Best Video Editing PC under 2k!?

**cooldjworld** · 02-25-2005, 05:36 AM

Hello everyone! I am new here! This forum is wonderful!

I would like to know what would be the best configuration for a Video Editing PC under 2k ? From Monitor to motherboard! What would you suggest me to buy ? I am not a beginner, but I experienced in the past lot of problems doing video editing on a PC. All kinds of problems! Then I had the chance to work on MAC computer using Final Cut Pro! It was wonderful! But hey! It's a MAC! I need more than just editing! Maybe playing with Combustion and some other hardcore software. But anyways, we can talk about this for very long... so I'm just asking everybody here to give me some suggestion! Thank you very much!

Cooldjworld

**Mike Thorpe** · 02-25-2005, 10:15 AM

I'm asuming you're in the UK... Does the £2000 budget include the software, or is that on a seperate budget?

I specced this up in november...

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/ftopic2877.html

(scroll down the page)

obviously the prices have come down now, which should give you enough budget to buy a couple of 17" TFT monitors and the operating system.

**cooldjworld** · 02-25-2005, 04:49 PM

I'm in Canada.. but hmmm... i don't know in which currency people in here are usually talking about... so I'd say under 3000$US . No software included, just the hardware for now. Thank you for your suggestions!

**cooldjworld** · 02-26-2005, 07:06 PM

Any other suggestions ? Seems like any powerful PC configuration is fine... :(

:

**Mike Thorpe** · 02-26-2005, 07:56 PM

Pretty much, yeah.

Stick to components from proper major name manufacturers and you should be ok.

**cooldjworld** · 02-26-2005, 11:43 PM

Oh ok... maybe I had problems before because of the software I was using. I was using Premiere 5 i think with ATI ALL-IN-WONDER PRO 128 and it was always crashing my computer or when my footage was long it just started to act weird... so frustrating! Would you recommend a MAC or a PC ? Toff question.... :P

**Ian in Northampton** · 02-28-2005, 11:51 AM

That's a religious question that's been debated here many times. Video purists will tell you Apple - those of us who like to do other stuff on our computers will tell you a PC will work just fine. I guess the pros use Apples but for us part-timers, Windows is just fine.

**cooldjworld** · 03-05-2005, 11:52 PM

Originally Posted by Ian in Northampton

That's a religious question that's been debated here many times. Video purists will tell you Apple - those of us who like to do other stuff on our computers will tell you a PC will work just fine. I guess the pros use Apples but for us part-timers, Windows is just fine.

You are right... I guess if I want to do other things than Editing, I should go for PC. I was more afraid that a PC would have hard time handling huge video files and processing them... It's not rare to see the blue screen in Windows.. but with WindowsXP, i think things got better and more stable. I'll stick with a PC for now... Apple is good but so $$$... Anyways thanks for advices!

**Ian in Northampton** · 03-06-2005, 09:08 AM

The best I can tell you - and I just know I'm going to regret saying this - is that my XP/Premiere Pro/Encore/ADVC-55/Panasonic camera configuration is as stable as I could wish. I can't claim to handle 'huge' video files - clips of max 20 min duration as part of a 75 minute DVD project - but I think you're right: things in the Windows world have got better. There's a point of view that says if you only ask a system to do one thing, be it a Mac or a PC - it will always be more stable than a 'jack of all trades' machine. In the Windows world, there are just far more - and cheaper - opportunities to turn a stable configuration into an unstable one...

**Mike Thorpe** · 03-06-2005, 10:41 AM

One thing I actually would recommend is that you keep as little software on your PC as possible, then there's less chance of it going wrong. One thing I've considered trying is setting up a second version of Windows on my PC, with just software necessary to video editing on it, so it's not cluttered up with internet stuff, games, other huge applications and so on. I've no idea if that will actually help though