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Video Editing Build

T

TimG

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
919
My friend wants a new computer for video editing. He's going to school right out out in LA for film and he asked me to look into helping him build a editing PC.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing?
Video Editing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2,000
3) Where do you live?
L.A. California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
CPU, Motherboard, Video Card, Ram, PSU, Case, Monitor
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keyboard and Mouse, both USB
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Largest budget will allow
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Firewire, HDMI input, video editing from HD cameras
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No
 
How far are you/is he from the nearest Microcenter?

I'm assuming that you need a HDD, DVD drive, SSD, and OS as part of that $2000 budget as well?
 
In addition to what Danny stated, it would be helpful if you can tell us which video editing software your friend is planning to use. If it's a "prosumer" program such as Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, I recommend an i7-2600K CPU and a P67 or Z68 motherboard with 16GB of RAM (or an i7-980 CPU and an X58 motherboard with 24GB of RAM) and a GeForce GTX 560 Ti or a GTX 570 GPU. But if it's one of the cheap $100 programs such as Premiere Elements or Pinnacle Studio, the CPU is still fairly important but the amount of RAM and the GPU does not matter as much. And whichever configuration you pick, make sure that you also purchase at least three hard drives for that system including the OS drive (the OS drive may be an SSD or a HDD).
 
E4g1e said:
And whichever configuration you pick, make sure that you also purchase at least three hard drives for that system including the OS drive (the OS drive may be an SSD or a HDD).
Click to expand...
Just to make sure I'm not missing anything: One HDD or SSD for the OS, one HDD for large program installations, and the third hard drive for scratch disk and data storage?
 
Danny Bui said:
Just to make sure I'm not missing anything: One HDD or SSD for the OS, one HDD for large program installations, and the third hard drive for scratch disk and data storage?
Click to expand...

Actually, the OS and programs go onto the C: drive (SSD or HDD), one HDD for source media files and projects, a third HDD for media cache, previews, renders and exports.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, the OS and programs go onto the C: drive (SSD or HDD), one HDD for source media files and projects, a third HDD for media cache, previews, renders and exports.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
Has he ruled out Apple products? Isn't that what everyone is editing on these days? Don't get me wrong, I'm a Windows guy myself.
 
I'll figure out which program he's using. A hard drive and dvd drive is also needed, forgot those in the initial post. He was looking at Alienware and XPS but i told him building his own would be the best route.
 
He'll be using Adobe Premier CS5. Also just found out he'll need at least one LCD for the editing. Possibly a second if the budget allows. This is what I have so far. Still need a PSU, Case, and monitor.

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

GeForce GTX 560 Ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

4x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313

SAMSUNG 470 Series MZ-5PA128/US 2.5" 128GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147063

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112238
 
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Ditch that hard drive as it is slower than this cheaper hard drive:
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Ditch that Corsair: It's the older version which has now been superceded by the updated Corsair 650TX V2. However both Corsair 650TX PSUs are tad overpriced when you can get a 750W PSU for just $10 to $15 more:
$110 - Corsair 750TX V2 750W PSU

SSD wise, I would recommend something a little more up to date and faster:
$219 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$229 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SSD w/ USB to SATA Adapter and Drive Cloning software
$278 - Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SSD

Go with this CPU + mobo combo deal to shave off $25:
$460 - Intel Core i7 2600K CPU + MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard Combo

The case you chose is fine. However if you want other case recommendations:
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$113 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$120 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 White ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
 
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^ Thanks man! You do awesome work. I believe you helped me piece together a gaming computer for a friend of mine earlier this month and his rig turned out awesome.

We're looking at monitors. Any good suggestions for a good video editing monitor? We're at $1,333.88.
 
TimG said:
^ Thanks man! You do awesome work. I believe you helped me piece together a gaming computer for a friend of mine earlier this month and his rig turned out awesome.
Click to expand...
You're welcome and good to hear!
TimG said:
We're looking at monitors. Any good suggestions for a good video editing monitor? We're at $1,333.88.
Click to expand...

Might want to hit up the displays forum. My knowledge of monitors are a tad out of date.
 
Will do, thanks.

And I checked, he lives about 40 minutes away from a Micro Center.
 
If you are putting together a PC today for video editing, I think you might be missing an opportunity if you don't make sure that the motherboard you pick is based on the H67 or Z68 chipset. Intel's Quick Sync technology is only available on these chipsets and it's a couple of times faster than even CUDA implementations (never mind a plain CPU; even a fast multi-core model).

It's true that this technology is utilized only in a handful of video conversion utilities currently on the market, but I suspect that it won't be long before most major video editing software titles adopt it as well.

Incidentally, between the H67 and P67 chipsets, I see almost no point at all in going for a P67 motherboard, unless you'll be doing overclocking. But, if you ask this question on an enthusiasts' forum like this one, what you get will of course be reflexive recommendations for P67 boards... :)
 
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Hmm. Well, I know he doesn't plan on overclocking. Do you have a board in mind that has the Intel Quick Sync tech?
 
guney said:
If you are putting together a PC today for video editing, I think you might be missing an opportunity if you don't make sure that the motherboard you pick is based on the H67 or P67 chipset. Intel's Quick Sync technology is only available on these chipsets and it's a couple of times faster than even CUDA implementations (never mind a plain CPU; even a fast multi-core model).
Click to expand...

Actually, QuickSync does absolutely nothing when editing within Premiere Pro CS5: Everything will be software-only. Although the Quick Sync feature does speed up certain exports to certain formats, the user will get either relatively low-quality video or molasses-slow performance on the encodes (turning on Maximum Render Quality on export completely negates any advantage afforded by the QuickSync feature).

And you are partially incorrect about the chipset support for QuickSync: The P67 chipset does not support that feature at all due to its requirement of a discrete GPU just to even function at all. Only the H67 and Z68 chipsets support QuickSync.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, QuickSync does absolutely nothing when editing within Premiere Pro CS5: Everything will be software-only. Although the Quick Sync feature does speed up certain exports to certain formats, the user will get either relatively low-quality video or molasses-slow performance on the encodes (turning on Maximum Render Quality on export completely negates any advantage afforded by the QuickSync feature).
Click to expand...

Yes, but you're talking about the current version of Premiere Pro. I'd be surprised if the implementation of Quick Sync doesn't get better and more widespread over the next year or two. At least, that's my personal expectation.


E4g1e said:
And you are partially incorrect about the chipset support for QuickSync: The P67 chipset does not support that feature at all due to its requirement of a discrete GPU just to even function at all. Only the H67 and Z68 chipsets support QuickSync.
Click to expand...

Sorry. You were a victim of my typo. I fixed that in my posting a few minutes after submitting it, but you must have responded before the fix.
 
guney said:
Yes, but you're talking about the current version of Premiere Pro. I'd be surprised if the implementation of Quick Sync doesn't get better and more widespread over the next year or two. At least, that's my personal expectation.




Sorry. You were a victim of my typo. I fixed that in my posting a few minutes after submitting it, but you must have responded before the fix.
Click to expand...

Acknowledged. ;)
 
Remember that you will need a 64bit OS. Premiere Pro CS5.x doesn't run on 32bit.
Also, 3 screens is what you want ideally. Tools across all 3 or tools on 2 and 1 as a full screen monitor,
editor-2010.jpg
 
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