New PC for photo and video editing

[daveyj66]

Hi

I need to buy a new PC for myself and having spent days researching and reading I am more confused than ever! I am appealing for some simple, sensible advice.

I am looking for a PC to handle MS Office apps, browsing, music, etc and I know that anything I buy will cope with that.

I am a keen amateur photographer and use Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Premier Elements 4.0 for photo and video editing respectively.

I do not play games on this PC.

I may watch a downloaded TV show if I have missed something but dont watch movies on the PC.

So why am I confused?

What processor to buy? I have a Q6600 quad core 2.4ghz at the moment and it works fine but is a bit slow in video encoding. I am only buying as we have a need for a pc elsewhere in the family and I might as well be the one to get the shiny new one and pass mine on!

So do I go cheap and get like-for-like replacement or go for a new Core i7 920? This was my plan until I read about the core i7 8xx range, would I be better with this or somewhere else in between? As I only use the "Elements" versions of the photo/video editing, can these take advantage of the i7 architecture?

Graphics Card? I have no gaming need I just want something that will be great for photo/video work.

Monitor? So many reviews seem to assume we all play games on our computers, I dont and for the odd TV show I dont need anything flash but I do want good colour representation and am prepared to pay more for something that is worth the extra. I just dont need a professional level of kit and dont want to spend $1000 on a screen.

So, as a guide, what CPU would you buy for this type of set up? what graphics card would be the right spec and any thoughts on monitors. Over all I want kit to give the best bang for buck (obviously!) but I dont mind spending c$1600 if that is what it takes, I am just wondering whether I may be buying power that I'll never need and use because of the focus on games from so many manufacturers.

Please help?!

Thanks Jonathan

[Gna]

You don't play games, and you do want a fast machine for photo and video editng? And it must be (very) capable to run all your Windows software?
Then I'd take a long, hard look at a Mac Pro quadcore (Nehalem) with 4GB of RAM (or more): Apple - Mac Pro - The fastest and most powerful Mac ever.. It is the workstation of choice for (photo)graphical pros, and runs any flavor of Window, and all its associated apps, like greased lightning.
Run CS4 and a handful of other (photo)graphical apps, AT THE SAME TIME, and side-by-side onscreen, with Windows and a sprinkling of Windows apps. All natively! All as fast as, or faster than on any similarly specced PC!

Mac Pros come with either an NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port, or an ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of GDDR5 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port. I would prefer the latter.
And you can get a 24", or a 30" monitor (or two!) to match your Mac Pro: Apple - LED Cinema Display. The Mac Pro can drive them.
I love those gorgeous glossy Apple screens! Pinsharp, rich colors, contrasty, and high-res. It feels lik a privilege to work with them. They are that good! Even after working with 2 for over 6 months they still make me pic my jaw up off the floor every time I flick a good photo to fullscreen!

[felix.reichardt]

Hi Jonathan,

I have the same processor and edit occasionally an Canon 5D Mark II HD video with premiere elements 7 (because the pro version sucks and crashes all the time). I can edit quite comfortable. There are limits to real time editing but that's software related and not hardware as far I have read. Maybe your version is just a bit outdated or you need faster RAM?

Are you editing HD video or "standard" video? For all other usage a Q6600 is just fantastic IMO and sufficient.

If you do video editing for a living I'd say get a MAC Workstation and Final Cut pro.

[Harry]

X 2

I would at least consider a memory upgrade, although, if your current computer is even a year old you may have maxed out your motherboards capabilities in that department and would need to change it along with faster memory. On the other hand most computers were never sold with the max amount of memory installed. Also need to consider which OS you are using.

[harvey3]

for pc try HP or Dell.
I like dell's reliability, We have it in the office for quite sometimes now and its still functioning as expected.

[Digital Hands]

I have Quad Core Q6800 and it is pretty fast for video editing. I believe the video card and more RAM are the key. I suggest you get a mid-range video card like ATI FireGL 5600 or nVidia Quadro card.

You don't need to get MAC for this. The PC is fine with the editing which I use it every day. My PC is faster than MAC G5.

I think Q6600 is pretty fast but not that FAST. I suspect you didn't set up correctly in Premiere. I set up the Premiere's setting to use all CPUs when rendering.

Choose the motherboard carefully that is designed for photo/video editing. (workstation motherboard).
As for the monitor, again...you will be sitting in front of the monitor all day therefore get the best monitor you can buy.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by Digital Hands

My PC is faster than MAC G5.

I should hope so! The G5 Mac is a 4 year old model...

[roncgizmo]

I would say take a good look at the Mac Pro as well.. I was going to make the switch from windows a few months ago so I bought a old 1.33 g4 ibook to see if I'd miss windows.. the ibook is about half power and half the memory of my windows laptop and only 1/5th on the bus side. The Mac run rings around the PC. It doesn't slow down nor does it do crazy things at the wrong time.. Vista made me cut the ties. at this point I don't even care to try Window's 7. after the new year I'll be looking for a Mac book pro. Something tells me it will be the last laptop I buy over the next 4 years instead of 12 to 18 months.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by roncgizmo

I would say take a good look at the Mac Pro as well.. I was going to make the switch from windows a few months ago so I bought a old 1.33 g4 ibook to see if I'd miss windows.. the ibook is about half power and half the memory of my windows laptop and only 1/5th on the bus side. The Mac run rings around the PC. It doesn't slow down nor does it do crazy things at the wrong time.. Vista made me cut the ties. at this point I don't even care to try Window's 7. after the new year I'll be looking for a Mac book pro. Something tells me it will be the last laptop I buy over the next 4 years instead of 12 to 18 months.

Hear, hear!

I tried Win7, ron. Ran it for a month to give it a serious shake down. And it made me cry...

If I really, really want/need to run a Windows app (about twice a year, and out of pure curiosity how it works/behaves) then I run it in a virtual machine (in Win7), or under CrossOver (entirely without Windows).