Spec Needed For Video Editing

namor

namor

namor

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20 Aug 2009
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Hi all my 1st post on here so take it easy on me.

I'm looking to do some video filming and need a computer to edit the videos on p[robably in hour long chunks of video

I was looking at a mac but it cost too much as this is just a hobby atm ive asked a fellow who also does something similar and uses vegas and adobe to edit. any help on the type of specs that are most important for this or the type of pre built computers I should be looking at.

cheers
 
get the fastest HDD you can afford is my main advice, either SSD or VelociRaptors. maybe look into RAID too. also a good graphics card and the best CPU you can budget for for encoding.

if you know mac go with that and use finalcut, or if PC use premiere/after effects. would personally go with a PC - will be cheaper and premiere/afx are more than capable. oh and obviously a good capture device.
 
As the previous poster mentions a fast CPU is important, the i7 will be a much better choice than an AM3 for this task. I'd steer well clear of raptors or SSD's for this, a regular drive is plenty fast enough - but what you need is disk space and lots of it.

More RAM never hurts, but last I heard only Photoshop in CS4 is 64 bit so 6GB is probably fine.

Check the outputs on the camera, they may be firewire.

You might want to look at having 2 screens - so that the videostream is on one and all the the editing tools are on the other.
 
Paul11 said:
Video editing!! not photoshop

there are 64bit apps for editing and RAM is dirt cheap, so get 8gb

what is your budget ?
Click to expand...

Reread. Only Photoshop in CS4 is 64bit, the other things like After Effects are still 32bit. Hence mahoosive amounts of RAM won't be used.
 
sldsmkd said:
Reread. Only Photoshop in CS4 is 64bit, the other things like After Effects are still 32bit. Hence mahoosive amounts of RAM won't be used.
Click to expand...

adobe premier video editing is 64bit


namor said:
I don't know too much about computers tbh

how much do u reckon i could buy or build an adequate pc for?
Click to expand...

do you need everything , monitors, OS, keyboard, mouse and speakers ?
 
I would be inclined to fill your RAM and get a fairly decent GC. Your HD needs to be large enough also.

But then the new i7 I am told will handle editing so much better! Depends on what you want to change and what you dont!
 
not sure about that advice not to get a fast HDD... pulling frames off an HDD can take ages unless you've got a fast HDD. would still recommend getting raptors or SSD. you'll need regular old large capacity drives too, natch, but if you can avoid editing on them and just use them for storage you'll benefit from the speed of a raptor or SSD when simply pulling frames.
 
I found that it would be a lot cheaper to build an equivalently specced PC compared to a Mac. a LOT cheaper.
 
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