Upgrading

rodbuilder

New Member
I'm looking to upgrade my current PC. I built my current PC about 5 years ago and am not up on any new products. My use is for multimedia, burning and internet. I download video from my DVR, edit save and burn... I'm not into gaming so I don't want to go there... Recommendations on a mother board (ATX) and processor to do the task would be great. Thanks in advance for you help...

Gary...
 

PC eye

banned
The first thing to do there is work out a budget in order to provide a maximum total that you will spend on a new build. From there people can make recommendations for the main board, cpu, memory, video and likely sound cards, power supply, case to install everything into, etc. there. The stickys for building and supplies can also be looked over at the following links here to give you additional ideas.

The first is a little outdated but can still be helpful. http://www.computerforum.com/81172-computer-specs-101-2007-04-a.html

Some basics on custom building are seen at http://www.computerforum.com/16363-building-computers-101-a.html

Questions 101 is old but has additiional guidelines. http://www.computerforum.com/13713-questions-101-a.html

On boards in general, http://www.computerforum.com/51068-mobo-101-a.html

A rather recent sticky on power supplies works here. http://www.computerforum.com/90118-useful-psu-case-guides.html
 

daisymtc

Active Member
Cheap option
intel E2180
Gagibyte GA-P35-DS3L
A-DATA Extreme Edition 2 x 1GBDDR2 800 ADQVD1A16K
Seagate 250GB 16MB Cache SATA
GIGABYTE GV-RX24T256H Radeon HD 2400XT
LG GSA-H62NK
Antec earthwatts EA430
COOLER MASTER Elite 330
 
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rodbuilder

New Member
What is your motherboard and CPU now ?

My current motherboard is: ABIT ST6/ST6-RAID
My current processor is: INTEL P3 1.01 GHz
My current video card is: ASUS V7100

I plan on keeping the video card..

I will also be adding a Samsung SH-S183L DVD, and was looking at the Ultra Black Defender case at Tiger Direct...

Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated...

As far as price goes somewhere middle of the road. I don't want any junk parts. I been there...

Thanks again... Gary...
 

king-pin

New Member
My current motherboard is: ABIT ST6/ST6-RAID
My current processor is: INTEL P3 1.01 GHz
My current video card is: ASUS V7100

I plan on keeping the video card..

I will also be adding a Samsung SH-S183L DVD, and was looking at the Ultra Black Defender case at Tiger Direct...

Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated...

As far as price goes somewhere middle of the road. I don't want any junk parts. I been there...

Thanks again... Gary...

you should definitely upgrade your video card too because technology has changed quite a bit since your p3. Windows Vista is going to require a lot of ram etc. I'm also upgrading too.

Newer Stuff you might want to know
-Newer Memory RAM DDR2 @ 800-1000mhz now
-SLI (NVIDIA)/CROSSFIRE(ATI)- These video card allows you to combine two video card into one.
-SATA HARD DRIVES and DVD Drives ARE FASTER than the older EIDE ones.
 

PC eye

banned
you should definitely upgrade your video card too because technology has changed quite a bit since your p3. Windows Vista is going to require a lot of ram etc. I'm also upgrading too.

Newer Stuff you might want to know
-Newer Memory RAM DDR2 @ 800-1000mhz now
-SLI (NVIDIA)/CROSSFIRE(ATI)- These video card allows you to combine two video card into one.
-SATA HARD DRIVES and DVD Drives ARE FASTER than the older EIDE ones.

I doubt if rodbuilder is rusing into any SLI or Crossfire setup but looking for some more reasonable recommendations depending budget and the type of case looking to be built there.

A good faster model AMD dual core cpu will make a good multitalking cpu as well as a new Intel quad core model. AMD has been rather slow in that area. But that depends on preference if any.

A good 2gb of memory by a good brand will easily work for the multimedia, burning, and internet browsing there. I run both XP and Vista seeing a good pair of 1gb performance dimms here for multitasking and data backups on dvd-rs. Data dvds that used to take 20min. with a 2.2ghz single core cpu now only takes about 5min. with a 3ghz dual core model.
 

rodbuilder

New Member
Cheap option
intel E2180
Gagibyte GA-P3-DS3L
A-DATA Extreme Edition 2 x 1GBDDR2 800 ADQVD1A16K
Seagate 250GB 16MB Cache SATA
GIGABYTE GV-RX24T256H Radeon HD 2400XT
LG GSA-H62NK
Antec earthwatts EA430
COOLER MASTER Elite 330

Any comments on this setup? I have checked out all the components and the prices seem to be good. I can spend more but do I have to...

Thanks again for all the help. I know technology changes by the day and I just haven't kept up with it as you can tell by my P3...

Gary...
 

PC eye

banned
With multimedia in mind as well as doing a lot of dvd burning you might want to look at a supply heavier then 430w and the optical drives available. Newer boards out now tend to have only one ide channel where selecting one or more sata type drives is one idea to consider.

With that in mind here on the new build also using more then one hard drive I grabbed a sata dvd burner along with moving two sata HDs into the new build. Those were a pair of 500gb WD drives there for capacity. There are also other options for boards to consider if you decide later to expand on the new system you go with.

Asus, Ggigabyte, MSI, Abit, DFI are some of the top contenders for board manufacturers. If you are planning to run a new build for a lengthy period without a rush to upgrade you will want to make the biggest leap to avoid being outdated faster. For a stock system with no ocing the fastest model cpu, memory, and decent video and of course "sound" cards are considerations there. Onboard stinks for multimedia!
 

daisymtc

Active Member
Any comments on this setup? I have checked out all the components and the prices seem to be good. I can spend more but do I have to...

Thanks again for all the help. I know technology changes by the day and I just haven't kept up with it as you can tell by my P3...

Gary...

This list I draft is based on min. requirement. I don't know what sort of editing of video you are doing. If you have >$1000 to spend, you may look at something like Q6600 with ATI 3850.
 

porterjw

Spaminator
Staff member
Any comments on this setup? I have checked out all the components and the prices seem to be good. I can spend more but do I have to...

Thanks again for all the help. I know technology changes by the day and I just haven't kept up with it as you can tell by my P3...

Gary...

That setup looks nice all-around. It won't excel in gaming or running 4 CPU-intensive applications at once, but the average home user doesn't need it to. That system will offer a nice CPU, good Mobo, and enough RAM/Hard Drive space for your everyday needs. The case is excellent, too (yeah, I'm on an Elite 330 bandwagon big-time)!

As far as technology changing, yeah it leaps ahead at amazing speeds. But, newer products don't instantly render previous versions obsolete for everyone instantly. I admire the logical consumer who makes the most out of their existing systems like yourself, rather than those who will drop $600 on a new CPU every 7 months.
 

PC eye

banned
This list I draft is based on min. requirement. I don't know what sort of editing of video you are doing. If you have >$1000 to spend, you may look at something like Q6600 with ATI 3850.

It won't cost $1000 for those two items alone. The 3850 is running about $180 new to fill in the gap between the HD 2600XT and HD 2900XT models released in July. A good article on the 3850s and 3870s is seen at http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxOSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
 

rodbuilder

New Member
Thanks to everyone for the effort

I now have a better understand of what I need to build my new PC. I don't really need a high end computer as I'm not a gamer. As far as my video editing goes all I am doing is removing the commercials from the broadcast that I record with my DVR. Then I merge all the parts to make a single movie to burn on a DVD. I'm just looking for better performance so I can surf the web at the same time I'm burning a DVD without it hanging up. I think you guys have given me enough information to avoid that happening...

Again, thanks for all the help... I may be needing more later when I get ready to fire it up...

Gary...
 

rodbuilder

New Member
Finished with the build...

Cheap option
intel E2180
Gagibyte GA-P35-DS3L
A-DATA Extreme Edition 2 x 1GBDDR2 800 ADQVD1A16K
Seagate 250GB 16MB Cache SATA
GIGABYTE GV-RX24T256H Radeon HD 2400XT
LG GSA-H62NK
Antec earthwatts EA430
COOLER MASTER Elite 330

This it the exact computer I built. All parts were ordered from newegg and arrived in 4 days... I used XP Media Center for my OS... This thing works like a charm and does everything and more than I expected...

Thanks to all who helped and especially daisymtc for your input...

Gary...
 
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