Computer Hardware Suggestions?

JesseD · Post by **JesseD** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:03 pm

I will soon be upgrading my Computer. I've got 256mb ram. I'm gonna get an extra 1gb card of ram. That should be adequete. This is for Adobe Premiere. Should I spend over a grand for the Pro or should I go for elements and save over AU$900? I'm going to opt for Photoshop and After Effects aswell. For Photoshop I will only get elements because that's more for just side projects. As for After Effects should I go Pro or Elements? I can shell out over $2000 for the pro versions of After Effects and Premier but is it worth it? Should I just get elements? I'm stumped.

For a few music videos I've made I have used my friends Mac OS or whatever it is. It's good to use, but it just generally gives me the shits. Windows is my friend. My friend has suggested just getting a brand new Mac. I'm on a stalemate. What is your opinion? Windows is great to use. Let's face it Windows Movie Maker is the worst peice of deformed horse shit on the face of this planet.

Or should I spend my thousands of dollars on a 3GB of Ram, Dual Core prosessor Dell(my favourite computer builders)? And get a 19inch LCD moniter. I've alredy got a 320GB external hardrive. And this new computer has a 320GB INTERNAL hardraive. I really don't know. I sort of want to get a brand new computer and get the pro versions, but is it worth it?

SatoSky · Post by **SatoSky** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:31 pm

Adobe offers trial periods for most of their software, so I suggest just trying them out first and then deciding what to purchase. It would be retarded to go out and buy some $1,000 software, which may or may not live up to your standards.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:57 pm

I can't say much about video-editing software, but I can say with great confidence that getting a Mac is probably not what you need. And getting a Dell is not exactly a stellar option either. I strongly suggest buying components separately. What kind of experience do you have with installing hardware?

Beyond that, the most important component will be your cpu. It'll be doing all the real work. Second to that will be your memory, the more RAM the better, I'd suggest getting a full 4 gigs (you should be able to grab four sticks for less than $400). After that, you'll want plenty of hard drive space. I'd go for as many 300-350 GB drives as you can afford (that size seems to be the best price per unit right now). And do internal, not external.

While your choice of monitor isn't that important, I'd stay way from flat panels. They don't do as good a job with motion and colour - which might be important for video-editing

JesseD · Post by **JesseD** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:44 pm

Don't worry, when I get a new computer, I'll go the full force. Dell happens to be my personal favourite and is what I will use. For a 1GB stick of RAM its AU$130. The shop I go to builds computer for your needs. I might just get them to build it for me. But I could upgrade this heap I'm using right now. But it's not that flexible.

Yeah a CPU will definatly be important. I could build it myself but I really couldn't be bothered. I know Windows Vista ain't all that graeat, but the computer does come with home premium. What brand of computer would you recomend?

I'm using a 320GB external hardrive right now and it does the trick for hardrive space. I might get 500GB internal for the hell of it. And 4GB of RAM sounds pretty damn good. And I listen through headphones so I don't neeed really good speakers. Considering when I got this Computer I bought $15 speakers and $30 headphones. I'l try that trial version of Adobe Premiere. I tried the trial of Sony Vegas and it was just shit. That's MY opinion, but some may find it the best program I don't.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:41 pm

For reference's sake, I've been doing videos since 2000, and Meri's been doing videos since 1998 via two-VCRs, going digital shortly there-after. When we had our new computer built a couple months ago, we took into consideration what types of programs we're using and how much we're maxing them out.

Most important thing? Throw RAM at it. Lots and lots of RAM. Since we're using WinXP, it will only see a max of 3 GB of RAM, but the choice was between 2 and 4, so we tossed the 4 in there. On the Mac side of things, Jeff's running a MacBook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, I believe, and is doing crazy particle stuff in Motion...

On our Shuttle, which only has 512 MB of RAM, 1.5 GHz, and is running WinXP, we were constantly crashing After Effects due to it running out of RAM for the renders. Of course, that computer was never meant to do anything other than hold video files, so yeah

. Still... it's something to think about.

Something we mention a lot at panels, and you may already know this, is don't even worry about your video card if you don't play computer games. A fancy 3D video card will do absolutely nothing to help your video editing; it's completely irrelevant.

As for hard drives, you're going to want fast, internal drives. In this day and age, you can never have too much hard drive space. Back in 2005 when we were working on "I Walk Alone", we had three hard drives totally maxed out... an 80 GB, a 120 GB, and an external 120 GB. Of course, that was for a video with *six* footage sources, but when you consider that our new computer is meant to be the main editing machine and hopefully have at least three or four projects going at any given time, you can see how hard drive space is important. We started off with a mere two 250 GB internals, but I've got another 250 GB internal sitting around in a Linux machine not doing much if I need it, and hard drives are cheap enough that if I wanted to throw something like a 500 GB in there, it's easy enough and there's room for it. Long story short for this point... you want lots of hard drive space, especially when you're making AMVs the proper way with DVD footage

.

*gasp* Does any of that even make sense?

I'm no expert, but I'm happy to help with any further suggestions... which will probably just end up being "spend more money"... ^^;;

JesseD · Post by **JesseD** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:19 am

To tell you the truth Michael, I understand everything you said. I do not play games on the computer(why would I buy a PS3?). I have the EXTERNAL 320GB I'm using now, which I bought for my future plans last october.

With a NEW computer, I'll go for 2 500GB INTERNAL hardrives' and that should do. 1320GB should be enough for my needs. I'll probably use 20GB or so for the basic needs. 4GB of RAM will do, right? And these days, if I got a new computer(which I'm leaning to), it comes with Vista Home Premium standard. I've used Vista, and it's just a 'cushioned up' version of WinXP. I'm using a Dell Optiplex 240 ex-government computer right now. I could get a new one with all of the 'shit' and upgrade this one so I have 2 really good ones. BUT this Dell only has 2 RAM ports, so I'd be limited to 2GB of RAM on this,erm, generally-good-at-fucking-me-off-peice-of-retarded-shit-computer.

I've used a Mac for a few random music videos, and it was not that great. I found it a bit complicated. What is this Linux I here such good things about?

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi · Post by **Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:05 pm

JesseD wrote: I've used a Mac for a few random music videos, and it was not that great. I found it a bit complicated. What is this Linux I here such good things about?

Well, if you find Macs confusing, then you don't have to worry about Linux. You won't even be able to install a basic program.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:44 am

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi wrote:Then you don't have to worry about Linux. You won't even be able to install a basic program.

As someone who not only used Macs, but grew up on them, I can confidently say, Macs can be really confusing.

But, c'mon, he could install Ubuntu. I wouldn't even suggest Slackware

JesseD wrote:What is this Linux I here such good things about?

You've heard good things about Linux? I hope you haven't heard it was user friendly, or easy to use.

JesseD · Post by **JesseD** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:35 am

I've heard good hings. I like windows, it does the trick for me. It's simple and can be very flexible.

Kanzenshuu

Computer Hardware Suggestions?

Computer Hardware Suggestions?

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