Hello:
I'm seriously considering having a new PC built for editing, as I'm told that going that route ensures things can be upgraded later on as opposed to buying a pre-built PC.

I have Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. Which video card, motherboard, etc. would be best to put in the computer for running Premiere Pro?

I also may be upgrading to Premiere Pro CS5 by the end of the year. Would the video card etc. I put in now be OK for that?

I have been shooting and editing SD for years, but in the fall I'll be shooting a documentary on HD. I know I would need much better processors for HD like quad core, etc, what should also be put in the PC now so that I can edit HD in the months ahead?

Finally, is there anyway to get the above for between $1000 and $1500? Thanks.

What video card you have is enough for CS3. Anything over $ 30 will do.

I have Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. Which video card, motherboard, etc. would be best to put in the computer for running Premiere Pro?

I also may be upgrading to Premiere Pro CS5 by the end of the year. Would the video card etc. I put in now be OK for that?

What video card you have is enough for CS3. Anything over $ 30 will do.

I put those two together, and came to the conclusion that a video card with OpenGL 2.0 or higher support is required for CS5 in MPE's software-only mode. However, you will want an NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher based video card with at least 896MB of graphics RAM in order to utilize the CS5 MPE's GPU acceleration feature. (Officially, the MPE's GPU acceleration feature supports the GeForce GTX 285, the Quadro FX 3800, 4800 and 5800 and the Quadro CX.)

In addition, if your current monitor has a maximum resolution of 1152x864 or lower, you will have to upgrade the monitor in order to run PPro CS5 at all. PPro CS5 requires a minimum monitor resolution of at least 1280x900.

I suggest you look at the recent thread called "Capable PC"
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-creative-suite/482057-capable-pc.html

The thread discusses several recipes for PPro editing machine including the "DIY7" recipe from DVinfo sponsor, Videoguys. I think you will find some specific suggestions and answers there about computers in your budget range, both built-to -order and ready-made.

Some things that are not covered in that thread are things like the following.

Are you asking for what would be the least expensive video card you could buy now for a lower-budget editing system that would later allow you to run the hardware accelerated version of the Mercury Playback Engine in CS5? If so, I'd guess that it is probably one of the nVidia GTX260 cards, either a PNY GTX260 (which I have) or one of the variants suggested in the "Capable PC" thread. (Check out the very long thread in this forum about using GTX cards with PPro CS5.)

But, maybe you are asking: what is the least expensive video card you can buy now that will run under CS3 and still allow you to later run software-based MPE under CS5 if and when you get it? I would guess the answer that depends on whether you have an idea if you want to run CS5's MPE in hardware or in software. Some people don't care and others care very much. If you haven't thought about this yet, here are some things to consider. When you switch over to "HD" will you be going with HDV cameras or AVCHD cameras? Editing AVCHD benefits a lot from hardware MPE unless you plan on transcoding all your AVCHD footage through Cineform NeoScene to less onerous intermediate files? Editing HDV also benefits from hardware MPE but some people find editing HDV in CS5 is acceptable without hardware MPE. Do you plan on doing much with effects and layers?Will you be doing muti-cam edits or basically assembling single track timelines from clips?

Also, which version of Windows are you currently using to run CS3 --- Win XP, Vista 64 or Win 7? If you are using XP now, are you planning to upgrade to Win 7 when you get CS5 and your new machine or do you just want to move XP and everything else over for the time being and do an upgrade later? This choice affects how much RAM you buy now. XP can only use 4 gigs of RAM (if you use the "3 gb switch" in the boot file) but Win 7 can use a lot more and the extra expense of 12 gigs is pretty much a standard recommendation.

Maybe somebody else will have additional suggestions.

If you are building for the immediate future, it would seem to make sense to build a system for CS5, even though you don't have it yet.
CS5 runs very well on Win7 64, Intel i7, 12GB RAM, and an nVidea MPE compatable GPU. I would consider that config to be a reasonable minimum to be worth the trouble and expense of building a new system.
Whenever you decide to upgrade to CS5, you'll be in like Flynn :)