A new unit

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krausen

New Member
I have been asking some questions in some of the other forums and am starting to think I might be better off just buying a new computer.

I am going to be doing large amounts of video editing on the unit. I really need dual monitors and a fast enough system where the video won't lag.

Any recommendations on what would be a good unit for what I need?

Thank You
 
I do not have enough knowledge to build my own. I have been struggling with this.

Currently I have a Compaq Presario SR1429NX I know I can upgrade my memory up to
2 GB which would be perfect. But not sure if I can just purchase two 1 GB memory chips or can I only purchase 1 and the original must remain in place?

I know I can add 1 additional hard drive which a 250 GB would be perfect but do not know what interface I need for my pc?

I can upgrade my video card which some people were nice enough to help me with.

I would like to install a wireless card which I am not sure about?

And even if I do the above upgrades I am not sure it will still be up to par with what I need it to do. I am thinking my processor is not enough. Pentium D.

If I could just do the above upgrades and work with that I would much rather than go and buy a whole new system. I have been getting some quotes on having someone build me a unit and it is anywhere from $500 to well over $1000.....

And to be honest money is tight and I need to stay cheap but not suffer to much on functionality...
 
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a lot times when you try to upgrade a pre-built computer your going to also have to upgrade the power supply since the company(in your case Compaq) put in a power supply that is just powerful enough to work with that computer. when you put in something else in there especially a new graphics card which likes power will make your computer just not turn on.

building your own computer is not hard at all. and there are plenty of guides on how to do it. they take you step-by-step through it with excellent pictures. there is one on this forum i just dont remember where it is located :(
 
I have looked at the guides on this forum they are very helpful.

My problem is I do not know what to get. If I bought a case I wouldn't know what motherboard to get. Then once I did buy a motherboard I wouldn't know what powersupply to get, then what processor and so on...... It would be a LOT of trial and error I think.

Again price is also a issue. I know I can upgrade my pc for under $150. To buy a new unit is gonna run well over $500. To build my own $????? I have no idea.
 
Just the memory and additional harddrive and video card.

memory is under $30 hard drive is under $50 video card is $69
 
I could not find any information on my power supply to see what I currently had or what I could upgrade too. I figure I will have to worry about that when it becomes a problem.

I would like to attempt a build and maybe I will buy components as I can afford and see if I can pull it off.

Start with a case and motherboard then buy the processor and just work down the list. But I think by the time I got it done the thing would be outdated.... LOL
 
I built you one for about $290 including the case, psu, cpu, mobo, RAM, HDD, video card, DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive, and I did shipping and handling out here to VA. All of this is on NewEgg.

Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W 20+4 pin connector Power Supply - Retail

ECS GeForce7050M-M (V2.0) AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA Geforce7050PV / nForce 630a Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4400IAA5DO - OEM

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

EVGA 256-P2-N429-LR GeForce 7200GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

You won't need a fancy video card if your only doing video editing and really only need one for the dual display support. This card has one D-Sub, one DVI, and one S-video output. If your running two D-Sub monitor's the card come with a DVI to D-Sub adapter.

I looked all that up in about 5 minutes but it's more to give you an idea on how inexpensive building a system is. Putting it all together is really not as hard as you think it might be. There are plenty of written guides out there and I'm sure if you get on YouTube you could probably find a video.
 
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Thanks Bob... when I did it last night I came up with a $700 price tag. But I think I had more than I needed.

I am gonna see if I can do this. I figure if I screw it up to bad I can always part the stuff out on ebay.

Thanks for the assistance
 
Bob692006 said:
I built you one for about $290 including the case, psu, cpu, mobo, RAM, HDD, video card, DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive, and I did shipping and handling out here to VA. All of this is on NewEgg.

Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W 20+4 pin connector Power Supply - Retail

ECS GeForce7050M-M (V2.0) AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA Geforce7050PV / nForce 630a Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4400IAA5DO - OEM

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

EVGA 256-P2-N429-LR GeForce 7200GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

You won't need a fancy video card if your only doing video editing and really only need one for the dual display support. This card has one D-Sub, one DVI, and one S-video output. If your running two D-Sub monitor's the card come with a DVI to D-Sub adapter.
Click to expand...

You have some decent parts in that list. But that power supply that comes with that case is not very good quality. I suggest you look at an Antec or an OCZ brand power supply that is rated at 450 Watt or higher. Also you left out a heatsink for the processor. If the processor says "OEM" there is no heatsink or fan that comes with it. Take a look at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e processor that has a fan and heatsink for $60:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10009133

I would also look at the GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 motherboard for $75:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376
 
I am sure there are many little parts I will have to buy that are not listed also right?

USB, Firewire, cables and cords inside computer??
 
uhm retail stuff comes with wires oem doesnt so if you get a retail mobo then it usually comes with sata and other cords included at least mine did.
 
As far as the wires, the mobo will usually come with the cables needed for your drives, or the drives themselves will come with the data cables at least. You won't need USB or firewire cables unless you are running peripherals with those interfaces and usually the peripheral itself will come with the cables you need. Here's a CPU from NewEgg with heatsink/fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103298. The mobo I suggested in my first post is all that you will need and is cheaper. Like I said in my first post, that build was done in 5 minutes just making sure the compatibility was there.
 
I am going to do that build that you suggested. I am going to use a different case but other than that I am using the rest of the parts. Between newegg and ebay I can put it all together for about $200.
 
Hey krausen, you might wanna check out the thread I put up earlier with the YouTube video link on putting everything together. It'll really help you out when you get everything in.
 
How much are you looking to spend and how powerful do you need it do be? When you say video editing do you mean videos of the family sort of stuff or high end video editing? It makes a huge difference in what kind of a system you need.

EDIT: Didn't notice you said dual monitors... so you're probably looking at about $1500 including the monitors and a good deal of storage space.
 
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