I'm surprised others haven't jumped in on this question yet |
I am a hardware guy and this is the most explosive question posed to us 'hardware guys'. When I see 'Low budget' and either 'Video editing PC' or 'Gaming PC' in the same question it just makes me cringe.
The very first thing I can say is - you have to lower your expectaions of performance. Jerky video, crashes due to overload, synching problems, looooong render and prep-for-burn times, unexpected program halts.
Not that those things will happen ALL the time, but they will happen - and I don't wanna get yelled at because I reccommended the system and it SUX (ie, doesn't meet your performance expectations or desires).
That being said - there are things to look for...
If you are buying a new fully built system, then you better have a friend in the business that is going to give you his employee pricing or your budget/expectation ratio will not get close to being met.
Buying components and putting them together is your best value for new. Always spend the bulk of your money in this order...
CPU (s)
Motherboard
Memory
Harddrives
Then scrounge all the other pieces, and dont be tempted by the flashy chassis - go for the vanilla cheap looking one with the good power supply and extra fans.
If you don't need 'new' then looking for a complete (but last months/years model) monster system may be your only choice. You can consider Dell for this - one of their Larger models in the 'clearance' section. Stay away from used or 'cheap' HP's and Compaqs - you may find that they are hard to upgrade or add on to later.
I cant give you model numbers for components for a 'cheap new' system (as that info changes weekly and availability changes from region to region) but I can give you this advice - If complete downloadable drivers/firmware are not maintained by the manufacturer on an easily accessible website - stay away from it.
Good luck