PC Up in Flames HELP!!! (Grazie)

KPITRL wrote on 12/7/2003, 7:51 AM
Well yesterday my Pc bit the dust. My motherboard caught fire, and instead of poring money into buying a new motherboard for a 3 year old computer, I might aswell bite the bullet... right?

I hope somone out there can point me in the right direction to help me get the most for my money. yesterday after the catastrophy, I stopped at circuit city just to price check, and the only thing that caught my interest, was a Sony Viao rs420, & rs430, both were P-4 2.8ghz with 120g, & 160g hd and various other features. (dvd r-rw, 128mg video card ect...)

My question is, does anyone know how the Viao performs? I remember reading in past posts on this forum how propriatary sonys are. Is this still
an issue, has anyone had bad experiences with trying to match hardware, or software with sony computers??

Thats just a stating point, and those were priced between $12, and $1400
hundred dollars. anyone know of somthing in that range or close that might be a better deal??

I hate to have to buy one so close to x-mas, with prices being inflated and all
but I need to act fast, I have three weddings waiting to be edited. So any help is appreciated.

I will spend a little more if necessary, and I already have an external DVD burner, and two external hard drives, so I might be able to save in those areas, or get other featuers that can help inhance the perfomance of Vegas,
and DVD Arc.

Thanx in advance

kpitrl

Comments

cyanide149 wrote on 12/7/2003, 8:42 AM
IMHO as long as your cpu / ram / chipset combo is capable of preview-quality timeline previews in close-to realtime, it's ok. High end p4s, dual processors, hyperthreading, etc. only help to shorten render time, but not by very much. A desktop with a P4 or AMD XP or a laptop with a P4, all with 1 gig of ram, is more than adequate. Again, IMHO.
rextilleon wrote on 12/7/2003, 8:50 AM
I think the Sony's are a pretty good value now--and they really are well made---some people like to do a reformat and get rid of all the software they load them with---Anyhow, I dont think you can go wrong with that machine.
TomG wrote on 12/7/2003, 8:52 AM
I have been using a VAIO laptop that is over a year old and it works fine. It's not my primary editing platform but it has worked fine while we travel. Seems like the value is there.

TomG
Chienworks wrote on 12/7/2003, 8:54 AM
For price comparison, when i was in Wal*Mart last weekend i saw an HP model nearly identical to what you're describing except with only an 80MB drive. It inlucded CD-RW and DVD+-RW drives and a 17" monitor all for under $700. It's got more guts than the computer i spent $2700 building less than two years ago.
JJKizak wrote on 12/7/2003, 9:10 AM
Check with Earl Foote on the Cow forum.

JJK
filmy wrote on 12/7/2003, 9:19 AM
From everyone I know - as in that I actually can see them and sit with them, etc - stay away from the Viao's. My first experience was maybe 7 (?) years ago when someone was looking for a system. They walked into CompUSA and let a salesman talk them into a Sony Viao. 5 grand latter they had a, then, 'top of the line' computer that crashed more and ran slower than my 486DX running at 66 mhz did. I had to rouble shoot that system I dont know how many times because it was beyond the scope of CompUSA. Last year a news cameraperson I know bought a Sony Viao laptop to do on location roughs - same thing. It crashed a lot and ran slow. He kept trying to get Sony tech support to help out and they always told him the same thing "Re-install Windows". It was kind of funny because in both these cases these poeple got the viaos because of the name "Sony" figuring their computers would be problem free. The other people I know with Sony PC's haven't faired much better. To me it seems like you are paying for the Sony name rather than a quality computer.

John_Cline wrote on 12/7/2003, 12:35 PM
Find someone to build you a PC using a 3.2Ghz Intel P4 HT with an 800Mhz front side bus using the Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard. Toss a a gig of Corsair DDR400 RAM in it and watch it fly. While you're at it, make sure you get a decent Antec or Enermax 400+ watt power supply. I've built a couple of machines using these components and they absolutely scream. Also, the 8KNXP motherboard has a built-in TI-chipset Firewire controller, a gigabit Ethernet adapter, Serial ATA interface, two channels of regular IDE and a separate IDE Raid controller. A lot of bang for the buck, very stable, too. It's also unlikely to catch on fire.

John
TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/7/2003, 3:21 PM
While I don't agree with getting a P4 (i'm an AMP XP booster), John,s right. Have someone build you a custom computer. Then you can make sure it's upgradable, and you don't really want parts built into the motherboard (well, an Ethernet and IEEE 1392 ports are ok). Just nmake you you get a LEGAL copy of Windows.

You wpn't get as much bang for the buck as with a pre-buit system, but it wil be able to grow with you. Those store bought ones normals aren't as upgradable as you'd like.
johnmeyer wrote on 12/7/2003, 4:09 PM
I'm a big fan of Polywell. www.polywell.com
rextilleon wrote on 12/7/2003, 7:24 PM
I got the sense that KPITRL was in a hurry--had a bunch of stuff to edit--Don't think he can wait for the build.
surfnturk wrote on 12/7/2003, 8:53 PM
Depending on your level of experience you may be better off rebuilding your old machine. I note your statement about not buying a new MOBO for a three year old machine.
However, a new MOBO, chip and ram is cheap, especially if you don’t get the latest, greatest, fastest. I usally buy six month, to one year old gear. There are great bargins out there.
Check http://newegg.com They have the best prices around. They ship faster than he** and you could be up and running again in short order with a fast machine.
My 12 cents.
KPITRL wrote on 12/7/2003, 9:23 PM
Hi all, Thanks for all of your suggestions. I'm still looking around, infact I've spent most of my day shopping around. It's been a heck of a weekend.

I had a Christmas play that I was supposed to shoot for a client, went out to start my car, and locked myself out, with all my video equiptment still in the house, cell phone and all.... hurry up Monday!!!!

rextilleon was right on the money, I wish I had time to build, but right now I'm under the gun. Again thanks for all the help.

One thing I forgot about, with all the excitement, was the fact that I have a
P-4, 1.6ghz dell laptop, which I have used with vegas, but only to build titles, and credits. it only has a 20g, 4200rpm. hard drive. Fire wire ready, will this do for big jobs??

Thanks,

kpitrl
Liam_Vegas wrote on 12/8/2003, 12:38 AM
>P-4, 1.6ghz dell laptop, which I have used with vegas, but only to build titles, and credits. it only has a 20g, 4200rpm. hard drive. Fire wire ready, will this do for big jobs??

It would not cut it for something I would class as a "big job".... but probably will get you by for a while. That 20GB drive will be next to useless for capture (and any "big" job will quickly fill that up). You'll need an external firewire drive for certain to be able to do anything.

I use a 1.7Ghz Toshiba for my on-the-road Vegas machine (with external Firewire drives)... and it works fine... but I don't rely upon that to do the final renders.
craftech wrote on 12/8/2003, 2:41 AM
I posted this awhile back for Dara after doing quite a bit of research. She never even responded, but maybe it will help you:

http://www.mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=192476&Page=0

John
Mandk wrote on 12/8/2003, 7:07 AM
That is the model of Sony Vaio I have. I have upgraded it to 1GB ram and have added a 160GB internal and 3 80GB external drives.

I have only had two problems with the system. 1) I attempted to install a pinnacle Deluxe Studio Card and software. Had to reformat the hard drive to get the crap off the system (not the computers problem and the Sony help Desk was great). 2) Capturing via Firewire is not reliable. I have not identified the issue with this. May be the Camera JVC Gr800, a bug in the vegas software, or the computer. Fix has been to capture with analog. Still keeps the quality up and no issues other than additional time.

Good Luck with your new system.
KPITRL wrote on 12/8/2003, 11:11 AM
Mandk,

“ have only had two problems with the system. 1) I attempted to install a pinnacle Deluxe Studio Card and software. Had to reformat the hard drive to get the crap off the system (not the computers problem and the Sony help Desk was great).”



Just curious, Why were you adding a pinnacle card? dosn't that model sony come (IEEE) ready? and I could be wrong , but I don't think the pinnacle cards are OHIC compliant...right.

Thanks,

kpitrl
bstep1 wrote on 12/8/2003, 11:43 AM
Dell has some great deals going right now (and pretty quick turnaround - I ordered one on Thu, should be here tomorrow). Look at the 4600 with 256GB Ram, 2.53 P4 Processor, 40GB HD, for about $500 after $200 instant savings. Add a 4x DVD burner ($90-150), some ram ($29 for 256MB) and another hard drive (120GB for $60) and you could get 2 for $1500. I'm getting the 2nd one to move DVDA to and will edit on one and render, create and burn DVDs on the 2nd. Should be much less time spent waiting on renders and DVDs to burn. (They are also throwing in an All-in-1 printer, PDA or dig camera)
Mandk wrote on 12/8/2003, 1:23 PM
Got free board and software at work. It should have taken one step out of analog capture with this machine. Was not compliant but Pinnacle during the install process said to disregard the messages. Large Mistake listening to Pinnacle - Never again.
KPITRL wrote on 12/8/2003, 8:36 PM
JJKizak,

"Check with Earl Foote on the Cow forum"

How do I get Earl Foote at the cow, I see his picture, but nothing about building systems.

I dropped my pc off at Gateway today, waiting for results.
If I can get some specs, I might go ahead and build.

Thanks

kpitrl
rebel44 wrote on 12/8/2003, 8:41 PM
I would stay away from any properiaty computers. Go to local computer store and let them assembly for you( if you do not know how) what you need in computer. That way you do not spend unnecesery money on parts you do not need.
craftech wrote on 12/10/2003, 6:29 AM
would stay away from any properiaty computers. Go to local computer store and let them assembly for you( if you do not know how) what you need in computer. That way you do not spend unnecesery money on parts you do not need.
=================
With little or no tech support and problems thrown back in your face especially since most of them know nothing about setting up a computer for video editing.

John
Grazie wrote on 12/10/2003, 11:19 AM
I sourced a company here in the UK that deals solely with creating bespoke NLE driven pcs. I came up with my Vegas s/w driven NLE and they jumped at it. It's GGGREEeeat! - Loads of muscle and plenty of Umph!

If you want the spec I'll post it here?

Grazie
KPITRL wrote on 12/11/2003, 6:38 AM
Grazie, That would be great, I've been looking for just that.
Did you save much going this route?

Thanks Loads,

kpitrl
Grazie wrote on 12/11/2003, 7:05 AM
I'm here! . . . . give me your email . .something like: myname [AT] emailservice DOT com - this will get the Spam Crawlers away from both of us . . . . Then we can email each other directly . . .Saving money? Doubt it! This company built it for me.

Grazie