Hi all,

Could you advise me as to specs of a new computer for editing video please.

Currently, I have a dual core with 2mb ram. I edit in premiere and after effects although one night it took 16 hours to render a single 12 second clip in after effects. Having said that, It could handle having premiere, after effects and photoshop open at same time as internet etc. so its done me proud but time to upgrade.

So, how much ram is possible to get?
Processors: is it the i7 that is the best?
Best graphics card?
Other things i need? like firewire ports etc?
Best place to buy?
Anything to consider?like the fact I only shoot SD not HD, have a canon XM2. Should I futureproof myself by making it hd capable?
64 bit?

Thanks,

Brian.(Ireland)

The operating system should be 64bit so that you can handle more than 3GB of RAM. That's an absolute must.

If at all possible, go for 24GB of RAM as people are noticing the difference when upgrading from 12GB. It's getting quite affordable too with pricing such as this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231357).

And an absolutely honkin' Corel i7 processor.

For hard drives, get yourself some sort of RAID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID) setup. Can't let anything get in the way of data that needs to be shunted around.

For connectivity, you will need Firewire, eSata, and USB3 (which has ginormous bandwidth!). These should hopefully all be standard on a quality new motherboard these days.

This is enough to get you started with a "quality spend" for a computer that is going to last you for quite a few years. One thing I would recommend for high volume producing is a Matrox encoder card or breakout box with their 'Max' technology for encoding to h264. Fantastic for deliverables.

Andrew

Lots of great discussion on this very topic over in the PC Editing subforum, where I suspect this thread will get moved shortly.