On Mon, 02 Jun 2003 15:50:08 GMT, austincruelite@yahoo.com (Kilgore Trout) wrote:

>I posted this question a couple of days ago, but I've gotten no

>responses. Surely somebody has an opinion.

I've seen several responses... (slow ISP?).

>I'm looking to buy a new PC for general home use and MiniDV video

>editing. Mostly home movies, maybe some indy festival stuff shot with

>a Sony VX2000 or the like. I'll be using Vegas or Premiere. Specs I

>think I'd like:

>

>P4 (2.x) processor

P-3 is OK...

>512 Megs RAM (PC2100 or PC2700- will it make much difference?)

No.

>Separate HD for media storage (at least 7200 RPM)

The rotation-speed doesn't matter - 5400rpm works fine...

>DVD burner (which format?)

Flip a coin, or buy the Sony...

>video card (any recommendations?)

Dual-head - using two 17" monitors once for video editing,

and you will never go back to a single monitor...;-)

>Money is something of an issue, but I can afford machines that have

>all of the above. Building my own is a possibility, but I'd like to

>buy something pre-built if possible. Should this be adequate? Anything

>I'm overlooking that is important?

See below...

>I'm- looking at a couple of HP machines, a Sony Vaio, or a Medion

>(German manufacturer). Any significant problems with any of these

>makers, particularly if I wanted to add something later on (a

>real-time card for instance)? I've heard I should stay away from

>Compaq, as they have a lot of "proprietary" issues. True?

Yes - most "name" computers are propriatary in sometimes

awkward ways. We used to prefer making our own - but see below:

>Thanks,

>KT

Surprisingly, any good basic machine P-3 450MHz or so

will do fine (assuming good parts). BTW, I bought a

Medion computer recently, and wrote this about it on

rec.video.production this morning:

"We used to design and build (and sell) our own editing

computers when this was still difficult. Now almost any

decent inexpensive computer will work... I just bought

a 2.66GHz P-4 with 256 megs RAM (and added 512 megs for

$30), 120-gig HD, and a fancy 128-meg dual-head Geforce

4 TI 4200 video card etc. - with all other parts also

good, for $700 (!!!) from an Aldi grocery store(!!!). I

replaced the DVD reader and CD writer with a $170 CenDyne

(Pioneer) DVD/CD writer, and added two 80-gig drives and

a fancy 24-bit/96KHz sound card. Total, minus two cheap

used 17" monitors: about $1200 (and it comes with a handy

front-panel patch bay for everything under the sun,

including slots for all the common still-camera memory

media). We can't build computers from parts this good

for this amount of money anymore..."

The Medion also has USB2 and FireWire connections,

and WinXP, which includes a basic editor. You do not

need to add the sound card (I want to do good transfers

of live recordings from open-reel tapes, so I got a good

24-bit/96KHz card), and you can add just another HD,

if you want (you can match what is in it [a 120-gig

Western Digital] fairly cheaply). The MB is an SIS, which

is a good one. Only thing more I would do is add at

least one more fan blowing in (it tends to run a bit

warm) and replace the mouse with an optical one.

Total cost with DVD burner replacement and extra drive:

about $900 (plus monitors and about $50 to bring the

RAM up to 768-megs). This computer is a steal...

If you want to go cheaper, though, I've got a couple

of good Raptor-Premiere P-3 800/850MHz computers to

sell...;-)