HD Editing Computer thoughts

[Dave Haynie]

Well, once you get Vegas on it, you’ll probably want other video/media related tools.

As for that system… sure, that’s the low-end desktop i7-9xx, but it’ll be a perfectly acceptable machine. As mentioned, the i7-9xx is where Intel really starts to beat AMD, at least in a big part due to the triple rather than double memory bus (three 64-bit channels to AMD’s 2 channels). There’s a review of the AMDx6 1090T versus the i7-920 here:
https://www.techreaction.net/2010/05/06/amd-phenom-ii-six-core-1090t1095t-thuban-review/

Curious thing… one of the AMD’s best results is rendering H.264 via the MainConcept CODEC (apparently their stand-alone, not the Vegas plug-in). This is seen largely as a CPU clock speed win; when both are overclocks to 4.2GHz, the i7 wins.

You aren’t going to find a superior price at Best Buy, though. In fact, you can find a dozen or so faster i7 machines for less cash here: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006736%20600014723&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel%20Core%20i7

Of course, buying a whole system mail order, you do need to know what you’re doing. Not that “the Geek Squad” are a bunch of wizards, either (I have helped out several victims of “the Geek Squad”, folks who were charged $100+ and never had their problems fixed… usually pretty basic problems, too).

Another good practice for buying a PC is to customize a name brand. Folks like HP, Dell, etc (not sure about Acer) can’t really charge less for the online price than the in-store price as a rule, otherwise they cannibalize their retailers. But they have a bunch of loopholes. I did this when I bought my PC. I found the basic model, and also an online coupon for 30% off any laptop bought online. Then, I went through the options, and found that many of them were free of very low cost upgrades… for example, I got a camera + fingerprint reader for the same price as no camera. I got two smaller HDDs for the price of one larger one, the total being significantly more. I saved $50 order Vista (at the time) Home rather than Professional.. overall, a much better deal than anything you could find at a retailer. Obviously, the coupon was a big part of this, and you may have to wait. Check out a place like tech bargains.

And if you really need the tech support, buy from a real computer store (if you can find one). You may be lucky and shop at a big box store that actually has good computer people, but it’s just as likely the guy selling that PC was selling TVs or DVDs last week. Of course, if you know what you’re doing, you don’t need the support… so online is pretty safe.

And if you’re an expert like me, you can integrate your own PC. There was a time when you could save a bundle buying all the pieces separately, but I don’t think that’s very significant these days. But you can be sure you’re not paying for something you don’t want (also quite possible if you customize online).

Anyway, for the money, I’ve seen comparable-performance AMDx6 1090T systems for as low as $799, or higher spec i7 systems for the same or less.

-Dave