im not sure if this was the correct forum to post in, but it seemed like the question would fit here the best. so, im going to be getting a new computer soon and was wondering what are the biggest factors for editing video? i want to keep it around 1700 dollars. i went and made a computer at dell.com and this is what i came out with:

>>Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
>>256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory Video Card
>>1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
>>320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA HDDs)

would this system be good enough? anything i should upgrade or change? i really want to stick with a PC though. i cant stand apples operating system. any info would help. thanks guys.

If the Apple OS is the only reason you're not switching I would seriously reconsider. How much time do you actually have under your belt working on a Mac? What don't you like? Many Windows users dislike it at first because they feel lost, and as if many familiar functions simply don't exist. Soon, however, they learn that there are much easier and quicker ways of doing just about everything.

The reason I'm pushing you on this is because for video editing the Mac system is simply so much easier. Its more stable, faster, and more suited for video. I'd suggest going into an Apple store and asking them to convince you. Tell them everything you don't like about the Mac.

if you're somewhat computer savvy or one of your friends are you should seriously consider building your own machine. you could make the one that you have listed there for seriously under $1000. So if you've got $1700 then you;ll be able to build a much nicer one.

check out these sites for parts:
http://www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.newegg.com

If you want to get a PC instead of a Mac, that's fine. They're not as bad as people make out (although I personally use a Mac).

You really don't need such a good graphics card unless you're planning on playing games. I'd buy a cheaper card and spend more money on RAM. You can never have enough memory for video editing.

You won't really benefit from dual core until applications that support it come out (it's a relatively recent technology) so you may want to spend more on a faster single core processor.

ok, taking shookster's advice, i went back to dell and tried to pick a lower model with a single core processor, and it wouldnt let me upgrade from 3.0Ghz with 800 fsb = \. so would it be worth the extra money to go for the same thing, but dual core? i plan on using this computer for a LONG time, which i why i want to splurge, also, my budget is now around 1900ish. i really dont want to go over 2000 though.

thanks for the informaiton on the graphics card as well shookster, i dont plan on playing games but i thought that a good graphics card was needed for editing video.

so, i also took other peoples advice and looked at mac, as well as building my own. the mac's cost quite a bit more, you can't upgrade them in the future, and i dont like the OS (which i could get used to). plus i really dont know a thing about macs other than i hated them when they made us use them in school lol. BUUTT, if it is truly that much better than a PC, then i'd save up a bit more and go for it.

if someone could tell me what to look for in a mac, that'd also be great. the numbers for the mac dont seem to be the same as the PC's so i dont really know if its better or worse hahah. for example, the fastest processor they have is 2.1Ghz as opposed to the PC's 3.2Ghz.

and im also seriously considering building my own. i went and looked at some prices and it is MUCH cheaper. the only problem is that i dont much about how to put computers together, but im sure the info is readily availible on the internet, so i'll look into building my own and see if it would be within my engineering limitations lol.

thanks for all the help guys, its helped me alot so far = ].

what nickysix said. he's pretty much on the money.

Mac speeds are clocked differently than those of PCs, a good example was the 3.1 GHz PC vs the 2.1GHz G5 mac. The mac is faster in this example it is a 64 bit processor, everything runs in a totaly different way, PC processors are mostly still in 32bit and if they are in 64 bit the windows invironment doesnt support 64bit the way mac os x tiger does. So really the PC processors are 32bit behind the mac processors.

Also, 2.1GHz is not even close to the fastest you can get for a Mac.
The fastest you can get for a mac is The Quad Power Mac G5, is feature 2 dual-core processors both clocked at 1.25 GHz per processor (remember that's macs clocking speeds). That system runs 150% faster than the baseline standard system on the market...now that's the fastest you can get!

Anyways, dont compare the speeds of mac and PC, they are totally diff.
But macs are way easier and way more stable in every way shape and form.

Video for mac will be a far better bet, you will find it faster and easier to navigate, espeically with apple-made programs like final cut!

I personally use a little Mac mini maxed out w/1GB of Ram, and it works faster than any of my friends PCs in every which way...and the mac mini isn't even a 64bit CPU either!

I would say to go for the mac, take some time to learn it, and love it for the rest of your life, it will be worth it, i can guarantee it!

I would suggest you take a look at MAc's and actually use the OS a bit... because really it is NOT hard to get used to from Windows... just know that Ctrl + click = right click and you should be good... Plus you can use 2 button mice on OS X and you could on OS9 back in the day... So yeah... that was the only problem I ever had with it...

ok, i made a system that i thought would be good on newegg.com. it came out after shipping (which was a 150 dollars = [) to about 2050. heres what i got:

AMD Athlon 64bit 4000+ 2.4Ghz Processor
2gb of Ram
A really nice speaker system lol
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket Motherboard

and a TON of other stuff. monitor, dvd RW, soudn and video card, etc. its really nice stuff.

so, do you guys think that this is worse or better than a MAC? should i ditch the "build it myself" and go for the mac? once again, thanks for all the input.

EDIT:: ok, went to the MAC online store and looked around a little more. the best i could afford would be a iMac G5 2.1Ghz, with 1.5Gb RAM and 250 gb harddrive for 1900 dollars before shipping. so, its a bit cheaper, but also a bit worse. do i need that extra RAM? instead should i put the money into harddrive space?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NickySix,

Do you want to use FCP? If so, you don't have a choice

I highly recommend a G5 over an AMD tower, especially for editing.

Two things on the Mac front. You CAN upgrade them (I've installed RAM in my G4 no problemo), and it's often cheaper to install RAM yourself than it is to buy from Apple.

Secondly, 1.5GB of ram should be MORE than enough. I'd maybe go a tad lower on the memory and get a bit more HD space, or buy the bare minimum RAM and add more yourself, thereby saving enough to afford the external HD as well.

oh! i didnt know the Macs where upgradeable. where can you buy stuff for them then? i didnt see ANY mac stuff on newegg.com. i'm surpirsed people arent building custum Mac towers like they are PC towers. do you know of some sites that i can buy upgradeable mac parts?

i may bet bare minimum everything and ugrade the HD and RAM seperatly, if i can. but upgrading the HD costs alot. 300 dollars to upgrade from 250 to 500 and there's no other options = \. thats why i went and upgraded from 512 ram to 1.5gb instead.

so, you guys dont think i should go with the PC, even though its got better stuff? or atleast what seems like better stuff.

and yes, i would like to use FCP, but thats not a deciding factor, i could always use premiere.

ok, with help from people at another forum, i put together this system. tell me what you guys think and if this would be better/worse than a iMac g5::



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Check out macwarehouse.com and macmall.com for upgrade parts. thechipmerchant.com is the best place for RAM as far as I know. I would leave the 250GB HD in there, and buy a second external HD. When you've got this much data it's good to have two drives. When one gets screwed up you can backup to the other, for example.

I don't know enough about PCs to actually compare the Mac with the monsterous list of PC parts there, I'm afraid

hmmm, thechipmerchant didn't have memory yet for my new quad g5. The cheapest memory I found was from other world computing http://eshop.macsales.com/ . $219 per pair of OEM samsung 1 GB chips.

Let me ask you: what exactly do you want to upgrade? Powermacs are extremely upgradable. iMacs are not. It seems like you are approaching this a little backwards. Do you dislike the Mac OS or not? Do you have a NLE that works better for you? You seemed to be obsessed with CPU, RAM, Diskspace numbers too much and user interface and comfortability too little. The simple truth is all these computers will work great for you doing camcorder-based projects. And if you plan to use it for a long time, great! Five years from now, you may not have the latest and greatest, but it will still work just as good as the day you bought it. With that said:

-PCs tend to get outdated faster than macs

-you don't need 500 GB of disk space (an hour of video takes ~13 GB. you could easily work with 100 gb of space unless you're doing a 3 hour epic film. plus this is the easiest thing to upgrade.)

-Video cards and RAM are great, but video editing isn't nearly as taxing on them as 3D work. around a gig of RAM and 128 meg video card should be plenty for most systems. And as stated before, buying RAM separately is always cheaper. Of course with any of this stuff, more is always better, but it definitely follows a law of diminishing returns.


I suggests you somehow start touching systems and decide what you like the best. Then, once you decide what you want (mac/pc, FCP/avid/premiere/vegas, etc) then look at what the best/cheapest system you can get, remembering that they all will work fine for you, basically. And don't forget to factor in software costs. With an education discount, you're paying around 300 bucks for most of these. That's 15% of your budget.

The reason why you can't build your own Mac tower is because Apple's firmware is proprietary. You can't just buy the chips like with a PC.

I agree with Jorean that you should look at interface and the available software more than numbers. Any computer that's reasonably competent will cover the processing end; the important part is the selection of applications.