Advice required on new pc (under £400)

[yanbart]

Hi, I apologise if I have posted this on the wrong forum but I am new and am initially seeking advice on a new pc. Hope someone can help me, thank you! I have had a HP Pavilion for 4 years now which has served me well. But the 150GB HD is almost full and I am looking for something a little quicker too! I take a lot of photos and videos and burn a lot of DVDs from Windows movie maker and convert to ISO files. I also use my panasonic software to burn videos from my camera quite a lot too. I don't do any gaming. I would however like to start using Nero Premium. I have looked at several pc's between £300-£400 which seem highly advanced compared to my current one, ones with 4GB Ram and 1TB HD and this spec appeals to me. The only thing I am not sure about is which processor would be best for what I need...and which make pc would be best for the price. I have seen dual core processors G530/G620/E-300 and i3 and i5. I have no idea whatsoever what the difference is and which one would suit my needs the most! So far I have contemplated an Advent 1404 for £329, a Lenovo H330 for £399, an Acer X3990 also for £399 and another HP Pavilion P6-2010 or P6-2026. I have also looked at Zoostorm pc's on Ebuyer which range from £360-£399 and although I have never heard of this make, the one for £399 has 8GB of Ram which I thought was very good, although I am not sure if I need so much with what I want to do! Any help/advice/assistance would be most appreciated as I am extremely confused but don't want to miss out on the Sales!! Thank you very much, yan

[KenB]

Hi Yan and welcome to ExTS

 

I also use my panasonic software

If you have specific software that you want on your new system then you need to know if it will be compatible with Windows 7 ( which will be the operating system on your new pc ).

 

Windows 7 will come with either a 32bit or 64bit option.

 

Again, you need to know if your favourite software is 64bit compatible.

 

You mentioned RAM.

The more RAM you have the better. However, you need to know that 32 bit systems can only recognise 4GB and will utilise about 3.5GB.

The other 0.5GB will be allocated primarily to the Video Adapter if it is onboard.

 

64 bit systems can utilise much more RAM than 32 bit systems.

 

If your choice of pc comes with 8GB RAM then you can assume that the Operating System is 64 bit.

 

Regarding the choice of manufacturer.

Any of the known brands are fine. I would stay away from lesser known makes. This is just my personal preference.

Acer ; Lenovo ; HP are all fine. ( I have an Acer laptop )

 

Processors are confusing.

Simply ...........the more cores ( generally ) the better, and obviously more expensive.

i3 or i5 ?

i3 is dual core and is generally considered a "budget" processor.

i5 can be either 2 or 4 core.

 

Basically, if you are looking at £400 systems you are more than likely going to get a 2 core processor. It will be a bonus if you can get a higher spec.

 

If you are running a 64 bit system then the processor will be 64 bit compatible too.

 

If you need more information - please ask :)

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, If I can add regarding the Panasonic software, if it came with the camera I think you may find it is not compatible with Windows 7 64bit.

I know mine isn't and had to acquire other video editing software, I would check with the Panasonic website regarding that.

 

For quality video editing, regardless of which editing program you use, the 8GB of RAM machine is the one to go for or similar, the more RAM the better, also if you can afford it a quad core processor.

They may seem to be a little over the top for normal video editing, but if you intend at some stage going for HD or High definition, you will certainly need it then.

Hope that is of help.

 

Nev.

[yanbart]

Hi Ken and Nev. Thank you both so much for your very helpful responses. I understand what you have advised me, and on reflection, as I would like to undertake video editing, and my camera is HD, then I think I should invest in an i5 processor. I take your point about the panasonic software not being compatible and I am sure if that's the case, I can get around it somehow. It's a little bit restrictive anyway being confined to using panasonics 'own' software! So far, I have found 2 pc's with i5 processors and good storage for under £400, a zoostorm and an acer, although there is a bad review about the zoostorm and the Acer seems to be sold out at the moment! But I think these specs are along the right lines? Thank you once again for your help and I look forward to posting more on this site and I 'hopefully' increase my pc knowledge! Thanks, yan

 

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Computer-Base-Units/buy-ACER-X3990/I5-Computer-Base-Unit/767735

http://www.ebuyer.com/282573-zoostorm-premium-desktops-pc-7873-0287

[yanbart]

Hi Guys, sorry to bother you again, I am looking at the Acer X3990 i5 and the Lenovo H330 i5 and both seem similar to me, although the Acer has a 2310 processor and the Lenovo a 2320. Would you know if this is a significant difference please? Thank you, yan

https://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_X3990_1114413.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lenovo-h330-desktop-pc-11290859-pdt.html

[KenB]

Hi,

 

The Acer ( 2310 ) has Frequency 2.9GHz

The lenovo ( 2320 ) has Frequency 3.0Ghz

 

They are both 4 core.

 

There are a few other minor differences.

 

There is very little to choose between the two. The 3.0GHz will be very slightly faster - but you will not be able to notice the difference.

 

================

 

I cannot see if the Acer comes with 64 bit OS. The Lenovo certainly does.

The Lenovo comes with Office 2010 starter - which isn't a full Office version but is good enough for the majority of purposes.

 

Lenovo 6 USB Ports ..............Acer has 9.

Some of the USB Ports will be at the back of the machine.

 

The Lenovo quotes a 7200 r/m hard drive. The Acer does not state the r/m ( this could be 5400 or 7200 )

7200 r/m drives transfer dater faster than 5400 r/m drives.

 

I hope you can use this to help you decide.

[yanbart]

Hi Ken, that is really helpful...thank you...from what you have said I think it would make more sense for me to look at the Lenovo as overall, the package seems more value for money. I doubt we would need more than the starter version of Office as we only really use Word and Excel for letters and basic spreadsheets. I was looking at cheaper pc's on ebuyer this evening, some with more RAM, varying between 4 and 8GB, but with dual core processors. These Zoostorm pc's were priced in the region of £190-£220 however they come without Windows 7 and Office. So if you add the price of the software packages you are actually not that far off (if my maths are correct) from the price of the i5 Lenovo and Acer that you have commented upon. So I think, I am slowly convincing myself that the two pc's, especially the Lenovo, are good value...(in my very inexperienced opinion!) The only thing that confuses me a little is the fact that the cheaper Zoostorm seems to have a higher clock speed (3.2GHz) achieved with what I understand, is a lesser processor? I am not sure how that works!

http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-zoostorm-desktop-7873-1036

http://www.ebuyer.com/283002-extra-value-desktop-pc-7873-1047

[KenB]

seems to have a higher clock speed (3.2GHz) achieved with what I understand, is a lesser processor? I am not sure how that works!

3.2GHz is the clock speed.

The Lenovo has a clock speed of 3.0 GHz ( not a great deal of difference )

What you have to take into account is the number of cores each CPU has.

The Zoostorm has 2 cores.

The Lenovo has 4 cores.

 

Clock speeds and cores are confusing.

4 core CPUs are supposed to be faster than 2 core.

I have read some articles that suggest the more cores the better.

Other articles suggest that 2 core technology will beat 4 core in certain circumstances.

 

The fact is that given the 2 processors and the same hardware ( RAM etc ) I don't think you would see any difference between the two for normal computing.

The 4 core processor comes into its own when dealing with masses of data.

Rendering 3D graphics, compression of DVDs into portable movie files, the compression of CDs into MP3s, etc.

 

Multiple cores are, however, the way forward.

More and more software applications will benefit if you have a 4 / 8 core processor.

 

I hope this helps?

[Plastic Nev]

I can add a little bit more towards understanding multiple core processors.

If we go back in time a little, processors only had one core and that was the processor. You say data needs to be handled, sorry but you have to wait in a queue while the last lot is sorted.

Then first they came up with a two core processor, the data could then be split between the two cores, as actually each core is a processor. so the output of processed data was more in any given time, even if both the single core, and the twins were running at say 2.8GHtz twice the amount of data could be handled at once, hence the end result is a faster running PC.

Obviously, four or more cores then means even more data can be handled in the same time period, couple that with a high clock speed and the computer will run even faster still in the overall sense.

 

The next thing is still in the background, which is the problem with the Panasonic software if they still have done little in the way of upgrading it to run on Windows 7 64bit.

I found windows own moviemaker is fine for general editing, your computer may or may not come with Windows Live Moviemaker. Worry not if it doesn't, as it is a free download from Microsoft, I also downloaded and installed the also free ordinary Windows Moviemaker for Vista, it runs quite well on W7 so no worries there.

Add to that, a search on google will reveal many other video editing free software is available. A case of install and try it out in most cases.

Of course you can buy software and some decent stuff is available at reasonable prices, which of course will give you more editing options.

I myself eventually pulled out the wallet, blew out the dust, released all the moths, and bought the Corel Video Studio 2010 just to give an example which didn't cost too much at the time.

 

 

Nev.