[confused234]

I've decided to buy a brand new store bought computer. Seems easy enough thought I knew what things were. I am interested in buying a Dell (don't know exactly why but it's a gut feeling that I should do that)

What I need to know is:

1) what is the difference between 16x CD-Rom and 48X

2) when they say dual drives does that mean I get one for cd's and one for dvd's? are dual drives better than combo or all in one?

3) how would it take for 1GB of memory to become obsolete?

4) is radeon just as good as nvidia video?

5) I thought it would be great to have the ability to record my favorite television shows onto a cd but I was told that first the recording goes onto my hard drive and then I have to copy it to a dvd. Is this true?

6) if I want to copy my vhs tapes to a dvd what would I need?

Thank you for any/all help I truly appreciate the help/advice.

confused

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1) The write speed but you need a Dual Layer DVDRW Drive, this will also write to CDR/RW Discs
and a DVD ROM Drive.

2) It either has two drives, is a combo drive or they mean dual layer, go for 2 drives

3) Depends what you use the PC for, video editing will be easier with 2GB, check the maximum amount of memory the motherboard will support, then check the maximum number of memory slots, divide maximum amount by maximum slots and get memory sticks this size

4) Yes

5) Yes because the file size will mean you can expect between 1 - 2 hours to fit on a DVDR Disc which is 6 - 7 times the size of a CDR Disc

6) A TV Tuner card which has the same type of input / output connections as your Video Player

[Retired Tech]

1) The write speed but you need a Dual Layer DVDRW Drive, this will also write to CDR/RW Discs
and a DVD ROM Drive.

2) It either has two drives, is a combo drive or they mean dual layer, go for 2 drives

3) Depends what you use the PC for, video editing will be easier with 2GB, check the maximum amount of memory the motherboard will support, then check the maximum number of memory slots, divide maximum amount by maximum slots and get memory sticks this size

4) Yes

5) Yes because the file size will mean you can expect between 1 - 2 hours to fit on a DVDR Disc which is 6 - 7 times the size of a CDR Disc

6) A TV Tuner card which has the same type of input / output connections as your Video Player

[Neil Jones]

3) It won't become "obsolete" as such, more rather it'll get used up the more you do with it. That is, if you do video editing or heavy gaming, etc, it'll be used a lot more than it would if you were just surfing on the internet.

4) Radeons are often seen as the budget videocard; but they do perform very well for the price.