i need to build the BEST PC for video editing.

[badkitty]

i have been doing research for weeks and keep coming up with different info on what is better.

I am doing video editing and encoding. I put together customers old videos,pictures and what else they want..into a presentation and then burn to DVD. encoding can take 2-3hrs, i need it done alot faster. you'd be surprised how much demand for this there is now.i have work piling up , because im waiting for encoding. i was even thinking of building 2 pc's

I was looking at quad cores (since price drop) , but then i read something on dual xeon for editing. Opteron?

I want as much ram as MB will take, then i find out XP wont let u use more than 4gb ( shows as 3gb) unless your using the 64bit version than u can use 8gb. new DDR3 1333mhz.

Hard drives info is just driving me up the wall. Raptors in RAID0, new 1TB barracudas with 105mb/sec sustained rate in sata 3gbit. Raid0 may fail and u lose it all.

im lookin to spend about $2K on just CPU, MB , RAM and HD's (at least 1TB for data and 1TB for backup)

can i get some REAL suggestions. i dont need video card info, that i know all about and doesnt really impact editing.

 

[Brinson]

Dude, what program are you using to encode it?

On the not-so-impressive system in my sig, I can encode my editted videos and burn them in under an hour...

I usually just export as dvd in adobe premiere...

I'd say any dual core system with 2gb of ram, then maybe 5 500b HDs in a raid 5 for 2tb combined space, and if an HD fails your still safe.

 

[meat_helmet]

Definately go for a quad core, encoding/rendering is where they really shine. You might want alot of ram, but yes you need 64bit to use more than 3GB. Dont bother with DDR3 yet, its way too expensive and DDR2 out-performs it - It wont be mainstream for about 2 more years.

For HDDs look at seagate 7200.10 or samsung spinpoint (although i think the seagates are faster)

 

[saltynay]

cpu: Q6600
mobo: p5b deluxe
Ram: 2x2gb (any good brand) 32bit actually see all the RAM but only allocate directory use to 3.25gb but 3gb is all you need for video editing
gfx: 7600gt or a lower end nvidia quadro the most expensive ones are for engineering not video editing
hdd: Samsung spin point for the main OS drive 120gb should be enough and then 5x750gb seagate barracuda 7200.10 in RAID5
psu: 520hx Corsair
Case: any you like really I think the coolest case is the Lian Li special edition shell shaped one and is kinda quirky would look good in a media studio

 

[san21893]

cpu: Q6600
mobo: p5b deluxe
Ram: 2x2gb (any good brand) 32bit actually see all the RAM but only allocate directory use to 3.25gb but 3gb is all you need for video editing
gfx: 7600gt or a lower end nvidia quadro the most expensive ones are for engineering not video editing
hdd: Samsung spin point for the main OS drive 120gb should be enough and then 5x750gb seagate barracuda 7200.10 in RAID5
psu: 520hx Corsair
Case: any you like really I think the coolest case is the Lian Li special edition shell shaped one and is kinda quirky would look good in a media studio

Imo the lian li v2000 case is real good, you're gonna be able to hold TWELVE hdds.

 

[maroon1]

According to many reviews Western Digital 750GB hard drive is currently the fastest 7200RPM HDD. Get two of those and you will be happy

 

[badkitty]

ya i've noticed the 7200.10 are in most cases only alittle slower than the raptor-x , and mostly always faster than my 74gb raptor. weird.

 

[Brinson]

He wants to 2 tb of space...

750gb WD drives cost $220 on Tigerdirect. In order to get 2tb on a Raid 5, he'll need 4 of them. Will cost $880

500gb Seagates go for $110 on Newegg/Tigerdirect. Five of them on a raid 5 would cost you $550, for roughly the same amount of space.

I would go with 500gb because its cheaper, and the more drives in a raid 5, the more that can fail without data loss.

 

[Brinson]

I just realized you didn't say you wanted a raid 5. You don't want to do Raid 0 on a system your editing video on...HDs fail, and you don't want to lose everything.

Raid 5 is better, because you'll almost never lose your data short of your pc being hit by a truck, but it will slow down your PC. In a Raid 5, you lose one of your drives space wise. 3 250gb HDs would yield 500gbs of Space.

Raid 1 or a "mirror" raid cuts your space in half. You have 2 500gb HDs, you have 500gbs of space. It keeps two copies of everything. You won't lose anyting, no real speed loss, but you have to buy double the space you want.

 

[veg1992]

cpu: Q6600
mobo: p5b deluxe
Ram: 2x2gb (any good brand) 32bit actually see all the RAM but only allocate directory use to 3.25gb but 3gb is all you need for video editing
gfx: 7600gt or a lower end nvidia quadro the most expensive ones are for engineering not video editing
hdd: Samsung spin point for the main OS drive 120gb should be enough and then 5x750gb seagate barracuda 7200.10 in RAID5
psu: 520hx Corsair
Case: any you like really I think the coolest case is the Lian Li special edition shell shaped one and is kinda quirky would look good in a media studio

good build, u could also use a lower end 8 series card, such as the 8500gt or 8600gt(s)

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

thats a great 4gb Kit