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$1200 PC Build (Video Editing)

L

LR2

n00b
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
52
A good friend of mine just won an essay contest and wants to build his dream video editing PC. I'm helping him out. He's a Film and Digital Media major and will mainly be using Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Video Editing. HD viewing. web/email/word. Pretty much everything. Gaming would be nice, but can be scaled back for better video editing or other components.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1200 Maximum.
Edit: $1300 Maximum
Note: We already have all the software we need.
3) Where do you live?
Texas.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Open to suggestions, but here is what I'm looking at so far.
CPU: i7 920 or a Core 2 Quad
Edit: Going with i7 920
GPU: 1080p playback (Looking at ATI HD 4000 series right now) Needs 2 DVI and 1 s-video port.
RAM: 6GB+
HDD: 1TB
CD/DVD: Good read/write speeds.
Blu-ray: Will probably upgrade in the future.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A
6) Will you be overclocking?
No, but open to suggestions.
Edit: Yes. OCing CPU to at least 3.8Ghz.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Need 1080p LCD Monitor. Size does not matter.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
In approx. 2 weeks.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Including addon cards:
- ~6+ USB ports, 2 each of Firewire 400 and Firewire 800
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
YES. 64-bit Vista; will upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7
11) Anything Else?
- Card Reader
- Slick and minimalistic case. No lights or windows.
- Will be buying from newegg.com, amazon.com, zipzoomfly, and monoprice
 
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I would recommend the Matrox RT.X2 editing card, but that costs about $1200 by itself.
That is what we use on our HD/BluRay editing workstation.

Premiere Pro CS4 is about $349 for the educational version, is that part of the budget as well?
 
Zepher said:
I would recommend the Matrox RT.X2 editing card, but that costs about $1200 by itself.
That is what we use on our HD/BluRay editing workstation.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Matrox is way too expensive. The $1200 budget is pretty firm.

Zepher said:
Premiere Pro CS4 is about $349 for the educational version, is that part of the budget as well?
Click to expand...

He already has it. The budget is only for the computer, monitor, and peripherals.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Yeah, there is a the Core i7 for $200 in-store price at Microcenter.
Click to expand...

WOAH! Thanks for the tip. Are there any other components I should get there?

...anyways, I've already went through my first test build specs and I'm getting dangerously close to the budget pre-keyboard and mouse. Buying the CPU at microcenter is going to help.

If I'm still getting to close, I'm thinking about scaling back on the monitor and just going with 900p.

Also, can anyone give me a hand in figuring out what my PSU specs should be.
 
So assuming that you can get the Core i7 920 for $200 or so:
$200 - Core i7 920
$210 - Asus P6T SE Intel X58 ATX Motherboard
$105 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$195 - XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$95 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$27 - Samsung SH-S223B SATA DVD Burner
$77 - Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
----
Total: $909 plus tax and shipping
 
In addition to what Danny just put together, you can look at the Acer H233H 1080P 23" for $179.99 at Best Buy

Danny Bui said:
So assuming that you can get the Core i7 920 for $200 or so:
$200 - Core i7 920
$210 - Asus P6T SE Intel X58 ATX Motherboard
$105 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$195 - XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$95 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$27 - Samsung SH-S223B SATA DVD Burner
$77 - Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
----
Total: $909 plus tax and shipping
Click to expand...
 
If you go with the monitor that HG recommended + my build, You'll have roughly $110 left over for the case. Some case suggestions:
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$44 - Cooler Master Elite 331 RC-331-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$45 - Cooler Master Elite 332 RC-332-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$55 - Cooler Master Sileo 500 RC-500-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$60 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$86 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$86 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Thermaltake ElementS VK60001N2Z ATX Case

If you need to cut costs for whatever reason, you can drop the HDD and GPU down to the following parts:
$70 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$150 - XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
 
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Wow, thanks a lot Danny. I really appreciate your help. I was just about to post some questions, but you've answered them all.

I think I can take it from here. I'll post again when I decide on a final build or hit a dead end.

Also, thanks again HG for the i7 lead.
 
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Before you buy, please post a final build list for all of us to review.
 
I just realized that speakers are also needed and I need to free up funds.
Danny, what do you think about scaling back to a GPU like this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770
or even this one, keeping with your XFX suggestion.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150351


Also, I'm going to scale back to 1066 speed memory. After reading this article from TomsHardware it was a easy decision. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-scaling-i7,2325-11.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148246
 
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As long as you're not a seriously demanding gamer, the XFX HD 4850 will be good choice.

Not going to comment on the RAM since I have insufficient time to ascertain whether or not Tom's hardware is right. Then it again, it IS Tom's....so being wrong wouldn't be out of the ordinary

Out of the two Lian-Li cases I linked to, I like the look of the PC-7B better.
 
Staying with the default RAM speed is fine if you're never going to OC. However, since DDR3-1066 is around the same price as DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600, I'd highly suggest going for AT LEAST DDR3-1333, if there's even a slight chance you'll want to OC in the future.
 
enginurd said:
Staying with the default RAM speed is fine if you're never going to OC. However, since DDR3-1066 is around the same price as DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600, I'd highly suggest going for AT LEAST DDR3-1333, if there's even a slight chance you'll want to OC in the future.
Click to expand...

Noted. I'm still on the edge about it. I really trying to stay in budget for my friend.

Right now though, I think I might go with the 1333; I found a good deal on amazon. What do you guys think?

http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-OCZ3G1333...ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1248834792&sr=1-2
 
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I'm now thinking about overclocking the CPU. If I get this RAM how well can I fair?

Also, how is the stock heatsink/fan for overclocking?


Current Build Draft:
CPU: i7 920 (Micro Center)
Motherboard: Asus P6TSE Core i7
Memory (RAM): OCZ 1333 MHz 6GB Gold
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black SH-S222A
PSU: Antec EA650 650W
HDD: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black
GPU: XFX HD-485X-ZDFC Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit
Monitor: Acer - 23" Widescreen LCD (from Best Buy)
Case: Lian Li PC-7B
Card Reader: SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1
-------------------------
~$1100.
 
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LR2 said:
I'm now thinking about overclocking the CPU. If I get this RAM how well can I fair?

Also, how is the stock heatsink/fan for overclocking?
Click to expand...

Not that high of a OC. Get DDR3 1600 RAM. Also, you will need a 3rd party HSF for overclocking as the stock HSF isn't that good for OC'ing.
 
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DDR3-1333 should get you to 4Ghz (w/ the 6x DRAM multiplier). If you want to use the 8x DRAM Multiplier, or go higher than 4Ghz without having to OC the RAM, get DDR3-1600, as Danny suggested.
 
I don't have first hand experience with the SE, sorry. However, I'd be very surprised if the SE didn't let you vDRAM along with the other two, at the very least. If you want to get into serious OC'ing, you'll need the other controls, me thinks.

arcinthesky said:
Also lacks some overclocking options according to the global site specifications.

P6T Vanilla lets you change:
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
- vCPU PLL: 36-step reference voltage control
- vDRAM Bus: 49-step DRAM voltage control
- vChipset(N.B.): 31-step chipset voltage control
- vNB-PCIe: 65-step chipset-PCIe voltage control

P6T-SE:
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
- vChipset (N.B.): 31-step chipset voltage control
Click to expand...
 
Here is the current build specs. (All prices are from newegg, amazon, microcenter, or monoprice)
Google Docs Document
Items marked "Subject to change" are being researched right now and any feedback would be appreciated on these items as well as on the full list.


As for the motherboard I'm not too worried about it anymore. If a better board is required though for what I want to do, someone chime in.

Here is the comparison for their respective OC features.

P6TSE/P6T/P6TDeluxe Board OC Comparision

Although I don't know too much about the different features I'm guessing that it doesn't matter. If it overclocks, it overclocks. ...also one of the reviewers (P6TSE) stated that they are running their 920 stable at 3.8Ghz. That's about where I want to clock to.
 
For a mere 3.8Ghz OC, the SE should be enough AFAIK. But if you want those extra options just in case, spring the extra cash for the P6T.
 
Ok, so given that I want to clock to 3.8Ghz, does my current build revision look good? Do you think I am shooting too low? I'm open to upgrading components for a better overclock, but would like to keep my MOBO + HSF + Memory less than $415.

Right now those components are totaling $362.
- Asus P6TSE ($207)
- OCZ 1600 6GB Gold ($100)
- COOLER MASTER V8 ($55)

Current Build Spreadsheet

Also, what's the optimal CPU OC temp to shoot for in your opinion?
 
LR2 said:
GPU: 1080p playback (Looking at ATI HD 4000 series right now) Needs 2 DVI and 1 s-video port.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that you can only use 2 outputs at once on most cards.

Sorry if its already come up in the thread, I skimmed through and didn't see anything about it.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Keep in mind that you can only use 2 outputs at once on most cards.

Sorry if its already come up in the thread, I skimmed through and didn't see anything about it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the foresight, but this isn't going to be a problem.
 
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