On Sep 13, 10:09 am, dash <har-...@bezeqint.net> wrote:
There is no simple answer. Let's work on requires and principles
first.
1) Make a list of features you NEED, then add what you want
2) Your budget is more than enough for a good editing machine.
Probably can do it on $1K now, certainly 1,200
3) Here's my recommended list
a) Any Core2 Duo 5800 or higher will be great Right now Intel is
slightly more bang for buck, but that changes weekly. AMD is very
good also.
b) min 2 gig ram, more is not necessary. Up to 2 gig the
performance greatly improves. From 2 gig to 4 gig, minor improvement
c) Lots of hard drive space. Min 500 gig. Although, you can get
250, then add a separate 500 gig later. Video is 13 gig/hour, plus
that much or double when editing and mid-renders are added. I have 6
drives with 2.4 T-bytes, plus an external 350 gig that I can change
between desktop and laptop for travel. Add a power inverter and edit
anywhere on a laptop. I digress.
d) Don't forget to add a Firewire card. Necessary for video
capture and most systems don't have this out of the box.
e) One, or even two DVD burners. Make sure they are double layer.
I really don't require Lightscribe. Make sure they are BURNERS, not
just readers.
f) Add a printer that prints on DVD's. Like the Epson. I have
Canon I hacked. Google and learn. I went through two Epsons; they're
probably better now. But then, I burn about 300 or more every 6
months and print on each one. Printing directly on the DVD is much
better than paper labels. Then buy Ritek/Ridata or Taiyo Yuden inkjet
printable media, 8X is fine. No Memorex or other brands. They buy
from the cheapest source and every month change suppliers & quality.
I had problems with isolated settop DVD players here and there not
being able to play. Switched to Taiyo Yuden and no problems since.
Buy them in bulk at Americal, All Media Group or other such sellers.
Look for their specials, esp those that include shipping, but stay
with one of the two mentioned brands. Also, consider how you are
going to give out your DVD's. I like to print on the DVD, then put
into a DVD case with printed wrapped for a presentation that looks
like a professional Hollywood movie. And I'm just an amateur giving
these to friends and family. Please don't just make a few copies,
write with a market, and hand out a naked DVD. Like a nice dinner,
presentation is that most important first impression. Only after that
is the quality judged.
g) How much of this are you going to do? If a lot, consider a
copier or duplicator as well. Otherwise you'll need to burn each DVD
separately. A stand-alone copier is great, I have a 7 burner plus one
reader unit. Even a 3 or 4 burner unit is very good. Still can add a
small unit within your budget if you are careful. It's nice because
it doesn't tie up your computer for copies.
h) Generally, the bigger the monitor the better, however, consider
2 or 3 instead of just one. Again, depends on how deep you are going
to jump into this.
i) Get a reasonable video output card. Consider one that will
serve 2 monitors, and a TV. There's overscan on a TV, so you might
want to see how it looks before final burning. (Although, I still
just burn an intermediate DVD and watch that) Just a suggestion, and
only if you are going to do a lot of editing.
j) For video the cpu, memory, and hard drive space are primary.
For gaming, all that plus the video card. Don't need a powerful
gaming computer. Many think that since you are doing video you need a
super video card, not so. A $100 card will work fine. Don't need a
$500 card as for heavy duty gaming. Our video is 2D, games are 3D.
Huge difference in computer resources needed for very fast output.
k) I highly recommend XP instead of Vista. Vista adds eye candy,
but many programs won't work on it. All editing programs I know of,
plus many other programs, that work on Vista will also work on XP but
not the other way around. Many manuf are making XP an option again.
If not, ask them to create a dual boot with both Vista and XP.
l) Are you doing SD or HD work? If HD need more power and
everything. If SD, most any new computer over $400, add memory and
more hard drive, will work fine.
Where to buy? Ask 100 people and get 150 answers. I recommend
www.outpost.com (which is Fry's); a small company is www.infotechnow.com
(they sell to a lot of independent computer stores, primarily sell
components, but will custom make and do the dual partition/boot and
whatever else you want). I've also found Dell to be competitive and
their service is excellent. There's a lot of good stores out there.
Just take your list and make sure what you get will do what you want.
There's always a bigger, better, more powerful, faster system to buy.
Offhand, I'd say you can get a decent system for $600-$800, a very,
very good one for $1,200. then add printer (under $100), and maybe a
duplicator ($350 to $500?).
A CRT was recommended for you, I switched to LCD widescreen, but I'm
doing HD so want a 16:9 ratio. I'm sure your final project will play
on mostly 4:3 regular SD TV, even if you shoot 16:9. Whether to shoot
16:9 or 4:3, SD or HD, is one of the first, fundamental questions you
need to answer. If HD, get a more powerful CPU. Both will take 13
gig/hour unless you capure native 1920x1080 HD, then whatever you buy
you won't have enough hard drive space or computer power and will need
to triple + your budget.
good luck
Jim McGauhey
Washington State
In article <1189703348.564736.189860@22g2000hsm.googlegroups. com>, har-
gil@bezeqint.net says...
The four areas that you must consider are:
1.) Processor - faster is better for PS and NLE work, especially with Effects
2.) RAM - more is always better. It's fairly cheap, so get all that you can
use, probably 2-4 GB, without extra work
3.) HDDs - more physical (not partitions) is better. NLE work really benefits
from quite a few, 1 for OS and programs (can be smaller, but benefits from
being fast), 1 for media files (could go RAID here, but your budget precludes
that, so get as large as you can get, 1 for Scratch Disk for your NLE and
Photoshop (again, as large as you can get), 1 for audio files, finished AV
files, etc. (this is not really needed, but nice
4.) Vid-card - PS will work just fine with a mainstream, but less powerful
card. Many NLEs will and can use the extra power.
Now, you have to weight each, and get the biggest/fastest/most of, of all that
you can afford. It'll take a lot of research and soul searching, plus maybe
some budget stretching.
If you are also going to have to buy a monitor, your budget will not get you
that far. I'd still go with 21" CRT.
As stated: do not forget Firewire, and two (I'd use different brands) of DVD
burners.
Hunt
