Cousin off to university - Please help compare these two systems.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sparky__H
  • Start date Start date

Sparky__H

Sparky__H

Hi guys

My Cousin is off to university in September to do film and media and has speced a box he thinks will do to job. It’s about £605

Intel i3 540 3.06GHz
ASUS P7H55-M LX H55
4GB Corsair DDR3 Memory (1600mhz)
ASUS GT 440 1GB
Seagate 1TB
Optiarc DVD +/- Lightscribe Writer
OCZ Xstream 600W
Windows 7 Professional (x64)

A family member is selling an ex-gaming self-build for £500

Intel Quad Core (s775) 2.4Ghz (G0 Stepping)
Thermalright extreme 120
Gigabyte P35-DS4 (v1.0)
4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Reaper DDR2 PC2-8500
BFG NVIDIA Geforce GTS250OC 1024MB
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
Western Digital Green 1TB
SATA DVD +/- DL-RW
Tagan 550w PSU
Lian-Li v1000+ Midi-Tower Case Silver
Windows 7 Professional (x64)

What would you chose? Either of these really up to the job? He’s going to be doing lots of video and picture editing neither of which I do so I can’t advise him. Apparently the software used is Pinnacle Studio Ultimate.

Thanks for any advice :)
 
Yeah would agree that the second system probably edges it just overall but again both fairly overpriced. If he need it for September then definitely wait. If he needs one now then how about the following.


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
(£129.16) £154.99
(£129.16)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Foxconn H67A-S Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD105SI) £38.98
(£32.48) £38.98
(£32.48)
Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi Case - Black £33.68
(£28.07) £33.68
(£28.07)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £393.81
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £81.11
Total : £486.67

Wouldn't have thought he needs a dedicated gfx card so can use the onboard. Perhaps upgrade to 8GB RAM.

Encoding benchmarks here
 
Last edited:
Shadow Boxer is on the money. I personally wouldn't buy a second hand gaming rig if the system has to be reliable and see him through Uni. All sorts of problems may arise, and with no warranty etc.

The i3 isn't really upto top video editing standards, it can do it of course but you would really want to focus on a fast processor and as much RAM as possible over a dedicated graphics card.

So, Sandybridge and lots of RAM for video and photo editing. However if he isn't in any rush, hang tight till september, releases are on the cards from AMD.
 
Cheers for the reply s so far guys :)

He wants a built System to take with him, he doesn't want to do it himself. I'm not going to build it as I'm not playing the free-tech support game for the next 3 years.

If he could get the second one down to something more reasonable say £430-450 would it be worth it?
 
Remember the spec above will not allow for any overclocking. Could get and i5 2500K OEM for only a little bit more for a better onboard gpu. Still won't allow for overclocking however. But if he really doesn't need it until September then as above, best to wait as Bulldozer is being released soon.

Out of interest is the first spec a pre-built system from a retailer?


Sparky__H said:
Cheers for the reply s so far guys :)

He wants a built System to take with him, he doesn't want to do it himself. I'm not going to build it as I'm not playing the free-tech support game for the next 3 years.

If he could get the second one down to something more reasonable say £430-450 would it be worth it?
Click to expand...

This would be a bit better but remember they'll still be no real support if things go wrong. If your not looking to build it the wait for some pre-built SB machines with either the i3 or i5 processors. There should be more appearing from retailers in coming months as processors become more available.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
"Primo Pterosaur" Intel Core i5 2300 2.80GHz DDR3 Sandybridge System £499.98
(£416.65) £499.98
(£416.65)
Options applied to the above product:
No Graphics Card Upgrade £0.00
(£0.00) £0.00
(£0.00)
Options applied to the above product:
No Hard Drive Upgrade £0.00
(£0.00) £0.00
(£0.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Sub Total : £484.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £15.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £100.09
Total : £600.56
 
Last edited:
no one should go to university to read film and media studies :(

Video editing traditionally means the fastest Intel quad core you can afford, preferably onboard graphics.

However,
# Intel® Pentium® or AMD Athlon™ 1.8 GHz (2.4 GHz or higher recommended) - Intel Core™ 2 or i7 2.4 GHz required for AVCHD* (2.66 GHz for AVCHD* 1920)
# 1 GB system memory recommended, 2 GB required for AVCHD*
Click to expand...

so a 2.66ghz core2duo and 1gb of ram fits the requirements. He could even have a laptop which meets the spec for £600.
 
i do computer animation and digital sfx at uni, and i render out a lot of videos and animation, more RAM is always good and a decent processer, im sitting with the specs in my signature and its flying through anything i need to render out, but before i got that build i had a 3yr old core 2duo 1.9ghz laptop with an ati radeon 2400 and 4gb of ram and honestly it was doing a great job, so don't feel like you need to go all out
 
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