Computer for video editing

[WyteRyce]

My friend wants me to put together a computer for him with which he can do video editing on when he goes off to college. He said his parents don't care about the price, but I think they probably would only want to spend in the 2000-2500 range. I want this to work for him with as little hassles as possible (right now he has some Gateway computer with a firewire card, but he can't import video in Adobe Premiere).

What parts would you recommend him getting? No RAID/SCSI setups please. I think he plans on me going with him to Frys to pick out the parts.

 

[bignick]

if your friend is going to use DV, then just build a nice system with some firewire ports. also, lot's of ram, at least 512, and storage space, say 2 separate drives (20gb+ 7200rpm for OS, and 60+ gb for video/scratch disk).

 

[WyteRyce]

I was thinking of getting him that new WD 120gig hard drive w/ the 8 meg cache. Fast hard drives are important in video editing, correct? I also was thinking about what you suggested, having a 20 gig hard drive for his OS).

I was probably going to have him go with a P4, since money isn't really a problem. I like AMD, but two of my friends who I built AMD systems for always have some kind of problem (yes, they are computer idiots, but so is he). I was probably going to have him get a gig of RAM, unless that much is overkill for video editing.

Would a 2.2 northwood sufice? Or should I have him look at getting one of the 533fsb chips?

 

[Goi]

Generally P4s are better at DVediting than Athlon XPs, even though I support AMD. The Northwood varieties are even faster. Get a decent video card, and add in a DVediting card like the Canopus DVStorm, DVRaptor, Pinnable Pro Studio,r Matrox RT2500(a bit dated though) or the new Matrox RT.X100, loads of PC1066 RAMBUS and a fast a large HDD like the WD1200BB, or even 2 of them.