Computer for video editing

[joebloggs]

A friend of mine wants to build a computer for doing video editing and mixing. What sort of hardware would he need and I dont know what difference this makes but he says video size will be 1920 X 1080

[composite1]

Joe,

Check out the discussions on the ‘To Build or Not to Build’ Post.

[birdcat]

Just a quick bit of advice – 1920 X 1080 is high definition – Think the fastest, most powerful monster you can build and he will do fine. Seriously, nothing less than a decent speed Core 2 Duo (Core 2 Quad or higher would be better), at least 2GB RAM (4GB or more would be better), more hard drive space than you can imagine set up in a RAID-6 configuration (seriously, five terabytes would be my staring dream machine).

Now all this may be out of your friends (monetary) reach but hey, you asked – If money were no object, I’d probably spend somewhere around $5,000 – yes that was five thousand dollars – on my editing box, then add about another five grand for software and royalty free assets (already have a few thousand sunk int those already).

[Anonymous]

I agree with birdcat’s specced system, but I think you can build that system for $2k.

I can not recommend any of the name-brand pc’s out there, I believe them to all be junk.

My recommendation:
Asus P5 MB + quad core $400
4G Ram………. $50
video card ….$200
WinXP…………$140
2x 1T hd set up as RAID 1 … $200 (seagate or maxtor… NO WESTERN DIGITAL!)
your favorite case and power supply: $200
he already has the mouse and keyboard.

make sure your monitor(s) can display 1920×1080!

and as composite pointed out, by all means check out the other thread.

[joebloggs]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think ive a fair idea of the spec now but what capture cards would be good for taking live feeds from cameras and outputing them on a screen. he wants to be able to takes feeds from 3 cameras. I understand firewire is not suitable for this as there is 1/2 second delay and this needs to be live.

[composite1]

Joe,

Have you looked into New Tek’s Tricaster? Their systems have RCA and firewire connectors if the delay is an issue. Check them out at B&H.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=search&A=search&Q=&sb=bs%2Cupper(ds)&sq=asc&sortDrop=Brand%3A+A+to+Z&ac=&bsi=&bhs=t&ci=2865&shs=&at=Brand_NewTek&basicSubmit=Submit+Query

[joebloggs]

Have looked at them but the price is out of his league unfortunately plus to have to get a computer for video editing on top of that is way too much

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