What is the best Computer Specs for Video Editing?

Question

I wanna buy a computer that is best for video editing. i wanna know more about the best parts of the CPU like whats the motherboard, processor, video card, firewire, the size of the ram and etc. i need help ASAP cause i have this project coming.

Answer 1

Most important is the CPU:

High end Core2Duo processor from Intel.
or
High end AMD Athlon64 X2

2GB DDR2 Ram (533 +) with more than be enough.
PCI-E video card with 256MB onboard (nVidia or ATI)
WinTV-PVR-150 capture card by Hauppauge

I use this combination and am most satisfied.
Of course when you ask " the Best" sky is the limit, however, I thought to suggest something realistic & affordable.

regards,
Philip T



regards,
Philip T

Answer 2

I agree, Core2Duo or AMD Athlon64 X2.
1GB mem. might be enough, but more is always better.
Motherboard: Intel or Asus.
Firewire: is standard on most modern motherboards (if you skip the budget boards).

I advice 3 harddisks in the PC.
1: With the Operating System (OS). Divide it up in 2 partitions.
2: For the video and other documents.
3: For the backups.
The 3rd harddisk could also be an external harddisk.
The Seagate Barracuda series are good harddisks. They might be a bit more expensive compared to Maxtor, but Maxtor is rubbish.
If you use p2p/limewire/...: use the 2nd partition of the first harddisk for that. P2p is bad for harddisk reliability (the harddisk is continiously being used), so you woulnd't want to run that on the hard-laboured video edited stuff harddisks.

The PC and harddisk must be able to keep up with the camera or frames will be lost. When sending a movie TO the camera, the processor must be fast enough or the camera will lose frames.
Videoediting takes large amounts of gigabytes, so buy the biggest and fastest harddisks you can afford (except for the OS itself: a relative small harddisk will do).

Software:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_editing_software
Adobe Premiere costs $849,-. A demo download is here:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?loc=en%5Fus&product=premiere%5Fpro