| In article <
[email protected]>,
| (e-mail address removed)-spam.invalid (TeXaS68) wrote:
|
| > Which is the better processor to use with a DVD burner? I want to
| > back up my home videos to dvd's and just want to burn dvd's. The
guy
| > at best buy said the celeron will not work as good with a DVD
burner.
| > Is this true, do I need a AMD. I am on a budget, new baby.
| > recommendations please....
| >
| > ==============
|
| I'm an Intel guy, and if you are on a budget, AthlonXP is the way
| to go.
|
| I guess the question is, what is the guy at Best Buy trying to sell
| you ? Beige boxes from big retailers can contain stuff you don't
| want or need, or can be under-equipped in areas that you do need.
| For me, the scariest part of what is inside those beige boxes, is
| what is used for motherboard chipsets - when you buy your own
| motherboard, for example, you can look in groups.google.com for
| which chipsets are good and which are unstable.
|
| People in this group generally build their own systems, and we
| cannot match the prices of a big retailer, so building your own
| system is not a way to save money. If, on the other hand, you
| cannot get the mix of hardware you want, then building your
| own is a possible solution.
|
| Since your application is focused on DVD burning, I think before
| you buy anything, you need to do a little reading on working with
| DVDs. Before Christmas, I got it in my head to give a
non-technically
| inclined family member a DVD burner. The intention was to use the
| burner for backups (because we all know how many people have no
| backup strategy for their computers). I figured DVD burners
| were mature and trouble free. Well, I ended up buying about $100
| worth of samples of media, before I found some that worked well
| enough to give as a gift. I ended up buying a copy of Nero, as
| it had the ability to analyze media for raw errors, and that
| is how I determined which media stunk, and which was acceptable.
|
| I think in the end, I probably sunk over $500 CDN into the whole
| project, which was grossly over budget. I had hoped the bundled
| software with the drive would be good enough, but it wasn't.
|
| Go back to the Best Buy, and see if you can arrange a demo of
| DVD burning. Get them to select DVD disk media and demonstrate to
| you, how easy the bundled software is to use, and then have them
| transfer the DVD disk to another computer, so you can see how
| trouble free and smooth it is to read back after being burned.
|
| Of all the applications I could think of to do with a computer,
| this is about the last one that would be on my list now, in
| terms of money spent, and benefit gained. My CDRW, by comparison,
| has been a dream. After giving that DVD burner as a gift, I
| don't plan on buying a DVD burner for myself any time soon.
| (At least until I have bags of cash to waste.)
|
| The trick with burners is, to stay away from the bleeding edge
| stuff. If you buy a Pioneer, for example, some models are
| definitely a step behind in terms of burning speed, but are
| better at handling cheap media.
|
| As I choose to forget most of what I learned in that experience,
| I recommend visiting
http://www.cdfreaks.com for review articles,
| and club.cdfreaks.com for the user forums. In the forums are
| a few people who pirate DVDs for a living, burning 1000's of them.
| Pay particular attention to what gear they recommend for burning,
| because they want every disk they burn to be a good one - no
| "coasters". The speed of the burners they use is 2x or 4x slower
| than the bleeding edge stuff, but they run many burners
| simultaneously, to pirate their stuff.
|
| Some drive manufacturers have recommended media on their web sites,
| but it can be difficult to find exactly the product they mention.
| Again, the forums or the review articles may have suggestions as
| to what works best.
|
| If you are still interested in building your own computer, we'll
| still be here when you are ready
|
| Oh, another irritant at Best Buy, is the way they try to sell
| LCD monitors to people. They never show the customer what text
| documents look like on an LCD screen. They like to run a movie of
| some sort on the monitors, or prevent the customer from using the
| actual Windows desktop. Since you spend most of your time in the
| Windows desktop, and quite a lot of time reading text and small
| fonts, that is what should be demonstrated for you. Some of Best
| Buy's competitors know the value of this. In any case, don't waste
| money on an LCD monitor, as a CRT monitor has a larger color gamut
| for Photoshop, and has fewer aliasing problems when you change
| screen resolution. My LCD monitor, only looks good in its native
| resolution of 1280x1024, so if the Best Buy guy sells you one, make
| sure the "native resolution" of the unit you are buying, matches
| your intended resolution setting. I tried to do a lot of research,
| review reading, and sampling at local computer stores, but still
| feel I got taken by the salesman (didn't buy it at Best Buy of
| course). The LCD is compact, uses less power than a CRT, but is
| otherwise inferior to the CRT tube it replaced.
|
| HTH,
| Paul
I hereby move this group to bestow an MVP (most valuable person/pro)
award on you Paul. You consistently take the time to post fully
detailed and accurate info for every person you help. Oftentimes you
obtain info for others via search engines that could readily be found
if the OP gave it a try. The time spent in compiling your replies is
obviously more than any person should be expected to donate.
Here-Here, I raise my frosty mug to you in a toast to one of the best,
if not the best, usenet tech helper around these parts (and other
parts).
Oh, and thx for the info on DVD burner headaches, I'm still waiting to
make my first DVD burner purchase, and your info was of great
assistance.
As to the questions by the OP, I would think a celeron (recent
vintage) or Duron/XP cpu would burn DVDs w/o problems. As to the best
bargain, a Duron 1600 or 1800 is a great bargain and should work
nicely. If you want a cheapie mobo upgrade, checkout the refurb
department at
www.newegg.com
