$500-$600 Budget Video Editing Rig

sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
edited May 2006 in Hardware
I might build a computer for a friend, and I need some input. It's been a long time since I've messed with computer stuff, so I'm pretty rusty. The guy is going to college to get a Communications Information degree I think, and is working with Radio Broadcasting, News, Video, and Video Editing.

He needs to use Photoshop, Premier Elements, Premier Pro?, Flash, Animation programs, Effects something, and programs of that nature. So I told him he'd probably need a good graphics card and a lot of RAM. He already has a 250gb external HD, so he wont need much internal space. He said his budget would be $500-$600. It doesn't need to be top of the line, but just the best video editing components that $500-$600 can buy.

So.. can you guys help me out? I'm thinking a minimum of 1gb RAM, and 2gb if there's money for it. For the HD I was thinking about just a cheap 80gb ATA, and I'll let him pick out a case. It might not happen, but I told him I'd make a list of components and get it to him in case he decides to hire me.

Also - what kind of profit should I expect to make or ask for?

Thanks :)

Comments

  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Buy a used computer with decent specs and a Windows XP COA sticker on the back and beef it up. That Windows XP license is going to be a quarter of your total system price otherwise. Shop around forums DD&TP for deals because you don't have enough money to shop at Newegg.

    In my experience, CPU counts for a lot when you're doing video encoding jobs. Photoshop likes the RAM. You'll want some internal drive space for encoding cache because external is too slow for all the drive hits.

    You could also tell him to get a Dell.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited May 2006
    I might just put an OEM copy of XP on it. Would there be any downside to doing that? I still use an OEM Home copy...

    What CPU? Let's not get into an Intel vs. AMD battle, but with comperable specs, which brand would yield better performance and a lower pricetag? Would you go with an Opteron?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    You can put any kind of XP on it you like as long as it's licensed and your friend gets the original COA for the license. There aren't any downsides for using OEM vs retail, usually the advantage is OEM because it's cheaper. I think there's a license stipulation that you can't sell the OS without the PC but it shouldn't be a problem.

    I would be looking for the cheapest CPU possible with multiple cores. Last time I checked that was the Pentium D's.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I would be looking for the cheapest CPU possible with multiple cores. Last time I checked that was the Pentium D's.
    It still is. If the case is not well ventilated though, I would advise against the less expensive Intel dual cores, which are the D805 and D820. The D805 is a super bargain.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    The last time that I checked you don't really need much video card for this stuff. It is all 2D and as long as you can run good resolution/color you should be fine.
    Look at this
    http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2753&p=3
    The catch is that Intel mobo are more expensive than AMD, so in the end the total is similar.
    You will want 2GB RAM.
    Go for the lowest end video card from the top of the line series (ATI X1xxx or NV 7xxx).
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    You may also want a video capture card if he will not be using a digital video camera with firewire. Although, those cards can get quite expensive.
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited May 2006
    He wanted Firewire. If I talk to him again about this, I'll just let him know that $500-$600 wont build a very high perfomance computer for video editing, but I guess I could still put it together if he wanted.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited May 2006
    A video editing rig on that budget is damn near impossible. He'd spend more time waiting for the computer to catch up than actually editing video.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Yeh, I have been doing video work for about 4 years (sine 7th grade) and all I can tell you is that video rigs need to be stout. For general editing you can get by, but once you start doing text rendering, effects rendering, transitions, you will spend all your time rendering that stuff. Shoot, just the Avid rig that our jr high put together before I left was a dual xeon with 4 gigs of ram. not to mention the raid array that thing had on it, think it was a raid 5 array. Even with that much power the processor still took a big chunk of time to render all the stuff. That was also 2 years ago, and technology has gotten better, you can do it, its just gonna be slow.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    My Folding farm doubles as a render farm for those bad days.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited May 2006
    airbornflght wrote:
    You may also want a video capture card if he will not be using a digital video camera with firewire. Although, those cards can get quite expensive.


    If he is going to use a digital camera with a firewire connection then you do not need a capture card.

    You only need a capture card if you want to caputre analog video.

    You can connect the camcorder direct to the firewire in your computer and use a cheep capture software.

    "g"
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I disage you can build a pretty hefty system with $600.00 if you minus a monitor and keyboard and mouse, which he might already have :)

    Some Ideas:

    AMD Athlon 64 3200 - 135.00

    80GB HD IDE or SATA OEM for around $41

    Case and PSU - $29.00 - $60.00

    939 mobo Nfocre 4 around - $62.00

    Corsair Value 1 Gig - $79.00

    CD/ DVD drive Burner - $26.00

    Nvidia 6600 TD - $69.00

    Windows media center 2005 - 109.00

    Total: $584.00 plus shipping and Tax

    So your looking at just over $600.00 which might be close but this is a pretty good system for the price. And I charge $50.00 f0r all my builds. For friends I charge $35.00.. they really don't take that long.

    This setup also gives him plenty of future upgrade room. as he can add more ram upgrade into a Dual core CPU in the future and even get a high end GC if he wants.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    gtghm wrote:
    If he is going to use a digital camera with a firewire connection then you do not need a capture card.

    You only need a capture card if you want to caputre analog video.

    You can connect the camcorder direct to the firewire in your computer and use a cheep capture software.

    "g"


    Isnt that what I said?
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    I disage you can build a pretty hefty system with $600.00 if you minus a monitor and keyboard and mouse, which he might already have :)

    Some Ideas:

    AMD Athlon 64 3200 - 135.00

    80GB HD IDE or SATA OEM for around $41

    Case and PSU - $29.00 - $60.00

    939 mobo Nfocre 4 around - $62.00

    Corsair Value 1 Gig - $79.00

    CD/ DVD drive Burner - $26.00

    Nvidia 6600 TD - $69.00

    Windows media center 2005 - 109.00

    Total: $584.00 plus shipping and Tax

    So your looking at just over $600.00 which might be close but this is a pretty good system for the price. And I charge $50.00 f0r all my builds. For friends I charge $35.00.. they really don't take that long.

    This setup also gives him plenty of future upgrade room. as he can add more ram upgrade into a Dual core CPU in the future and even get a high end GC if he wants.

    That system looks good to me except for three things, first, I would go for a beefier cpu, second, that 80gig hard drive will be gone in about 2 months of video editing, I know that you cant afford a big array, but I would try and afford at least a 200 or 300 gig hard drive. Third, why go for media center edition? Its his choice, and um, you all are forgetting the most important/expensive piece of this rig, the editing software, whether you go with adobe (premier pro) or avid, that doesnt matter, but its all gonna cost upwards of $1,000:doh: . Unless you were counting on using the windows movie maker, which can hardly be called editing software, at least once you get used to professional software.

    And on the video card note, you dont need a hefty video card for video editing, the grunt of the work will fall on the processor, not the video card, at least until you get into doing green screen work, then you have to model stuff.
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited May 2006
    Okay guys.. first off, airborn, I already stated in the first post that he needs minimal internal storage since he has an external 250gb HD. He already has all the software, but I'm not sure about monitor and kbd, etc.

    I like Sledge's list, except for the mobo - is that a trusted brand??

    Oh and why would he need MCE? I was thinking XP Home OEM would be fine.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Home is fine which would save you about $25.00 I just like the options in MC and XP pro... Home is by far on the bottom of my list.. but he isn't going to be networking other computers so Home would work fine.

    ECS is a good brand, not the best on the market and not the worst, but more of a budget board. now a Abit or Biostar board would work just the same, and you could get buy with onboard graphics and save about $69.00

    Abit


    Biostar

    I work in PS CS2 and other video programs for a living and would always recommend a Graphics card, but it is a buget system and the Nvidia onboard 6100 series works pretty good, I mean this option could allow you to go 2 Gigs of ram instead of 1 gig... Ram is always needed in Photo and video editing. I use 4 gigs in my work rig and it still gets choked up.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I should note i have used many of those Biostar MOBO’s for Media center rigs I build for people and I love them... they run cool on the Northbridge and have plenty of room for expansion buy supporting a PCI-E card and runs the FX and X2 line of CPU's :)
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited May 2006
    Okay thanks for the suggestions.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    No problem, that is what we are here for...
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