hi everyone.

i came across this site in hopes to find out what hardware i might need to build a video editing pc.

i ordered a cheap case off ebay and a antec neo 550 psu. so far that's as far as i have got. i want a fast PC that edits with now freezing. I'm new to editing so i don't know exactly what i need. i would like to build one as cheap as possible and not sacrifice quality or speed. as of now i'm just doing it as a hobby and don't want to have to build another PC if i get more serious with it. from what i have been reading dual core is the way to go. but i don't know what motherboard or cpu. Intel or amd? i was wondering whats the difference in agp and pci express.
10 k rpm for the system hdd is what i should use and then sata for storage? i would also like to do everything on windows if possible. if not can i put a mac os and a windows os on the same pc. use the mac for editing and the windows for everyday use. im also wondering the difference in a standard graphics card such as geforce and radeon vs an editing card. will the standard geforce capture video?
well any help would be appreciated? if anyone has links to good low cost motherboards please post them. if its not advisable please let me know also.

I admit I'm not the person to answer some of the comparisons and specific question you've asked but would say this about PC designed for video editting...

Just about any modern(ish) PC you buy will be more than capable of edittgin video. So if you get dual core (or better?) you'll just be all the faster at it, that's all.

A few important things to bear in mind though would be...

1) By and large the video card adds nothing to video editting so there's no need to spend money on one. So unless you are going to double up the kit as a gaming console you can forget that. Now, that statement is entirely true for 'pure editting' but more and more special effects software will use graphics card capabilities so don't disregard the card entirely if you intend to do any sort of compositting of effects later.
2) have at least two internal hard drives. Small (relatively) for your OS and s/w and a seperate drive (or seven!!) for video and projects.
3) get a firewire port/card for capture. unless you are going to capture analogue signals (i.e. from a VCR or old(er) analogue camera) then you do not need a capture card at all.
4) Remember to consider and budget for your s/w.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

Im building one my self AMD or Intel will both work but with how demanding editing software is now days ur gonna want to stick with the Dual Core CPUs on the GPU (Video Card get a decent one considering if u do get into it more u will be using affects The diffrence u are going to have between agp and PCIe is if u are going to be doing alot of HD or live editing u will want PCIe but most of the new decent GPUs are PCIe are u going to be running one monitor or multiple screens thats another issue on ur CPU u will want to stick with somthing like 2.4Ghz. Bus 1000Mhz. like an Intel Core 2 E6600 what motherboards have u been looking into that is anouther big part the only way to run windows and mac is on a mac system with the new mac Parellel Software but u dont need to do that u can stick with just windows and a pc its a lot cheaper that way....