Recommend me a new computer ... Advent SQ-9204?

grey.squirrel

grey.squirrel

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After quite a lot of searching I have settled on the following:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=916744&category_oid=

I will be using the computer mainly for video and photo editing but will be installing a graphics card for gaming too. Can anyone spot and major flaws or recommend me another computer for around £350 (flexible to 400 at a push).

I've had enough of my laptop and need a desktop now so any suggestions would be greatfully received.

Cheers everyone.
 
Do you have your own monitor? the one in your link doesn't come with one at £350. Apart from that it looks fine, with the addition of a gfx card.
 
Can you elaborate on "video editing"? :)

Personally I can't work with less than 8gb RAM any more on a quad core using AfterEffects/Premiere/Edius, but I'm working with footage up to 50p 1080HD. Also, you might want to look a little more deeply into the on-board graphics card. Depending on the extent to which you may want to edit your footage in post, you might want to pick up something that gives your editing software some kind of hardware acceleration to speed things up and give you better realtime feedback.

I decided to not go to the expense of an RT.X2 (it doesn't help for the kind of things I do in AfterEffects, but a good OpenGL card does), but I do use a Matrox Parhelia card so that I can output to an actual TV (through either AfterEffects, Premiere or even Photoshop) to better check my action & title safe areas.

After buying more RAM and a graphics card, it may in fact work out cheaper to just build your own, and you'd probably get a lot more hard drive space too (which is kinda essential with video really).

This is why I always build my PCs myself.
 
Thanks for the input. At the moment, I'm working with 720p 30fps (all my 500d does) but the more I get back into it the more I'll need. I have been considering building it myself as I can't seem to find anymore than 4GB ram without going over the top. I realise I have a low budget but the clips I edit are only going to be around 5 minutes max. Though I have been looking into adding some 3D work too so I'd be adding a dedicated GPU.

I guess I'll see how much it would be to make it on my own. Thanks for the links Kaouthia but I think that may be overkill ;) lol.
 
staples cq 5236 runs .1 faster on website at 346
 
If you are planning to try out some 3D in the future or some more intensive post production/motion graphics with the video (and trust me, once you get into the 3D, you *will* be playing around with motion tracking and trying to put 3D objects into your footage, even if just to see how it's done), I'd definitely go with building your own system.

Start off small, check out all the different online retailers like Novatech, Overclockers, etc. Most offer some kind of free shipping deal on orders, so I shop around to get the components at the best prices for each, rather than ordering everything from one place.

That way at least you know you can easily add to it in the future as the demand requires and budget allows. For 400 quid, you can build a pretty nice system to get you started.
 
Kaouthia said:
If you are planning to try out some 3D in the future or some more intensive post production/motion graphics with the video (and trust me, once you get into the 3D, you *will* be playing around with motion tracking and trying to put 3D objects into your footage, even if just to see how it's done), I'd definitely go with building your own system.

Start off small, check out all the different online retailers like Novatech, Overclockers, etc. Most offer some kind of free shipping deal on orders, so I shop around to get the components at the best prices for each, rather than ordering everything from one place.

That way at least you know you can easily add to it in the future as the demand requires and budget allows. For 400 quid, you can build a pretty nice system to get you started.
Click to expand...

You read my mind, I've already started looking into boujou and PFTrack lol.

I shall put together a list over Christmas and see what I can do myself then. The original plan was to buy a basic system and upgrade as and when I need but I might just jump in at the deep end. Thanks for the replies.
 
Haviing had 2 Advent PCs and 1 Advent laptop, I'd say avoiid it like the plague. Advent is PC World's own brand. They can seem temptingly well spec'd but build quality and internal components leave a lot to be desired.

If you go into PC World with no preconceived brand ideas, staff will always nudge you towards Advent, but I think you'd be well advised to choose a more respected brand name.
 
grey.squirrel said:
You read my mind, I've already started looking into boujou and PFTrack lol.
Click to expand...

See, I knew it, lol.

I've had a bit of a play with Boujou but not tried PFTrack yet. Another option you might want to look into is Syntheyes. It's a MUCH cheaper option, but also very good.

The thing I like most about Syntheyes is that it'll let you track footage and then bring it straight into AfterEffects with the least amount of hassle (but also supports Maya, 3DS MAx, C4D and many other 3D apps). AE will directly import a Maya Ascii file (exported from Syntheyes) directly as a 3D scene with camera information, pre-keyed camera motion path and null objects as 3D tracking points in your scene to which you can align & parent objects (text, images, even video footage).

For example, you want to superimpose your own footage onto the screen of a tracked television, laptop, mobile device or whatever in tracked footage. It's a bit more accurate than using 2D motion tracking & corner-pin method directly within AE. Obviously it adds time and a few extra steps to the whole process, but the final result is often worth it.

That can be done with Boujou too, although not quite as easily - when I had a play with it, there were some scaling & slight file compatibility issues, but it was quite a while ago, so it may be ok now with the latest Boujou & CS4.
 
OK, so I'm taking the plunge and decided to build my own PC.

I have a couple of real quick questions: I'm gonna try and get above 4GB ram so I need 64bit Windows 7 but are there any hardware requirements? i.e. specific CPUs or am I good with pretty much any?

Also, will most of the hardware be plug and play or am I gonna have to mess around in the BIOS as I've not much of a clue about that.
 
I'm editing 24p 1080HD using a 3.06 intel processor and 4gb RAM, also manipulating 3d objects in Motion and having no problem whatsoever. sure I'm sure 8gb RAM would be better but I don't have any problems with 4gb on my iMac.
 
OK, here's my list. Can anyone see anything that I may need extra? I'm assuming most the necessary cables come with so I don't need to buy anything else. If anyone can point out the mistakes I'd greatly appreciate it, or give me a reason why this would not work on a 64bit Windows 7 setup.

AMD Quad Core Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz Socket AM3 - Retail

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£99.99 £99.99


Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G Micro ATX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

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£54.77 £54.77


Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit

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£60.86 £60.86


Novatech Iris Tower Case - Black -NO PSU

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£14.99 £14.99


Akasa 12cm Silent Cooling Fan

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£4.99 £4.99


Optiarc AD-5240S 24X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer DVD-RAM SATA Black - OEM

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£15.99 £15.99


Novatech 54Mbps 802.11g Wireless LAN PCI Card

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£11.92 £11.92


Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD - OEM

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£70.42 £70.42


Novatech 450W ATX Power Supply for AMD and Intel Motherboards 20Pin + 4Pin

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£12.16 £12.16


Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 16MB Cache Hard Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM

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£29.49 £29.49
 
grey.squirrel said:
OK, here's my list.
Click to expand...
Looks like a good list to me. The only things I'd change, and this is just a personal thing, for the sake of an extra £2-3, I'd probably go with the Samsung DVD-RW drive rather than a brand nobody's ever heard of.

The other thing I'd do is seriously rethink the power supply (or make sure it's on your list of future upgrades).

The quality of the power supply can make big differences to the performance and stability of your system (especially if you plan on leaving it rendering scenes overnight while you're asleep - the slightest little waver in power could cause your system to crash and render your work, no pun intended, useless and having to start the process all over again). Generally the heavier the PSU, the better quality it is (due to larger heatsinks to disperse the heat, and give more reliable current). Power supplies also degrade over time, so you want to make sure you buy one that's going to still provide enough power 2 or 3 years from now.

I've always been a big fan of the Thermaltake and Antec power supplies. Usually I'll go for the Thermaltake ones though (the TR2 models are excellent and relatively inexpensive compared to similar quality Antec devices).

Have a look at this page for a bit more information on what to look out for when buying a power supply, and why it's not a good idea to try to go cheap if you can avoid it. Personally I budget about £50-80 for the power supply for a graphics workstation. There's a bunch of links on there to more information about PSUs too.

By all means use the one that comes supplied with the system, but I'd probably look at a 6-12 month or sooner timescale for replacing it (especially if you want to add more hard drives, more powerful graphics card, Blu-ray drive or other hardware).
 
Brilliant, just the info I needed. Thank you for all your help Kaouthia, just gonna go watch all the youtube videos on putting it all together lol.
 
Good luck :)

It's easy enough to put them together these days. Usually there's only one place each item will slot into, and if there's multiple places something can fit (SATA ports, for example), start with the one with the lowest number first. ;)
 
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