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    SSDs do wonders for old systems, as long as the CPU isn't completely awful - like the Celeron in the living room. lol

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      It's a core 2 duo so I think* it'll be reet. Any cpu further back seem not to benefit.

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        Yeah, been thinking I should grab a E4300 or something to shove in the living room PC. They were under a tenner last I saw and my E4400 did me great some years ago now - albeit with a 50% overclock 24/7.

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          Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I need to buy a new computer. I can't face it. But it has to be done. Something with strong specs to be able to run After Effects effortlessly playing with 1080p footage at a minimum. The different combinations have never made buying computers fun.

          Are there just known reputable easy places to go for good prices? Or do I have to shop around for eternity?

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            Windows laptop? What's the budget?

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              I'm replacing a laptop but I'm actually thinking of going for a full desktop. Mainly because my laptop is a big overheating beast of a machine (i7 whatever and hefty specs) and it only ever goes upstairs or downstairs and that's the extent of its portability. Am I right in thinking I'll get better in a desktop or is that no longer true?

              It's going to be a business expense so, while I want it to be good value for money, I'm willing to spend the money for a good one. My laptop must have been in the region of €2000. I'm hoping I won't have to go much higher than that for this. Lower is better but I want something that will do a good job for quite a few years so I'm willing to spend if that's what it takes.

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                Your assumption is correct. The power of a 2000 euro desktop will destroy a similarly priced laptop.

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                  Went out to get a Sonos connect at lunchtime. Came back with a BlueSound node 2. It's kind of a more expensive Sonos (Sevenoaks HiFi had a good salesman). Can't wait to get home and try it out!

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                    Originally posted by Brad View Post
                    Your assumption is correct. The power of a 2000 euro desktop will destroy a similarly priced laptop.
                    Yeah, figured that. Would the likes of Dell or somewhere like that be the best choice for just going through and picking out specs and then expecting a machine that does what it is supposed to at the end of that process?

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                      Sure. Personally I quite like the way Scan seem to be doing things at the moment:

                      scan.co.uk

                      You sort of tell it what you want the PC for and it gives you a starting point and then you tweak it. Maybe start off like that with the scan or dell website and then post your findings here whereupon the nerds can jump in with their advice?

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                        Thanks Brad! That sounds like a good idea. Will do some speccing on those sites and come back for advice.

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                          [MENTION=9465]Brad[/MENTION] Thanks for that site recommendation. You know what they do that is fantastic? They explain what each part does as you choose it. That is so helpful. By contrast, Dell's site is a mess of menus asking what kind of IEEE 1394 I want. Uh... probably some good stuff in those choices but I couldn't make sense of half of them. Does it matter if RAM is 4x4 or 2x8? What's a RAID and do I need a 0 or 1? And so on.

                          But the Scan site gives generally simple choices and explains them.

                          I reckon I would get hammered in the sterling to euro conversion right now though so still need to weigh up options.

                          The one area they don't quite go into are monitors. What's the standard in monitors these days? Is there anything I need to look out for? They don't come with webcams built in, do they? I'm so used to my laptop having it all in one.

                          The other thing I don't see in their configurations is a wifi card of any description. If I don't see one, can I expect it's not there? Or is it so standard these days that it would be there and not even mentioned?

                          By the way, I'm currently looking at (which is out of my price range) is a 3XS Evolve NLE 4K Video Editing Workstation with Intel Core i7 5820K overclocked to 4.2GHz. From the blurb: This Evolve 4K workstation offers a considerable step up in performance from our HD range thanks to the inclusion of a 6-core Intel Core i7 5820K CPU with Hyper-Threading that we overclock to 4.2GHz. This super-fast CPU is partnered with 32GB of 2666MHz Corsair DDR4, an Asus X99-A USB3.1 motherboard, 4GB NVIDIA GTX 980 graphics card, 120GB Intel OS drive, 800GB Intel PCI-E SSD project drive and a 2TB storage drive.

                          But it is expensive when I add the extras and bumped up again when going to euro so I may need to compromise on some of this stuff and go for cheaper options. My configuration ended up at ?2591 which is about €3400. So I'll need to knock a chunk off that at least.
                          Last edited by Dogg Thang; 15-01-2016, 15:57.

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                            Hopefully [MENTION=13863]speedlolita[/MENTION] can help with the monitor question as I think he knows all about that stuff. WiFi tends to not be standard on desktop as PCs as they assume you are plugging in an ethernet cable so you'll have to add that yourself mate.

                            Others will have to confirm this but, I'm pretty sure that, for video editing you may find that some older, cheaper, videocards actually do a better job. The 980 for example is highly tuned for running videogames but it's possible that a lot of what you are paying for are specific features of the card rather than its raw power and raw power *might* be what you need most of for video editing. I'll reiterate that I'm not 100% on this.

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                              1080p at some kind of size around 22~23" is probably what you want. Just make sure to get something IPS I'd say, although even better quality TN are... Acceptable now.

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                                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                                Does it matter if RAM is 4x4 or 2x8?
                                Performance-wise, a tiny bit but nothing you'll notice: 4 banks will go in quad channel mode, 2 only in dual channel. If the motherboard has only four slots and in the future you upgrade the RAM you'll have to replace everything, while with only two slots busy you'll be able to add more without extra expenses.

                                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                                What's a RAID and do I need a 0 or 1? And so on.
                                Redundant Array of Inexepensive Disks. RAID 0 takes 2 or more drives and uses them as one, increasing performance at the cost of security (if one drive fails, you lose all the data); RAID 1 again takes 2 or more drives and uses them as one, but data is mirrored on both drives, so if one fails you still have the second drive.
                                It's much better to invest on a SSD for boot and programs, plus a drive for data, and maybe a third drive for swap files. And don't forget a good backup plan.

                                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                                The one area they don't quite go into are monitors. What's the standard in monitors these days? Is there anything I need to look out for? They don't come with webcams built in, do they? I'm so used to my laptop having it all in one.
                                TN for fast response times, IPS for colour accuracy; recent IPS panels have good response times, making TN useless unless you want 144hz or more as refresh rate or want an inexpensive monitor. I'd say go for a Dell Ultrasharp, they offer a good price:quality ratio. Eizo has some decent gaming monitors with IPS panels, but they are a bit more expensive than Dell. If you want the best colour accuracy possible, Eizo, Nec, Philips, or HP. Be prepared to spend a lot though, some Nec panels can go as high 2000? and won't be good for gaming due to high response times.
                                Most desktop monitors don't come with integrated webcams.

                                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                                The other thing I don't see in their configurations is a wifi card of any description. If I don't see one, can I expect it's not there? Or is it so standard these days that it would be there and not even mentioned?
                                Some motherboard now have wifi built in, but if they don't outright tell you they do, it's just one wired ethernet card.

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