Attn Tech Guru's: What's the best computer config for editing HD video?

I finally retired the old Mini-DV camcorder this holiday season and decided to try something new. After doing a little research I went with the Canon HF20, which is a HD camcorder that records directly to flash memory/SDHC cards in a max resolution of 1920x1080.

So I shoot my video in HD and it looks awesome when played directly to the TV. I then download the data to the computer in hopes to do some editing. When I play it back, I find the video is totally choppy - apparently there's way too much data for the video card/memory to process it smoothly (I never had this problem with SD though).

From what I've read the only way to properly process HD is to upgrade to the newest available chipsets/video cards/memory. Since my current system's pushing five years old I guess its what I have to do. I'm looking at something reasonable in price, like a DELL XPS in the following configuration:

Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition(8MB L3 Cache, 3.33GHz)
12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
1.5TB Data Security RAID 1(2x1.5TB SATA 7200 RPM HDDs)
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5

Will these components do the job?

Also, is using a RAID 1 setup overkill and slow, and if so would I be better off just running a Raid 0 or basic two drive setup and backing up the data on a regular basis?

Thanks in advance for any help and/or recommendations.

 

I hope...

I hope someone answers your question! I also just got a HD recorder and I am having all types of issues when I try to convert the video on the computer!
Ride safe,
AAron

 

that setup looks like it will work

 

What do you consider "reasonable in price"?

This will bring up another great debate: have you looked at going to a Mac?

Cheers,
D

 

Looking for something sub $3k, $4k tops. Would rather not go to a MAC only because every single application I have is PC based.

 

I'm not an A/V expert by any means, but if that machine can't do the job I don't know what will. Pretty much top of the line as far as I'm concerned.

Make sure the OS you buy supports 12GB of memory.

I would recommend Raid 0 since it will perform noticeably faster than a single drive. The big downside is that it has no fault tolerance, so you will need to backup to another computer or NAS.

Raid 1 will cut performance in half since it writes the identical data to two drives - not what you want for video editing. I've had terrible luck with Raid 1 with many cases of multiple drive failures affecting both drives in an array.

 

With a budget of $3-4K, I'd go with four 1TB drives in a RAID10 setup ... that's RAID0 with redundancy. If you go with an OEM system (Dell, etc.), make sure it is listed as a feature.

RE: RAM ... newest chipset desktop boards can handle 16GB. I personally prefer Intel over AMD, and the Intel branded motherboards. Gigabyte is another one I like. Of the OEM's, I prefer Dell. I absolutely hate HP ... I tell everyone to avoid those at all costs.

In regard to video-specific resources, I'm not familar with what sort of video card setup you should go with. But I would imagine any decent card will have the HP to help things along. BTW ... IMHO, a five year old PC to do HD video editing is like riding your street bike and entering a World Superbike race. It ain't pretty.

 

Funny I've had nothing but bad experiences with Dell, I've owned 2 HP"s, and no problems. Eh dosen't matter anymore. Got the mac pro, run both windows and mac ox.

 

Seems like everybody's packing Windows 7 in their builds now, and this system's offered with the 12GB memory option so I'm hoping it'll work.

I did some reading up on the RAID differences and it seems like either going with RAID0 and doing routine backups or a RAID10 setup is the way to go. Problem is, Dell doesn't offer a RAID10 option in any of their consumer systems, including the Alienware stuff.

I wanted to go with a known company (Dell,HP) because I don't have the expertise to build my own system and know it'll be right. From what I've read on some of the HD video forums though people are building their own systems privately and spending big dollars to do it, which is a bit much for home editing, imo.

Rick, do you think I'd be alright with a RAID0 setup if I back it up on an external drive on a regular basis?

 

Have you had thoughts about building your own computer instead of buying semi-storebought through dell?

I just configured a very similar system for about a third of your budget (not including monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers/etc).

Also, with the insane amount of RAM everyone is recommending, you will need to run a 64bit OS. 32bit cannot handle total system memory above 4gb (this is your total RAM in the system, INCLUDING graphics card memory). I really don't see the point in going above 4-8gb for memory.

As far as video rendering and editing, everything is done on the processor. If you aren't playing the most recent video games, there really is no point to having that high-end of a card in the system. Also, the extreme edition is overkill as well. In the system that I just ordered, I went with the i7-860 which is right in the sweet spot for best bang for the buck. I'll be easily able to get a close to 1GHz overclock and be up in the 4Ghz territory with relative ease.

Raid arrays... if you really must have the fastest read times, go Raid 0 but make sure you have plenty of backup space and do backups regularly. One little corruption and everything is gone. I've run Raid 5 in the past, and its one of the safest ways to go if you are worried about losing data. You get 3/4 the size of your 4 drives (if you have 4x1TB drives, you have 3TB of storage space). Raid 5 gives you the ability to lose 1 drive completely and not lose any data at all. Most Raid 5 setups are hot-swappable so you don't even have to power anything down if you want to.

Look around for actual performance reviews. A strong motherboard paired with a good processor will get you where you need to be.

Edit: Looks like you posted while I was writing my post.... as far as doing your own build, if you can race a motorcycle and maintain it, you shouldn't have any issues with setting up your own system. Can you use a screwdriver and plug in connectors? If yes, you'll be fine.

Edit 2: Stay away from alienware. Its overpriced hot garbage.

 

Do not ever, ever, use RAID0 alone for anything you value. The risk/reward factor is just too high.

With your budget, you can look into getting some high end stuff. I could suggest some hardware combos, and could even stage it for you. However, shipping such a system would present some concerns - as in the time and effort to properly pack and ship the completed project would be expensive.

I would imagine that you have a pretty good amount of technical skill and could build your own. If I can do it, you can do it.

[added on edit] Make sure you have a robust (1000-1500VA) UPS included in your budget. And, with W7 and Media Center, there is so much more you can do with your new machine to help bring more value to your financial investment.

 

Wish people could read this but....

You don't include how much graphics memory you have into the 4gig limit on a 32bit system.

Also not everything is done on the central CPUs. Gpus now days can off load the work. I believe Nvidia has the ability to do HD encoding in real time today with the right model.

 

Whatever you do, do not go with Alienware. Trust me on this....

-jim

 

I would definitely look at H.264 encoding accelerators, they'll really essential for what you want to do. A modest system with an accelerator will outperform an expensive high end quad core system with ease unless you're doing a lot of special effects and other CPU intensive stuff. Matrox CompressHD is killer, but there are other good ones out there.

 

Okay, I've done some research on building a system from scratch; it seems like a relatively straightforward process. Newegg and a couple of other suppliers seem to have every part necessary to get it going.

That said, I've never built a system before and am trying to figure out what components will work best for what I need.

If you had to build a system from scratch, with the primary purpose of having enough speed and capacity to handle HD video editing with no lag, what components would you use?

Case & power supply / motherboard / memory / drives (both Hard Disk and Optical) / video card / etc?

I know it's alot to ask, but I'm really considering doing this and I want to make sure I'm building it correctly with components that are compatible.

Again, thanks in advance everyone for all your help - and anything else you can add would be greatly appreciated :up:

 

check tigerdirect.com??

I built my system from components I bought from them. Worked for me but I already had all my software that I use including my OS.

 

Check out videoguys.com, lots of DIY ideas there. Info from guys who do this stuff for a living. You'll be busy for days.

 

Case is pretty much up to what features you want, and what it looks like. I'd suggest either Lian-Li (super expensive, but really really nice quality) or Antec. I've rocked the P180, and I just ordered the P183.

Motherboard/processor depends on how many USB/firewire/PCI/etc slots you need/want. Also depends on if you want to go with AMD or Intel. Intel has a slight advantage these days for the cost/performance ratio. A good starting point would be an Intel i5 series board from Gigabyte. They seem to be the industry standard these days. As far as memory goes, make sure you check the manufacturer's website for a list of compatible RAM sticks.

Video card, pretty much any manufacturer will do since it doesn't sound like you want to play the latest and greatest games.

I built my current system that I should have sometime this week off of the $1300 enthusiast PC found here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-new-pc,2497.html

I tweaked it to what I wanted to do, and still kept it right at $1300 for a rockin system.