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Thread: PC Build for video editing?

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    PC Build for video editing?

    I purchased a MiniDV camcorder and I'm looking to do some video editting on a PC. My PC is in a transitional stage at the moment as I have sold my MB, CPU and RAM on ebay.

    I still have left over of my PC:

    Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA II
    Maxtor 80Gb 7200rpm
    Antec SuperLanboy Case
    Antec 550w PSU

    I'm planning on getting a dual core processor with 2Gb DDR2 RAM. Would it be worth getting a raptor 74gb hard disk and how should i use it to maximise performance for video editting?

    Should I partition the 74Gb Raptor in half, one half for windows and one half for working on my video files (to avoid fragmentation). I suppose I could use my 250Gb for storing my video files once I've finished editing on them.

    Can any video editing experts out there give me some advice?

  2. #2
    YUKIKAZE arthurleung's Avatar
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    What are you going to do with the video stream?

    Do you want to uncompress the whole stream, edit it bits by bits then reencode it?
    Or do you want to do simple transcoding from DV to AVI / DVD / MKV / WMV9 or whatever?

    If you're doing all out for editing, I would recommend you to get may be 4x320G in RAID0, that will give you enough speed to scan through uncompressed / huffman clips. Video-encoding is very sequencial in nature and a raptor is not any faster than a typical 7200rpm sata300 drive.

    Since you're reading content from disk, you don't really need that much ram.

    A typical AVISynth + Virtualdub + Xvid setup will use no more than 200MB of memory during encoding, even if you run 2 copies it'll use 400MB at most (Typically 260MB for me)

    If I'm you I'll do the following:
    Use the 80GB as OS drive
    Use the 250GB for output
    Buy 2x320 or 4x320 for scratch drive for fully uncompressed stream.

    Depends on which 550W Antec you got, it should hold Conroe or X2 fine but not Pentium D

    DV Source should be around 60MB/s for uncompressed stream so half of that raptor drive will only store 10 minutes, or 40 minutes (i think) with the huffman compression.


    If you're just doing simple transcoding, or simple cut/paste/clipping, don't need to bother with a new harddrive at all.
    Last edited by arthurleung; 07-07-2006 at 12:28 PM.
    Workstation 1: Intel i7 950 @ 3.8Ghz / X58 / 12GB DDR3-1600 / HD4870 512MB / Antec P180
    Workstation 2: Intel C2Q Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz / X38 / 4GB DDR2-800 / 8400GS 512MB / Open Air
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    Quote Originally Posted by arthurleung
    What are you going to do with the video stream?

    Do you want to uncompress the whole stream, edit it bits by bits then reencode it?
    Or do you want to do simple transcoding from DV to AVI / DVD / MKV / WMV9 or whatever?
    I think it will just be some cutting and then putting it into mpeg2 format for burning onto DVD.

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    Quote Originally Posted by arthurleung
    Depends on which 550W Antec you got, it should hold Conroe or X2 fine but not Pentium D
    Its an Antec True550 EPS 550w with a 24pin power connector. Thx for the advice so far

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    YUKIKAZE arthurleung's Avatar
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    • arthurleung's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P5E (Rampage Formula 0902)
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core2Quad Q9550 3.6Ghz 1.2V
      • Memory:
      • A-Data DDR2-800 2x2GB CL4
      • Storage:
      • 4x1TB WD1000FYPS @ RAID5 3Ware 9500S-8 / 3x 1TB Samsung Ecogreen F2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GeCube HD4870 512MB
      • PSU:
      • Corsair VX450
      • Case:
      • Antec P180
      • Operating System:
      • Windows Server 2008 Standard
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell Ultrasharp 2709W + 2001FP
      • Internet:
      • Be*Unlimited 20Mbps
    Quote Originally Posted by uk_sam
    I think it will just be some cutting and then putting it into mpeg2 format for burning onto DVD.
    Thats just simple CPU intensive. Even 512MB or ram would be enough for that purpose
    Workstation 1: Intel i7 950 @ 3.8Ghz / X58 / 12GB DDR3-1600 / HD4870 512MB / Antec P180
    Workstation 2: Intel C2Q Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz / X38 / 4GB DDR2-800 / 8400GS 512MB / Open Air
    Workstation 3: Intel Xeon X3350 @ 3.2Ghz / P35 / 4GB DDR2-800 / HD4770 512MB / Shuttle SP35P2
    HTPC: AMD Athlon X4 620 @ 2.6Ghz / 780G / 4GB DDR2-1000 / Antec Mini P180 White
    Mobile Workstation: Intel C2D T8300 @ 2.4Ghz / GM965 / 3GB DDR2-667 / DELL Inspiron 1525 / 6+6+9 Cell Battery

    Display (Monitor): DELL Ultrasharp 2709W + DELL Ultrasharp 2001FP
    Display (Projector): Epson TW-3500 1080p
    Speakers: Creative Megaworks THX550 5.1
    Headphones: Etymotic hf2 / Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro

    Storage: 8x2TB Hitachi @ DELL PERC 6/i RAID6 / 13TB Non-RAID Across 12 HDDs
    Consoles: PS3 Slim 120GB / Xbox 360 Arcade 20GB / PS2

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    Thx arthurleung, I was going to splash out £99 on a raptor drive - now i can save it up for a better graphics card instead I reckon I'll see more of a benefit going to dual-core for video editing.

  7. #7
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    • Funkstar's system
      • Motherboard:
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      • CPU:
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      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
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      • Graphics card(s):
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      • PSU:
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    As Tim The Toolman Tailor says "More power!!"

    thats what yo uneed for that kind of thing

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