It's time to buy a new computer, help!

“My old box is about 4 years old.

I want a new box.

I would like to be able to burn DVD's and CD's from a video source like a video camera/vcr and audio from my LPs.

Which DELL model do I need?”

“Dude, Just say no.”

“I was looking at the 2400, but it has integrated sound and video, and that's usually a bad thing. I think their next model up (4600?) is more configurable and you can get actual sound and graphics cards for it.

To do the video burning you want to do, you need a special video card that has a video input spicket and the ability to digitize the analog data. Those are generally muy expensivo. The audio qill require you to have a sound card that accepts line-level input, plus you will have to buy a pre-amplifier for your turntable, unless your stereo amp has a line-level output on it, in which case all you'll need is a cable.

Clear as mud?”

“qill=will”

“Yes, I did understand, bit.
I have a preamp for the turntable.

What SoundBlaster cards have an input?

What video cards have RCA jack inputs?”

“I have some VCR tapes I would like to transfer to DVD and a few hundred LP albums to transfer to CD.”

“I havn't even looked at buying a computer for a while. Just want to know the latest stuff and if what I want to do is practical.”

“Both the SoundBlaster cards have a Line In jack, so I think either would work.

Dell claims to offer this video card that will digitize analog video, but it doesn't seem to be a choice on the 4600.”

“Don't fool around - get this.

Sounds like you should get XP Media Center Edition if you can. Its only available on new systems - you can't upgrade to it.”

“This section at PC World might help you out.”

“Dude I got the Dell 2400 pc
all kinds of goodies... $740 6 months ago....deliveredd to my front door....

80meg hard drive, faster modem, which does not matter with road runner. like a idiot i got 3-1/2 floppy drive, i got cd reader and a cd burner, i will wait like bit told for dvd burner later when tech on them gets better.... 17 screen, optical mouse... a few other things too wicked happy with it.... i like the black color too....”

“If you can hold off for a while.”

“Why on earth would anyone buy a pre-assembled PC.

Build your own... You get exactly what you want and can probably do it for 1/2 of the price at worst.

I built my system for less than $300 when a comparable system went for about $1500.”

“Talk on, brother! What suppliers did you use?”

“I second NOT buying an assembled PC UNLESS you're one of those people that will need tech support all the time. Of course, you do get a faster response on TT than by calling a number.

I worked as a PC repair tech for my first two years of college. When I get back from the Sods I wouldn't mind helping you piece together a system. Bison sounds like he's got some good suppliers too.”

“I'm with Bison here, ppl!
Heres a good place to start
www.pricewatch.com”

“I got most of my stuff at Microcenter, they usually have good deals, and often have excellent deals on processor and motherboard bundles. I got the drives on Black Friday at Best Buy, massive rebates :)

SS - Alot of people are intimidated by the thought of building their own computer, don't be. If you can assemble a bike you can build a PC it's not hard at all, and they're are plenty of not very technical books on the subject (For Dummies, Idiot's guide and the like).”

“Dub has a point though, if you anticipate needing tech support, you want a Dell or the like, but if your tech savvy enough not to have used support, go ahead and build your own.”

“Uh! You actually bought something from MicroCenter!?! That's where I worked, terrible deals! That stuff is soooo marked up. I got quite the deal when I worked there as employee discount was store cost + 5% rather than a flat 10% rate or something like that. So sometimes I'd get $100 off a $150 item.”

“Building your own PC is better, but only if you know how to troubleshoot/correct it when things start to not work as you want them to.

You could also probably reuse some part from the old computer at least as a supplement if nothing else (think hard drive, floppy drive, etc.)

But if you are really looking for audio/video recording, editing, etc., what you really need is a Mac. I've never been a really big Mac fan, but I've actually been able to work with OS X, and I gotta tell ya, it's one sweet system.

Just my $0.02”

“But anyway, for hardware, I've always liked Tiger Direct”

“Mac sucks! I had to use one for my internship. They are good for hard core video editing, but I don't think you'll be doing anything advanced, so a PC will work fine.”

“Dub - What kind of strange MicroCenter did you work at? The one here always has the absolute best deals.”

“I have build boxes before.
I don't have easy access to computer fairs in the rural area I live so parts have to be mailordered.
Software, drivers and such have been a problem with building my own. I used to have access to software from work but everything is networked now and nothing is stand alone.
A dialup internet access is another problem. Takes a long time to download drivers and such from the net.

Boxes are so cheap now, I would have to save several hundred dollars to make it worthwhile for me.”

“Gateway has the worst customer suppport.”

“Makin' "Girls Gone Wild" videos, Stovey?? ;-)”

“yeah, pricewatch.com is the bomb”

“Sony at www.sonystyles.com

Best laptop performance
Best desktop performance
Best support
Great prices

Get the Z1.”

“I found my DREAM MACHINE!!

”

“I want one!”

“I think Bearmagnet could improve on the screensaver”

“Freakin' awesome! I'm gonna buy one on the company account for work!”

“that's awsome. pretty easy to do too”

“Some people have way too much time on their hands.”

“Does he got enough removeable drives in that thing?”

“That's what I said Bit. This geek probably dreams on 1's and 0's.”

“Which one is your dream machine, Nigal? The one holding the coffee cup?”

“Oh, you is evil. E-V-I-L!! haha!”

“I went to the site the picture came from. He only has one 20 GB boot drive and 2-40 GB storrage drives configured with RAID 1 (mirroring), so he effectively has 60 GB of HD space with 40 GB hot swappable in case of drive failure. He should still do regular backups because any changes made to one storage drive will also happen to the other storage drive at the same time.”

“Yikes...I think I just had a geek attack.”

“wonder how it handles all the heat created by the pot warmers?”

“Man, that post is gonna give tilt a boner!

My puter is a Compaq. I turn it on and it works. That's all I know....”

“Roam, big fans. He claims the interior of the case doesn't get any hotter regardless of whether the hot plates are on or not.”

“sounds loud, yeah, i know, the eternal skeptic here to poo poo on your parade.”

“It probably is loud as hell. Two 120mm fans to keep it cool.

I've built a computer or two in my time, but I'd rather spend the money on, I dunno, peripherals and stuff rather than fancy lights and windows.”

“psshh raid 1 is for pansies. raid 0 is where it's at. If you're that concerned about data integrety then do regular back ups. Let RAID do it's thing. Had a friend with a 5 port RAID controller and 5 10 gig SCSII drives. That thing was stupid fast.

my computer is currently running 5 80mm's, a 120mm and a 70mm heatsink fan. It's amazingly quiet (and my chip temps never breach 100)”

“I'm amazed to see the proper use and spelling of "breach".

It's hard to see from the angle the photo is taken at, but he has a 120mm fan mounted right in the top of that thing. I suppose it could be one of the low-RPM quiet models though.”

“RAID 0 would only serve to speed performance and would not provide any redundancy. If I were to do RAID in my home machine it would be RAID 5, providing parity so that if one drive failed, I could switch out the drive and the data would be recovered with the parity on the other 4 drives.”

“pshhh. live dangerously. As long as you had another drive set up that the RAID would backup to nightly, then you'd be fine. Basicly what RAID 3 is if I remember. Then again, as long as certain key files (like documents) are backed up, I don't mind instability to get speed. (except for inconvience of reinsatlling stuff). I've got it to where I can do a clean wipe and install on my main drive in an hour and a half. That's getting the system to the point where it was before I killed it. I just don't like waiting around”

“RAID 3 does byte level striping across multiple drive with the parity on 1 drive instead of on all drives. I know what you mean about waiting around, that's why RAID 5 is good...you get the benefit of performance and the benefit of not having everything go to the toilet if one drive fails.”