Mac's really better for video editing?

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Please stick to facts and don't be bias here. I have never used a video editing program bar windows movie maker so I don't have much knowledge on this front (so please keep things simple :P ).
Anyway, my girlfriend and her parents are in a bit of a sticky situation atm. Her mum works as a actress and her dad is a director. She is wanting to go to college to do a course on photography and video so they need a good pc for video editing. They are, however finding it very hard to get work atm so money is everything when it comes to the cost of a pc/mac. From what I understand (or what they have told me) Mac's are superior to Pc's when it comes to video editing. Is this entirely true? Doesn't it come down to heardware in the end?

Right now they have a celeron d 3.4ghz pc with 2gb ram, integrated gfx, pirate windows 7 lol (I have a spare windows vista ultimate that I can install tho :) )

Bearing in mind they are completely skint would it be a good idea to buy second hand and get something like this?

Q6600 (Oc to 3ghz) - £80
P45 mobo - £50
4GB ram - £50
GTX260 or 4870 - £90/70
New case - £30
DVD Drive - £20
1TB HDD - £60
PSU £60

Total - ~£400 with KB + Mouse.
 
For the same price, you'll be able to buy a better PC that will technically crunch the numbers faster. But that doesn't mean it would be better value for money or better for video editing.

I would check what software they intend to use before deciding if they should use OS X or Windows.
 
You need to decided what editing suite you wanna use.

PC (without additional hardware)
Avid Media Composer
Adobe Premiere
Sony Vegas

MAC
Final Cut Pro or Express
Avid Media Composer
Adobe Premiere
 
If you're into serious video editing, you'll most likely find the video editing software on OS X more appealing. Like anything Mac, the reason to own one is for the brilliant software, try to look a bit past the hardware, as you'll find more performance from less hardware (excluding encoding, etc)
 
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Ohh yes, ESP running after effects final cut etc all at the same time. Handles play back and rendering so much better!
 
I would ask the question: is a new computer even necessary? If the software you need for the course runs on the one you've got, a new PC is only going to do it faster.

Speed is a luxury and if money is tight then it would be better spend it elsewhere in my opinion. I do loads of video and photo editing on my very average works laptop and while it's not ideal it gets the job done fine, you just manage your time better.

At least give it a shot on the current computer, it might surprise you.
 
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