Choosing a new system ... and getting confused!!

[Willspireite]

Won't you please, please help me, help me, help meeeeeee ... ooohhhhhh!!

Hi, I'm trying to pick a new computer system ... basically it needs:

- to be able to run powerpoint well, probably mulitple powe******* being open at once.
- to be able to do limited video editing, probably using windows movie maker.
- then play those videos.
- to be able to store oodles of images without starting to get lazy.
- run the GIMP photo programme well

What are the key things to think through? I know memory, hard drive, processor etc are all issues but have NO idea which's imprtant, or more important!!
If anyone could recommend anything, especially from DELL (who we've used before) that'd rock!!

Cost wise, as cheap as possible is always nice, but want something that can do the above well ... laptop or desktop (or both if you're feeling REALLY helpful!!)

Thanks for helping a complete novice!!

[Tobeman]

If you have an idea of a budget I'm sure we'd be able to give you some advice

Seems like you need a workstation/office style PC. You can save on the price of the graphics card, as it seems like you won't be doing much gaming, and buy a much better performing CPU and possibly more memory to help with the video editing.

[Willspireite]

Anything below about 800 would be good ... basically I'm working with a charity, so need to be as cheap as possible, but I'm stumping up rest of it. They could probably give me about 300-400 towards it ... so if there was anything good enough for that price, yippee!! If not tho, we'd go higher cos there's no point in trying to go cheap, then finding out the comp won't actually do what you need it to!!!

Thanks for help, appreciate it!!

[AtomicFuse]

Welcome to the forums! IMO £800 is a very tasty budget for something like that! Are you looking to build your system sorry or get something by Mesh or Dell? (Building is fun!!!)

[Willspireite]

Ha ha! Building could well be fun ... and wish I could do it, but unless it was building by numbers ... I'd be up the creek without a paddle, springing a leak and having forgot my armbands!!

Think it'd def be best to go with a ready setup computer ... 800 would be the max like, going any higher would make my credit crad melt I think!!

Cheers!

[nvening]

Well Dell would seem a good choice for your needs. You sould be looking for a (dual core) pentium D of atleast 2.8GHz. 1GB of ram mininimum. Will you be storing alot of video on the pc, if so i would look to be getting atleast 300GB of HDD space. Graphics card does not matter, just get the cheapest option. You may also want to make sure the system has a firewire port if you use a firewire video camera.

You can often get special deals for dell which they do quite often, slos you are probably elegable for some tax rebates?

Finally the screen should be something like a 19" TFT

EDIT: One issue with dell is them charging crazy prices on some of the upgrade options (eg ram quite often) so look elseware mabe, Mesh spring to mind authough thier CS seems to be pap

[Tobeman]

AtomicFuse asks some good questions, also, to add to that, are you looking at getting a monitor in with that price? They can usually bump the price up a fair amount.

[Willspireite]

Well ... I have a very ancient monitor, so could use it, rather than get a new one if that'd help keep prices down!!

Does a graphics card only really matter for gaming then?? I'd always imagined that you'd need a top spec one of them for video editing / photo's etc ... happy days if not!!

Cheers for help folks, really appreciate it!

[awm]

I would say a dual-core CPU and pleanty of memory would both be useful for what you're doing with alot of multitasking and video editing. As has already been mentioned get a decent monitor, alot of what you'll be doing will need to go on the screen, and you want a decent one to work on. Other than that there's not much else you'll need.

[Tobeman]

Well ... I have a very ancient monitor, so could use it, rather than get a new one if that'd help keep prices down!!

Does a graphics card only really matter for gaming then?? I'd always imagined that you'd need a top spec one of them for video editing / photo's etc ... happy days if not!!

Cheers for help folks, really appreciate it!

Yes, and things like rendering, but then you're talking serious money if you wanted a dedicated piece of kit for that. nVidia quadro cards don't come cheap, and I don't think thats really what you're in the market for anyway

Video and photo editing on the whole are a CPU-limited task. Intels tend to perform better at such tasks over AMDs also.

As previously asked, are you confident enough to build your own?

[Willspireite]

Cool .... cheers for all advice guys, really appreciate it!!!
Definitely made my evening ... was wondering if anyone'd bother replying ... totally stoked that you all did!!

Sorry Tobeman, didn't catch your last question there ... don't think I'd be quite good enough to build a comp ... lego I can manage ... this may be just a bit beyond me tho!

[Willspireite]

Bit more help needed!!

If you visit the DELL site : http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...dt1&l=en&s=bsd

Which of the two is better?
One on the left has more memory, but is the Pentium D better than the Pentium 4 cos the one on the right is the D Pentium!!

Flip ... too much choice can be mad!!

[htid]

On both of those systems, i guess the GeForce 7300LE & GeForce 6800 are both overkill if you're not playing games. Since Tobeman said video editing is cpu limited anyway, it may be wasted money with those cards. Maybe im wrong, lets wait for someone else to answer (im pretty much a n00b so im also asking these questions for myself, so as to learn more )

maybe even this would be ok http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...dt1&l=en&s=bsd (far right, £379) Guess its only got a 17" monitor but a charity surely cant be doing THAT much video editing right? And you did say cheaper the better...

[Willspireite]

Hi folks,

Apologies for begging for info again ... but am desperate!!
Is it wiser to go for the Pent 4 or Pent D processor ... am a bit confused by all the different figures etc.

In my head Pent D would be better ... is that my imagination??
Seems to be at Dell that Pent D is cheaper, but has less memory.
Pent 4 is more expensive, but has more memory.
Is that cos Pent D can do multi tasks easier ... so needs less memory?
Or is it a cunning marketing ploy??

Cheers guys n gals!

[Nobuo]

I disagree with your choice there a bit, htid. Neither the hard drive or memory is big enough, IMO, and I reckon even that graphics card is overkill. Pretty sure integrated graphics will do the job seeing as he won't be doing ANY 3D work.

Willspireite, I'd go with the £699 deal you prepared, but go for the Pentium D from the £599 deal. Also, again, ditch the graphics card, you're wasting your money (you can mix and match on Dell, right?)

I've noticed that some of the examples being shown are also missing DVD Writers, I'd go with one no matter what, considering you're making video. I agree with the people suggesting integrated sound, unless you're making videos in surround you won't notice a difference.

So to sum up, I'd go with:

CPU: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 930 (2x 2MB L2 Cache, 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB).
Memory: 2GB - 3GB, whichever matches your budget the best.
Hard drive: Bare minimum 250GB. Uncompressed video gets huge.
Monitor: I'd go widescreen myself, depends what ratio you want your videos to be (Widescreen = 16:9, Standard = 4:3).
Graphics, Sound and Network: Integrated Intel stuff.
Optical: 16x DVD+/-RW Drive.
OS: WinXP SP2 (sounds like Home Edition will be fine for you, but you know better than me).

EDIT: Whoops, just realised you originally said "limited" video editing, so I may have gone overboard with memory and HDD space. How limited is limited?

[Nobuo]

*Sorry, double post*