Video Editing Hardware

[jobmitsuo]

Need recommendations for hardware for Video Editing rig.

Current Parts:
e6550
2X 1 gig Crucial DDR2 667
approx 800gb of space
7800gs AGP
asrock 4coreduel sata2
audigy 2 zs platinum pro
generic dvd+rw drive

This rig is being handed down to my brother who is big into the arts and video production. Looking to do a few last upgrades to make it better suited to his needs. hoping to keep the budget of the upgrade ~200USD, 300 at the most. Was considering new mobo, video card, and RW drive. So i need a mother board that supports ddr2 667 and 1333FSB. Also need recommendations on the card. Equal to or more powerful than the 7800gs, more suited to video editing [basically goring from AGP to PCIe so as to have more options for 1333 mobo]. Also any other recommendations for upgrades.

 

[NightSurge]

Well, for a good video editing PC, I would sell your processor, video card, motherboard, and dvd drive somewhere. Use that money plus your 200-300 original budget to get a q6600 (quad-core and great for rendering/multimedia), Gigabyte GA-DS3L motherboard, and a 9600GT.

Prices:
$90 - Motherboard - GA-P35-DS3L
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

$220 - Processor - Q6600
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

$140 ($115 after $25 MIR) - Video Card - 9600GT
Newegg.com - ECS N9600GT-512MX EDM GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Total: $450 ($425 after MIR)
If you sell your processor, video card, and current motherboard you should get about 100-200 (depending on your luck and where you are selling) which will make up for the additional upgrade cost.

One thing you need to make sure of is that your current Power Supply will have enough to power the upgrades. Let us know what your current power supply is, as well as what type of motherboard it is, and I'll give you an estimate of how much you could sell the parts for and let you know if your power supply is up to par.

 

[Brinson]

wtf...

You don't need a quad core or a high powered GPU to edit video.

Using programs like Maya or Lightwave will use the GPU some, but editting video won't use it much at all and editting is not that cpu intensive either.

I would upgrade the ram (2gbs for running an OS and all those editting apps?), an +-RW drive would be helpful, and if I wanted to spend more cash (even though its unncesessary) I would buy a raid card to protect against HD failure.

 

[NightSurge]

Actually, a quad-core is highly recommended. You must not have done much serious editing, especially not to the level of what he will be using. Rendering is a very CPU intensive task, and the fact that, like you said, he will be using multiple applications all at once would warrant the speed and higher level of processing provided by a quad-core. The only suggestion or comment you've made that even remotely applies would be to get more RAM and a newer DVD drive. Although, if he's running XP the extra RAM wouldn't be necessary.

I realize I forgot to add a DVD drive into my recommendations. Just grab a good SATA Lite-On 20x DVD burner and you'll be good. $30 for one.

Oh and the 9600GT is only ever classified as a mid-range card. And by going with a cheap 9600GT he will have full HD capabilities and a long lasting card for years to come.

 

[jobmitsuo]

heh Surge's advice sounds more like what i'd build for myself. I'd go for it but sounds like more work than it's worth. I'm just handing this down after doing a new build for myself.

Brinson, are you saying more than 2gb ram? cause there is 2gb in there 2x 1gb sticks. My bro's got an external drive for backups. Do you have any recommendations for a good burner drive? He's not going to be doing any HD so bluray or HDDVD support not necessary. Would upgrading from a 1066 board to a 1333 board make the E6550 more stable? [i had bought the 1066 board as a replacement for one that died but never replaced it with 1333 out of shear lazyness, and inability to find a 1333 that supported AGP for the 7800]

 

[NightSurge]

It's all up to you. But if you look at it this way, just by using the Q6600 you will be reducing rendering times by 87% over the E6550.

The Q6600 encodes 24 seconds of high-definition video at 1920x1080 in 2.5 minutes, while the E6550 takes 4.8 minutes. Almost twice as long! It may be a bit of a hassle to sell the parts, but if you're upgrading the motherboard, all those parts will be taken out anyways and you might as well give him a good stable upgrade for years to come. I think he'd really benefit from the quad core for his video editing and multimedia usage. If it renders HD video at high resolution that much faster, just think how much faster it will render standard definition video!

Plus, if he is rendering larger video files, you will see a difference of many minutes to even HOURS faster for the Q6600 compared to the dual-core.

 

[Comdot]

Aren't the only cards that can help with video editing in the region of $500 new? I wasn't aware that a standard video card e.g. a GeForce, had the capability (literally). I think it all runs off the CPU until you start buying high-end cards that are specifically designed for video editing.

With that in mind (if I'm right) I'd say get a new mobo to match your 667 RAM, and just get him a better video card if he wants that for games. My DVDRW drive (see my sig below) has served me fine, and was very cheap. I don't know how much a Q6600 is but surgevel does have a point. He's made his argument, so it all goes down to budget. There is a strong case for just upgrading the mobo though and leaving it at that.

I would say the next thing he'll be interested in is a good monitor.

 

[gurusan]

wtf...

You don't need a quad core or a high powered GPU to edit video.

Quad core certainly helps a lot! Not sure you know what you're talking about if you are recommending against it

 

[Brinson]

While you have all those programs running, you won't be actively using them all at the same time, so a high powered dual core is really going to suit your needs fine.

Its not that a quad core is bad, but for video editting, its overkill. I used a pentium 4 3ghz as an editting machine for a while. 2 gbs of ram, usually running photoshop, premiere, after effects, audion, and a few instances of a word processor and I was fine. CPU was fine. Rendering took a couple minutes but you only need to do it occasionally. The biggest problem I had was all those apps used my ram entirely, so if building another I'd have 4gbs, ESPECIALLY if running vista.

Video editting really isn't cpu or gpu intensive. Hardly uses the GPU at all.

 

[harnar123]

I disagree with bension to, I had to edit video with p4's and it BLEW (I know core 2 duo is way better), so man, stop giving that bad advice, I mean you prob will be fine with the core 2 duo, but a quad would mos def kill it. NO QUESTIONS!