Help me convince friend to get a PC rather than Mac for video editing

[Goi]

Hi,
I have a friend who's taking up a college course on video editing/multimedia/etc, and who's seriously considering getting a Mac Dual G4 800MHz system. Being the good friend that I am, I'm trying as hard as I can to convince him to get a PC instead, but since I don't have much experience with digital video editing, I'm not sure what kinda hardware would be ideal. He would be using software such as Photoshop 6.0, Premier 6.0, etc.
So far I've glanced at the Mac G4 system, and a couple of things that sucked are:
GeForce2 MX 64MB default graphics card
Only 256MB SDRAM(no DDR)
No display included in base system

My friend has a budget of SG$5000, which is around US$2700. I know that's way below the price of the dual-G4 system, somehow he can afford that system at his budget, but that budget is strictly fixed. He prefers a dual CPU system with around a 80GB HDD, 1 21" display or 2 17" displays, 512MB RAM, a GeForce2 GTS for gaming, a video card capable of video editing(either an all in one card like the Asus GF2 VIVO card, or a dedicated video editing PCI card such as the Canopus DVRaptor, Matrox RT2500 or one of the Pinnacle cards).

Any suggestions/opinions, especially on the graphics department? Its gonna be an unfair fight, since the Mac costs so much more, but I'm still quite confident a 2700USD PC would still be more than a worthy competitor.

 

[Pariah]

He's buying it for video editing, not gaming. Let him stick with the Mac, he's better off, especially if that's what they use at his school.

 

[Hender]

Be a better friend--don't convince him to get a machine that won't cut it for graphical work like a Mac will. People always knock Macs (particularly people in this forum, surprisingly), but having a roommate for the last few years who's a Mac addict has really shown me that they are really powerful machines, particularly for graphical work. Why do you think that all the professional graphics companies (ILM, Pixar, etc) use Macs for their graphics work primarily?

Let him get the Mac powerhouse. PCs have their uses, but graphics aren't among them when you've absolutely gotta have it. Anyone who thinks that a PC with a GeForce3 or something will rival a good Mac workstation obviously hasn't used one.

 

[Goi]

So basically you guys are saying that the Mac would be better than a PC with say a dual Athlon XP 1900+ and a dedicated DV editing card like the Canopus DVRaptor, Matrox RT2500 or Pinnacle Systems DV series?

 

[CTho9305]

if you're pro... go SGI. if you're not, then macs are too much $$$ for the performance. Get two dual-XP 1900 systems (you could afford them for the price of one dual-G4).

 

[Goi]

Haha, SGI's are a definite no-no. My friend's no pro, just a college student, hoping for an amateur/semi-pro solution, which limit his choices to either the Mac or PC.

 

[Rellik]

If he wants to do video editing, built the system AROUND the capture card. This cannot be stressed enough. I went through HELL and back with my first vid station(DV 500 capture card,1000Bucks then).

The first thing he needs to decide is which way he edits(I am serious). If he wants to use the progs they use in college, ask him what they use. The most popular are Adope Premiere and Ulead Media Studio Pro (Not vidstudio). If the school is more advanced, they will edit on Media 100 or Avid systems. Since Avid has introduced Avid Express DV (now in version 2), you can edit on your pc like they do on those huge Avid´s that cost around 50 to 200 K(Composer and Symphony). This is great for people who want to be a freelance editor because what you learn at home is directly applicable to a pro studio setup. The only drawback of Avid ExpressDV is that it is software based. It uses the fast canopus dv codec but only uses DV cards that don´t support any hardware realtime features(on the plus side, these cards come cheap)

If you want realtime editing(meaning being able to see that transition/wipe or effect immediatly without rendering) go with Canopus. DV RaptorRT or better, DV Storm. Those boards are very stable and provide more realtime power if the system becomes more powerful.(A single 1Ghz cpu does simple things in realtime, a dual 1.5MP rig will almost never render, even in long projects.)

What is important in video editing is to have a LOT of storage room.
40Gig only for video editing is the bare minimum if you edit only 10min clips. If you plan 30-40 minute features and do music editing as well, 150Gig is NOT EXCESSIVE. It is also good to have 2 seperate disks. One for OS and apps, one only for video. Oh, and a third for storage....

I know Mac´s are used in proffessional editing, but they are connected to external SCSI HD´s and have hardware cards onboard.

Get at least one 19 inch monitor and an additional tv monitor(can be small, like 13-15 inch) for output. You cannot judge a picture on a pc
monitor. When you see it on a TV, you will say: Hey, I never saw that shadow in my editing window....

Your pal should check out dv editing forums and TALK to others using editing equipment. There is a lot of trail and error in that field, but the machines are getting better now every year.