Thanksgiving sales - I need a new editing/authoring computer

[sdsumike619]

With all of the ridiculously good deals coming up for thanksgiving sales, I need to purchase a new system for editing/encoding/authoring. I already have a monitor and would like to spend no more than $500. What do you recommend? Specific links to products are appreciated =) (newegg, tigerdirect, etc)
Thanks!

[yoda313]

I caution you on the prepackaged sales.

Chances are they will have low wattage power supply units. Also its doubtful they will have integrated firewire ports and/or hdmi. You would need to scour the specs to make sure it has pci-e and if it is a pci-e 16x slot for full board pci-e cards.

Also I'd recommend Vista Premium as the minimum os for a pc machine. Premium comes with Windows Media Center and I don't believe basic has aero which premium I know does.

Just basically saying that many of the prepackaged deals won't be the fully loaded systems. If you are seriously looking for a well speced machine you would be better off either building it yourself or ordering everything specificially from a site like hp or dell.

I'm not saying they won't be good computers. It's just that they won't likely be the top of the line machines with all the integrated specs you may want. As I mentioned they will also likely need a power supply upgrade for any serious upgrade ie a strong video card.

These are just some guidelines to follow. I had gotten my emachine on a BEST BUY four years ago. While it is good and is still working it lacked a agp port (which was the best available at the time). It also had a weak psu and did not have an integrated firewire port or other goodies.

Just watch out before you sign the dotted line.

[sdsumike619]

Yeah I know what you mean.. I built my last machine and it wasn't fun at all - especially trying to get the CPU and cooling unit into place, just a nightmare. I was hoping that someone on here might know of a decent pre-packaged deal that will work for video stuff. Should I go AMD or Intel? The machine I've been using is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 with 1GB of memory. Just about everything out there I'm seeing advertised is better than what I have now. I've never even used Vista before, still using XP. I've read many articles that say Vista isn't all that much better..

[yoda313]

Well if you're buying new you will have to get Vista. Unless you have a standalone copy of XP that you can install on the new pc you will use VISTA.

Actually I haven't had any issues with my Vista pc and am liking it. Especially the packaged Media Center that I am now using regularly.

[sdsumike619]

What is media center?

[yoda313]

Windows Media Center.

It is a fully realized menu system that sits on top of Windows. Think of it like Microsofts version of TIVO for your pc.

You can watch tv and listen to music with your pc. The only hitch with Media Center is it records to encrypted dvr-ms files. You will need to strip the encryption to get a useable mpg file for dvd authoring. dvrmstoolbox and mcebuddy are just some tools for conversion.

It is really slick and looks good. There are pcs designed to work just like tivo with Media Center. However Vista Premium and Ultimate come with Media Center in the package already - Basic doesn't include Media Center.

[sdsumike619]

Oh I see.. yeah that stuff doesn't matter so much for me. This is just a work machine for capturing, editing, encoding and authoring DVDs and online videos. It will also be used for applications such as photoshop.. I won't be recording TV shows and all that...

[sdsumike619]

I just saw in another post, people were recommending hardware encoders such as WinFast PxVC1100 instead of trying to buy the fastest CPU. Maybe I should do that instead. On their comparison chart, it shows that my CPU took over 6 hours and the same thing using their hardware encoder took less than 1 hour. That sounds pretty darn good to me!

[wtsinnc]

Dell Inspiron 530;
Vista Home premium
Q6600
3gb RAM
500gb HDD
DVD burner
PCI-E slot
With optional IEEE 1394 on the front panel;
1 year warranty

$515.00 delivered.

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/143578

Manual (pdf);
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/inspd530/en/OM/PDF/om_en.pdf

[sdsumike619]

Thanks! That looks pretty good as far as I can tell. Definitely better than what I'm using now. Is the
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 acceptable? I remember reading that video editing itself doesn't require a super duper graphics card..

[wtsinnc]

I don't know how demanding the video tasks you will be involved in are.
I would try it as-is with the monitor you now have before considering any upgrade.

You'll have time to assess the video capability as the current low prices for all things computer related are very likely to remain for some time. If you find that something better is needed, the computer has the expansion slot(s) available.

Keep in mind that the supplied links do not constitute a recommendation from me, only a "heads-up" about the offer.

Good luck in your search.

[sdsumike619]

I'm chatting with a Dell rep online and I asked about the motherboard. She said it's BTX and has:

Expansion slots: PCI: 2 Slots PCIe x1: 1 Slot PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slot

That's not bad..

[budz]

It's better to order a pc with a dedicated video card. Built in graphics will share memory which will result in a bit of a lag. Adding a ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB pci-e video card will only cost you $30.00 more.

[isogonic]

A dell? this might come in handy:

http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier