Good PC for HD Vdieo Editing

stubby

So dig, my semi-ancient Dell Dimension DE 051 PC is not going to cut it for editing HD video.

Anyone have any success stories with a particular brand or series PC and software editing programs? Of course, the less money, the better:biggrin:. I am barely computer literate; my 15 YO daughter helps me with the more complicated procedures!

Anyhoo, any suggestions will be appreciated. My camera is a Canon HF M300, if that makes any difference.

Thanks!

Sherardp

I would say build it, but that may be a tad out of your league. Even though it is very simple and you will learn a great deal in the process of doing so. I could (alot of help here on the forums as well) practically talk you through the entire installation process, besides you would get way more bang for your buck.

If that's out of your league sort of speak, and if your happy with Dell then buy another. Configure one online( Dell XPS 7100/9100) and go from there. Since you want to do video editing I would go for something in a quad core, with at least 6-8gb RAM, and a good video card. As with all things electronic, if you have budget it helps also.

renowilliams

I would say building the computer is the easiest part of the equation as video ediing itself has a fairly steep learning curve. I have been doing this for a long time and there are a lot of programs for doing this. Sheradp has given you some sound advice as far as your computer is concerned. As far as the Video editing software that is not too difficult to use, I would suggest Pinicle Studios.

cheddar

Memory is cheap, so don't skimp there. Make sure your software can make full use of the multiple cores as that will cut down on your render time. And don't skimp out on the video card as video playback can hiccup on a variety of bottlenecks with the video card being one of them, especially with HD video.

stubby

Thanks to all for the feedback! It's kind of a funny thing, I could probably build a computer with more ease than operating one.:redface:

I found a couple of units on ebay:
Both are Dell Studio XPS 7100's
1. AMD Phenom II 6 Core 2.7 GHz
1 TB ATA Hard Drive
8 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5670 Video
2. AMD AthlonII Quad Core 3.0 GHz
500 MB SATA Hard Drive
8 GB RAM
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 Video

They are factory refurbs, which is fine with me. About how much would it cost a guy to build one with similar specs. Assuming those listed above have good specs! Thanks again!

stubby

Jer.War

MACs are very popular for video editting for many reasons, however, that would mean a whole new software setup.
A dual or quad core Windows PC with at least 4 GB of ram and a decent stand alone video card will do the job for sure. If you want more performance increase the RAM and video card.
The biggest improvement over a Big box store Bundled computer will come from more RAM, but most of all a discrete video card.

CNWDI

stubby, it looks as though you're heading in a reasonable direction. I've used a lot of Dell systems and have one that was a "special good deal" (AMD-based Dimension 521) which I bought for wife and kids to use...and as much as I believe in building systems using quality components, I'll agree that the integration hassles are probably not worthwhile if you're doing just one system and no planned changes for several years.

That being said: Are you purchasing refurb Dell units through eBay from Dell? Dell's website has its own refurb site...so if you're buying from any other source, look at the warranty particulars.

In terms of basic system horsepower and graphics performance, both the systems you outlined look reasonable...but you may want to shop around for a system with a better discrete graphics card (or go discrete but lower-end on the graphics card to start, since a new graphics card is one of the easier upgrades). As Jer.War noted, getting a system that either has a discrete graphics card, or at least supports one, is one of the biggest things that one can do to improve overall perceptible performance.

Sherardp

The AMD Phenom II 6 core should do everything you want and more. Not sure if the video is onboard the mobo or not, but with 8gb RAM it should do the trick.