build film editing system

[cronish]

I have swapped components in and out of systems, but never
built/burned one from scratch. I would like to build a non-linear film
editing system, and found this thread archived from Aug. '03:

Check out tastycomputers
(http://tastycomputers.com/bistro_menu/bistromenu_main.htm). I bought
a
computer from them about 2 months ago with aluminum case, gigabyte
8knxp
motherbord (800mhz front side bus), antec 550watt power, 3ghz pentium
4, a
gig of Mushkin pc3200 ram, ati 9800pro, audigy 2, WinXP pro and 2
Seagate
SATA hard drives. Sounds like what your looking for. The puter kicks
a**
and I'm playing around a lot with audio and video editing and burning
dvds.
Not one problem with it yet, and I got it for about $2600 including
shipping. I looked at Alienware, Dell and Falcon northwest, and they
couldn't build what I wanted for that price. Real personalized
service too.
If you price out the same parts to build the same one on your own, you
might
come in at about $100 less than that, but we're talking about tech
support,
warranties, building, burning in and shipping for that $100 and I got
it 7
days after I ordered it. The thing I like about them is they dont use
any
oem discount parts. Just retail good stuff, like I'd buy to build my
own.

The link to TastyComputers.com is indeed a great source, however I
found that pricing their listed components today yeilds a 2/3 cost of
their retail price per machine, and am wondering:
a) If I buy those components and assemble them myself, will they
indeed be compatible & play nicely together, and;
b) Am I missing something in the "burn" stage, some Yoda-like wisdom
that is required to get all this working together as opposed to just
stitching together the components, attaching the cables, and
installing OS?
I would like to save the $500 to $800 depending on which system I try
to build, but not if my Frankenstein's monster isn't going to be
"puttin on the Ritz."
Thanks for any advice-
cronish

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[Dave Navarro]

I have swapped components in and out of systems, but never
built/burned one from scratch. I would like to build a non-linear film
editing system, and found this thread archived from Aug. '03:

A couple of tips...

I have an Athlon 3200+ system at work and a 3 GHz Pentium IV system at
home. On both of them, I spend a LOT of time editing video, mostly for
online use, but I do some work on commercials for TV and personal videos
now and again.

For "every day" stuff like DVD/CD burning, graphics editing, word
processing, my Athlon system kicks butt over the P4 system. However,
Premiere and After Effects both run considerably faster on the P4
system.

As much as I love and prefer Athlon's, for hardcore video editing, I
suggest a P4.

My second tip is hard drives... Get yourself a motherboard or card that
supports RAID striping. The faster your hard drive subsystem, the more
"realtime" you can do the editing.

--Dave

 

[Stacey]

A couple of tips...

I have an Athlon 3200+ system at work and a 3 GHz Pentium IV system at
home. On both of them, I spend a LOT of time editing video, mostly for
online use, but I do some work on commercials for TV and personal videos
now and again.

For "every day" stuff like DVD/CD burning, graphics editing, word
processing, my Athlon system kicks butt over the P4 system. However,
Premiere and After Effects both run considerably faster on the P4
system.

As much as I love and prefer Athlon's, for hardcore video editing, I
suggest a P4.

That's been my experience as well. For general stuff I like AMD's but for
running the hard core video apps, a P4 is much faster.

 

[Peter Lykkegaard]

For "every day" stuff like DVD/CD burning, graphics editing, word
processing, my Athlon system kicks butt over the P4 system. However,
Premiere and After Effects both run considerably faster on the P4
system.

Interesting
I have heard and read that graphical application (games) runs faster on AMD
systems
I have a P4 system myself

Could the software companies be optimizing for specific systems (CPU's)?
A rather fast P4 system is rather expensive

My second tip is hard drives... Get yourself a motherboard or card
that supports RAID striping. The faster your hard drive subsystem,
the more "realtime" you can do the editing.

Some boards offers extended SATA raid system on the PCI bus
Like the ABIT IC7 MAX
But I have heard that you can't get the full potentiel of the raid system
due to limits on the PCI bus

- Peter

 

[Dave Navarro]

Could the software companies be optimizing for specific systems (CPU's)?
A rather fast P4 system is rather expensive

Precisely... Adobe has optimized Premiere and After Effects for the P4.
As have TMPGenc and other video related products.

To someone who doesn't spend 20 to 30 hours or more a week editing
video, the speed difference doesn't really matter and I wouldn't spend
the extra money on a P4.

But in a 6 to 8 hour editing session you can get an extra hour or so of
work done vs. the Athlon. And for NLE, the real-time effects are much
smoother.

--Dave

 

[cronish]

A couple of tips...

As much as I love and prefer Athlon's, for hardcore video editing, I
suggest a P4.

My second tip is hard drives... Get yourself a motherboard or card that
supports RAID striping. The faster your hard drive subsystem, the more
"realtime" you can do the editing.

--Dave

Thank you, Dave, I've noticed in reading these archives that you've
been a frequent and helpful poster here; may I ask, then, your opinion
on the main parts of my OP:

a) If I buy those components and assemble them myself, will they
indeed be compatible & play nicely together, and;

b) Am I missing something in the "burn" stage, some Yoda-like wisdom
that is required to get all this working together as opposed to just
stitching together the components, attaching the cables, and
installing OS?

As I mentioned, I can buy and assemble the $2500 system for $1600, but
will it dance?

Any thoughts welcome.
Thanks-
cronish

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[Dave Navarro]

Thank you, Dave, I've noticed in reading these archives that you've
been a frequent and helpful poster here; may I ask, then, your opinion
on the main parts of my OP:

a) If I buy those components and assemble them myself, will they
indeed be compatible & play nicely together, and;

b) Am I missing something in the "burn" stage, some Yoda-like wisdom
that is required to get all this working together as opposed to just
stitching together the components, attaching the cables, and
installing OS?

As I mentioned, I can buy and assemble the $2500 system for $1600, but
will it dance?

I don't have "personal" knowledge of some of those parts, so I can't say
with any certainty.

I don't see any reason why they won't work together, however.

--Dave

 

[Stacey]

Interesting
I have heard and read that graphical application (games) runs faster on
AMD systems
I have a P4 system myself

Could the software companies be optimizing for specific systems (CPU's)?

Exactly.

 

[--= Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñ0ßí =--]

For "every day" stuff like DVD/CD burning, graphics editing, word
processing, my Athlon system kicks butt over the P4 system. However,
Premiere and After Effects both run considerably faster on the P4
system.

As much as I love and prefer Athlon's, for hardcore video editing, I
suggest a P4.

It's the P4's cache and memory bandwidth making a difference, video editing
needs as much as you can get.

 

[JAD]

Keep in mind that when the Plll XXX's / 512 cache came out they were state o the art home video systems, and everyone was quite
happy, all things relevant to the time of course.

 

[--= Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñ0ßí =--]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, (e-mail address removed)

a) If I buy those components and assemble them myself, will they
indeed be compatible & play nicely together, and;

The only thing you need to worry about is know how to diagnose any problems
that might come up. With a ready-built system they will have made sure it's
working. At least, that is what they're supposed to do. If you assemble it,
turn it on and get a blank screen, will you know how to fix it? Would you
know how to tell which component is bad?

b) Am I missing something in the "burn" stage, some Yoda-like wisdom
that is required to get all this working together as opposed to just
stitching together the components, attaching the cables, and
installing OS?

It doesn't require Yoda-like wisdom, although being a Jedi Master always
helps.

If you're really going to do it yourself, the best thing to do is go step by
step, from the beginning.

Install the motherboard into the case. Attach about 10 cables and wires from
the powersupply, and case.

Attach the fan to the CPU, attach CPU to motherboad. Add the memory. Add the
graphics card.

Run the motherboard with just CPU, memory and a graphics card, see if it
starts up and you get a display, and that the BIOS recognizes everything
properly.

This is the highwater mark, after this point it usually gets easier.

Add the drives next, see if they're working and are recognized properly.

If everything is still ok, set up RAID and your preferred BIOS settings,
install your OS, drivers, etc. When you have all that running, then install
any extra peripherals and lastly start installing applications.

As I mentioned, I can buy and assemble the $2500 system for $1600, but
will it dance?

Use the Force.

 

[somebody]

If you're really going to do it yourself, the best thing to do is go step by
step, from the beginning.

Install the motherboard into the case. Attach about 10 cables and wires from
the powersupply, and case.

Attach the fan to the CPU, attach CPU to motherboad. Add the memory. Add the
graphics card.

- Ah, you haven't built anything since the age of Slots then?

Beware of static electricity.
Lay down mobo on a flat, firm but not hard, working surface.
Insert CPU in Mobo. Mount CPU cooler. Add RAM.
Then mount mobo in case.

I prefer to install CD, hd, video before the PSU as well. More light
and space for working in the case, and it's easier to run the cables
in a manner, that will make it easy to remove the PSU. But that's just
a matter of taste.

Run the motherboard with just CPU, memory and a graphics card, see if it
starts up and you get a display, and that the BIOS recognizes everything
properly.

Ok, probably good advice. I'm lazy and impatient, so I chuck in hd and
CD from start as well. You can always do that anyway, but leave them
disconnected.