Seeking AVCHD editing system solutions

innkeeper_nj

Distinguished
Jan 19, 2010
5
0
18,510
Things have changed a lot since I bought my Osborne Executive with 16k RAM, 5-1/4” single-sided 160K disk drives, and monochrome screen. Happily, computers can do so much more now.

Priorities: AVCHD video editing (typically, 10-15 minute segments using Sony Vegas Studio 9 and Adobe Premier Elements for now), Photoshop, video playback, 2-D graphics, accounting, word processing, internet. Games are not an interest at all.

Budget: $ 2,000 – 2,500

I’ve read through several home-build threads with the same or similar needs, so I apologize for some redundancy. What remains unanswered:

1) is a RAID-0 for OS and APPS a smart, fast, and economical choice until SSD becomes less expensive
2) is RAID-0+1 the best and most secure way to be editing and storing AVCHD
3) considering that the AVCHD editing is more reliant upon CPU and RAM, is a workstation video card (Quadro FX 1800) a better choice for my purposes than a GeForce (although both would be able to take advantage of hyper-threading and CUDA)
4) what kind of an improvement in rendering might I get if I OC either the CPU, RAM, or video card
5) how much cooling should I be budgeting?

Planned system so far

MOBO: Asus P6X58
CPU: Core i7-920
OS: Win 7 64 bit
MEMORY: 6GB DDR3/1600 CORSAIR DOMINATOR
HDD (os/apps): RAID-0 500GBx2 SATA II Samsung Spinpoint F3
HDD (storage): RAID-0+1 1TBx4 SATA II undecided
PSU: Corsair 750 watt CMPSU-750TX
DVD-1: Pioneer BDR-205 Blu-Ray Writer
DVD-2: Sony 16x DVD-ROM
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX250 896MB 16X as a starting point for discussion
CASE: Open to all suggestions - I have space for a full tower if necessary
 

innkeeper_nj

Distinguished
Jan 19, 2010
5
0
18,510
Failed to include monitor in my build description. Sorry.

Monitor: NEC LCD2490WUXi2 - only 1 for now

This purchase (roughly $900) is obviously in addition to the system build budget.