Help With Buying/building Pc

[fezza2000]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a PC supplier whom I can deal with in English for building a fast PC for digital video editing, music etc.

Or is there anyone out there who would just enjoy discussing such?

I would like to end up with a Small Form Factor PCand it is difficult to determine which memory matches the mother board in which case etc.

Do I go with a Shuttle or Aopen case?

AMD or Intel processor?

I want at least 1Mb RAMm but which type of DDR400 etc?

Do the motherboards in these cases provide WiFi capability?

I'd like to be able to have a list of required components before purchasing, and is Pantip a good enough place (only place I've been to) or is there some other?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Andrew

Yannawa, Sathorn

Bangkok

Edited January 27, 2005 by fezza2000

[Firefoxx]

The SFF cases usually come with only 2 memory slots. I don't see the prescott-supporting models listed at HardwareHouse yet, so you might have to use the older models. If so, the Shuttle SB65G2 (865PE) and SB75G2 (875) would be the best bet. Both support HT and Dual channel DDR 400 (PC3200 memory). You would need 2 sticks of 512MB each. The shuttle SFF cases usually have the option of adding a WLAN module.

I use a non-SFF PC with the 865PE chipset, 1GB DDR, and a 3GHz processor, and it handles video work very well.

Here's a link to HWH's pricelist for SFFs

http://www.hwhinter.com/price_list/price.asp?item=40

You might want to wait a but for the SB8x and SB9x series to arrive, as they support the newer LGA Pentiums (prescotts).

Edited January 27, 2005 by Firefoxx

[bkk_mike]

Couple of websites to look at:

SFF Tech

shuttle.co.uk (I know it's a UK site, but still has a lot of info on the different shuttle cases).

[Oleg_Rus]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a PC supplier whom I can deal with in English for building a fast PC for digital video editing, music etc.

I'd like to be able to have a list of required components before purchasing, and is Pantip a good enough place (only place I've been to) or is there some other?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

PC for editing video and music has certain requirements - bigger storage for pre- and post processing, some external storage devices (DVD burner I think) video card with TV out or dual head card, extra slots for encoder cards and for all of these - few more fans in the case.

Now, please tell how all of these hardware will fit into SFF case? and what is the purpose of WiFi there ?

Pantip is the good (and only) place to buy parts. Fortune Town, Seacon and others are also good, but the choice of shops and parts is bigger at Pantip. there's shop in front of the stairs on 5th floor - they do only special video parts so try them.

two years ago I returned faulty card and got it replaced right away. nice, though.

[chanchao]

I had a PC built primarily with video editing in mind.

Some things are not that technical really, but are important.. Like finding a case with a Firewire port easilyy accessible in front was hard. Mostly they put USB on front nowadays, but not yet Firewire so much.

Technically it's not that hard: Fast CPU, LOADS of ram and harddisk space. Especially harddisk space. But of course you'd keep money in mind, like if a 25% bigger size costs 50% more, then I'd personally maximize my funds and just add more drives later.

There's another discussion on DVD burners, you'll want one.

If your really going for a small form factor PC, make sure it really has everything you need. Like a TV capture option and firewire for example. Mostly with smaller cases there's no way you'll be adding for example that capture card AND a fast video card for gaming AND a firewire card all at the same time. I mostly found that the small bare bones boxes missed something that I needed.

In the end I didn't go for the small form factor case and bought full size. Easier to add stuff. Did get a nice looking case though; most 1000 baht cases are just completely hideous.

Oh, the actual building of the thing I just had a shop do. Little point in doing it yourself, I mean after you cherry-picked all your components they build it for free AND give you somewhat of a warranty on the thing as a whole. And if they run into issues (like, card xxx not working together with board yyy for whatever reason) then it's their problem. Of course you'd have to buy most or all of your components at the same shop for them to assemble it free. In my case I only supplied said nice case and they didn't have a problem with that. And I got screen, keyboard, mouse, DVD burner, video capture card elsewhere. They don't mind as long as you're more or less buying 'a complete system', i.e. at least mainboard, gfx, harddrive, cpu, memory.

Edited January 28, 2005 by chanchao

[bkk_mike]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a PC supplier whom I can deal with in English for building a fast PC for digital video editing, music etc.

I'd like to be able to have a list of required components before purchasing, and is Pantip a good enough place (only place I've been to) or is there some other?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

PC for editing video and music has certain requirements - bigger storage for pre- and post processing, some external storage devices (DVD burner I think) video card with TV out or dual head card, extra slots for encoder cards and for all of these - few more fans in the case.

Now, please tell how all of these hardware will fit into SFF case? and what is the purpose of WiFi there ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A Shuttle G5 case can take 2 3.5" hard disks (i.e. regular one for O/S and programs and a monster one for data, both SATA) - AND a DVD burner in the 5.25" bay.

Personally, I have a Radeon 9600 Vivo, which is dual-head, has a Video out AND Video in, on the single AGP card. As that takes Video in, and the MB has built-in FireWire, you don't need any other encoder cards.

As for the WiFi, why not? - Shuttles have a kit which plugs into a USB header on the motherboard, with a little aerial poking out the back of the case.

Yes - running with a small form factor does mean you have to be careful when choosing hardware since there's a shortage of slots / bays / etc. - But so long as you get a video card with video capture included (like a VIVO), the motherboard has firewire support included, and there's room for two hard drives, it should be fine for video editing.

Edited January 28, 2005 by bkk_mike

[Firefoxx]

SFF cases can usually take:

1 AGP card

2 PCI cards

2 Harddisks (1 if there is a multi-card reader)

1 5.25" drive

2 sticks of RAM

The expandability is limited, but it can work if you plan well. Some SFF cases can't take certain cards, such as the AIW (the decoder module gets in the way).

[Oleg_Rus]

when time comes to upgrades/replacements - it would be more convenient to work witk full size case than a midget one. SFF are for desktop PC like office aplications.

For video editing we did stations for Ultraman project (big house at Aythaya Ind. zone). Guys were opening and closing cases as it was assembly contest :-)

Finally, the small factor case for micro ATX can be used for anything, I saw 6 ppl in the "Bugsy" Volkswagen and they were great, so why not suggest fezza2000 to buy smallest possible case and keep him busy

Good luck