PC Specs For Personal Video Editing

[Nanflexal]

Hello guys, Im planning to buy a new PC for personal video editing, Please check my PC Specs, any comment will be greatly appreciated.


CPU - (Pentium 4) 2.8 Dual Core
RAM - 1 GB DDR2 (kingston)
HDD - 250 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
VIDEO CARD - ATI 9250 128 MB
DVD WRITER - LG 16X DUAL LAYER
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5VDC-X

Video Editing Hardware:
PYRO A / V LINK

Thanks
Nanflexal

[redwudz]

If that setup has only one hard drive, that may be a problem. It is much better to have your editing/encoding drive separate from your boot drive.

I am wondering why you picked that particular MB. It seems to be a transition type of MB that can use AGP and PCI-E along with regular DDR memory or DDR2. A regular PCI-E motherboard might be a better choice, especially if you need to buy memory and a video card anyway. I'm not a fan of VIA chipset motherboards, but I use mostly AMD CPUs and they don't work that well with VIA chipsets. Have you checked for any reviews of that MB on the net?
Other than those items, the setup seems OK.

You didn't say what format of video you would be editing or what type of editing you are planning on doing? If it's just cut and paste, then that's easy enough, but transitions, fades, etc., are fairly difficult with MPEG formats, but relatively easy with formats like DV.

You will likely get many more suggestions.

And welcome to our forums.

[edDV]

Pentium 4 2.8 is adequate but you will wish for more raw CPU power. You should look into Core2 Duo if possible. Video editing and encoding are mostly about raw computation.

You should have separate drives for XP OS and video capture.

Everything else looks OK.

PS: I hadn't read redwudz' post while writing mine. I have no knowledge of that motherboard so I would echo the above comments to check user reviews.

[InXess]

You will be absolutely fine with any mid-range system equipped with 1 Gb memory (even less) and enough HDD space. Processor choice is not crucial, it just adds to rendering time if less powerful. Video editing is mostly cutting and pasting and that does not need a lot of muscle. DV is no problem at all, MPEG-2 has to be encoded (if from DV) but usually after (!) editing so again recent CPU's in $ 100-250 range are perfectly OK. Final rendering takes place as the words suggest at the end of the process and has little to do with editing itself. Faster CPU will complete the job in less time. We are living in times when any half-decent >$500 system will do editing with ease. This chart will give you an idea how money spent on CPU translates to time saved.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/page32.html

[edDV]

You will be absolutely fine with any mid-range system equipped with 1 Gb memory (even less) and enough HDD space. Processor choice is not crucial, it just adds to rendering time if less powerful. Video editing is mostly cutting and pasting and that does not need a lot of muscle. DV is no problem at all, MPEG-2 has to be encoded (if from DV) but usually after (!) editing so again recent CPU's in $ 100-250 range are perfectly OK. Final rendering takes place as the words suggest at the end of the process and has little to do with editing itself. Faster CPU will complete the job in less time. We are living in times when any half-decent >$500 system will do editing with ease. This chart will give you an idea how money spent on CPU translates to time saved.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/page32.html

More recent benchmarks

Xvid 1.1.0 (5 min)
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=464&chart=176

Xvid 6.2.2 (5 min)
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=464&chart=177

Or more future scary
H.264 HDTV encode (24 sec)
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=464&chart=182

Not to mention image filtering or effects editing.
But Nanflexal hasn't said what kind of video editing.

[InXess]

Rendering takes time, filtering, image correction etc. too. I don't think that you sit at the PC while it renders the project. It's like watching the water boil. Editing is one thing and the output phase another. I edit and walk away letting PC finish what I set it to do. I presume I'm not the only one that does things this way. From my perspective I cannot consider this part "editing" if I'm away doing something else while PC is still chewing on the video.

[Nanflexal]

Thanks for your comments guys. I will use that pc to convert from VHS & VCD to DVD.

Could someone give me a suggestion regarding the Specs for Video Editing that fit to my budget $700


Thanks Guys.

[edDV]

Thanks for your comments guys. I will use that pc to convert from VHS & VCD to DVD.

Could someone give me a suggestion regarding the Specs for Video Editing that fit to my budget $700


Thanks Guys.

Specs are given above. Minimize expenditure on the display card if gaming is not an issue. If HD playback is desired to an external HDTV, an ATI-9550 clone* is the minimum. 512MB RAM is a realistic minimum. Remember 2 hard drives (small for OS and applications and large for video capture and file storage) if you intend to capture. Also, get the fastest CPU you can afford for filtering, rendering and encoding.

VHS capture has been explained many times and is summarized here.
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=308951&highlight=plextor

Many would say you are better off investing in a standalone DVD recorder and editing the resulting VOB files on the computer. A hard disk standalone DVD recorder allows limited editing before burning the DVDR. This is by far the fastest way to capture VHS to DVDR. Video quality will depend on the quality of the playback VCR and the chipset in the DVD recorder.

* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121012

[InXess]

Here's an example of a thinking process:
http://www.videoguys.com/DIY1.html

[edDV]

Ok, you have forced me to go public with my risky secret project.

I've been looking to upgrade my main machine to a Core2 Duo but am reluctant to buy all new PCIe stuff because what I have works fine. Also none of the current PCIe graphics cards meet my needs so I don't want to spend a cent on them.

So it dawned on me that it may be better to pimp up my secondary 2.4 GHz Celeron machine to a Core2 Duo for experimentation and wait until after January to update the main machine to maybe a Quad Core. The experiment hinges on getting a system going with a "transition" motherboard that supports normal PCI and AGP but also has support for the new 1066MHz FSB and Core2 Duo.

Last week Fry's offered such a mobo and the E6300 Core2Duo CPU for $179. It appears to fit the needs of the "Pimp-My-Celeron to Core2 Duo Project". I realize this is a suspect ECS board with Via chipset but if it works, it will fill my intermediate needs until Spring. If it doesn't work, well the mobo was free so I'll have to buy another.

First the VideoGuys $1000 plan from InXess' link



And here is my plan in process. I've been buying sale parts from weekend sales in anticipation of this project.



I know the ECS board is a risk but I'll give it a shot anyway and write it off to experience.

PS: If anyone sees a critical flaw in this plan please say so. I have 6 more days to return the E6300 CPU and motherboard.

I plan to further pimp this machine with the Theatrix 550 Pro capture card and BeyondTV4 PVR software that never adequately performed in the Celeron system. Also, I'll toss in a Gigabit network card and try the ATI All-in-Wonder 8500DV with a v9.x MMC.

[redwudz]

edDV, actually that's sounds like a reasonable setup. I've use several ECS MB's and I have no complaints against them. VIA chipsets are OK. The problems I have had with them are with compatibility with some FireWire and other PCI cards and them not being easy to overclock. But they have been solid otherwise. And most of my reservations with VIA are specific to AMD CPUs and MBs, as that is what I generally work with.

If someone was looking for an economy editing computer, a micro-ATX motherboard should be considered. You can eliminate the cost of the add-on video card, and some of the newer micro-ATX MBs have a lot of nice features.

Looking at the newer CPUs, both Intel and AMD, there are some good options available. Dual core processor CPUs, even in the economy range have impressive performance compared to the offerings even a year ago with the fastest single processor CPUs. Moving up to a MB with DDR2 memory helps also with throughput.

It's still tough to put together a reasonably quick computer from scratch for less than ~$700US, but it can be done.

[jagabo]

edDV, I decided to take a chance on that combo from Fry's a couple months ago when it was $20 more. I used it to upgrade an old 2.8 GHz P4 machine -- replaced the motherboard and CPU, kept all the other components (PC3200 DDR, AGP graphics card, hard drives, etc). It may not be the fastest possible E6300 C2D setup but I've had no problems at all. Twice as fast at video encoding as the P4 it replaced. Well worth the price.

[ahhaa]

oops sorry, wrong thread!

[edDV]

edDV, I decided to take a chance on that combo from Fry's a couple months ago when it was $20 more. I used it to upgrade an old 2.8 GHz P4 machine -- replaced the motherboard and CPU, kept all the other components (PC3200 DDR, AGP graphics card, hard drives, etc). It may not be the fastest possible C2D setup but I've had no problems at all. Twice as fast at video encoding as the P4 it replaced. Well worth the price.

Good to know.

Was your ECS the V2.0 model? The one Fry's sales guys were showing customers was the v1 and had both types of memory sockets but the 1066 FSB V2.0 that is in the box I learned online only supports DDR2 (533 and 400). I hope the DDR2 4200 (533MHz) helps a bit with speed but the P4M800Pro does not support dual mode RAM (1066 MHz.). The higher end Via and Intel mobos do support dual mode.

[budz]

edDv wrote:

I know the ECS board is a risk but I'll give it a shot anyway and write it off to experience.

If it makes you feel a little better I built a AMD pc with a ECS mobo and haven't had any problems with it so far. I sold that pc to a friend. It was a AMD 64 Sempron mobo combo from Fry's electronics from last year's Black Friday sale which cost me $120.00 including the 512mb stick of corsair value ram. It overclocked the AMD cpu with stock hsf with no problems.

[jagabo]

Was your ECS the V2.0 model?

It is the P4M800Pro M V2. I'm only using the two PC3200 DDR slots but on the box it claims to support 1066 FSB and DDRII 533 (the slots are there). I have an old Matrox Millennium 2x AGP card, a Creative Labs Audigy, and a Hauppauge PVR-250 plugged in. It runs 24/7, often running a VirtualDub encode, PVR-250 video capture, downloading from newsgroups or bittorrent, and web browsing all at the same time.

[edDV]

Was your ECS the V2.0 model?

It is the P4M800Pro M V2. I'm only using the two PC3200 DDR slots but on the box it claims to support 1066 FSB and DDRII 533 (the slots are there). I have an old Matrox Millennium 2x AGP card, a Creative Labs Audigy, and a Hauppauge PVR-250 plugged in. It runs 24/7, often running a VirtualDub encode, PVR-250 video capture, downloading from newsgroups or bittorrent, and web browsing all at the same time.

Great! I hope I can get time next week to get this thing running before the 15day Fry's return deadline. Thanks for the report.

[jagabo]

Thanks for the report.

Glad to help out. Hope your build goes as smoothly as mine did.

BTW I was a little confused when I was considering the purchase. I remember there was a model with a similar number that only had DDR2 sockets. I don't remember if it was just a mistake at NewEgg (which I used as a reference) or if it was a slightly different model number. In any case the motherboard I got has both DDR and DDR2 slots, AGP and PCIe slots, and the 1066 MHz FSB.

[lordsmurf]

Hello guys, Im planning to buy a new PC for personal video editing, Please check my PC Specs, any comment will be greatly appreciated.
CPU - (Pentium 4) 2.8 Dual Core
RAM - 1 GB DDR2 (kingston)
HDD - 250 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
VIDEO CARD - ATI 9250 128 MB
DVD WRITER - LG 16X DUAL LAYER
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5VDC-X
Video Editing Hardware:
PYRO A / V LINK
Thanks
Nanflexal

The PC specs sound fine. You've picked quite well.

Although I would also suggest an extra hard drive for storing video files. It is best to not use the same hard drive as the OS for storing video files.

Rendering takes time, filtering, image correction etc. too. I don't think that you sit at the PC while it renders the project. It's like watching the water boil. Editing is one thing and the output phase another. I edit and walk away letting PC finish what I set it to do. I presume I'm not the only one that does things this way. From my perspective I cannot consider this part "editing" if I'm away doing something else while PC is still chewing on the video.

Same here. I let it encode overnight or while I'm otherwise away from the PC. My life is not 24/7 in front of the computer screen. I have a P4 2.8 and have no complaints at all. It does audio work extremely fast (heavy filters on long running times maybe take 5 minutes to process), and video is anywhere from realtime to 4x as long as the source when filtering.

When I wake up or check back later, it's usually been finished for hours.

[edDV]

Thanks for the report.

Glad to help out. Hope your build goes as smoothly as mine did.

BTW I was a little confused when I was considering the purchase. I remember there was a model with a similar number that only had DDR2 sockets. I don't remember if it was just a mistake at NewEgg (which I used as a reference) or if it was a slightly different model number. In any case the motherboard I got has both DDR and DDR2 slots, AGP and PCIe slots, and the 1066 MHz FSB.

I'm confused as well. The ECS mother board that Fry's is selling (after opening it) appears to be different than that described on the website and the manual is different than the downloaded version.

This board, like yours has has DDR1 (purple) and DDR2 (blue) slots and DDR 1 266/333/400 is listed in the specs along with 400/533 DDR2.

So the Fry's salesman is right and the ECS website is wrong? What is the world coming to?

I'll try to figure this out in the morning


PS: Did you say yours has PCIe slots? Mine has 3x PCI and one AGP only. But to it's credit it also has 2xEIDE and 2xSATA.

[Nanflexal]

Thank you very much for your comments, here is the final specs of my Video Editing Machine.


CPU - INTEL Core™2 Duo
RAM - 1 GB DDR2 (kingston)
VIDEO CARD - Radeon® 9550 256 MB
DVD WRITER - LG 16X DUAL LAYER
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5VD2-MX
SYSTEM DRIVE - 80 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
STORAGE DRIVE - 250 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
POWER SUPPLY - 500 Watt LGA 3 Fans
AVR - 520V UPS
KEYBOARD - A4 ps2 keyboard
CASING - ANTEC SUPERLANBOY TRANS.
MOUSE - A4 Optical Mouse with scroll
OS: WinXP PRO sp2
Video Editing Hardware: PYRO A / V LINK


Please give me some tips or idea choosing CAMCORDER and FIREWIRE device.


Thanks
Nanflexal

[edDV]

Thank you very much for your comments, here is the final specs of my Video Editing Machine.


CPU - INTEL Core™2 Duo
RAM - 1 GB DDR2 (kingston)
VIDEO CARD - ATI 9550 256 MB
DVD WRITER - LG 16X DUAL LAYER
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5VD2-MX
SYSTEM DRIVE - 80 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
STORAGE DRIVE - 250 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
POWER SUPPLY - 500 Watt LGA 3 Fans
Video Editing Hardware: PYRO A / V LINK


Please give me some tips or idea choosing CAMCORDER and FIREWIRE device.


Thanks
Nanflexal

Firewire must be OHCI compliant for XP and DirectShow to work.

DV camcorders are available from ~$200 to $84,000 depending on your needs. What are your needs?

[Nanflexal]

Firewire must be OHCI compliant for XP and DirectShow to work.

please give me a Brand Name or manufacturer site so i can take a look.


I need a camcorder with clear / good image quality to record video from b-day party and etc.

[jagabo]

Did you say yours has PCIe slots? Mine has 3x PCI and one AGP only. But to it's credit it also has 2xEIDE and 2xSATA.

Yes, 3 PCI slots and everything else you mention.

I think this is the source of confusion: ECS has a P4M800PRO-M V2.0 and a P4M800PRO-M2 V2.0 (and V1.0 versions of each). The latter has only DDR2 memory slots:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?DetailID=673&MenuID=0&LanID=9

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?DetailID=674&MenuID=0&LanID=9

[redwudz]

Nanflexal, here's one popular manufacterer of FireWire cards, but most any name brand card will work fine: http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/firewire/fw_adapt/AFW-4300/

For cameras, look to some of the camcorder review sites such as:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/
http://www.videomaker.com/
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/camcorders/
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,2347,00.asp

It really depends on what you want and what you want to pay for it.

[InXess]

edDV, no reason to be worried about ECS. Their boards may be 1% slower (no more then that)then high flyer's but ROCK SOLID. One of my PC's (kids) had a MB issue and I quickly replaced it with el cheapo ECS. Guess what, that was the longest lasting, error free experience so far. My Asus, Gigabyte MB's on other PC's caused trouble from time to time but my least regarded purchase needed ZERO maintenance. This month I finally decided to retire it and went with ASUS again with AMD x2 4200. My kids enjoyed ECS and now ASUS but I can't say enough about how much time it saved me compared with other brands. They are consistently one of the highest regarded and AWARDED MB manuf in lower price bracket. I have nothing to regret. The experience was FAST and STABLE. It counts.

[hudsonf]

I'm think about buy these from Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813185086 http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115004
I have everything else I need in my old P4 except memory.

[budz]

I'm think about buy these from Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813185086 http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115004
I have everything else I need in my old P4 except memory.

I'd stay away from Via chipset mobos. Get a Intel chipset or a Nvidia chipset mobo for that fast Intel core duo cpu. How about these mobos>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135026
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135026
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128016

[lordsmurf]

I'd strongly suggest avoiding VIA-based boards too. Those IDE drivers can be terrible if you want to burn faster than 4x.

[dfgh11]

Hello guys, Im planning to buy a new PC for personal video editing, Please check my PC Specs, any comment will be greatly appreciated.


CPU - (Pentium 4) 2.8 Dual Core
RAM - 1 GB DDR2 (kingston)
HDD - 250 GB SEAGATE 7200 RPM Serial-ata
VIDEO CARD - ATI 9250 128 MB
DVD WRITER - LG 16X DUAL LAYER
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5VDC-X

Video Editing Hardware:
PYRO A / V LINK

Thanks
Nanflexal

Personally I would say that your dual core cpu meets the requirements.The only real improvements I would make there, would be perhaps a HDD for OS only and maybe another gigabyte of memory ( but 1Gig will be fine I'm just being greedy).But the important thing to consider is of course the software you'll be using. Personally after using most of the semi professional software out there I've become quite an advocate of Sony Vegas, due to its stability. Saying this, I've never liked the results I get with its built in capture program.But there are plenty of those out there to suit.