Advice for Windows 7 for a DIY computer build + other DIY questions?

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
Does anybody know the best way to get Windows 7 for a DIY build?

I'm dreadfully overdue for a PC upgrade... My current PC was awesome back in '04, but it can't handle anything HD that I throw at it now.

My priority is value for the dollar... with the emphasis on economy. I don't want to build another high-end machine, but rather something that's simply "soundly capable"... i.e. stable, and works, even if it's not the fastest machine. Most of the threads I've been reading on here sound like guys have gone all out. I've been down that road twice in the past, and I can't do that again... especially seeing that 2 years after my bad-ass rig was done, it was old tech.

One of the things that has caught my eye is the Dell Vostro 460 w/ i5 2400 sandy bridge w/ 4gb ram (will upgrade to 12 or 16) for $500 WITH a 23" 1080p IPS monitor and Win 7 64bit. This box has room for upgrades, but no OC stuff (which I'm not interested in anyway).

The way I see it... that gets me Win 7 in an ok box, with intel's newest tech processor... for $300 (valuing the monitor at $200).

Going this route means eventual upgrades, but the box has room for ram and a pci-x 16 slot for a gpu.

This seemed to be a dirt cheap way to get started.

Is there anything wrong with going this route... at this price... or is there a board/processor/win7 combo so that win7 isn't $150+ alone? :huh:
 
not sure your budget, and it's not a DIY, but I recently discovered these folks:
http://digitalstormonline.com/

They've got outstanding ratings on reseller ratings and great reviews, and their prices are quite competitive for the apparent quality and attention to the build.

You could get something starting around a grand with 64bit windows 7 included... you can remove many of the components as well (i don't want a video card, or I don't need an optical drive, or any hard drives, etc)... good customization options. choose "expert" mode so you can see the full range of options for each selection.
 
DadinWestchester said:
You don't want i5 for editing video. Has to be i7 assuming you are editing. Or is this just a MSWord processor?
Here is the VideoGuys DIY guide to editing.
http://www.videoguys.com/Guide/C/DI...ows+7/0xe07f65920351fbf3ed8f9892355dfda0.aspx
Win7 Pro is $129 oem at Newegg.
Click to expand...

Dad, Thank you for the tip on OEM from Newegg. I did some research on 7 Home Premium vs. 7 Pro... and I don't see the advantage for Pro, for a single machine home environment user. They are both 64 bit now, and Pro is more geared for networking and using a machine for projection, etc. Can you give me a reason why Pro is better then Home Premium for video editing work? I could find no advantage in comparing them. Can you tell me what the advantage is? And if you don't mind... I realize the i7 is a 25% faster processor then an i5 (according to the charts anyway)... but aside from the processor being significantly faster... is there another reason? (In another words, if I did do that Dell deal... it's an extra $190 to go i7 over i5... and to my ears that sounds like i5 + a "free" upgraded gpu later.)


Jason, my budget is significantly less then what Digital Storm shows for an entry level editing machine... like... WAY less. I'd like to stay as far under $1K as possible, with the realization that I may have to work to get something capable close to that price... and also with the understanding that this machine won't be a powerhouse, but that's OK. Two DIY builds ago... I had 800mhz rambus and all sorts of other stuff that had me on the cutting edge... and within 2 years of that, the premium I paid way back then, for RT editing w/ Raptor... was null... then after that... it came time to upgrade again... and again I maxxed out my budget... that 2nd DIY build (specifically for video editing) had the best video card I could afford, etc. etc. Well... that PC did hang on for a long time... that was in '04 to '05... through the course of the upgrade, but at this point I just want to get a machine together that's capable of editing HD video "reasonably"... What is unbearable for you, will be acceptable for me.

This is where the i7 vs. i5 issue comes up again. For a "from scratch" DIY build... the difference isn't much, but IF (and that's a big IF)... that Dell deal is a reasonable place to resume producing video (only in HD finally)... I'd be happy with that... again, adding ram, and eventually a better gpu + ps to power it. This would be a cheap way to get into a sandy bridge processor (which video guys says you don't want... unless you don't plan to have i/o hardware... and the only i/o hardware that I'd eventually have is a gpu... which... I don't think is what they're talking about.) So the gist is... that Dell route is a "dirt cheap" way to get back into it.
 
Once you decide on the specs you want, take a look at avadirect.com. They did a build for me for about 5% more than I could of done myself using really good components. They are one of the highest rated builders out there. Below is an example that I came up so you could have an idea about pricing using their configurator. IMO Dell is ok. I used a Dell Optiplex for editing with Adobe 6.5 for many years. However, when I graduated from SD to HD I wanted a system that didn't use proprietary components and was higher quality.


[TD="class: tdp, colspan: 2"] DESKTOP PC Core™ i7 2-way CrossFire™ 24GB Performance Custom Computer System [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"] $1288.30 [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"] [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"][/TD]

[TD="class: tdp, colspan: 5"]
  • ANTEC Dark Fleet DF-10 Black Mid-Tower Case, w/ Window, ATX, No PSU, Steel
  • CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series Power Supply, 650W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
  • ASUS P6X58-E PRO, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, 6 Gb/s /2, USB 3.0 /2, HDA, BT, GbLAN, FW /2, ATX, Retail
  • INTEL Core™ i7-950 Quad-Core 3.06GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
  • MUSHKIN 6GB (3 x 2GB) Blackline PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
  • SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon™ HD 5750 710MHz, 1GB GDDR5 4640MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, 2x DVI+HDMI+DP, Retail
  • WESTERN DIGITAL 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5002AALX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
  • WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
  • RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
  • SONY AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner
  • SABRENT CRW-UINB Black 65-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, Internal USB
  • MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM
  • WARRANTY Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
[/TD]
 
Last edited:
Mark Williams said:
Once you decide on the specs you want, take a look at avadirect.com. They did a build for me for about 5% more than I could of done myself using really good components. They are one of the highest rated builders out there. Below is an example that I came up so you could have an idea about pricing using their configurator. IMO Dell is ok. I used a Dell Optiplex for editing with Adobe 6.5 for many years. However, when I graduated from SD to HD I wanted a system that didn't use proprietary components and was higher quality.


[TD="class: tdp, colspan: 2"] DESKTOP PC Core™ i7 2-way CrossFire™ 24GB Performance Custom Computer System [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"] $1288.30 [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"] [/TD]
[TD="class: tdp"][/TD]

[TD="class: tdp, colspan: 5"]
  • ANTEC Dark Fleet DF-10 Black Mid-Tower Case, w/ Window, ATX, No PSU, Steel
  • CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series Power Supply, 650W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
  • ASUS P6X58-E PRO, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, 6 Gb/s /2, USB 3.0 /2, HDA, BT, GbLAN, FW /2, ATX, Retail
  • INTEL Core™ i7-950 Quad-Core 3.06GHz, LGA1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
  • MUSHKIN 6GB (3 x 2GB) Blackline PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
  • SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon™ HD 5750 710MHz, 1GB GDDR5 4640MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, 2x DVI+HDMI+DP, Retail
  • WESTERN DIGITAL 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5002AALX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
  • WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
  • RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
  • SONY AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner
  • SABRENT CRW-UINB Black 65-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, Internal USB
  • MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM
  • WARRANTY Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
[/TD]
Click to expand...

Sourcing Newegg...

DF-Case (don't need, have all aluminum Lian Li)... $90
Corsair PS... $95
P6X58-E Pro... $250
Intel Core i7-950... $260
Mushkin 6GB... $58
Sapphire... $120
WD 500 Black... $60
WD 1tb Black... $90
SONY AD-7261S... $22
SABRENT CRW-UINB... $15
Microsoft Home 7 64bit... $100
(no package warranty... and must build system)
Total to do through Newegg... $1160.

Hey they are pretty reasonable... however... I am getting out of my comfort zone with a system such as that. I don't make my money editing video... but it's my creative outlet, and where I feel the most satisfaction. My current rig can't handle anything I shoot with now... even just for playing around. We used to say something to the effect of... every year you can get a computer that's twice as good, for half the money. I thought there was an official "murphy's law" type of thing like that... and based on how overdue my PC is for an upgrade... I assumed that a bargain priced Vostro with punched up ram and gpu would meet my "needs" if not my wants.

I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out here... if one man's "world of difference" equals another man's "yeah it's a little better"... OR... if we're not talking about boot times and other things I don't care about... but rather, the difference in the PC crashing or freezing vs. working great.

That's what this is about for me... not outright performance, but rather, bullsh*t avoidance... I can deal with slower performance, but not freezes and crashes.

(I've read... and re-read... the videoguys site, as I've done since my Canopus Raptor RT rig back in '02... The only thing I have against that videoguys site, is I don't think they update their advice often enough... they have newer dates for revisions, but I don't notice much editing of the previous content... i.e. they BOLDLY discourage the sandy bridge tech... and then in a couple other places they seem to concur that it's a potentially good choice so long as you don't add significant i/o hardware.)
 
Here's one thing I forgot. What ever computer you get make sure it's componets are compatible with your NLE software. When I got my HD editing computer I made sure it would work with Edius and the Spark HDMI output card. The guys on the Grass Valley forum were very helpful in this respect with motherboard, processor and memory recommendations.
 
Big difference, I5 is not multi-threaded, I7 is. If you don't need overclocking the i7 2600 locked version (not K) is cheaper. New Z68 chipset mobo with Virtu video support, no need for video card to start with. What software do you want to use and what will be your most common source file formats? AVI? AVCHD? HDV? The Dell is dirt cheap though, not a bad buy at all. I've never cared for Dells for any kind of media or graphics intensive work, they tend to have a funky bios. But i do like their monitors. I7 2600 and 16GB ram would work well even without a fancy GPU.
 
Razz16mm said:
Big difference, I5 is not multi-threaded, I7 is. If you don't need overclocking the i7 2600 locked version (not K) is cheaper. New Z68 chipset mobo with Virtu video support, no need for video card to start with. What software do you want to use and what will be your most common source file formats? AVI? AVCHD? HDV? The Dell is dirt cheap though, not a bad buy at all. I've never cared for Dells for any kind of media or graphics intensive work, they tend to have a funky bios. But i do like their monitors. I7 2600 and 16GB ram would work well even without a fancy GPU.
Click to expand...

By not multi-threaded do you mean no hyper-threading? Because the i5 line does have multiple cores; which gives you more of any performance boost anyway (than hyper-threading).
 
Hmm... that's something to think about too I guess.

I hate to admit it (even though I already have)... but I've been working in SD with my old P4 rig for years... and I'm definitely behind on that end of things. For my own projects, all I'll be shooting with (for now) is t2i and/or GH13... and I'm due for an NLE upgrade as well... my old versions are a couple behind, so it's starting fresh there too. (that's another story... prob. be able to get academic on that)... but I've been editing with Vegas, and I've also got plenty of time in the old Premiere. I assumed (based on reading the forums here) that I'll most likely end up in a full CS5 suite. (not happy about returning to Premiere, but it seems to be the best choice for now... frankly, I wish Vegas 10 were considered a worthy competitor to Premiere... I love Vegas... it's easy-breezy... I was slow in Premiere, but fast in Vegas).

So... short answer? I expect Premiere.

I appreciate your input on the Dell deal... both positive and negative. I realize that going the Dell route wouldn't be luxurious... by tech standards, but I'm trying to figure out what's the best bang for the buck.

I still haven't figured out what board Dell uses, but I know it's the h67 (p67?) chipset... and it has 4 pci + 1 pci 16x for a GPU. This machine comes with a 350w PS, but it's standard ATX, so it would be easy to swap it out for $50-100 (depending on the PS option) later (to accommodate a higher draw GPU).

For that matter... there are also a lot of GPU options in the GTX 430 range... which wouldn't even require a new PS... and those cards are only about $60... and cuda/fermi capable with 1gb on board (but only 96 cores, vs. higher end cards that have 300+ cores)... still... I thought this may be another economical way to go about it. Putting more into the processor and less into the GPU.

With the current Dell deal... you can get a p67 board w/ expandability... with an i7 2600 (not K)... 4gb Ram... dvd rom + burner... 500gb drive... win home 7 64bit (not pro)... AND a 23" IPS monitor (I keep reading that IPS blows away normal monitors, is this true?)... all for $757. Since the monitor is supposed to be $280 alone (even if we call it $200)... and the i7 2600 is $300... that means you get everything else for $257. (how is that not a total bargain? No. Really... Please tell me!)

What I had planned to do is get the i5 2400... and that brings the net cost down to about $510... (we're talking "peanuts" here, right? I mean for the parts involved... and then just add the GPU later... add some ram now and later.)

I thought this may be a bargain priced way to address a problem that's been long overdue for me... and editing. The reason I'm posting here and asking you guys about it... is I'd like to think that of all the places I could go to get input on a video editing computer... this would have to be the best place for the answer :)
 
6 core amd,
8gb of ram
1tb hardrive,
gtx 460,
800w psu all for under $800 with windows 7 and mercury hack, premiere cs5.

handles like a champ!
 
You also want to make sure you use a nvidia cuda capable video card to take advantage of the Mercury engine in Premiere. Seems the GTX 460 does.
 
You can spend weeks asking for opinions and playing with configurations. Your absolute best bet is to simply set a maximum amount of money you're willing to spend and buy the best gear that falls into that budget...

Regardless which computer you get, it will be outdated in a year but I think it's important to get something which serves your needs TODAY and worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

Set a budget and stick to it. You can put together a decent desktop system for around $1000 these days which will be several times faster than what you have now.
 
I just bought one of these computers of ebay. works like a charm w/HD. not cutting edge, but you can be up and running for a fraction of the cost of a ground up build.
eBay #: 280714629457
 
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