AMD Downgrade HELP! / video editing/ light gaming/ School

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 20, 2009

So after reading this site I wanted to build a computer and I got carried away!!! This is costing around 900 with rebates but I don't think I need all that.

I am mainly looking to play Sims 3, video editing, and school work.

ALSO: DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN CHANGE MY AVATAR? Thanks!

CPU (combo 240)
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.182106
Mobo
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

GPU (combo 255)
SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire
Memory
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1600LV6GK

Operating System and Hard dive (combo 184)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit for System Builders - OEM
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.182635

Dvd drive (25)
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 (25)

Case and Power Supply Combo (130)
APEVIA ATX-AS680W-BK 680W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.184612

OTHER COSTS
Monitor (150)
Keyboard/mouse (25)

t85us · Apr 20, 2009

hi !

the only problem will be the windows. 32bit os simply won't see more than 4GB of ram (2^32 = 4294967296 bytes, that's 4GB ; and you won't see all the 4G because windows will use another 500M for the system or i don't know what, so only 3.2..3.5GB will be available). just upgrade to 64bit and you will be cool

with the avatar : click on your name on the upper right to enter to your profile details, and click "Associated picture" on the very left of the screen. i think that's how to change the avatar.

cheers

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 20, 2009

Hey thanks I will give that a try.l

But you didn't answer part of my question. What can i downgrade in this because it is costing too much and I don't need all those specs.

Thanks again,

shabodah · Apr 20, 2009

Video Editing is pretty vague, what specifically are you attempting to do? This would be by far the most intense use you list.

IH8U · Apr 20, 2009

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 20, 2009

You forgot to add the Monitor which is 150 so that brings me to around 950 before rebate/promo with your set up.

What about the AMD 2x, how much older is it from the Phenom 2 2.8gig? Can I upgrade my cpu later or will I be stuck?

AND BY VIDEO eDITING I was refering to Final Cut Pro, Photo shop, after effects etc.

shabodah · Apr 20, 2009

For your needs, these might not be the best parts, but they are great parts for your application and budget:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187032
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135085
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103648

If it becomes available again, you could even use this CPU instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

Adobe is working on adding nVidia Cuda support to their products, which would help in editing quite a bit if it does happen.

Hope that helps!

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 21, 2009

Thanks I will look into that,

And about CPU, i know the most current is best, but can't I get Phenom 1 or something older and upgrade later?

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 21, 2009

And that Nivida card, I thought AMD could only run on ATI?

shabodah · Apr 21, 2009

AMD systems do not require ATI graphics cards. The motherboard I listed is a nVidia chipset as well. This will cause any issues. The quad and tri-core Phenom 1 chips are alright, but each core runs significantly slower than the Phenom 1 based X2 I listed. If you're shopping for an AMD chip, even for those of us who do not do much overclocking, the only chips worth looking at are the 7750 x2 Black Edition, the 710 x3, the 720 x3, or the 810, 920, or 940 quad-cores. IMHO, the 710 and 720 are the best buys today, but with the 955 being released shortly, things will continue to change daily.

WR2 · Apr 21, 2009

about ~$518 before any rebates
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz CPU $60
ASUS M4A78 Plus 770 Motherboard $80
G.SKILL HK 4GB DDR2 800 $43
POWERCOLOR AX4650 512MD2 Radeon HD 4650 512MB $61 $20 rebate
WD Caviar SE 320GB HDD $50
LG 22x DVD Burner $24
Antec NSK6580B Case & Earthwatts 430w PSU $100
Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit $100

plus your choice of monitor & keyboard/mouse

Are you committed to building your own system? For around $600 you can get a Dell Studio Desktop with C2D E7400 2.8Ghz CPU, 3GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and Dell 19" monitor. The only missing item is a video card upgrade from the GMA 4500 built in graphics and you could do that yourself with the video card I listed above.

specialk90 · Apr 22, 2009

What program do you use for video editing and what video format do you edit?

If you edit AVCHD, you will need as many cores and as fast a CPU as you can get. My quad-core Intel Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz cannot keep up with AVCHD which is the most common format in consumer camcorders. I use Premiere Pro CS4 and this program works 50-600% faster with 8GB or more vs only 4GB.

Have you looked at TomsHardware CPU charts? Some of the Dual-core Intel CPUs are faster than the older AMD quad-core CPUs.

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 23, 2009

Hi again,

I plan on using Final Cut pro, or Adobe after effects, photoshop, not totally sure yet but I do have an external hard drive with firewire port.

Let me know your suggestions.

And for games it will mainly be the sims 3. Thanks!

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 23, 2009

WR2 :

Hi WR,

You know that is a very good point, I could probably just buy one for around that price, but I am also thinking in terms of future. A lot of these are one time buys and I can always upgrade my home PC in the future. Plus it is the satisfaction of building something that you made I think that would be cool.

Two questions, 1. That case you got there is pretty expensive, could I use these instead?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156223
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156202

And do I need a power supply?

For keyboard and mouse I am looking at under 35 bucks, and for monitor like 17-19 inches will do.

specialk90 · Apr 23, 2009

Final Cut Pro is only available for the Mac system, but Adobe Premiere Pro is just as good if not better. If you plan on using After Effects and Photoshop, then Premiere Pro is much better due to the integration between Adobe programs.

Also, for video editing/compositing programs in general, and Premiere Pro and After Effects in particular, you want as much Ram and as fast a CPU with as many cores as you can afford. I know you want to spend less money, but getting a quad-core Intel Q8400 based PC with 8GB of ram will make your video editing life so much easier and QUICKER. I use Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop CS4 for a living and these programs literally feed on ram and CPU cores.

Here is a quad-core Intel PC Q8400 with 8GB Ram. I selected the Zalman 9500 CPU heatsink+fan so you can overclock your CPU to at least 3.2GHz from 2.66GHz. You should be able to take it up to 3.4GHz no problem. Due to overclocking, you would need ram faster than DDR2-800 which is why I chose DDR2-1066. The 1066 ram is only a few dollars more. So, with $30 added for the case, the total of my build comes to

7200.12 500GB + Vista Premium x64 Combo = $20 off
Gigabyte 4670 - $30 MIR
Q8400 CPU + OCZ Ram Combo = $10 off

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13166468

Before MiR = $703 after MiR = $673

A 19 or 20" monitor should run no more than $150.

The only other thing I recommend getting is another 500GB drive to run Raid to improve overall speed, booting up speed, application speed and to protect your data. If this is something that you want, let me know and I can explain exactly what I'm talking about and step-by-step instructions on how to set it up. (FYI, this can only be done using an Intel based motherboard. It is rather simple and only takes a few minutes to setup).

WR2 · Apr 23, 2009

Yes you need a power supply. The system won't run without one.
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W $40 a/r would be a pretty good choice. It's as powerful as many average 500W PSUs, has a PCI-e connector for video card, 80 PLUS Certified efficiency and 6x SATA power connectors for DVD drives and HDDs.

If you're looked over the cases you linked and have read the NewEgg customer comments and still like those cases they'd probably be OK.

k90 has recommended an extra 4GB of RAM and an extra HDD. Those might be examples of what you could do for future upgrades.
The dual core CPU might not be as speedy finishing large and complex After Effects or Photoshop projects as a quad core but it will still get the job done.

WR2 · Apr 23, 2009

specialk90 :

Why do you think only Intel motherboards can do RAID?
Im pretty sure the AMD and Nvidia motherboards (plus Via and SIS) also have RAID options.

shabodah · Apr 23, 2009

Again, If Adobe follows through on their promise, The next Adobe updates will included CUDA compatability, so, no matter what processor you choose, the graphics card would be a much faster way of accomplishing your task.

specialk90 · Apr 23, 2009

WR2. I'm talking about Matrix Raid and being able to create 2 different Raid arrays on one set of drives. For her, a Raid 0 for OS, Apps, scratch disk and media cache and Raid 1 for important data.

Shabodah, CUDA support in Adobe Media Encoder won't be available until at least CS5 is released, which is about 12 months+ away based on their 18 month life-cycle. Adobe has a deal right now with Nvidia and Rapid-HD, who makes the plug-in allowing Adobe to use Nvidia's $1600 CX card to encode. The plug-in costs a lot of money and so does the CX Quadro, so Adobe won't be releasing this plug-in for general usage. Also, if and when this pulg-in is available, it will run $300-500+ as all really great plug-ins do for Premiere. For CS3, the AVCHD plug-in was $800; so, don't expect anything special from Adobe until their next major release. I should also mention that the plug-in only works for encoding to only 1 type of format, H.264. If you wanted to encode to Blu Ray H.264, you still use the old way. Same goes for every other format; so, its not really something so great at the moment.

ohiou_grad_06 · Apr 23, 2009

Also, if you want the 4850 on the video card, here's one for 100 after a 20 dollar rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824

In your case, I say grab the 710 x3 perhaps, the cheaper 4850, cheaper case, like the pick on the cheaper cases, as long as they will fit the card I think your good there. Stay away from the ECS board, Gigabyte is a great brand for cheap.

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 24, 2009

Okay folks, please understand I don't need state of the art fastest computer on earth. You are all really advanced and I need something a little more basic. I can always add more memory later so no need. I function off of a AMD Turion 2 with 256 GPU and 512mb memory (yes I said mb) so a 2 quad is enough for me and I am looking at the 2.7 Kuma *(or is it kuda, I have no clue)

Special90 - I have heard of many people using PC to use Mac products, I am not sure how but it is def. doable. P.S, thanks so much for the wishlist! I didn't know newegg could do that, and thanks for taking the time to make me one, but I do think it is a little too powerful for what I need

WR2 - I agree, I think Special90 is very advanced, I just graduated college and this is not my career but a hobby I would like to freelance at. And I want to do/use what I can know, I can always buy more things later and you understand that.

OhioGrad - I almost went to school there! The 4850 is 100 bucks, the 46something i dont remember is like 75/70 ish after combo, is it worth the extra 30 dollars?

P,s new egg has 17 inch monitors for 100

Thanks again for all your input,

ohiou_grad_06 · Apr 24, 2009

4670 can be found for about 70 bucks, decent card. For a 17 inch or 19 inch monitor, the 4670 should run things fine.

yoyojam55 · Apr 24, 2009

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=13179848
Plus http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.181606 and http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail?sku=8978695&SourceID=k26451
Comes to about $570 after rebates.

Possible upgrades:
e7400 (+50 plus a different motherboard or combo) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206&Tpk=e7400
q8200 (+95 plus a different motherboard or combo) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115055&Tpk=q8200
WD6401AALS (+20) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319&Tpk=wd%20640gb%2032mb
Aftermarket Cooler (+40) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
4850 (+50)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125244
Gigabyte P45 (+65 plus a different CPU or combo) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128368

KIMBERLY_from_WISCONSIN · Apr 24, 2009

YoyoJam, I am not interested in Intel, I can get AMD much cheaper.

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=9875345

Please check that out and let me know what you guys think! With a 100 dollar monitor that should come out to 550 w/o operating system.

1. Do all those parts work together?
2. What are the chances I can get a bootleg copy of Xp or Vista?
3. What do I need to access Wifi internet???

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP GUYS!

yoyojam55 · Apr 24, 2009

Yours is not cheaper, mine is $570 but it comes with a 22 inch monitor AND Vista. Your build also has a horrible Power Supply. You would need to get a different one. As far as pirating goes
1. We don't support that here
2. It would be more trouble than it's worth.
For wifi, you need a PCI card such as the one here http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/latest/index-landing.aspx

AMD Downgrade HELP! / video editing/ light gaming/ School

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