Building a Computer....HELP!!

Slimothy

Slimothy

Veteran
Hello,
Me and my dad are building a computer, sorta a father and son project, and also a good way for me to come up on a good NLE. I don't really know too much about building computers. Could some of you list some of the things I will need for a decent editing suite. It's going to be a PC and I will use it for Shorts, Features, Weddings, Commercials etc. Also what price range am I looking at. Maybe if some of you who do have a pretty good setup could list all the things/parts you have that would be very helpful. Any tips would be awesome too. Thanks so much, Tim.
 
How much you wanna spend? :grin:


If I were to build one right now, I'd go to NewEgg.com and get a barebones dual Xeon and load it up with lots of memory and a RAID 0 set.

That's $1000+ right there.



Dan
 
Get atleast 512 MB of RAM...or 1 GB if u wanna do some real serious stuff like computer graphics and crazy compositing stuff.

at least a 200 GB hard drive...or higher...CD drives...preferred 2 drives....one DVD burner and the other regular burner...and if you get two..make sure they are all purpose drives...iduno if thats standard for burners...but make sure they read cds and everything. The whole nine yards pretty much..

If you reallyyy wanna get fancy now....2 monitors...maybe the extra third if you want.
Also...a graphics card with atleast 32 MB of RAM or 128....

But most of that stuff is just making your system beastly of all beasts...oh yea..i forgot...if your gonna use Vegas 6.0...get a multiproccessor mother board with either AMD or Pentium 4 chips in it.

other than those things...your computer should be beast....id say well..my computer was 4,000 dollars....2 CD drives...both built in...both burners...200 GB hard drive...single pentium 4 processor....512 MB SDRAM...soon gonna upgrade to 1 GB....and 3 monitors...and 5.1 Surround Speakers.
 
I'd like to spend about $2,000 at the most. Can I get a decent system for this much? Tim. I already have another montor, so I don't have to buy that.
 
2,000 bucks....you can def get a decent system for that much....

NOTE: IM GOING BY SOME OF THE USER RATINGS AND SOME PRICES

A decent hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152022

RAM:

NOTE: Getting your RAM depends on how many RAM inports you installed on the computer...
So im not really sure which one specific..so leave this one open
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=17

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116200

Cooling system...this one is compatible with Pentium 4:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106032

Mother Boards:
NOTE: Due to the RAM inports...depending how much RAM you want...theres different amount of ports in the different mother boards
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=20

Do you also need keyboard and speakers too? or you have those?

Keyboard and Mouse:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126131

Speakers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836135003

For this post..im just giving you an idea for some things to look at...not to actually buy..its your own choice...but...just a general idea..

EDIT: Some motherboards might not be compatible with some of the things you want to hook up too it...maybe the RAM...hard drive etc....so also keep that in your mind...it happend to my uncle...some parts didnt work properly with the mother board...iduno how he fixed it...but i thought i should give you a heads up..
 
Thanks so much. That's exactly what I was looking for. Anyone else have w/ ideas as to what product I should buy would be great.
 
Slimothy,

Take a look at my wishlist on Newegg:

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...D=1580307&WishListTitle=DJQuikFingaz's new pc

Quick summary of the setup:

- Asus P5AD2-E Premium
- P4 3.4ghz
- 6800GT 256MB
- 2gb Corsair DDR2 SDRAM
- 3.5 floppy
- 1 - 160gb sata hd (games and stuff)
- 2 - 250gb sata hd (vids)


I'm hoping to make my purchase in a couple months. This list should give you a good idea of some of the stuff you'd need. Also FYI, not only am I going to use this as an NLE, but also for some gaming.
 
You can build a pretty sick editing machine for $2000.

http://videoguys.com/DIY.html That will get you started. Just remember that building a computer is like making a film - 90% preproduction (i.e. learning about the components). Black Hawks right about compatibility, and its not just memory. Really learn about the parts and then design the system- then post here and we'll tell you if we see any glaring errors.

Now a few tips from me- Build your computer as upgradeable as possible, this mean as large a case as you can stand, PCI Express, 775 slot Intel or Athalon64 motherboard and also buying your memory in large sticks (in pairs). That way you'll still have the slots to get up to 3-4 gigs for the future.
You already have monitor? Great. Buy another. Two screen editing is WAY better than trying to have your whole NLE on one screen.
 
$2000? Wow, that's a lot.

I just built mine for around $1000, not including monitors and video storage. Got almost all the stuff from Newegg.

AMD x64 3500+
2Gb Kingston Dual Channel PC3200 RAM
MSI Neo 4 Platinum motherboard (This thing is an absolute beast)
Antec P160 case
Some fairly generic 500w power supply.
12x LiteOn DVD Burner
80Gb Seagate hd (7200rpm, 8mb cache) for system files and progs.
ATI Radeon x300 (couln't get anything better as it would be too tempting to play games on it.)

Other stuff that I already had:
M-Audio FW-410
Samsung 997DF (my second monitor is a piece of trash, and I would like to get another 997)
250GB external WD hard drive for video (It will soon be relegated to backup and storage for files that carry over from project to project, as I'm making a client pay for a .5tb raid array.

I think that's about it. The whole thing, with all the accessories cost well under $200.
 
try to get a mobo with onboard RAID controller. otherwise, i'm liking what DJ has goin' on. i dig asus for mobo, and a p4 3.2 would do you just fine. you should be able to do this for $1500, maybe less! get SATA HDDs for sure. your system drive doesn't have to be very big - i just installed a 36gb WD 10k Raptor as my system drive, and it's very fast. i have 2 more of those in RAID0 for a working drive.

i would seriously consider GenJerDan's suggestion, though. the performance of your NLE is directly related to processing power, especially for rendering. at least 1 gig of RAM is necessary. and SATA drives. i wouldn't go less than a 128mb PCI-E video card, either. if you can afford the 6800 or X800, do it. you won't be sorry.

ugh. this is the hard part, the deciding. putting it all together will be fun for you and your dad. post your shopping list when you get close so we can review your system.
 
Thanks so much guys. I'll start posting as soon as we start.

Frizzle: Do you think you could post some links for me for those things you mentioned. I don't know what some of that stuff is. Thanks. Tim.
 
SATA Hard drives:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...TGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=SATAHardDrives

You may want to call Monarch after you pick out a processor that you like. They can point you in the right direction as far as which mobo is best for it.

My thought on building a computer is to future proof it the best you can. That means trying to get a mobo that has built-in onboard RAID controller, gigabit LAN, PCI-E, SATA. Most new ones support these features. Look in the specs of the board you're considering. And you can always upgrade later if you find you need it. There's a number of folks on this board who swear by Matrox video cards for editing, but I think they're using high-end LCD/plasma displays. But the hardest things to upgrade are your mobo/cpu/case. So do those right the first time.

More on this later when i have time to get specific...

fixitinpost: how do you like your 997? i just got two of them. great price, but do you notice a moire pattern on the edges of your display? i'm getting used to it, but still a little annoying. i love everything esle about them.
 
An Asus P4C800-E Deluxe is a really nice mother board...it has onboard SATA and RAID controllers.

As mentioned a Pentium 4 3.2 with hyperthreading would be a nice processor, and I wouldn't go with any less than 1 gig or RAM. Get 2 gigs if you can swing it.

For hard drives, you need to be capturing your video to a separate physical drive(s) than your system drive. My setup is a 120 gig system drive, and two 250 gig SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration for my media. With a RAID 0, your computer sees it as 1 giant 500 gig drive, and the access is very fast.

One more thing...put in a lot of fans!! Keep that thing cool inside.

Good luck.
 
Frizzle. Is there a certain case you would suggest. One that allows room for upgrade, but is still reasonably priced. Also, what, exactly is RAID?
 
Also, WADESPENCER99: Could you elaborate a bit more on exactly what hard drives you have etc. Thanks, Tim.
 
Tim, look at some of Monarch's ATX full size cases. You'll want to get a 460-500W Power supply as well.

I have something like this:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...=M&Product_Code=100146&Category_Code=C1-antec
Very roomy, plenty of fans.

and one of these:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...de=M&Product_Code=100578&Category_Code=ps-400
quite enough juice, fairly quiet.

RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks

When two or more identical drives are configured in a RAID array, they are seen by the OS as one large drive. In the case of RAID0, data is written to both drives at the same time, as in half the bytes go on one, half on the other. This results in increased performance-actually about double the write speed. The problem with RAID0 is that if one drive fails, all data on both drives will be lost.

There are other RAID levels, such as 3 and 5, that allow for redundancy of data, but require more drives. With RAID3, if one drive fails, you can replace it without any data loss.

There is hardware RAID (as in onboard controller, good) and software RAID (not so good). Which is why you want a mobo with onboard RAID.
 
Slimothy said:
Also, WADESPENCER99: Could you elaborate a bit more on exactly what hard drives you have etc. Thanks, Tim.
Click to expand...

Hehe...I'm gonna get flamed for this one, but my hard drives are Maxtor...lol


Maxtor Ultra Series 120 gigabyte --- System drive

Maxtor SATA 250 gigabyte --------
----- RAID 0 config for what looks like a 500 gig drive
Maxtor SATA 250 gigabyte --------
 
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