[anku94]

Originally Posted by navin

Can 32bit Windows manage RAM beyond 3GB?

It'll 'work', but 64 bit OS is the best with huge volumes of RAM.

Originally Posted by navin

BTW my wife just had her PC upgraded. Specs from my supplier.
Asus P7P55D-Premium Motherboard with 4 front USB ports (Rs. 11K)
Intel i7-870 Processor (Rs. 16K)
2 x 4GB 1066 DDR3 RAM from HYNIX (Rs. 14K)
iBall cabinet and 450W power supply (Rs. 3K)
Windows 7 64bit Home Premium (8K)

salvaged from her old PC
GeForce 6600 512MB Video card
Logitech Mouse and Keyboard
Plextor DVD/CD drive
1 x 1TB Hard disk (we will add a second Sata 3 hard disk later)

This is a seriously unbalanced PC. Please upgrade the power supply as soon as possible, to a Corsair 550 Watts or better. Also, a graphics card upgrade is required if you have to balance your PC on all fronts. And wow, a Plextor, don't see those very often.

[navin]

Originally Posted by anku94

Please upgrade the power supply as soon as possible, to a Corsair 550 Watts or better. Also, a graphics card upgrade is required if you have to balance your PC on all fronts. And wow, a Plextor, don't see those very often.

Will ask for a better power supply but why a better graphics card.

My wife uses it for MS Office, Music (MP3 and Lossless), AVCHD video conversion, and her Facebook/You tube. The old graphics card was not cheap when I got it (about 5 years ago). I assume the AVCHD video conversion would put the maximum strain on her PC.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by navin

Will ask for a better power supply but why a better graphics card.

My wife uses it for MS Office, Music (MP3 and Lossless), AVCHD video conversion, and her Facebook/You tube. The old graphics card was not cheap when I got it (about 5 years ago). I assume the AVCHD video conversion would put the maximum strain on her PC.

you can survive with the 6600GT, no issues there, but it will be a bit too much for the card - not to mention more time consuming. if you're okay with that, then hang on to the 6600. make sure nothing else is running when AVCHD conversion is in progress. this will ensure longer life of the card

i too have a 6600GT 512MB, still running fine although the tasks it handles are less intensive these days

[navin]

Originally Posted by anku94

Please upgrade the power supply as soon as possible, to a Corsair 550 Watts or better.

I have asked for a 600W Sprinter from iBall. There also was a 600W 'Black Stallion' version but being a true mysoginist I did NOT want any Black Stallion near my wife.

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

you can survive with the 6600GT, no issues there, but it will be a bit too much for the card - not to mention more time consuming. if you're okay with that, then hang on to the 6600. make sure nothing else is running when AVCHD conversion is in progress. this will ensure longer life of the card

Oh ofcourse when AVCHD is in progress we usually start it and have dinner or go watch TV till it is done some 30 mins later (for a 4GB SD card) - we oldies are not blessed with your PC-IQ but we are patient. LOL.

The software we use is old (like us) too (Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 plus). I assume the new software will demand more hardware resources and our licence is valid so why not use it. This software is not cheap either so why throw it untill it demands that treatment. The camera we have is also now quite old - a Canon HF10 - but it does the job.

What does a good video card like the ATI 5980 with 2GB of RAM cost nowadays?

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by navin

we oldies are not blessed with your PC-IQ but we are patient.

i'm sure you were referring to the 6600

Originally Posted by navin

The software we use is old (like us) too (Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 plus). I assume the new software will demand more hardware resources and our licence is valid so why not use it. This software is not cheap either so why throw it untill it demands that treatment. The camera we have is also now quite old - a Canon HF10 - but it does the job.

like they say, "if ain't broken, don't fix it"!

Originally Posted by navin

What does a good video card like the ATI 5980 with 2GB of RAM cost nowadays?

ATi Sapphire Radeons:
5570 1GB ~5-6k
5670 1GB ~7-8k
5770 1GB ~10-12k
5970 2GB ~40-45k

i've not mentioned the xx50 series because these are mainstream (not performance) cards. the xx70 and xx90 series are the performance cards. if the 5 series is out of budget, a 4870x2 2GB (dual slot) or a 4970 2GB should suffice. rendering/conversion will be much faster - you'll have a working dinner !

PS: i would not recommend a iBall PSU. if it were up to me, i would go for a Coolermaster, Corsair or Antec.

[navin]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

ATi Sapphire Radeons:
5570 1GB ~5-6k
5670 1GB ~7-8k

a 4870x2 2GB (dual slot) or a 4970 2GB should suffice.

PS: i would not recommend a iBall PSU. if it were up to me, i would go for a Coolermaster, Corsair or Antec.

What do the 4870/4890 cost?

Oops I already order an all black iball i612 and 600W sprinter (total cost Rs. 4400). The chassis had to have 4 front USB ports and fit in a 16" x 17" x 8" wide desk. Lets see if it works.

BTW why do they call the Chassis a CPU in India. A CPU is the i7-870 processor na?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Not just in India. I've heard this quite often in British offices. Even heard it called the "hard disk"!

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by navin

What do the 4870/4890 cost?

4870 1GB ~10k (i got this one)
4890 1GB ~13-14k

Originally Posted by navin

BTW why do they call the Chassis a CPU in India. A CPU is the i7-870 processor na?

technically, the i7 is the processor and the heart of the system. however, the processor cannot by itself do anything. just like the head by itself can't do anything - other body parts are required for a human to function i remember when i was a kid (learning BASIC) the computer books had this box like thing (cabinet) marked as the CPU!

hence, people fondly refer to it as the Central Processing Unit (CPU).

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by navin

What do the 4870/4890 cost?

BTW why do they call the Chassis a CPU in India. A CPU is the i7-870 processor na?

If you dont want to spend for 4870/4890, try the 4770. Its one of the best beating many cards including 9800gt. Search around a bit and you will get the card for around Rs. 7-8K.

Originally Posted by navin

Can 32bit Windows manage RAM beyond 3GB?

Its 2^32 that is 4 GB, but theoretically, I the best I have seen is 3.5 GB. My system has XP 32 bit with 4GB, but it gets around 3.25 gb.

[kenpachigamer]

A bit late in posting - here's the configuration
Monitor - Benq 24 inch G2420 HD
Cabinet - Cooler master HAF 922
motherboard - MSI - 790 GX-g65
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Corsair 750 watts modular power supply
corsair 2*2 gb ram
ATI radeon 5850 HD 1GB
Seagate 500 GB HDD
Razer Lachesis 4000 DPI mouse

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by kenpachigamer

A bit late in posting - here's the configuration
Monitor - Benq 24 inch G2420 HD
Cabinet - Cooler master HAF 922
motherboard - MSI - 790 GX-g65
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Corsair 750 watts modular power supply
corsair 2*2 gb ram
ATI radeon 5850 HD 1GB
Seagate 500 GB HDD
Razer Lachesis 4000 DPI mouse

not bad bro! that's some serious fire power! what is your addiction?

[kenpachigamer]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

not bad bro! that's some serious fire power! what is your addiction?

hey thnx IronH4WK, I am a hard core gamer , and since the coming of the pc a 1080p HD print movie/animation/tv-series addict

[bkbkr1212]

Originally Posted by anku94

It'll 'work', but 64 bit OS is the best with huge volumes of RAM.



This is a seriously unbalanced PC. Please upgrade the power supply as soon as possible, to a Corsair 550 Watts or better. Also, a graphics card upgrade is required if you have to balance your PC on all fronts. And wow, a Plextor, don't see those very often.

No Windows (32-bit) can't "see" anything beyond 3GB. It's the same as old MS-DOS's 640Kb barrier.
Please go thru' this for two reasons Coding Horror: Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM?

(1) Why not beyond 3GB RAM in a 32-bit m/c?
(2) Why one shouldn't go for blind graphic card update? Graphic card actually eats the RAM

[anku94]

Originally Posted by navin

Will ask for a better power supply but why a better graphics card.

You see, a good computer is balanced on all fronts. You went a bit too high on the RAM, motherboard and CPU, or either too low on the graphics. Every time there is a graphics intensive process (I'm not sure video encoding falls in the category), your graphics card will prove to be a bottleneck, and your processor won't be utilised to its maximum capacity.

To understand what I'm talking about, check out kenpachigamer's configuration. True gamer configuration at heart.

Originally Posted by kenpachigamer

A bit late in posting - here's the configuration
Monitor - Benq 24 inch G2420 HD
Cabinet - Cooler master HAF 922
motherboard - MSI - 790 GX-g65
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Corsair 750 watts modular power supply
corsair 2*2 gb ram
ATI radeon 5850 HD 1GB
Seagate 500 GB HDD
Razer Lachesis 4000 DPI mouse

Although its RAM is half of yours, and the processor costs half of yours [NOM to kenchigamer ], but because of it being balanced, it will beat yours in any game hands down.

Of course, your PC may not be intended for gaming usage, but a decent graphics card, something costing Rs. 5,000 or even less will improve performance in certain situations.

What does a good video card like the ATI 5980[It's a 5970, BTW] with 2GB of RAM cost nowadays?

The 5970, ahem, is not just a good Graphics Card. It's the best card there is, at the consumer level. Of course, there is the ARES, but this thing is a monster. Are you sure you need that much power ? COST : $700

Best PCIe Card: $90 And Under : Best Graphics Cards For The Money: July 2010

Check out the link for graphics card recommendations. Even the $55 card will do the job, unless you wanna play Crysis at hi-def.

I have asked for a 600W Sprinter from iBall.

No sir, no iBalls. Good, clean power to a PC is a must. I'd advise you to stick with Corsair, Antec, OCZ, CoolerMaster or other reputed brands. Do try to get an 80 PLUS certified PSU. They have maximum efficiency.

Originally Posted by bkbkr1212

No Windows (32-bit) can't "see" anything beyond 3GB. It's the same as old MS-DOS's 640Kb barrier.
Please go thru' this for two reasons Coding Horror: Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM?

(1) Why not beyond 3GB RAM in a 32-bit m/c?
(2) Why one shouldn't go for blind graphic card update? Graphic card actually eats the RAM

Right, I was mistaken. Apologies. Although I have my reservations on Point 2 of yours. Don't such problems occur at high volumes of RAM ? So even if your GPU did eat some of the RAM, it won't be significant. Anny performance loss due to reduction in RAM will be far exceeded by additional muscle in Graphics Processing. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

[navin]

OMG! this thread is the best computer class I have ever taken. We did not have computer classes when I was in college (the IBM-PC came after I graduated). Thanks everyone - please excuse the stupid questions.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Search around a bit and you will get the card for around Rs. 7-8K.

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

not bad bro! that's some serious fire power! what is your addiction?

Ok see my wife's only video use will be making DVDs from AVCHD (actually I do it). I used to do this on my PC (Device Manager says Q9550/ATI 4800 series/16GB) untill she wanted to learn and we had only one licence of the software so I uninstalled the software from my PC onto hers.

She will watch You-Tube and the only game she plays is what Windows gives free with Cards on the big green screen (I forget the name maybe it is called SoloCards or something like that).

Originally Posted by anku94

You see, a good computer is balanced on all fronts. You went a bit too high on the RAM, motherboard and CPU, or either too low on the graphics.

Of course, your PC may not be intended for gaming usage, but a decent graphics card, something costing Rs. 5,000 or even less will improve performance in certain situations.

No sir, no iBalls. Good, clean power to a PC is a must..

Arey Ankuji please cut me some slack. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

Cant I add a graphics card later? If I do will I need to reinstall windows or something? I figured let me start with the card she already has (6600GT) and see if she needs more. If the Video processes fine then why buy a card when we are not going to use it.

We are not gamers. How bad is a 6600GT card?