• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Need Best Budget Video Editing/Storage Computer

R

RyBoy

Senior member
Right now, our computer that does photo storage/editing and video storage is just getting completely outdated, and very quickly it seems. It's a Dell with a slow p4, 1gb of pc2700, a 40gb hard drive, no video card, no dvd burner and an old CRT. We may get a nice widescreen lcd later on, but for now we really need a solid new build - on a budget.

First things first, we take quite a few pictures with our 7 megapixel sd550, which takes up some disk space, but what is really taking up space is the video's we take with the sd550. We want to start editing our videos and making home movies, so we definitely are going to need a dvd burner. Second, I decided that the program we should use is Premier Elements 2.0. I downloaded the program to try the trial on the computer to see how it would run - not enough disk space. So, I've given up trying to get rid of programs (no more left to take off), and decided it's time to start new.

So, I'd like your guys help on the parts for this pc.

Ideas:
amd x2 3800 - $297.00
video card with dvi-out >$50-75
Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) $167
nec 3550a $35
MSI K8N Neo4-F (want mobo to have pci-e) $72
Maxtor 3.0Gbps 300GB 7200RPM 16MB DiamondMax 10 $100
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW - $60

About $800
 
WD drives have much much better reviews lately than Maxtor. I'd be looking at the $90 WD2500KS 250GB 16MB cache with free shipping and a $10 rebate on top of that.

You've mentioned a million reasons you need more storage space, but I'm not sure if the CPU is your top priority. That's a great CPU to get, but are you going to be doing a lot of rendering video between formats with software that is multithreaded? If you do need that CPU, you'll probably just have to add to your budget, because you really should have more than one hard drive.

1) you're going to get a lot better video creation performance going between separate drives
2) you're going to get a lot better real-time video editing performance by RAIDing your drives
3) you're going to want a separate drive to backup video (whether that's an external drive, a separate internal drive, or a RAID mirror).
 
Originally posted by: snoturtle
How slow of a P4?

Sounds like more than anything you need is storage
A pair of 250's would do you alot of good
Click to expand...

video encoding gets a huge advantage from a dual core, so the dual core will make a lot of differance over an older P4, especialy one that doesn't have hyperthreading.
 
Here's a very cheap upgrade to try:

Just add a Maxtor 300 GB hard drive ($69.99 shipped at Outpost.com right now: http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4187703?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG) and just use it as a dedicated video editing working drive.

Premiere Elements 2.0 probably won't give you that not enough disk space error (though you will probably have to go into the programs preferences and specify the new drive as the Adobe scratch disk).

🙂
 
Originally posted by: stevty2889
Originally posted by: snoturtle
How slow of a P4?

Sounds like more than anything you need is storage
A pair of 250's would do you alot of good
Click to expand...

video encoding gets a huge advantage from a dual core, so the dual core will make a lot of differance over an older P4, especialy one that doesn't have hyperthreading.
Click to expand...

You are correct and thats why I asked how slow of a cpu

Also the other thing to remember is that he is taking video with a still camera
So the movies are going to not be very large or high rez

Here is a link with info on how long and the rez on the movies for that camera
If he was working with DV it would be different but with those specs a P4 should be more than enough
Link

Just needs more storage 😀
 
Looks pretty good. If you do plan to edit video on it, 3 drives are usually the best. 1 for OS and apps, 1 for source video (you write to this drive with the camera/deck), and 1 for render/output. This same scheme can be used be photo editors that use a scratch drive. For DV (NTSC 720x480), RAID is not that important, but it will improve performance on big projects (all of mine are usually 1-1.5 hrs with 10-30hours of source and possibly multiple discs - I use a R0 source.) The OS source (C🙂 need only be 80-120GB. but at current prices, a 200+ is about the same. You can use that slack as alternate storage or backup of projects you are changing.

Definitely get the dual core. I have a dual Xeon. Neat Image takes about 5-8 secs to render a 8M file. Tsunami uses all "4" of my processors when rendering. I think it is between 3-4 hrs to convert a 1hr DV-AVI to M2V/AC3 in 10bit, high precision VBR at avg/peak of 8100kbps. It also becomes a heat pump 😉

And, do not partition the physical drives. A drive letter per device is more efficient and less confusing. Especially when you might start plugging externals in. I have no partitioning and go to drive letter J: on my box (C: (2 discs), E: (2 discs), F: int - D:, G: optical - H:, I:, J: external - with J: also being a camera at times (Panasonic DMC-FZ30 rocks!) )


 
The video we take w/ the sd550 is, relatively speaking, high quality. 640x480 30ps, so it will take some processing power. Sure I could get just more hdd space, but I don't really want to just make the machine "able" to edit video, I want something fast, with a lot of hdd space, able to burn dvds, and output a digital signal for when we get a new monitor.

Okay, the change in hard drives sounds great - WD has always worked great for me.

Premire elements 2.0 is multithreaded, so I will gain performance, and having outlook, firefox (w/ multiple tabs), antivirus, and premiere elements 2.0 open, the dual core should do wonders. But, I would definitely like to wait for the price drop, any idea when that is going to be?

I forgot a power supply, any good recommendations?

I need some advice on a $50-75 video card w/ dvi out.

 
Well, you're not going to get multiple hard drives and that CPU for $800.

You might look at something like:

CPU: Intel Pentium D 930 Retail $178 (ZipZoomFly)
mainboard: ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 $82.69 (newegg)
video: XFX Geforce 6500 $49.99 (newegg)
HDD: Western Digital 250GB SATA WD2500KS $83.99 (ZipZoomFly)
HDD: Western Digital 250GB SATA WD2500KS $83.99 (ZipZoomFly)
RAM: G.Skill 2 x 1024MB DDR2 533 $143.98 (newegg)
CD: NEC ND-3550A black DVD-R $35.99 (newegg)
case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 ATX $64 (ZipZoomFly)
PSU: Xclio 450BL $50.36 (newegg)

That's $765.08 delivered.

If you're just talking about video editing, Intel CPUs usually do better at that anyway, and the 65nm Pentium D's don't get too hot (you could get a cheaper Pentium D, but it's going to be 90nm). If you're not playing games, there's no reason to get a better video card than just a decent 64-bit card with DVI, and you'd probably want the S-video out.

People will tell you to get a better PSU than 450W, but that's stupid when you don't have a high-end video card and you're not overclocking (and you're using a 65nm PSU which isn't all that power-hungry). It's more about quality, anyway... for example, a 430W SeaSonic is going to be better than most 500W PSUs you see out there. The XClio is a good PSU.

I've got that Centurion 5 for my main system. It's really nice.
 
^ I second Tostada's recommendation.
looks pretty good to me.. with 500GB of space, 2GB RAM, and a dual core processor. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top