pc for nle
 

Does anyone have experience with Alienware, Velocitymicro, or Dell desktop computers? I particularly interested in models built expressly for video production - though I do some minor gaming.

Have a friend who just bought this system
http://www.alienware.com/system_pages/roswell.aspx
Its pretty nice other than the ugly case...But hey some people like them I guess. If you want to go with Adobe Premiere as your NLE this is a pretty good deal seeing how it comes with the Matrox RTX.10 built in. Which if you buy it now you will get the free upgrade to the RTX.10 Xtreme when its released.

All in all he is pretty happy with it. The Nvidia Quadro card that is included will give you plenty power for some mild gaming however I suggest you set up your PC as a dual boot machine with a seperate partion just for video apps. I would also upgrade to a gig of RAM it comes in handy for things like aftereffects and premiere.

If your interested in other NLE hardware solutions I think they have both Canopus and Matrox hardware.

From personal experiance I cant recommend a Dell as they seem to be getting more and more propreitary. When it comes to upgrade time you will be limited in the options you have as it seems that Dell is trying to make sure you only buy there (overpriced) hardware.

If you have a little money to work with give Laird a look they have some nice pro level stuff and lots of happy customers
http://www.lairdtelemedia.com/

I have also heard some people say some nice things about
www.guygraphics.com however I have no personal experiance with there PC products.

Hope this helps a little

Also try DVLine

I think that you should chose your NLE, then approach PCNirvana, Guygraphics etc about your machine. I edit using Vegas on an old Dell--runs flawlessly.

I appreciate the responses. I'm still curious if anyone has actual direct experience with Alienware, Dell, or Velocity Micro.

The Dell sucks...it is a cheap system that really isn't meant for the professional Video person, basically a toy for family stuff, price aint bad, though. Someone I knwo got the Dimension 3GHz with the optional "Video" package and cost him around $3500 whith all the other goodies, great for his Hi8, the firewire card wen tout the first week, dell was cool enough to replace it right away. Oh, gaming? Forget it, if you have to have one of them build a box for you, go with Alienware...they got cool cases. :) (Seriously performance is excellent as well. But if you have a lamborghini budget, try Falcon Northwest, they'll definitely hook you up.

I just purchased a Dell workstation a 350. It came with a 3 ghz, 1.5 gig ram, 2 7200 rpm drives and an ATI Fire Gl video card. I am currently running Pinnacle Studio 8, Pinnacle Edition 4.5 and Vegas 4.0 on it. I am capturing from a Canon GL2 and a Sony Mico MV camera. I have had absolutely no problems with any of this and it is lightening quick. I develope software for a living so didn't buy the machine strictly for video. They definetly have great service, next day on sight and when they screwed up on an order I had made for some upgrades to a previous machine they appologized and gave me $600 off a notebook I had just ordered. I don't think you can go wrong with one.

I'm not a Dell fan but there are many excellent Dell computers that don't "suck". I have been using one for three years without incident.

Scott
 

The alienware system you had up there is the same sort of one as i was recommended.
Difference being, I asked for a pinnacle pro-one rtdv editing card which seems to be more money than the matrox (?) one. anyone know which is better and why?

I didn't mean to offend anyone who are Dell owners and users, I am merely commenting about my experience with Dell after supporting them for 10 years. I find that the Dimensions are built a bit better than the Optiplex, but with both models I find that there performance levels are nothing to get excited by. But Dell does have excellent tech support, we all agree on that. But, Alienware and Falcon Northwest both have great service and performance. Again sorry if anyone was offended, but that's my opinion with "Dude, you're getting a Dell."

So, just out of curiousity. If I build my own desktop, how much cheaper would that be versus buying one from Dell, Alienware, etc.?

How much danger is there in not having tech support from Dell, Alienware, etc. over time?

I think what you need to do is decide how much you have to spend and what you want the machine to do. If it just for editing video and you have the bucks buy a machine built for video editing. The problem with building your own is that you are on your own. I have been developeing software for over 15 years and have owned just about every make out there. If you configure the machine the right way anyone of them will do the job. Myself I wanted a machine that I knew I would have good overall satisfaction with and I wanted next day at home service if I needed it so I bought accordingly.

Depends on your own skill. If you feel confident enough to troubleshoot, identify and/or fix any problems that you experience using a PC and is willing to fork out the dough $$ since if it is real bad you would 8/10 have to buy new hardware. As far as building your own box, there really is not much of a value, per se. Box Building is cool if this is a hobby, you like to take pride in building your own PC, spend crazy amounts of money upgrading and or you like the feeling of choosing your own components and building a box. Hot rods. It is much like, how much would I save buying a kit car vs one of a dealership? Actually, with PC's, you can buy a new computer sans monitor, printer, etc. for ~$399, the savings from building your own box is gone. Like any hobby it would be much more money to build a box in the initial hit and in the long run. But it is the love of fiddling and stuff that drives this craze. Then also you will not have support, but what you can do yourself or con your IT friends into doing. Support may mean the world for many while it doesn't mean squat to me. So it really is up to your taste and confidence on what you are embarking on or doing.

Keep in mind that most of these box builders (Dell, Gateway, HP. etc.) has a different agenda than you, they want to build the best PC they can provided they hit a certain profit margin. You would build a PC that will give you the most performance for your budget. Diamtrically opposite philoshopies when you really look at it. You may not want to compromise on the mobo, but Dell will pick up what they can in order to maximize profits. In short, as your own box builder you would wna tmaximum performance, They would want maxiumum profits.

Here is a link to a Gateway that has been setup specifically by them to support DV. For some reason (new problem with the 3.06 chip causing prices to go up) it has increased in price by $500 in the last 4 weeks. Whats the best price you can do and match the components and software?

Ops, forgot the link http://www.gateway.com/home/prod/hm_700xldfm_config.shtml