need to edit a feature length documentary

What's your budget? Is video editing the only thing that will be done with this system?

Do you just need a computer tower, or do you need monitors, OS?
Actually, if you could fill out this form it would be great. While you say your budget is flexible, that really doesn't help us much. Its hard to judge what is reasonable to get without a budget.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgrade-advice

Yeah that still doesn't really help. Plus knowing what country you are in will help to suggest a system as well since prices vary from country to country. Since this site gets visitors from all over the world it's hard to assume that you're just from the US or not.

Well, that's for more cash than you will ever need for a computer, so you can pretty much get the best of the best and have it gold plated at that budget :lol:

I dont know any Singaporean retailers, but I assume with that kind of cash behind it wouldnt be crazy to just outright import all your components if you cant find them in your area.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($567.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($97.25 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS SSI CEB LGA2011 Motherboard ($359.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($174.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Silverstone RV04B-W ATX Full Tower Case ($158.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($134.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($94.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $2154.09
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-18 00:55 EDT-0400)

In addition to the above, I would add a workstation graphics card. I'm not that knowledgeable in this area, so I suggest you look up what line of cards (Tesla, Quadro or Firepro) would best help you in your use case. I think a Quadro is whats most applicable to editing with the Adobe Suite, but not sure.

anamitor,

Some important decisions will depend on the applications you use- for example Adobe CS is CUDA accelerated and suggests Quadro graphics card, and also whwether you are processing / rendering substantially, which suggests dual CPU's.

Here is a semi-generic high end workstation suitable for video editing, and that would also work very well for animation /3D modeling >

BambiBoom PixelCannon ViderendercadaBlaze iWork Supermodeler 9000™?™©®©$_ REV 10.18.13

1. (2) Intel Xeon E5-2687W Sandy Bridge-EP 3.1GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 20MB L3 Cache LGA 2011 150W 8-Core Server Processor > $3,868. ($1,934 each) On the Passmark CPU benchmark chart, this processor is the No.2 rated, score = 21491. In the top 100 systems on Passmark Performance test, this CPU is used in the 6th highest performing system.

2. (2) CORSAIR Hydro Series H90 High Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 140mm $160 ($80 each)

3. ASUS Z9PE-D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 DDR3 1600 > $480

4. RAM > 64GB ECC 1600 (4 X 16GB) SA MSUNG M393B2G70BH0-CK0 1X 16GB for ASUS Z9PE-D16 > 128GB= $520 ($145 each, Server Direct)

5. NVIDIA Quadro K5000 4GB 256-bit PCI Express 2.0 x 16 HDCP Ready Workstation video card > $1,800.

5A. OPT'L > NVIDIA Quadro 6000 by PNY 6GB GDDR5 PCI Express Gen 2 x16 DVI-I DL Dual DisplayPort and Stereo OpenGL, DirectX, CUDA, and OpenCL Profesional Graphics Board, VCQ6000-PB $2,300 (amazon.com)

6. SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD512BW 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) > $520

7. (3) Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM $480 ($160 each) (RAID 1+0) (Active files, backup, system image)

8. SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply > $200.

9. LIAN LI PC-A79B Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case > $370

10. Pioneer 15X BD-R SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-2208 > $85

11. NZXT Sentry-2 5.25" Touch Screen Fan Controller > $28.

12. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM $140

_______________________________

TOTAL CPU = $8,660 or $9,160 with Quadro 6000

Monitors .

1. Main Image monitor > ASUS PA279Q Black 27" 6ms WQHD HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight True Color Professional Monitor 350 cd/m2 100000000: 2560 X 1440 $850

2. Application / Menu monitors > (2) ASUS VG248QE Black 24" 144Hz 1ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD 3D Monitor Height&pivot adjustable 350 cd/m2 80,000,000:1 > $560 ($280 each)

Sound Monitoring >

This would depend on >

1. Whether you are working in surround sound or stereo.

2. Your editing application> Adobe CS? Protools? an AVID application?
____________________________________________________

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. Dell Precision T5400 (2009)> 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16 GB ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 / Segt Brcda 500GB > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > HP 2711x 27" 1920 x 1080 > AutoCad, Revit, Solidworks, Sketchup Pro, Corel Technical Designer, Adobe CS MC, WordP Office, MS Office > architecture, industrial design, graphic design, rendering, writing

2. HP z420 (2013)> Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.9GHz > 24GB ECC RAM > Firepro V4900 (Soon quadro K4000) > Samsung 840 SSD 250GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > Windows 7 Professional 64 > AutoCad, Revit, Inventor, Maya (2011), Solidworks 2010, Adobe CS4, Corel Technical Design X-5, Sketchup Pro, WordP Office X-5, MS Office

anamitor,

Video editing is one of the really demanding applications. 3D modeling / rendering is in that league too, but video processing can have not only the demands of rendering, but also demanding each frame being a rendering and with immense files. I showed 64GB RAM using 16GB RAM modules in my list to allow for expansion, but I'm tempted to suggest going to 128GB of RAM from the start. Since dual CPU's divide the RAM between them so 64GB total is the same as 32GB in a single CPU system.

On the subject of options, while the Quadro K5000 is my current favorite card, the older Quadro 6000 is really the video editing classic- it's that 6GB,... Of course, the new K6000 is out with 12GB and 2,880 CUDA cores (the 6000 has 448), but $5,000 is a pile of brass. The good news is that Quadro 6000's have dropped substantially, two months ago- $3,600, now $2,300 at Amazon. I saw a used sold on Ebay for $900 and I would be highly tempted. There's always a risk, but you might consider trying a pair of used Quadro 6000 at about $2500 in SLI. Imagine 12GB RAM and 925 CUDA cores on a 380-bit bandwidth. If it didn't work, 6000's will always be desirable. And these cards just run and run. I've used a Quadro FX 4800, which was $1,200 new, but purchased when two years old for $150 for about 3 years- never a hiccup. A 2006 FX 580 still runs perfectly. I don't know, really the K500 is probably the thing- 1534 CUDA cores.

These days, the Mac and Windows applications work so similarly, that I think the choice resolves to the preferred hardware. Mac seems more reliable and there's less hardware fussing, but then the user is limited to their set configurations. Windows is ugly and stupid, but you can have the hardware at just the very best way for your uses and get under the hood to fix it when it goes wrong.

Windows machines are also cheaper as is building. I priced as nearly as possible the dual E5-2687w configuration listed earlier as an HP z820 workstation and it would cost there (With Quadro K5000) a bit over $18,500. So, build yourself and save, save, save!

By the way, I meant to mention that the V2 of the E5-2687W is just becoming available. I still haven't seen the price, but the V2 is noticeably faster- instead of the V1 @ 3.1/3.8 the V2 is 3.4 / 4Ghz. Intel lists them at about $2,100.

I've only had the now old-fashioned (2009) CS4 MC Premiere- which is far more capable than I'll ever need, but not 3D capable or mobile oriented- and don't have first-hand knowledge of Grass Valley Edius. The recent V7 does have a lot of useful items, and supports 4K, 3D, and other interesting items like Thunderbolt. I'm very interested in Thunderbolt and given the potenital of 12Gb/s transfer rates, that seems just made for video editing. There are however, very, very few motherboards I've seen that have it- only one or two Haswells so far.

As for sound, that is a special interest of mine. It depends on the number of inputs and tracks, stereo or surround, whether you might be doing any remedial Foley or other recording and so on. The application is important too.

As most of my sound work is recording, I use Cakewalk Sonar- also for editing and software effects. Will you be using Audition? For high end monitoring options, you might visit Sweetwater.com as they have every level of USB, Firewire, and PCIe interface, software, and monitoring.

For monitoring and amplification I use only stereo through an M-Audio "Audiophile 192" PCI card which includes 4 I/O , duplex monitoring, MIDI and SPDIF and Protools support (About $200) through an Audio Research LS3 preamplifier > D130 power amplifier > Vandersteen 2C speakers/ Sennheiser HD 820 Pro headphones (about $5,000). That imbalance in quality with the amplification is only because I have so much audio gear about.

Again, the dividing line is whether you'll be recording, and if it's surround or stereo. For stereo, of course, headphones are best. If you can say a bit more about how you handle sound- the applications, kind of inputs, amount of effects processing, I can make more specific suggestions. I'm not knowledgeable abut Protools applications, but they still seem to be the industry standard in recording.

It's certainly possible to edit on the large scale at home. A friend of mine (using AVID) has been an assistant editor on the Spiderman series and another guy edited "Titanic" (also in AVID) in a couple of back bedrooms knocked together.

Cheers,

BambiBoom