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General discussion

Desktop specs for video editing

Apr 15, 2005 5:41AM PDT

I am mostly doing basic functions like Word and Excel, but I would like to edit video. Aside from having a firewire port, what kind of processing power, memory, hard drive, etc. do I need to have? I would prefer to keep the cost to a minimum, below $1,000 if possible. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Recently replaced, but what I used to use was...
Apr 15, 2005 6:24AM PDT

An Acer TER-600 with a P3 600 MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 40 GB 5400 RPM drive and Windows 2000. The video wasn't anything special and it worked for years.

Today you would be hard pressed to find a new laptop with lesser specs.

Bob

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desktop specs
Apr 17, 2005 11:37AM PDT

um, i'd say a Pentium 4 as they do excellent in encoding
you could do a Pentium 4 2.66A (newegg has them for around $144 retail box (you get a HSF with it))

and then 512MB to 1GB of RAM (either 2x256 or 2x512) and then for the hard drive you get what you need
if it was me, i'd get a 120GB Maxtor as it'll cost around $75-$80 and work fine (it's ATA-133 2MB cache, yeah it's older school, but it gets the job done)

and then you could consider a sound card with multiple inputs/outputs, or a video/audio capture card...or just get the Firewire port and (never used Firewire for video camera connection) audio capture (unles audio moves over the Firewire, i know Firewire is easily capable, BUT I don't know if it's used for both)

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What about the Mac Mini?
Apr 18, 2005 6:40AM PDT

I have used both Windows and Mac. My old Power PC was always more stable than any Windows machine so I would not mind going back. Can the Mac Mini handle the video editing?

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What about the Mac Mini?
Apr 18, 2005 7:34AM PDT

Can the Mac Mini handle the video editing? YES!!! What is
iMovie!! iDVD!! Final Cut!!! What is firewire!!. John

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(never used Firewire for video camera connection)
Apr 18, 2005 7:37AM PDT

Never?? Well you are missing out. Firewire is the best way to capture video and audio. From some video software programs you can operate the camera controlls. John

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i don't film...
Apr 18, 2005 11:07AM PDT

i don't use digital cameras of any kind
i'll keep my 35MM SLR and Hi-8 Video camera until I HAVE TO buy new ones (i just got my SLR, and it's not going away, as for the Hi-8, it's older (but still nice) and if i was replacing it, i'd go digital (i don't use it enough, read: once a year)

so aside from that
i just remembered the Mac Mini
a friend was doing his video editing work on it, the thing just ate it right up, and for $500 it's a great deal

i'd get that