Video Editing Computer

[Tittles]

Yeah, either way will work. It all depends on how he wants to archive his data.

Well he doesn't care about archiving his data. I think a dvd burner will be fine.


What you think would be a good 64 bit chip to use besides dual?

 

[muzikool]

Well he doesn't care about archiving his data. I think a dvd burner will be fine.


What you think would be a good 64 bit chip to use besides dual?

I'm pretty sure he wants to archive (save) his work.

If he's burning it on DVD then that's archiving.

 

[Tittles]

I'm pretty sure he wants to archive (save) his work.

If he's burning it on DVD then that's archiving.

He said maybe like a show or two old but other then that he doesn't care.

 

[muzikool]

He said maybe like a show or two old but other then that he doesn't care.

Huh. That's weird.

 

[ABEC [LU]]

http://www.boxxtechnologies.com/ has wicked systems, although expensive, you can see their setups and then compare with your dealer.

I personally am looking to invest in one in the next year to year and a half as per my work.

Here is their link to their video editing systems...
http://www.boxxtechnologies.com/applications/video_systems.asp

 

[sean.ferguson]

Ok - Personally I would look around newegg for something like the follwing setup:

• 1x SATA-150 WD 300GB
• 2x Crucial DDR400
• Athlon64
• Motherboard supporting the above
• Highest range GFX Card your budget can buy
• Pioneer dvd-109 re-writer

I wouldn't go all hell out on the first video editing system, you dont want to shell out a huge ton of cash until you know the video editing will take of and will justify the purchase.

 

[muzikool]

I wouldn't go all hell out on the first video editing system, you dont want to shell out a huge ton of cash until you know the video editing will take of and will justify the purchase.

I agree.

 

[lancer]

tittles you don't need a dual core as they are pointless right now no o/s even supports them properly.

I would also go with a P4 for this particalar machine as they do work better with video capturing. trust me ask any pro. Amd works best for other tasks.

Also you do need more than just a DVD player, you really will need a large drive.

Take this as an example
1 hour of AVI is about 100gb
1 hour of mpeg-2 (dvd quality) is about 10gb's
1 hour of mpeg-4 (save space quality ) is about 1gb i believe, although i never use that format.

those sizes will also change depending on the sound encode, either lcm dolby etc...

 

[sean.ferguson]

I agree.

I speak from experience. My mate from a few years back bought a PowerMac G4 Dual Processor machine (same model as SPeedY_B's i think), he got himself two 20" ACD's, roughly 1TB of storage for archiving (and that was before the days of the large 250GB drives) and as far as i'm aware its still being paid for, even though he no longer has that system.

He now has a Ti Powerbook 15". 867Mhz G4 (or somthing close to that.)

My point is, get a low-mid range system that will handle the basics. If it takes off you will be able to sell the current system and fund a larger more up-market system.

 

[Tittles]

Thanks guys

Told him to give me a call when he wants to start getting ready. He also needs a camera man. Will take like an hour to shot he said so no biggie.

He is a very hyper and doesn't keep track of things so its hard to work with him sometimes lol.

Once he gives me a call I will look up parts for what you all suggested.

Thanks again

 

[melon]

i think melon's setup would be total overkill for a video editing computer unless he is a producer making his own block-buster movies

Oh I know it is overkill. I just wanted to give an example of what the professionals use. I also made sure not to mention the gigantic Adrenaline hardware sitting next to the computer.

Melon

 

[LeeJend]

I had to think about this one for a day. Here goes in order of importance:

2+ Gig 533 RAM
--If data has to go to disk when editing you are screwed, max the RAM

P4 EMT 64
--P4 still has an edge in vid processing over AMD due to higher (1066) FSB
--You will have 64 BIT support when it applicaiotns and windows finally become fully stable and available.
--You will be able to upgrade to a dual core P4 eventually, if needed.

HD
--Speed doesn't matter PATA, SATA, 7200 or 10000. When you have to go to HD you are screwed, it is orders of magnitude slower.
--Size does matter. Some recent reviews show that the new mega HD's are slower than the medium sized ones. Put in two HDs. One for the operating system and raw data and a second drive to use for the video processing scratchpad. 2 drives, not 2 partitions!

Video Card - TBD, not familiar with the product lines.
--It must have built in hardware codecs!
--A card intended for video processing (optimized for 2D applications) is what's needed, not a hot gaming card that does 3D very well.

Monitor - 19" CRT
--The LCD monitors have a reduced and distorted color space compared to a CRT so they don't render as correctly. Not as big an issue with video editing like it is with photo work but since it is graphics work I still prefer CRT.

That should come in under $1500 (unless the vid card is an issue, the commercial vid cards used to cost multiple body parts.).

 

[Tittles]

I had to think about this one for a day. Here goes in order of importance:

2+ Gig 533 RAM
--If data has to go to disk when editing you are screwed, max the RAM

P4 EMT 64
--P4 still has an edge in vid processing over AMD due to higher (1066) FSB
--You will have 64 BIT support when it applicaiotns and windows finally become fully stable and available.
--You will be able to upgrade to a dual core P4 eventually, if needed.

HD
--Speed doesn't matter PATA, SATA, 7200 or 10000. When you have to go to HD you are screwed, it is orders of magnitude slower.
--Size does matter. Some recent reviews show that the new mega HD's are slower than the medium sized ones. Put in two HDs. One for the operating system and raw data and a second drive to use for the video processing scratchpad. 2 drives, not 2 partitions!

Video Card - TBD, not familiar with the product lines.
--It must have built in hardware codecs!
--A card intended for video processing (optimized for 2D applications) is what's needed, not a hot gaming card that does 3D very well.

Monitor - 19" CRT
--The LCD monitors have a reduced and distorted color space compared to a CRT so they don't render as correctly. Not as big an issue with video editing like it is with photo work but since it is graphics work I still prefer CRT.

That should come in under $1500 (unless the vid card is an issue, the commercial vid cards used to cost multiple body parts.).

Thanks man .

Your post helped me more since I am not into the whole video editing stuff.

 

[Sazar]

P4 EMT 64
--P4 still has an edge in vid processing over AMD due to higher (1066) FSB
--You will have 64 BIT support when it applicaiotns and windows finally become fully stable and available.
--You will be able to upgrade to a dual core P4 eventually, if needed.

I agreed with your post except for this part.

If you look at encoding performance, A64 procs are currently same/better/worse (essentially a push) for the majority of encoding tasks. This is just benchmarks. My system outperforms my brothers dual core intel configuration for encoding because the dual-core implementation for AMD is superior and it really shows in REAL world performance. The higher FSB should make absolutely no difference and if anything, the fact there is an on-die mem controller for A64's == more responsiveness which is what I refer to when I talk about outperforming things.

A benchmark does not tell the whole story, just like it didn't tell the whole story for A64 procs when they first came out. The smooth and responsive performance is what separates an a64 from an intel p4 processor, whether it be a 6xx or 8xx series.

A dual-core athlon processor is what I would highly suggest over a similar pentium processor.

My $ 0.02.

 

[Kush]

let me tell you something, as long as it has all the connections you want (firewire usb2.0) and also has a good amount of ram and hdd space, thats all you really need, if you want it to encode and decode fast then you will need a fast cpu etc, but other than that you just need the basics

 

[Admiral Michael]

Put in two HDs. One for the operating system and raw data and a second drive to use for the video processing scratchpad. 2 drives, not 2 partitions!

I know my High School used a Matrox system and they recommend separate drives like you said. One for OS/Apps, one for storage. Also, video editing can be a big demand on the drives when saving and such. So don't be surprised if the storage one dies earlier then usual. This happened to my high school, we had to replace the drive.

I also agree with the more ram the better.

 

[Steevo]

Alot of opinion in here. All of it good. And most from experiance.

Here is my experiance.

RAID 0 is quick, and as long as the drives are checked before implementing the system, and backups are made in decent time, no worries.

Maxtor makes VERY quick-large harddrives. Faster than Raptors. Period.

Add in SATA RAID card 4 or more connections = 1.2TB or more of storage at minimal cost and great speed.


The more RAM the better. The only time I use my full Gb and needed more was when doing movie or audio work. And then a 2 minute basic 640X480 movie in 25FPS Stereo was bumping the edge of my RAM.

The faster the processor the better. AMD or Intel, FSB be dammed.

They make good video editing cards. Newegg has one on sale, people have made the mistake of thinking a gaming card is a video editing card or vice versa. They aren't.


What ever you choose, go visit some forums about video editing.

 

[Aprox]

I do a fair amount of video edting, composting and rendering and as everyone has said RAM RAM RAM! You cannot have to much of this wonderful thing, makes a huge difference. I have 2 gigs and I still run out of it when dealing with larger video clips.

Dual Core is nice if you can afford it, all of the big apps ARE multithreaded and you will get better performance with them, especially when it comes to encoding and rendering. But based on the budget this might be out of range for now (upgrade! woohoo). I do however recommend AMD for this, not only because I am a AMD fan, but because of the great performance for the price you get. Some apps do run better on Intels but the performance delta is very little and the price difference makes it hard to justify the Intel side. (this is comparing low to middle market products... not the high end stuff)

I dont know much about video editing GPU's since I have a 6800gt for gaming I just use that and works fine, but a pro line card might work better... not sure.

Hard drive capacity is a must, just as much speed is. You could use Dual raptors in RAID 0 for your main windows/swap/scratch drive and perhaps a 300gb maxtor or similar for storage. Personally I use a linux server over a Gb ethernet connection, but whatever is convient to use.

I am not sure I have added anything to this topic... just reiterated what others have said. Good Luck Tittles, I hope you can decide on whats the best choice