Help for a beginner!

cadboll · #1 (**permalink**) 01-05-2006, 04:31 PM

I have been playing around with video editing for about a year or so. Mainly been using Pinnacle Studio 9 but recently got Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 and looking to get into it seriously.

My current PC spec is as follows:
Motherboard - ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache.
AMD Athlon XP 3200 processor

However, I would like to upgrade my PC but am thinking its probably best to have a PC dedicated to video. As a result I am looking around to get some advice as to the best components to buy.

To date I have been looking at motherboards and processors. At present I am considering the Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 3800+ processor but unsure as to the best motherboard. Can anyone advise?

Also are there other things that I need to be aware of? I'm at the learning stage so my knowledge is limited. Many thanks.

Mike Thorpe · #2 (**permalink**) 01-05-2006, 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by cadboll

I have been playing around with video editing for about a year or so. Mainly been using Pinnacle Studio 9 but recently got Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 and looking to get into it seriously.

My current PC spec is as follows:
Motherboard - ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache.
AMD Athlon XP 3200 processor

However, I would like to upgrade my PC but am thinking its probably best to have a PC dedicated to video. As a result I am looking around to get some advice as to the best components to buy.

To date I have been looking at motherboards and processors. At present I am considering the Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 3800+ processor but unsure as to the best motherboard. Can anyone advise?

Also are there other things that I need to be aware of? I'm at the learning stage so my knowledge is limited. Many thanks.

Motherboard - go for one in the Asus A8N range, the A8N-E, A8N-SLI Premium or A8N-SLI Deluxe. If you're upgrading it, odds are you'll need to upgrade your power supply unit too, unless you have a very powerful one already.

For a dual core, I recommend a reasonably decent 500W PSU, Coolermaster, Tagan, something like that.

RAM? If you're not overclocking, you may as well get something like the lower end Crucial or Corsair ValueSelect RAM.

Video card, you'll need a PCI-Express card. If you're just doing editing, it doesn't really matter on the speed of your card, may as well just get a low-end GeForce or Radeon, but be careful to get a card with memory built in, as it seems to be a trend at the moment for video card manufacturers to create budget cards that grab some of the system RAM for the card rather than having its own (Hypermemory is one name I've seen that's guilty of that)

Hard Drive - get as much as you can afford, and make it Serial ATA. I'm not really a fan of Maxtor Drives, but that's down to personal preference.

Or you could always buy an Apple Mac

cadboll · #3 (**permalink**) 01-06-2006, 03:19 PM

Thanks for the info! Would you have any particular preference for either the A8N-SLI Premium or A8N-SLI Deluxe? Due to my limited knowledge I'm not sure which would be best.

For a dual core, I recommend a reasonably decent 500W PSU, Coolermaster, Tagan, something like that.

Could you possibly give some more information on this. Again I haven't purchased items like this before and don't want to make the mistake of buying the wrong components!!

I had heard that Crucial were good for purchasing RAM from so intend to use them.

At the moment still going for the AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 3800+ processor unless advised otherwise! Nvidia 6600GT graphics card was also recommended to me - what do you think?

Finally do you know of a good case? My current computer is quite noisy so looking for something that will be quiet!!

Many thanks.

Mike Thorpe · #4 (**permalink**) 01-06-2006, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by cadboll

Thanks for the info! Would you have any particular preference for either the A8N-SLI Premium or A8N-SLI Deluxe? Due to my limited knowledge I'm not sure which would be best.

Whichever one you can afford

Can't remember which one has the more features. It will be the more expensive one though

[/quote]

For the PSU, there are so, so, so many around I can't say which one is perfect. Just get a good ATX2.0 spec one (those are the 24pin versions) from a big manufacturer - Tagan and coolermaster are a good brand. All I can say is read reviews of various ones.

The 6600GT will be more than enough for an editing PC.

As for a case, I'm not really too up on case technology, so I'll have to leave one of the others up to that, though I do believe the coolermaster, Lian-Li and Thermaltake cases are well recommended, although as for how soundproof they are, i dont know.

keep us updated and let us know how you get on!