New PC

A

Amz

Member
Hi Guys,

Looking to build a new pc for video editing (gonna be using premiere pro 2 and after effects).

My question here is what would be your ideal set up be? and should i be concentrating on CPU or Graphics card? I know memory is important and I'm gonna be having at least 2GB minimum of RAM.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Amz
 
graphics card isn't the factor you might think it is - unless you're thinking of buying a matrox card or something like that... spend your money on CPU and HDD.
 
meh,
i got some nice computers in my store that im sellin now.

HP's mind you but they are great none the less with decent prices.

Athlon 64 dual core 4200
2gig ddr ram
6600 graphics card
250 G hard drive

and some other neat little gadgets go for about 850 canadian.

Yesterday i bought my girflriend a little Xplio ( cheaper because they are no named brands but i got my techies to make sure it was fine )

just as good in terms of computers but half of the price!

Athlon 64 3700
DVD rom + dvd writer DL
a gig of ram ddr
200 gig hardrive
internal radeon express 200 graphics
4 years protection and service from my store

all for 500 bucks canadian, taxes in.
 
Thats interesting, I was looking at the Matrox RTX2 as a graphics card, as it does HD editing too (therefore futureproofing), but haven't heard anyone use it and give a proper review.

But regarding CPU, yeh dual core is the way to go, with a SATA raid setup.

Thanks Papa for the pricing, but I'm in the UK!
 
Socket 775

Socket 775

If you're getting a PC, base it on the intel socket 775 chipset. That's the "new" standard that allows for dual-core processors, SATA drives and PCI-Express graphics.

What you want to focus on are the following:

- Fast processor (any of the dual core 775 chips over 3.0Ghz will do fine. NO CELERON PROCESSORS! Get the real deal)
- RAM (1GB works fine, 2GB is better, most of the socket 775 motherboards support up to 8GB for the future)
- Hard drives. Get at least two: one for your system and software, one for scrubbing, video files and other stuff. All SATA drives are fast enough. if you want to go all out you can set up a SATA RAID system, but that's really overkill
- Large power supply. The 775 socket processors and PCI-E cards draw a lot of power. you'll also be running your firewire card, audio card and a multitude of USB devices so it's a good idea to spend some extra cash on a powersupply first rather than burning one out and having to replace it. Typically when you buy a case it contains a power supply but it is about 450w. you should get one that is at least 550w or higher. they are not very expensive.

If you want a capture card, go with one of the matrox ones that are certified by adobe. You only need this extra card if you are capturing video from other sources than your camera and you want to preview through a card rather than a camera. if you're only using your midi-dv tapes a cheap work-around is to buy the cheapest mini-dv camcorder you can find and use it to scrub tapes and run previews on an external monitor.

The best advice I can give anyone is to design a custom-built system from scratch. any computer store will do this for you for not a lot of money if you don't want to do it your self. The reason you want to do this is that all prefab computers (sony, hp, dell, ibm, toshiba etc etc) feature a whole pile of stuff you don't need that will bog the computer down. and they typically come with software you have to uninstall to get peak performance from the system. a custom system is also cheaper than a prefab system. and each component will have a warranty on it so there is no need to worry about that.

One system that is reccomended on hardware.no is as follows:

- large and powerful cabinet with extra fans (more quiet is better)
- 550w or higher power supply (no preference)
- ASUS LGA 775 motherboard - I use the P5LG1 and it works like a charm. make sure you get at least the 915p chipset. for more info go here: http://uk.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=3&l2=11
- ATI chipset graphics (can be OEM product) based on the x600 or higher series. Make sure it has at least 256mb RAM. More info here: http://www.ati.com/products/home-office.html
- LGA775 dual core Pentium processor at 3.0 Ghz or more. if you want you can splurge on the 64bit model but that requires the 64bit version of Windows XP which is quite unstalbe. However, for the future 64bit is going to become the standard. The much delayed Windows Vista will be 64bit.
- if you want 2gb of ram, get two sticks of 1gb each. don't get tricked into getting 4 sticks of 512
- two hard drives. get at least 150GB for the system and at least 300GB for the video disk. SATA drives is a must. Seagate or Westen Digital are good bets. Don't go with Maxtor whatever they say. I've fried three of them allready and they are really difficult when it comes to warranty.
- Dual-Layer DVD burner. any version will do. Get an LG one. it's cheap and good.
- Two monitors. makes things much easier

If you have the money, go for the Matrox card but only if you really need it.

and ofcourse, buy XP Professional with the system. if you do you get an OEM price which is about half the regular price. Run all updates, download Windows Defender Beta from the microsoft website and purchase Antivirus software.

If you have a seccond old computer, set it up in a network and install the rendering tool for After Effects on it so you can use it to render faster. it's a dream. you'll also get more storage space with it.

Once you have your system, go here and tweak the hell out of your system to get lightning fast performance and no crashes:

http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html

if you want more info don't hesistate to ask. I like designing systems :o)
mor10
 
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