Quote If the good Lord's willin' and the crick don't rise, I'm planning to buy a new computer. I'm not a gamer; I'm primarily concerned with video editing. I'm not particularly interested in a laptop. What features should I look for?

I'm not asking for brands or models. It's just that I've been out of the market for a long time, and don't have a clue. How much memory? What type of CPU? Video card memory? Is an SSD important?

Thoughts?

A budget range would be helpful. Regards,
Dan
Power Director 21-Ultimate
v 21.0.3111.0
XPS-8940, Win-10 64-bit,
Intel Core i9-10900 processor
(10 core, 20M Cache),
32GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD, 2TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD,
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6

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A budget range would be helpful.

Assume for the moment that price is no object. That's not true, but I like to start at the top and work down until the pain is manageable.

I'm particularly curious about SSD drives. I know there's quite a speed advantage, but since they're relatively small I don't know if they are useful for processing video files. Jerry Schwartz

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A budget range would be helpful.

Assume for the moment that price is no object. That's not true, but I like to start at the top and work down until the pain is manageable.

I'm particularly curious about SSD drives. I know there's quite a speed advantage, but since they're relatively small I don't know if they are useful for processing video files.

SSD will not bring any improvement as video editing storage and will wear out very fast due to repeated writes on them. The actual read/write speeds during editing are well in the HDD capability. Personally I have a RAID 5 system (three drives) just because of the reliability it brings.

The SSD are OK for the operating system drive.

As for the video cards, you can start with GTX1050 or GTX1060 - the have the moist evolved hardware ASIC for video decoding/encoding. Altough, for only 1080p worki, the older GTX950/960 are super sufficient.

For the CPU - get the fastest i7 you can afford. Or a Xeon (more cores, scales very well).

As for RAM - I have 24GB installed and I am still waiting to see PD+Windows breaking the 8GB barrier.

Quote I'm particularly curious about SSD drives. I know there's quite a speed advantage, but since they're relatively small I don't know if they are useful for processing video files.

The users on this forum will not want to go back to using only a hard drive once they have a ssd in their system. Windows can boot up in seconds for some instead of say minutes. PD loads much faster.

Do a google search for crystal disk marks for ssd versus hard drive. Newer ssd are said to be more reliable than a hard drive and users may not need to do the optimizations necessary in the past like 5 years ago. It is hard for me to find a high end consumer built desktop without a ssd for the boot drive. True that there is no noticeable increase in speed in video editing. You are only saving about $100 not to have one.

You should not use the same storage device to share the operating system and programs with the work files. Always use the fastest drive (SSD), for OS and programs and a reliable storage for the work files. If you ever need to re-image the OS (virus, corruption, crash), you never have to worry about the project files.

A RAID array (with redundancy) plus external backup is a minimum in my oppinion. No need for SSD there, it will actually be less safe as long term storage than a HDD array. And since the video files tend to be bigger and bigger, I never have too much space. 4TB is a minimum for me, can't do (that is economically sane) with SSD's.

Only my second post as I'm new to video editing, but a very important consideration is what you want to be editing. All things being equal, Full HD is far less demanding on hardware than 4K.

I have a laptop that I recently purchased as a cheap option to allow me to do basic photo editing and web page design etc. It's a Lenovo V110 with the 120GB SSD and i5 (6th generation) 6200u(I think the latter is correct). It had just 4GB of DDR4 RAM.

It would just about edit 4K video but was very slow with real time previews and simple tasks like clicking the "Trim" button but it was just about usable at a push.

It cost £324 delivered. I have since put an additional 16GB DDR4 RAM in there and a 480GB SSD. It now edits 4K video ok but is still slow as expected. It produces quick enough though 5min for 30s 4K video transcoded to 1080p.

Expect to pay at least double for a laptop if you want it to run well I'd say as a rule of thumb.

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Expect to pay at least double for a laptop if you want it to run well I'd say as a rule of thumb.

Laptops are very poor (economically speaking) for video editing, especially for 4K edits. You can get better proformance for teh same money when you go for a desktop/workstation.

If you did go for a SSD drive for your 64 bit OS and Programs, I would say get one that is at least about 240 Gigabytes.

Anything smaller does not have enough space for when Powerdirector is creating a BluRay Disk. If you redirect the Windows Temporary files to a Hard drive, you may save enough space for a smaller SDD, Prices for 256 GB SSDs are not that much. SSDs are very fast for OS and Program loading.

As others have said you can't have too large a hard drive. I would look for the fastest Intel i7 CPU. the built in Graphics chip works just fine, having a extra video card would not hurt. RAM, a minimum of 8 GB and up is best, 16 GB may be about the sweet spot.

Look at GAMING computers because the same specs, would work for Video editing, Video Editing is actually higher demand than Games. 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.

Thanks to those who've posted so far. I do have a few more detailed questions:

• Unless Windows works very differently from other OSes I've used, launching a program would be faster with an SSD; but it wouldn't help much once the program were loaded into RAM (assuming enough RAM). I'd think you'd want your work files on the fastest drive; but that would take deeper pockets than I'll ever have.


• How important is the amount of RAM on the video card?


• How important is the type of connection to the monitor, as long as it's digital? Do some connections have a faster refresh rate?


• I noticed that a lot of desktops, even the more expensive ones, don't come with a built-in Blu ray burner. They don't have a slot for one, either. Is this a problem, or is USB 3 good enough?


• I'm a big fan of RAID. Have you found it built into motherboards, or was it an add-on? I noticed that some machines don't have many, or any, expansion slots. Did you have to go up to a business class system?


• I don't have a real video camera, so that would be my next purchase. What kind of interface would be used to get the video over to the PC?

Thanks. Jerry Schwartz

• Unless Windows works very differently from other OSes I've used, launching a program would be faster with an SSD; but it wouldn't help much once the program were loaded into RAM (assuming enough RAM). I'd think you'd want your work files on the fastest drive; but that would take deeper pockets than I'll ever have.

The encoding process is very slow, the maximum read/write speeds that I saw are 1/10 of what a modern 7200rpm HDD can do. I have tried using the SSD and even the RAM for temp discs and there is no difference.


• How important is the amount of RAM on the video card?

I would say that 2GB that I have now is more than enough, during my editing/encoding I seldom see it used more that 1GB. A GTX1060 3GB edition would be plenty.



• How important is the type of connection to the monitor, as long as it's digital? Do some connections have a faster refresh rate?

Meah, unless you have a 4K monitor... zero importance.


• I noticed that a lot of desktops, even the more expensive ones, don't come with a built-in Blu ray burner. They don't have a slot for one, either. Is this a problem, or is USB 3 good enough?

USB3 is super fast, faster that the maximum writing speed on a bluray drive. But... where did you see a desktop without a 5-1/4" free bay? That's nothing that I would consider.


• I'm a big fan of RAID. Have you found it built into motherboards, or was it an add-on? I noticed that some machines don't have many, or any, expansion slots. Did you have to go up to a business class system?

I have bought an used (but cheap) dedicated hardware RAID from eBay - 3ware 9650SE-12/16ML PCI-E Serial ATA (with adapter cables from SAS to SATA). Never looked back, supported under Windows 10.

And yes, I have a workstation system, to fit all the gizmos that I need inside. Plus a hefty power supply.



• I don't have a real video camera, so that would be my next purchase. What kind of interface would be used to get the video over to the PC?

Since it will be probably a digital camera, the transfer will ba a straight copy of the digital files. So it doesn't matter, I have a fast card reader (USB 3.0).

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• Unless Windows works very differently from other OSes I've used, launching a program would be faster with an SSD; but it wouldn't help much once the program were loaded into RAM (assuming enough RAM). I'd think you'd want your work files on the fastest drive; but that would take deeper pockets than I'll ever have.

The encoding process is very slow, the maximum read/write speeds that I saw are 1/10 of what a modern 7200rpm HDD can do. I have tried using the SSD and even the RAM for temp discs and there is no difference.

That makes perfect sense.

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I noticed that a lot of desktops, even the more expensive ones, don't come with a built-in Blu ray burner. They don't have a slot for one, either. Is this a problem, or is USB 3 good enough?

USB3 is super fast, faster that the maximum writing speed on a bluray drive. But... where did you see a desktop without a 5-1/4" free bay? That's nothing that I would consider.

Several of the systems I saw had no bays at all. Some were gamer systems, and I wondered how people got the games into the box.

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I'm a big fan of RAID. Have you found it built into motherboards, or was it an add-on? I noticed that some machines don't have many, or any, expansion slots. Did you have to go up to a business class system?

I have bought an used (but cheap) dedicated hardware RAID from eBay - 3ware 9650SE-12/16ML PCI-E Serial ATA (with adapter cables from SAS to SATA). Never looked back, supported under Windows 10.

And yes, I have a workstation system, to fit all the gizmos that I need inside. Plus a hefty power supply.

Is that an external array? Or, being a workstation, did your chassis have a lot of room in it?

Jerry Schwartz

It would be useful if PD15 had a benchmark feature that measured a PCs performance of a variety of common tasks, so a more accurate estimate of configurations could be made.

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Is that an external array? Or, being a workstation, did your chassis have a lot of room in it?

I have a Dell T3500 that has room for one SDD, one optical and four HDD. The power supply I upgraded with 1000W one from a T5500/T7500, at a point when I wanted to run AMD graphic cards. Older gen, but the six core Xeon still is adequate.

An used WS on eBay is $600-1000. Dell, Lenovo or HP. Just get a full tower... Example.


You can get an external array but my experience with externals is not so stellar - I have two external die on me. One had the HDD die and another the controller (both termal I guess) - the 4TB Hdd that I recovered from the last one, was my "backup" and now is inside my PC.

Quote It would be useful if PD15 had a benchmark feature that measured a PCs performance of a variety of common tasks, so a more accurate estimate of configurations could be made.

I spent years in that line of work (system performance analysis), and I'm afraid that would be a horrendous task. It can be harder to design a good benchmark than the system it's supposed to measure. Jerry Schwartz

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Quote It would be useful if PD15 had a benchmark feature that measured a PCs performance of a variety of common tasks, so a more accurate estimate of configurations could be made.

I spent years in that line of work (system performance analysis), and I'm afraid that would be a horrendous task. It can be harder to design a good benchmark than the system it's supposed to measure.

i thought there must be a good reason why PD15 & other similar packages didn't have a benchmark feature - & there it is!

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I spent years in that line of work (system performance analysis), and I'm afraid that would be a horrendous task. It can be harder to design a good benchmark than the system it's supposed to measure.

i thought there must be a good reason why PD15 & other similar packages didn't have a benchmark feature - & there it is!

Ayup.

Even business systems, which are far less complex than graphics applications, are tricky. Designing the test data so that it is randomized (to avoid best and worst cases), and yet yields repeatable results, is a nightmare. Then you have to make sure the system's memory management and disk subsystems aren't biasing the results by applying optimizations that can't be counted on in the real world. User input has the same requirements as the test data.

Image trying to benchmark cars (for trip duration and fuel economy). A car that comes in first on the drive from Boston to NYC might perform relatively poorly going from Wichita to Kansas City, even though the distances are fairly similar. Jerry Schwartz

Quote I would look for the fastest Intel i7 CPU. the built in Graphics chip works just fine, having a extra video card would not hurt. RAM, a minimum of 8 GB and up is best, 16 GB may be about the sweet spot.

Look at GAMING computers because the same specs, would work for Video editing, Video Editing is actually higher demand than Games.

Carl, I'm still confused about the video card. I thought video editing offloads some of the processing to the GPU. If that's the case, wouldn't the graphics card have a big influence on performance?

After looking at both gaming systems and standard home PCs on a couple of big brand websites, I didn't learn much. The gaming systems come with fancier video cards. They support multiple monitors, which I don't need; but they also have faster video architectures.

I also checked out the site of a custom builder, and they actually have systems designed for video editing. They use NVidia Quadro cards. Those systems start north of $3000, and the low end is around $1500.

I know I said to assume price is no object, but that $3000 gave me whiplash. Jerry Schwartz

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Quote I would look for the fastest Intel i7 CPU. the built in Graphics chip works just fine, having a extra video card would not hurt. RAM, a minimum of 8 GB and up is best, 16 GB may be about the sweet spot.

Look at GAMING computers because the same specs, would work for Video editing, Video Editing is actually higher demand than Games.

Carl, I'm still confused about the video card. I thought video editing offloads some of the processing to the GPU. If that's the case, wouldn't the graphics card have a big influence on performance?

After looking at both gaming systems and standard home PCs on a couple of big brand websites, I didn't learn much. The gaming systems come with fancier video cards. They support multiple monitors, which I don't need; but they also have faster video architectures.

I also checked out the site of a custom builder, and they actually have systems designed for video editing. They use NVidia Quadro cards. Those systems start north of $3000, and the low end is around $1500.

I know I said to assume price is no object, but that $3000 gave me whiplash.

That's why I asked. Pro systems can go for tens of thousands... Regards,
Dan
Power Director 21-Ultimate
v 21.0.3111.0
XPS-8940, Win-10 64-bit,
Intel Core i9-10900 processor
(10 core, 20M Cache),
32GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD, 2TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD,
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6

You never said why you want a new computer in the original post. Is it because the old computer’s performance is bad or it’s dead. Have you any plans maybe to upgrade to using 4k video or just stay with HD 1080p. The external video card is not that important unless you want to go to 4k editing.