Dopers, help me pick out a new computer

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m thinking of buying a computer, and there are 3 choices that have caught my eye. Can you tell me which one is the best, and whether or not they are worth their price?

choice # 1:

HP
Media center PC featuring Intel Viiv technology
Intel Pentium D Processor 930

2 GB DDR2
300 GB HD
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center edition
DVD+R dual layer/DVD+/-RW w/ LightScribe super multi drive and DVD-ROM drives
TV tuner, personal video recorder and media center remote
conventent input panel flips open on the front
circuit city ID: M7480N/VS17E
$1279.99

choice # 2

HP
Pavilion Desktop PC featuring AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 3800+
1 GB DDR
250 GB HD
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center edition
DVD+R dual layer/DVD+/-RW w/ LightScribe
Includes HP deskjet 5440 printer
circuit city ID: A1430N/VS15/DJ5440
$749.99

choice # 3

Gateway
Desktop PC featuring AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 3800+
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center edition
2GB DDR
250 GB HD
DVD+R dual layer/DVD+/-RW and DVD-ROM drives
Includes Canon PIXMA photo printer
circuit city ID: GT5058/FPD1760/MP150
$969.99

The main purpose of the computer will be video downloading and editing from a digital camera. I have tried the same on my current Dell Dimension 4500 Pentium 4 with bad results. The video stream kept skipping. I don’t know if this is because of the processor, the fact that my hard drive was cluttered with deleted files and games up to 2 years old, or because I only have 768GB RAM. Which computer would be the best?

2

What you haven’t told us is the video cards these come with, which along with CPU speed and amount of Ram is the most important factor for your purposes.

Can you take a CD with a typical file you manipulate to the stores offering these and test out how well they deal with it?

3

[QUOTE=Askance]
Can you take a CD with a typical file you manipulate to the stores offering these and test out how well they deal with it?
[/QUOTE]

“Stores.” How quaint. :slight_smile: Seriously, though, I suspect that Danja’s looking at these online.

For video skip prevention, your main issue is going to be the hard drives, specifically their RPM, and to a lesser degree the connection type. Drives come in 5400, 7800, 10000, and 15000 RPM, higher is better, but 15K ones are prohibitively expensive, and 10K ones might be as well. You’ll also want LOTS of hard drive space, at least several times the amount of video you have to work with.

Luckily, it’s probably a non-issue, since PC’s that ship normally with the Media Center Edition of Windows are almost certain to have sufficiently fast hard drives for video.

You’ll also want lots of RAM, at least 2 Gig, so you’d have to upgrade Choice #2.

Geeks usually consider AMD to be a better chip than Intel, although all the ones you mention are hyper-modern, so it hardly matters.

Video card probably doesn’t matter much, anything that ships with a Media Center PC should be fine.

In my day job, I work for one of the companies whose computers you list, so I’d rather not recommend anything directly, since I’d likely be biased in any case (and don’t want to be seen as representing them here.)

4

Those computers are all fine for light video editing. If you ask me, none of them are worth it. It’s best to build your own system or get a friend to do it for you; you’ll get better components at better prices. However, you do lose the name-brand support (which, unfortunately, is usually outsourced crap anyway). Between those three systems, I’d say just go with whichever one you like best, but do upgrade the RAM like TimeWinder said.

The video card doesn’t matter unless you do gaming or other 3D stuff. AMD is cheaper than an equivalent Intel but otherwise the same. VIIV is unfinished and irrelevant at the moment. Media Center Edition is nice if you want to use the PC as a TV or TiVo, but it’s not helpful for video creation/editing.

You might want to consider buying direct from companies like Dell or Gateway instead of going through Circuit City… in some cases, the systems will be cheaper and faster and you’ll get equivalent or better support.

Another possibility is an Intel-based Mac (probably one of the new iMacs or a Mini with some upgrades). They’re reasonably fast for their price, but more importantly, they’re out-of-the-box ready for digital video work thanks to Firewire (and USB) and iMovie HD. Apple also offers a shitload of in-store lessons and tutorials (especially if you sign up for their Procare program), which may help guide you through the process and fix any issues you experience. (That’s assuming you actually need assistance. Sorry, I’m not sure how much experience you have.)

But here’s the thing. Your Pentium 4 should already be able to handle basic video transfers unless there’s something wrong with it – like insufficient hard drive space, an extremely fragmented drive, spyware issues, etc. 768 MB of RAM isn’t a lot, but it should be fine for simply downloading video from the camera.

What kind of digital camera do you have, how does it record its videos (MiniDV? Flash memory? DVD?), and how are you transferring them to your computer? And what do you want to do with the videos once you get them on the computer? This isn’t necessarily a matter of throwing money at a new system; the problem may lie in the process you’re using to transfer your videos or in the other equipment that’s currently involved. Please tell us more.