Any GOOD PCs out there

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timmy

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I am in the market for a new PC system. My current Mesh one is going back very soon. I have about £1100 to spend and would like to be able to produce good quality video onto DVD using DV and analogue inputs. Gaming would also be a consideration. Upgradeability, quality and good support are all important to me as is the choice of screen which needs to be a fast respnse time and be able to be calibrated. The Sharp LL171 was a good screen, if slightly slow on the response at 20ms, so tell me if you know anything about the current Sharp screens. PC can be Pentium or AMD, I dont mind as long as it is quick and able to multi task easily without falling over. Is hyperthreading as good as it seems for instance.

If anyone has any suggestions or know of any reviews, on what they think is good current spec PC, let me know.
 
Don't know any off the shelf models to recommend, tbh.

All I'll say is if you want to capture analogue and digital video/audio, make sure the system has either a VIVO video card or TV card to capture analogue video and a firewire port to handle most digital camcorders.
 
floppybootstomp said:
Don't know any off the shelf models to recommend, tbh.

All I'll say is if you want to capture analogue and digital video/audio, make sure the system has either a VIVO video card or TV card to capture analogue video and a firewall port to handle most digital camcorders.
Click to expand...

Firewall port ... ? is that firewire ? :D

Edit by fbs: er, yep, I must be going senile, have corrected it now.

Off-the-Shelf ... Hmmm, nope can't think of any that I can put my name to ... if you find any, give us a link, but only if they tell you what MB they are using ... not interested if they don't. ;)

B I Y S :D
 
Floppy. Thanks, but the system I had before had a good capture card etc but was unable to capture analogue even through the breakout box. This problem persisted throughout various repairs by Mesh. Maybe it was just down to their inability to fix it, but I really need good advice as to which componants to choose that will not let me down and are supported well.
 
B I Y S mucks?


how about putting together a PC yourself timmy? - Then it'll be a PC built for your specifications and have the parts you want and can afford.
 
Have you thought of building one yourself? And are you capable? I am sure you will have all the help you require to do so from members on this site, someone will point you in the correct direction that’s for sure then> not only will you have a reliable PC! you will have a lot more for your money.;)
 
Canes and all. BIYS looks like the best idea, but I am concerned that if any problems appear in the future, the various componant suppliers will each blame eachother for the problem. Been there before. I think I will get a chap to build one for me to my spec, so at least I can blame him if it all goes wrong. Now, where to start......
 
timmy said:
Floppy. Thanks, but the system I had before had a good capture card etc but was unable to capture analogue even through the breakout box.
Click to expand...

That's because it was a Mesh.

I'm using this to capture analogue video/audio perfectly, and this is now an out dated system:

Asrock KNV7 Motherboard
AMD XP 3200 CPU (2.2Ghz)
2 x 512Mb Corsair value select PC3200 (1Gb RAM)
2 x WD SATA HDD's, 120Gb each, in RAID 0
1 x PATA WD HDD, 120Gb
Pinnacle TV Card
ATI 128Mb 9800 pro vid card
Pinnacle Studio 9 software

Now that's an old system I built myself, it works well. The video is taken into the TV card, the audio into the onboard sound device line in socket.

I capture from a VCR and an old Sony Analogue 8 camcorder.

Also capture audio from a vinyl turntable/phono preamp; cassette deck and Disco Mixer.
 
Youre probably right about the Mesh thing, but thats a whole other thread. I am going to see my local PC chap and see what he can do for me. Thanks for your advice.
 
Any old thing will do ... how quick do you want to do it?


Get the best MB you can find = Asus & nVidia4 ... nothing beats that combination, yet.

You want quick processing = AMD Dual-Core .... it was designed for Video & CAD work

Memory can be as little as 1 gig ... 2-4gig and the CPU will fly

Harddrive ... upto you, but this is your bigest bottleneck ... Hitach make the fastes HD

Graphics ... well then, has to be SLi ... and one card will do


Ask Floppy & CITec ... they play with Video stuff :thumb:
 
muckshifter said:
Get the best MB you can find = Asus & nVidia4 ... nothing beats that combination, yet.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ, sir, Nvidia4 & DFI just as good, maybe better.

Slightly more expensive I grant you but DFI make seriously nice motherboards :)
 
What about Soyo? - They 'used' to make a good board. Have their mobo's gone downhill as i don't hear much about them anymore.
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. I will take it all on board and see where it takes me.
 
timmy said:
I am in the market for a new PC system. My current Mesh one is going back very soon. I have about £1100 to spend and would like to be able to produce good quality video onto DVD using DV and analogue inputs. Gaming would also be a consideration. Upgradeability, quality and good support are all important to me as is the choice of screen which needs to be a fast respnse time and be able to be calibrated. The Sharp LL171 was a good screen, if slightly slow on the response at 20ms, so tell me if you know anything about the current Sharp screens. PC can be Pentium or AMD, I dont mind as long as it is quick and able to multi task easily without falling over. Is hyperthreading as good as it seems for instance.

If anyone has any suggestions or know of any reviews, on what they think is good current spec PC, let me know.
Click to expand...
Er, what can i say about mesh, well nothing that can be repeated or written down!
I should know, i have bought from them, but never agin, i have learnt my lesson the hardway!!
Support is, well not great, software support is £1 a minute! It should be free...
I know some will disagree, but pcworld seem to be more user friendly these days.
Others like evesham talk the talk, but support can be a bit troublesome.
Dell are pricey, but well made and reliable, Acer make good laptops?
At the end of the day a DIY is good if you have the knowledge or know someone who does.
 
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