Quote: My PC is now too old, so I pan to upgrade it in order to make a decent AVCHD editing PC. I plan to buy PowerDirector 11 (used Premier before). This is what I will reuse from my pressent PC:
- 3 Sata 2 disks (320mb)
- PSU (450w)
- cabinet

I plan to buy Intel i7 3770-K processor, and a new SSD for OS and programs and 16gb of Ram. I am NOT a gamer, the pc will mostly be used for ordinery internet surfing and office programs, but also for editing AVCHD video. I do not need a high end machine, but a decent one that will make AVCHD editing go smooth. If thevrendering at the end takes a ehile, that is not a problem.

Main questions:
- what MBO do I need? I do not need a lot of connection (4 Sata ports, and maybe put some of my Sata2 in Raid 0, if that will be useful??)
- do I need an extra graphics card at all? I see that the specs for Power D.11 suggests some graph. boards. What are tha advantages, will the editing process and rendering be much faster with a decent graph board? And will it be much difference if buy a eg 300 dollar board or a 100 dollar board?

Thanx

The 450 Watt power supply is barely good enough. With today's computers and graphic cards you need a bit more power supply.

With the Intel HD graphics 4000, it is recommended to have a Graphics card for rendering AVCHD videos. The Built-in Intel graphics only allocates about 64 megabytes for the graphics memory, Powerdirector minimum requirements is more that that.

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultra/specs_en_US.html

I hope your spec on your SATA hard drive is 320 (GB) Gigabytes and not 320 (MB) Megabytes. You should consider a larger hard drive for video editing. 1 Terabyte is a good size.

On the SSD drive, be careful on your selection, some work well and some do not work well with Powerdirector. Powerdirector needs about 100 GB of free space on the OS Drive. (C). Many SSD drives are too small.

For the Motherboard, you should go for a good one, you do need a motherboard that is good for gaming, because the system requirements for HD video editing is greater than for a Gaming computer.

Cabinet is probably OK, if it has enough cooling and space for Motherboard and Hard drives. A new motherboard should have four to six SATA controllers and lots of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. The motherboard should have support for the CPU you want. Plenty of expansion slots for expansion boards

A internet connection (Network card) is required for Powerdirector activation.

RAM should be 6 GB and up on a 64 Bit OS.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Thanx
Of course, the 3 sata2 disks are each 320gb! Should make these (2 ore 3) in a RAID 0? When using Premiere, I could allocate one disk for the video material, one for temp files and one for output files, in order to increase speed. Is that possible in PowerD?

Ok, I see I need a good graph card, any suggestions on the typical standard I would need? And MBO?

Nicolaj

...and I have a 3TB NAS for main storage and backup.

Powerdirector gives little control where the Temp files are stored.

As far as I know, PD stores many Temp files in the User folder and some in the Windows cache area.
PD 11 also generates three folders in the same area where the export folder is set in preferences.

Under most conditions, I find those folders to be empty.

You can use the NAS drives for storage, you should not use them for editing folders.
Powerdirector gets very upset if the files you are editing disappear from view.

All editing should be done on a local Hard drive. It is a good Idea to keep all of your resources for a project in one folder.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Maybe I could use my 3 Sata 2 disks in a RAID 0, and install PD on that disk, and keep all media/output+++ files on that disk - just for this purpose. Or is a SSD even faster than that?

The NAS will only be for storage, not for editing.

Any suggestions on what MBO, graphic board, SSD and RAM to choose? That will work fine with PowerD 11?

Thanx a lot!

Hi Nicolaj22,
Here's a link you night like to look up:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

Dafydd

Thanx
Is it a 1:1 relation between the passmark index and the PowerD's speed when rendering and making previews?

The sharing of load between the CPU (i7) and the graphical board/videocard: is it so "simple" as to pick a fast CPU (eg i7 3770k) and a fast videocard, and they will woork good together (smart sharing of load), or is there some other "traps" I need to consider? MBO ...?

I find it strange that PD is not able to allocate dirfferent physical disks for different tasks, that all files need to be on C:/ drive.

Hi Nicolaj22,
Please look up Preferences (icon top middle) and set the locations yourself if you wish to change them. Source material does not necessarily have to be on C drive, media can be on another easily.

Dafydd

Nicola,

First thing is to define your price. How much are you willing to spend?

Btw- even if you are not a gamer- such systems are for the most part, are perfect for other work such as video editing and everyday tasks. So don't ignore such components just because it has a "gamer" designation to them.

For graphics cards- my personal preference are for Nvidia ones. The prices have come down a lot since last year and with the new 700 series being released you can pick up a 600 series for a real good deal. (In that range my personal pick woukd be the 650 for a budget build.)

As for MB again lots of choices- Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI etc. all have good boards at various price points.
Also be aware your old case might not fit the new MB -so check the specs on both.

The i7 is a good chip. The 3770K is solid. (Video editing relies heavily on the CPU. More so than the GPU graphics card. (No matter what the software marketing people try to tell you.)

Power supply, fans, CPU heat sink, SATA II / III cables etc.- the motherboard specs should tell you some of the requirements.

Rob
PD 14 Ultimate Suite / Win10 Pro x64
1. Gigabyte Brix PRO / i7-4770R Intel Iris Pro 5200 / 16 GB / 1 TB SSD
2. Lenovo X230T / 8GB / Intel HD4000 + ViDock 4 Plus & ASUS Nvidia 660 Ti / Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZw3GPwKMo&feature=youtu.be

Hi

About my budget, it is not very specific. I'll buy what is needed for good performance, but not use 50% extra money to get 10% more speed... So these items are within my budget:
- i7 3770k
- http://www.asus.com/ROG/MAXIMUS_V_FORMULA/
-sku=757574#linkshttp://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX660_TIDC22GD5/ (in the PassMark test (link above) I see the gtx660ti get a high score, and the price i still not sky high).
- SSD http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=757574#links
- RAM http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=752764#links
- a new more powerful PSU
- I have Antec P180 cabinet http://www.antec.com/specs/P180_spe.html


When I read about the Intel HD graphics 4000 it seems that no extra graphic card is needed, but I guess that is not correct, right? When using PD, I guess the gtx660 will improve speed a lot, or?

I guess the spec above will perform well? And since I can share the load on different disks, I'll set up my three 320 gb "old" sata 2 drives in a RAID 0 config if that is useful.

Thanx for all help!!

Those components are good solid picks that can handle anything thrown at it.
If I were building another desktop PC most of those would be what I would use.

For the extra money don't forget a good IPS or equivalent monitor if you do not already have one. (I have an ASUS ProArt 24" price to specs ratio, especially for video editing and other tasks, it was really worth it for me. There are other models from different manufacturers that are as good and better- again depends on budget.)

I have the 660 Ti. Great card, great buy right now price to performance- see my sig for video detail on what I did with it.
It is the quietest graphics card I have ever owned. I have it sitting less than two feet away from me right now and I can't even hear it ! (ASUS ROG brand products motherboard and components are solid picks.)

My laptop's internal GPU is the Intel HD4000 and when traveling I have used it extensively. In a pinch it will do.

You could just try your desktop version of the HD4000- and then get the external GPU like the 660 Ti later on if you are not satisfied. It's up to you. And again just remember it will be your CPU- the Intel i7 that does most of the work with a little help from the GPU. So the CPU is more important.

Also the software you use, no matter from what manufacturer- they all have their "quirks" and issues.
But you sound like you know your way around computers so all it takes is patience, experimentation and asking lots of questions. (Especially on this site- people are very helpful on here.)

Rob
PD 14 Ultimate Suite / Win10 Pro x64
1. Gigabyte Brix PRO / i7-4770R Intel Iris Pro 5200 / 16 GB / 1 TB SSD
2. Lenovo X230T / 8GB / Intel HD4000 + ViDock 4 Plus & ASUS Nvidia 660 Ti / Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZw3GPwKMo&feature=youtu.be

RAM is cheap. Check the max your motherboard can handle and see if you can afford it, assuming you're runnning 64bit Windoze. I'd recommend 16Gb if you want to anything close to Warp speed.

Thanx for all help, I guess I'm ready to order soon

About the SSD, I'm looking at the OCZ Vector 256 GB, which has got great scores in some tests I've read.

I have got the three Sata 2 drives from my present PC. I have been thinkng of making a RAID 0 whith tese, to get more speed. But is that neccessary, need AVCHD editing that extra disk speed, or s it more a CPU case? (when editing SD footage, and AVI output, that was very dependent on the disks). If AVCHD also is very dependent of disk speed, I guess it is far better to get an extra SSD for media, temp and output, than the three Sata 2 in RAID 0? Correct? I never edit veeery long movies, so a 256 Gb would do, as I have the 3TB NAS (X RAID) for storage and backup.

And I'll gt a new monitor

Regards, Nicco

Nicolaj22,
I do not think an extra SSD is beneficial on a cost basis.

I think you would be fine with your current drives installed any way you wish. I personally do not use RAID, a lot of people do.

They would be great extra storage space.

There are some new USB SATA docking enclosures that you can just plug in a SATA drive and swap drives in a flash.

Editing HD video is mostly dependant on CPU, not Disk speed, I doubt you can measure the difference in rendering of a AVCHD video between SSD or HDD.

You mainly need lots to hard drive space to contain the HD video files.
It does not take long to fill up a hard drive with HD video files.

An example, I have a Canon HD camera that makes 1920x1080i at 17 Mbps, a 8 GB memory card in the camera is only one hour and 3 seconds of recording.

Think about that, One hour of HD is about 8 GB. That will fill up hard drive space fast.

I have several external USB hard drives that I use for storing back ups and original video files.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Reading your post I was remembering myself doing the same considerations.
I wanted a cost/optimized solution both for 3D video editing and 3D simulation using game engine.
The best I can setup reading and asking both here and in Tomshardware forum (there you can find a lot of specialists of specific hw components that are eager to debate about the best solution, here you can find true specialists about performance and quality on PD basis) is this one

CPU AMD FX-8320 Black Edition - 3,5 GHz - Socket AM3+
VGA SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition - 2 GB GDDR5 - PCI-Express 3.0
RAM CORSAIR Vengeance Red 2 x 4 Gb DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL8
HDD SEAGATE Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003 3,5" - 1 TB
MOBO ASROCK 970 Extreme3 - Socket AM3+ - Chipset 970 - ATX
CASE CORSAIR Carbide Series 300R
PSU CORSAIR CX600 80 PLUS Bronze - 600 W

TOT: 623 Eu

All AMD based for cost effectiveness, anyway i7 and 660Ti will be grate even if cost more on performance basis.

Hi Guys

I was thinking of doing exactly the same in building my own PC as I am quite able to do this.
However, in doing my research I came across this multi award wining company that does it all for you and when I worked it out, it was about the same cost of building it myself and I get a three year warranty. You can choose a system and tweak the build to suit you and your budget. They do a section for video editing PC’s and I have copied the link below.

I’m getting mine next week. I ordered the “3XS i7 X79 3930K Torque NLE System - Updated May 2013” with a few additions in upgrading the SSD and graphics card as well as increasing the memory to 32GB.

This is the link.

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/Category.asp?SystemMasterCategoryID=14


Stephen

Don't want to be a critic since any source of information and comparison will be always useful in the complex hw world, but for more than £2000 you can have a video editing pc from any PC OEM.
You pay for the service, but this will avoid you the stress of parts selection, system building and integration.