I had a lot of parts picked out, but then I heard some negative things about them. I also already had questions about the new technologies, and so now I'm just totally confused.
What I want in a new computer is to be able to capture video from internal and external sources, to be able to run multiple programs at once, to transcode and edit video, and to play games online with less lag (possibly even while capturing video from said games). Less important, but still something I value is being able to play the newest games if I should desire, and with high graphics settings.
I have many questions about computer parts and technologies, so I would appreciate any help. Please consider the things I mentioned above as well as the cost of the items.
CPU
I had been considering Intel's Pentium D 820 or one slightly better, but recently have heard and read some discouraging things.
On the positive side, my current computer runs an Intel Pentium 4 chip, and I have been quite happy with its stability. My computer has hardly ever caused me problems. I just want more speed and power.
As well, when comparing the clock speed and cache of Intel's Pentium D line to that of AMD's X2 chips, those that "match" end up favouring Intel as far as cost goes. For a AMD chip with the same numbers as a Pentium D chip, it would cost from $60 to $150 more for the AMD over the Intel chip.
That said, I have heard that AMD actually outpreforms Intel's chips quite a bit.
Also, there are issues in what OSes, hardware, and programs will actually make use of a dual core processor.
As well, I have been told that dual core may not be something very useful to me...
Graphics Card
I have been leaning towards ATI's All-In-Wonder line, and have considered getting one of their newish cards. But then I started hearing how NViDIA greatly outpreforms ATI. While I don't greatly care for performance in games, and I prefer the out-of-the-box video capture capabilities of the All-In-Wonder, I now have some doubts.
Also, do I have to take Graphics Card into consideration when thinking about using multiple monitors? I just got interested because of another post on this forum.
Oh, and I don't care about SLI or Crossfire.
Memory
SDRAM is obsolete, so that leaves pretty much DDR and DDR2. I hear DDR2 has issues with latency, and am thinking that DDR is what suits my needs best. Is that right?
What kinds should I be looking for, and what is the better of Corsair, Kingston, and Micron?
Is it preferable to get one stick of 1GB, or spend a little more and get two sticks of 512MB?
PCI
Okay, so PCI E is the sucessor to PCI, and all graphics cards are moving over to PCI E set up. I get that motherboards are coming with different slots now, so that you can run a PCI E graphic card in the x16 slot, and some expansion cards in the regular PCI slots, but what is with the x1 slot? What is that for? I heard that PCI E doesn't make much of an improvement until x4, so what is the point in this x1 slot? Is there any products that make use of it yet?
Hard Drives
So theres ATA, SATA, and SATAII... well, I found out that SATAII is just a misleading name and that not all of the SATAII products are actually better than SATA products, but that there are indeed some that are better. So I could get a SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATAII) hard drive and compatible mother board. I know the advantages of SATA over ATA, but wonder if SATA is really something I need? I also heard that SATA can be slower than ATA.
Is it worth it to get a HDD that runs at 10,000 RPM over one that runs at 7,200 RPM?
Case / Power Supply / Fans
I've been looking at the rather nice Antec Case, but I have no idea if it is enough. 400W power supply, and I think it comes with 3 to 4 fans.
Windows XP Home or Professional?
I heard that Professional is needed for dual core systems. I have been doing fine with my current computer running Home. Also, what is service pack 2 all about? Is that necessary?
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Ugh, I'm just really lost when it comes to this. I did a bunch of research, but it just gave me more questions. I figured the best way to find answers would be to figure out what I want my computer to do, and then ask the people who are already doing what I want to be doing.
I hope I didn't miss anything. When I first tried posting this, the board said I wasn't logged in and deleted my whole post. So this is version two, from scratch (this time, I'm saving it to Notepad first).
If anyone knows another forum where I could get better answers, let me know. I don't really know of any techie forums and just came here for the reason above.




