Advice on buying PC for PS and Video editing

[ptlee]

Hi Beachbum,

If budget is a big hurdle for you, PC would be a better choice. If you're those tinkering kind, you may want a self configured (maybe even self assembled) PCs. Otherwise, if you just want to get down to work, buy a PC from a shop that you know will provide service and support.

If you're willing to stretch your $$ a bit more, get a top-of-the-line system, with real time video editing products. Umm.. in this case S$3K may not be enough though.

This is a bit out of my league, so perhaps professionals in this field can advise.

Me? I'm just a normal home user struggling to understand and working with colour management :embrass: Still haven't bought my system to capture and edit/cut VCDs of my home videos.

I think you'll have to list down your requirements, and needs, project it over a few years, and see if you can reach a compromise between budget, performance (yours) and features (the machine). Tough.

-PTLee-

 

[beachbum]

Originally posted by shawntim
for this you can get it at $1500+++ at SLS.

since you're asking these questions, then I believe you are still a novice when it comes to computers. In this case, I suggest you get the most common platform with the most common tools to start off with. This will help in your learning curve.

yeah... i am a novice when it comes to computer stuff.... that's why seeking help from knowledgable fellow photographers mah!..

You might not understand what is everyone talking about (the diff between PC and Mac), but don't worry. What's good for them, might not be good for you. Your budget is way way too luxurious. Right now, at SLS, for $1500 can get you a P4 1.8 Ghz with 512 meg ram or more, which is quite sufficient. READ - fast. It's not even slow, so don't worry about it. Don't think u'll need 1 gb, 2 gb RAM? so save the money first.

i think at the end of the day, the price factor might just swing me to the WinPC side. someone mentioned about investing in a good system.... but question is, computer systems get obsolete once every 18mths (or even faster??).... esp for highend usage stuff like media editing and upgrading is the game. So to keep overheads lower, WinPC may just be the logical choice. I am currently seeing the system as an expenditure to be written off and not so much as an asset to be invested. But my approach may be wrong here.
So far the contributions by fellow kind clubsnappers, performance issues relate to the following areas:

1. time savings - for me, this is the real deal cause time is money.
2. colour management - I am not entirely sure what it means or entails? Is this not a manageable issue for WinPC users? Does it take a lot of effort and time on WinPC machines?
3. system robustness - i suppose with Win2k and XP, this issue is better addressed and should offer lesser pain than with win98. i think i can live with it.

Besides, you will need more apps that those you've mentioned. Unless u know why you intend to choose a particular platform for it's benefits, choose one that has the *availibility:devil: of software.

yeah, i agree about the availability of support, applications and pheripherals is an adv for WinPC. But i will really need to try working on a Mac first and run through some workflow to see how the whole system/workflow performs.

 

[Zerstorer]

Basically a good configuration would be something like this:

P4 2.26GHz CPU (Benefit from SSE2 optimizations in photoshop, look at the benchmarks again if in doubt.)
i845 E/PE based motherboard
2x40GB HDD in RAID 0 boot/working
1x80GB HDD for storage
ATI Radeon 8500LE(for good 2D quality, video quality as well as DVI capability)
Creative Audigy soundcard(if your mobo lacks firewire...else any will do.)
Any CDRW or a CDRW/DVD-R combo(if greedy)
512MB RAM
19" Trinitron/Diamondtron CRT or 17" LCD.

Checkout the Hardwarezone pricelists for the specifics.

 

[angy]

Hi,

I think it all depends on how serious are you into video editing.

If you are serious, 3K, personally is not enough.

You can get a more than decent computer for 3K, but the video editing portion of it might be lacking.

For a start, you definitely need lots and lots of harddisk space. a 40gb for Apps and a 120GB for video should be a good start.

CPU - you will want one that is as fast as possible - especially when you are doing software based compiling. Eg 1 hour tape to "compile" to MPEG will take 3-4 hours to couple. If you have a hardware based "Compiler", then it will be 1 to 1.

DVD writer - get the +R/+RW version

Graphics card - it all depends whether you want dual monitors. If not, any reasonable one will do. You do not need the high range one.

Software - Adobe premier is like the defacto standard for video editing. Very steep learning curve.

Memory - the more the merrier. Eg 1 Gb RAM. Of course you can have less.

Price : I suggest $4.5 - 5.5K, depending on configuration.

If you are really keen, the key video editing players are canopus, matrox and pinnacle. Remember that what you pay is what you get. There is no such thing as free lunch.

Some of the shops in SLS that specialise in video editing are Superpet and IMS.

 

[beachbum]

angy, thanks for the very informative reply about video editing and processing... i din know that it takes that long to compile to mpeg (using software).

you mention can use hardware for compiling - what hardware is it?

 

[Zerstorer]

Originally posted by beachbum
angy, thanks for the very informative reply about video editing and processing... i din know that it takes that long to compile to mpeg (using software).

you mention can use hardware for compiling - what hardware is it?

Hardware Mpeg2 encoder cards...rather expensive >$500.

Unless you really need the realtime capability, you can do pretty well on software based solutions and let ur P4 do the conversion while u nap.

 

[beachbum]

thanks Zerstorer!

 

[Zerstorer]

Basically you can just add things as you go along. Just get a fast CPU+reasonably featured motherboard(RAID/Firewire..etc) loads of RAM,HDD,CDRW and a good 2D output videocard and the monitor(Crucial!) of your choice.

Everything else can be added as and when u need it.

 

[beachbum]

many thanks to all the kind clubsnappers who shared on this topic.
i will now go see see look look and play play to find out which platform and configuration suits my needs.

cheers!! :rbounce:

 

[angy]

Why is hardware "compiler" useful?

After you "compile" and you do not like what you see, maybe the colours are no good or you stuff up the editing. Ha ha ha.. another round again...

MPEG decoder has many types the good ones are expensive. EG the Canopus AVR1000 cost >$1K.

However, hardware decoder has their problems as well. Eg you cannot upgrade the hardware. While as in the software decoder, you can have software upgrade.

For more info, goto www.canopuscorp.com and checkout the procoder (software) and the AVR1000 (hardware version)