building a new computer for HDV and Veagas 7.0

D

db20

Active member
Hello:

I was hoping on any recommendations or suggestions on how to build a very good computer to edit HDV and under $1600. Some of the specs i was looking at were 1 terabyte memory, raid storage, ASUS - DH Deluxe mother board, Intel Core 2 Duo. I wasn't sure about a graphic card (i'm not sure what would be decent to edit and view HD) maybe the ATI Radeon X1900XX 512MB. I'm not sure how powerful a computer i am going to need to edit HDV comfortably. Is what i'm looking at overkill or is it not enough? I'm not looking for a super fast computer thats renders in record time but one that will comfortably get the job done.

Thank you
[SIZE=+0][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Here is a link to the site i was looking for as a guide:[/SIZE]
http://www.videoguys.com/DIY5.html
 
1- Now that computers have become really commoditized, you may be able to buy a computer for less than the cost of building one. Look at the deals on hot deals sites like gotapex.com, fatwallet.com, etc.
Read the forums too to see what other people say.

The downside of doing this is that:
-The computers typically aren't designed to be upgraded much. You can only put so many hard drives in there (1, 2, or 4; rarely more) and there's little point in upgrading the computer (proprietary parts).
-Tech support may be frustrating.


2- If you want to build your own computer, then I think the Core 2 Duo is really the way to go. It is clearly the best CPU to get right now based on rendertest.veg results.

As far as the motherboard goes, I might lean towards something cheaper. I find the extra features aren't all that useful unless you're trying to cram a lot of drives into your computer. But I would rather just get really big hard drives- this is more futureproof. When you switch computers, having less hard drives is a good thing.

As far as the video card goes, Vegas doesn't really take advantage of GPU acceleration. Other programs do, so take a look at their compatibility charts. Some programs are very picky- i.e. Magic Bullet Editor's 2 doesn't work on ATI on PC.
 
I'm in the same boat - getting ready to build my first system. After some research (see bottom), the only way buying beats building is on real low end stuff (sub $500). Plus, building lets you maximize the system for what you specifically need - in this case, video editing in Vegas.

Glen is right that Vegas really doesnt use the video card, therefore you buy a lesser card and allocate resources to the CPU. And the Intel Core 2 Duo chips are definitely the best right now. In fact, I'm buying the E6600 - its the cheapest C2D with 4 MB of Cache ($310 on 11/6). Then I'm building off that chip selection.

If anyone else has advice/suggestions please post. Thanks.

Here are some sites for research:
http://forum.pcmech.com/ (go to 'Build Your Own PC')
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/ (checkout 'Mid-range Buyer's Guide')
http://www.extremetech.com/category2/0,1695,644478,00.asp (check out 'Bang for the Buck')

Here are some DIY Build Guides:
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm
http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_parts_list.shtml
 
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