If I built a computer (cost question)

[Younggun]

Say I wanted to build a computer with the following:

I5/i7 processor or equivalent

4GB min ram, 8+ in awesome world.

2TB hard drive

Good quality graphics card

CD/DVD burner optional

Windows 7



Use: editing HD video

How much would I expect to spend, worth building instead of buying?

 

[Sugar Land]

Have you built many in the past?

 

[dalto]

Probably more than if you bought one prebuilt.

These days it makes sense to build if you need something highly specific, such as a gaming machine, or you can reuse a significant amount of your existing parts. If neither of those things are true, you can typically find them cheaper buy buying prebuilt. Especially if you wait for a sale.

One a side note, for HD video editing, you definitely want a bigger HD. Graphics card should not make much difference as long as it isn't total crap.

 

[TheDan]

Goto newegg.com, put all that shit in the shopping cart, and see for yourself. Go ahead and spring for the 8GB of ram. It won't cost that much more and will be totally worth it.

 

[Younggun]

Plug and play, right?


lol, mostly none. Only added some ram and swapped a disk drive here and there.

 

[DubiousDan]

Say I wanted to build a computer with the following:

I5/i7 processor or equivalent

4GB min ram, 8+ in awesome world.

2TB hard drive

Good quality graphics card

CD/DVD burner optional

Windows 7



Use: editing HD video

How much would I expect to spend, worth building instead of buying?

Check http://www.newegg.com/ for prices. Now days building your own can be more expensive but you get what you want and don't have to settle for what's available.

Don't skimp on the RAM and go with a 64 bit OS that can utilize more than 4 GB RAM.

 

[Sugar Land]

Buy one. solid state hard drive is a nice touch. HD video eats up mem.

 

[cncfan]

Depends on your video card and processor you decide on. I would say about $1000-$1500.00.

Built my last one about a year ago. Has an 8 core AMD processor running at 4GHz, 8 gig mem, 250 gig SSD and mid level video card I spent $300 on, case, dvd and power supply.

Got all the parts from New Egg. Think total cost including tax and shipping was around $900

 

[mroper]

Do you have a case, power supply , motherboard to put the other parts in if you dont you will have to get them as well. Newegg and Tiger direct sometimes have packages to get get for DIY. If you are editing HD video you will want a high quality Grpahics card with a decent amount of memory.

 

[Younggun]

Well, the $1500 estimate is really making me tap the brakes. Course, I'm used to having a <$400 Wally World special.


This would probably be a project from scratch, but then again, I think I've got some old computers laying around the house that are basically junk.

 

[cncfan]

Well, the $1500 estimate is really making me tap the brakes. Course, I'm used to having a <$400 Wally World special.


This would probably be a project from scratch, but then again, I think I've got some old computers laying around the house that are basically junk.

Depending on age of your old computers, you might be able to only use the hard drive, case and drives. When upgrading you run into a new pin layout of the processor that does not fit your old MB. Same for memory/video card depending on age of pc being used. Also most pc you see in wally world and other places have a power supply you will have to swap out if you put in some of the new mid to high level video cards.

 

[TheDan]

It wouldn't cost $1500... Get something like this and stuff it full of the largest drives your budget allows: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856272001
I'd kind of want to upgrade the power supply on that, but it should be fine to run a couple of 2TB hard drives on.

With the video editing the thing you need most is memory and storage space. CPU speed is important as well, but not as important as the others. The video card doesn't matter much just as long as it's not a total turd. Video card is for 3d graphics, not video...

 

[Mreed911]

Use: editing HD video

How much would I expect to spend, worth building instead of buying?

A) You need at least 16GB of RAM, the more the better, and RAM is relatively cheap. 64GB would be great - anything you can render in memory helps a LOT, speed-wise.

B) You need a fast storage system - probably either at a minimum a 7200RPM hard drive, a small stripe array, or an SSD. Read/write speeds will matter a LOT.

C) Video card might matter if your package can take advantage of the extra processing cycles of the idle GPU's - that's going to depend on your particular video editing package.

D) The cache on your processor will likely matter more than the speed. Look for an 8MB cache. The more cache, the more the optimization of the stack.

Definitely worth building since it's special purpose. Run some comparisons from Boxx and see what they come up with.

http://www.boxxtech.com/

 

[cncfan]

Looking at the system on the url above if I were doing hd video editing it would not be in my basket. Small HHD, power supply is marginal, memory is low end of the DDR3 standard and on board video. All something you will not want if you are doing heavy editing with large HD files.

BUT

I can see this turning into a pissing contest so I will recommend you do your research and pick the right equipment at a price in your budget.

This sight has good reviews/info on just about anything PC related, might want to give it a look. http://www.anandtech.com/

 

[Younggun]

Ok, I'll try to give more info.

By HiDef I'm talking 1080p, not 4K. Total length will usually be in the 10-15 minute range or less. No insane graphics added or anything. Just the basic Sony Vegas program.

My current work computer (HP ProBook or something like that) with i5 processor seems to handle it ok, but saving is pretty slow and I have run short on ram and had it lock up, usually because I have other work stuff running at the same time (email, EExplorer with multiple pages, VPN, and usually chrome browser for personal crap), aside from all the background process for wireless printing and such.

I mostly was just looking. At speeding up the processing time of videos and having a place to store them. Not produce full length films or anything like that.

I know I could get an external TB hard drive relatively cheap if needed, not sure if it would slow hangs down though.

I'm not in a big rush on this, just looking at future plans and how viable they are.

 

[Brains]

The bulk of video editing is all about I/O. You're moving around a lot of data more than anything else. High end CPU and GPU really won't improve performance a whole lot unless you're doing some very complex effects work. You need to move data as quickly as possible, and that means large caches (more RAM), faster memory controller (newer and high quality motherboards), and high sustained data transfer to/from disk. SSD's are coming down in price quite a bit, so using one is pretty much a given, especially in conjunction with a motherboard sporting an NVMe socket. Then for bulk storage, a bit 7200 RPM SATA rotational drive will be fine, but keep your active project files on the SSD.

 

[A.Texas.Yankee]

You can buy a pre-built cheaper, or look at bare bones kits. A lot come with case, fan, PSU, and power cord. Then just add memory, motherboard, processor. Some come with processor and mother board. I built a compact PC (whole thing is about 4x4x2", not including monitor and peripherals of course) for about $550. 16 gig ram, 128gb SSD and 500gb HDD. For the length of time you are editing for HD, 16gb RAM is sufficient (the more the better). I wouldn't go too crazy because most pre-built computers nowadays can handle what you're area doing, some just faster than others.

 

[TexasBrandon]

Having built many computers in the past for friends and others that wanted something nice, a grand is a good spot to be at or wanting a good computer with speed and the ability to play games. Anything more than that you are treading into the gamer territory. It isn't hard to build a computer but does take a little planning to make sure you are lined up with your goals as well as the hardware being compatible (like don't buy a AMD processor and buy a intel motherboard).

 

[TheDan]

The bulk of video editing is all about I/O. You're moving around a lot of data more than anything else. High end CPU and GPU really won't improve performance a whole lot unless you're doing some very complex effects work. You need to move data as quickly as possible, and that means large caches (more RAM), faster memory controller (newer and high quality motherboards), and high sustained data transfer to/from disk. SSD's are coming down in price quite a bit, so using one is pretty much a given, especially in conjunction with a motherboard sporting an NVMe socket. Then for bulk storage, a bit 7200 RPM SATA rotational drive will be fine, but keep your active project files on the SSD.

I endorse this message...

 

[Rebel]

I think I've got some old computers laying around the house that are basically junk.

Well, Hicksville is coming up...