Computer for video editing?

[Razgrtz]

Hello everyone! Happy Holidays!

Well, it looks like the woman is going to be taking a video rendering class and photo-editing. Not really sure how extensive it goes, but she will be using Adobe after-effects and photoshop and some other programs for video editing and audio stuff with Cubase. I know from past experience that my current hardware will NOT be enough to render certain videos in a quick manner. (Sometimes we have to leave the computer on overnight to render, I HATE doing that.)

What YOUR PC will be used for: Video production, and high-end gaming. She's been wanting to FRAPs since forever!

What YOUR budget? $2000 is the max, yes. I was frugal on Christmas.Sales FTW

What country? USA

IF YOU have a brand preference? Intel 1155 GEN mobos. Anything with functionality and reliability is great! Hyper threading would be nice!

If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts:
Just a blue-ray burner.

IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds: I'll probably OC it, but the Vcore isn't going higher than 1.35v. From what I know and the ambient temp... My current rig gets HOT!

WHEN do you plan to build it? Next month? This month? Not exactly sure, but soon.

What resolution do you use? 1920 x 1080

__________________________________

My current idea:

Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GT $200 (She requested hot-swaps, if possible)
ALTERNATIVE: Could settle for Corsair 600t $170
Cpu cooling: CORSAIR H100 $110 (Ambient temps kill me, I'd rather not use air-cooling)
Psu: CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 $169.99
Gpu: EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB $509.99
Mobo: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?
CPU: i7 2700k $370 or if I cannot find the 2700k i7 2600k $320
Ram CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB $105.99
HDD: Don't need over 500gb (Uses external drives, waiting for the prices to drop)????
SSD: Can I fit one, in the budget? Maybe SRT or something OCZ caching???
_________________________________________
TOTAL SO SAR: $1436. I got $534 to burn on a Mobo and HDDs and SSDs.

This look nice? It's only a blueprint. I might switch things around if Ivy bridge IS coming out in April/May and the next series of GPUs are released.

I have no clue if SLI/Crossfire is supported when rendering videos!

[Shadowmeph]

I am sure that a Good Video editing PC build is Different from a good gaming Build

[Razgrtz]

The RAM, CPU, and HDDs are really what matter. I see most ppl using 8gbs of ram. an i7 920. A bunch of HDDs (I got a bunch of externals laying around with some HDDs) I need one specifically for this computer though.
The GPU is just a late holiday gift, and not totally needed.. a GTX 285 could have sufficed easily. We called her professor earlier and he recommended a gtx580 OVER a nvidia quadro 2000 since we ARE in a tight budget.

I find it mind bottling that some people are using laptops for the class..

[drumsrule786]

Ok if I were you this is what I would build

Case: Newegg.com - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D (CC650DW-1) Black Steel structure with black brushed aluminum faceplate ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
RAM: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL
GPU: Newegg.com - MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
HDD: Newegg.com - HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 (0f12115) 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
PSU: Newegg.com - SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
SSD: Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX SH100S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-alone Drive)
CPU cooler: Newegg.com - CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Total price: $1,937.31 and thats including shipping! (to my house of course haha so yours might be different)

That would be one beastly rendering machine. And with the MSI gtx 580 and corsair H100 it would be very quiet too!

Also, I was going to say 2 HDD's in raid 0 as that would be preferable for working with video, but they are so expensive now that it would have gone over budget. That shouldn't matter though if you load things into the SSD first before working with them.

[Dzzope]

To be honest, unless her video's are going to be very high quality, with lots of effects and Long (as in 10 mins + ) then a laptop would be fine.


If she is going to be editing for a job or going to be in the course for a few years and doing ALLOT of editing (can't stress this enough) then build an editing rig, if not then I say don't bother as it'll be wasted.

Second-hand i7 920 and a decent chunk of ram will be plenty.


If you still want to go ahead, then My suggestions would be:


The HDD's, A caching drive would be far better than an OS one for an SSD, as the data she uses regularly (ie the work she is working on at a certain time) is what she will want access to and a caching drive will mean that after she uses it a few times the drive will automatically cache it rather than having to move stuff around.

I would say that if 500GB is enough room that you should think about a single large SSD or multiple normal HDD's in raid (3 or more)

On the processor, if overclocking, get a 2600k, if not get a 2600
Mobo if ocing, get a p67 if not get a H67
16GB ram.. yes.

If she is going to be doing alot of work and photo editing, than a decent monitor is a must.
I suggest a 22 or 23 " IPS for working on the actual images and a second TN based monitor that will do for controls or the likes of web stuff while she has good colour reproduction on the main screen.
(A large monitor would be best but you budget isn't close to justifying anything large and good)

A sound card for audio, and a decent set of cans (not a gaming headset)

The GPU, any decent GPU will suffice, get what the budget allows.

P.S, The PSU, 650 watt would be enough, 750 ideal (save $ where you can)

[Razgrtz]

Hey thanks everyone! Hope your holidays were great!

Pat yourselves on the back guys. You helped A LOT!

She takes a lot of pride into her editing.. Sometimes she goes a bit overboard and edits MORE than one video at a time, so I needed something monstrous. Who knows, she might start up a youtube channel.

[NI3]

If you want to save some money, a change to consider is going with a 570, or even a 560 448 core. Unless you are using a specific version (professional maybe?) you won't even be using cuda.

I would also get a 2600k over the 2700k. Going with a 2700k does not guarantee a higher overclock. It is luck of the draw with both chips.

[supaflyx3]

Getting the largest case possible is also beneficial for an editing box, you'll be needed a lot of HDDs if you're editing raw HD footage. (Like 5+GB a minute)

[MARSTG]

if she likes to edit more than a video at a time you will need enhanced computing power. Video transcoding scales very well with the number of cpu cores, and while the HT is helping, the gain is only by 30% compared to an actual core. You could also consider a LGA2011 setup (that would easily make 1000$ on mobo and cpu alone) but also a dual socket G34 (AMD Opteron) would be good to consider. Stay away from the Bulldozer generation however, use previous generation, Magny Cours, I think in general is the 61xx series. A fast disk subsystem will be neded too, i remember when transcoding blurays, it was taking 40 mins to analyze the image ripped on the disk. You might want 2-3-4 HDD drives in raid 0 and final work saved on an external drive (esata or USB 3.0, USB 2.0 only transfers 35MB/s). For integrated RAID system Intel mobos are the best, if you want a separate RAID controller even better.

[zsamz_]

i would jump straight to 2011 for video editing

or find a 980x n 1366 board for cheap

or wait a bit for 2011 prices to drop as soon as new cpus come out