Hello, I have purchased to Studio 14 but before installing I’m going to upgrade my badly needed PC. The emachines got to GO!

I’m looking at a DELL Studio XPS Desktop with Intel® Core™ i7 Processor from Best Buy.  Model: SX8000-2361 

Processor:  Intel® Core™ i7

Speed: 2.8GHz

Ram: 8GB

Hard Drive: SATA (7200rpm) 1TB

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS240 graphics

Video memory: 1024MB (dedicated)

Audio: Integrated 7.1-channel

Recordable DVD Drive:  double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW

This is just some of the spec’s, it goes for $ 1,120 for just the PC nothing else.

Will this work or just a lot of over kill? OR will I need more in some areas?

Thanks, H&H

I'm buying the same computer but ordering it from Dell because I need to add a better PSU. I got some excellent advice about what I needed from forum posters in this thread...(advice - click on newest to oldest to avoid all my bitching, lol)

 http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/post/357611.aspx

 Good luck. I'm looking forward to upgrading my computer so I can shoot and edit in HD.

CJ

Sorry, the link for the whole thread is here...the comments about the DELL XPS are towards the end of it.

 http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/357611.aspx

CJ

H&H: Your profile does not list your videocam make or model.  The PC you need depends on what sort of video you intend to edit and what effects or objectives you have in mind.  The i7 model should be good for most any consumer HD video, including AVCHD 1920x1080i.  I defer to Canon owners as to whether Studio 14 handles the 24mbps quality setting reliably.  Canon's existing videocams support 2-channel stereo, which is fine for Studio.  However, Studio will not support the Dolby 5.1 sound captured by some Sony and Panasonic models.  Studio downconverts DD 5.1 to 2 channels.  The PC you have in mind supports DD 7.1, which I imagine only some Hollywood DVDs or Blu-rays provide.

No one knows what video format will be most popular in 2, 5, or 7 years.  If micro playback devices prevail, QVGA (320x280 pixels) might be sufficient.  But in the realm of large HDTVs, nothing is likely to surpass the 1920x1080p >17mbps standard of Blu-ray.  Player prices have fallen by 50% in the past year.  They may never match the $10 / player prices one now sees for standard DVD players, and BD market share may never equal the historic parcel of VHS or DVD, but the discs may hold their own in an HQ niche for some time.  Ironically, the popularity may rise as the competition from on-line or DVR options prompts the optical disc prices to fall, and more consumers "take the bite" and see the quality difference--especially evident on the largest screens.  That is a careful way to suggest that, if you can add a BD burner for an acceptable price, why not?   

One can burn HD video to ordinary DVD media with a conventional red-laser burner, using a Make Movie option called AVCHD-DVD.  That is fine and cheap if your projects seldom exceed about 35 minutes.  Anything longer, and you'll need 8.5 DVD-DL, which is manufatured with uneven quality and not available in RE.  Blu-ray erases the 70 minute ceiling, is available in RE, and the R-only prices are now below $3 when purchases in spindles. 

Perhaps you could get an external BD burner for a lower price a year from now.  But my sense is that the greatest degree of absolute fall in prices has already occured, and future price declines will flatten.  In other words, you might save $100 by waiting a year, if only you have no need for HD projects over 70 minutes and don't mind losing nearly as much money on Memorex DVD-DLs that become "coasters."

Thanks JKoch, I’m very new to all of the computers/editing stuff but I mostly shoot video of shotgun sports, Skeet, Sporting clays, ect. & edit to a MPEG-4 or an AVI for burning to a DVD. The videocam is a Sony Handycam Digital 8 TRV-350 [HI 8 tape] & Studio 12.

Now I want to jump into the HD & edit and burn to DVD all my old films of myself & family that date back to 1963. LOL Ok, I just give you my age! My emachine is way to slow for the short video I do & would lock up on only 1 of the family videos. Thank you for your help!

H&H:

Hello, I have purchased to Studio 14 but before installing I’m going to upgrade my badly needed PC. The emachines got to GO!

I’m looking at a DELL Studio XPS Desktop with Intel® Core™ i7 Processor from Best Buy.  Model: SX8000-2361 

Processor:  Intel® Core™ i7

Speed: 2.8GHz

Ram: 8GB

Hard Drive: SATA (7200rpm) 1TB

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS240 graphics

Video memory: 1024MB (dedicated)

Audio: Integrated 7.1-channel

Recordable DVD Drive:  double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW

This is just some of the spec’s, it goes for $ 1,120 for just the PC nothing else.

 

Will this work or just a lot of over kill? OR will I need more in some areas?

 Thanks, H&H

As you can see, CJWonder linked to a discussion thread (that he started about getting a new computer), in which the various hardware requirements were discussed.  However, in a nutshell, the two items that might require further consideration are the single hard drive and the size of the power supply unit (not mentioned).  For video editing, it is always preferable to have two physically separate drives, one for the operating system and the installed programs (Studio, etc.) and another, larger drive for the media and rendering.  Also, Dell and other computer suppliers tend to offer minimally sized PSU's in order to save money.  If you need to upgrade the computer in the future with an additional drive or more powerful graphics card (or even more memory), you could run out of power supply capacity.

I would suggest that you get a fast 250 GB drive for the OS and programs and use the large 1 TB drive for media and rendering.

The power supply unit should be at least 650 Watts in rated capacity.  Bear in mind that the numbers in the specifications of PSU sizes can be way over-stated.  Manufacturers like to use peak power, which is only available momentarily, while the important number is the total average power, which can be a fair bit smaller than the published numbers.  Peak power make the PSU sound much larger than it really is.  Also make sure that there is adequate colling capacity.  You can always add a fan to the case, but you should be aware of the cooling air flow pattern inside the case.  In other words, make sure that the fans (power supply fans, case fans, CPU and graphics card fans) are blowing cool air, not preheated air.  For example, if the air from the case fan blows over a hot component such as the CPU and then is picked up by the graphics card fan, you will actually be heating, not cooling the video board.  The flow inside the case should not be impeded by the large flat cables or other internals which could act as flow baffles.  I equipped my editing computer with only the thin, round cables for both SATA and IDE drives (including the interconnection to the CD and DVD burners) in order to have more air flow space.

Make shure it is an i7 9xx  like 920 ,940 etc BLOOMFIELD 

NOT i7 870 etc LYNNFIELD

I am planning to get a ZT for $999 from Costco, it has pretty good reviews, i7 920, 12GB DDR3,1TB HD and very

important for me a case that allows me to install a second optical drive and two removable hard drives mounted

in caddies, so that I can change OS's by plugging an other drive in.

Gene

Eugene1:

Make shure it is an i7 9xx  like 920 ,940 etc BLOOMFIELD 

NOT i7 870 etc LYNNFIELD

 

I am planning to get a ZT for $999 from Costco, it has pretty good reviews

 

Gene

Gene,

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but can you expand a bit on the differences between the i7 Bloomfield (9xx) and the Lynfield (8xx) CPU's?  What are the benefits of one over the other and what are the cost differences?  In other words, is it worth the difference?

I would not be too good at doing that, there is a website called "Toms Hardware" that will explain it in detail and they have charts of benchmarks that give the performance for different applications like video editing etc. A while ago I looked at BB's computers and saw some labelled i7 including monitor for under 1K. Researching it a bit I found out why and Toms Hardware was a major source. You may have to google their address.

Costco has a terrific 2 year warranty and a 90 day no questions return policy. The ZT $999.00  computer has app 20 user comments, very useful.

Eugene

Eugene1:

I would not be too good at doing that, there is a website called "Toms Hardware" that will explain it in detail and they have charts of benchmarks that give the performance for different applications like video editing etc. A while ago I looked at BB's computers and saw some labelled i7 including monitor for under 1K. Researching it a bit I found out why and Toms Hardware was a major source. You may have to google their address.

Costco has a terrific 2 year warranty and a 90 day no questions return policy. The ZT $999.00  computer has app 20 user comments, very useful.

 

Eugene

Thanks for that.  I often check out Tom's Hardware for this type of information.  I just thought that you may have had a quick answer to the comparison question, but I will check out what Tom's Hardware has to say.

I agree that buying from Costco is worthwhile, but you have to remember that they only carry the more popular brands and models.  Their pricing policy is based on a large and fast turnover, so you just have to keep your eyes open for the right stuff.

VE7AXO:

... 

Thanks for that.  I often check out Tom's Hardware for this type of information.  I just thought that you may have had a quick answer to the comparison question, but I will check out what Tom's Hardware has to say.

I agree that buying from Costco is worthwhile, but you have to remember that they only carry the more popular brands and models.  Their pricing policy is based on a large and fast turnover, so you just have to keep your eyes open for the right stuff.

And in electronics, Costco tends to carry only the lower end items (they're cheaper so they tend to sell faster and in higher volume). This is great if the low end is what you need. In computers it might not be, unless they have a lot of options available online that aren't in the stores.