Can I start this article by making it clear that I only build PC based video editing machines and these machines are designed specifically for video editing software programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, Grass Valley Edius, Avid, Pinnacle, Sony and a few of the lesser known but effective editing packages.

Each machine I build is tailored toward, but not exclusive to, specific software. Why, well for instance, Sony Vegas handles video differently to say Premiere Pro or Edius and therefore would need a different video graphics card. The question I most often get is why not build a machine that can handle any editing software at all? This is where cost comes in and where knowledge of specific software packages is so important. In my opinion it is hardly worth building a $6000.00 machine to install Sony Vegas. There are better solutions. Conversely, if you're using Adobe CS4 Master Collection and you are hot on integration, have a tendency to open Photoshop, Premiere and Encore at the same time you may just need all the grunt you can afford.

The Components

Here's where the water gets muddy. Everyone has an opinion or favours one manufacturer over another and really in most cases it doesn't make a great deal of difference. What is important is that you understand how a particular part works, how it fits into the scheme of things and the result it produces when matched with other parts. Theory and rhetoric often dominate this debate and is the area where your integrator can be of most benefit. He or she will know from experience what works with what even if the specifications are a little hazy.

Building a great video editing PC requires many components and we will look at these one at a time starting from the outside. In each case I will try to pass on my reasoning for using a particular part and you can decide if this needs to be substituted. Firstly, let's summarise the parts we need.

 

Can I start this article by making it clear that I only build PC based video editing machines and these machines are designed specifically for video editing software programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, Grass Valley Edius, Avid, Pinnacle, Sony and a few of the lesser known but effective editing packages.

Each machine I build is tailored toward, but not exclusive to, specific software. Why, well for instance, Sony Vegas handles video differently to say Premiere Pro or Edius and therefore would need a different video graphics card. The question I most often get is why not build a machine that can handle any editing software at all? This is where cost comes in and where knowledge of specific software packages is so important. In my opinion it is hardly worth building a $6000.00 machine to install Sony Vegas. There are better solutions. Conversely, if you're using Adobe CS4 Master Collection and you are hot on integration, have a tendency to open Photoshop, Premiere and Encore at the same time you may just need all the grunt you can afford.

The Components

Here's where the water gets muddy. Everyone has an opinion or favours one manufacturer over another and really in most cases it doesn't make a great deal of difference. What is important is that you understand how a particular part works, how it fits into the scheme of things and the result it produces when matched with other parts. Theory and rhetoric often dominate this debate and is the area where your integrator can be of most benefit. He or she will know from experience what works with what even if the specifications are a little hazy.

Building a great video editing PC requires many components and we will look at these one at a time starting from the outside. In each case I will try to pass on my reasoning for using a particular part and you can decide if this needs to be substituted. Firstly, let's summarise the parts we need.

• Computer case
• Power supply
• Motherboard
• CPU (Central Processing Unit)
• RAM (Random Access Memory)
• Graphics card
• Hard drives
• CD/DVD reader/writer
• Raid array
• Monitor

You can add specialist capture cards from manufacturers like Grass Valley, Black Magic Design, AJA, Matrox and a host of others but these are also components that can be added later. They can affect the initial PC build investment and in some cases will be more costly than the PC itself.

Computer case

The largest of all minefields when building a computer is the case but one item that either receives scant attention or total focus. When asked to choose (I personally don't give this option very often) the first demand is for colour followed closely by cosmetic choices. For me the case has to provide two outcomes, quietness and cooling. These often conflict because you need wide apertures for airflow whilst at the same time these apertures let out a lot of noise.

Fortunately, computer case manufacturers give these two areas a lot of attention making sure the fan grilles are well placed in terms of internal hardware space and the case itself is well insulated with noise absorbing materials. It is quite interesting just how two different cases perform in this area.

The other thing to watch when buying a case is the placement of peripheral connections like firewire and USB plugs, external audio connections and the fitting of front door panels. If you intend to install a capture bay it is preferable to find a door less case that may obstruct connections. Also make sure there is sufficient space to install up to six hard drives and a CD/DVD burner. The power supply should be well away from other peripherals and the motherboard should have ready access.

Power supply

The power supply is an important component with prices ranging from fifteen dollars to several hundred dollars. You get what you pay for and all power supplies are not equal even if they have the same power rating.

Stock standard computers normally come with a 350 watt power supply which is generally enough to run the motherboard, standard graphics card, CD/DVD ROM, floppy drive and a couple of hard drives. If it so happens that you try to run all these things together then more than likely your computer will crash and reboot. Worse could happen. Your hard drives could slow down, RAM could hiccup, or your graphics card might decide not to show your picture. All these things happen at an inappropriate time, like when you're editing.

So, right from the start invest in a good power supply, one that can manage fluctuating power demands from quality graphics cards, multiple hard drives or even Raid arrays. Start your quest with at least 650 watts and the closer you get to 1000 watts the better.

The other thing to watch with power supplies is that the unit provides appropriate connections such as a 24 pin main connector, 8 pin CPU connector and enough SATA Molex's to power the hard drives you intend to install. And don't forget that many upmarket graphic cards require additional power sources as do some other PCIe cards such as Raid arrays.

Motherboard

Ouch, this can be a contentious issue as most people have a favourite brand or make. Really, the choice is simple; choose one of the named brands like Asus, Gigabyte etc., and you won't go wrong. What you do need to pay attention to is just what the motherboard provides on-board without having to add cards later or replace the motherboard altogether. Motherboards range in price from about $200 to $500 and there are a host in the mid-range to suit many situations.

With video editing you will probably need a deluxe or premium style board. This means the motherboard is likely to have many of the connections you require and often in multiple numbers. For instance a board with a firewire connection would be most appropriate. Other connections to consider would be 5.1 surround sound, as many USB connections as possible and eSata. All these connections are external. Internal connections should include at least six Sata ports, an on-board Raid and RAM sockets allowing at least 8GB of memory. For serious editors you need at least 2 x 16 PCIe slots and 2 x 1 PCIe slots. These slots house your graphics card, Raid card and capture card. Ordinary PCI slots are still handy but far less functional nowadays.

Finally, the CPU slot, that part of the motherboard where the CPU fits is significant. The type of slot your motherboard has will determine the longevity of your computer. Make sure both your motherboard and CPU are of the latest technology and an upgrade will not be necessary for some time.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

This technology is dynamic. Again, brands dominate but ultimately you have two choices, Intel or AMD. The primary issue here relates to the software you propose to install. Manufacturers like Adobe and Grass Valley and Pinnacle will tend to optimise toward one technology or the other and therefore it is thought that using the CPU that they have optimised to would be a wise move. Experience tells me that this is probably correct.

Apart from manufacturer the wise choice is choosing a CPU you can best afford and for around about $400.00 you can get an Intel Core Duo Quad core. Unless you move to specialist server boards and Xeon processors the quad core is more than adequate for any of the software mentioned earlier. You do have other choices, like dual core, but the price differential is probably not significant.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Choosing the right RAM for your great video PC can be limited. Motherboard manufacturers will often list on their website or in their operation manual the type and brand of RAM most suited to their motherboard. Don't treat this advice lightly. Some brands of RAM simply don't work with a particular motherboard or even worse, will have intermittent problems that create havoc.

RAM is relatively cheap at the time of writing so as a rule of thumb I would recommend you install 4Gb if you're using Windows XP and as much as you can afford if using Vista or Windows 7. The latter two operating systems recognise more than 4Gb of RAM and this makes a noticeable difference when multi-tasking your software on the newer platforms.

The other question I often get when choosing RAM is related to its speed. Again, 800Mhz is quite common with older machines but many motherboards can now support up to at least 1600Mhz and in the majority of cases RAM is backward compatible with slower boards. If you upgrade sometime in the future this often means you can reuse your RAM in the new machine.

Graphics card

Up until recently the type of graphics card required for video editing was kind of basic. In fact, most editing packages would run happily all day using an on-board VGA (Video Graphics Array). The last twelve months has seen a fairly dramatic turn around with this piece of hardware.

Firstly, most consumers and many professionals now edit with a high definition format of some kind, the most popular at this time is HDV but a number of others are emerging. This means the resolution of the captured video could be anything up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. This has changed the configuration of our editing computer in the sense that we need better monitors (more on this later) and powerful graphic cards to run those monitors. Fortunately, with video editing there is very little need to buy a high end unit like the nVidia Quadro 5600 that can run into many thousands of dollars. There is a whole range of video graphic cards from ATI and nVidia plus other manufacturers that can provide all the power you need for between $150.00 and $700.00 and will easily handle high resolution.

Apart from displaying your video on a monitor many manufacturers or software developers are now using the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) on your graphics card to handle the processing of software video effects. This task was formerly handled by the CPU. I guess this is a form of load sharing but does mean more emphasis is placed on the type of graphics card used in your PC for video editing. Much like your computer the graphics card has on-board memory used in conjunction with the GPU and software developers are now suggesting a minimum of 256Mb but in practice I would consider for a small additional cost that you purchase a graphic card with 512Mb or even 1Gb of memory.

Although it is pretty much a standard practice now, make sure your graphics card has at least one DVI connection. This is the point where the video signal travels from the computer to the monitor.

Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

Most video editing software is hard drive dependent. The speed and efficiency of your unit will very much depend on the quality and speed of your hard drives. Again, people have a preference for one brand or another be it Seagate or Western Digital or Samsung and like any mass produced part the reliability of a specific brand can change from model to model. The most important specification for this piece of hardware is its speed and this is usually measured in RPM (Revolutions per Minute). Most video software producers recommend a minimum specification of 7200rpm but you can buy drives with speeds up to 15,000rpm. Whilst the higher speed drives would be very useful with high volume edits (lots of files) the cost of hardware would normally outweigh the benefits. You can improve the speed of your hard drives by creating a Raid array but we'll talk about that later.

The original hard drive used an IDE interface, a parallel connection if you like but this has now been replaced with the SATA connection which is serial based and more efficient. It is important to keep this fact in mind when building a computer because the connections on the motherboard are quite different. You cannot connect an old IDE hard drive to the new SATA connection.

The cost of hard drives has fallen dramatically over past years and it would not be unusual to find a 500Gb drive for around $150.00. This means your storage limitations are removed and finding a good editing computer with around 2Tb (Terabytes or 2000 Gigabytes) of usable space would not be uncommon.

Hard drive technology has nearly always been the bottleneck as far as system speed is concerned but this is about to change with the introduction of SSD (Solid State Drive). SSD is a technology with no moving parts and even in the early stages is capable of speeds three times faster than the old hard drive. The only limiting factor at this time is cost.

CD/DVD Read/Write Drive

Not much changes with the old CD/DVD burner except its speed has quadrupled and cost has reduced to under $30.00 per unit. The CD/DVD reader/writer is an integral part of our computer. Without it you can't load Windows or just about any software for that matter.

The video editor will find the DVD burner has a dual purpose. Most edited programs these days are distributed on DVD to clients or friends and is often taken for granted when building a new machine. Whilst speed is important editors often report that the burning of their DVD at very high speeds is counterproductive, ending up with "coasters" or failed disks.

Something you need to keep in mind with your DVD unit when building a new computer is the connection technology. New DVD burners, as with hard drives, are still manufactured with either the IDE technology or a SATA connection. Providing you have sufficient SATA connections on your new motherboard I would recommend you do away with all the old IDE technology and construct your system entirely on the SATA connection.

Raid array

As I've mentioned elsewhere a good editing computer is the sum of its parts. I've also mentioned that hard drives are often the bottleneck. If we improve the throughput of the hard drives we improve the speed of our computer.

A Raid array is simply the connection of two or more hard drives in a configuration that appears to the computer as one hard drive. Creating a Raid array can have two advantages. The first is speed and when you connect two hard drives together you often get a 50% speed improvement or efficiency on those drives. The other benefit is security. You can connect two or more hard drives together so that data, say video files, are duplicated across the drives. This means that if one hard drive were to crash your data would be safely stored on the other.

The reason I've mentioned Raid arrays here is that when you are editing high definition files you will find the creation of a Raid to be very beneficial.

Monitor/s

Ultimately, unless your brand new video editing machine has a good monitor (or two) the exercise is probably wasted. Building your ultimate computer, in my opinion, should start with the selection of a monitor suitable to the task. Previously we have spoken of editing HDV, high resolution video, so for that task we need a monitor capable of reproducing 1920 x 1080 pixels or better. Again, people have brand preferences but a final decision should probably be made by viewing output on your chosen brand.

Monitors need to be capable of accepting signals from various sources and to this end should have a selection of different connectors on the back panel. These connectors should include the standard DVI plug, the newer HDMI connector and depending on the price you're willing to pay perhaps television based component/composite and Y/C inputs. For video editing I prefer a separate sound system and would rarely make any audio connections to a monitor.

What you do need to keep in mind is that operational switches are in easy reach, not hidden at the back of the monitor and can be seen in dim light. The size of the screen should provide easy viewing from 60 or 70cm. I use a Samsung 275T which has a diagonal screen dimension of 27". Alongside that I have a 24" Dell 16:9 format external video monitoring screen to watch output of my program.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is the most common type monitor used with editing systems these days although some editors religiously stick with the old VGA format. LCD screens are much lighter in weight and require far less real estate than the older screens.

The package

I've avoided promoting any specific brand or manufacturer to this point because I feel there is adequate choice in the market for components to build your great video PC. Like I said earlier experience is a great teacher and knowing what components work with each other is the clue to a good outcome. This is why video integrators exist. They not only help the professional who has little time to experiment with a configuration but also supply vital support for the beginner.

To give you a taste of what works well at the moment for an independent video editor I've specified a recent build that has been tried and proven over several months in a vigorous working environment. These specifications are dynamic and change according to availability at the time of build.

Computer case:                Antec P182 Performance Midi Tower

Power supply:                    Antec ATX Truepower 650w Trio

Motherboard                     Asus P5Q Deluxe ExGate S775 P45 FSB1600

CPU                                     Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400

RAM                                    2 x 2Gb Kingston PC6400 HyperX

Graphics card                    nVidia 9800GT or nVidia Quadro FX1500

Hard drives                         4 x 1TB Western Digital

CD/DVD burner                 Pioneer DVR-220

Raid array                           3Ware 9650SE-8LPML

Monitor                              Samsung SyncMaster 275T

By John Westwood

Formerly a banker come accountant, John Westwood, in his early twenties, made his first documentaries and sold them to the ABC. After twenty years in the finance industry and a long involvement in amateur film and video clubs John turned professional and created Redgum Television Productions in 1984. Since then he has made over 3000 documentaries with more than 200 broadcast in seven different countries.

Although camera work is a key starting point for most videographers John has a bent for scriptwriting and editing and has won international acclaim in North America, the UK and a number of Asian countries. More commonly known as Redgum, John still has a strong involvement in the amateur club scene and can be found between documentary shoots trolling the local video clubs sharing experiences with budding filmmakers or relating that experience through the pages of the auscam magazine.

Currently, John is working on a commission to produce five one hour documentaries for an international agency. This type of work will keep him busy for two or three years and add another element to his industry based training regime for budding documentary makers. John can be contacted through www.redgumtv.com.au

 

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