Need advice on building high end VIDEO EDITING COMPUTER

[frustrated2]

My brother in law's parents are wanting a new high end video editing computer and I am doing some research for them on what to put in this monster.

What do you all think is needed for a computer that will primarily be used for video editing and graphics work??

Money is really not a major concern (within reason of course) in building this computer as long as it performs the way it is supposed to.

LMK

 

[kendogg]

I dont really know much about Video Conferencing cards but whenever Iam at staples there are 2 products that always WHOA me!

Elsa Gloria XXL 24MB AGP Graphics Accelerator generously priced at $1360.49:Q

and this one

Elsa Gloria II 64MB AGP Graphics Accelerator $789.99

I have no idea why these cards are priced the way they are.

 

[Prospero]

Probably stay with intel chips, since most of the software is compiled for them. I use a tbird so you can go amd, but if it's just for video Intel is better. Get 256megs of ram, and the largest fastest hard drives you can find. With modern ATA100 drives, you don't have to go SCSI, a raid array is an option. For now, stay away from windows 2000 as the driver situation is horrid for capture. Go with 98se. For the actual capturing, you have a variety of choices depending on what your source is. I'm going to venture a guess that this is camcorder based footage? You'll have to decide if you need analog or digital. Canopus, and pinnacle are good cards, and so is the Matrox RT2000. If you need more specifics, let me know and I'll see what I can provide.

Prospero

 

[frustrated2]

Yes be as specific as you can I reccomended intel to them as I have had bad luck with AMD and don't like to reccomend them.
I also suggested a raid setup let me give you a run down
933 or 1 ghz p3 cpu
abit SA6R
>256 meg of ram (crucial)
45-60 gig 75 GXP hdds
capture card???
video card??
sb live soundcard

Is this along the right track?? LMK

 

[cbwolf]

Yep, thats pretty good so far.
With the graphics card i would go with a matrox. Nothing even comes close to the clarity and sharpness of matrox 2d.

 

[Prospero]

Ok, go with the RT2000 and that takes care of video and capture card. It comes with a modified G400. Crucial is good memory, and I use IBM 75GXPs in my raid. The only thing is don't use the onboard raid controller. Buy a fastrack or supertrack from promise, and disable the onboard controller. If this were a lightweight part time editing system, it would be fine. For a high end system, the highpoint controllers are just flakey. I use the onboard controller on my KT7-Raid, but plan on upgrading to a seperate controller. Buy something other than a live, as they tend to be pci bus hogs. A Turtle Beach Santa Cruz would be a good choice. The RT2000 package comes with all the software you will need for editing. The other thing is are they going to output to tape, or burn the product to disk? A Plextor burner with Nero as the software would round things out nicely.

Matrox Users

RT2000 Users

A couple of usefull links above. Matrox also maintains some good forums. If you buy all this, I will be insanely jelous.

Prospero

Edit- Just so you can see I actualy do some of this, I have a few stills from my caps here
It's all tv or dvd stuff.

 

[Hawk]

You can look into ATI's AIW line, especially the AIW Radeon, heck, even the 64 MB retail, if all you need is the VIVO capabilities.

 

[ncg]

I've been looking into a higher system, myself. I lean toward Intel, but my main hangup right now is whether to go 815e or BX with this sytem. Though 815 is more modern, the BX seems more stable and allows for more memory. Any thoughts on this from anyone here?

 

[airfoil]

I've recently upgraded from a Asus P3-BF to a CUSL2-C. I'd go with the 815, simply because the BX fits in the 'legacy' bracket.
If you choose the BX, you'd be losing out on ATA100 support, 133 MHZ bus speeds and AGP 4x, although I'm unsure of what the '4x' cards can do better.

 

[Prospero]

Minor update, I forgot to mention something. Don't do the captures on the system drive. Boot from one drive and do your caps on a seperate drive or raid. Again, it's something I just wanted to make sure and mention.

Prospero

 

[frustrated2]

I have heard that the highpoint is flaky but I have seen several systems built with this particular motherboard and they all seem to run absolutely perfectly very fast and extremely stable. Do you mean totally separate drive or partition?? and what does this do for you??
thanks for the info guys and keep it coming.

I would definately go with the 815e chipset motherboard I have had 2 of these both awesome setups.

 

[Prospero]

A seperate drive completely. It keeps the available bandwidth of the drive, totaly dedicated to capture. If you use the system drive, it has to compete with all the applications and the operating system which can lead to droped frames. Give the highpoint a shot, but keep an eye out for trouble.

Prospero

 

[ncg]

Should the separate drive be on a separate channel?

 

[DocSavage]

I've thought quite a bit about the ideal high-end video editing setup, but of course I'm too cheap to buy it :frown:

But here is my take on the crucial components:
CPU - Multiprocessing would be best since video processing is very compute-intensive, but compatability with the video capture card is more important, hence my suggestion for mobo...
Mobo - I'd go for Intel 815E (single CPU) and get a manufacturer that allows easy assigning of IRQs. Conflicting IRQs are a real pain for video applications.
Video card - Matrox RT2000 is probably your best bet since it combines the C-Cube MPEG-2/DV codec chip with the G400 video card, and compatability issues are worked out. Make sure you look at the list of mobos certified by Matrox for use with the RT2000.. it's on the Matrox site. The RT2000 also comes with Adobe Premiere, but I think there is a new version 6.0 coming down the pike, so waiting until that gets thrown in is a good idea. The ATI All-in-wonder is nice for low-end stuff, but there is no hardware codec so you'll stress your CPU just trying to capture at high bandwidth.
Hard drives - Spend some bucks here. I'd go for a decent ATA100 drive for your OS, and either a ATA or SCSI RAID system to handle your captures. If you want to do serious video editing, you'll want to capture at the highest bandwidth as possible.. totally uncompressed is the gold standard. That means the need for lots of sustained bandwidth with absolutely no hickups. That's also the reason why you want IRQ control so the disk controller is on separate IRQ. Check out storagereview.com for the best picks on hard drives. You want drives with really high sequential read/write since video apps deal with large blocks.
Sound - I'd use the Creative Platinum Live 5.1 because it's solid and has good support.

Hope that starts you off..

 

[frustrated2]

Sounds just about like what I was thinking. I am going to reccomend the abit SA6R raid board. IBM 75 gxp hdds they are the fastest. How much memory is neccesary as well as storage space??

 

[Prospero]

<< Should the separate drive be on a separate channel? >>



Yes, only one IDE device can access the channel at a time. Serial ATA will eliminate this when it comes out. Every device will be on it's own master channel.

Prospero

 

[frustrated2]

Then in theory you would want 2 raid setups on the board right?? A add in controller card as well as on board raid.

 

[DocSavage]

The more system memory, the merrier, since video apps can use lots of memory and you don't want to use swap space. I'm not sure when the swap space actually gets used.. one would think a PC used for standard apps with 256 MB never really needs the virtual memory. Anyone know?

The IBM 75GXP is a good drive. Note that they should be coming out with 20GB/platter ones soon, i.e. the 60GXP series. As they move to higher areal densities, the hard drives get better sequential read/write speeds. This has been shown in storagereview.com benchmarks of the new Western Digital 400BB drive and the Seagate ATA-III. So for video editing, I'd think about getting 2-4 of the WD (or future IBM) drives in a RAID-0 configuration. Don't worry about the IDE channel problem, since you will only be running your OS disk off the mobo IDE.

 

[frustrated2]

Doc makes perfect sense to me. Now what are we talking price wise on the video card/capture card?? Are you aware of where you can buy the WD hdds?? and have they been having any problems with them yet??

 

[Prospero]

<< Then in theory you would want 2 raid setups on the board right?? A add in controller card as well as on board raid. >>





<< Don't worry about the IDE channel problem, since you will only be running your OS disk off the mobo IDE. >>



Correct, your OS will be running of a IDE channel on the MB. It doesn't need a raid.



<< Now what are we talking price wise on the video card/capture card >>



It runs about $1000 for the package.

Prospero

 

[frustrated2]

Man that costs as much as the rest of the computer. But that is the price you pay for the high end rigs

Alright let me run this down to make sure I am on the same page
Get the fastest Intel (p3??) cpu available??

sa6r motherboard and run the raid setup for video capture only and add in
another hdd on separate ide channel for the operating system and stuff of that nature??

lots and lots of ram??

Did we ever agree on a the best video card/capture card combo/pair??

I read about the wd hdds and I think I would be better served to go with IBM as they are almost the same in performance??
sb live soundblaster live??
anything else??

I try to only use high end components in computers because I think that is where the proprietary builders go wrong.
LMK if we are heading in the right direction????

 

[Prospero]

Sounds pretty good. The RT2000 is the most future proof of the solutions, as it has both firewire and analog inputs. I know it costs a lot, but for what you get it's a good deal. I'd go with the IBM drives, for reliability. I've never had an IBM fail, where I have had trouble with both WD and Maxtor. Get like a 15 or 30 gig for the system drive, and then however much you want for the raid. I would suggest at least 60 gigs total for the raid or more. Also, keep in mind that your going to need a good case. Cooling will be important, but also the distance the drives will be from the IDE connectors. Cable length can be a problem with ATA100 drives. Something like a Chenbro Genie Jr would be good, or the net series cubes. Maybe a Lite On FS20. For the power supply, at least 300 watts, preferably a little more for headroom. I still think you might look at a soundcard other than a live. I have had other people tell me it causes problems with their video captures with dropped frames or audio poping. Last, a good monitor. Get something pretty good size, so you can see source and output frames both. In other words, something capable of 1600x1200.

Prospero

 

[frustrated2]

Which soundcard do you like??
I will try to get them into an antec case say sx1030 I have one and they have great air flow and a really nice ps (I think antec makes the best ps's you can buy). Monitor wise I would tell them to get a sony something or other probably 21&quot;.
Also I probably should have made this a point earlier this computer will also be used for digital pictures editing and the like. Shouldn't need anything different would you?? also would dual cpus be a viable option??

 

[ALstonLoong]

how come no one recommand AMD ? since alots of ppl keep on saying how amd out perform intel.....wondering ...

alsotn

 

[Sunner]

Cause alot of the high end softwares out there dont have official support for AMD.
In reality they'll probabaly work fine, but if you ever have some problems(no matter what kind), you wont get any support since AMD is not supported, and hence voids your right to support.