Need advice on a new rig for video/audio editing

[bricht]

Hi. Im new here and my name is Jekabs. I need some advice on buying a new PC/Laptop mainly for audio editing and some amateur video editing. I have read around the web and found a few things I probably want in my computer:

Firewire or IEEE 1394 input,
An SSD hard-drive or atleast an 7200rpm hard drive
A half-decent video card for video editing
A decent sized RAM (atleast 8 gb i think)
Processor which isnt a slug probably

I was looking at a refurbished Mac Mini for £579. (http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FD388B/A)
It has some good reviews online and since Im not too experienced with computers an Apple product would probably give me less headaches. The Intel HD 4000 GPU isnt too good though, which might be a problem for video editing. The hard drive isn't fast either, but I read, that that can be replaced.

Any comments on this? Maybe I should build my own PC or buy a laptop, could you give me some suggestions as well? My budget is about £600-700.
Thanks.

 

[Ken g6]

There's certainly a lot to be said for Mac software. That hardware isn't ideal, as the processor has to run slow to prevent overheating, but it may be among the best you can get from Apple in your price range. The GPU shouldn't be a big issue with video editing - it's the CPU doing all the important work in most software.

Have you considered what software you might want if you didn't go with a Mac? And how it would affect your budget? Is there any software you would want with a Mac that's not from Apple, e.g. Adobe?

 

[mvbighead]

Could be time for a Hackintosh? I have not done this, but it seems to be a very popular thing these days:

http://www.hackintosh.com/

 

[mfenn]

I agree with Ken. Do you have an established workflow that needs a Mac or are more familiar with OS X?

Additionally, unless you have some Firewire-only gear, I don't really see the need to pay extra for it in this day and age.

 

[Blain]

I need some advice on buying a new PC/Laptop mainly for audio editing and some amateur video editing.

I was looking at a refurbished Mac Mini for £579. (http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FD388B/A)

Any comments on this? Maybe I should build my own PC or buy a laptop, could you give me some suggestions as well? My budget is about £600-700.

My suggestion would be to make up your mind on what you want...
Desktop PC or laptop?
OS X, Windows or some Linux distro?
If you have a favorite editing program in mind, build around that.