Author Topic: Computer for video editing reccs (Read 6015 times)

PJungnitsch · « **on:** February 14, 2015, 05:25:09 pm »

I'd like to get into editing some of the action cam shots I take, and my old computer (desktop, Pentium Dual Core, E6500, 2.93 GHz, 3 GB RAM) struggles, even to load videos sometimes.

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to a solid state hard drive, get 8 GB ram, etc, or.....

....is it time to jump to a new machine with a bigger processor? I see I can get computers now pretty cheap with Intel Core i3's, Core i5's, Core i5 Quad, even Xeon Dual Core and Quad Core.

Railton · « **Reply #1 on:** February 14, 2015, 05:32:21 pm »

Solid state drive for sure with i5 or i7 processor and your golden.
Railton

wing · « **Reply #2 on:** February 14, 2015, 05:38:48 pm »

SSD and more RAM will help but your processor will mean you will be waiting awhile to render.

tpl · « **Reply #3 on:** February 14, 2015, 05:48:57 pm »

If you are going new then one of the new Z97 motherboards that supports DDR4 memory and M2 SSDs. The M2 drives live on the PCIe bus and are really fast...but not cheap. You could start with a SATA SSD and upgrade to an M2 later as their prices drop.
I think that a PC based on that and an I7 would future proof you for a few years.

As for upgrades 8GB memory and a SSD big enough for the OS stuff ( at least 18GB)with enough extra space to hold the video you are actually going to edit. Currently the Samsung EVO 840 240Gb is available at a good price...hopefully the 512 Gb will drop in price this spring.

Caution you may find that your mobo cannot run the SSD at full speed.

johngenx · « **Reply #4 on:** February 14, 2015, 05:54:24 pm »

Anyone else remember these? Maybe you can find one

mmret · « **Reply #5 on:** February 14, 2015, 06:12:22 pm »

SSD for sure. Its lifechanging. However that's a general usage thing... SSD for heavy video work is still a rather large expenditure given the cost per GB.

For video rendering your CPU is going to be a serious bottleneck. EDIT: haha, I just checked the benchmark on it and its like 1750 passmarks. Ouch. My 2.5 year old i5 scores ~7200. Yes, this is painful.

A new machine is in order. Check out ca.pcpartpicker.com.

Not sure how comfortable you are going outside of the Dell, etc. sphere and installing your own OS, etc. But this way you will get the best bang for the buck, I feel.

You might consider AMD stuff too. Whether the Intel premium is worth it largely depends on your electricity cost and usage pattern.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/pPLBWZ Something like that. I left you a memory slot in case you need 16GB eventually plus it has front panel USB3.

You can go cheaper though...probably could cut $100 off that and still be half decent.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #6 on:** February 14, 2015, 06:38:43 pm »

Yeah, I see, it's just too slow a CPU.

What about an off lease Xeon Dual core desktop? No SSD, but cheap, and with a 1GB vid card. I like that it is Win 7, and still a full sized case. 4 GB ECC memory though.

mmret · « **Reply #7 on:** February 14, 2015, 07:19:04 pm »

I'd stay away from that unless its quite cheap. You'll generally get a high quality case/power supply/motherboard, but upgradeability might be spotty.

Plus you still need to buy SSD, and more memory, and you're stuck with ECC memory.

The video card is pretty irrelevant. Onboard stuff is fine for vast majority of people these days.

EDIT: also, what Xeon? Some of those older Core 2 era Xeons are going to be a bit middling performance wise compared to a modern i3.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2015, 07:48:45 pm »

Thanks for the help folks.

Ended up pulling the pin on a refurb Dell Precision T3500 Xeon Dual Core 2.53 (W3505). Win 7, full sized case, lots of upgrade slots, 4GB RAM, takes both ECC and non ECC. Sounds like they are quiet and reliable. 25% off right now, so $337.00 all in shipped from Dell.

I'll do the SSD and ram upgrade later if needed, but for now this should be a step up, and I can use the Win 7 license from this computer to upgrade one of the old XP laptops we have laying around.

Now for video editing software, Premiere Elements? Power Director? What's simple to use to chop and splice go pro type video?

tpl · « **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2015, 08:43:34 pm »

I didn't know that price was such a consideration. Xeon cpus really shine most brightly when you have two of them ( or even 4) and LOTS of memory in a server configuration.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2015, 09:07:04 pm »

Lots of interests, the money has to spread around!

normancw · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2015, 09:38:22 pm »

Quote from: johngenx on February 14, 2015, 05:54:24 pm

Anyone else remember these? Maybe you can find one

I bought one - a Sinclair. I think I paid $100. Saving my Basic program to my cassette player never worked - I just left it powered on all the time!

mmret · « **Reply #12 on:** February 15, 2015, 10:00:24 am »

Quote from: PJungnitsch on February 14, 2015, 07:48:45 pm

Thanks for the help folks.

Ended up pulling the pin on a refurb Dell Precision T3500 Xeon Dual Core 2.53 (W3505). Win 7, full sized case, lots of upgrade slots, 4GB RAM, takes both ECC and non ECC. Sounds like they are quiet and reliable. 25% off right now, so $337.00 all in shipped from Dell.

I'll do the SSD and ram upgrade later if needed, but for now this should be a step up, and I can use the Win 7 license from this computer to upgrade one of the old XP laptops we have laying around.

Now for video editing software, Premiere Elements? Power Director? What's simple to use to chop and splice go pro type video?

... Thats barely any quicker than your current one and eats up 130Watts to boot....

In fact depending on workload it could be slower.

TBH unless your current matching just needs a fresh format you will be disappointed by this new Xeon I think.

tpl · « **Reply #13 on:** February 15, 2015, 11:04:22 am »

^ I agree.

PJungnitsch · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2015, 12:25:33 pm »

Yes, checked processing speed for that particular Xeon and it is just a bit faster than mine. Didn't realize there were so many variants of the same family.

Cancelled the order, will try something different.

Thanks again!

mmret · « **Reply #15 on:** February 16, 2015, 12:27:48 pm »

The Xeon name has been around for ages. Probably second only to Pentium.

Comparatively today...most of the Core i3/i5/7 stuff is all in the same ballpark as long as you stay in the same "product tier". At least since the 2nd generation.

ie a i5/2500k vs i5/3570k vs i5/4670k is all within maybe 10-15%, which seems very flat considering that they are separated by over 2 years in release dates. Power efficiency is up a fair bit more though.

wing · « **Reply #16 on:** February 16, 2015, 12:35:20 pm »

4gb of ram is barely adequate to do anything IMO. You'll need 16 gig of ram for video editing, maybe more.

If money is that tight, upgrade your ram big time and ssd

Serniter · « **Reply #17 on:** February 16, 2015, 03:43:54 pm »

Quote from: wing on February 16, 2015, 12:35:20 pm

4gb of ram is barely adequate to do anything IMO. You'll need 16 gig of ram for video editing, maybe more.

If money is that tight, upgrade your ram big time and ssd

If the RAM is DDR2, it may not be worth the upgrade, depending on cost.

Also, there may not be 6 Gb/s SATA slots on that motherboard. The 3 Gb/s slots should be fast enough though.

I sometimes see nice discounts on the Dell/Lenovo online outlet stores.

wing · « **Reply #18 on:** February 16, 2015, 03:56:08 pm »

I've got an ssd on a 3gb slot on my media PC. It still went from taking about 5 min to boot to about 20 seconds.

Xbmc loads instantly instead 30 seconds. Best upgrade ever.

Serniter · « **Reply #19 on:** February 16, 2015, 04:21:50 pm »

I agree, an SSD would vastly improve load times.