Video Editing PC £600 budget, need advice please.

serge_del · #1 (**permalink**) 11-01-2005, 11:40 AM

Hi
I have a £ 600 to build budget video editing PC. I just need an advice of what hardware i need to buy.
So far my choice:

CPU: athlon 64 (cheapest model)
MB: Cheapest that supports above ( not sure what to go for)
HD: 3 haddrives, one system(40 gb) and 2 x 100 gb in raid
Video: any nvidia or radeon with 128 mb of ram
Ram: 1 gig of PC 3200
Case/PSU: not decided

Please advice me if the is anything that i should not buy. And what is recomended to buy.

Also i was looking in to Intel setup but it is a bit more expensive. I would like adivce on that one too.

I will use Adobe Premier for video editing on that PC on WinXP.

Regards

Serge

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 11-01-2005, 11:46 AM

Well, strictly speaking the graphics card adds nothing for video editing. but then again, if it's dual head and you have two monitors I guess you'll need one.

serge_del · #3 (**permalink**) 11-01-2005, 09:17 PM

Thanks for the advice Alan
Shall I just get MB with onboard graphics card than, to save money and get more memory or better CPU or else?

Alan Mills · #4 (**permalink**) 11-02-2005, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by serge_del

Thanks for the advice Alan
Shall I just get MB with onboard graphics card than, to save money and get more memory or better CPU or else?

I'm no hardware guy but I thought that the onboard graphics cards tend to 'steal' memory to work. Someone correct me if this is wrong.

If you can afford it I would get a 'real' graphics card with dual heads so you can (later?) drive two monitors if you want. Also, although not strictly needed to drive a standard NLW for editting, there are editting applications (typically special effects apps like ParticleIllusion) that will benefit from/require it and you might well want to not choose to shut the door on these apps.

I'm surprised others haven't jumped in on this question yet but also make sure you have a firewire port on whatever box you get. This is a prerequisite for any capture worth the name.

Also, go for 1Gb of RAM as a bare minimum.

serge_del · #5 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 12:17 AM

Do i need to get external PCI firewie card, or best ot get MB with build in Firewire port?

Raj · #6 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 06:34 AM

like Alan, I'm no hardware expert but most motherboards seem to come with at least 1 firewire port these days.

If it's provided on the board you might as well use it, you shouldn't have any problems with it.
Also it saves adding a firewire card and taking up an expansion slot which could be used for other things.

CrkMStanz · #7 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 08:32 AM

Quote:

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

serge_del · #8 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 02:09 PM

Thanks for your replies.
That what i decided to go for

AMD Athlon64 3000 Venice Retail Socket 939 £100
Abit AN8 Ultra Socket 939 £80
Corsair 1GB XMS3200 DDR SDRAM £100
3 x Barracuda 7200.7 Hard Disk Drive 80GB SATA Native Command Queuing 7200RPM - OEM £120 (£40x3)

Enermax Noisetaker 535W ATX V2.0 £50
AOpen 16x DVDRW Chameleon Retail £30
Gigabyte GeForce FX5750 128MB PCI-E £58
Any case no psu £30
TOTAL :£568

Does any one have anything against components that i selected?
Any advice appreciated.

Mike Thorpe · #9 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 06:51 PM

Good RAM, good hard drives, good PSU, good video card.

Motherboard - personally I would always use Asus motherboards (i suggest the A8N-E for your spec) but that's just my personal preference rather than a mistake as such.

serge_del · #10 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 10:48 PM

After some consideration i decided to go for

Intel Pentium D 820 2.8Ghz Skt 775 Fsb 800 2 x 1Mb Cache Retail £177
Abit AL8 £99.82 inc
240-pin DIMM DDR2 £71.66
1 x Barracuda 7200.7 Hard Disk Drive 80GB SATA Native Command Queuing 7200RPM - OEM £40
2x Barracuda 7200.8 Hard Disk Drive 160GB SATA 7200RPM - OEM £130 inc
Enermax Noisetaker 535W ATX V2.0 £70
AOpen 16x DVDRW Chameleon Retail £30
Gigabyte GeForce FX5750 128MB PCI-E £58
Any case no psu £30

TOTAL :£730

It goes above £600 budget but i put in dual core cpu.
Any comments welcome.