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So my friend's cousin want's me to build him a video editing machine...

M

Mik3y

Banned
I havent met the dude yet, but my friend tells me the dude just graduated from film school and is a video editor. He tells me he's going to work at home, so he needs a new video editing machine. current specs are 2.4ghz P4 w/ 1gb ddr333 and geforce 4 ti 4400. he wants a new rig from the bottom up, meaning everyhting. since he says he'll spend up to $10k on hardware, lets see what's the best we can get him. Some of hte things he wants are a 5.1 audio setup, quiet computing, 2 lcd screens (bigger = better), and a rig that wont lag. he'll be using htis for a long time and is a rich dude, so money's not a problem. :/ i'd compile a list for him myself, but i'm no hardcore vid editor. i 0n0 what's best as in terms of hardware equipment. he'll be using the system for premiere, photoshop, 3dmax, and etc i believe, so ya. list em out. 🙂 btw, he'll need this by x-mas.
 
dual opteron
4gb memory
dell fp2000 X2
6800 ultra X2 (sli)
antec neo 480watt

got the basics, heh.

edit; this reminds of the time your friend had $5,000 to spend on a notebook.
 
It's not that hard to compile a list. I would think dual Xeon's at 3.4EA GHz with EMT64, around 4 SATA 74 GIG Raptors with a promise RAID 0+1/10 controller, some 250 GIG Segate baracuda Hard drives, and a 21 Inch Samsung or Diamontron CRT would be just fine.
 
basically, buy the latest and fastest parts available on the market. i wounder if 10k will cover it.
 
Originally posted by: UlricT
just get a fugging apple mac... thats what they are best at anyway!
Click to expand...

oh ya. good point! i'll definitely recommend him that. 🙂 i think he'll agree. he does own an ibook, so he's not exactly a dumb@ss when it comes to macs.
 
Originally posted by: dc5
dual opteron
4gb memory
dell fp2000 X2
6800 ultra X2 (sli)
antec neo 480watt

got the basics, heh.

edit; this reminds of the time your friend had $5,000 to spend on a notebook.
Click to expand...


I'd avoid the 6800s since this is for a video editing machine and these gpus have defective video processing unit.

I would look more at some professional full motion-video editing hardware. See what kind of cpu combos match well. 10K can probably get this guy some super hardware, I wouldn't mess with regular desktop hardware.
 
In this case I think a dual 2.5GHz PowerMac G5 is the right way to go. As you said, he already has an iBook so he's comfortable with the Apple way of doing things.
 
wow that sounds like fun...i would love to have a budget that big, even when it's not for me.
 
I think you'd just need to get a regular dual-CPU computer for around 4000, spend the rest on the monitor.
 
maybe he should look at the specialty video cards (the ones that cost 1,500-2k)
I'd do some research to see if the AMD64 or the Intel with hyperthreading excels at what he will be using regularly. I'd also load him up with storage space either the Seagate or Hitachi high capacity drives. And of course lots of RAM!
 
I ask only because I'm a newbie. Why is nobody recommending a dual Opteron workstation? You want rendering prowess, it's gotta be at least a contender. I agree that a workstation-class card is necessary, and it's necessary to know more specifics to choose the right one.
 
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
I ask only because I'm a newbie. Why is nobody recommending a dual Opteron workstation? You want rendering prowess, it's gotta be at least a contender. I agree that a workstation-class card is necessary, and it's necessary to know more specifics to choose the right one.
Click to expand...
When you have $10K to spend you can probably buy a lot more than a lowly dual Opteron workstation.
 
Originally posted by: TimJ
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
I ask only because I'm a newbie. Why is nobody recommending a dual Opteron workstation? You want rendering prowess, it's gotta be at least a contender. I agree that a workstation-class card is necessary, and it's necessary to know more specifics to choose the right one.
Click to expand...
When you have $10K to spend you can probably buy a lot more than a lowly dual Opteron workstation.
Click to expand...

What makes it lowly? I thought that Opterons were rated more highly than Xeons, and not just in 8-way configurations. The Opteron may be more lowly than the G5, for all I know.
 
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
Originally posted by: TimJ
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
I ask only because I'm a newbie. Why is nobody recommending a dual Opteron workstation? You want rendering prowess, it's gotta be at least a contender. I agree that a workstation-class card is necessary, and it's necessary to know more specifics to choose the right one.
Click to expand...
When you have $10K to spend you can probably buy a lot more than a lowly dual Opteron workstation.
Click to expand...

What makes it lowly? I thought that Opterons were rated more highly than Xeons, and not just in 8-way configurations. The Opteron may be more lowly than the G5, for all I know.
Click to expand...



Opterons don't do so well at MPEG-2 work.
 
I would would say apples also. BTW, this just reminded me. My dad is a x-ray doc and a new hospital just go these custom $10,000 screens for x-rays. they look freakin amazing, but will only be used for black and white still images! Oh the humanity.


???halfadder if ya post it, post it once
 
I have a few comments...
How about getting a full Silicon Graphics / Discreet Inferno setup? Oh, wait, that'll cost about $500,000! 😛
Seriously, though, I would seriously consider getting an Apple G5 and either a 30" LCD or dual 23" LCDs. If he's using MiniDV, DVCAM, DVCPro25, DVCPro50, or DVCPro HD... then an Apple and Final Cut Pro is the way to go. Everything will work out of the box and Mac OS X and the G5 are absolute monsters when it comes to working with the DV25 and DV50 codecs. Converison to MPEG-2 is pretty fast too. Other great add-ons are DVD Studio Pro and Shake. If you need to work with HDCAM, BetaCam, or some old analog format (like Hi8, SVHS, etc) then you'll need to do some analog capture card research. In the Mac world, there are many certified for use with Final Cut Pro.

If he plans on using this Ultimate Editing Machine as his part-time Ultimate Gaming Machine.... then it obviously can't be a Mac. **BUT** I would strongly discourage you make a single PC for both editing and gaming. You don't want problems when you need to do real work. If you need a gaming machine as part of the $10K budget, then please consider building two PCs... one for editing, one for games.

Also... Mac or PC, you should consider spending a few bucks on some external USB2 or FireWire (FW400 or FW800) Hard Drives. We have found these to be much more handy than an internal RAID. Especially after a few months, a few more employees, and a few more machines. It's so much easier to unplug and move around an external 300 GB drive than it is to transfer a file over the network, even with gigabit.

If you need RAID, Mac OS X supports software raid... and there are PCI RAID cards for Mac... or you can install a FibreChannel card an use Apple's excellent xServe RAID box.
 
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