Video Editing/General Use Build; NO Gaming

nemccraw

Honorable
Feb 7, 2013
4
0
10,510
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I hope you guys can help me.

I want a computer that will be used primarily for video editing and general home use.

The video editing I will be doing will be not be professional. I barely have my feet wet with video editing. I have a contour +2 HD camera and few other DV 'helmet cams'. I don't have a preferred software, as I don't currently have a computer strong enough to run anything. I bought corel videostudio Pro X2, which is the oldest video editing software I could find that edits 1080p video. My computer still won't run it without crashing when applying effects. It's a gateway bought in early 2006 on a budget, not even worth mentioning whats inside it; just consider it to be completely trashed.

I'm currently a law enforcement officer going back to college, so I use the computer quite a bit for general use. My wife will be going back to school to get her masters next year, which means she will be using the computer more so than normal for general use. I figured we should go ahead and get a computer that will suit all needs: to last me through college, to last my wife through her masters, and allow me a computer powerful enough to edit video. I teach firearm classes and would like to use helmet cam footage of operating a firearm. The contour has a 480 resolution setting that captures at 120 fps, I hope to use this to slow video down and capture firearm techniques. The contour also captures 1920 X 1080 @ 30 fps and 1280 X 720 @ 60 fps. I help run a gun club which offers numerous firearm manipulations and tactics classes, and I would like to use all the above resolutions to compile advertising videos as well as videos to be used for instruction during classes. The contour outputs a .mov file that uses the H.264 codec and the other helmet cam I use most often outputs an .avi file that uses a 'motion jpeg' codec. This data has been collected using GSpot.

Unless a compelling argument is offered, I think I will start with the updated version of corel (Corel Videostudio Pro X5) once I complete my build for video editing. I'm looking for software that will be beginner friendly but still output a quality product once I've learned my way around the program.

Corel Video Studio Pro X5 System Requirements



Approximate Purchase Date: Buying parts throughout the next month or two


Budget Range: $550; the objective is to get the lowest price for what I need (this price is for OS, MB, Storage, and Processor -- See below)


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video Editing, General Home Use, School


Are you buying a monitor: No


Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, Processor, and storage


Do you need to buy OS: Yes


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference


Location: Charlotte, NC USA


Parts Preferences: No preference


Overclocking: I have never overclocked, or even built a pc, so I do not feel comfortable overclocking at this time


SLI or Crossfire: No



Parts that I have already bought:

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE

ZALMAN Z11 Plus HF1

LITE-ON DVD Burner

PNY GeForce GTX 550 Ti



Questions about the build:

PROCESSOR
I'm not sure which route to go with: AMD vs Intel.

I've read a dozen or more builds on gaming/video editing builds and it seems Intel has won it across the board on all those builds, but I can't find a thread for a video editing only on a budget. All the video editing only machine builds I found were users that did video editing as an income and could justify above $1000 - $1500 for the build. I can't afford anything close to that, and I can't really say this will directly increase my income. It's just going to be a hobby and something to make life easier. And as a plus it will provide the people that pay me for firearms instructions a quality product. So for a build for JUST VIDEO EDITING, would an AMD actually win this battle? I know an Intel would be best, but is it necessary?

MOTHERBOARD
I don't PLAN on overclocking unless someone can make a very compelling argument on why I should overclock, and its something I can do for my first build confidently. I have a $40 Creative Sound card that I had to put on this computer in order to screen cast with internal sound and I want to have the ability to put in a TV Tuner later on. Do I need a motherboard with more inputs than what I have mentioned (obvious including the gpu i have already bought). I have read that storage is very important for video editing, so if you guys think its best, I would like to have the ability to RAID my HDD's and use a very cheap SSD for OS. Do I need a motherboard that will support 32 GB of RAM? Is it necessary to get another 8 GB, having a total of 16 GB RAM? What is the cheapest motherboard that will support what I need. I have trouble with the motherboards, I can't seem to grasp the chipsets and understand which chipset should be used for what.

Here the builds I have been playing with:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C8jD i7-3770

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C8kW i5-3570K

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C8iS i7-2700K

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C8me FX-8350

I read a post from a user on here that said he would not recommend buying a non 'k' intel; that's why I have a 'k' on two of the builds... again, these builds I was just playing with to look at prices. I need help because I honestly am not sure which would be best for what I want while spending the least amount of money. Any build is going to require tight budgeting, and anything over $650 will not be worth it to me, regardless. $550-$600 will make me a little uneasy but if it'll take the system to the next tier then I can pinch it off. Below $500 would be preferred, but I also don't want to waste hours on editing video (crashes, buggy, choppy, etc.). I have seen a lot of people on video editing builds ask about rendering time, and the answers are always generic, (ex: not a long time). I have no idea as to what kind of time we are talking about. I'll be doing short length video edits. I think my average finished video time will be 5 minutes, with 20 minute videos being on the extreme long side and very rarely done. The raw unedited videos may very well be 30 minutes or longer a piece. Most of the finished videos will be used with slide point presentations or posted on the gun club's class descriptions. So I'm not sure what kind of render time to expect, at all. I don't want to post expectations in fear of sounding ignorant.
 

cutebeans

Distinguished
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $354.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-08 01:29 EST-0500)

Hi this would suit you best.
You don't need too much horse power from what I see. :)

It's cheaper but still a great CPU.
 

nemccraw

Honorable
Feb 7, 2013
4
0
10,510
With the new build, I plan on using the current (updated) corel; pro X5 or another updated editer if its suggested, I just thought the corel series would be more noob friendly while still offering the ability to greatly improve; I apologize if that was a little unclear... I'll update my original post
 
This will whip any i5 in multi-threaded video editing and rendering...

AMD FX-8320 Vishera: $180

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3: $100

Tough call on your software. I would recommend Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 12 for less than $100 if you have no experience with Corel. The learning curve is a bit higher with Vegas, but support across the internets is much greater. You will likely find step-by-step videos for any task in Vegas with which you may struggle.

The important thing to remember is GPU-compute via OpenCl/GL is quickly becoming the standard in video editing and rendering. Your central processor tweaks may improve performance in low percentages, but GPU-compute brings increases in multiples of 2x and 3x, and beyond.

Corel has dipped their toe into GPU-compute but my understanding is this is primarily on the photo editing side. Vegas12 provides GPU acceleration for editing, effects, pan/crop and rendering.

Additionally, as you grow more comfortable with your software, your 550ti may start to hold you back a bit. nVidia back-slid in OpenCL/GL GPU-compute in the last generation and needs to rebound in the next generation to compete with the AMD Radeon/FirePro cards.

That will give yah something to think about if the Great State of Mecklenburg gives you that big 3% raise July 1 ...

:D









 

nemccraw

Honorable
Feb 7, 2013
4
0
10,510
Thank you guys for your opinions and suggestions.

I got the 550ti for $60; I had read in a few threads on this forum and on anandtech that CUDA was the way to go with video editing (??) so I was looking for a mid range card that supported CUDA. I had also read that gpu's are not as important as the other build components in video editing (unlike gaming), so I thought a decent middle of the road gpu that supported CUDA would do; I thought I had atleast figured that out and thats why I jumped on the 550 ti when I stumped on it at such a low price. It's too late now, so if the 550 ti does hold me back I'll upgrade once I hit that wall (hopefully I won't run into that trouble right away).

I've seen mixed opinions about the RAM. I'm still not sure if 16GB of RAM is needed or if the 8GB that I have will suffice. Can someone please address the question on the ram.

I also see that the storage has not came up in conversation. Does this mean a cheap SSD would not be beneficial enough to work into my budget? I had not considered the Xeon, and if its as good as you claim, I will put it at the top of the list at this time. I didn't like the motherboard suggested with the Xeon because it had only 1 Sata 6 and I've read that a raid is highly suggested for video editing and although I don't plan to do it immediately (Unless its adviced to work it into the current budget), I want to have the ability to do it in the near future should I hit a significant wall with the HDD.

I have looked at Sony Vegas and it seems to have a good reputation for video editing. I feel fairly confident I could learn either software, after all it is something that I will enjoy doing and learning. Which software has the most potential? Because the price between the two software is comparable, I will go with the software that has the most potential. Although I probably won't use half the software potential for my 'professional' reasons, I will try to maximize the software potential for the hobby of it.

Why do you guys advise I stay with windows 7? I am currently on vista on my laptop, XP on the old gateway, and linux at school. I have no experience with windows 7, which is why I ask. I would think windows 8 would become the primary OS in a few years and as I probably will not be upgrading beyond what I mentioned above for several years, I would like to get as up to date technology as my budget will allow to increase the general use life on it.

From the opinion's given, this is the revised build so far:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($233.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($61.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC) Total: $515.60 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-08 10:38 EST-0500)

Is there any over kill? Is there any comparable products that I could save in price and not see any loss in performance?
 

nemccraw

Honorable
Feb 7, 2013
4
0
10,510
I didn't mean to ignore the AMD FX 8320; I like the price on that and I don't have a preference on AMD or Intel. Will I notice a difference between the Xeon and the 8320?
 
The xeon is fine, it's better than the FX, and it has a lower power consumption.
I'd get a 120/128GB ssd though, a 64GB ssd is not worth, the speeds lower, you'll fill the space in no time, even if you don't want to, reducing drastically the speeds.