Diesel

Delving into my first self build - would REALLY appreciate any help and advice!

Really like the look of the 'Shuttle' barebones - XPC SK43G or maybe a (costlier) XPC SN85G4 that can run a 64 bit AMD cpu.

I need it to play MP3's hooked up to the Hi-Fi in the living room; I want to run Avid editing software on it one day (so a 250GB HDD with Serial ATA looks good and a gig of 'dual' RAM)). I also am going to buy a dual layer DVD burner to output edited progs, but also need a 'TV' output to dump to VHS. It shall also do my accounts, e-mails and surfing (err like 99% of its bread earning)! So my questions -

Any point in 64 bit at the mo'? Do I need a firewire card to capture from DV. In fact do I need a capture card full stop? Ohh and is the external , quiet as a mouse, ext PSU a good idea?

Many thanks for the millions of replies

D

chiark

No. Well, possibly. But probably not that one

Especially seeing as there's two different sockets being used by AMD already and, if I've got this right, the one the Shuttle 85 runs is not the one to have.

Personally, I'd go for the other socket solution, and possibly wait until PciExpress is more prevalent rather than AGP for your expansion slots.

But I'm probably wrong

Diesel

Appreciate your reply mate as the more I look into it the more muddled I get!

The SN85G4 takes an AMD socket 754 chip. That's a fast 64bit chip that should be fine for 5 yrs for me!?

Do you know what the FSB rating thing is - is it speed of chat between processor and RAM?

Steep learning curve

D

chiark

It gets more complex, partly IMHO because AMD have changed their minds already with the socket to use for 64 bit processors. There's 754 and 939 sockets, and I think that the faster speeds are going to be on the 939... But I could be wrong.

FSB = front side bus - the speed which it talks with the memory at. Gets more complex because the AMD64s have an integrated memory controller, so it's a pseudo-FSB, but on the other hand you should get upstream and downstream 800MHz channels, pushing 1.6GB of data a second. Which is a fair bit.

Personally, I wouldn't buy this sort of setup yet as it's still quite "cutting edge" and therefore you're paying a heavy premium. If you can justify the price, go for it, but personally, I'd go for the SN41G2, or the SN45G if you already have a graphics card. They'll support fairly fast processors and do what you want. They also have firewire built in, so you don't need anything to capture from DV, but if you want to capture from analogue you need one (unless you want your camera to sit inbetween and convert analogue to digital)

Perhaps the SN45G (no graphics) and a decent all-in-one graphics card/capture card would be best?

You can never have too much power to edit video, but you are paying a premium for it... Also the cutting edge isn't cutting edge for long nowadays

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Socket 754 is entry-level 64-bit, and there really is little improvement over 32-bit only if you have a 32-bit OS. Socket 939/940 is for high level servers (and gamers with loads of money) and you pay a SERIOUS premium for buying one. But there is a better performance under 32-bit to make up for it.

Linux already has several flavours of 64-bit, but I'm assuming you're on Windows. There's a beta 64-bit Windows out ATM, but the real thing won't be along for at least a year.

As for future-proofing, I think you might be a tad optimistic if you think you'll keep the machine for five years. But if you really are serious then I'd say you have to go 64-bit. You will never need that for surfing (a Pentium 1 is perfectly adequate for that) but with the price diff between high 32-bit and 64-bit so low, I'd go 64-bit. But then I plan to go socket 939...


M

Diesel

Thanks guys! Excellent advice.

As I had my Pentium 133 for 6 years and then a second hand P600 fior 2 yrs date I can justify spending a little more to slightly future proof me for some 5 years and get me treadu for 64bit OS.

Much appreciated - the order goes off today