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Building A Pc


History dude

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I need to upgrade my PC and I want to build it up myself.

It's going to be mostly used for video editing. So I'm looking for suggestions as to what "bits" to get to do a good job, it doesn't have to be very high performance, for example it doesn't have to be 3D or very HD for the video production I'm doing.

I've picked up a few ideas from the web on the type of kit needed and made an Amazon page for it which I will post the link for. These are not agreed on so I would welcome any suggestions or alternatives, especially if I have something on the list that won't work with another or isn't very good! Of course I don't have to buy everything at Amazon, in case you can see the item cheaper elsewhere. But Amazon are pretty cheap for these things I have found so far!

Most pundits suggest an i-7 processor rather than an i-5, what's your thoughts on this?

The 1TB is to store programs and completed work. I'm thinking of also a smaller separate hard drive for the operating system, which will probably be Windows 8.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/3NO68CENBELEO/ref=topnav_lists_2

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Can't suggest anything Dude. I leave that stuff to a friend of mine. He pops up and sticks new bits in the box whenever he decides I need them. Very useful :)

The only thing I do know is that, for audio editing, you'll need a Full Duplex sound card, otherwise you won't be able to record and playback audio at the same time.

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I have built my last 2 pc's.

You will not necessarily save money, but you will get the spec you want

My last build i did what you have nentioned use 2 drives a large one for data and a small one for the system. The system one being a solid state 128 Mb. The thing to watch with ssd drives is speed, cheap ones are usually a lot slower. Look out for 500 read and write speed.

I 7 cpu's are powerfull but expensive perhaps a high end I 5. It all depends on budget

Something else to think about is ram. There is a limit sone motherboards will support also 32 but os will support less than 64 bit os

Deffo reccomend ssd boots in seconds

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Just to let you know this is what I've got to do the job!

Cooler Master Storm Enforcer case.
Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H TH motherboard.
Pioneer BDR-S07XLT BLUE RAY RW drive.
Sapphire Radeon HD54450 Graphics Card.
Viper 8GB DDR3 memory.
Intel Core i-7
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Cooler
CIT 750Watt Gold PSU
2 500GB Western Digital Blue Hard Drives
1 1TB Western Digital Hard Drive
Advent Keyboard (cheapest item)
Windows 7 64 bit (system builder)

Several odd bits such as an adapter for the Video Card to fit the new PCI socket. Plus a ATX 4 pin adapter cable, because the PSU doesn't have one!

On the monitor I decided to use an LED TV, which seem cheaper. Argos do a 22 inch Digihome TV which can be used.

It doesn't need a sound card as that motherboard can output and input high quality digital sound.

I didn't go for Windows 8 as some of the software I have is only rated to Windows 7. Plus many people say give it a miss! The motherboard will however take Windows 8.

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In my last job at Sheffield Hallam Uni, one of my jobs was to source about 60 sets of computer components to enable the students on one of our courses to build their own PC to use for the rest of their course.

We used larger supply firms because it was important that all the bits for each computer were identical.

We did it for a number of years and something that stood out was the very high number of supplied bits that were dead on arrival.

Optical drives, hard disks and memory modules were a particular problem with failure rates of at least 20 percent.

The parts we bought were all well known brands.

The students all used correct anti-static procedures with earthed cases and wristbands.

For this reason I normally buy built systems from well known brands.

HD

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Once got a hard drive which was an Hittachi. However when we fitted it and turned on it blew the power supply because it hard a short in it. Even though it was faulty the firm that sold it though they give the money back for the hard drive, wouldn't pay out for a new PSU. So not all brand names are good.

I reckon the digihome brand is made by Toshiba.

By the way nearly all the stuff was made in China.

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Sapphire Radeon HD54450 Graphics Card.

Good choice dude.

I have two of those graphics cards (HD5450's), and consider them to be one of the best budget priced cards available,

they will also handle most of the latest PC games.

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Good choice dude.

I have two of those graphics cards (HD5450's), and consider them to be one of the best budget priced cards available,

they will also handle most of the latest PC games.

Games Steve, - GAMES!!!!!

Come on, we're in our 50's now, not kids.

You don't want to be an overgrown little mummy's boy, - like James May! :P

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Games Steve, - GAMES!!!!!

Come on, we're in our 50's now, not kids.

You don't want to be an overgrown little mummy's boy, - like James May! :P

Yes, games Dave.

Started playing them when I was about 50 years old, on the PS1 (SONY Play Station 1).

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Yes, games Dave.

Started playing them when I was about 50 years old, on the PS1 (SONY Play Station 1).

I can't say that playing games on computers has ever really appealed to me.

Working with kids I know many of them waste many hours of their lives playing them.

What they really need to do is GET A LIFE, - do something more interesting and more productive instead.

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I assure you it's not for playing games ;-)

Besides I've got a Kindle Fire, we got it for books and they have turned into Angry Birds lol

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I assure you it's not for playing games ;-)

Besides I've got a Kindle Fire, we got it for books and they have turned into Angry Birds lol

I'm hoping that you are going to use it to make videos of all the No.1 Hit songs over the last 60 years that you have on that that other website of yours.

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I'm hoping that you are going to use it to make videos of all the No.1 Hit songs over the last 60 years that you have on that that other website of yours.

Yes that's what it is for!

Should have it all up and running in the next week or two now.

This was the old set up

The old PC can be seen just sticking out under the keyboard. To the left is the A3 scanner.

The Red books on the top white shelf are the complete set of Newnes TV & Radio Servicing from when they started to 1968. You can see also piles of VHS music video's ready for conversion! On the other wall the red case and blue boxes are full of electronic parts. For example the bottom shelf of the red box has cogs and plastic bits used to keep video recorders running!

Of course it's all changed now! The worktop has gone, so to the white book case with the printer on top. The white shelf under the parts boxes has gone too.

Now there's one long "kitchen" worktop stretching from the wall to the white bookcase. The white trunking cable (seen propped up on the wall in the photo) has been used to hide all the cables!

The blue coloured light (seen near the monitor) is a USB hub, which has been withdrawn from service.

The monitor and new monitor/TV have both been mounted to the Yellow coloured wall under the video shelf. That particular wall is really hard to drill to get the wall plugs in. Whereas the other wall (with the parts cabinets) is very easy to drill and put wall plugs in,

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At the Sheffield Hallam University I once found an almost complete set of Newnes TV and Radio Servicing manuals. They dated from the 1950's and I think the earliest one was dated 1953. They were stored in a building void and were in very poor condition. I think they eventually went in the skip.

I also found some early books on radio including an Admiralty one which included spark transmitters. The unit of capacitance used was the "Jar". This was the number of Leyden jars, (used as capacitors,) necessary to achieve resonance for a given wavelength.

In the days when radios and TVs were serviceable I found the Electrical Trader service sheets were much more useful. You could photocopy them at the Central Library Reference section.

HD

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Yes that's what it is for!

Should have it all up and running in the next week or two now.

This was the old set up

attachicon.gifWorkstation 2.jpg

The old PC can be seen just sticking out under the keyboard. To the left is the A3 scanner.

The Red books on the top white shelf are the complete set of Newnes TV & Radio Servicing from when they started to 1968. You can see also piles of VHS music video's ready for conversion! On the other wall the red case and blue boxes are full of electronic parts. For example the bottom shelf of the red box has cogs and plastic bits used to keep video recorders running!

Of course it's all changed now! The worktop has gone, so to the white book case with the printer on top. The white shelf under the parts boxes has gone too.

Now there's one long "kitchen" worktop stretching from the wall to the white bookcase. The white trunking cable (seen propped up on the wall in the photo) has been used to hide all the cables!

The blue coloured light (seen near the monitor) is a USB hub, which has been withdrawn from service.

The monitor and new monitor/TV have both been mounted to the Yellow coloured wall under the video shelf. That particular wall is really hard to drill to get the wall plugs in. Whereas the other wall (with the parts cabinets) is very easy to drill and put wall plugs in,

Good luck with it Dude,

Looks like you have got thousands of hours of voluntary work in front of you there making all those videos.

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I also found some early books on radio including an Admiralty one which included spark transmitters. The unit of capacitance used was the "Jar". This was the number of Leyden jars, (used as capacitors,) necessary to achieve resonance for a given wavelength.

HD

How many Farads, or fractions of Farads constitute a "jar"?

I once made some replacement Leyden Jars to replace some broken ones on a now banned, Wimshurst Machine at school.

The Capacitance of a Leyden jar seems to depend not only on its physical size but also on the thickness and type of glass the jar is made of.

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How many Farads, or fractions of Farads constitute a "jar"?

According to Wikiwotsits a Jar is taken to represent 1.111 NanoFarads.

I wouldn't like to put my hands across one that was charged to a few thousand volts.

How did you make your Leyden Jars ? I used milk bottles with a bit of Aquadag poured in and swirled around the inside, with a coating of Aquadag painted around the outside.

I'm sure B & C Dairies wouldn't have approved.

It reminded me of something that happened in the steelworks in the seventies.

We had a production process where large rectangular sheets of thin stainless steel were cut to size and then stacked in a deep hopper.

It was necessary to separate the sheets with tissue paper to stop the sheets scratching each other.

The problem was that the tissue paper wouldn't stop in place.

Help was sought from some boffins at Bangor University who came up with the idea of EHV generators, ( based on TV line output technology), which charged the sheets via rows of needle electrodes.

This enabled the paper to stick to the steel like the proverb-able to a blanket.

All went well for several years until we were called down to the machine because huge spark discharges were looping out of the hopper to adjacent metalwork.

The boffins were recalled and soon pointed out that during a maintenance visit the rows of earthed metal flexible braid that were intended to discharge the sheets as they dropped into the hopper had not been put back in place. We hadn't noticed their absence !

The sheets were in effect a gigantic voltaic pile that they calculated was enough to fry someone several times over.

Replacing the braids cured the problem. :huh:

HD

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And a service sheet!

Truevox Tape deck.pdf

The Newnes books were all from ex amateur repair man. I got them following his death, they were actually being thrown out into a skip!

I think you could purchase a full set of them around the 60's, so I suspect he did. They were advertised in the trade and electrical magazines at the time. I rather suspect that they were reprinted. The first five come in volumes numbered one to five. After that they cover models brought out by year. Starting with 1955 to 1956. Then it goes 1956 to 1957 and so on. Mine stop at 1967 to 1968. But they were produced for many years after that.

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According to Wikiwotsits a Jar is taken to represent 1.111 NanoFarads.

I wouldn't like to put my hands across one that was charged to a few thousand volts.

How did you make your Leyden Jars ? I used milk bottles with a bit of Aquadag poured in and swirled around the inside, with a coating of Aquadag painted around the outside.

I'm sure B & C Dairies wouldn't have approved.

It reminded me of something that happened in the steelworks in the seventies.

We had a production process where large rectangular sheets of thin stainless steel were cut to size and then stacked in a deep hopper.

It was necessary to separate the sheets with tissue paper to stop the sheets scratching each other.

The problem was that the tissue paper wouldn't stop in place.

Help was sought from some boffins at Bangor University who came up with the idea of EHV generators, ( based on TV line output technology), which charged the sheets via rows of needle electrodes.

This enabled the paper to stick to the steel like the proverb-able to a blanket.

All went well for several years until we were called down to the machine because huge spark discharges were looping out of the hopper to adjacent metalwork.

The boffins were recalled and soon pointed out that during a maintenance visit the rows of earthed metal flexible braid that were intended to discharge the sheets as they dropped into the hopper had not been put back in place. We hadn't noticed their absence !

The sheets were in effect a gigantic voltaic pile that they calculated was enough to fry someone several times over.

Replacing the braids cured the problem. :huh:

HD

OK, we got a jam jar (we actually made 2 of them, so got 2 jam jars). These were large ones, not the standard Robertsons jam off the supermarket shelf size but big ones use in home jam and preserve making, my wife would know the size but they come in sizes related to the weight in lb of their intended contents (1lb, 2lb, 5lb etc). We then watered down some PVA glue and coated first the inner surface of the jar. From the chemical store we got some very finely powdered aluminium which was "sprated" into the jar from an insect pooter to try and obtain an even coating inside the jar. Having done this, and with the glue still wet a cut length of aluminium cooking foil was applied over the top (very difficult to do unless you had small hands to reach inside the jar) and wrapped and smoothed against the already coated inner surface. The bare end of one of the connecting wire was sandwiched between the aluminium powder layer and the aluminium foil and held with a small clip to the top of the jar to hold it in place. Once the PVA had dried the process was repeated on the outer surface, which was easier as you could reach it without restriction. I suppose our use of finely powdered aluminium was the equivalent of your aquadag, which is a colloidal suspension of carbon / graphite (in fact make may have used some aquadag around the point where we attached the connecting wires to improve conduction).

The finished articles were not the same size as the originals which were broken, they were bigger, but seemed to be of about the same effectiveness.

At some point one of the Wimshurst generator wheels also became damaged. These were Perspex discs which could be hand cranked in opposite directions and seemed to be coated with radially placed pieces of aluminium foil. We were able to replace these with 2 gramophone records with similar pieces of foil attached, The original discs were about 10" diameter, but we replaced them with 7" single discs as 12" discs were too big for the mechanism. I think the discs we used were YMCA by the Village People and Brown Girl in the ring by Boney M, which amused me because I didn't like either song. We couldn't use a 10" disc as we didn't have one to spare and the old 78's were not made of vinyl plastic and ddi not generate static charge very well. As it turns out Vinyl (PVC) produces static much better than the original Perspex and the repaired machine could throw thick blue sparks almost continually between its electrode even when they were about 10cm apart. Of course it was dangerous and its use was soon banned. The whole device was scrapped when we moved into our newly built PFI school about 10 years ago having not been used for many years before that.

We still do electrostatics at school, but these days the Wimshurst machine has been replaced with the Van der Graff generator,

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A Leyden Jar with 1NF capacity.

attachicon.gifLeyden Jar.jpg

And a modern 1NF capacitor which would do the same job!

attachicon.gif1nf capacitor.jpg

It would have the same capacitance, but would it do the same job?

The modern capacitor will have a voltage rating on it, and may be designed to work at, for example, up to 400V. At higher voltages the dielectric material (the stuff between the plates) will break down allowing current to flow through it and the device will fail.

The Leyden jar, being large and having thick glass as its dielectric material would be capable of taking a potential of hundreds of thousands of Volts across it without breakdown. In a Wimshurst it is given a massive potential (Voltage) which, when it discharges will throw a spark several inches through air. I don't think the modern capacitor, intended for use on a circuit board, would be able to do that even though it has the same capacity.

On the other hand, I don't think a Leyden jar would fit in a small, portable, electronic device.

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Finished Job!

Looking over to other side

Close up of the video and audio equipment

On picture two you can see the Coolermaster case. All the bits for the new computer have been installed. On powering up it all seemed to work then it started to beep lots of them - before powering down. It then retries and powers down again.... etc... So I have to figure it out why it won't start! That's why the cables are dangling down under the work bench! To the bottom right of that photo you can see the old external hard drive (500GB) plus the Veho negative scanner!

The bottom picture shows the Panasonic NV HS 900 video. It's one of the best VCR's going. On top of it is the black box, that does things you shouldn't do!

Above the cassette deck is a Genexxa ten band graphic. The amp is Sansui AU-D101. Resting on top is a switching box and a level control. I find the audio signal to computers to be too strong and so it can be reduced here with a turn of the control.

The power socket has been only just replaced. Surge switch-able sockets are not very common. You can get some metal types but they don't have mounting holes in the back for fixing to the wall.

The Record Deck is a JB 2000. If you have a record player and don't use it, sell it on e-bay there's a big demand for them! People converting the old records to digital.

Also seen is the wires! Some can't be seen like the one's in the white box going up the wall.

Seen in the second photo is the Sanyo combination VCR/DVD. It sticks out like a sore thumb (36cm) it wont go further back due to the scart plugs connecting at the back. It weighs a tun, that's why it's got different shelf supports to the rest.

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