I am now trying to decide on a computer for video editing mostly but also gaming... Can anyone help?

Question

I am looking on carbonfrost.com. Can someone take a look at that for me? I am looking at a just above the 1000 dollar price range. I am looking into the defender and opus. Im not sure which one to get. I am also wondering whether other people think its a good deal and whether its worth it to get the mark 2 rather then mark 1. If your confused. look at the site, youll know what im talking about. thanks a lot

Answer 1

Definitely not a good buy.

If you build youself, you could replicate the Opus mark 1 for roughly $800.

The CPU is second class to Core 2.
The RAM isn't ID'd, which means generic cheapo RAM.
No mention of power supply...means they throw in a cheap 400 watter.
The video card is low end.
The motherboard is not ID'd.
The mark 2 simply ugprades the CPU one model and switches video cards (which it doesn't ID the model of)

What kind of video are you editing? What format?

A single 400gb hard drive isn't going to work for video editing, you need 3 seperate hard disks. One for Windows and programs, one as a "scratch disk" for editing, and one for storage for said editing projects and to place your page file on. Believe me, I've edited on 2 drives and it sucked.

Buy your own parts and if you're think you need help, go on a forum (tomshardware or anandtech) and ask for help. It will be explained step by step to you. If you live in a larger city I'm sure there are member in your city, offer someone $50 to put it together for you. I'm sure there's members that would do it for free.

Install videos:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=CPU+install&hl=en

I noticed in another thread you mentioned you have a 7 year old DELL monitor, do yourself a favor and buy a new one:
4:3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020%201309821317%201109909237&bop=And&Order=RATING
16:9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+1301919996&Subcategory=20&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

EDIT:
"Blab" talk? It sounds like the guy below works for carbonfrost. Or he enjoys taking it up the ___ along with his multiple of friends who bought there.

I like how he lists:
Corsair for RAM
ASUS for Motherboard.
Antec for Power Supply - 600 Watt

Okay, there are many grades of components from each manufacturer. That's how they turn a profit. Corsair sells everything from a 2gb Ram kit @ $70 to a performance kit at $400+ and everything in between.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000147+1052308477+1052108080&Subcategory=147&description=corsair&Ntk=&srchInDesc=
The same goes for ASUS and Antec. These "builders" buy the stuff they get the best price on to make the most profit, just like any other business.

Look, you're on a budget. Get the most for your dollar by building your own, it's simple. Just google the videos that you need help with.

If not, pay the goobers at carbonfrost $400+ dollars to put together an $800 PC. What a deal...not. You're better off buying an HP/Compaq and adding another hard drive or two.

For them or any other "builder" to build a PC equivelent to the one I threw together on the other thread, they're going to charge you $2,000.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I'd buy from a company that has their employees do guerilla marketing for them. I'd buy a xps, alienware, voodoo or falcoln northwest. The cosmetics on the carbonfrost look good, but it seems more oriented to marketing to wannabe gamers than a company that has an engineerirng dept.

Answer 3

in case you sell and pick money in return, gamestop provides you with the smallest volume they are able to offer you, instore credit for a commerce is maximum worthwhile try a close-by pawn keep or try auctioning off on amazon or ebay

Answer 4

I actually have bought from them. I bought thier Opus Mark II for video editing. Thier service was excellent. I wanted XP instead of vista, and they were extremely helpful and even gave me a price break. After I got my computer, two of my friends who were so impressed with it got it from Carbonfrost too. One of them got a Reflect and another got a Defender.

As for the above poster, wow clearly someone over paid for a computer. I looked in to all those companies that he is talking about and they were all overpriced. I talked Carbonfrost into giving me the exact configuration I wanted plus talked them into overclocking my Opus and they still kept it under warranty. They usually only do it for Defenders but I was able to get it for Opus too so you can get it too probably.

I got these models for thier parts:

Corsair for RAM
ASUS for Motherboard.
Spire for Power Supply - 600 Watt [I thought it was Antec but its this]

And so on, they used the best manufacturers. Also the hard drive came in 200 GB each with Raid done free for me but you can talk to them and get it in 3 drives, 4 drives whatever. Its all included in the price.

Good luck but trust me, their computers and service is just great. The computer I got had no bloatware or anything, and is perfect for my Adobe Premier Pro. Talk to them straight rather than here where all you get is blab talk.

EDIT:

Okay I am not going to get petty but I got my invoice and built the computer that I got using the Invoice they sent me. I will also use Newegg as the above poster said.

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103030

Videocard - SAPPHIRE 100185L Radeon X1950XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO HDCP Video Card - $240

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102082

Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - $90

Two Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3200822A-RK 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - $220

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148036

DVD Burner - ASUS Dual Panel Black and Beige 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD - $20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135097

Cooler - GIGABYTE GH-PCU23-VE 92mm Ball CPU Cooler - $35

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835128014

Case: Thermaltake Eureka - $150

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-eureka-home-server-black.html

Power Supply: Spire RockeTeer VI SP-600W ATX12V 600W Power Supply - $100 [Sorry I thought it was Antec but they told me that this is what they use for max performance and it was better than the Antec one I was suggesting to them so I kept this]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817710004

Windows Vista: $180

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Basic-VERSION/dp/B000HCTYT4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3926294-6139065?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1180852223&sr=8-1

Total: $1425

That the total with out shipping or anything. Plus when you get it you have to build it. Not only that but if something goes wrong good luck. I am sorry the above poster thinks I have some ulterior motive but frankly I am surprised he thinks any one who wants to help doesn;t do it just for sake of helping.

Now I paid $1450 for the Mark II which I could have built for $1425 as I showed above. I am sorry 25 bucks is more than enough for them overclocking it and keeping it under warranty. I also got raid set up free. Also service and warranty. I doubt the above poster will be fixing your problems when they arise.