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| Thread ID: 136836 | 2014-04-20 06:23:00 | Alienware X51 | EFFIGY (12530) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1373124 | 2014-04-20 10:40:00 | Go for Windows 8.1, the speed improvements over 7 would be worth it. | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1373125 | 2014-04-20 21:32:00 | If it was mine I would stick to 7 I use 8.1.1 at work daily and find it cumbersome if you end up in the wrong screen or if the apps are still set to be the default programs | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1373126 | 2014-04-20 22:35:00 | I would use win 8.1. I find it quick and easy to set up and use. Maybe I am a bit slow but I always approach a new OS with the attitute that if there is a problem it is a lot more likely that it is me that is doing something wrong rather than MS deliberately trying to make my life difficult. That approach has always enabled me to get up and running with a new OS in a day or two and with the help of Google have everything as I want it inside a week at the outside. |
CliveM (6007) | ||
| 1373127 | 2014-04-20 22:47:00 | I always approach a new OS with the attitute that if there is a problem it is a lot more likely that it is me that is doing something wrong rather than MS deliberately trying to make my life difficult. That's the spirit :thumbs: |
pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1373128 | 2014-04-20 23:23:00 | If it was mine I would stick to 7 I use 8.1.1 at work daily and find it cumbersome if you end up in the wrong screen or if the apps are still set to be the default programs 7 or 8 are both fine and mostly personal preference, that said the default behaviour for 8.1.1 has been changed so a non touch desktop PC will default to booting to the desktop and using the regular desktop apps. I'm not sure if that's the case if you install 8 and upgrade though, mainly for a fresh install of the latest version. Then if you add classic shell or start8 the differences from 7 in function mostly disappear. I've gone from disliking it to not wanting to go back over a period of a month or so, and I have no problem with the start screen so for me I'd stick with 8. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1373129 | 2014-04-21 02:18:00 | Ah..... thanks, I guess I will adapt to 8, just like I did '93, 95, 98, XP, Vista and 7. I am also beginning to lean towards gutting my old Acer Aspire case and filling it with all new parts. The power supply is still good - its only a year old and the original AMD Athlon dual core has done incredibly well, but it is time for an upgrade. I guess I was dazzled by the idea of an off the shelf system, I have always had home builds you see. |
EFFIGY (12530) | ||
| 1373130 | 2014-04-21 03:26:00 | The silverstone SG06, 07, and 08 are about half the size of the prodigy that icow suggested and with a bit of care can take a full powered gaming rig based around an itx board. The system in my signature is in the same case icow linked and is virtually silent. 550W is plenty in my case too as far as the PSU goes too. Looking at Icows list it's all good stuff but you could easily swap things around depending on your goals and save some money or make it even better at the same price. You may want to include the OS in the price if you don't already have it also. I like the prodigy, I have 2 of them, but for an itx rig it is rather large, about 2/3 of a mid tower in size. Yup those are the cases I was thinking of, the prodigy is larger than some mATX cases because the motherboard sits horizontally in the case. While it's a good case something with more expansion capabilities might be better suited to your needs. As for Windows 8 vs 7, I'd consider using 8 purely for the speed increase but Windows 7 should be speedy enough for any user on an SSD (or 2 in RAID :)) In terms of keeping the system quiet take a look at parts here: www.quietpc.com/ (they ship to NZ) and there are some great component reviews here: http: You mentioned that you would be using the computer primarily for video editing in CS6. I believe CS6 supports both OpenCL/GL and CUDA acceleration for various filters/renders/etc. It might be worth looking at benchmarks to help you decide on which graphics card you want for your system (be it nVidia or AMD). Just beware that AMDs reference cooler is quite noisy, so if you're going for an AMD card make sure you get a card with an aftermarket cooler (ie Asus's DCUII or Gigabytes Windforce cooler). The reference cooler on nVidia cards is significantly better but cards from Asus, EVGA and Gigabyte are likely to run cooler and quieter. It's worth noting that the Gigabyte Windforce cooler is extremely long (3 fans) so if you go for a Gigabyte card make sure it fits in your case. Hard drives also make a tonne of noise, avoid WD Black drives (and presumably the Seagate/Hitachi/Toshiba equivalent drives) as they are infamously noisy despite being the quickest standard 7200rpm drive you can buy. Don't most people doing video work have most of their storage in a NAS/similar external storage? |
icow (15313) | ||
| 1373131 | 2014-04-21 04:12:00 | Progress is happening. Decisions are being made Here are the non negotiables so far i7 4th generation SSD nVIDIA card And then I found this case; www.xpcomputers.co.nz and I died and went to heaven. Lets build a PC team! |
EFFIGY (12530) | ||
| 1373132 | 2014-04-21 04:15:00 | And whats the mobo, if you're getting an matx case? | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 1373133 | 2014-04-21 04:29:00 | UMmmmmmm Haven't got past the Swarovski crystals yet, :o What do you suggest? I expect its a fairly important decision to make quite early. Obviously something that will allow for future upgrades. Also I have noticed that some systems have both SSD and HDD. Is this worth considering for processing really huge image files? Clearly cooling is going to be an issue as well, I need advice on that. |
EFFIGY (12530) | ||
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