What makes a PC High definition pc.

pjala

Sorry to add, monitor would be around 130, Blu ray player - which is prob not necessary, around 80 quid.

sebastianj

pjala wrote: »

Sorry to add, monitor would be around 130, Blu ray player - which is prob not necessary, around 80 quid.

The question was 'what needs doing to upgrade a pc to HD'. Obviously monitor needs to be 1080p, it is the pc hardware/software in question, ie a technical question leaving cost alone.
seb

computershack

sebastianj wrote: »

Happy New Year every one, I just woke up.
I am looking for a surprise gift for my son who is an animator. Firstly I am confused which processor it should have Intel or AMD, Quad or Dual core then it is the graphics card that probably makes it High Definition. Budget is very low 3-4 hundered max.
Can any one suggest what should I be looking for?
seb

£400? Not a hope in hell. Most of that could be taken up on just the monitor. You're definitely looking at Intel Quad core or I7 and the fastest processor possible. You're going to want gobs of memory, 4-6GB. Graphics card wise it wants to be the nVidia Quadro range for CAD/CAM and design work, not their Geforce ones.

Money_Grabber13579

sebastianj wrote: »

The question was 'what needs doing to upgrade a pc to HD'. Obviously monitor needs to be 1080p, it is the pc hardware/software in question, ie a technical question leaving cost alone.
seb

Ok I'll try and answer the question I think you're asking!

For a computer to be capable of showing HD pictures, basically you need an HD monitor to show them on. (Bit like an HD TV, it's the screen that gives the HD quality)

However, when watching HD movies for example, the computer will need to have a graphics card capable of showing HD and enough processing power as well. Otherwise, you'll get jumpy movements in the picture. Hard drive probably not as important since most are a fair size to begin with and it's easy to add another via USB. You're also going to need plenty of memory (RAM) as well for such activities.

pjala

sebastianj wrote: »

The question was 'what needs doing to upgrade a pc to HD'. Obviously monitor needs to be 1080p, it is the pc hardware/software in question, ie a technical question leaving cost alone.
seb

HD can mean two things, HD as in TV hd which is 1080p, or HD as in digital output to a computer screen which is high definition. A lot of reasonably priced graphics cards support HD output from a Blueray player, hence HD.
Also, the choice of motherboards is a key, a good quality board enables you to expand your cpu power, graphics power at a later date.
Graphics processors come on boards that enable you to link two boards together now, i.e. SLI (scalable link interface). Your motherboard to support this would need 2 PCI-e interfaces. You would buy one graphics card now, and the same later on - almost doubling your graphics capabilities.
Memory can be DDR2 or DDR3, you could buy the cheaper variety now, and then upgrade at a later date.
Processors can be duo or quad, Intel or AMD - the AMD phenom II processors are pound for pound better than than the Intel CPU's, AMD also have the capability of being "overclocked", i.e. made faster for no more money.
The PSU has to be powerful enough, 650W, but from a good make, to support the Graphics card and multi processor cpu.
I have a "cheap" case, but one that came with three very quiet large fans, to keep the innards cool.
The disk, you may not need a large disk, but if you stream HD to an HD tv, you would need a fast and large disk. Again for animations, this may not be so critical - as you would be rendering (using cpu power) not creating massive files on the fly.

If you buy something that is quality, and upgradeable, your son would be able to build on this as time permitted.

BillScarab

You can overclock Intel processors too. In fct Im writing this on a Core 2 Duo with a 50% overclock.

siliconbits

SebastianJ, if your son is an animator (which I suspect means that he uses a lot of 3D software like Truespace, 3D Studio Max or Maya), then I would suggest that you have a look on Ebay for professional workstations like this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-Precision-690-2-x-Intel-Xeon-CPU-8GB-RAM_W0QQitemZ150401088156QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item23049a7a9c#ht_804wt_958

sebastianj

Thanks a lot every one, I am going to experiment with different set up and see what I achieve, did not want to get my hands dirty and spend money for no reason. I have an HD tv and will use it as a monitor. Whether I can download and see HD movies on my tv is a different thing.
seb

Donnie

sebastianj wrote: »

Thanks a lot every one, I am going to experiment with different set up and see what I achieve, did not want to get my hands dirty and spend money for no reason. I have an HD tv and will use it as a monitor. Whether I can download and see HD movies on my tv is a different thing.
seb

Is the PC for you or is it for your 'son'? :rolleyes:

If you just want to watch HD films on a HD monitor, a £25 graphics card will do it. But what is the spec of your existing PC? Are you looking to update it?

JasX

This link might help

http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp

http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/system-requirement.jsp

also worth noting the requirements for playing a Bluray disk movie (outlined above) will be somewhat higher than just streaming HD content from somewhere like BBC iPlayer and/or iTunes etc (which will need a much lower spec).