advice on pc

[dx8976]

Can anyone give advice on what i should look for when buying a new pc? I'll be using it for vid cap and editing and also for games :D

It's been 3 years since I last bought one and I am not familiar with all the new things out there.

Thanks.

[mantoy]

for video editing, make sure it has a firewire card to connect to your dvcam. it's faster than usb connection. for games, dapat may 3d accelerator card for better and faster graphics.

upgrade ko din nga yung pc ko kasi kakabili ko lang ng mini dv camcorder. i'll buy a firewire card and and a high capacity hard disk.

[dx8976]

what's a good 3d accelerator? ive noticed that there seem to be conflicts with some games depending on what card is used. is there a single card that can handle the video in and 3d acceleration or are they separate?

what's a good hd? western digital daw kasi madalas mag error?

[badkuk]

Are we talking about professional video capture/editing? Kumuha ka ng something hardware based; the super cheap tv tuner cards are software based, hence performance is tied to your CPU/system. Plus, usually mono lang ung audio nya(i.e. only one socket for audio)

i have a Winfast tv tuner card w/c i got for 2,750.00, hooked up to my 192mb, 1.2Ghz Celeron pc; it can't do very hi-res video quality captures -- i end up with choppy video. Dunno kung anong effect pag P4 ang pc mo -- theory would suggest that performance would be better.

Also, get a big 7200rpm HD....kung afford mo 10000rpm SCSI, all the better


AFAIK there are some cards that can handle the video capture and 3d acceleration...the only ones i know of are the ATI All-in-wonder cards...pero ang alam ko di rin ganun kaganda vid cap nya eh


just my 2 cents

[benchph1]

the cream of the crop nowadays is the ATI Radeon 9800, if you can afford the 21+++,00 admission price. if you're on a budget but you want decent video acceleration, the Radeon 9200 is another choice.

about Harddisks, i've always used Seagates since my first PC's

lets wait 4 the comments of the computer "gurus"

[mbt]

video capture and editing huh... hmm. i assume you mean a commercial-grade video workstation?

you'd need an 800 MHz FSB (200 MHz QDR) Pentium 4 for optimal performance, the architecture of the P4 is better-suited to these tasks than the AthlonXP (although the AXP is the best choice if you're on a tight budget). match it to an excellent P4 chipset like the i865 or i875 and use good 2x 512 MB PC3200 DDR RAM. mahal nga lang yung P4 platform.

kung high-end video editing talaga, better get a separate, dedicated hardware capture and editing card as badkuk said. merong video cards na meron nang video-in like the Radeon All-In-Wonder series, pero downside is that if you'd like to upgrade your 3D card, kelangan mo kumuha ulit ng video card na merong video-in, which is much more expensive than standard video cards. at least kung dedicated yung capture card mo, pwede kang magupgrade ng 3D card freely. for the gaming side of things, the Radeon 9600 Pro and 9800 series are your best bets (which one depends on your budget)

you'd also need a fast disk system. maybe two 120 GB 7200 rpm Maxtors (S-ATA or P-ATA doesn't really matter yet at this point) in a RAID 0 configuration.

[dx8976]

not actually pro vid cap and edit, maybe occasionally lang for business purposes. 4 or so years ago, i used an asus that actually had compression on the fly so that was good, but obviously it won't be good enough anymore. i dont know if there's still a 2g limit on windows video files these days, but i would still prefer a capture card that could compress during capture. i think a separate capture and 3d accelerator card would be best? any suggestions on a good cap card?

badkuk: what do you mean hardware based? is this different from a cap card?

benchph1: 21k for a card seems to be steep. any specific seagate hd? i think 2 40gb hds would be better than a single 80, what do you think?

mbt: i need a tech dictionary.... :D grabe, di ko na alam ang terminology.

budget probably around 40k including 19" monitor. kasya na kaya?

[ssaloon]

hmmmm feeling ko mabibitin ka 19" monitor ang habol mo, not to mention the steep price of P4 processors and motherboards.

you can take a look at the prices of suggested components by downloading a pcx pricelist at www.pcx.com.ph

[mbt]

dx8976,

hmm 40K... abandon ship, mag AthlonXP ka na hehehe :D

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ (Barton) : 5,300
Gigabyte 7N400 Pro nForce 2 motherboard : 7,800 (so you can have ATA133 IDE RAID, Firewire, and Soundstorm audio)
2x 256 MB PC3200 ("DDR400") DDR SDRAM : 4,600
Enermax 430W ATX power supply : 3,900
AOC 19" CRT monitor : ~8,400 (this is the cheapest 19 I could find)
2x Maxtor 40 GB 7200 rpm ATA133 hard disks : ~6,700

subtotal : 36,700, add a video card with capture and edit functions. siguro kasya na yung 45K at least if you're going for a 3D card with entry-level video functions (like a GF4 Ti4200 VIVO or GeforceFX 5600 VIVO or something)

you might also want to add a new CD-writer/DVD-R combo drive for around 3,500

you might also consider getting a higher-end 17" CRT monitor (like a Samsung) rather than a bottom-end 19". high-end 19" monitors are at around 14,500 to 18,000.

you might also consider getting a single 512 MB RAM stick now para maka-upgrade ka to 1 GB of RAM in the future. for best performance, kelangan kasi ng nForce2 motherboards ng two identical RAM sticks. (assuming you could buy an exact same 512MB RAM stick in the future)

[badkuk]

badkuk: what do you mean hardware based? is this different from a cap card?

some applications kc, pwedeng hardware, pwedeng software ang method -- e.g. ung modem mo. Ung external modems, it uses hardware to do the coding/decoding, error correction, compression, etc. Ung so called "winmodems", they implement those tasks using drivers; bale ung cpu mo ang ginagamit nya to do the modem stuff. Basically two different means to a common end, pero pag software kc usually mas mabagal(cheaper though) kesa hardware(more expensive).

Pag modems lang kc pinaguusapan, the performance difference isn't really that apparent, kc ung modem functions don't really put that big a load on today's cpus -- kayang kaya na ng cpus today....pero pagdating sa video, that's another story, as i found out B).

Some cards kc, talagang hw ang ginagamit nya for video encoding/decoding and compression, independent of the CPU; kumbaga there's a chip(s) on the card that does the video stuff.

Mas maganda kc hw based kc your pc's CPU is *general purpose* eh -- i.e. madami yan kayang gawin(with the proper software), pero chances are it won't do as good a job compared sa hw based na counterpart, w/c on the other hand, is designed to handle specific tasks very very quickly.

Mapapansin mo naman sa presyo eh -- pag 3-5k, malamang ung software based yan...good hw based cards mga 10k ata

ok rin ung RAID5 na disk array...much faster(read: much more expensive)...pero this is pretty hardcore stuff na, as in kung video editing na ang ikinabubuhay mo B).

[NightRock]

I got same capture card... WinFast (Leadtek)...Im not happy with the performance.. Compression is not that good...

[pajerokid]

mbt, you forgot to include a decent casing.

lian-li PC60 = P8000

[mbt]

kapos na budget e, kahit walang case pwede na rin yan hahaha :D

[pajerokid]

that'll do wonders for cooling hehehe

[dx8976]

8k for casing huh? hubad na lang, madali pa maintenance, and as you say, wonders for cooling.

badkuk: so, what kind of vid cap are you using? are you satisfied with it? any other way of identifying if hardware or software ang gamit?

mbt: is the difference between the athlon and the intel that noticeable? as in worth the 5 or so thousand difference? if let's say the difference in compiling a dvd is less than an hour, i can live with that.

2 slots na lang ba ang pang memory? so if i get the 2 256s, im stuck with 512 na unless i replace both?

thanks for the config, where can i look it up?

[mbt]

dx8976,

probably hindi naman gaanong noticeable yung performance difference... you certainly can't beat the performance of the AthlonXP for its price. probably a matter of seconds or minutes (im not too sure on that though)

regarding the memory, yup. ganyan ang setup ng nForce2, intel i865 and i875 motherboards, dual-channel kasi ang memory design niya. if you use only one mem stick, single-channel lang yung takbo niya, which gives half the bandwidth and lower performance.

check out pccorner.com.ph , pcx.com.ph for the latest prices at gilmore.

[ghosthunter]

typical Pentium4 case costs around P1300 to P1800 and thats with a clear plastic side window and fan. Add P500 for a cold cathode light to make it look cool!

[badkuk]

dx8976: so, what kind of vid cap are you using? are you satisfied with it? any other way of identifying if hardware or software ang gamit?

um, un nga...Leadtek/Winfast TV Tuner...forgot the specific model na...2,750 bili ko sa Virra Mall.

Hindi ako ganun ka satisfied eh...ryt now i'm just using it to watch tv habang nagsusurf...also, i plan to transfer some of our home videos(no, not *that* kind) to cd, para tipid sa Hi8 tapes

i do on occassion record some shows, pero low-res quality lang B(.

Re identifying hw/sw vidcap cards...i'm not that familiar na rin kc eh...ung talagang indication ko lang is ung presyo...ung good hw based cards(meron ding external ones) cost about 10k


i don't reccommend going hubad though, especially if there are rodents and roaches running about. One time i lost a sound card and a PCI slot 'coz some damn rat thought it would be a good idea to pee on my mobo -- buti di nadamay lahat

IMHO ok lang naman to spend a little more sa casing, and especially the power supply...think about it, ung usual na pinapalitan is ung mobo, cpu, memory and hd eh...ung monitor, casing, keyboard and mouse usually outlast the other parts.

If you do decide on the Athlon, do think about investing in a good cooling fan and casing

[dx8976]

motherboard: Asus A7V8X KT400
processor: athlon xp2800+ 333mhz
video card: sapphire ati radeon 9600 atlantis 256 vivo
capture card: pinnacle pctv pro
memory: 2 x 256 pc333 ddr
hard drive: 40gb barracuda 7200
Sony 48x/24/48 dvd combo

after the advice you guys gave this is the config I'm currently looking at.
any comments on this?
pwede ba sabay yun radeon and pinnacle?
what's the diff among the diff kinds of ram? may pc200, pc333, pc400 etc? any particular brand that is better?



badkuk: why would the athlon need a colling fan more than an intel? any suggestion on a fan?

ganun din use ko for my old cap card, transfer of videos, etc. planning to buy a digital camcorder, but haven't decided on one.

ghosthunter: what if i just stick the 500p bill on the case? may pambayad pa ako sa emergency pizza delivery when i get hungry :D

[pajerokid]

dx8976,

comments:

1) Get a motherboard which is based on the nForce2 Ultra you wont regret it. ECS has released an nF2U mobo somewhere in the mid P3000 range. It has been proven that nForce2 mobos are faster than VIA mobos by up to 20% in some apps.

2) get an AthlonXP 2500+ "Barton". You'll save a lot! And it can give you performance equalling or even exceeding the 2800+. Im running mine at 3200+ levels, no sweat! Its like getting the P16,000 3200+ at a bargain basement price! Plus it has an additional 256kb of L2 cache.

3) Vidcard is ok. Why not splurge a bit more and get a 9600Pro based card?

4) If youre getting the asus board, there's no need to get 2 sticks of RAM. The reason why people are getting RAM in pairs is to make use of nForce2's dual memory controllers (5% increase only, max) Since hindi naman nForce2 yung ASUS, why bother? 1 512MB stick is P300 cheaper than 2 256sticks. If your getting an nF2U board, thats a whole different story.

Oh, and make sure you get DDR400 memory! That's the defacto speed nowadays. Anything less can be considered obsolete. PC3200 yun talaga, nickname lang yung DDR400 :D

hope this helps