Computer Upgrade Questions

[Peter Stahl]

I’ve asked about editing DVD’s on a PC before and never upgraded my PC. Couldn't find the $1500+ to spend on one so what I did was to get a Panasonic DVD recorder with a 160 GB hard drive in it. My daughter who has been in the Navy for 4 years and has never been on a ship bought a laptop and is giving me her old PC (that I bought her in 2002 I think) Below is a description of what’s in it. I plan on buying another 512 of Ram and a DVD/RW drive for it. Looked at stats for DVD drives it looks like it would handle one ok. My question are:

What DVD/RW drive would you recommend?
Is it fast enough to edit DVD’s?
Would it handle a TV/ PVR type of card to record TV programs and which do you use or recommend?
I know I need a bigger hard drive, will a SATA type of drive work in it?
What brand of Hard Drive would you recommend or stay away from?

Any other question or comments are more than welcomed. Also any good forums for this type of thing would also be appreciated.


Gateway 500X
Processor Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.0GHz with 512K L2 Advanced Transfer Cache
Memory 512MB DDR SDRAM (1-512MB Module)
Hard Drive 80GB UATA100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Floppy Drive 3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive
CD-ROM 16x/48x DVD-ROM Drive and 24x/10x/40x Recordable ReWriteable CDRW
Certification Energy Star Compliant
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Monitor EV700 17" Color Monitor (15.9" viewable area)
Video 128MB NVIDIA™ GeForce4 Ti-4600G with TV Out and DVI Graphics Accelerator
Keyboard Multi-function Keyboard
Mouse Logitech USB Optical Wheel Mouse and Gateway mouse pad
Case Gateway Micro-Tower Case
Expansion Slots 3 PCI and 1 AGP
Controller Integrated Ultra ATA Controller

[Michael Perata]

Peter

You are not using the DVD/CD when you edit video/audio. The editing program creates a file in RAM/swap file where the editing is done. When you are finished, the system stores the edited file either back into a data file on your hard drive or writes the file to a DVD/CD.

HP has a drive that also prints a label directly on the disc. Look for HP LightScribe if interested. They are priced competitively.

Looking at your system: Your CPU speed is very slow and you should have a least a Gig of RAM. I upgraded my desktop to a dual core Intel 3.0Ghz plus 1Gb memory for less than $400. I also added an ATI FireGL V3100 video card ($250) and this machine now dances with graphic files.

SATA drives are fine, but I would prefer to have on-board support for the drive vs an add-on card. If you upgrade your system, look for a MB with SATA support.

[Chuck Wintle]

I’ve asked about editing DVD’s on a PC before and never upgraded my PC. Couldn't find the $1500+ to spend on one so what I did was to get a Panasonic DVD recorder with a 160 GB hard drive in it. My daughter who has been in the Navy for 4 years and has never been on a ship bought a laptop and is giving me her old PC (that I bought her in 2002 I think) Below is a description of what’s in it. I plan on buying another 512 of Ram and a DVD/RW drive for it. Looked at stats for DVD drives it looks like it would handle one ok. My question are:

What DVD/RW drive would you recommend?
Is it fast enough to edit DVD’s?
Would it handle a TV/ PVR type of card to record TV programs and which do you use or recommend?
I know I need a bigger hard drive, will a SATA type of drive work in it?
What brand of Hard Drive would you recommend or stay away from?

Any other question or comments are more than welcomed. Also any good forums for this type of thing would also be appreciated.


Gateway 500X
Processor Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.0GHz with 512K L2 Advanced Transfer Cache
Memory 512MB DDR SDRAM (1-512MB Module)
Hard Drive 80GB UATA100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Floppy Drive 3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive
CD-ROM 16x/48x DVD-ROM Drive and 24x/10x/40x Recordable ReWriteable CDRW
Certification Energy Star Compliant
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Monitor EV700 17" Color Monitor (15.9" viewable area)
Video 128MB NVIDIA™ GeForce4 Ti-4600G with TV Out and DVI Graphics Accelerator
Keyboard Multi-function Keyboard
Mouse Logitech USB Optical Wheel Mouse and Gateway mouse pad
Case Gateway Micro-Tower Case
Expansion Slots 3 PCI and 1 AGP
Controller Integrated Ultra ATA Controller

Get the extra ram because it will speed up the machine as a whole. As for a DVD/RW drive consider either a Plextor or Toshiba. Both those drives are very good. Consider getting a larger drive ~200-300gig is good. Maxtor Max 10 with a 16 meg cache ram is very fast and suited for video editing. The cpu speed is probably ok for now.

[Jim Becker]

I'm using a 3ghz Dell with 2gb of ram and even then, the shear size of the video files (and I've only been playing so far) makes it work hard. Add as much RAM as you can afford! As to the DVD writer...buy one that supports the current formats for flexiblity. A really great video card makes a big difference, too, as color depth is affected by the memory and processing it can provide.

[Dan Mages]

You can look at Lite-On DVD/CD-RW burners. They go for around $70 at most computer stores. More RAM won't hurt. Corsair makes the best RAM, if you dont mind spending the extra cash. Finally, a SATA drive will require a SATA drive adapter that will take up one of your PCI card slots. Good luck!!

Dan

[Peter Stahl]

Peter

You are not using the DVD/CD when you edit video/audio. The editing program creates a file in RAM/swap file where the editing is done. When you are finished, the system stores the edited file either back into a data file on your hard drive or writes the file to a DVD/CD.

HP has a drive that also prints a label directly on the disc. Look for HP LightScribe if interested. They are priced competitively.

Looking at your system: Your CPU speed is very slow and you should have a least a Gig of RAM. I upgraded my desktop to a dual core Intel 3.0Ghz plus 1Gb memory for less than $400. I also added an ATI FireGL V3100 video card ($250) and this machine now dances with graphic files.

SATA drives are fine, but I would prefer to have on-board support for the drive vs an add-on card. If you upgrade your system, look for a MB with SATA support.

Michael,

Thanks for the reply. The DVD/CD drive will be for burning the DVD when I'm done. I didn't know what was need for a SATA HD, just heard they were a lot faster than a IDE type drive. I was also hoping to use the same CPU and Graphics card.

[Peter Stahl]

Get the extra ram because it will speed up the machine as a whole. As for a DVD/RW drive consider either a Plextor or Toshiba. Both those drives are very good. Consider getting a larger drive ~200-300gig is good. Maxtor Max 10 with a 16 meg cache ram is very fast and suited for video editing. The cpu speed is probably ok for now.

Charles,

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at the Plextor's, they seem to get good reviews. I'm guessing Maxtor is a SATA type drive. Was also thinking 250 gig drive too.

[Peter Stahl]

I'm using a 3ghz Dell with 2gb of ram and even then, the shear size of the video files (and I've only been playing so far) makes it work hard. Add as much RAM as you can afford! As to the DVD writer...buy one that supports the current formats for flexiblity. A really great video card makes a big difference, too, as color depth is affected by the memory and processing it can provide.

Jim,

Thanks for the reply. Is the Video card I listed that slow. I thought this was a pretty good video card?

[Peter Stahl]

You can look at Lite-On DVD/CD-RW burners. They go for around $70 at most computer stores. More RAM won't hurt. Corsair makes the best RAM, if you dont mind spending the extra cash. Finally, a SATA drive will require a SATA drive adapter that will take up one of your PCI card slots. Good luck!!

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at Crucial, supposed to be pretty good too. Corsair is a little cheeper though. Didn't realize that the SATA drive would take up a PCI slot. Are SATA drives that much faster that a IDE type drive?

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the reply. Is the Video card I listed that slow. I thought this was a pretty good video card?

That is a good card. I was trying to be general in my response in case the thread is dredged up "sometime in the future"...

The real key is memory! The fast drive is great during your software manipulation as well as when you go to burn the final product(s). Having your video files on a separate hard disk also can speed things up...it's an upgrade I need to do to my own machine as the raw video files from my Sony HC-90 are, um...very large...shooting in 16:9.

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Peter. The memory you want is made by Micron and marketed by Crucial. It is made in Idaho, USA. I have exclusively bought Crucial/Micron memory since 1995, and never had a failure.

Second, take a look at the Sony "DVDirect" unit, all self contained. It will record directly from your TV, or your VCR, or your camcorder, or your computer. It can burn both 4.7 and 8.5 GB disks. Inputs are analog, S-video, composite video. Did I mention it is made by Sony.

[Peter Stahl]

That is a good card. I was trying to be general in my response in case the thread is dredged up "sometime in the future"...

The real key is memory! The fast drive is great during your software manipulation as well as when you go to burn the final product(s). Having your video files on a separate hard disk also can speed things up...it's an upgrade I need to do to my own machine as the raw video files from my Sony HC-90 are, um...very large...shooting in 16:9.

Jim,

Thanks again. I see what you are saying. I was planning on starting out slow by just editting some anolog TV shows. These digital camcorders are amazing as to what they can do. I remember the first camcorders, they were huge and had to have a really bright light when you ran them.

[Peter Stahl]

Hi Peter. The memory you want is made by Micron and marketed by Crucial. It is made in Idaho, USA. I have exclusively bought Crucial/Micron memory since 1995, and never had a failure.

Second, take a look at the Sony "DVDirect" unit, all self contained. It will record directly from your TV, or your VCR, or your camcorder, or your computer. It can burn both 4.7 and 8.5 GB disks. Inputs are analog, S-video, composite video. Did I mention it is made by Sony.

Ken,

Thanks for the reply. I've only ever bought one stick of memory and it was from Crucial. Thier site said I could add 2 more but when I pulled the cover there was only one open slot. They took the other back no problem.

The Sony DVDirect is nice but I was looking to turn my PC into a PVR so I could record directly to it. Was hoping someone had a setup like this already. That's what so great about this site is you get good advice/reviews about tools and many other things.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, Peter, the new gear really works well in so many conditions. My HC-90 is pretty good in all light levels; I get a little washout in very bright light, but that's because I keep fogetting to install the appropriate filter. For really low light (night) shooting, I can hit a switch and it's amazing what it will do. Although that night setting gets you pretty close to black and white, it has great detail and a lot less grainyness. My only wish would be more flexiblity for microphones...it's about the only thing I've found limiting on this camera and would require a little creativity if I wanted to do something in the shop from an instructional standpoint or something like that. So far, I've been ok on the documentary materials I'm assembling about our adoption journey. The internal mics are pretty sensitive and follow the zoom.

[Keith Foster]

SATA drives are quite a bit faster than IDE drives (the type you have now). The visable difference is in the way they connect to the computers mainboard. The IDE drives use a wide ribbon cable - the same type of cable as used to connect the CD-ROM and DVD drives in your computer. These ribbon cables connect to one of two IDE slots on the mainboard (referred to as the Primary and Secondary IDE Slots).

A SATA drive does not use the ribbon cable, but rather a cable that looks like a very fat and wide phone cable. You can not hook up a SATA drive to a computer with a non-SATA mainboard unless you add a PCI SATA Card to your system. This card will take up one of the PCI slots that you may or may not have available. It is somewhat important to note that you can only hook one SATA drive to a SATA cable (unlike an IDE cable which can have 2 drives attached - a Master and a Slave). As such, if you are buying a SATA PCI Card, you may want to get one that has 4 channels as this will allow you to run 4 drives. You may also wish to get a SATA PCI Card that has RAID capabilities. This will allow you to mirror the drives for additional data protection.

Almost forgot - I've returned several Toshiba DVD-RW's due to failure. As such, I would not recommend them at all. This is my line of work, so I have the oppertunity to see first hand the failure rate in my customers systems. Believe it or not, we have had excellent service from OptiRite Drives - and they are some of the least expensive drives on the market.