What do you edit on?

Rick Meyer

Rick Meyer

Veteran
My brother and sister in law just purchased a Canon Vixia HF100 camera. I realized that is a 1 chip job but they definitely need to upgrade their computer to come close to handling the footage. Ultimately, I would suggest they buy the components separately and have it put together; but that can't happen right now. So, I'm researching PC DESKTOPS.

I love the price-point and flexibility of DELL computers but I always felt that they never performed as well as their spec sheet suggests they should. But, that's my experience ONLY.

Keep in mind, I'm looking for a unit for a couple who spend very little time on their home computer but are excited about uploading and piecing together the HD footage of their daughter's gymnastic meets. So, preferably something reasonably priced that will get the job done.

So, does anyone have a desktop suggestion, brand, make, model, specific spec requirement suggestions that you would like to share? I'm not opposed to DELL, just hesitant. So, what are you editing on? If your system is SERIOUS-PRO, that's not what I'm looking for.

Thanks all-
Rick
 
I've always had good luck with both Dell & HP...both of which you can customize to suit your budget & needs.

Search for coupon codes before you order...I saved over $300 on the last HP I ordered with a last minute Google search!
 
HD... yes... but I have a monster; 64 bit, i7-950 processor 3.06 GHz, Windows 7 Pro, 12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4850, running Vegas 9 Pro.

It edits native AVCHD with no problems.

Now.. I have edited HD on another machine I have too, but had to use Cineform NeoScene to convert to AVI format;
Windows Vista Home Premium, 32 bit, Intel Core2 CPU 4300@ 1.80GHz, 2GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce8300 GS, Vegas 7.

As always, get the most you can....
 
wow. that is a biggun'. hey, you still in albany? if so, i might want to PM you a quick question about your stomping grounds...
 
RX782 said:
Build your own :thumbsup:

www.newegg.com
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Ideally, that would be THE way to go. But, I don't think they are going to be able to spend that much. Yes, you hand pick your components so the performance is going to be much MUCH better but even cutting corners it'd still run $1200.00. I don't think they are going to be able to swing that right now.

Thanks though.
 
patssle said:
AVCHD from what camera? Huge differences in processing requirements for 7D AVC footage over a consumer camera.
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I believe he was asking about the Canon Vixia HF100 camera. I don't know what format that or the 7D shoots in?

I'm using an HMC150.... be sure to watch for the film in Betrayal Fest 2010!
 
Rick Meyer said:
Ideally, that would be THE way to go. But, I don't think they are going to be able to spend that much. Yes, you hand pick your components so the performance is going to be much MUCH better but even cutting corners it'd still run $1200.00. I don't think they are going to be able to swing that right now.

Thanks though.
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Not necessarily. My build is somewhat old by this year's standards, but two years ago I was able to build a quad-core setup (Q6600), with a CUDA-capable Nvidia card (8800GT) for under $700... Of course, that's without a monitor, which I bought at a later time, but if you already have even a subpar one, you can at least hold off on the purchase until you have the money.

And even better: Right now I'm helping a friend assemble an i5 rig for about the same price. He has some headroom so he's going up on the RAM and motherboard, but I'm keeping up at around the $800 mark (again without monitor). For low cost purchases (300-500 range), it is hard to beat the prebuilts due to their volume costs, but the beauty of building your own is getting something that much more powerful for a similar price point to their mid range computers.
 
RX782 said:
but the beauty of building your own is getting something that much more powerful for a similar price point to their mid range computers.
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I definitely agree with you. My last desktop was put together by a friend but I hand picked each component after doing a TON of research so I knew exactly what kind of quality was going in there; from mother board, video card, ram, 10,000RPM Raid 0 Hard Drives...it is THE way to go. That's why I have a problem with the pre-builts. They just never seem to perform up to par. However, considering my friend didn't want the hassel for his last computer and just said "F it" and bought a DELL, I've lost my go to guy to piece it together. But, I agree with you.

A homemade computer is VASTLY superior to a DELL. Plus, its a lot of fun to get that box in the mail filled with computer components. I'm just not sure how we'd assemble it.
 
I'm a bit frugal with computer building to be honest. I've never bothered with RAID, so I don't keep the spare drive, I reuse DVD drives (not that those are pricey to begin with), and I don't believe in excess RAM; it may speed up rendering a bit, but it's not as important as people tend to believe. A good 4GB is a starting point, but when I hear of people with ridiculous 12GB+ setups - short of batch processing 4k footage - I see little point. Diminishing returns after all...

I'm actually only on 2GB myself because I don't want to further invest in DDR2 RAM, even though I could use the extra memory. Next upgrade will probably be 4 or 8 depending on budget, but that's in the summer most likely.
 
Well, I see a lot of people who have gobs of RAM when their computer or the programs they are running can't even utilize all of it. It's like having 10 cars in garage; but when you want to go to the movies, you can only use one at a time.

If you have too much RAM, your system is going to bottleneck somewhere; if you have a slow processor, crap motherboard architecture, lousy HD, etc. Speaking of which, I think the single most important spec with respect to visible performance increase is the Hard Drive speed. My desktop has a 250gig 5400RPM drive AND two 36 gig Western Digital Raptor drives 10,000RPM, linked together in a RAID 0 configuration (for speed, not for storage backup) and let me tell you the difference is astronimical in performance, rendering and especially playback. Smooth, smooth, SMOOTH. That is one area I would never skimp on.
 
RX782 said:
I'm a bit frugal with computer building to be honest. I've never bothered with RAID, so I don't keep the spare drive, I reuse DVD drives (not that those are pricey to begin with), and I don't believe in excess RAM; it may speed up rendering a bit, but it's not as important as people tend to believe. A good 4GB is a starting point, but when I hear of people with ridiculous 12GB+ setups - short of batch processing 4k footage - I see little point. Diminishing returns after all...
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Actually.... If you use CS4 products...
Adobe Memory and multiprocessing..

"In this form of multiprocessing, each background process renders its own frame and runs on a separate processor core (CPU). The number of processes used to render multiple frames simultaneously is never more than the number of processors. The number of background processes that can run on your computer also depends on the total amount of installed system RAM and the amount of RAM that is assigned to the After Effects application. The amount of RAM required for each background process varies depending on your system configuration; at least 1 GB per process is recommended. Optimum performance is achieved with computer systems with at least 2 GB of installed RAM per processor core."

So... i7 CPU = 8 cores. 2 GB per processor.. so 16 GB used "Just for After Effects CS4".... Now, you have multiple apps open like Premiere CS4, Photoshop and Encore (which is a typical edit for me to have these all open at once) and you can't have enough ram!
You can easily do more with over 12GB of Ram on todays Win7 64bit system running CS4.
 
Rick Meyer said:
Well, I see a lot of people who have gobs of RAM when their computer or the programs they are running can't even utilize all of it. It's like having 10 cars in garage; but when you want to go to the movies, you can only use one at a time.
.
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Um.. Maybe if they had gobs on a 32bit OS, or they didn't use apps that could utilize gobs of ram. I easily use gobs of ram every time I edit.
 
What I recommend is buying a used one off of craigslist. You can find quite a few on there that have been built from newegg parts and that are even cheaper than what they paid for everything. Also the HP Pavillion quadcore desktops are amazing machines. I have one and it handles HD 1080p / Sony EX1 and HVX200 editing with no problems. a lot of people have mentioned that it's hard to build your own PC with the same specs that the HP Pavillions are starting with.

I've seen a few sell on craigslist in the $400-$450 range and bought mine for $400 used. They retail for around $550-$700 depending on the specs. To get one for $400 with an hd graphics card, 500+ hard drive space and 3gb of ram, a dvd/cd burner, and a quad core chip is a great deal.

Another good reason to buy off craigslist is those people really need the money many of the times, so you're helping someone out by purchasing it off them. A friend of mine mentioned, what if something goes wrong on it? Well that's why you test it out when you're there and typically if something goes wrong, it's one part that you replace out. But it's also good to go pick it up at their place. That way you know where they live so they're less likely to scam you with a defective pc, and you can test it out while you are there.
 
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