Ok so, I've done a lot of research here on DVInfo.net for the "ideal" hardware that a video editing system should have. However, most people's inquires are directed toward their needs and does not exactly help in my situation. Therefore, I am going to post yet another "what should my computer have" threads to add to the monotony although mine may deviate from the common narrative...

What I am looking to do is to build a computer that suits my current budget and that I can eventually add the parts needed to do what I want with video in the future. Currently, I am cameraless. But soon, I plan to edit film from a Canon XH A1 using Sony Vegas. I understand that unrendered film will require quite a bit of hard drive space. I had it in mind to have at least 1T of space. But for now, a single Western Digital 500GB SATA Hard Drive will provide me plenty of space for simple web browsing and essay typing.

My question is, what mother board, processor and power supply will support at least 2 or more WD 500GB hard drives and 2G of RAM that I will eventually purchase?
What I am hoping to aquire are simply the bare necessities...such as tower, power supply, processor, hard drive that has potential to perform the tasks that I will need once I am editing video.

Thanks!
-Terry.

That statement above may be considered as somewhat rude or brash, but seriously..

First, let your software/hardware be your guide. What does Vegas run best on? Have you gone to the Vegas forums on the Sony site if they have one? I am a Matrox user and if Sony is anything like Adobe or 99.9 percent of the software vendors, they will have system recommendations: both minimum and maximum. Where do you want to fall in that realm of either minimum or optimum spec's for the software. Where is your budget at to get you to the minimum's or maximums? What platform do they recommend as far as processors or it is optimized for? Is it a heavy gpu user or not really? I am not sure for Vegas because I don't use it, but I have and always will know for what I am using.. Why? Because "I" build my machines and want them to run well...

Before I built my first machine, I studied the site for a good couple months and did searches on the software and hardware vendors. By the time I had figured out my components, I knew the good and bad points of each component for myself. There was a specific reason why "I" had chosen what I had chosen. Not because someone had told me so. That way, when you both go to upgrade and if something goes wrong, you know what to do and will not be shocked and have to learn then. I actually and this is the truth haven't had a problem with a machine from the first to this one, with the exception of a setup I purchased because I was rushing and the salesperson was a cute girl. But even at that, I got it to work because it was based on a chipset that I had researched.

Its good and easy to give recommendations to someone, but from the broadness of your question and query, too many variables.. Also, when you give the person those recomendations, does the person even know what and why your recommending them to that person? Is the reciever of the info able to even say get in the bios of the motherboard and load windows, etc... It just goes on and on. What do you want to build your machine for? I mean, rendering speed? Encoding to SD, HD? And for motherboards, everyone has their preference of mfg.. Each motherboard vendor can have boards based on different chipsets to cater to a very specific crowd and cpu/gpu vendor(I had to use gpu because that is a factor these days)..

You mentioned 500GB Harddrive for essay typing and browsing.. You need to have a few drives when setting up an editing machine..

My suggestion: do some research not only on software, but hardware such as chipsets, ram mfg's, motherboard mfg's, etc. That way before you build something someone tells you to build(which realistically could be over your head), you will know what "you" need and are getting yourself into..

Just my .02 from someone like most here that have been where you are...

Ok so, I've done a lot of research here on DVInfo.net for the "ideal" hardware that a video editing system should have. However, most people's inquires are directed toward their needs and does not exactly help in my situation. Therefore, I am going to post yet another "what should my computer have" threads to add to the monotony although mine may deviate from the common narrative...

What I am looking to do is to build a computer that suits my current budget and that I can eventually add the parts needed to do what I want with video in the future. Currently, I am cameraless. But soon, I plan to edit film from a Canon XH A1 using Sony Vegas. I understand that unrendered film will require quite a bit of hard drive space. I had it in mind to have at least 1T of space. But for now, a single Western Digital 500GB SATA Hard Drive will provide me plenty of space for simple web browsing and essay typing.

My question is, what mother board, processor and power supply will support at least 2 or more WD 500GB hard drives and 2G of RAM that I will eventually purchase?
What I am hoping to aquire are simply the bare necessities...such as tower, power supply, processor, hard drive that has potential to perform the tasks that I will need once I am editing video.

Thanks!
-Terry.

You didn't mention what your "current budget" is, so it is a bit difficult to make any recommendations based on it.

You'll want at least a dual core processor. There's quite a range to choose from. Most any motherboard that will support dual or quad core processors will support 2GB of memory and 2 SATA hard drives. A quality power supply can save you a lot of grief. Good brand names are Corsair and Seasonic, to name a couple that I prefer. You really need to look at the power requirements of your system to select an appropriate power supply.

My first home built computer went through about 5 hard drives and a motherboard in the first year. I could find no technical problems. although my voltages always checked within tolerance, the culprit was the power supply that came with the case. I bought a reliable power supply of the same power rating, and haven't had a problem since. In my opinion, make sure to buy a good reliable power supply, and get one a little bigger than you currently anticipate, you will probably add a few more hard drives later, and need more power :)

Gigabyte is making motherboards now with built in heat pipes and solid state capacitors. Usually what causes motherboard failure is heat related, or a blown out capacitor- so in theory these gigabyte boards should be fairly durable. You'll also want alot of FAST memory, and your processor should have a large cache. You should also include a power supply that will be up to the power demands of a multi-core processor, multiple cooling fans, and multiple hard drives.

I run Premiere Pro CS3. I run it on a machine built specifically for editing video, and little else. I built it with a GeForce6100SM-M motherboard, 4 gigs of PC6400 RAM, and a 3 ghz Athalon 64x2 processor. For sound, I use the plain-vanilla sound chipset built into the motherboard. Video is handled with an XFX PCI-Express 16X graphics card, chosen because it supports two monitors natively, so I can split my desktop across two 22" widescreen monitors. The only other card in the system is a plain-vanilla Firewire card (the motherboard didn't have a built-in Firewire port). The main hard drive is a 300-gig SATA drive, plus one dual-layer DVD write drive. Total cost for the system (monitors not included) was around $400 USD, but then I'm good at scrounging.

I used the least expensive case I could find, all metal, with a 380 watt power supply that cost $38 bucks. Some might thing this kinda wimpy, but I added up all the power requirements and came in at around 250 watts, so I'm running at only around 60% capacity. The case is HUGE compared to the motherboard, but that makes for good air circulation. Plus, it makes mounting all the stuff much easier when you have room to work. For grins, I added a couple of four-inch fans ($2 each from a surplus outlet) to pull air through the case.

Storage for work in progress is handled by external Firewire drives, usually 500 gig. So far, I've had multiple timelines open that ran over six hours each while I've whittled the documentary footage down to something reasonable, and had zero problems with Premier locking up or freezing. I suspect that's because I've been ruthless about NOT cluttering up the system with other software, drivers, and utilities. I used a Windows XP OEM disk to load the system, so you don't get all that other useless crap system manufacturers like to load onto their machines. As I said, this is an editing platform exclusively, with only other video-production-specific programs like Scenalyzer, CineScore, and Photoshop Elements loaded on it. I stayed with XP because I know it fairly well and heard too many horror stories about Vista.

Short end is, 64x2 motherboard and processor combos are cheap these days, 300 gig SATA drives are less than a quarter a gig, and as long as you don't start getting too close to the limit of the power supply, even cheap cases work well.

Hope that helps.

Martin

You didn't mention what your "current budget" is, so it is a bit difficult to make any recommendations based on it.

You'll want at least a dual core processor. There's quite a range to choose from. Most any motherboard that will support dual or quad core processors will support 2GB of memory and 2 SATA hard drives. A quality power supply can save you a lot of grief. Good brand names are Corsair and Seasonic, to name a couple that I prefer. You really need to look at the power requirements of your system to select an appropriate power supply.

Well in terms of budget, I had planned on constructing a computer that reaches around the $2300 range. Most of the expenses were dual 22" screens, 4 hard drives and expenses I felt necessary toward cooling the processor etc. But I thought that since I don't find it economically benificial to buy all of the parts at the moment, I could atleast buy what I thought were the bare mininum and then buy what is necessary to do film once I aquire a quality camera.

The information you provided was exactly what I had in mind to discuss. Thank you for your input it was well appreciated.

I run Premiere Pro CS3. I run it on a machine built specifically for editing video, and little else. I built it with a GeForce6100SM-M motherboard, 4 gigs of PC6400 RAM, and a 3 ghz Athalon 64x2 processor. For sound, I use the plain-vanilla sound chipset built into the motherboard. Video is handled with an XFX PCI-Express 16X graphics card, chosen because it supports two monitors natively, so I can split my desktop across two 22" widescreen monitors. The only other card in the system is a plain-vanilla Firewire card (the motherboard didn't have a built-in Firewire port). The main hard drive is a 300-gig SATA drive, plus one dual-layer DVD write drive. Total cost for the system (monitors not included) was around $400 USD, but then I'm good at scrounging.

I used the least expensive case I could find, all metal, with a 380 watt power supply that cost $38 bucks. Some might thing this kinda wimpy, but I added up all the power requirements and came in at around 250 watts, so I'm running at only around 60% capacity. The case is HUGE compared to the motherboard, but that makes for good air circulation. Plus, it makes mounting all the stuff much easier when you have room to work. For grins, I added a couple of four-inch fans ($2 each from a surplus outlet) to pull air through the case.

Storage for work in progress is handled by external Firewire drives, usually 500 gig. So far, I've had multiple timelines open that ran over six hours each while I've whittled the documentary footage down to something reasonable, and had zero problems with Premier locking up or freezing. I suspect that's because I've been ruthless about NOT cluttering up the system with other software, drivers, and utilities. I used a Windows XP OEM disk to load the system, so you don't get all that other useless crap system manufacturers like to load onto their machines. As I said, this is an editing platform exclusively, with only other video-production-specific programs like Scenalyzer, CineScore, and Photoshop Elements loaded on it. I stayed with XP because I know it fairly well and heard too many horror stories about Vista.

Short end is, 64x2 motherboard and processor combos are cheap these days, 300 gig SATA drives are less than a quarter a gig, and as long as you don't start getting too close to the limit of the power supply, even cheap cases work well.

Hope that helps.

Martin

Martin, you've inspired me haha. I honestly don't need the top of the line or the most expensive equipment to accomplish what I am trying to do right now with film. I honestly just want a computer that I can edit all my footage with and not have any problems. What you've done sounds exactly like what I need to do in my senario. $400 bucks sounds GREAT compaired to my $2300 I estimated through Tiger Direct.

Thank you sir.
-Terry

Intell Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 Ghz CPU
4xGig ram
Gigabyte P35 s775 Dual PCIe x16 Motherboard
Gigabyte GF8600 512MB PCIE VGA
Hard drive you have
Antec Truepower Trio 650w Power Supply
Coolmaster Centurion 534 ATX case
Windows XP Pro Oem

This is what i have just up graded to and it seems really good with Vegas
Cheers
Simon

Well in terms of budget, I had planned on constructing a computer that reaches around the $2300 range. Most of the expenses were dual 22" screens, 4 hard drives and expenses I felt necessary toward cooling the processor etc. But I thought that since I don't find it economically benificial to buy all of the parts at the moment, I could atleast buy what I thought were the bare mininum and then buy what is necessary to do film once I aquire a quality camera.

The information you provided was exactly what I had in mind to discuss. Thank you for your input it was well appreciated.

Here's what I would suggest for CPU, motherboard and power supply:
CPU -
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA1938452
Motherboard -
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4841007
(use promo code WEB3311938452 to get a $20 discount on CPU/motherboard combo)
Power Supply -
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A6200027
(rebate good if purchased by tomorrow)

Penny pinching options:
CPU -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103226
Motherboard -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075
(click on combo deals to get a $20 discount on CPU/motherboard combo)
(motherboard has reasonable performance on board graphics)
Power Supply -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

For 2GB of memory, I suggest this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066

Instead of a 500GB hard drive, you might consider this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152100
(has 32MB cache, rather than 16MB or 8MB)

I like this for a good, yet economical case:

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1306233&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

Cooler Master often runs a nice rebate deal on these (but not at the moment).

I just built a system in one of these last weekend. For the price, it's pretty tough to beat. It's well designed, reasonably good build, and includes three 120mm cooling fans.

Martin, you've inspired me haha. I honestly don't need the top of the line or the most expensive equipment to accomplish what I am trying to do right now with film. I honestly just want a computer that I can edit all my footage with and not have any problems. What you've done sounds exactly like what I need to do in my senario. $400 bucks sounds GREAT compaired to my $2300 I estimated through Tiger Direct.

Thank you sir.
-Terry

It's a case of not being on the "bleeding edge" of technology. Honestly, I'd LOVE one of those dual quad-core Macs, but I do fine with the system listed above.

Performance is limited by other factors besides processor speed. When I put the system together, it had a 1.9ghz 64x2 processor, which I used to load the system and check out the rest of the hardware. About a month later, I got the 3ghz 64x2 processor. Before installing, I ran a render on an existing project with the slower processor. If memory serves, I think it ran about 2 minutes, 45 seconds to render. I installed the new processor and rendered the same project. Render time was about 2 min, 35 seconds, with a processor that should theoretically have done it in 33% less time. What this tells me is that time to buffer the files out to the hard drive is what slows the system down the most.

75% of editing is spent arranging stuff on the timeline and trimming clips to length. The only time things get really render-intensive is when I'm color-correcting, which is about the next to last thing I do in a project. By that time, I can use a little away time from the editing platform while it renders.

Martin

I assume you are editing SD Martin (you list an XL2 as your camera in your signature). You would see a much bigger performance difference in HD.

What this tells me is that time to buffer the files out to the hard drive is what slows the system down the most.

Hey Martain, excuse my minimal knowledge of the digital film process but does this sentence imply that you are taking video directly from your camera and rendering it to your hard drive? I am asking in curiosity of what the common method is. I understand that some people have the assets to buy a deck that allows them to incert the tape where I suppose the rendering process occurs. But in my current circumstances, if not buying a deck would suit my needs just fine, then thats the route for me.

Is render time to the hard drive normally the main issue when building a video editing computer? Or are there other things to be aware of?

Hey Robert, Thank you for your list.

What are the advantages of having a quad core intel processor VS. A quad core AMD? I know that in terms of performance, Intel has AMD beat. But is that the real reason for the huge price difference?

Again, thank you for your reply!
-Terry.

Hey Martain, excuse my minimal knowledge of the digital film process but does this sentence imply that you are taking video directly from your camera and rendering it to your hard drive? I am asking in curiosity of what the common method is. I understand that some people have the assets to buy a deck that allows them to incert the tape where I suppose the rendering process occurs. But in my current circumstances, if not buying a deck would suit my needs just fine, then thats the route for me.

Is render time to the hard drive normally the main issue when building a video editing computer? Or are there other things to be aware of?

Most people who are short on money use the same camera they shot the tape with to download the video into the computer. Usually whatever editing software you're using has a "capture" function to download the video to your hard drive. I use a separate program called Scenalyzer to capture from tape, because it's simpler to operate. The capture function in Premier Pro CS3 has way too many options and settings, and many times I have to capture twice (or more) because something wasn't set just the way it expected.

I can only speak from my SD experience. I've been told I would have seen a bigger difference between the faster and slower processors in HD.

A hard drive is a mechanical device. It requires the targeted portion of the physical disk to be under the read/write heads. There are times where the data is ready to be written to the drive, but you have to wait for the correct location on the disk to line up with the head. There are ways to get around the problem, such as storing the data in memory until you get enough to write it in one large operation, where you only have to wait for the heads to position once, rather than several smaller operations.

SD DV storage runs about 13 gigs per hour. I've only got 4 gigs of ram, so obviously Premier can't crunch a whole hours worth of video in one chunk. So, it has to read a section (taking time for the drive to make the data available), perform whatever render operations are required, then write the processed section off to the drive before getting the next chunk.

Hard drives are actually the slowest part of a computer. Manufacturers have put large chunks of ram into the drives themselves, called buffers, to store the incoming data stream as fast as possible, and writing it to the drive at its inherently slower speed. This works well for most applications like word processors, which talk to the hard drive occasionally. Disk-intensive programs like video editing software will fill up this buffer, and have to wait for the drive to finish writing and clear the buffer before they can send more data. That's why you (usually) see a better boost in system performance by adding more ram, so you're working with larger chunks of data.

You can play lots of specification games with hard drive rotation speeds, seek times, buffer sizes, etc. People edit just fine on laptops with the 5400 RPM drives -- it just takes a little while longer when you're rendering.

I don't render directly from the camera. Normal workflow is to record the digital video on a tape in the camera, then download the recorded tape into the editing computer and store it on the hard drive. It's called capturing. Once you've captured the video clips on a hard drive, then the rest of the editing process is done in the computer.

I tend to be a bit more pragmatic about render times because my first experience with editing digital video was using Premier on Mac Quadra 950 computers. We'd edit a 15-minute video, start the final render as we left for the evening, and come back the next morning and wait an hour or so while the render finished. Fully render an hour video in less than ten minutes? No problem.

My suggestion for somebody who wants an affordable editing system is to get a dual-processor motherboard, put a reasonably fast processor in it, but spring for as much fast RAM, like PC6400, as you can afford. I like SATA hard drives these days: inexpensive and fast, and a lot easier to install. As far as video goes, the onboard video on the motherboard
works just fine for me. I only add a separate display card if I want something special, like dual monitors.

The other thing is I try to keep that system just for editing video. No games, oddball hardware, or software installed. If you buy a pre-built system, the manufacturer has usually loaded it down with all kinds of extra software and system utilities that just drag performance down. I usually reload the operating system from what's called an OEM disk (original equipment manufacturer), where the only thing it installs on the hard drive is the operating system itself. I have an HP Media Center computer which I no longer edit on because HP has so much garbage installed on the drive that it occasionally just locks up or loses the keyboard and mouse for no apparent reason. When I retire one of my older XP machines, I'll transfer the license to the HP machine, wipe the hard drive, and reinstall plain Windows XP on it from the OEM disk, and maybe it will behave.
Martin

Hey Robert, Thank you for your list.

What are the advantages of having a quad core intel processor VS. A quad core AMD? I know that in terms of performance, Intel has AMD beat. But is that the real reason for the huge price difference?

Again, thank you for your reply!
-Terry.

I assume the price difference is primarily driven by the difference in performance. The Intel quads do generally outperform the AMD quads significantly. I've seen benchmarks that indicate the AMD quads may actually outperform the Intel quads at h.264 compression though.

Quad core processors do offer a performance boost with Vegas (Vegas takes advantage of them).

Processors do have much greater bandwidth writing to RAM memory than to hard drives (by orders of magnitude). That said, with tasks like rendering high definition video to h.264 or computation intensive filtering (like noise reduction, color correction, etc), processor speed is usually the bottleneck, rather than disk speed (so long as the source and destination drives are physically two different drives - if source and destination drives are the same, then seek time comes into play).

Alright, here is what I have in my tiger direct shopping cart thus far...

RAM- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3228139&sku=C13-6082

Motherboard - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2853608&sku=A455-2322

Processor - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2643933&sku=CP2-DUO-Q6600

Power supply - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3438607&sku=C13-2502

Hard drive - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2795126&sku=TSD-500AAKS

I am still in need of a case which I left open for suggestion by anyone who has any idea of what is necessary in a case.

Is there a need for a video card? I remember someone saying that they just use the onboard video on their motherboard..

The total is $744.95 with Tigerdirect.com prices. I choose Tiger Direct because my friends experiences with orders has been good. However I am up for suggestions of places with lower prices that other people have also had a good experience with.

I think that my motherboard choice is alittle week, but I don't know. Martin mentioned a dual-processor motherboard but I'm not sure if thats what I have in my shopping cart. Also, I've seen alot of people suggest motherboards that focus on temperature control. The Abit IP35 motherboard that Robert Wright posted has copper heatsinks and pipes that the one I have in my cart does not. I unfortunately do not know that much about this stuff to make a clear judgment.

In the future, I plan on upgrading to 8GB of RAM and an external hard drive, two 22" monitors and perhaps a better set of speakers. Untill then I will use my junk speakers and my little 17" monitor.

Am I missing anything?
-Terry.

Tiger Direct is a reputable outfit, but I rarely purchase from them. I purchase computer parts most often from ClubIT and Newegg. They are reliable, and usually have better prices.

That RAM memory you have in your cart is good. You can sometimes find a little better price on A-Data memory (with the same specs DDR2-800Mhz-CAS5), which is top notch also. I think Newegg currently has a promotion code to get the A-Data for around $65, if you are on their list to receive promotion codes. If you want, you can email me and I can look it up for you.

That Asus motherboard should work fine. Asus is a top echelon motherboard maker (and from what I gather their tech support is among the best, but I can't even remember the last time I called l tech support for computer parts, so I don't know first hand). The particular A-Bit motherboard I suggested is arguably the cream of the crop for the Intel quad Q6600. You will need a video card with either of those boards. You don't need a real powerful video card for Vegas. I suggest you look at some of the lower cost ATI HD2xxx series cards. Sapphire seems to make pretty good quality ones.

If you go with the Intel Q6600 quad core processor, I suggest you purchase that from ClubIT. If you get it from ClubIT, you will get the G0 stepping version (cpu ID SLACR). If you order it somewhere else, you may or may not (you might wind up with the B3 stepping version). Get the retail package version (includes cooling fan), unless you are going to use a third party CPU cooler. Third party CPU coolers can work better, but the stock fan from Intel will work ok, so long as you don't over-clock (which I don't suggest anyone do, unless they REALLY know what they are doing).

That Corsair is a solid power supply. All the Corsairs are top notch.

The WD 500GB hard drive is an ok choice. 750GB drives offer a little better bang for your buck though (lower cost per GB) and editing HD can wind up using gobs of disk space.

For a case, take a look at the one I suggested previously. That's a pretty solid choice.

8 gigs of RAM won't do anything for you, unless you go to the 64bit version of XP or Vista. Chimei makes a pretty good 22" monitor at a nice price. For good, yet economical computer speakers, take a look at Logitech's offerings. I think Tiger Direct might actually have a pretty good deal going on a nice Logitech 5.1 set right now.

Hey Robert,

I tried looking up the Intel processor package on you mentioned and wasn't sure if I had found it. I did find the Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor but couldn't find the retail package version. If the stock Intel fan will work fine, then thats all I need for now.

The A-Data RAM you meniton, is it 4GB for $65? That sounds like a good deal. How long does that offer stand?

I picked the Asus motherboard simply because it was cheep and seamed to handle my needs. But do you suggest that the A-bit motherboard would suit me alittle better? I know in terms of performance, but do you think it would be a better idea since I'm going with Intel Q6600? I have a decent video card in my computer already. Its a GeFORCE FX 5500 PCI with 128MB DDR. Would that do just fine?

Thanks alot for helping!
-Terry.

Hey Robert,

I tried looking up the Intel processor package on you mentioned and wasn't sure if I had found it. I did find the Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor but couldn't find the retail package version. If the stock Intel fan will work fine, then thats all I need for now.

The A-Data RAM you meniton, is it 4GB for $65? That sounds like a good deal. How long does that offer stand?

I picked the Asus motherboard simply because it was cheep and seamed to handle my needs. But do you suggest that the A-bit motherboard would suit me alittle better? I know in terms of performance, but do you think it would be a better idea since I'm going with Intel Q6600? I have a decent video card in my computer already. Its a GeFORCE FX 5500 PCI with 128MB DDR. Would that do just fine?

Thanks alot for helping!
-Terry.

The link I posted previously is for the retail boxed Q6600. Here it is again:

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA1938452

That's the G0 stepping Q6600 (not the B3 stepping version). Most retailers won't specify the stepping of the Q6600 chip they ship you. ClubIT does, so that is the only place I will purchase one (CPU ID "SLACR" tells you it is the G0 stepping version).

The Asus board should be a good board. That board supports the Q6600, and Asus is a top notch motherboard manufacturer. The Abit board probably gets the best reviews of any board for the Q6600 that I know of. Either one should work well.

The video card you have will probably be ok (so long as it can connect to the monitors you get). I'd suggest one of the lower end Radeon HD2xxx series cards though. They support hardware acceleration of playback for the three major HD delivery codecs nicely. You can get a decent one (for working with Vegas, not a hot gaming card) for under $100.

I just spoke with Newegg, and there seems to be some confusion there on the pricing for that memory promo. The memory you found at Tiger Direct is a pretty good deal (and I have never had a problem with Corsair memory).

Hey Robert,

I tried looking up the Intel processor package on you mentioned and wasn't sure if I had found it. I did find the Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor but couldn't find the retail package version. If the stock Intel fan will work fine, then thats all I need for now.

The A-Data RAM you meniton, is it 4GB for $65? That sounds like a good deal. How long does that offer stand?

I picked the Asus motherboard simply because it was cheep and seamed to handle my needs. But do you suggest that the A-bit motherboard would suit me alittle better? I know in terms of performance, but do you think it would be a better idea since I'm going with Intel Q6600? I have a decent video card in my computer already. Its a GeFORCE FX 5500 PCI with 128MB DDR. Would that do just fine?

Thanks alot for helping!
-Terry.

Make sure your current video card can mate with your future mobo. All mobo's are PCIe's, you mentioned that yours is PCI which may not be compatible. If you have to get new vid card, usually it requires its own power supply, sometimes even two plugs required. This translate to the power box that you have to have for it.

The vast majority of motherboards still have PCI slots (but I would still get a new video card). The power supply Terry is looking at purchasing can easily handle powering pretty much any video card in production nowadays.

The vast majority of motherboards still have PCI slots (but I would still get a new video card). The power supply Terry is looking at purchasing can easily handle powering pretty much any video card in production nowadays.

Those mobos have it under older chipsets and CPU generation. Thinking ahead, that would be a crippling situation when he edits in HD. I don't know offhand of any dual core CPUs sinking into v-PCI mobos.

Here's an economical video card that would probably work nicely for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102103

Those mobos have it under older chipsets and CPU generation. Thinking ahead, that would be a crippling situation when he edits in HD. I don't know offhand of any dual core CPUs sinking into v-PCI mobos.

Vegas doesn't use the GPU, so video cards don't have much impact on editing performance.

Here's an economical video card that would probably work nicely for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102103

I think the OP have an economical card already but his is PCI.

Vegas doesn't use the GPU, so video cards don't have much impact on editing performance.

I was referring to his use of older system that limits his potential right from the get go. To spend what he originally intended, I'd go with something more robust for not much more money. I still use higher end video card for the playback purpose( to play what I'm currently editing) and gaming goodness.

Any of the HD2xxx or HD3xxx series cards will accelerate any of the major HD delivery codecs (MPEG2, H.264 or VC1) very nicely, and give smooth playback. I didn't get the impression that Terry was interested in building his computer for gaming. One of the reasons I suggested that particular card (above) is that with 256MB of RAM, it has a relatively small memory footprint (compared to 512MB or more with most cards these days), and leaves a little more memory available for Vegas (and/or other apps) to run in.

Any of the HD2xxx or HD3xxx series cards will accelerate any of the major HD delivery codecs (MPEG2, H.264 or VC1) very nicely, and give smooth playback. I didn't get the impression that Terry was interested in building his computer for gaming. One of the reasons I suggested that particular card (above) is that with 256MB of RAM, it has a relatively small memory footprint (compared to 512MB or more with most cards these days), and leaves a little more memory available for Vegas (and/or other apps) to run in.


That gaming part I inserted was for me and me alone :} No disagreements here. Just good dialog for any who lurks here.