Building own PC - Help with Parts!

robert_harper_2000

thanks again guys! was thinking of getting two HDD as I wanted to arrange some kind of backup system... I want the case to be as quite as possible but will research the ones suggested.

I also quite like the idea of connecting a video camera and editing film etc, how would this affect what I need?

CAT-THE-FIFTH

You could always use an external HDD and use a backup programme to write your drive contents onto it!

I think one or two of the PC mags was have a full version of such a programme on their cover discs this month.

jpe20

There's a setup for hard disks called RAID

u would want to run one drive as normal and the second as a "mirror" ie it would write the same data/file to each disk. That way you will have a backup constantly up to date.

As to the recovery process if one disk goes "bad" I am not sure what u have to do to get back to your 2 disc mirror setup. I am sure there are some people here more familiar with RAID than I am.

HTH
Jules

jpe20

Lookup "firewire" .... I assume some video cameras use it so make sure u have those connections available if you need them. There are 2 firewire formats one slow and a new faster one (2x).

niceguyrichy

3 words for you as regards video editing; All In Wonder

I've got an X800 AIW, and the aiw 's are without a doubt the best crossover between gaming and editing on the market.
Link to a great review of the X1800XL AiW >here<.

CAT-THE-FIFTH

Try not to get the X800 series as they do not support Shader Model 3.0!

Also the X1600/X1800/X1900 support hardware video transcoding acceleration which is called Avivo AND significantly decreases the time for such operations.
Beware that the AIW cards may have reduced hardware specs though!!

The newer Nvidia cards also support a similiar use of a garphics card for video transcoding but you need to pay for certain software for that privilege unlike ATI.

robert_harper_2000

hmm... well thanks but basically i want to mess around with a digital video camera is this what that card can do?

lol abit of a newbie at building but keen to have a crack

jpe20

Just spotted this link

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17582681

discusses a video editing rig

Sounds like you need 2GB memory. Mentions a cheaper asus motherboard.

Wait a few days ... it seems that intel are about to slash their prices on 4th June. Seems that the Pentium D940 will be about 80quid!!!!! I would buy this if this news is true!!!! 65nm chip will run cooler/give u more performance.

HTH
Jules

niceguyrichy

CAT-THE-FIFTH wrote:

Beware that the AIW cards may have reduced hardware specs though!!

only just. you'd have to be an experienced game reviewer to notice any difference

robert_harper_2000 wrote:

hmm... well thanks but basically i want to mess around with a digital video camera is this what that card can do?

In a word , yes.

the AiW series is designed specifically with the intention of allowing advanced video editing while retaining the benifits of a regular gf card

CAT-THE-FIFTH

I would look at them carefully though as some cards had severely limited specs!