new build for video edit/gaming

[supaidaaman]

Hey, im trying to piece together a new computer for 70% video editing and about 30% gaming.

i built my last comp but it isnt able to handle what i plan on doing, and needs a little upgrading. I did lots of research to get the best at the time, but things have changed so much now im very confused as to what to buy.

My budget is around $1500. I need the following:
I will not be doing overclocking for years, so i need good stable hardware.

CPU: thinking athlon X2 3800?
MOBO: ? I like ASUS, but i hear DFI is a nice choice (but i wont be overclocking)
RAM: 2gigs?
Graphics: one of those 7800's
harddrives: 2 probably?
PSU: ?
Case: ?

i will be resusing the rest of my parts on my current computer.

any help would be great

 

[gsellis]

Great start. Make sure you have firewire. I would also get an CL Audigy 2 ZS.

 

[akugami]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128283
Consider the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra that I linked above. It has pretty much similar features to every other nForce4 based motherboard BUT it has 1394b (Firewire 800). You also aren't overclocking and the DFI, while a great overclocker, is a bit more finicky with hardware.

I'd definitely get 2GB of RAM. Pretty much every video and audio editing program likes a lot of RAM. And if you're editing video you're bound to edit some audio too.

7800GT would be great for your gaming needs. However, depending on how fast you need it this upgrade I might wait and see how things shake out with the X1800's from ATI. The reason being that ATI has said that their software to enable HD encoding will be out in Dec'05. If they do get this released on time, I'd have to recommend getting an X1800 instead for the video encoding and decoding acceleration in hardware. This will cut your encoding times by a lot.

I'd look to get at least two 400GB drives. Video files eat up a lot of room fast. Seagates come to mind though they aren't by any means the fastest they are some of the most reliable drives you can buy and they come standard with a 5 year warranty.

 

[LED]

I use the Mobo that akugami suggested with the X2 3800 and do some Video editing with it (1.5Gig of RAM)...compared to what I had for my MM setup (Intel 3GHz Square w/DFI LanParty) the difference is quite an improvement....even with the addon 1394b card the Intel Puter had/has.

 

[sparkyclarky]

You will want large drives, and you will most likely want them in a RAID array (something that does both mirroring and striping). If video editing is your primary goal, you probably should be looking at at least 4 drives with a solid RAID controller. The CPU and 2GBs minimum of RAM should also be solid (go with a dual core or dual processor machine for sure). The graphics card will be a far third on your list if you are limiting your budget to $1500 and want lots of protected storage space, lots of RAM, and a solid CPU.

It also helps to list the video editing software you plan on using, as well as the project you plan on doing (so that we know whether or not we are over/underdoing the specs).

 

[obeseotron]

AMD Opteron 175 (2.2 Ghz Dual Core 2x1MB Cache) $461
DFI Infinity Nforce 4 Ultra $98
Patriot 2GB 2-3-2-6 $196
Pair of Maxline 300GB $248
eVGA 7800GT $319
OCZ Modstream 520W $89
Antec P180 $125

$1536 Swapping to an x2 3800+ and a 7800GTX would be a wash if you wanted better game performance at the expense of 200Mhz and only 2x512kb cache or you could just get a 7800gt and x2 3800 and do it for about $1400.

 

[LxMxFxD3]

See My sig. I video edit about 4 hours a day with this rig. I'd highly recommend it. Cost about $1200.

 

[fogeyman]

LxMxFxD3's build looks great, though you may want to kick up the graphics card to a 7800gt.

 

[pkme2]

Just finish building my video machine. Did some upgrading from a previous rig. Upgrade ran about $1000 because I upped the RAM and replaced certain hardware.....

You can put together a decent editing unit for $1500 easily. You can save money by getting a realistic video card, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB. Go with 2GB RAM etc....

You can checkout other people video editing machines and work from there.

 

[gsellis]

All good. I do caution against going over 2GB of memory as it will not be well used. With my mainline editor, 2GB allows better speed on large projects and for HDV over 1GB. There is no gain going higher and Windows XP32 is limited too.

On the video card, if you go to Avid/Pinnacle products (Studio or Liquid), definitely go with ATI. If you are picking another editor, go to their support site and see what is best. Some editors (more like *few* or *one*) may even perfer an OpenGL card like a workstation card. And if you add something like Maya, 3dMax, or Hash A:M, you may want to compare there too.

I updated My Rigs (thanks pkme2 for reminding me ), so you can see what kind of storage is not quite enough... OK, I have 1.1 TB for video now and it is almost comfortable I use that much as I have backups for projects stored on the externals (my NLE has a backup function.)

 

[xanis]

I like the parts choices, very nice indeed. For the motherboard, I would not get the DFI mobo unless you plan to do some serious overclocking, and I suggest possibly an Asus or Chaintech board. They're not great for overclocking, but they're reliable and stable. The processor you have is good, but I would consider maybe stepping up and getting a dual-core Opteron 165. Either way, you should get a dual-core processor because you can really take advantage of the multi-threading in video editing. As far as memory goes, get 2GB. The stuff that you are planning on doing is RAM-intensive work, and 2GB would be ideal. I suggest some high-end RAM, possibly get some OCZ Platinum and get some tight timings. Hard drives are a pretty big component for you here. Video editing and storage eats up a lot of hard drive space fairly quickly. When shopping for hard drives, look for certain brands, their pros and cons, and make your decision after you have weighed all the factors. For example, Western Digital Raptors are faster then some other hard drives, but they are not as reliable. Seagate Barracudas, on the other hand, may not be as fast as the Western Digitals, but they are more reliable. In this case I would get one of the new 500GB 7200.9 SATA Barracudas, or get 2 if you can for a RAID setup. Now to video. Since you want this machine to do some good gaming as well, you will need a nice, powerful video card. Currently your best choice is a 7800GT or GTX. However, the new X1600s are looking nice, and you may want to wait to see how the HD-supported X1600s are if you really want to get the best video card for the money. Also, if you plan on building a dual-GPU rig, Crossfire is not that great -- SLI still reins supreme in the dual-GPU arena. THe power supply MUST be reliable, a lot of people will tell you that going cheap on the PSU is a very bad choice. For your build, I reccomend a Seasonic 500W for their reliability. As far as the case goes, it really is up to you, but just make sure you do your homework. Take a look at Newegg user reviews for different cases, this will give you a good idea of how great the case is.

 

[gsellis]

Xanis, I would not have using SLI or Crossfire as a significant consideration with video editing at the moment. The editors that do use the GPU are untried with it. And those that do not use the GPU will not benefit as 30 or 60i fps is all we need... Buy more storage before you get a second video card

Some tests with editors have shown that memory timing does not have a significant impact with video editing. Any premium price on fast memory could better be spent on more storage.

Raptors are unnecessary for DV or HDV editing. The data rates are well within standard EIDE/SATA rates on 7200rpm drives. When you get to 4:4:4 colorspace (full HD), that is when you need screaming 15k arrays...

I would also consider a X1800 over a X1600. From what I have seen, not too impressed with the X1600. But, it is still better than my 9600XT Oh, on Pinnacle again - get a 256MB card if you go that route. Studio 10 and Liquid can use the extra video memory.

 

[Viditor]

As to graphics cards, I would suggest you stick with nVidia. While ATI will work with many editing systems, some are exclusively nVidia Quadros...(like Avid Xpress Pro). Be sure to read the requirements for your editing software carefully, and you might want to read the requirements of the next level upgrade too.
As to the rest of the hardware, the X2 is definately the correct CPU, and I agree with the consensus on 2GB being the sweet spot for memory.

 

[drifter106]

Many good suggestions here but in your starter thread you indicated that 30% of the time on the puter will be spent gaming...consequently , IMHO, you should go with a 7800 series card. Sweet spot would be the evga 7800 gt co. Bought this card last week for $369 - $25 rebate + a copy of COD2 (worth at least $40). This card is a close 2nd to the gtx in many games but is priced considerable cheaper.