Video Computer Specs ?
slats1
I need a new computer for video editing with
Premier 6 or Avid. Can anyone give
me some specs on what I need in a fast powerful computer. I'm not
going to build one, but I'd like to know what to look for. Hard
drive
size, processor, graphics card, sound card, etc.
Thanks alot,,,Much appreciated !! Steve
Richard Crowley
You can start by creating a table of the system requirements
for your proposed NLE applications. You will likely see some
patterns of minimum requirements that you can build on.
David Ruether
"slats1" <sla...@fuse.net> wrote in message news:c1067fcf-ceec-445c...@w9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
> I need a new computer for video editing with Premier 6
> or Avid. Can anyone give me some specs on what I need
> in a fast powerful computer. I'm not going to build one,
> but I'd like to know what to look for. Hard drive size,
> processor, graphics card, sound card, etc.
Almost any new computer these days has capabilities FAR
above the minimum for Premiere 6. To whatever computer
you get, I would add at least one additional hard drive, and
with Premiere 6, a second monitor is useful (most newer
programs lay out nicely on a single 24" LCD, though - see
http://www.donferrario.com/ruether/video-editor-screens.htm
for some screen -grabs of three programs). Unless you intend
to edit 24 Mbps AVCHD HD video (only a few editing
programs will handle it), you do not need expensive "bleeding
edge" gear to edit 25 Mbps HDV or 17 Mbps AVCHD HD
(but I would buy gear that would handle these easily, even if
you are not yet shooting HD). An Intel quad-core machine
with 3-4 gigs of RAM and almost any (current) size drive(s)
should be sufficient (and you can "cheat" a bit on the processor,
with a dual-core and/or AMD, if reduced performance at a
reduced price is an OK trade for you...
--DR
Fred Kasner
Just bought a new HP box. quad core, 8 GB memory, 64bit vista, 750 GB
hard drive. Fairly fast 512 display card, only missing another hard
drive. I'll put that in when I have become more acquainted with the box.
FK
iws
news:c1067fcf-ceec-445c...@w9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
Go for a quad core processor and two large internal hard drives (I'd go for
at least 500 GB each.). At least 2 GB memory and likely more. A decent video
card but you don't need gaming levels in that area. Same goes for sound
card. If you're capturing video via firewire then it's nice to have one of
those connectors on the front of the machine. Nice to have a card reader on
the front for when you're downloading stills for use in an edited movie.
ushere
> "slats1" <sla...@fuse.net> wrote in message
> news:c1067fcf-ceec-445c...@w9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
> | Hey there, | I need a new computer for video
> editing with | Premier 6 or Avid. Can anyone give | me some specs on
> what I need in a fast powerful computer. I'm not | going to build
> one, but I'd like to know what to look for. Hard | drive | size,
> processor, graphics card, sound card, etc. | Thanks alot,,,Much
> appreciated !! Steve
simply look up videoguys.com, boxx, or any other 'serious' supplier of
editing / media pc's and look at their specs..... and bear in mind,
avid can be quite fussy about the components it runs on. adobe is more
forgiving, vegas even more so.
Martin Heffels
<removethis....@gmail.com> wrote:
>avid can be quite fussy about the components it runs on.
Not as fussy as Pinnacle Studio ;-) I've seen the Xpress run on a
variety of hardware, but maybe everybody was lucky.
-m-
videoguys
http://www.videoguys.com/Guide/C/DIY%2bSystems.aspx
Gary
mkuj...@gmail.com
Gary, weren't you going to be posting a new DIY article sometime soon?
Mike
JPD
> "slats1" <sla...@fuse.net> wrote in message
>
> news:c1067fcf-ceec-445c...@w9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
> | Hey there,
> | I need a new computer for video editing with
> | Premier 6 or Avid. Can anyone give
> | me some specs on what I need in a fast powerful computer. I'm not
> | going to build one, but I'd like to know what to look for. Hard
> | drive
> | size, processor, graphics card, sound card, etc.
> | Thanks alot,,,Much appreciated !! Steve
>
> Go for a quad core processor
The new I7 processors are pretty nice. They have four cores, actually.
And if the app/OS uses hyperthreading, the I7 performs as if it has 8
cores.
If one were upgrading an existing system, then it would be expensive,
because it would probably be necessary to upgrade the mobo and the RAM
(from DDR2 to DDR3). But if buying a whole new system, the I7s make
sense.
If getting an I7 be sure to get DDR3 RAM in multiples of 3 -- 3mb or
6mb. (Or 12 if you want to go hog wild.)
videoguys
website launch. Now we are getting DIY7 article finished.
GAry
videoguys
is now posted http://tinyurl.com/chd6w6
Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premeire Pro CS4 are running great on
it. We used HDV footage for our tests and you could immediately feel
athe difference between DIY7 and our older DIY6 Quad-core.
We are very happy with the performance and as a result we are also now
recommending Vista 64 for new NLE workstations.
Gary
Tony
Hey Gary
You should fix this paragraph (beginning with "Basically". Too many gramma errors.
"Windows 32-bit Operating Systems are only able to address 3GB of RAM. Actually the original amount
of RAM that cam be addressed is only 2GB, but you can tweak the OS to use 3GB. What happens if you
have 4GB or more? Basically . Soit sits around unusedme applications may be able to address and use
some of that excess RAM, but in general, it sits wasted. With 64-bit operation systems you can
address pretty much as much RAM as you motherboard can hold. With our Asus P6T motherboard that
means six sticks of RAM. With 2GB sticks you get a whopping 12GB, use 4GB sticks and that’s an
insane 24GB of RAM!"
videoguys
> On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:55:28 -0700 (PDT), videoguys <gary.broadfi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Just wanted to let you guys know that Videoguys DIY 7 Intel i7 article
>
> >Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premeire Pro CS4 are running great on
> >it. We used HDV footage for our tests and you could immediately feel
> >athe difference between DIY7 and our older DIY6 Quad-core.
>
> >We are very happy with the performance and as a result we are also now
> >recommending Vista 64 for new NLE workstations.
>
> >Gary
>
> Hey Gary
>
> You should fix this paragraph (beginning with "Basically". Too many gramma errors.
>
> "Windows 32-bit Operating Systems are only able to address 3GB of RAM. Actually the original amount
> of RAM that cam be addressed is only 2GB, but you can tweak the OS to use 3GB. What happens if you
> have 4GB or more? Basically . Soit sits around unusedme applications may be able to address and use
> some of that excess RAM, but in general, it sits wasted. With 64-bit operation systems you can
> address pretty much as much RAM as you motherboard can hold. With our Asus P6T motherboard that
> means six sticks of RAM. With 2GB sticks you get a whopping 12GB, use 4GB sticks and that’s an
> insane 24GB of RAM!"
Thanks for the heads up, I just cleaned it up. Looks liek my editors
missed that whole paragraph.
GAry
rock
I too am looking to update but without spending too much.
So far I have decided on..
Mobo Asus P5Q3
CPU Intel 2 Core Quad 8500
RAM 4GB
LAN is built intro mobo
I already have a 4 in/ 4 out M-Audio PCI Sound card with external plug
box which does me fine.
I am not sure about the graphics card though. T
here are so many around and so many that are great but too costly for my
budget. Also so many are great for gaming but not for editing which is
my primary useage.
It needs to be dual head so I can use the 2 monitors which I have.
Although most of my importing is via Firewire, if it had analog IN it
would be even better but I'm not sure of my chances there.
Anyone got any suggestions for a medium priced card that would help the
two monitor and encoding process?
Thanks
rock
Richard Crowley
I use whatever cheap dual-output video card my vendor has on
sale at the moment. It doesn't make all that much difference, IMHO.
But the dual computer screens are for interacting with the NLE
application, NOT for viewing the video.
For actually viewing the video itself, I use a real television monitor
connected to the VCR/camcorder which is via Firewire to the PC.
Personal experience and the majority of comments users post here
agree that video cards with "video input" are fiddly and unreliable,
and lower quality than what you can do with DV/Firewire.
You didn't mention hard drives which IME are far more important
than video card.
The MB, CPU and RAM seem more than adequate. Most of us
probably edit with significantly lesser resources.
rock
That's good to know about the graphics card as I was falling into a
black hole of confusion about whether a cheaper card does the job I need.
All my 7 hard drives are all IDE 7200 Seagate Barra's. 2 are box, 2 on a
controller and 3 are external USBs.
They all work fine unless I start to add fx and a few tracks as well as
previewing can take some time.
At the moment I am using a really down the food chain set up although it
does work fine with both Media Studio 8 Magix Pro x, Cubase SX3 or
Audition 3
Asus TUSL-C mobo
512 Ram which is max I can use
1.8 Intel CPU
So am I correct you see the edited Preview from the time line in your TV
via Firewire?
Thanks again
rock
Richard Crowley
> So am I correct you see the edited Preview from the time line in your TV
> via Firewire?
I do with the half-dozen versions of Adobe Premičre that I have used
over the last 10 years or so. I would assume that other video NLE
apps work the same way.
Gary T
"rock" <19...@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:49f2bc60$0$7111$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Richard Crowley wrote:
<snip>
> All my 7 hard drives are all IDE 7200 Seagate Barra's. 2 are box, 2 on a
> controller and 3 are external USBs.
>
> They all work fine unless I start to add fx and a few tracks as well as
> previewing can take some time.
>
> At the moment I am using a really down the food chain set up although it
> does work fine with both Media Studio 8 Magix Pro x, Cubase SX3 or
> Audition 3
>
> Asus TUSL-C mobo
> 512 Ram which is max I can use
> 1.8 Intel CPU
>
> So am I correct you see the edited Preview from the time line in your TV
> via Firewire?
>
> Thanks again
>
> rock
With 7 Seagate Barracudas, you may be interested in this notice from Seagate
about a problem with some of their drives becoming unreadable after a
power-off. The fix requires a firmware update. I personally know one person
who has experienced the problem.
Information on the problem, which effects some Seagate Barracuda 7200.11,
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 Sata and the DiamondMax 22 hard drives, can be found
at:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931&NewLang=en
Gary T
rock
Thanks Gary,
I checked my numbers with their programs and on their site and it seems
all is okay! I hope so.
rock