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Thread ID: 102914	2009-09-06 11:25:00	Building a new PC - some clues?	Lizard (2409)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
807297	2009-09-06 11:25:00	Hi all, I'm thinking about building a new PC, to replace the rig I built in 2004, which is starting to show signs of ageing - single core Athlon 2.8Ghz, 1GB DDR RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP graphics. My budget is around $1800-2000. I bought a new LCD monitor and keyboard/mouse, so no need for those. It's been a while since I looked at parts like CPUs and mobos and graphics cards, which seem to have branched out into a huge number of sub-species. I've started looking around the internet and trying to decipher the ranges, but I'm hoping I can find a few shortcuts here. What I'm looking for is a few hints on what CPU I should be looking at. When I last built a computer, it was mainly for moderate gaming/internet, but since then I've got a digital video camera, and looking to do some video editing, so the performance requirements will be greater. What sort of CPU do you guys recommend? Following on from the CPU, what motherboard offers good performance. Judging by the posts I've read, ASUS seems to be favoured, but Gigabyte seems to offer some good boards. The MSI board I'm using at the moment has stood up pretty good as well. What sort of motherboard chipset/features should I look for? In terms of graphics card, I'm looking at a Radeon HD4870 1GB card. How would this stack up for gaming? What games would suffer with that card? Cheers Lizard	Lizard (2409)
807298	2009-09-06 11:31:00	Does this digital vid cam have firewire on it?? If it does, it'll probably be a good idea, to get a mobo with onboard firewire on it	Speedy Gonzales (78)
807299	2009-09-06 12:00:00	4870, it's an absolute beauty. I have that myself! Well, it does depend on your monitor size. The 4870 supports all games on High Graphics at 1400 x 900, which is a 20'' I believe. However, I since bought another monitor, a 24'', resolution of 1920 x 1080 - Crysis slightly lags with this when Anti-Aliasing is at 8x. Grand Theft Auto 4 is a complete mess anyway, and I can only run everything on medium avoiding most of the lag - that game was not built for PC, and was poorly constructed anyway. CoD4/CoD5 run perfectly with around 90FPS for me when playing online. Company of Heroes, around about 50 FPS at 80% high graphics. However, I recommend sticking to 1400 x 900 resolution if you get that card, otherwise upgrade or you will slightly suffer in some games with reduced FPS. But basically, you are looking at 50 FPS + on average on high detail. As for the CPU, I would recommend going for an Intel Core 2 dual core/quad. I recommend this because you are looking into video editing. However, it also relies on the graphics card. So perhaps getting a dual core at about 2.8Ghz +, 3G DDR2 RAM (Maybe go to 4/6/8G if you plan to use CS4 Adobe products) and get a 64bit Operating System to handle that RAM. I think it really depends how far you want to go, and what you will be doing with it. If you think you will be advancing in to such products and the region of design/graphics work/video editing then I would think forward for the future and consider putting a little more in. Basically, you could easily get a hell of a machine these days when custom building. Anyway, there is my input.	Chris09 (15218)
807300	2009-09-06 12:10:00	No video editing has nothing to do with the videocard. The only reason the videocard is there, is so you see something on the screen. It depends on how good the original is / and how you get it into the computer. ie: Using firewire would be better than USB with video. I've done video editing on a P4 system with 1 GB and some crap AGP card, using firewire. There was nothing wrong with it. It transferred the video fine, and editing wasnt a prob at all. CPU speed does help tho and a lot of ram and space. So, 64 bit may also be a good idea. Since it'll load more into ram, and you'll be able to do more at once. But you'll also have to use 64 bit programs, since 32 bit programs also have limits on ram as well	Speedy Gonzales (78)
807301	2009-09-06 12:27:00	Ah I apologize but actually, it does affect it. Watching videos and even editing them needs power to do so. Are you telling me, the performance will be the same for video editing from onboard graphics to a 4870? I don't think so. In summary... CPU Architecture/Cores/Clock Speed/Power = Boost in encoding and editing previews GPU Power = Boost in composting, after effects, motion, shake, animation, maya, conducting other affects RAM = Boost in everything (minor improvement in encoding) HDD RAID Config/Speeds = Boost in everything And as stated, it's not just about video editing but about gaming as well.	Chris09 (15218)
807302	2009-09-06 12:37:00	Something like this (www.computerlounge.co.nz), but with a 4870 instead of a GTX 260 and normal DVD drive rather than the blu-ray drive, which will bring it to around $2000. It comes with 4gb of RAM-but you can easily throw in another 2gb cheaply if needed later. The 4870 1gb is an excellent card, but if your monitor is not running at a high resolution and 22"+ in size, then its not worth it-get the 512mb model instead. The CPU, which is an i5 thrashes pretty much any Core 2 series, so it should suffice for any encoding and rendering you need to do. Comes with Vista 64bit with upgrade included too. Blam	Blam (54)
807303	2009-09-06 21:42:00	What I'm looking for is a few hints on what CPU I should be looking at. , it was mainly for moderate gaming/internet, but since then I've got a digital video camera, and looking to do some video editing, so the performance requirements will be greater. Wrong. Gaming is what drives the hardware industry. Get a core i7 if your budget can do it, core i5 if not. And the best graphics card you can afford. www.tomshardware.com VGA charts will give you the current rankings.	pctek (84)
807304	2009-09-06 23:09:00	Ah I apologize but actually, it does affect it. Watching videos and even editing them needs power to do so. Are you telling me, the performance will be the same for video editing from onboard graphics to a 4870? I don't think so. In summary... CPU Architecture/Cores/Clock Speed/Power = Boost in encoding and editing previews GPU Power = Boost in composting, after effects, motion, shake, animation, maya, conducting other affects I agree with speedy. From a video editing point of view, if you are using a run of the mill program, the performance will be the same for video editing when comparing onboard graphics and discrete. When you do use video editing programs which can take advantage of a GPU, the quality will be lower than if it were normal software rendering. Given two pcs with the same price, one has discrete graphics + slower CPU and another has onboard graphics with a faster CPU, the one with faster CPU will either have a better quality render and slower, or have the same quality render but faster. refer to my post here: Yes, there is nvidia's Badaboom and ATi's AVIVO encoder, but it is still being improved. www.anandtech.com As you can see from the results you need to use the special programs, not any video encoding program. At any rate, I think it is still best to use the CPU to transcode; even if it takes 2-3x as long, the results will always be at least as good as GPU. In that link, I think the CPU result is slightly sharper than the nvidia result. The ATi result still needs some work. And since you only encode once but watch many times, I think theres nothing wrong with spending 2-3x more time to encode something once but have it archived in the best quality possible. I really hate it when someone asks "what parts do I need for a computer that will be used for video encoding/graphic design/photo editing and not gaming" and someone suggests a discrete graphics card because "its for graphics". Posts like that subtract from the sum of all human knowledge.	utopian201 (6245)
807305	2009-09-07 01:01:00	Latest CPU's are out this week....i5 is great for gaming and has a wicked turbo mode for clocking when only 1,2 or 3 cores running for extra performance. However if you do alot of encoding, I would suggest i7 which has tripple channel memory and HT to double possible threads from 4 to 8. While gaming drives the graphics industry, Virtualisation and Servers drive the CPU industry	SolMiester (139)
807306	2009-09-07 01:40:00	I was in the same boat and upgraded my Rig in March as follows: AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE (Quad Core 3 . 0Ghz) $189 MB - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P $120 (AM2+) Graphics - XFX - Radeon HD 4770 $110 Memory - Corsair 4GB - $45 You migh think the nomenclature 47XX is inferior then 48xx but 4770 is a new architecture and built on smaller 45nm die and hence even though its so cheap due to small die its performance is above 4830 and very close to 4850 if not then the same . Here is the Kicker Two Radeon HD 4770s in CrossFire are downright NASTY . At $220 price point, forget about 4850 and 4870, 4770 in Xfire BLOWS right past Radeon HD 4890 at $250!! . Definitely go with 4770 and if you want ultimate performance in games then buy 2 and install both in XFire Config . BTW video card has almost no impact on Video editing and by that i mean since this PC will be used for gaming a good enough card mentioned above for gaming is WAY more then enough for video editing ! AMD Phenom Quad IIs are much much competetive to Intels i Core 920 compared to 1st generation Phenoms . For Gaming AMD Phenom II is more or less same as Intel Core i7 965 as it really comes down to graphic card unless you playing games CPU dependent even then Phenom IIs are very good I do a lot of video editing and rendering to DVD and AMD Phenom 940 does superb in Sony Vegas . Having Quad Core MOST definitely speeds up rendering/editing Since i bought this few months back now theres new Phenom II 945/955/965 which has higher perfo . Remember if you going with AMD then all new Phenom IIs above 940 are coming in AM3 socket so the above MB is not gonna work . Get Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P or similar . They are top notch! Many sites use this mb for benchmarking AMD CPUs If you doing hardcore video editing everyday and dont mind paying top $$ then just go with Intel i Core 7 920 or 965 - VERY pricey though . i5 is another option but i wouldnt suggest that for hardcore editing btw all the prices i quoted are in USD coz thats what i bought them in from newegg website . OMG i just happened to check prices in NZ and they are ridiculously thru the roof !! Go with AMD Phenom II X4 940 or 945 dude !	learning (5137)
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