Editing system questions.
 

Alright so the other day I purchased a custom computer at an auction. Turns out it wasn't as great as I thought it was but it does have some good features. The processor is an Intel single core 800mgz 64bit. Has only 2gig of DDR. Mother board is an asus socket 775 with 4 eSATA ports and 4 memory slots. Sound card isn't anything great it just has a TV tuner and S-video cables hanging off the back. Has a DVD player and burner and the case is pretty awesome too. Only down side is that it didn't come with a hard drive. Take a guess on what I got it for :)

So of course me being into video, I'm going to make it able to edit video. Doing that and keeping it cheap might be a problem. here are the things I am unsure of and need advice on.

1. Will that processor do the job?

2. How could I use the tv tuner and S-video cables to my advantage for video editing?

3. Hard drive configuration. I would like a minimum of a teribite with a second very fast hard drive for my operating system and programs. But should I go two 500gig raid1 or just get the cheaper 1tb WD 32mb cash hard drive and still run my OS off a faster HD?

4. two 19" Samsung 5ms monitors for $200 sound cheap?

Answers

1. No, too slow for anything modern

2. Can't do much with them unless you are going to connect a SD TV to the computer. That's about all that card is good for.

3l I'll let others address that.

4. Nope. Sounds small. E Specially if you plan on working with HD I've got 2 22" And would really like 2 24s and one 30 or so.

$ 30. Anything over that is a waste.

The case alone is worth more than that :)

That could be correct, but did you take into consideration the cost of disposing of the rest? So $ 30 for the whole bunch, add $ 60 for disposal and your cash layout is around $ 90.

Disposal? i'm not following you..

You can't just throw the old unusable stuff into the trash -- you must pay to have it disposed of properly. Toxic stuff in landfills = bad. Most communities in the US and elsewhere worldwide frown on this and tend to prohibit it.

or I could just sell it..

In the Bay Area, there's an assortment of technology recycling companies that'll pick up used computer equipment for free, giving you (or the company you're working for) a tax writeoff. I don't know if that industry is around everywhere, but I'd look around for something along those lines before paying anyone to get rid of your junk.

Sure, you could, but I think Harm's point is that everything else was worthless, an opinion that seems to be shared by Perrone.

Well it has a DVD burner and player.

I forgot to mention that the processor is an Intel 3gig 800mhz processor.

Ok, so maybe it's worth $100. Now you only need $1500 to finish up.

Hm. Which is it? 3GHz? 800MHz? 3.8GHz?

Earlier you said it was an 800 "mgz" so I think we all took that to mean 800 MHz, which can't really edit anything. 3GHz would be okay for DV but not HDV. Is there a 3.8GHz? Even so, a single-core at that clock speed wouldn't handle HDV well. My guess is you mean a 3GHz chip with an 800MHz FSB and/or 800MHz RAM. Either way, too slow for HDV.

In any event, your best bet is to go to the web pages for your editor of choice and look at their system requirements, and go "one louder" in every category.

Yea sorry I meant 3ghz 800mhz FSB.

So that processor is junk for HDV editing eh? Got a suggestion to get me going?

I would like to keep this fairly cheap because I have other things I need to make room for in the budget. I need a monitor (or two). Tigerdirect has a sale for 19" Samsung monitors going for $99 with a mail in rebate. That sounds awesome to me. Two of those for $200 VS one 24" for $200?

I need Hard drives. I just dont know the best configuration for HDV.

The motherboard supports DDR2 and has 4 slots. I think it can handle it. I'll get the actual part number and look up the specs.

A RAM upgrade...and i'm set

Thats all I can really think of.


Thanks for the help,
Terry.

Why are you building a system for HDV when that technology is quickly fading for the horizon? It's like going out and buying a new SD TV and telling us what a great deal you got.

The 2 monitors are probably going to be ok. I don't know the specs on them, but if you're doing this on the cheap, I am sure you'll live with the limitations.

HDV isn't very demanding on the drives. Any modern 7200k RPM drive should be fine. Just get two large ones if you can't buy 3.

Does the machine have firewire? How are you planning on getting the video into the computer?

How do you plan on getting the HD video OUT of the computer? What will you master to? And what will your finished product be?

Does the system have any audio capability? Is that important to you?