Hi everyone i've been seeing a few people in this section latly complaining about bad quality or no preview on their capture cards even though they have followed the tutorials now this problem can be caused by lack of R.A.M, processing power, or graphics power. So i thought i would post up a selection of cheap quality products that can be bought from any decent computer fair or store. I have used ebuyer.com to show which products can be bought (to any mods in the area this isnt meant to be advertising I am trying to help those without the knowledge of the inside of a pc).

First of all i will start with the CPU (processor)
Bare in mind you must have the correct amount of pins in the CPU socket of your motherboard to hold the correct processors. All of these proccessors are cheap for their statistics and technology and are arranged from least power & price to largest power & price.

If anyone should have anymore CPU modules or links to put into this thread please post them here or PM with them and i will update the thread.


AMD
Socket A/462
AMD Sempron 2400+
AMD Sempron 2800+
Socket 754
AMD Sempron 3300+
Socket 939
3000+ Venice 1.8ghz 512kb L2
3200+ Venice 2.0ghz 512kb L2
3500+ Venice 2.2ghz 512kb L2
3700+ San Diego 2.2ghz 1024kb L2
3800+ Venice 2.4ghz 512kb L2
4000+ San Diego 2.4ghz 1024kb L2
Socket 939 x2
3800+ Manchester 2.0ghz 2x 512kb L2
4200+ Manchester 2.2ghz 2x 512kb L2
4400+ Toledo 2.2ghz 2x 1024kb L2
4600+ Manchester 2.4ghz 2x 512kb L2
4800+ Toledo 2.4ghz 2x 1024kb L2
Socket 939 FX
FX-51 San Diego 2.2ghz 1024kb L2(Currently in Production as the 3700+)
FX-53 San Diego 2.4ghz 1024kb L2(Currently in Production as the 4000+)
(The below CPU's are meant for Gaming, not for A/V production. We are Just including them as a Helpful Comparision standpoint.)
FX-55 San Diego 2.6ghz 1024kb L2
FX-57 San Diego 2.8ghz 1024kb L2
FX-60 Toledo 2.6ghz 2x 1024kb L2
Socket AM2
FX-62 Windsor 2.8ghz 2x 1024kb L2

Intel
Socket 775
Intel Celeron D 326 2.533Ghz
Intel Celeron D 336 2.8Ghz
Socket 478
Intel Celeron® D 335 2.8GHz
Intel Celeron 345 3.0GHz
Intel Pentium 4E (Prescott) 3.0GHz
Laptops
Pentium M 740 1.73ghz

Crest says:
Next is the R.A.M or the volotile memory, this is extremly crucial to get right right because you need to remember 3 key things:
1)Size of the stick of ram in Mb/Gb
2)The amount of memory your motherboard can hold and if it supports dual channel mode.
3)The correct socket number.


I will only post one type of RAM from each PC number on which i believe should be the correct size, remember you may want to re-check the DDR/PC number on your motherboard so that you can buy the correct RAM. Also if you want to sleep easy tonight you should buy at least 1Gb worth of RAM whichever PC number you can hold.
Also beware that these are branded modules of memory which are much more reliable but are more expensive than unbranded. Basically use this as a guideline to the amount of memory you should buy.
If anyone should have anymore PC/DDR modules or links to put into this thread please post them here or PM with them and i will update the thread.

Crest says:
Crest says:
PC100
256Mb
PC133
256Mb
PC2100
512Mb
PC2700
512Mb
PC3200
512Mb
1Gb
PC4200
2Gb

Finally the graphics cards or the GPU, this is the product which lets you see everything on your screen and processes graphics onto the monitor. I would also like to point out which ports are better for graphics cards in order of technology, speed & data rates so you must buy a graphics card according to the best port that you own or you will not get the best performance:
1) PCI
2) AGP 2x
3) AGP 3.0
4) AGP 4x
5) AGP 8x
6) PCI-Express (PCI-E)

NOTE: Any AGP 8x card works with the other AGP slots it just hads lower performance.

Crest says:
Some graphics cards can have special features such as dual monitor output etc so i have made a key which i will put next to each link if that graphics card has a special feature.
Key:
CC - Can be used as a capture card.
SV - Supports and S-video port.
TV - TV out support.
DVI - DVI output support.
Dual DVI - DVI x2
HD - Supports High Definition.
CC - Can be used as a capture card.
DDR2 - Supports DDR2 memory.
GDDR3 - Suppports the latest GDDR3 memory.
HPC - Heat Pipe cooling system support.
SLi - Technology which allows you to take two seperate video cards and have them work together and power one monitor.
* - recomended if you have this port(PCI, AGP etc), this is an all out brilliant card.

PCI
Nvidia
PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 - SV
Aopen Aeolus Fx5200-v128 - TV
Ati
Club 3D Radeon 9250 - DVI, SV, *
Gecube Radeon 9250 - DVI
ATI Fire GL V3100 - DVI

AGP
Nvidia
AOpen FX 5200
Club 3D Fx5200 - TV
XFX GeForce FX5500 - DVI, TV
XFX GeForce FX5200 - DVI, SV
XFX GeForce 6200A - DVI, TV, DDR2
XFX 6600GT 128mb - HD, Dual DVI,
XFX GEFORCE 7800GS - SV, DVI.
Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS+ SILENT (with a 7900GT GPU) - Dual DVI, SLi, *
Ati
Gecube Radeon 9250 64bit - DVI, TV
Sapphire Radeon 9250 - DVI, TV
Sapphire Radeon 9550 - DVI, TV, HD
PowerColor X800GTO - DVI, TV, SV
Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro - DVI, SV, TV, HD, GDDR3, *

PCI-Express
Nvidia
Leadtek WinFast PX6600-TD128 - DVI, TV
Gainward 6600 GT - DVI, TV, GDDR3
XFX Geforce 6800XTreme Edition - Dual DVI, GDDR3, SLI, *
Gainward BLISS GeForce 6800 GS Goes Like Hell - GDDR3, TV, DVI, *
Ati
MSI ATI X1600XT 256mb heat pipe cooling - GDDR3, HPC
Sapphire X800GTO² - GDDR3, DVI, TV
Sapphire Radeon X850 XT - GDDR3, TV, DVI

Most common hard drives - by Crest
Internal
List of Sata150 HDD's: Newegg.com
List of SATA23.0GB/s HDD's: Newegg.com
Traditional EIDE 133: Newegg.com
Traditional EIDE 100: Newegg.com
External
Here is a list of External Harddrives from Manufacturers I recommend: Newegg.com

Well thats the end of this thread guys hope this helps some people who are just starting out and want to get over the so called devil inside their PC and I have also made a list of the people who know a lot about pc hardware who you should contact if you need anymore help, the list will be small at first but will hopefully grow larger as we find more people who are learning about their pc hardware and if anyone wishes to be put on this list or taken off it please contact me.
People who can help you with your PC:
DayC
Crest (recommended!)
Scott
Cramesta
X Deux X (Apple Mac Specialist)
Newgy (Intel Specialist)
II Pimp II
-=mrbagrat=-

Crest recommends
Find out your PC specifications with this program!


Scott Recommends
This is the best quality brand of memory for a low price!

Scott Recommends
How to check if you have or don't have USB2.0

DayC Recommends
This is how to install any PCI, AGP or PCI-E card into your PC.


DayC Recommends
This is how to upgrade a laptop!

DayC Recommends
This is a PCI card for people looking to expand to USB 2.0

II Pimp II recommends
How to make sure your Dazzle 90 is detecting your USB 2.0 ports.

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Though as far as capturing performance, a Graphics card a Extremly low bearing on it. Though if you have non-sucky one you will be able to take the rendering your desktop and such load, off the CPU. That might be the only advantage.

For those who don't know what there CPU is currently go here: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php This program scans your computer and tells, Pin amount, FSB speed, Manfacturer, Date of make, Main Clock speed, Multiplier, and bunch of other yummy stuff. Based on that information you cn make a smart buying decision. This program also tell your RAM type.

If you do not feal comfortable installing a CPU, then I believe CompUSA can install components for you. CompUSA is the only large Chain of stores that I know of that will do that. Though if you have a local Computer store that assembles custom computers, I'd try them.
Remember when installing Hold the CPU by the edges and always Ground your self.

RAM is important for capturing, though more so in other applications. Some applications capture into the RAM(being a large degree faster than the HDD) and then will gather that data and burst write it onto a empty space of the HDD. IF you have a small amount of RAM, that Bursting ocurrs more often. and you computer will get bogged down trying to write Data. Some Programs use the Ram as a Buffer. If the HDD is fragmented and is slow to write, the Program will use the Ram to hold the Incoming information till the HDD is picking up the pace.
Now if you had an Uber CPU 100cores () then the solution to the slowdown due the the RAM is use Compression such as WMV. But on normal PC's this would bogg down the CPU.(thats why I threw in the 100 core CPU)

The lower the Compression of Video the overall greater Size. So your ram will fill up faster. Higher Compressions are better, but are harder to encode in real-time.
Fast CPU = Try to use a higher Compression (Ex. 8mbps CBR one pass .Wmv)
Slow CPU = Keep those frame rates high with low Compression. (Ex. NTSC DV AVI)


BTW NewEgg.com is good in US.
If you would like me to recommend Components let me know.

Also I have actually never heard that DDR2 runs on graphics cards :/

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Great post DayC.

Really helpful.

If I could suggest something, it would be Corsair Value Select RAM. This is amazing. It's so cheap, but with such good performance. You can get 512MB x2 for about £50.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/valueselect.html

If you're upgrading your RAM, I suggest those.

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Yeah i hadn't before today either but i saw it on the specs of a few graphics cards so i decided to put it there lol

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Great post, I agree with almost all of it except some of the cpu choices but great job still. Would you mind adding me to the list of people who can help?
For experience I have been building PC's since I was 8. I can especially help people with high performance computers because that is what I use most of the time, I also have some experience with mac OSX for any one who uses a mac.

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Yeah sure i've added you to the list as the mac specialist.

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By the way "SLi" does'nt mean dual monitor. It's the technology from NVidia for Dual Graphics cards. Scalable Link Interface.

You can use Dual Monitors with it but thats not the point of it. The point it to use two cards to power one screen not two cards to power two screens.
and you use CC for GFX cards twice

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Excellent work, DayC. Btw, the link to your first Killtrocity on your second account is rather useless, because the game was purged and you can't see the medals anymore.

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Tnx man, now I only need an editor

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GT: III pAtsuki III

Right thanks for that i've been taught the wrong meaning, but you live and learn. Now you can see why I put you as recommended lol.

Thanks mate I havn't been on there in a while.

And also guys I am going to go back through this little tutorial and add the following things tomorrow afternoon GMT time:
1) Renamed links to make things clearer Updated!
2) Add colour because it looks boring Updated!
3) Add motherboard section
4) rename the recommended links Updated!
If any one who is on the list or wants to be on the list would like to help with these or add something new please don't hesitate to PM me what you would like me to put on there.

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