Will I be ok using a PC?

I'm basically going to buy from a PC shop that builds Pc's (obviously) and I'm after a 64 bit quad core with DDR3 ram with good graphics card...this will cost me around $2000 New Zealand dollars....sound good to you guys? I cant build my own PC as I would never know how...and I cant be arsed lol.
 
You don't need a good graphics card unless you want to game too. Something cheap will do ya good, as most programs are very CPU intensive.

You can always upgrade it later, spend the bulk of your money on a good CPU.

Don't get a Q series Intel chip. They aren't that great. You also want something with hyper-threading as it greatly increases performance for encoding (Intel feature that splits workload into two on one processor, so 4 cores = 8 processing threads). So a core i7 series, and IIRC the cheapest would be an i7 920. Just looking at an NZ site now and that alone will cost $460, so it may be out of your budget, but it's definitely worth it.

I'd ask for a core i7 920 system, ask them if they can put a good heatsink and fan on it and overclock it for you. If they sound really nerdy and smart then this would be a great solution. Cheapo graphics card and two or three 7200RPM 1TB hard drives, with Windows 7 64-bit, and 6GB RAM. This will be a great computer but might be out of your budget.

Definitely worth it though imo, and will pay for itself if you are going to be using it for paid work.
 
Londude said:
what Im unsure about is you guys say get a 64bit Sony Vegas and 64 bit OS? so If I buy a 64 bit PC there are 64 bit OS's available as well as a 64 bit Sony Vegas?
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Windows 7 is 64 bit. Vista came in 32 and 64 bit, and there was a 64 bit variant of WinXP also.
 
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yabyum said:
You don't need a good graphics card unless you want to game too. Something cheap will do ya good, as most programs are very CPU intensive.
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Not sure I agree here. If you watch most programs related to video, many are not written to take advantage of more than 1 or 2 processors (there are exceptions), but nearly all can take advantage of the GPU. And you don't have to spend a boat load on a graphics card to get a decent one. For US150 you can get something very reasonable that is suited to video editing.

If you choose to purchase Sony Vegas, it will not be used for the editing or previewing which is very sad, but it will be used in other ways.
 
Well, the stuff I use isn't very GPU based, a little bit, but not too much. But I would get an Nvidia card as it seems more compatible for video work from what I've seen.

CPU is definitely the most important but a decent/cheap card can help you too. Here in America you can buy a used 8800GT for ~$60, which is definitely good enough and would be good for you. A 9600GSO is what you might want to ask for at the shop. If they try to sell you on a system with a GTX260, then I would say that's overkill and you'd see far more performance for the $ if you bought a better CPU.
 
yabyum said:
Well, the stuff I use isn't very GPU based, a little bit, but not too much. But I would get an Nvidia card as it seems more compatible for video work from what I've seen.

CPU is definitely the most important but a decent/cheap card can help you too. Here in America you can buy a used 8800GT for ~$60, which is definitely good enough and would be good for you. A 9600GSO is what you might want to ask for at the shop. If they try to sell you on a system with a GTX260, then I would say that's overkill and you'd see far more performance for the $ if you bought a better CPU.
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It might be helpful for you to explain what programs you use so he understand why the video card isn't touched. Because I can absolutely guarantee if he is doing any effects work, 3d rendering, titles work, color correction (MB Looks, etc.), that video card is going to be a critical component in the chain. Perhaps even more so than the CPU.

When deciding my purchases last year, I decided not to repeat my mistakes of the past, and I bought the best graphics card I could find. It's paid off handsomely, as my computer is blindingly fast with its effects work, and I have yet to need to render an effect. Everything is real time for me now. Making changes on 1080p, 2K, and 4K images and not having to wait to see them is VERY helpful for what I do.

Everyone's needs are different though.
 
Im going to use V9 Pro to edit with, and I'm going to use After Effects, Magic bullet and anything else that I find useful/cool/awesome/worth it for special effects like explosions, gun fire what have you. Have never used anything but VEgas, and I'm only getting the hang of Vegas, but Vegas doesnt have any gun/explosion FX does it?

I think getting a quad core with a really good graphics card and good ram is all i need really isnt it? I'm not going to be making an Avatar type of movie.
 
I dont know **** about PC's really, not intricate stuff, I just want a good machine that will do what I want without any major hassle.

I currently have a HP Pavillion family computer which by the way came with 500MB of RAM and Vista Home Basic lmao....which needs 1GB of RAM to run..........bloody stupid.

It now has 2 and a half GB's of RAm, and thats it, and Vegas lags like a *****.
 
Londude said:
Im going to use V9 Pro to edit with, and I'm going to use After Effects, Magic bullet and anything else that I find useful/cool/awesome/worth it for special effects like explosions, gun fire what have you. Have never used anything but VEgas, and I'm only getting the hang of Vegas, but Vegas doesnt have any gun/explosion FX does it?
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No, Vegas does not have any of the gun or explosion FX. But if you see that kind of thing being a part of your standard workflow, I would suggest you take a look at perhaps using Premiere instead of Vegas. It's integration with After Affects is excellent, and it will give you options to do things that you just can't do in Vegas. I think if special effects were any significant part of my Workflow, Vegas would be off the table for numerous reasons.

Londude said:
I think getting a quad core with a really good graphics card and good ram is all i need really isn't it? I'm not going to be making an Avatar type of movie.
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No, that won't be all you really need. But it's a good start. The gap between a good quadcore and an i7 at this point isn't huge, and I'd certainly go with the i7 if possible. It will be significantly faster, especailly when it comes to rendering. A really good graphics card will be essential for doing heavy graphics works. Adobe recommends an Nvida Quadro card but those can get very expensive in a hurry.

As for Avatar, it was edited in Avid Media Composer and many of the special effects were done with Adobe products. You'd likely be surprised at the hardware it was done on. Editing started nearly 3 years ago. There were no i7s back then. Core2Duo and Core2Quads were the new, hot technology. Goes to show what you can do with good graphics cards, decent hardware, and an editing program that can take advantage of everything in a system.
 
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PerroneFord said:
No, Vegas does not have any of the gun or explosion FX. But if you see that kind of thing being a part of your standard workflow, I would suggest you take a look at perhaps using Premiere instead of Vegas. It's integration with After Affects is excellent, and it will give you options to do things that you just can't do in Vegas. I think if special effects were any significant part of my Workflow, Vegas would be off the table for numerous reasons.



No, that won't be all you really need. But it's a good start. The gape between a good quadcore and an i7 at this point isn't huge, and I'd certinly go with the i7 if possible. It will be significantly faster, especailly when it comes to rendering. A really good graphics card will be essential for doing heavy graphics works. Adobe recommends an Nvida quadro card but those can get very expensive in a hurry.

As for Avatar, it was edited in Avid Media Composer and many of the special effects were done with Adobe products. You'd likely be surprised at the hardware it was done on. Editing started nearly 3 years ago. There were no i7s back then. Core2Duo and Core2Quads were the new, hot technology. Goes to show what you can do with good graphics cards, decent hardware, and an editing program that can take advantage of everything in a system.
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I dont see myself making several films with FX in them like explosions etc, I would just like to mess around with different things.

What is an i7?
 
Londude said:
Should I just have Vegas and Premiere to be safe? Then I can switch between the two like?
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I can't tell you what you should do. I think you'll find Vegas and Premiere to be somewhat different. I certainly did when I jumped from Premiere to Vegas. Very different mindsets of editing.

Premiere works fundamentally like most other editing software. Vegas can work similarly, but is not designed to do so. Many people find it more intuitive, as did I when I switched.

If you are just doing home films, and don't really need to collaborate with others, then Vegas should serve you well.
 
PerroneFord said:
The i7 is the current best processor from Intel.
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Sweet thanks. Just checked it out online as well. Do you have an i7?

Sorry for all the questions its just helpful to be able to get advice from someone like yourself rather than just reading up stuff online and getting confused about it and not being able to talk to someone and ask questions etc.

Cheers.
 
Londude said:
Sweet thanks. Just checked it out online as well. Do you have an i7?

Sorry for all the questions its just helpful to be able to get advice from someone like yourself rather than just reading up stuff online and getting confused about it and not being able to talk to someone and ask questions etc.

Cheers.
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The i7 was not an option when I purchase my machine. I have 2 quad-cores in my machine. So 2 physical chips with 4 cores each. I suspect the new i7 would be as fast or faster than my setup.
 
PerroneFord said:
It might be helpful for you to explain what programs you use so he understand why the video card isn't touched. Because I can absolutely guarantee if he is doing any effects work, 3d rendering, titles work, color correction (MB Looks, etc.), that video card is going to be a critical component in the chain. Perhaps even more so than the CPU.

When deciding my purchases last year, I decided not to repeat my mistakes of the past, and I bought the best graphics card I could find. It's paid off handsomely, as my computer is blindingly fast with its effects work, and I have yet to need to render an effect. Everything is real time for me now. Making changes on 1080p, 2K, and 4K images and not having to wait to see them is VERY helpful for what I do.

Everyone's needs are different though.
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Very interesting. I use mainly Vegas, and Photoshop. I'll be getting into After Effects and 3d work soon. I have a 9800GT which is pretty good but maybe I'll buy something more powerful now that you say this. I'll see once I start doing my work.

I work with 720p and 1080p footage AVCHD from my GH1 in Vegas all the time and it's very smooth. Only plug-in I use is AAV Colorlab, which I believe utilizes the GPU too, but I can't tell.
 
yabyum said:
Very interesting. I use mainly Vegas, and Photoshop. I'll be getting into After Effects and 3d work soon. I have a 9800GT which is pretty good but maybe I'll buy something more powerful now that you say this. I'll see once I start doing my work.

I work with 720p and 1080p footage AVCHD from my GH1 in Vegas all the time and it's very smooth. Only plug-in I use is AAV Colorlab, which I believe utilizes the GPU too, but I can't tell.
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Vegas won't use the GPU. Sadly. It puts the entire load on the CPU which is quite frankly, not optimized for the task of handling video. You are using the "lite" variant of AVCHD as the full spec is 24Mbps and quite a lot harder to handle than the 17Mbps. The folks trying to lay footage on the timeline from the 5D and 7D are dealing with a very similar codec but at 40Mbps and 48Mbps respectively.

If you plan on doing work in After Effects, you are going to have to stop fooling with AVCHD and transcode to a proper editing codec. AVCHD will not survive the round-trip though After Effects without falling apart. So be prepared with adequate disk space to go to something much more robust, perhaps even uncompressed. Your files will be 10-25x larger.

Your video card is a good one, but certain programs are able to take advantage of the new chipsets available, especially the CUDA processor in the newer NVida cards.

I use AAV Colorlab as well, and it does use the GPU. But it's not doing anything very tricky so you don't gain much with it. Take a look at the reccommended specs for photoshop, Aftereffects, and whatever 3d program you intend to use. If you only meet the minimum spec, expect minimum performance... :)
 
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