Buying an editing computer

USNFilms

USNFilms

Hi,

Right now I've been editing all of my videos on a laptop with 2gs of ram and things have been slow.

I really want to buy a PC desktop for under $1,000 that will be quite fast for after effects and premiere pro cs5 that won't lag to bad when I edit and do effects. If you could recommend any computers that'd be great, as I don't know anything about computers and what they need to be fast for video editing.

Thanks
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Its funny, Iv been a computer professional for what, 15 years now, and this will be the first time I buy TOP OF THE LINE for my own use.
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You deserve it. Decided to go with the extreme i7, huh? Nice! I went with the 950, an Asus PSTD6 D motherboard and the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics card - and maxed out the RAM.

Me feel powerful. :yes:
 
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CamVader said:
You deserve it. Decided to go with the extreme i7, huh? Nice! I went with the 950, an Asus PSTD6 D motherboard and the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics card - and maxed out the RAM.

Me feel powerful. :yes:
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Well I just customized a PC from HP the other day as I don't have the time, knowledge, or skill to build myself. anyway specs are below for those interested (also got a 20 inch monitor).


HP Pavilion Elite HPE-580t PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-960 quad-core [3.2GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
• 16GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]
• FREE UPGRADE! 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 750GB
• No additional office software
• Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 month
• 1GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce 460 [2 DVI, mini-HDMI, VGA adapter]
• LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
• Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN
• 15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audio
• No TV Tuner
• Integrated sound
• HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Will you be adding another hard drive, not just bigger, but another one.. keeping system and data separate is a good idea for maximizing performance.
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That's a funny little tid-bit I noticed doing homework, as well.

Tis better to keep all your programs on the computer's hard drive while storing all the works-in-progress or final product on a separate drive USB or fire-wired in.

Appears all those static files of data sitting there doing mostly nothing most of the time just slow down your 'puter's speed.

Essentially, you'd be better off with a 1TB internal HD for programs + 4TB (or whatever) external HD for storage than a 5TB internal HD both running programs and storing.

Sound about right?
 
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rayw said:
Tis better to keep all your programs on the computer's hard drive while storing all the works-in-progress or final product on a separate drive USB or fire-wired in.
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I'm not a computer expert, but I have built one. It's true, it's not an impossible task. But the problem is, for a layperson, you're going to do some research to find out what components are compatible with one another and that's time consuming. And you can save money but my big reservation is that when a layperson such as myself builds a computer, and thinks he's crossed all his T's and dotted the i's, when it comes to your moment of truth and it's time to turn it on and boot up, what are you going to do if it just sits there and looks at you? Or you get the blue screen of death? You won't have any Mumbai call center girl to curse out and lecture, you can't march over to Fry's, you're screwed, so you better have a go to guy that can come over and troubleshoot, for FREE. If you have to call a techie, you can end up with a huge bil

Another thing, about firewire, I hate it. USB 3 is supposed to be great, but I'd avoid the older USB format, it's a bit of a bottle neck from my experience. A good way to go on externals is SATA. That's worked the best for me. YMMV.
 
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rayw said:
That's a funny little tid-bit I noticed doing homework, as well.

Tis better to keep all your programs on the computer's hard drive while storing all the works-in-progress or final product on a separate drive USB or fire-wired in.

Appears all those static files of data sitting there doing mostly nothing most of the time just slow down your 'puter's speed.

Essentially, you'd be better off with a 1TB internal HD for programs + 4TB (or whatever) external HD for storage than a 5TB internal HD both running programs and storing.

Sound about right?
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Nope. :D Well, not exactly. USB isn't fast enough for NLE project files, but you're right about having everything on one drive - BAD! A minimum for for an NLE puter would be a 7200 rpm hard drive for the operating system and a separate one of the same speed for project files. I went the solid state route for the operating system drive and 2 TB raid 0 for the project files + another couple of TB drives to store finished projects and all my other junk.
 
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CamVader said:
Nope. :D Well, not exactly. USB isn't fast enough for NLE project files, but you're right about having everything on one drive - BAD! A minimum for for an NLE puter would be a 7200 rpm hard drive for the operating system and a separate one of the same speed for project files. I went the solid state route for the operating system drive and 2 TB raid 0 for the project files + another couple of TB drives to store finished projects and all my other junk.
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This. USB 2.0 and FireWire are showing their age. For HD editing you either need to go internal or use an eSata connection. The newer USB 3.0 spec and Thunderbolt connections should work as well, though I haven't had experience with either of those.
 
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I'm far from a computer expert, so bear with me :)

Is what you are all saying is that, when my computer comes in, I should buy another external hard drive with the same speed as the built in drive, and use it just for storing and saving my movie files to?
 
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USNFilms said:
I'm far from a computer expert, so bear with me :)

Is what you are all saying is that, when my computer comes in, I should buy another external hard drive with the same speed as the built in drive, and use it just for storing and saving my movie files to?
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Essentially yes. Ideally 3 drives is better, but to keep it simple, the drive that your machine comes with should be for APPS ONLY. Then, the easiest thing to do is get an external SATA drive for all your video files. In order to run a SATA drive, your new machine must have an external SATA port.
.

I don't know how far they've come with USB 3, maybe someone can comment. But for sure, an external SATA drive will work.

Worst case scenario, you can use an older Firewire drive or USB2, but those are not ideal, they're not even good, they're last resort.
 
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USNFilms said:
I'm far from a computer expert, so bear with me :)

Is what you are all saying is that, when my computer comes in, I should buy another external hard drive with the same speed as the built in drive, and use it just for storing and saving my movie files to?
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It would make more sense to just install the drive internally.
 
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SinEater said:
It would make more sense to just install the drive internally.
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Tipping my IT nube hat, how does installing a secondary drive internally allow "the system" to recognize it as being not just an extension of the existing hard drive?

Is there something we need to "tell" the existing system to recognize that added drive as separate?
(FWIW, I'm not opposed to actually trying this dumb stunt, but it doesn't sound like expanding the RAM).

TY,IA
 
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I like Phil's suggestions a lot, but I'd cut down with the RAM, going with 12gb, and a 920.
THen, I would get 1TB HDD, for storing projects, and 2 500GB HDD, setting up a RAID 0 for software and projects I'm working on.
 
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Look at it like plug and play. Just grab some power from the power supply, plug the sata cable into the motherboard and the new drive and you're off to the races. It will assign itself a drive (has to do with where you attached the cable to the motherboard, but any will do) and you're done.

BTW esata is no different, it has a sata cable that goes from the motherboard to the port on your computer that says "esata." That's what you plug your external into.
 
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rayw said:
Tipping my IT nube hat, how does installing a secondary drive internally allow "the system" to recognize it as being not just an extension of the existing hard drive?

Is there something we need to "tell" the existing system to recognize that added drive as separate?
(FWIW, I'm not opposed to actually trying this dumb stunt, but it doesn't sound like expanding the RAM).

TY,IA
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In non-technical terms, because it's not plugged into the same place. You could make the system see both disks as one using something called "RAID striping", which improves performance but leaves you more vulnerable to data loss.
 
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