb processor and 1 Gb of RAM. 120 Gb hard drive if very usefull too.

      As case, I suggest RaidMax mid tower cases, with 350 Watt power supply. They retail arround $ 50, come in all colors and they are reliable.

      Check www.pricewatch.com for latest prices.

      Good luck.

      Comment

      • W00DY
        Junior Member
        Junior Member
        • Jul 2003
        • 28

        #4
        Thanks JediMaster for the excellent reply.

        I am only just sarting to look at all the components and there are so many out there (especially motherboards). I live in Australia so your prices are not really relevant to me, but thanks anyway.

        In regards to the motherboard and the CPU will any of the new motherboards run both Athlon and Pentium???

        Athlon is so much cheaper and if they are just as good I would buy one of them instead.

        Also is "ATI All in Wonder 8500 DV video card" the video Card???

        I currently have a NVIDIA TNT 2 card... will this do the job for a while?

        Thanks

        W00DY

        Comment

        • jedimaster
          Junior Member
          Junior Member
          • Jul 2003
          • 8

          #5
          Woddy, ok: here it goes:

          No, the TNT that you have it will not do the job, unless you want video editing capabilities. The ATI all in wonder 8500 is a decent priced all arround card ( way better then what you have right now), but for $ 200 more then what i quoted, you can get an ATI All in wonder Pro 9700 with 128 MB on it. Do you need it ? Only if you also play games.

          The boards today are not Intel/AMD anymore. They are either I
          Intel OR AMD ONLY. Last time AMD and Intel worked on the same board was the Socket 7 boards ( some 7 years ago ). All new boards are made individually for each CPU.

          Prices that I gave you are in US dollars. Tell me where in Australia do you live, and I can put you in charge with a guy I have there. He can give you all you need and quotes too, and I know he is decent in prices.

          Comment

          • W00DY
            Junior Member
            Junior Member
            • Jul 2003
            • 28

            #6
            I live in Sydney, Australia...

            I know there is always a huge debate over which is better Athlon or Intel and I don't want to get into it here but in your opinon for the price is Athlon defienently worth it?

            Thanks for the info on the motherboard's I was not aware they were made for only one type of CPU.

            I don't play games on my computer (that is what my xbox is for) so just a good video card for imagind is all I need.

            W00DY

            Comment

            • jedimaster
              Junior Member
              Junior Member
              • Jul 2003
              • 8

              #7
              Sorry it took me so long to answer:

              as price/performance, yes, AMD is a better choice. I'd go with an NForce 2 chipset motherboard, 2 sticks of DDR 3200 ( 2 x 512 Mb ) and a AMD XP 2600+ ( 333MHz core ), ... as opposed to 266 MHz core.

              There is also a http://www.pricewatch.com.au/ for latest prioces.

              Good luck

              Comment

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