- Nov 2, 2002
- 230
- 0
- 18,680
My PC does a ton of stuff, but is really ready for an upgrade. Can you guys help me build a replacement?
I'll buy as much as I can from Newegg, Buy.com, TheNerds.net, or ZipZoomFly.
Here's some of the criteria I hope to meet - not conclusive:
* Don't usually overclock.
* Gaming not necessary - have other PC's for that - but I'd like it to be capable of rudimentary gaming.
* High resolution photo editing and HD video editing, re-encoding, and conversion.
* It must be able to play at least 2 HiDef streams while recording or capturing HDTV.
* Must be easy to find drivers for Windows XP x86 (legacy hardware that won't run on Win7) and Windows 7 x64.
* Must have firewire for HiDef DVR (Motorola) capture (WinXP driver).
* Video needs HDTV and higher video (1920 x 1200 minimum) dual display - SVGA, DVI, HDMI output.
* DVD burner - Blu-ray burner nice but not required.
* Start with 4GB ram and expand to 8GB or 16GB in next year or so.
* Support internal mounting of at least 4 storage hard drives (may re-use Antec Sonata II that's being retired).
* If there's a such thing as swappable solid state boot drives, that would be really nice.
* Not counting the case, I'd like to stay under $1000 and preferably closer to $600
* I don't want to spend $200 for 10 percent more speed, but I'd spend it for more versatility or reliability.
I'm not looking for specific parts as much as suggestions of processors, motherboards, video cards. I'm not against going with AMD CPU if I save $100 for same performance. My Dell XPS 16 notebook has the i7-720, which seems a nice balance between power consumption and speed, so something along those lines or a faster-clocked i5 seems logical.
Any good ideas?
Thanks!
I'll buy as much as I can from Newegg, Buy.com, TheNerds.net, or ZipZoomFly.
Here's some of the criteria I hope to meet - not conclusive:
* Don't usually overclock.
* Gaming not necessary - have other PC's for that - but I'd like it to be capable of rudimentary gaming.
* High resolution photo editing and HD video editing, re-encoding, and conversion.
* It must be able to play at least 2 HiDef streams while recording or capturing HDTV.
* Must be easy to find drivers for Windows XP x86 (legacy hardware that won't run on Win7) and Windows 7 x64.
* Must have firewire for HiDef DVR (Motorola) capture (WinXP driver).
* Video needs HDTV and higher video (1920 x 1200 minimum) dual display - SVGA, DVI, HDMI output.
* DVD burner - Blu-ray burner nice but not required.
* Start with 4GB ram and expand to 8GB or 16GB in next year or so.
* Support internal mounting of at least 4 storage hard drives (may re-use Antec Sonata II that's being retired).
* If there's a such thing as swappable solid state boot drives, that would be really nice.
* Not counting the case, I'd like to stay under $1000 and preferably closer to $600
* I don't want to spend $200 for 10 percent more speed, but I'd spend it for more versatility or reliability.
I'm not looking for specific parts as much as suggestions of processors, motherboards, video cards. I'm not against going with AMD CPU if I save $100 for same performance. My Dell XPS 16 notebook has the i7-720, which seems a nice balance between power consumption and speed, so something along those lines or a faster-clocked i5 seems logical.
Any good ideas?
Thanks!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram