Here is what I need it to help me do: primary use will be converting Sd cards and hi8 tapes and some vhs to digital files. Also have many audio cassette tapes to convert to digital. The second most use will be gaming which mostly will involve the SIMS as the kids love it.
I'm planning on separate stand alone digital units for digital storage and back-up/duplication.
Can I get into what I need under $800-$1000?
I'm pretty set on a desktop as I have a work station ready for it and I prefer as large of a monitor screen possible which most laptops won't offer.
This showed up at my door a week ago
So far it's been a tank, 4gb gpu makes the Sims look fantastic, edits and converts video like a champ, should be able to handle audio work.
No built in card reader, but USB ones are dirt cheap.
$635 to my door after taxes
I would, and will be, upgrading the ram from 8gb 2400 to 16 or 32gb of 3200 because the board will take it and I like to max things out.
You won't need much. How "perfect" do you want the conversions done? And what is your skill level and knowledge with computers?
GIRTHQUAKE said:
You won't need much. How "perfect" do you want the conversions done? And what is your skill level and knowledge with computers?
Don't need them to be a Hollywoood caliber production. Looking back at old film reels my mom made of me as a kid, I love the old "look" of them. They were very entry level and no where near professional yet clearly rooted in nostalgia. I'm thinking along those same lines for my own stuff.
I'm certainly no pro with a computer yet I can read and follow directions, tutorials what have you.
I picked up a relatively cheap gaming computer off Amazon a couple of months ago figuring it would be perfect for 3D design. It has worked perfectly. It was about $590.
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/7814504/HP-Pavilion-TP01-0066-Desktop-PC/?cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-CJ-_-1122587-_-13474833
that's a beast of a computer for 550. Drastically above what youll need for your requirements.
Look for DDR4 as an indication of how new it is. not that DDR4 is that much better, but it shows everything else is newer.
In reply to lnlogauge :
That Pavilion would be a solid starting point. The processor is way more powerful than the Newegg link earlier. You'd definitely want to add memory. A better GPU wouldn't hurt. But it should last you for quite some time with that much processing power behind it. To give you an idea of value, just the CPU is $309 on Amazon right now. The rest of the system is pretty middling, but that can be dealth with.
drainoil said:
GIRTHQUAKE said:
You won't need much. How "perfect" do you want the conversions done? And what is your skill level and knowledge with computers?
Don't need them to be a Hollywoood caliber production. Looking back at old film reels my mom made of me as a kid, I love the old "look" of them. They were very entry level and no where near professional yet clearly rooted in nostalgia. I'm thinking along those same lines for my own stuff.
I'm certainly no pro with a computer yet I can read and follow directions, tutorials what have you.
Have you already picked out the tools to convert these? Do you have links to them, and are they separate devices from a computer?
That way we can really put something cheap and cheerful together for you. These other ~$500 machines other people are posting would work fine, too.
I don't know about your PC needs due to I am not sure what kind of processing power you will need and or GPU power BUT. If you want a killer monitor I got one of these a couple weeks back for use on my workstation and it is fantastic.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/620819/asus-pg43uq-43-4k-uhd-144hz-hdmi-dp-g-sync-compatible-hdr-eyecare-led-gaming-monitor
my workstation is a 3950x cpu with 128gb 3600 ddr4 ram on an ATX x570 board and a Titan xp (the galactic empire edition) 
GPU. I run it on a M.2 nvne drive. I have three other screens plugged in to it as well. That I keep the control menus open on when I am rendering models with 400-600k elements.
My computer is probably a bit overkill for what you need but it is an example of a purpos built work station that is optimized for Autocad 2017 3D modeling and doing lifelike renderings of whole city blocks. But i use it as an example for you to consider if you need a fast processor speed with less cores (Intel) or more cores with a bit less over all clock speed (AMD) and if you need GPU power or not. All of this is extremely application dependent so you will need to do some homework and figure it out. Once you get this sorted you will know where to put the bulk of your budget towards the components in your new PC that will make it work the best for what you are using it for.
GIRTHQUAKE said:
drainoil said:
GIRTHQUAKE said:
You won't need much. How "perfect" do you want the conversions done? And what is your skill level and knowledge with computers?
Don't need them to be a Hollywoood caliber production. Looking back at old film reels my mom made of me as a kid, I love the old "look" of them. They were very entry level and no where near professional yet clearly rooted in nostalgia. I'm thinking along those same lines for my own stuff.
I'm certainly no pro with a computer yet I can read and follow directions, tutorials what have you.
Have you already picked out the tools to convert these? Do you have links to them, and are they separate devices from a computer?
That way we can really put something cheap and cheerful together for you. These other ~$500 machines other people are posting would work fine, too.
I’m not 100% set on this but something like this is what I’m considering:
https://www.amazon.com/EasyCap-Capture-Video-Adapter-Converter/dp/B01H6OQI1W
Something like this probably doesn’t require much more than a basic computer, I probably could even use an older laptop that I have (which has a built in disc player to install the program) if I didn’t have the separate need for an upgraded unit to be able to use the SIMS?
Honestly, if that's all you're needing to use you could do it right now on that old laptop and have something else for your kids. I can't really give recommendations on recording software, but I know of things like Nero5 that I think can.
As for your kids and the SIMS... I don't think even the most recent versions needed that much computer power to run. If you're fine with learning a bit about computers and want to save some cash, I'd do a basic Dell optiplex box from an office with a graphics card tossed into it and slightly more RAM for a machine that can break without much worry or concern. There's tons of videos on youtube now about it from guys like "PhilComputerLab" and such, and rarely do the builds run over $300 bucks.
GIRTHQUAKE said:
Honestly, if that's all you're needing to use you could do it right now on that old laptop and have something else for your kids. I can't really give recommendations on recording software, but I know of things like Nero5 that I think can.
As for your kids and the SIMS... I don't think even the most recent versions needed that much computer power to run. If you're fine with learning a bit about computers and want to save some cash, I'd do a basic Dell optiplex box from an office with a graphics card tossed into it and slightly more RAM for a machine that can break without much worry or concern. There's tons of videos on youtube now about it from guys like "PhilComputerLab" and such, and rarely do the builds run over $300 bucks.
Thank you Girth good to know! I will tune in and check out his vids. I must admit I have a natural tendency to apply the big hammer/smaller theory in that even though a small hammer will work, a bigger one will do the same thing but do it better.
drainoil said:
GIRTHQUAKE said:
Honestly, if that's all you're needing to use you could do it right now on that old laptop and have something else for your kids. I can't really give recommendations on recording software, but I know of things like Nero5 that I think can.
As for your kids and the SIMS... I don't think even the most recent versions needed that much computer power to run. If you're fine with learning a bit about computers and want to save some cash, I'd do a basic Dell optiplex box from an office with a graphics card tossed into it and slightly more RAM for a machine that can break without much worry or concern. There's tons of videos on youtube now about it from guys like "PhilComputerLab" and such, and rarely do the builds run over $300 bucks.
Thank you Girth good to know! I will tune in and check out his vids. I must admit I have a natural tendency to apply the big hammer/smaller theory in that even though a small hammer will work, a bigger one will do the same thing but do it better.
Same. Last year I built my current gaming machine by lurking reddit's "Build a PC Sales" subreddit, watching for deals and such- saved over $~350 (total was ~$1,000) and built a Ryzen 5 2600X-powered, AIO cooled Mini-ITX with a combined 3TB of M.2 Flash disk drive space, 16GB 3,000MHz DDR4 RAM, a B450M Motherboard, and an AMD Vega 64 graphics card powered by a 750w power supply from EVGA. It's the top 95% of machines in terms of ability- and since i've made it I think i've needed that power ONCE.
It is absolutely mad how much catch-up software and games have yet to do with modern archetecture and systems. Nvidia tried to wow everyone with the potential of Ray-tracing in the 20- and 16- series graphics cards, but there's still plenty of games that run better on the past 10- series and people have no reason to abandon them like NVidia did. Intel's motherboards and CPUs still clock RAM at a low 2133mhz while a (seemingly paltry) 8GB still means you have enough for 90% of games out there. The bar for fun, 1080p 60FPS gaming has literally never been lower and ~$400 and some time can produce some WILD results from stock parts, and I might make one soon just to kinda make one.
