$500-$550 video and photo editing computer help :)

[1337dedrea]

Looking to build a new computer for my friend who wants to do photo and video editing on. I have only really built a couple gaming rigs for my friends and was wonder how i should go about finding parts for this. Can anyone get me started about picking a chipset and what parts i should be focusing most of the budget on.

If anyone knows of a good build in the price range that would be very helpful.

Thanks Community!

 

[Martin9630]

http://www.squidoo.com/custom-computer-builds-500
http://www.squidoo.com/custom-computer-builds-500-gaming-build

not sure wether the two would fit in but worth a look.

 

[1337dedrea]

Thank you for your help Martin9630.

Does anyone else have any information about building a photo and video editing computer, or should I just build it like a gaming computer?

 

[aznshinobi]

The build Martin suggested for video editing is terrible 1337dedrea. The Phenom II 840 is basically an X4 Athlon and the 2 cores don't help at all for editing.

Check out the link in my siggy for 450$ build and swap the i3 2100 for an i5 2400. Then just drop the video card to save more money (60$) which would bring you to 460$. Then just upgrade the 4GB memory to 8gb and that brings you to 500$, perfect editing comp.
2500K vs 810
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=82
The 2500K is basically the 2400 with a higher clock so no difference. You can use onboard (on CPU) graphics instead of wasting money on a card.

 

[1337dedrea]

Thanks a lot aznshinobi

 

[aznshinobi]

Yeah no problem! Don't want you to get a crappy editing computer. I'm editing CS5 with my 955, it runs fine. Just not as smooth as it could be with an SB build. If you could help me though, buy the i5 2400 off my website! It'd really help.

 

[jerreddredd]

Here is a good article on building video editing computers on various Cost levels:
http://www.videoguys.com/Guide/E/Videoguys+System+recommendations+for+Video+Editing/0x4aebb06ba071d2b6a2cd784ce243a6c6.aspx

Some excepts from the above linked article:

Integrated graphics on the motherboard - still our #1 tech support problem We NEVER recommend computers with integrated graphics.

Always use premium quality memory For Win7 that means a bare minimum of 3GB.

video editing requires 7200RPM drives for video storage. We also recommend a 7200RPM or faster boot drive. Don't let your storage be the bottleneck in your systems performance.
(translation - have a boot Drive and a work drive.)

Make sure you've got adequate airflow inside the box and fans to cool your computer.

On your friends limited budget, I would recommend a SB CPU like the i3-2400, a discrete GPU within your budget with as many CUDA cores as possible (nVidia has the edge here I think). 2 x 7200 RPM HDD (Samsung 500GB's) 4-8 gigs of ram. and a solid PSU to power the system.

 

[aznshinobi]

^ WTF, that's bull crap. Integrated graphics is suggested by much of the THG community for budget builds. It's just not worth spending another 30$ on a discrete 5450. 30$ for a CPU can make the difference, IE from a 450 stepping up to a quad. Or from a 640 up to a 955.

Cuda helps 0 in almost all video editing. The only editing software actually benefiting from Cuda the most is Premiere Pro from Adobe. Aside from the Mercuary engine, there is no other program in CS5 that I know of using Cuda. Not Photoshop nor Illustrator nor After Effects. Nvidia just uses it to market their card, but in reality it's a benefit, but not a must have. I edit videos and photos solely on my 955 alone. It runs fine, you don't even notice the difference.