New PC questions?

[Mike Burgess]

I have read the thread on this site concerning building a PC for editing AVCHD. A lot of info there, more than I can absorb. What I can gleen is that in that thread, the OP is looking to build something much more envolved than what I need (I think). And for sure, I don't need nor want to spend that kind of money.
So, here is what I would like to have, for what I want to do:

I, too, wish to do editing of AVCHD, using Power Director 9, Pinnacle 15, or Videostudio. But my computer will not be just for editing. It will be used to a smaller degree for gaming; a bit more for e-mailing, working on Word, cruising the net, etc., not to mention storing the finished videos that I have created.
I plan on having multiple storage drives, and using the newer i7(?) 64 bit processor with as many gigs of ram as I can afford. Updated case, video card and sound card will probably round out my purchases. My son, who works for Best Buy in the Geek Squad will be building it for me.

Now I know this probably sounds very minimalistic, but I am on a budget. My system now is dated; 4 gigs of ram on a vista system, but it will do AVCHD with enough time allotted. But it is wearing out.

So, please keep your suggestions well explained, and not too over the top (I am not a computer geek).

Thanks.
Mike

[Harm Millaard]

These charts were made for Premiere Pro CS5+ and the system requirements for Pinnacle, Power Director and VideoStudio may be less, but the general message stays the same. The more difficult the codec, the more is required of your hardware and AVCHD is one of the most difficult codecs to edit.

[Bruce Foreman]

I just got in an HP H8 with 2nd generation Core i7 (up to 3.8Ghz with Turboboost) processor, 8GB RAM, an Nvidia 530 display card with 2GB on board.

The big problem may be with Pinnacle Studio, I've stuck with that NLE from sometime around 1997 or so upgrading through ver. 7 thru 12 and recently purchased 15. If you look at the specs needed you see from early on Pinnacle Studio needed a minimum quad core running at 2.66Ghz to handle 1920x1080 video.

When I got my first Canon HF100 I was running Studio 11 and found out very quickly my quad core 2.4 Ghz machine could not work that resolution without many problems.

Pinnacle Studio may be one of the best "bang for my buck" NLE's (does pretty much everything, but MUCH simpler and easier than most others) but it is A BIG, VERY BIG COMPUTER RESOURCE HOG!

Power Director 7 Ultra and 8 Ultra were only a minor bit better.

Right now I'm battling the learning curve for Edius Neo 3, coming from Studio some things are kind of similar but it's more detailed. However AVCHD and Canon DSLR MOV files just FLY through the timeline, the edit window is fairly crisp HD.

Two things I think you definitely want: The 2nd generation i7 2600 or similar processor, and something like the Nvidia 530 card with 2GB on it.

Third: Minimum 8GB RAM (more if you can afford it)

Fourth: A "healthy" power supply, I think I paid an extra $30 to go from 300W to 450 (just in case I added anything).

Mine priced out at about $964 on one of HP's online specials, I added a monitor to the order and that brought it up some. Should work for gaming, too.

I liked Avid Pinnacle Studio 15 Ultimate collection, on a first gen Core i7 it handled AVCHD and DSLR MOV files easily, rendering was pretty fair but despite the fact I started out on a progressive timeline with progressive files, rendering to MP4 and WMV resulted in interlacing artifacts (Studio 12 does it "clean as a whistle".

So I kind of threw up my hands then found Edius Neo 3 at B&H for $194.

[Mike Burgess]

Thanks Bruce.

Will show my son the info you mentioned about your computer suggestions. Not familiar with Neo.

Mike