Expert: Bobbert - 9/1/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello there.  It is time for me to get a new computer and the most demanding thing I will be doing on it is organizing and editing photos and also video now that I just got an HD camcorder.  I notice my 6 year old computer can't even play those video files without stuttering.  Anyways, I would like to spend around or under $1000 including a monitor.  I thought about building one and I do have an IT background, but it seems like I can buy one prebuilt for cheaper with similar specs.  I'm thinking some kind of quad core processor, 6-8 GB ram, 1 TB HD, and not really sure what kind of video card is needed.  If you have a chance to look at this Gateway from Costco, that looks like a decent machine and price for $800.  Is that video card sufficient?  I have bought Dell's in the past and have been pretty happy, but to get one with similar specs to this was coming out at a little over $1000, which is fine if it is worth it.  Components I priced with similar specs were coming out at around $1000 too. Which route do you think I should go?  Thank you.

Here is that link:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11534364&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCa

ANSWER: Generally speaking, at this price range, the big guys will be able to edge you out on pricing as opposed to self-building, so I'd only consider it as a DIY project if you just want the experience.

That said, I would just ignore Gateway as a manufacturer - their customer service and QA record is terrible and they apparently aren't too worried with improving that (contrasted to Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, Gateway's service is bad, this does not mean you will not receive service, just that better options do exist for your money).

That said, you shouldn't need more than 4GB of memory - however the majority of OEM machines you find will offer more because memory is a relatively inexpensive item and advertisers like to "wow" consumers with large numbers - greater than 8GB of memory is beyond wasteful unless you're doing professional level work with the machine.

Your thoughts on a quad-core are right on the money, AMD also offers six-core chips, they have mixed performance results contrasted to Intel's current offerings (so don't take them to be the "best and fastest", they're quite capable for the money though) - this will definitely help with HD video (both decoding and encoding), now regarding the graphics card - you can more or less purchase anything you want with no restrictions (as the graphics adapter has nothing to do with either of the tasks you're looking at, aside from being able to (in some cases) assist with the decoding of certain HD streams, and this feature will be universal across a product line (so a Radeon HD 5340 will be no better or worse at HD decoding than the top of the line HD 5970)).

Disk size is up to your judgment, 1TB (or 1000GB) is a good capacity if you'd like to store a lot of HD content, however you know your storage needs better than anyone else.

Look at these machines from Dell:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/studio-xps-8100/pd.aspx?refid=studio-xps

All of them will be more than suitable for your chosen tasks, so I would simply configure whichever one will get you the best pricing for the desired disk capacity and other features you may want (like included software). I do realize that displays are not included with the majority of these machines, however displays are relatively cheap:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=20&name=LCD-Monitors

Alternately, if you'd like to custom build, The Tech Report offers a "build guide" of suggested hardware for given price levels (they are somewhat geared towards the gaming enthusiast, so you can trim the fancy graphics card down to save some money if you'd like):
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/19159

This rough outline:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/19159/4, sans the expensive Radeon HD card (or, even with the card, if you'd like the extra performance for videogames) would be easily at parity with any of the $600-$900 Dell or Gateway solutions we've seen, and you can build it yourself (if that was something you wanted to do) - the HD 5770 would make the machine easily faster than anything we've discussed when it comes to games, but if that isn't something you're ever likely to take advantage of, you can replace that board with something easily $100 cheaper (which you could put into a more expensive display, a second display, etc):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102877
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500127

Personally I would probably build the machine myself, just for the experience and learning process, however either way you'll end up with a machine able to tackle your desired tasks (and potentially more, depending on choices you make) and some room to grow.

-bob



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for all of the useful information.  That is great.  I am glad you mentioned that about Gateway because I had no idea of their customer service.  I have been very happy with Dell's customer service in the past as when I had a part go bad, they would usually ship one out next day.  It might be fun to build one, as I have done that  long time ago when I was in school.  One concern is though, if something goes wrong when you build one, how is the warranty or support since you have a bunch of different parts from different vendors?  It seems that would be a lot more difficult than just calling Dell or HP.  What are your thoughts on that?  Thank you again for your help.

Answer
Generally speaking not all of the components will fail, and the vast majority of problems will occur within the first 30 days (when you're still covered by the reseller's return process, in most cases) - beyond that yes, you will have to take up warranty claims individually. The majority of hardware vendors suggested offer lifetime or near lifetime warranties, and excellent warranty service - ultimately you shouldn't have any more grief than dealing with Dell, especially dealing with brands like Corsair, Antec, eVGA, XFX, Intel, and so on. Ultimately I have no issues suggesting either route, but the Dell solution is somewhat more turnkey - indeed.

-bob