Video/Sound Editing Rig: Suggestions?

[Prince of Persia]

A friend of mine was originally going to get a Mac computer to deal with sound/video editing, in other words making music videos and editing sounds and compiling (that sort of thing) for her major. Macs of course are extremely expensive, so I was suggesting she go build your own PC route, and save some money. She's estimating around 1500-2000, if it can go lower thats even better.

What are some key things to look for when piecing together a rig for the sole purpose of dealing with sound/video editing?

 

[Onezentide]

Music and Video editing needs can vary tremendously depending on what one is editing... (Feature film, Shorts, clips, etc...)

So rather than making up a configuration, I will just provide elements you can investigate:



1) Mobo + CPU: ($500)

Try to go with a dual CPU Tyan Mobo Such as the Tiger MP or MPX ($150 to $200), and 2 Athlon MP processors ($150 to $500)

2) Video: ($150)

Get a video card with Dual Head (so that you can plug in 2 monitors). You don't really need a fancy one in my opinion.

3) Primary HD: ($100)

Get at least a 60 Gb HD (at 7200 RPM) for installing all the programs.

4) Audio: ($200)

I would go with the Audigy Platinum which has the extension box at the front; that way all your audio connectors are easily accessible.

5) Video Editing Card: (Now is where it gets pricey...) ($500 to $3000)

You now have 2 choices:

a- Buy Adobe Premiere, and use the Firewire from the Audigy card to acquire video.

b- My favourite... Go look at www.pinaclesys.com, and try to find something suitable for your editing needs (it goes from Home use to professional use...) These products include both hardware and software. Another thing to do is tro try and by the older (last year's) Pinnacle DV 500 Plus on E-bay. I saw some of them at around $500. This includes a break box with RCA and SVHS connectors.

If your friend needs to edit in PAL, make sure to check that the system is compatible.

Matrox also has a system that includes both the Video card and the Editing suite.

6) Editing HD and SCSI RAID Array: $400 to $3000

If your're dealing with movie editing, I would recommend getting a SCSI RAID controller, and a few SCSI HD (36 Gb each...), and get 2 or three.

A cheaper solution is to get a simple SCSI card, and then get a big 120 GB SCSI HD

An even cheaper solution is to forget the SCSI, and get a Secondary big IDE HD (120Gb), or a Mobo with IDE Raid (then look at ABIT and Gigabyte Offerings), and Strip 2 Secondary HDs.

7) Sound: ($150)

I would go with a Klipsh 2.1 system dor high resolution sound.


You should be able to get something decent for around $1,500 to $2,000.

 

[Pariah]

"What are some key things to look for when piecing together a rig for the sole purpose of dealing with sound/video editing?"

The key thing to look for is what her school uses. If the school's department is predominantly Mac's and that's what they train on, her PC will be a $1500-2000 paper weight. She should ask the school what they recommend.

 

[McCarthy]

I agree completely with Pariah. Even though much of the software might come in both versions, the little differences between say Premiere for the Mac and the PC version are enough to take someone who's comfortable at school and make them a frustrated bundled of nerves at home.

While I'm plum happy with my PC and even my crappy TVcard I use for input and the freeware tools I use, I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone their Macintosh. Heck if she's going to be inputing through firewire one of the new iMacs would be nice.

I mean for the top end of her price, $2000...
Top iMac with Superdrive
17-inch widescreen LCD flat
800MHz PowerPC G4
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX
256MB SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA hard drive
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K internal modem
Apple Pro Speakers

Need a capture card then you're back to a G4 tower and they do get pretty expensive by the time you get it and display, especially to compete with that 17" LCD.

Now admittedly, if you were putting together a PC with 256mb of SDram or an 800mhz processor I'd look at you funny along with everyone else. But that combo seems to work nicely in Mac land. And she'd have a nice small, quiet Mac which will be useful for the next hundred years or so. Of course unless she needs a DVD writer then a step down in the iMac line would save some bucks too. $1600 is:
15-inch LCD flat screen
700MHz PowerPC G4
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
256MB SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K internal modem
Apple Pro Speakers

I don't like the 40 gig drive option as much for video editing, but as the OS takes less room to start with, if she keeps it cleaned off and is doing music vids of a few minutes even at 640x480x30 with CD sound that's going to give more than enough room for 3~4 minutes of video to work on.

Anyway, life long PC user, but I don't discount the other side, especially the vanity mirror series. They're pretty cool machines.

--Mc

 

[Onezentide]

I agree with the school advice. It is a very good point.

On the other hand, in the real world, more and more TV stations use Targa cards, and in film, alot of Avid systems are now PC based.

Of course for Digital Video, Final Cut Pro 3 and a Dual G4 is very good: Soderberg cut the upcoming "Full Frontal" with it, using a Canon XL-1 to shoot.

 

[Goi]

Ditto on the school advice.

However, $2000 probably won't get you much either. On the PC side, the Intel P4 is better than AMD Athlon XP's, and Canopus, Pinnacle and Matrox makes great DV cards. As for soundcards, check out the M-Audio Delta 1010. It has an external breakout box and you get true audiophile 24bit/96KHz playback and recording, with 10 input and 10 output(hence the 1010 name)

 

[LordAccord]

Originally posted by: Goi
Ditto on the school advice.

However, $2000 probably won't get you much either. On the PC side, the Intel P4 is better than AMD Athlon XP's

Thats per say... single processor, yes, but a dual athlon setup would put up a good fight with p4.. It just depends on which programs utilize more of... the SSE2 or the SMP.... I dont know what to recommend anymore, too bad there are no good real life performance tests for this kind of stuff....

LoRdAccord

 

[Biznatcho]

Go for a Mac. I would take Final Cut Pro over Premiere everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Mac's come with built-in Firewire and the integration is completely seemless. Unless she's a diehard PC fan or the film program is geared towards PCs, the Mac is the sensible choice. Plus, they're stylish, whidch girls tend to like.