What computer?

[JoshSpence]

I am currently looking at buying a new computer almost solely for video editing. What would you say would be the minimum and ideal computer hardware including factors such as processor, motherboard, hard drive, RAM, etc... I am using a Sony miniDV camera and the editing would be mainly for leisure but I still want a reasonable computer because the computer I have at the moment lags so much and has nowhere near the hard drive space I need.

[harley2ride]

I was doing my video editing stuff on a medion 2.67ghz with 1gb ram, ti4200 video card, two HD's. It worked just fine. I upgraded it to a ANTEC 400w power supply and extra fans to keep it cool (it wasn't really running hot), just being on the safe side. Now I'm using a DELL 8400 3.4ghz with 1gb ram, gforce 6800 video card, Plextor px716, philips 8631 (benq 1620), and a Dell xps 3.2ghz, similar setup. Both of these systems rock, but aren't really that much faster than the medion 2.67ghz was. Most important thing is to have two HD's on seperate channels, or go with sata HD's is even better. And, don't have a lot of crap running in background on the system. The cleaner the system, the better. I do have quite a bit of stuff of my dell 8400, including AV scan, etc, and it still encodes and burns very quickly, and with no coasters.

[Soopafresh]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16883102643

Pretty good deal. I'd add an additional 200GB drive for your video material, and maybe another 512MB of RAM.

* Whoops - Didn't Notice You Were in Aussie *

[anitract]

Hey, I'd consider building your own PC (if you haven't all ready). With a little research you can be assured you are getting quality parts. Try reading Newegg.com reviews and visiting forums at places like anandtech.com and ocforums.com.

For a fun project, I'd suggest a SFF (small form factor) PC for your video machine. For my 2nd rig I chose an IDEQ 210P and have been pleased with it. Has room for 2-3 HDs, a DVD-burner, video card, and audio card.

As for component advice...

-Processor: Min. 2.0 ghz P4 equivalent - I like Athlon64s
-MB: Depends on the processor
-Memory: 1 gig min
-Hard Drives: Get 2. The 2nd being only for capturing.
-Video Card: Don't use on-board video...an ATI All-in-Wonders give you great performance w/ many outputs / inputs.
-Sound Card: Don't use on-board sound...use a card.

Good luck!

[harley2ride]

You can't build a pc for as cheap as I got my dell8400. P4 3.4ghz, 1gb DDR400, Geforce 6800, Audigy 2ZS 5.1 dolby sound card, 160gb sata HD, 250gb sata HD, Gigabit Ethernet card, DVD reader, BENQ 1620 DVD burner, 6 usb 2.0, 2 firewire, dell 2001fp lcd monitor, Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speaker system, plus all the software the comes with it, for a grand total of $1600.00 (bought it last christmas). Plus I got a 4yr at home warrenty and service. Even if you could build it for that price, you still have to buy the software, and one mistake, and it's all up in smoke.

[budz]

Even if you could build it for that price, you still have to buy the software, and one mistake, and it's all up in smoke.

True you'd have to buy the software but you have the freedom to choose the components you want when building your own pc....most pc's bought from companies such as dell, hp come with BLOATED SOFTWARE that most people will never use to begin with anyway....I didn't know anything about pcs and learned to build one by reading guides and articles from the internet and forums like this......I'll never buy another prebuilt computer......

[anitract]

Totally agree with budz. Once you build your own, you never go back. I never liked the "free" *cough* stripped-down, useless crap *cough* software that came with prebuilts like dell. And the hardware? Well, it kind of depends...I used to recommend Dell, but I feel that their quality has slipped quite a bit in the past few years. Besides, I like being able to have total control over everything. That's why I build.

About the only thing to worry about is the OS, but (and this is assuming you were planning on buying a copy of XP instead of getting a cracked copy, which of course no one around here does...) prices aren't that bad these days and there ARE deals around. Even so, there are other choices like Linux and FreeBSD, which are 100% free (not to mention secure).

[JoshSpence]

Getting back to my original question... I am considering building(gradually over a period of time due to cost) a computer consisting of:

Dual Pentium 3.2Ghz processors
2GB DDR400 RAM
A total of about 300/400 GB hard drive space (can someone please explain the difference between IDE, SCSI and SATA?)
Two LCD monitors
A 5.1ch sound system
16x +/- Dual Layer DVD Burner

Any input would be appreciated.

[DereX888]

actually dual montors is not neccessary if this machine's purpose is video editing?
Its not like you will be playing games on it (thus need for 2nd monitor to see i.e. chat software).
My 'video edit' rig has just one small 19' lcd, and i can assure you - most of the time when it works the screen is in standby... and it could go off with 15-17' as well, its just that i do digital photography on it as well, thus often I need more than 1600x1200 viewing area, but for video 1600x1200 or even 1280x1024 should be fine...

1 gig of memory is minimum IMO. I'd invest in another gig right away.
Hard disks - you *must* have 2 of them. There is nothing more slowing down any editing process than having just 1 hard drive and reading and writing into the same physical hard drive during work, no matter how fast it is, it always will be not fast enough, trust me on that
And you'll kill it very quick too if you are going to do alot of editing.

SCSI are faster, IDE/SATA have no difference for you in this case. Just really dont forget to have 2 separate physical hdds, having 2 partitions (or more) on same single hdd doesn't help at all. I can't stretch importance of having 2 separate drives any firther than that. Its as important as fast processor, yet it is often overlooked by many new people into video editing.

Other than that - nice choice; as others before - I would never buy pre-built computer, I have to see yet any dell, sony or whatever brand to have *all* best components, not mentioning their usually crappy bundle of software. As far as the OS goes - well, IMO nothing beats Windows 2000 so far, really stable as a rock. Its a pity that some of the programs require no more or less than WinXP.
However if youre skillful enough you can read some guides and create your own better version of WinXP (or Win2K for that matter) and incorporate all the patches on the installation CD, remove buggy components like Internet Explorer or Outlook Express or IIS or .... (list is long ) and have it almost perfect that way.
It all depends how far you want to go with it. My own version of Win2K has no crap running on it at all, just couple of services (compared to like minimum 20+ on standard Win2K, and probably double that on WinXP hehe ) so it is as fast as it can be... Thats what I call real workstation After all your video edit rig needs nt core, gui and very few extra servces to do the job, I don't see why would you need i.e. buggy web browser or IIS services on it?