Video editing PC on $1500 budget

[kmrivers]

Hello everyone. So today someone asks me to build them a video editing pc on a budget. A small budget of 1500. It is workable nevertheless.

So i start racking my brain. What sets a Video Editing PC apart from the pack? CPU, Vid card? We are obviously going to need a good amount of hard drive space. I am used to building overclocking machines for my personal use. I know my pcs could handle video editing, but is there something i should gear this PC toward to make it more capable?

First off, CPU... there are a plethora of options here. I am definetly going to take this one into the 64-bit age. I am partial to athlon cpu's but i am open to intel as well. As it seems the intel dual core's are a bit lower than the athlon x2 cpu's right now. For the same price however i could go dual opteron or xeon for about the same price.

So far we have these as the choices:
Athlon 64 (Single or dual core)
Dual CPU setup- any 2 responsibly priced
Opteron
Pentium 4
Xeon

Alright. Motherboard. I am not worried about. Once i know what CPU i am using i will do a lot of reading and make a good choice.

Memory. On this one i am not sure. Some say, that at some point you can have too much memory. I would say a gig would be plenty. 2 gigs is an option however. No value ram here. Quality performance memory only. OCZ, Corsair XMS, etc.

Video. This i think is the most important of all. I am not sure what direction to go? Standard gaming card? like the Geforce 6 series. Or do i go with a worksatition card, like a matrox or ati fire series?

That is really it. Everything else will be an easy choice. I am more concerned with the core of the system.

What else would you throw into a video editing PC? Are there special cards that have inputs geared for different types on input? I am thinking this person i going with a high end camera. Professional.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

[Xenocide]

no need to post in two sections...

 

[laynlow]

You don't need a high end video card or the best RAM money can buy. Fast HD for OS and apps plus a good sized scratch HD and a good sized render HD. 250gig or better on the last two. Raptor is a good choice on the OS and app drive.

 

[kmrivers]

what about cpu? what should i go with? I would love to do X2, but 545 bucks for the 4200+.

 

[ronaldo]

what about cpu? what should i go with? I would love to do X2, but 545 bucks for the 4200+.

you can wait till august and get a 3800+ X2 for 350 usd...

 

[techun]

with that 1500 budget, you can do a system with a 500 dollar cpu

 

[3DFlyer]

If you're going to do video encoding it is going to take alot of HDD space. One can fill up drives in short order with video.

It also takes a good multimedia CPU. Intel CPU's outscore AMD's in the video area. Good RAM will make the system encode faster, and a fast CPU will also do the same. Is he using a DVR?

I'd say to keep it in the 1500 dollar range is going to be tough, but workable. If this has to be a complete system with Case, PSU, and all the hardware to fill it, it's going to be really tough. If you want fast video encoding it takes a fast system. The faster it is the more it costs. If he is firm on the 1500 dollar figure, he is going to end up with an average system.

I would definitely focus on the CPU and RAM and HDD space. He won't have much left over for a high dollar vid card as these can get into the 350-500 dollar range.

A decent mobo is gonna cost about 150 bucks at least. You need a good mobo or the rest won't matter.

Does this guy want a complete system or does he have some of the hardware already? Does he need the case, the PSU, and all the other little bits and pieces it's going to take?

 

[kukyfrope]

I assume you will not be overclocking.
You didn't specify if this will be used with prosumer equipment, so I will assume it's not, and will be used to edit home movies.

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+ Venice Retail (~$265)
Motherboard: Asus A8V-E (~$125) (PCI-Express & On-Board Firewire)
Hard Drives (system): 1 Hitachi 7K80 80GB SATA (~$60)
Hard Drives (storage): 1 Hitachi 7K250 250GB SATA (~$125)
Video card: Nvidia 6200TC (~$65)
Sound card: Audigy2 ZS (~$100)
RAM: 1GB 2x512 OCZ Value ram (~$105)
Case: Any will do, personal preference (assume $75 +/- $25)
PSU: ~450W Enermax or Antec since you're not overclocking (~$75)
DVDRW: NEC ND-3540A DVD+/-RW ($45)

Total: ~$950

You could upgrade to a higher CPU, bigger hard drives, some 2-2-2-5 PC3200 ram.

 

[ronaldo]

w

as kukyfrope write good configuration, i just replace the cpu:

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3800+ X2 Retail (~$400)
Motherboard: Asus A8V-E (~$125) (PCI-Express & On-Board Firewire)
Hard Drives (system): 1 Hitachi 7K80 80GB SATA (~$60)
Hard Drives (storage): 1 Hitachi 7K250 250GB SATA (~$125)
Video card: Nvidia 6200TC (~$65)
Sound card: Audigy2 ZS (~$100)
RAM: 1GB 2x512 OCZ Value ram (~$105)
Case: Any will do, personal preference (assume $75 +/- $25)
PSU: ~450W Enermax or Antec since you're not overclocking (~$75)
DVDRW: NEC ND-3540A DVD+/-RW ($45)

Total: ~$1100

plus a better video card if you need...and maybe 2x1gb ram...

Nexus Realized: you can delete now that what you write, as i removed that...

 

[Nexus Realized]

can you prove what you saying ? what Intel cpu you mean, a single P4 ? what about dual-core cpus ?

We should probably try and keep this thread focused on how he can make a $1500 machine, we all know where this comment can lead to...30+ posts on how "X" processor is better at using "X" program. Although I am buying an X2 with his budget I would have to lean towards the Intel dual core, either that or wait until the less expensive X2's roll out shortly.

 

[fAlCoNNiAn]

you def. want a dual core/hyper-threading cpu. this is the area where having dual core/threads shines. id go with an x2 or look into the intel series of chips. the main things you will need is cpu, fast memory (tight timings) and hdd (fast and large), everything else can be lower than top of the line. you might want to get a dvd+-rw drive since you need something to put these movies on.

 

[3DFlyer]

I would definitely find out speciffically what this guy expects out of the machine for 1500 dollars. If he expects what he's seen with an and OC'd super tweaked Dual COre it isn't gonna happen for 1500 dollars.

If I were going to bukild a machine that would be doing this which I have before, I would not go less than 2K. Doing this type of work takes a fair amount of processing power if you want it to do it at any decent speed.

As was stated before, you want an Intel CPU and the faster the better. A 478 Prescott at least, and preferable a dual core. AMD's are great for benching and they set mnay records, but they are not the choice for video encoding. This is well documented. I don't think I have to go into the particulars about that.

Start with the mobo, and then the CPU, and go with good quality RAM. You want a Gig of RAM at least. Don't skimp on any of these or the point at which you skimped will become the bottleneck. After you see what you are into with that then you can make decisons on what to buy for the rest of the system, but those things are the most important. Without any of those 3 things being topline the rest will make no difference.

To narrow it down, you're gonna have to pick a CPU, then we can go from there. I would definitely not pick an AMD for video encoding. They are great gaming and benching CPU's but they are slow at encoding. My freind has one of the best AMD's money can buy and has stated mnay times he would never use it for encoding. It will work, but that is all. It will not outperform a late model HT CPU.

 

[darksparkz]

Yeah, you should get dual cores. They are the most recommended for multitasking and business usage. Video editing would work great on the Intel dual cores. I'm not a fan if intel, but I've seen Intel beat AMD in many parts of video encoding and such.

I would get a video card better then the Geforce 6200. Even if it's not for gaming or anything like that, he's going to specialize the computer in video editing, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? The graphics card.
At least get a 6800GT, at least in my opinion.

I probably would get raptors, video editors pull up information often from the HDD.

You might want to take a look at Epox boards, they've been known to have a bit of better grahics results then ASUS.

If you decide for a dual core, you need at least a OCZ Powerstream 520W. I'm not too sure about this, but usually video editing takes up 100% of the system usage, that way the PSU will be at almost 100% constant usage.

Same for the RAM, he might want to look at 2GBs of ram, CPU usage sounds like a major factor in video editing.

 

[Ssetre]

Look at the P4-D series 820 or 830 of cpu. Dual core goodness makes video encoding easy. Toss in a one of those tower ThermalTake hsf's and overclock the cpu a ways on stock volts.

As for a motherboard look at a decent 945 motherboard. Abits are my boards of choice.

As for ram look for atleast 1 gig of decently timed OCZ/Corsair DDR2.(Kingston is shat ram)

For HD space look at probably 2 or 4 200+ GB Sata hd's and run them in raid.

As for a gfx card a X800/X700/6600 would do the best.(6800 series is no good since its lacking a hardware video decoder for HD stuff)

As for inputing video and capturing and all that goodness look at a Ati Theatre 550 Pro card(MSI and Sapphire(Theatrix) I know make them).

I'd look at a Audigy 2 OEM for sound.

As for a burner I am leaning to a NEC 3540A its the newest and best from the NEC.

For PSU I'd look at a FSP/Enermax/Antec/OCZ 450W or higher.

The case is up to you but I'd reccomend a decent sized quality tower.

This gets you one hell of a well rounded and decent video crunching machine.

 

[kmrivers]

ALright. The decision has been made. Sorry i have been racking my brain since i posted, and i forgot to come back and look . I decided on Dual Opteron 244's. I am not sure if it was the best decision, the amd x2 is just too expensive and she doesn't want to wait for the 3800+. With that said, i thik i have done a pretty good job doing this system.

Some said dual core. Mutiltasking, eh. I don't think she will be doing much of that while editing a huge video. She will be using Adobe premiere, and yes she is going to get a DVR.

Here is a layout of the system so far:
2 Opteron 244 - $300
Asus K8N-DL - $266
2 sets of 2x512MB Corsair Registered ECC PC3200 (2GB total mem)- $310
Western Digital 80GB SATA - $54.50
NEC 3540A DVD+-/R/W - $44
XFX 6600 Dual DVI - $123
Maxtop 450W EpS12V PSU - $48
LG 1780U LCD DVI Monitor - $265


We are going with a small HD for now, because she doesn't have the camera as of now. She is going to use her friends. I told her to work with small videos for now until she gets her own. Then we will be adding more HD's.
As far as the PSU, i had to go with that because it is hard to find a PSU with the 8pin 12V which this board needs. I am ready for all the flames to tell me how bad of a job i did picking this stuff.

 

[kmrivers]

think i forgot to tell you i need a decent monitor in this rig as well!

 

[kukyfrope]

@kmrivers: Looks like you picked out some good hardware for this machine. The 2GB and dual-opteron is a solid choice.

You guys went a bit overboard as far as dual-core stuff goes. This is a "budget" video editing system (since those systems can run very high for top of the line) for a most likely beginner/intermediate video editer (sorry if she is not) and not an in-the-industry professional. I edit just fine on the current system in my sig, yet I don't have $2000 to drop on a top-of-the-line system when I already have this

You guys are correct in saying that Intel > AMD when it comes to video encoding performance. The thing is, Intel also costs more than AMD as you guys very well know too. Budget under 2000 is not always easy to work with but I would rather start them off with some solid hardware (hard drives, motherboard, pci-e) that allow for upgrade down the road. They're not shooting nor editing in HD so comments about "not being able to do anything" I'm wondering if some of you have used machines for more than gaming and not just read reviews/benchmarks?

Sure you think of "video card" when you think video encoding/editing but honestly, you don't need a mega 3D-accelerator to encode video, display 65 million colors or to edit a lot of video I wanted to recommend a card that had dual-DVI connectors as working with video editing, dual-monitors is always handy. You don't need a 6800GT to drive two monitors on the desktop

 

[Nexus Realized]

I'm not too familiar with Opertons or their boards, however I'm guessing that 2x1GB rather than 4x512 would be better...

 

[kmrivers]

thanks a ton kukyfrope. i went on the anandtech forums as well and i have been getting grilled for not picking the X2. Really makes me mad. Honestly, when you add it up. My core compenents come out to be about the same as an X2 machine would have been. The thing is, she does not have the camera yet so after i had bought the processors at 300 for 2! I proposed we drop the hard drives down a bit until she gets the camera. I guess i could have gone X2, oh well it is a little late now. I could return the CPU's, i havent bought the board yet. So all i would have to is return the cpu and start over i guess. What do you think guys?

The asus K8n-dl is actually an Nforce 4 board. It is just the Professional Series. So it is not an ancient board.

 

[Ssetre]

P4-D is cheaper than the X2 and dual Opterons and blows its doors off for video encoding... Why keep the Athlon route?

Eh Maxtop PSU eh? Don't go cheap on the PSU unless you want to be replacing parts of the computer with a toasted PSU. Also a quality psu makes a huge difference on computer stability. I don't even go with sub $80cad 400W PSU's. My TT420W was about 60cad when I got it and its a crap psu, it drops to 11.7v under load on a Athlon 1700+ @ stock. My SilenX 420W which was $100 barely flux's under a P4 [email protected] w oc'd X800XT and a full load out.