Low-Budget for Video Editing

[Leogecko]

This is a tentative build for my dad. The power supply for his Dell XPS 3 crapped out a few months ago and he can't find a replacement... might as well start fresh. We're working with $400-500:

Processor: Intel Pentium 6300 Wolfdale 2.8 GHz Dual-Core ~ $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116091

Motherboard: ASUS P5QL/EPU LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX ~ $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131393

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 ~ $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower ~ $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

Power Supply: PC P&C Silencer 420 ATX ~ $65
https://shop.pcpower.com/products/de...ATX/index.html

Video Card: Radeon X800 Pro ~ (from the Dell, pretty sure it's PCI Express)

Subtotal: $340

He wants to use the old hard drives because they have all his valuable info on them (Video, Pictures, Programs, etc...). However, they're at maximum capacity and I think they severely impacted performance while the Dell was still running. I believe his largest drive is 500 GB. So if he agrees to spend the extra money, this might be a good option:

Hard Drive: Western Digital RE3 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s ~ $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136313

That would bring the total to $500.

My dad also has a special video rendering card he wants to transfer from the Dell; I don't know anything about it except it's HUGE. As implied in the post title, he'll be using this computer for photoshop, video editing, and heavy-duty multitasking (he usually has like 8 tabs open in IE and four other programs running)

All in all, how does this look? Is everything compatible? Any suggestions or adjustments? I've only built one PC before and that was five years ago, so I'm totally out of the loop.

[flanzig1]

Better make sure that the video card is PCI-E.
Also, check to see what the drives(HD and DVD/CD) are: IDE or SATA. If IDE, you can only use 2, todays motherboards generally only have 1 IDE connection.

[Leogecko]

I checked the hard drives and was surprised to find that they are in fact SATA.

I was informed that the video card, however, is Dell proprietary and difficult to get running in a different computer. So I picked out a basic video card (that should have as much if not more power than the X800 if I'm not mistaken):

Video Card: eVGA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express ~ $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130297

With that minor change, does everything look good? If so, we're ready to order the parts.

[glc]

For video editing, you are better off with an ATI card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121338

[Khalil]

This is an ok build but nowhere near suitable for Heavy duty multi-tasking or much video editing unless all the videos your dad produce are 320x200.
What software is your dad going to use for video editing?

[glc]

I wouldn't waste the money on a RE3 drive when you can get a Black for more than 60 bucks less.

Agree with Khalil - you need more CPU. Look at a E8400 or E8500. It's not just clock speed that's important - you need cache and FSB speed.

[Leogecko]

Ok, does this look better?

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache ~ $168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-037-_-Product

Video Card: ASUS Radeon HD 4650 512MB 64-bit DDR2 ~ $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121338

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache ~ $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-284-_-Product

Motherboard: ASUS P5QL/EPU LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX ~ $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131393

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 ~ $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower ~ $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

Power Supply: PC P&C Silencer 420 ATX ~ $65
https://shop.pcpower.com/products/de...ATX/index.html

[AMGrbaowska]

That looks like a very good build for the money, although I don't know much about specs for video editing.

[glc]

MUCH better.

[Khalil]

Will make a very good build!

[dabro15]

I would go with a Nvidia Quadro Series for a work station card. A bit more pricey but worth it for a pure work station build. Even the lower end Quadros run awesome for CAD programs like Solid Works, very stable. Don't go with that junk card if the rest of your build looks nice.

[glc]

I beg your pardon - a HD 4650 is FAR from being a "junk card". Please note that the thread title is "LOW BUDGET". Quadros will break that in a heartbeat. Yes, I use Quadros and Fires for workstations, but for BUDGET builds, I've found that cards like 4650's work just fine - and they even game well if you keep the effects to a reasonable level.

[Leogecko]

Thanks for your help, guys. One more question:

Supposing we took the old hard drives (operating system and all) and put them directly in with the new hardware, what kinds of problems are we facing? For example, will the operating system (Windows XP) be able to detect, format, and integrate the new hard drive?

[flanzig1]

Would do a clean install of XP on the new drive then after the system is up and running, plug the old drive in to get data off of it.

[glc]

You are going to need a new OS anyway - you can't reuse a Dell Windows load on a new computer.

[dabro15]

Originally Posted by glc I beg your pardon - a HD 4650 is FAR from being a "junk card". Please note that the thread title is "LOW BUDGET". Quadros will break that in a heartbeat. Yes, I use Quadros and Fires for workstations, but for BUDGET builds, I've found that cards like 4650's work just fine - and they even game well if you keep the effects to a reasonable level.

I wasn't calling the 4650 "junk", I was more or less making a suggestion that a Quadro would be a better decision for the application. I also wouldn't really consider a Core 2 Duo Build of any kind to be that low budget. Yes they are starting to get lower in price but a true low budget Intel build would not have an E8400, not to mention a $65 PSU, which is very nice by the way.

Leogecko, you do have good taste in cases. I have the same one and I love it.

[glc]

Fair enough - but for the proposed use on a budget, money is better spent on a CPU than a video card. In fact, with all that multitasking, a Q9550 may be even a better choice.

I *am* curious exactly what that "rendering card" is - with that in the equation, it's even possible onboard video might do the job.

[Leogecko]

I took the card out for a look... no idea how to identify the thing; numbers all over the back and front of the card. A few keywords I distinguished are: 'Canopus', 'DVStorm RT', and 'StormEncoder.'

He uses Adobe Premiere (he's always been an Adobe fan).

Choosing a new operating system is gonna be difficult... if I'm not mistaken, XP is out of date, Vista sucks, and pundits are still unsure about Windows 7. Aiming for Windows 7, but concerned about compatibility with programs, and communication with the home network (all other computers running XP). Suggestions?

[Leogecko]

We're considering this motherboard for the 2x FireWire:


GIGABYTE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358

This an OK change?

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Leogecko We're considering this motherboard for the 2x FireWire: GIGABYTE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358 This an OK change?

Stick to Asus, they are far more reliable and have the best fastest customer support in the industry.

[alfie2]

just my 2 cents,

video rendering/encoding/decoding tasks are CPU intensive, so a quad CPU will always be better than a dual.

why not buy an AMD quad cpu?
such as the newly released Athlon II X4 620, which costs about $100USD. It will definitely outperform any dual CPUs.

video cards are not as important as cpu in video rendering/encoding.

[rwest]

Actually the increased performance in a quad core over a tripple core when video editing is not neccesarily a huge jump. There is a drastic change when using a tripple core as opposed to a dual core. But when on a budget, a fast dual core with the most cache you can afford is usually the best option.

I'm pretty sure that If you have the money(for video editing), a tipple core proccessor with a board that supports tripple channel ram is the best bang currently.

BTW I love my Gigabyte board but ASUS is considered the prefered brand here. I chose my Gigabyte board for it's versatility.

Oh, and if I understood 'G" properly, the ATI cards do the encoding with a chip that's included on the card. Specifically designed for this purpose, to encode video.

[Khalil]

alfie2, I disagree, the E8400 will smoke the AMD 620 at any task, this coming from a huge supporter of AMD. The amount of cores will not superceed the amount of cache, the E8400 has 6MB cache, the AMD 620 has 2MB split 4 ways 512K, which makes for weak cores in comparisson.

[alfie2]

actually the 620 is equal to and sometimes better then the e8400.

dont forget this is a $100 dollar processor, comparing to $150+ for e8400, and $120+ for x3 processors.

[jdeb]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=56&p2=106

[Leogecko]

Ok, so I put the computer together today.

Press the power button... everything's a go, fans running, mobo screen. Then after about a minute it instantly shuts down. It doesn't seem to make a difference whether I'm in the BIOS settings or elsewhere, so it's almost like something's overheating.

What now?

[glc]

It's probably overheating.

What parts DID you go with?

[Leogecko]

All the parts in post #7, plus the MediaStorm card, sound card, and two hard drives from the old computer. And also, a PCI Express x1 firewire card.

[glc]

Start it up, go into the bios, and find the screen that tells you temps, fan speeds, and voltages - watch the CPU temp - what does it read? (Prefer Celsius here)

[Leogecko]

umm... ouch.

I went into the temps screen. The CPU started at 55 C and began increasing... I assumed that the computer would just automatically shut off (like it always did), therefore I didn't need to intervene. Well, by the time it reached 73 I was sufficiently alarmed and turned it off myself.

I checked out the heatsink and noticed that one of the four pins wasn't secured all the way, and the heatsink was in fact a bit loose. Secured it and turned the computer on again.

Two very strange things: the computer isn't sending a signal to the monitor anymore, and the power button only works to turn the system on, not off. I had to turn off the power supply in order to shut things down.

D'oh.