Custom Build Computer for Video Editing/Capture

[portrower8]

Any reccomendations on what componets should be included in a custom built computer for video editing/capture?

Would it be less expensive (or would I get more for my dollar) to custom build a workstation verse buying from Dell or another company?

[g_shocker182]

For dedicated capture, get:

Mad Memory
Mad Processor Speed
SCSI HDD (not always nec.)

but, this is very expensive. The above will cost you alone more than an average computer that DELL sells. Hell, I bought mine from DELL for $599, and it came w/ 2ghz & 256mb , which is reasonable and I don't dop frames.

Oh, and a bigass HDD.

[The village idiot]

I saw on the Via Web site that they have their new DUAL OPTORON (sp?) main board out. Dual 64 bit cpus with interleaved memory and dual serial ATA raid controllers. That should be fast enough.

I agree, a BIG ASS hard drive! Also the fastest cpu you can afford.

[rallynavvie]

I'd shy away from the 64-bit CPUs until we get a native OS for them. I don't trust WinXP 64 very much at all. Also most of the apps out there for video aren't 64-bit. Once they are: it's on!

For a good video box:
2 GHz or better CPU
512MB RAM (the fastest recommended for your board/CPUs)
350W or greater power supply (long hours of encoding test this)
A capture card like the Canopus 1394 or ADVC-50
As much hard drive as you can afford

For a better video box:
2 GHz or better CPUs (yes, two of them)
1GB or more RAM (dual channel is nice; you can use up a lot in AfterEffects)
550W power supply or greater
Canopus ADVC-100 or 1394 capture device
SATA or U160 SCSI or better for faster hard drives
Whatever else you can spend on cheaper IDE storage
Maybe a dual-head VGA card for dual displays (very handy when editing)
MPEG-2 hardware is also very handy

Oh and you'll probably need a FireWire card and a DVD burner with either system. I think the Canopus 1394 comes with FireWire. I prefer the Pioneer burners, Sony is also good. Make sure to adequately cool either system as long encoding times will test your cooling. Did I miss anything?

[irongang]

If you're capturing DV, which includes the ADVC and camcorders, SCSI drives are not necessary. I can actually capture to a single EIDE drive (Maxtor 120GB) while simultaneously moving files from it to make room. No dropped frames - it's plenty fast.

If you're going to be using a higher end, higher resolution capture board then you'll need the faster drives (higher res = more data).

So get all the drive space you can afford, you'll need it. RAM too. And of course, the faster the CPU the better. My 2Ghz P4 could be faster but at this point it's not worth the $$$ to me to upgrade it.

EDIT: You'll want to have your media drive as a separate physical drive from your system drive. You don't want Windows messing around with it's swap file while you're capturing or going back to tape. So, at least 2 drives.

[pixel]

I would suggest:

at least S-ATA drives, SCSI if you can afford them. (2 drives at least, one for dedicated capture. maybe even a raid array if you will be doing lengthy, uncompressed avi captures)
fastest CPU you can get. when it comes to encoding, it is GHz power that matters, not cache, so a celeron could do the exact same encode as a p4 in only a slightly slower time. this can save you $$$
512MB RAM (1GB if you want, but my usage NEVER reaches more than 300MB).
An ATI All-in-wonder card, or even a matrox capture card if you can afford it (the matrox cards do real-time editing).

just my opinions.