Building a new system

[GonzoCircus]

I need something to do light film editing and some gaming. Probably wont be ocing and dont want to be constantly upgrading. I've been out of it for while with no idea what's going on these days, but I'm beginning to get a sense of what I want.

Because I'm doing video editing, I'll need dual core, right? From my understanding, I would see a big performance jump by going with a dual core, than say a anthlon 3700. I've liked AMD as the underdog, but is that still the case? I'm on a budget and want to go for a lower level dual core like the 4200 Windsor or E6300.

For video, I'm looking at the 7600gt and was thinking about this. dont know about the ram or mobo.

I'd like to spend around 500-550 for ram, proc, gfx and mobo. maybe need a new hd, too, if the new ones are really faster

any advice would be appreciated.


My system is a sad, sad state of affairs:
barton 2500
512 3200 ram
radeon 9000 pro
120GB WD

 

[themisfit610]

New hard drives aren't really that much faster than what you already have. But if you're planning on doing any kind of video editing, get a lot of hard drive space. 320s are best $/GB right now.

Get 2 gigs of ram. Video editing eats RAM like cookies. Dual core helps a lot, but isn't really necessary. I would certainly recommend it though. The E6300 is hard to beat, especially if you get a decent board + ram and o/c it to 3 GHz

Other than that, do whatever you want.

 

[stevty2889]

Dual cores deffinatly make a big differance in video encoding. I'd go for the E6300 or E6400, not that there is anything wrong with the X2, but the core 2 duo is faster.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Get 2 gigs of ram. Video editing eats RAM like cookies. Dual core helps a lot, but isn't really necessary. I would certainly recommend it though. The E6300 is hard to beat, especially if you get a decent board + ram and o/c it to 3 GHz

Video editing was designed to work in a sparse environment (files are much larger than available memory has ever been) and the difference in Standard Definition between 1 and 2GB is not that big. 2GB of RAM is an OK upgrade for HD, but getting more drive space is a better priority for funds. Dual core is not necessary, but when rendering with the latest editors, it decreases render time very significantly. Overclocking is usually not recommended when rendering as it may throw the AV sync off.

GonzoCircus - If you are planning on using Pinnacle Studio or Avid Liquid, get an ATI card instead. Otherwise, the nVidia card is a good fit.

The speed of the drive is not as big as the need for space. If you capture 1 tape, that is 13GB locally. If you create some effects, add another 2GB onto a project. When you go to master it to DVD, it make take 4.5GB of temp space for the video files, 4.5GB of temp space for the disc files, even 4.5GB for an ISO to then create the disc. So, a 1 tape project will easily use 30GB to create a disc under certain conditions. If you work on more than one at a time before you finish them.... 120GB is not enough. Get a 250 secondary drive. They are under $80 these days and you would not regret the space.

And tests show that Stevty2889's comment is correct. The new Core Duos are faster than X2s. It surprised me too as AMD had taken the lead for about a year+.

 

[GonzoCircus]

looks like it will be a core duo. I really wanted to show brand loyalty here, but a man can only do so much. The rest lies in the benchmarks.

now the question is what motherboard to buy.

 

[gsellis]

Sorry I cannot help you there. I have not been doing hardware in almost 2 years. Maybe this bump and a title modification on your part will complete it?

 

[Slowlearner]

Bump for motherboard recommendations

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: GonzoCircus
looks like it will be a core duo. I really wanted to show brand loyalty here, but a man can only do so much. The rest lies in the benchmarks.

now the question is what motherboard to buy.

Intel holds the top performance spot right now but AMD is still competitive in the mid range high-mid range.

I won't make CPU recommendations since that comes down to how much you want to spend for either given platform but if you do go AMD you'll want it to be a Athlon X2 (dual core) and socket AM2.

AMD board: Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G

Intel board: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3

PSU: Seasonic S12 330 watt

Case: Lian Li PC-7B

RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR2 667

I have experience with the passive Gigabyte 7600GT you selected; it's a great card.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: GonzoCircus
looks like it will be a core duo. I really wanted to show brand loyalty here, but a man can only do so much. The rest lies in the benchmarks.

now the question is what motherboard to buy.

gsellis does a good job. as he states a 1tape project can easily blow up even when using sd video, hd is much worse.

go the conroe (core 2 duo) route but get a m/b that supports kentsfield - quad core cpus so you have quite a bit of upgrade room when you need it.

also, if you can swing the 2GB now do it, but if it means losing hdd space then 1GB is ok. i know when using adobe premiere i have always stayed under 1GB of ram usage, but since you will be gaming that may require more ram.

for this type of work i wouldn't o/c unless it was mild as you don't want to render for hours just to have it come out f*cked up...

depending on the sensitivity of your video and if you will just rip them from the tape and then let the tape archive the raw footage or you will be re-using old tapes you may want to consider some type of raid setup, either 1 or 5 for a bit of data security.

hdd speed is not a real problem for the current and even 1 or 2 gen old hdds (or basically 7200 / 60+GB), they are more than fast enough.

 

[pkme2]

Buy what you need now and be happy.

You can always buy the rest later.