nrestell

Hi, Well, it turns out a relative wants to buy my current PC off me. So, I have a bit of money to spend on a whole new bit of kit (figured this was a good thing to start with since I needed so many new items!). Should I opt for an AMD Athlon X4 640 or Phenom X4 processor? Or is an Intel Q-series the better option? I am still thinking of the aforementioned graphics card plus 4GB DDR3 RAM (600mhz) and hoping that this rig will help me edit my HD video. Neil

Thanks for the reply. I was looking around the £50-75 mark to be honest. I had my eye on the ATI Radeon 5450 HD 1GB PCI card. Do you think that would be sufficient? Any other suggestions would be gratefully received! Cheers, Neil

Well, I tried importing 6 minutes of clips from my HD camcorder into my editing package and the CPU maxed out at 100% for about 10 seconds before going to about 85-90% for the majority of the import. Making it then set up automatic chapters again sent it to 100% before the program crashed!:eek: I tried a second time and it worked but the CPU was working to the max for most of the time. Memory struggled a little but no where near as much as the CPU. So, I think a little CPU upgrade may be required!:) Thanks for you help Dalo. Neil

I probably should have mentioned that I am running Windows 7 64bit at the moment anyway. I shall try this tonight with a moderately sized full-HD file to see if the system can cope! I may just get a new Graphics Card and Blu-Ray writer, although with a HD monitor it may be cheaper to get a whole new kit! Cheers! Neil

Thanks for the reply. I say basic but it will be HD video. We recently purchased a HD camera and I intend to do some cutting (of the bad bits) and joining (of the good bits) and adding some menus. Then I would like to put them onto a Blu-Ray disc. I was also hoping to watch purchased Blu-Rays on this machine too. Am I right in thinking that you would recommend an upgrade but maybe not as big as I had first thought? Maybe a new Graphics Card (1Gb Radeon HD5450 maybe?) and possibly a new CPU? Thanks again, Neil

Hi, I currently have a Dell Dimension 9200 (E6400@2.13GHz), 4Gb DDR2 RAM (4x1GB; 2 running at 400mHz, 2 at 266mHz) and a 256MB Radeon X1300 graphics card. From my basic knowledge, I know that the 2 RAM that can go to 400mHz are not due to the 2 at 266mHz. I also understand that this PC probably couldn't play Blu-Rays if I buy a blu-ray player. I am looking to buy a whole new PC. However, mMy question is, for a non-gaming PC that I only wish to run Internet, Office and the occasional (basic) video editing/burning, should I go for the fastest CPU I can afford, increase my RAM to 8GB or get a better graphics card? Should I go AMD (X4 640) or intel (Q8400) or something else all together? Neil