Video Editing Rig

[Freakbro]

A friend has asked me to look into building him a new rig, mainly to be used for video editing.

Is there anything specific a machine like this would need?

Im guessing a fast processor and loads of RAM as a start, what about video card - are there ones suited for this or would any high end "gaming" card do - ie gtx 460/470 etc

So as a barebones something like..

i5 or i7 (quad core versions)
8 or 12 gig of ram (depending on dual or triple channel ram)
gfx card - ?

Or would the hex core amd's be more suited....or does that just depend on what applications he is using and if they would use all the cores

 

[Bones]

What software does your friend use to edit footage? If he using the latest Adobe CS5 suite then he could take advantage of a new feature where it uses Nvidia GPU to help with real time playback. Its only supported by cards that have CUDA i think. Heres a list of cards which work with the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine.

Desktop Solutions
> Quadro 5000
> Quadro 4000
> Quadro FX 5800
> Quadro FX 4800
> Quadro FX 4800 Mac
> Quadro FX 3800
> GeForce GTX 470
> GeForce GTX 285

Other than the graphics card just stack as much ram and as many cores as possible.