My current PC is three years old so I'm going to build another one. It works fine but I want to stay up to date.

I run Vegas 6.0 and just installed 8.0 but havn't used it yet. I only do SD with an XL-2 and a cheapy Optura 50.

If I build a new system that can accomodate HD will it also comfortably handle SD.

I do industrial presentations, business tutorial, and personal family stuff only.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also where to buy components. I bought the old one from Monarch Computers but there gone.

Thanks and Merry Christmas all,


Thomas Edward Bufkin

As I recommend to most other people, Core2Quad system, currently 2.4Ghz is the sweet spot for reasonable budget. 4GB Ram, 500GB drives are the cheapest per GB. Use WinXP still. VGA card depends on your monitor situation.

I recently proced out a new box with parts from both Tiger Direct and NewEgg.
I was pretty sure I was going to go with Tiger as my old system which is now 6 years old and starting to show it's age but found I could get the case I wanted along with a few other things for a bit less at Newegg.
If I were you go to both websites, price them out and go from there.
BTW, if you register at Newegg you can set up a wish list and save it, Tiger isn't set up like that yet so I simply copied and pasted to a word doc to compare.
Don

Hi Thomas. The current 65nm Quad Core will certainly do the job, and at a nice price point, too. But if you don't mind waiting for The Next Great Thing, the 45nm desktop processors ought to be readily available within a couple months (officially Q1 2008).

As always, we'll pay a bit more for "latest, greatest" technology but along with the associated chipset updates, they'll undoubtedly be faster with lower power consumption and heat generation.

For now, the consensus seems to be "stay with XP" but who knows, maybe by the time we're all ready to build our first 45nm boxes, Vista SP1 will be out and satisfy those of us who held back amid all the negative reports to date. Maybe.

Zipzoomfly.com is another company to look at, along with newegg and tiger. I use them all the time.