**buying new P.C., would love advice**

[Foxfyre]

-I don't want Apple, I want PC.

-It has to have decent processing speed, I do some music mixing and eventually want to do video. I know everyone says to use MAC for that, but there's other reasons I'm going PC so just let that go.

-I'd like to keep it under $1k, and find a 0% interest deal.

-The touch-screen monitors would be nice, but aren't necessary if most of the dough is going to processing speed/efficiency.


Thanks in advance guys and gals, I really appreciate any links, etc.

If you live in or near a good size city there is bound to be at least one good custom computer shop that can build you the computer you need. Get a huge hard drive, a fast processor, and at least 3 or 4 gigs of Ram. You can add on other bells and whistles according to what you want the computer for. And you should be able to get a custom PC with all that for well under $1,000.

 

[Si modo]

I wouldn't recommend and HP. Sure, they have a lot of bells and whistles, but they are like a Jaguar - pretty and perform, but in the shop half of the time.

I have had to send my laptop back to HP so many times.

Such a hassle that I would trade off the bells and whistles for something else.

If IBM were still in the business, I would definitely go back to one of their machines - never, ever crashed. Ever. I don't know if that is the case now that they are Lenovo, but maybe read some reviews - if they seem to say the quality is similar to IBM, go for it...in a NY minute.

Otherwise, the Vaio seems good and stable, but pretty expensive.


So, that's my experience. Hopefully, Ringel will post - he knows the hardware, so I would listen to him.

 

[Mr. H.]

I'll never own another Dell.
I think building your own is the way to go.

 

[Foxfyre]

If you're going the laptop route, the Sony VAIO has given me and others in my family excellent service. But they are more expensive. But once I had a custom computer built, I won't buy a PC 'off the rack' again. You can get so much more for your money with a custom built.

 

[Douger]

First off that shit you're editing isn't music.
Second you ever heard of saving up and then buying ?
Of course not. Yer uh murkin.

 

[Foxfyre]

I definitely am going desk-top, it's mostly going to be used for making my music and mixing it and whatnot.

The thing about custom-built is that they aren't in the business of Credit, and I'm looking elsewhere other than to best-buy (whom I've had a 0% interest card with forever now) for the reason that their PC prices are outrageous. So, I was hoping to find the same credit offer at a cheaper place, all in one shot.

You might look at Wal-mart. We've found some of the very best prices there. Every now and then Costco also has some great deals but be sure to comparison shop because they often aren't offering the best deals.

And if you want to pay it out then yeah, custom built is likely not an option unless you have a new zero percent for a few months credit card. But in my opinion you really will get your best value with a custom built.

 

[Foxfyre]

I definitely am going desk-top, it's mostly going to be used for making my music and mixing it and whatnot.

The thing about custom-built is that they aren't in the business of Credit, and I'm looking elsewhere other than to best-buy (whom I've had a 0% interest card with forever now) for the reason that their PC prices are outrageous. So, I was hoping to find the same credit offer at a cheaper place, all in one shot.

You might look at Wal-mart. We've found some of the very best prices there. Every now and then Costco also has some great deals but be sure to comparison shop because they often aren't offering the best deals.

And if you want to pay it out then yeah, custom built is likely not an option unless you have a new zero percent for a few months credit card. But in my opinion you really will get your best value with a custom built.

I mikght lean that way and just have it built. Let me take a gander at walmart and see what they've got.

Do you know how fast of a processor I should have at minimum for video/audio editing?

It's pretty hard to find one with less than a gig or more these days and I think that should do it, but the folks whol build the computer should be able to advise you what you need within your budget. I really am an amateur on this stuff so I rely on their expertise a lot. They've never steered me wrong.

 

[Foxfyre]

I hear you.

The last one I bought was an HP (BestBuy) and they gave me like 1 gig even, and it was choppy at times but it was also 6 years or so ago. Now the mother-board is fried and I want one that *won't* be choppy at times.

I'm pretty sure they'll recommend more than a gig but I don't know. My desktop PC is geting to be that vintage too and is developing some unattractive quirks. Part of it is that the hard drive isn't as big as what is considered 'normal' these days. But my computer experts tell me that these thing will go obsolete pretty quickly--within a few years. The equipment can't handle the updated drivers and new software innovations and that will begin to create problems.

Which is another reason to get what will work for us as cheaply as possible because we'll have to do it again in five or six years.

 

[xsited1]

Dell usually has 0% financing deals, but it looks like they're offering 1.99% now. Hmmm. Anyway, get an I7 with at least 8G of RAM.

 

[Foxfyre]

Dell usually has 0% financing deals, but it looks like they're offering 1.99% now. Hmmm. Anyway, get an I7 with at least 8G of RAM.

lol Do you know something I don't?

Hrrmmm.....a kid on the rap message board said "get an i7 with at least 8gb of ram"...coincedence, or are you a double agent?

lol.

A buddy of mine says its overkill unless I'm gaming. Soo00oo0o0oo weird.

RAM is so cheap these days though it does make sense to get as much as you can comfortably afford. I have 2 gigs of ram on my PC and it really won't run most of my favorite on line games. But then compared to the cheapest off the rack computer these days, my computer is also under powered. My laptop has the same amount of RAM but twice the power and runs those same games smoothly.

So.....my uninformed conclusion is you need both lots of RAM and as much power as you can comfortably afford. And we'll still need to seriously upgrade or replace these computers within five or six years.

 

[ekrem]

Theoretically, 4 GB is enough. But you have to look at your Motherboard which you will buy, precisely how many slots for RAM the Motherboard has.
Don't buy any system, that fills all your slots with RAM. Like 4 * 1GB RAM. Buy it 2*2 GB or 1*4GB chips.

Then you can always upgrade without throwing away your old RAM.