Best off the shelf PC for video production

[jimdevo]

Hello
My question to you is if you had to buy an off the shelf ready made PC for video editing and DVD burning what might you choose? This is my dilemma and I am leaning toward a Sony VAIO PCV-RS520. It burns DVD+-RW and comes with 160 GB hard drive and Adobe Premier LE for editing. Perhaps you know of or have experience with another off the shelf PC that you have used for video production. Any other suggestions, comments, or opinions are greatly appreciated. Hope this is the right forum for this subject/question.
Thanks

[808smokey]

I don't know of any of the shelf PC's that are worth buying. I would either build one or find a friend or local shop to build it for you.

[flaninacupboard]

a proper video worksation is your best bet. these are expensive.

a normal consumer pc is not ideal for serious video work. building your own is a much better and cheaper option. if you're not experienced with building a machine just ask, a lot of folks here can help.

[jimdevo]

Perhaps I should rephrase the question. What elements in an off the shelf PC would you look for if you were going to buy one and use it to some degree to edit videos and burn DVD's. I appreciate the responses and of course if it were a dedicated machine for just video production then having one built would be ideal. Unfortunately it won't be dedicated fully to video.

[BJ_M]

www.boxxtech.com the best

i have some IBM dual xeon workstations at work and the build quality and reliability and stability of the ones i have is awesome .. best cooling and layout i have ever seen outside of a g4/g5 or a sgi 540 or any sgi main frame -- to bad IBM has now changes the case design so i dont know how good now ..

[rkr1958]

Here's what I would look for (off-the-shelf or built-to-order).

Hardware:
CPU: >= 2.8-GHz P4 w/800-MHz Front Side Bus (or Equivalent Athlon Processor -- Since I only experienced with Intel CPUs I'm not the one to make recommendations on which Athlon)
RAM: 512MB to 1024MB of 400-MHz (PC3200) <Make sure you RAM speed is consistent with your MB FSB (e.g., PC3200 & 400-MHz FSB; PC2700 (333-MHz) & 533-MHz FSB)
Harddrive: At least two ATA-100 or ATA-133 (or SATA-150 if your Motherboard supports it) disk drives. 20 to 30-MB for your O/S, Applications and Documents. 150 to 250MB separate and dedicated drive for your video work.
Video Card: >=128-MB 8x APG
I/O: Firewire & USB-2
Optical Drives: DVD+/-RW Writer and a separate DVD-ROM Drive.

Software:
That really depends what you are planning to do and how much time you're willing to invest. Check out the tools section to the left for freeware and trailware. You can also find great deals off of ebay on older and current versions of software. Personally the tools I use a lot are:
1. TMPGEnc Plus ($48 ) for encoding
2. TMPGEnc DVD Author for authoring w/AC3 plug-in ($89).
3. Ulead VideoStudio 6 (which I got off of ebay for $20) for capture from VHS or DV tape.
4. DVD Decrypter (Freeware) for Ripping my DVD movies to harddrive for backup.
5. DVDShrink for backing up my DVD movies (I also have Pinnacles Instant Copy 7 which I got for around $20 after rebates).
6. VirtualDub (Freeware) for backing up my DVD movies.
7. VCDEasy (Freeware now payware) for making VCDs / SVCDs / XVCDs
8. Nero for DVD and CD burning (ebay for $15).
9. Pinnacle Studio Video 7 (which I got for $25) for AVI editing and rendering (I could also use Ulead VideoStudio 6 for this)
10. WinDVD 4 (which I got for free with my DVD-ROM drive; you can also find this on ebay for < $20) for playing DVDs on my computer.
11. Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.1 (ebay for $20) for digital and scanned photo editing.
12. Microsoft Picture It! Publishing Platitium 2001 ($50) for digital and scanned photo editing and printing
13. Zonealarm Firewall ($20 / year)
14. Norton Anti-Virus ($20 / year)
15. Other Utilities RestoreIT ($20 ebay) & Partition Magic 8 ($20 ebay)

The above software suite I put together over time and tailored it to my personal needs and interest. I'd recommend that you do your homework and put one together over time to fit your needs and interest.

Anyway good luck and do your research.

[The village idiot]

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8qs.html

[rallynavvie]

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8qs.html

Meh, no AGP or PCI-E on the 4880. It wouldn't make for a good video workstation without a proper video card

If you absolutely must get a retail PC then you're on the right track with the Sony systems. If you're just using it for occasional editing and authoring you don't need all that much unless you want it done really fast.

Otherwise you could also check out the complete video editing systems at www.saferseas.com

[The village idiot]

Yeah, it needs a good PCI video card, but it has 4 processors.

I would image that most of the 4 processor machine have limited video, since you don't need much for a server.