Building a cheap ~$400 video editing PC running diary

[yabyum]

hey guys, this is the running diary of me building a new computer for editing GH1 footage. for the first post i'm just going to c/p a post i made on a tech forum. it's the pre-production post :) I ask questions in there but you don't have to answer 'em (unless you want to), they're for the computer forum duders. I'll be posting the later stages of the process as it goes along. Thought this might be of some benefit to you guys.

Hey guys,

so I currently edit AVCHD 1080i video on my Sempron laptop. It's not fun. So I need to build an editing rig... but I want it very very cheap (and good still LDO!)


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
video editing mainly, photoshop work, and 3d stuff

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$400

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
america

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
cheap, reliable, hassle-free

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
keyboard, mouse, monitors

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
yes

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
default, hassle free as much as possible

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
asap


OK, so here's what I've come up after researching today (which was very very fun):

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103648
$99

MOBO: ASRock K10N78
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157159
$64.99

RAM: OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227362
$48.99

CASE: Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm Japanese Cold Rolled Steel Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147033
$44.99

HARD DRIVE: HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 0A35415 500GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822145215)
$53.99

PSU: SeaSonic SS-400ET 400W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 80 PLUS Certified
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151061
$49.99

or

Antec earthwatts EA430 430W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006
$59.99

or

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008
$59.99

OPTICAL: LITEON iHAS124-04 24X SATA DVD Burner
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010552
$31.99

total: $392.94

Before you say anything...
-I will use onboard video (Geforce 8200) for the time being planning on upgrading later
-Single hard drive is sub optimal for video editing however I plan to get two more in the future when I have more $$
-I could've gone $15 cheaper with my case but the looks difference is astounding, and I really like the look of the one above.

Questions I have:
-The motherboard (mnfr link (http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=K10N78&s=)) uses the Geforce 8200 chipset from what I can tell. The sticky on the top says to stay away from Nvidia for mobos. However, on newegg the one I picked has excellent reviews. I want to be able to install my Phenom II X3 with no problems and preferably no bios flashing.

-Is the Seasonic 400W going to be enough if I plan to later get a video card, firewire, two more hard drives, and 4GB more RAM? Should I get the Corsair or the Antec Earthwatts for $10 more?

-For $46 more I can get a Phenom II X4 940 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471) with a Biostar TA790GXB 790GX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138143) motherboard which has onboard video of ATI Radeon HD 3300. I'd rather not spend this extra money and certain video editing things make use of NVidia but not ATI. Although it is a 3.0GHz 4core vs 2.6GHz 3core. And it gets rid of the Nvidia chipset on the motherboard, which I'm not convinced is an issue.

[yabyum]

okay after some comments on the other forum I've got this now

new total: $445.94 + $24.60 shipping = $470.54.

Changes I made:
-switched out OCZ for better G.Skill RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
-decided to get the faster CPU/mobo combo deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.209473
-getting Corsair PSU w/free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008
-getting Hitachi HD from newegg for free shipping
-getting LG dvd burner instead as its cheaper and free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136167... discovered annoying bluebird firmware spyware can be removed easily (http://www.msfn.org/board/inde...showtopic=135300&st=0&)

i'm pretty happy with this. it is more than i wanted but it's going to be worth it in the long haul. gotta put in some hours at the workplace but that's life. the new cpu will be 3.0ghz quad core vs 2.4ghz triple core. this is also a great benefit for encoding wmv as it only utilizes sets of 2 for multi-processing. I initially wanted $250 (dream), thought it was going to be $350, and now am going with $470.54 lol

but it's going to be blazing fast

[yslee]

That sounds like a nice rig, despite having to increase your budget. Enjoy!

[yabyum]

Just ordered today. With 3-day shipping, two extra long SATA cables just in case (I know mobo comes with 2), and AS Ceramique total comes to 467.26. Thanks thanks thanks everyone. (Ended up not going with the cheaper PSU because I do plan on upgrading with a good video card later)

Hopefully my next post in this thread will be from the new rig. I'm very happy... under $470 for over 5x the performance for my uses. Previously using Sempron 2.0Ghz laptop LOL.
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/amdathlonii250_060109222115/19383.png (mine at top, comparable old at bottom)

:D :D :D

i love that technology gets so cheap so quick WOOT

[yabyum]

received all my parts today :)

still at work though so i'll probably have the build done tomorrow

[yabyum]

posting from the new comp freshly built :D :D :D

omg i can watch 1080p AVCHD files WITH NO PROBLEM AT ALL. *heaven*

can't wait to get my gh1 :)

[yabyum]

oh man. vegas 9.0 + avchd = buttter

[Ian Slessor]

oh man. vegas 9.0 + avchd = buttter

Nice.

How smooth does Vegas run with more than one stream of AVCHD?

sincerely,



ian

[Tim Joy]

hmmm... 3 grand for a Mac or 500 bucks for a PC editing system... ??? I'm very interested in this. Already have a rackmount case and a bunch of parts too.

[yabyum]

Nice.

How smooth does Vegas run with more than one stream of AVCHD?

sincerely,



ian

you mean multiple clips of AVCHD on the timeline? i'll test it tonight (working now). i'll stack them too and see how playback is.

[yabyum]

also guys, if you're interested in doing what i did make sure you utilize
this forum (http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=27)

it's just about the best computer forum on the net and full of friendly, helpful people. the stickies at the top will get you started. anything you would need to know about what parts to get and how to build the comp are contained there.

also it looks like the original deal i got on the motherboard/cpu combo is now gone. but there's still more deals: like this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.212169) but it doesn't have a built in video so you'll need a video card and also its an AM3 motherboard which means you'll have to spring for more expensive DDR3 RAM (not that much more expensive).

there's a great hot deals forum at anandtech too for bringing your price down.

[yabyum]

okay I put 3 AVCHD clips in the timeline, 2 at 1080p and one at 720p (from the GH1)

then i've stacked them up in 3 video layers and changed the crop/track motion settings so the two 1080p files are picture in picture on the 720p video

playback is slower it seems like. definitely to start it is a bit choppy for about 1-2 sec but it is still smooth and absolutely no crashing. i may take a video of this but i am quite tired right now.

[Ian Slessor]

you mean multiple clips of AVCHD on the timeline? i'll test it tonight (working now). i'll stack them too and see how playback is.

Hey yabyum,

I do multi-cam shoots and so I use the Vegas Multi-Cam tool to edit multiple streams of synced video.

Just wondering how that works for you.

My old dual-core laptop breezes through two streams of SD vid from my DVXb cams fed from a single external hdd via USB 2.0.

Thanks,

sincerely,


ian

[Ian Slessor]

Ooops.

Heh. See you already did that.

Nice.

I'm guessing your preview window's around 640x480 but widescreen?

Are you running the video off of your system drive or are you using an external HDD?

sincerely,


ian

[yabyum]

since i was going very cheap i only have 1 HDD at the moment. so everything was being done off that 1 HD (500GB 7200RPM). though the nice thing is it will be very easy and cheap to upgrade this in the future. that would probably also improve performance.