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WELCOME
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Recommendations
on How to Build a Video Editing Computer.
Specifications for computer.
CPU
Buy the fastest CPU you can buy as this is the heart of the computer. Try to get a CPU and motherboard with a 533+ bus speed. Usually for price to performance I would recommend buying the third fastest processor on the market.
Hyperthreading Technology
This much improves multitasking and video editing performance. To make use of hyperthreading technology, the motherboard, CPU and Operating System must all support it. (This holds true for multiprocessor systems as well.)
CPU fan
Buy the retail box version of the CPU or I would recommend buying a large aluminum
heat sink fan with a small copper die insert that contacts the CPU. (Aluminum dissipates heat the best, copper sucks up the heat the best) Avoid CPU fans with soldiered on fins as the soldier inhibits heat transfer.
Motherboard
For a P4 systems I would recommend a motherboard with an Intel chipset. I prefer ASUS motherboards for their reliability.
System memory 512MB is good but on a new beefy system, 1 Gig is okay too.
For system memory don't only look at DDR Mhz speed, look to make sure the latency is CL2.0 (this is faster than CL2.5). CL2.0 DDR333 can out perform CL2.5 DDR400 most of the time. Corsair memory is good.
Don't go beyond 2/3 memory max of the motherboard as this will have a similar effect as overclocking and may induce instability into your system.
Video Card
This is less important for video creation but don't get too cheap as quality counts. Try to get a video card with the fastest on-board memory that you can reasonably afford. ATI cards are okay for price to performance but I don't like choosing from ATI's myriad of drivers to find the best one for your system. I would recommend a newer NVIDIA Video card that can support up to 3 simultaneous video outs.
Hard drives
I prefer SCSI drives for video editing but these require a SCSI controller card and are quite pricey (One fast SCSI is preferred over IDE raid). I like the IDE Western Digital 7200 RPM drives with 8MB cache; this improves overall system performance but not so much for video editing. For video editing it is best to have a dedicated 7200+ RPM hard drive. A big empty drive whose sole
purpose is to record and edit video. I would recommend the drive to be four times larger than the video you plan to work with on it. The empty space equates to available workspace improving performance.
Monitor
I like LCD monitors but for professional video editing CRT monitors are still preferred. CRTs can resize different
resolutions better while LCD monitors work best in only their native resolution. CRTs can give you true 32bit color while LCDs are limited to about 24bit color. CRTs also have faster refresh rates compared to LCDs. {LCD with DVI, while this does not improve picture quality, it can help to greatly reduce noise and video interference}.
Capture Card
For the best video capture of MPEG2, I would recommend going with a hardware encoder.
Sound Card
Most current on-board sound is okay (cheap with okay performance) but a sound card such as Sound Blaster Live or better is good. I might recommend the SB Audigy2. You can go with a more expensive sound card if your like but this is less important if you have a hardware video encoder as this will be recording the sound along with the video.
DVD Writers (hold 4.7 Gig per disc; CD-Rs are only 650MB)
I would pick one of the newer combo drives that can write '+' or' -' DVDs. DVD '+' carries a greater compatibility over' -' but' -' is more compatible with older DVD players.
Power Supply
Buy a decent power supply as this promotes system stability. As far a power supplies goes, I would purchase one with a reputable name as this means more than some manufacture's arbitrary rating of how many watts a power supply can handle. I would recommend at least 400watts, more if you plan to add power consuming accessories to your computer.
Case
Pick one that you think looks nice and that you think is functional. Aluminum cases dissipate heat better but are also more noisy.
Extra System Cooling
As video is very demanding on your system I might recommend adding an extra case fan, a power supply with two fans (redundancy) is not a bad idea and possibly add a fan to your hard drive as heat is the primary enemy of your computer (and those who think the CD-rom tray is great for holding a can of soda). For hard drive fans I prefer the horizontal blowing fans as they less easily clog with dirt.
Remember a failed fan with bracket will insulate more heat than no fan and bracket.
Also water cooled systems can cool really well but add extra hoses and have the ability to leak.
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