If I Give You a $1200 budget !

S

SpProductions

HI Guys, i am new to the whole filmmaking scene. i recently bought a canon t3i which i am using with the kit lens.my biggest concern right now is what computer i will need to edit my videos from the t3i. i currently own a pc but if i try to edit the videos on vegas OMG i cant even play them back.i will be in the market to buy a computer for video/photo editing in the next 2 to 3 months.I am getting serious about doing short films with effects and color corrections and all that.my question is, if i was to give you a budget of $1200 to go out and get the best computer for video/photo that those $1200 can get you:
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1. what would you go with PC or MAC ?
2. Laptop or desktop ? even tho i dont like the laptop idea becuase you cant do much of upgrades down the line on a laptop like you can on a desktop.
3.would you go with a custom build or buy from one of the big box stores ?
4.what editing software would you go with (FINAL CUT,PREMIER,AFTER EFFECTS....)
5.what would you do if you was in my shoes right now.
6.what are the specs for a machine you would recommend ?
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any suggestions are greatly welcome , i am here to learn so please help me out !
 
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-ASUS GTX580 1536MB 384-bit

-OCZ RevoDrive 3 120GB PCI-Express 2.0 Solid State Drive

-AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz

-CORSAIR Enthusiast Series 850W

-Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600

ASUS EVO AM3

I built that computer for about $1100. Check to see what the same computer would cost preassembled. You do save money building your own, but it doesnt come with an OS or any other programs.
 
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pc all the way...
i'm gonna build a mad pc with 2k... 24 gigs of ram.... 3 terabytes 3.some gigahertrz processor...
about two gigs of video ram
badass case...
a mac like that would run about 10-15k...
just saying...
 
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Murdock said:
-AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
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Glad to see some love for AMD chips! Outside of the bleeding edge tech (where the leader bounces back between the two, and prices are always high), I've found AMD to be just as reliable and usually substantially cheaper than Intel chips.

If you're not afraid to build, pricewatch.com will be your friend. It's a tech-specific price comparison tool for countless online computer parts retailers. Sort of like the Computer Shopper in days gone bye, or a local computer show. Do they still have those? They were the highlight of my high school days!

Either way, I'd also go the desktop route rather than laptop. As you said, upgrades are easier (adding RAM to a laptop isn't too tough, but dropping in a new video card is a different story), and bigger monitors are always nice, though these days, either with an HDMI out can plug into an HD tv.
 
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rogypro said:
a mac like that would run about 10-15k...
just saying...
Click to expand...

If you buy it preconfigured with all that stuff... or you can buy a base model desktop machine and add all this to it for much cheaper... of course as with the budget PC, you'll be using less than top of the line components and increasing the risk of show stopping failure due to budget hardware... Mac or PC, this is a industry wide quality control thing... the cheaper components you buy tend to be the stuff that the reputable companies sell to the budget vendors because they don't want their name on it, but still want to salvage some profit from its manufacture.

You do get what you pay for in hardware.
 
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OK...Im weird .. Try this.... build a system like Murdock stated above, except a smaller SSD for the OS ( 40gb will do ) add a couple of 2tb HDDs and go w/ Ubuntu Linux ( FREE ) as the OS. Then in a month Lightworks NLE for Linux will drop ( free again as in free beer ) .

With Ubuntu everything you need is free. Linux has awesome audio tools and everything you'd need for video. Lightworks will work in DXnHD which is what Apple ProRes is based on, you will have Cinelerra NLE which is a broadcast quality editor, Blender for 3D modeling and tons of support online. Your creativity is the spark that will set you apart.

just my 2 penneth worth.








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knightly said:
If you buy it preconfigured with all that stuff... or you can buy a base model desktop machine and add all this to it for much cheaper... of course as with the budget PC, you'll be using less than top of the line components and increasing the risk of show stopping failure due to budget hardware... Mac or PC, this is a industry wide quality control thing... the cheaper components you buy tend to be the stuff that the reputable companies sell to the budget vendors because they don't want their name on it, but still want to salvage some profit from its manufacture.

You do get what you pay for in hardware.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I disagree with that. In the world of PC's, in my experience it is actually the manufacturers who skimp on the quality of individual parts, when they sell you a pre-built computer. If you do your research, in almost all scenarios, you will have a better computer, with higher-quality individual pieces of hardware, if you build it yourself, and you'll save money. Macs are great computers; they have their advantages. But in the budget department, there is no question that PC is the way to go. And if you don't physically build it yourself, you should at least buy from a vendor that lets you choose each individual component, before they build it.
 
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I used to build servers, and we had some horrible experiences getting discounts on RAM and Harddrives in a mission critical production environment... after returning almost 10,000 dollars in RAM, we replaced it with more expensive sticks from the vendor apple uses for their in house installs, and the servers stopped seizing (potentially costing us thousands of dollars / second).

Chips are tested at the manufacturer and the ones that pass the speed rating/ throughput rating tests are put in a bin, the rest are graded and either put in bins for slower ram, or put in bins to sell to 3rd party RAM suppliers to recoup their losses. The 3rd party reseller, then marks them at the lower speed and sells them anyway as it can "technically" run at that speed, it's just much more likely to fail.

Harddrives and CPUs are done the same way. (most likely other chips as well)... so even if you're buying pieces to put together your own computer, spend the money to get reputable quality parts... so your computer doesn't die in the middle of something important... I don't personally care if it's a mac or a PC, but the risk is real and cross platform.

we also got to eat 50k on harddrives that failed... but we hadn't installed them before the warranty ran out (budget vs. outage timing conflict)... and the reseller refused to eat the cost on a return... so we went to their competitor using our "year and a day" policy. So their competitor got our 3 million / year on hardware :) Morons.
 
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All my PC's (home built and store bought) bit the dust conpletely or had a major component go out 4-18 months after I got it.

My Mac Pro is going on 4 years and the only thing that went out on it was some cheap RAM I installed. The Apple DIMM is still going. I had a MacBook that had a power supply issue almost 3 years in to owning it. They not only replaced the logicboard that had the bad component, but the screen, keyboard, and almost everything except the metal enclosure at no cost to me. I gave it away last year, and iy's still running strong at 5 years old (this Christmas).

Any PC that I surfed the Internet on ended up with major malware/virus problems, no matter how careful I was. Never a single problem with any Mac. Where I office, the secretary uses a 6-7 year old G5 iMac that while super slow, still runs like a champ and another friend has a G4 iMac he uses for emails and what not.

I actually have my share of qualms with Apple, mostly that I feel like a giant wallet whenever I shop their store. It's a little upsetting that they charge $50 for a cable that can be bought for $5. All that aside, their hardware and operating system is fantastic and while it may cost more up front, you save way more in the long run because you're buying a solid $2000 computer in the same time you'd buy 3-5 $800 computers.

I'm a Mac and CS5 guy. And if you do any stabilization or don't want to buy extra audio software, then CS5.5 is phenomenal. Warp stabilizer alone is worth the price difference to me!

But, all that said, I haven't used windows since Vista came out so 7 might be ok, and I have a friend who's replaced like 4 computers for free through Dell's warranty. CS5 is CS5, just the OS and hardware to consider.
 
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I have always got PC because they are much cheaper and more bang for the buck. Anyways, I think a PC can last a long time if taken care of and you buy a good one not a lemon. Anyways, A lap top is currently a cheap way to go and you can add external monitors if needed. Also can add external hard drives and other accessories. I would think if you are on a tight budget then a PC laptop would be a good choice.

Sony Vegas that you have should work you just need a better computer. What version of Vegas do you have and what type of file are you trying to play? You could even try adding RAM to your old machine. I would think a total of 4 Gigs of RAM minumum. I would suggest more if you can get it to work on your computer. The more RAM the better because rendering can take a lot of RAM. What is your old machine and its stats? What OS are you using?

If you have a PC and plan to surf the web with it too then you should be careful to back things up on your external drive in case of a virus. If your PC starts not running as well bogged down by a virus/malware then you could reformat the internal hard drive and re-install the OS. Or you could use the restore option to see if that fixes the problem.
 
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I'm a PC person but you want to speak the language when you pass your project off to someone else. That means MAC for movies. It's important for even the little things like working with someone who uses MAC for After Effects editing. If you've got a PC then you will run into gamma correction issues when you cross platforms.

I have a 7 year old MAC that is still running FCP just fine. Save your money and get a used MAC, hopefully one that comes with FCP.
 
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Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

BIOSTAR TA990FXE AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core ...

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9

AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX


Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu Ray 3D Feature SATA IHBS112-04 - OEM

Total: Approx. $1,133

Leaving you room for a tower of your choice and your pc will spoke most peoples here. This is all found on newegg.com and that is including the shipping cost for myself. Now the hard drive could be removed and you might be able to get two in place of it but your reliability of cheaper drives will take a noise dive. My 3 and 1/2 cents.

If your a student anywhere, save up and Buy the entire Adobe Production Premium package for about $450 and you will be set. Good luck.
 
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thank you guys so much.i am doing my HW and learning alot from you guys. from the looks of it alot of you guys are suggesting custom built and running premier. just to be fair any info on a good MAC in my budget range just so i can look into both possibilities before i make any decision.
 
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Another approach I would suggest is that since you know you want this 'puter to run your NLE and the rest for filmmaking, look at those programs and their published requirements as well as their and other filmmakers' recommendations above and beyond that, like those here on I.T. on the other threads it's been discussed. That way, when you go shopping for one or when you're collecting the components for one that you're going to build yourself, you'll know what you need for things like RAM and video cards to run those programs well.

In other, fewer words, if you choose CS5.5 for an NLE, familiarize yourself with the specs which CS5 requires in a computer to run well. So look at what you'll be running for your filmmaking and try to match your new computer to that.

CS5.5 System Requirements

I also have to think that the more RAM the better.

So, Adobe says 2 GB is required, but 4 GB recommended. And I think 8 GB has been recommended by a few or more ITers on other threads. And looking ahead, who knows, maybe CS6 will want more.

Then again, I'm not a tech guy or experienced, so don't listen to me. =)
 
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