Good enough for video editing?

[vid83]

Some of you saw my post about needing to go back to XP.
I have found Dell desktops that will allow you to go back to XP if you chose Vista Business or Ultimate.
The specs are less than the HP but at least there is XP.

Is the following specs good enough for video editing (Premiere Pro 1.5) or is it more than enough?

Windows XP
Processsor: Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB)
Memory: 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
Hard drive: 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Video card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Sound: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

For video cards, I have the following options:
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI
ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB
Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB

[vid83]

If I stuck with HP, I would have the following specs:

Windows Vista
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz]
Memory: 3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM
Hard drive: 500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Graphics: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

[Soopafresh]

If XP is the dealbreaker, go with the Dell. I'd get a video card for it, however. Otherwise, the on board one will use system RAM. The processor difference between the HP and Dell is negligible. The audio card doesn't matter. NewEGG sells the ATI 3450 for $20, BTW

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121259

[vid83]

This is such a tough decision.
I was looking foward to getting the HP. However the Dell has the XP option but the specifications are lower than the HP.

[lordsmurf]

More than enough. It could run CS4 fine.

[vid83]

Ignoring the fact that I am wanting XP, which one would you guys personally buy?

[Nelson37]

First answer would be neither, build the PC you really want yourself.

Second answer would be that I would not touch the HP with a ten-foot pole due to the small case and non-standard power supply. That would leave the Dell, though I have no idea if it has similar problems.

The XP/Vista problem can be fairly easily resolved for low or no dollar cost. One method would be to find an old case with the MS code number on it and use that. Or a Dell XP system restore disk for a Dell. There are other means to this same end.

[vid83]

Second answer would be that I would not touch the HP with a ten-foot pole due to the small case and non-standard power supply. That would leave the Dell, though I have no idea if it has similar problems.

The HP above is a regular size tower, not the slimline model.

[Soopafresh]

Not a fan of HP machines. Not a big fan of Dells either, but I'd probably buy one if I wanted a low cost pre-assembled system. Their components are average quality, but I consider the typical home system to be disposable anyway. Certainly within 3 years you've gotten your money's worth. And most Dell systems live at least that long. Their screaming fast I7 proc machine is a great deal at ~$1000. That's a terrific editing machine (but not a good gaming machine).

I've built so many machines over the years that I no longer consider the assembly of a PC "fun". YMMV

[vid83]

This sucks.
I could get the Dell which has XP but Dell has a mix of good and bad reviews.
HP does not have XP but it has good reviews. Our of 25 reviews, I have only seen one bad review.
Not sure if I should risk getting HP and trying to put XP on it. HP support tried and could not find SATA driver for XP 32 bit.

[Soopafresh]

You might have problems downgrading the HP for XP. If there aren't proper drivers, you're suck with Vista.

[vid83]

You might have problems downgrading the HP for XP. If there aren't proper drivers, you're suck with Vista.

HP chat tech support already gave me drivers for:
creative sound blaster, intel chipset, LAN, and NVIDIA unified graphics driver. They told me that is all I will need.

The only thing I cannot find is the SATA driver for XP 32 bit? How/where do I go about finding this?

[rallynavvie]

You will instantly want to have a second hard drive in there. Having two hard drives is a big deal when you get to encoding. Surprised nobody mentioned it already, they're all to busy looking at the badge on it :P

Also in that first post it says 3GB and 4 DIMMs. Which is it?

[vid83]

You will instantly want to have a second hard drive in there. Having two hard drives is a big deal when you get to encoding. Surprised nobody mentioned it already, they're all to busy looking at the badge on it :P

Also in that first post it says 3GB and 4 DIMMs. Which is it?

Regarding the second hard drive. Before my HP laptop crashed I was using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 on that laptop. The laptop was purchased in 2003 and had Pentium 4, 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB 4200RPM Hard Drive. I had an external 250GB hard drive connected to the laptop by USB. Here is the way I see it. If Premiere Pro 1.5 worked fine on that laptop, shouldn't it work on today's desktops, which seems to have a much higher specifications? I would think it would work much better than the laptop.
I only use Premiere Pro if I have a video I want to upload to YouTube. I am not using it for big projects. Encoding with Adobe Media Encorder has never been a problem for me.

3GB-4DIMMS: I just did a copy and paste from the Dell site.

[rallynavvie]

You will often see much better encoding speeds when you're reading the source from one drive and encoding it to another, thus the need for two drives. If you're reading and writing content to the same drive it'll slow you down.