Video Editing (PC vs Mac)

Heck of a contribution, Tom. People like you make going to the boards worthwhile. 🙂
That was a fine perspective from someone who already made the trip to Macland. Any overall observations between the two platforms?

Someone tried to show how to build an under $1000 PC. I can't (and I wouldn't want to go back to earlier socket or boards). What I did was this:

eVGA X58 $260
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-132-BL-E758-TR-Mainboard-Intel-chipset/dp/B001TDKPJS/
Core i7 920 $279
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001H5T7LK/
Noctura cooler $80
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QFCVE6/
Crucial 6GB 3 x 2GB $113
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N9X4CS/
PSU 750W $168
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029F21LK/
Antec P193 $173
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ULCOUW/
eVGA 275 $250
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-896-P3-1170-AR-DDR3-PCI-Express-Graphics/dp/B00243FPR O/
Windows 7 HP $119

total: $1,400

Misc parts (SATA DVD and such) that happen and some disk drives $300

It would cost double for that configuration from Apple without even factoring in memory.

The PC gives you the ability to take the 920 and commonly run @ 3.3 to 4.0GHz just from the BIOS (air will take you only so far, after that best to go on water). And, the ability to upgrade to the 6-core variant of socket 1366 when those come out.

Geekbench result off my PC:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/170655
Stock 8-core Mac Pro 2009:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/170644

... see: It might not be wrong to get a new system, especially if you happen to come across H.264 based HD videos (like from AVCHD camcorders). Now, what you could do fast is to buy a used Core 2 Duo (2Ghz and up, E6xxx) or a Quad Core machine, even a new one might be quite affordable, around US$400 (Q6600 based) and with 4GB of memory. The US$ 800 were related to the newly released Intel "Nehalem" i7 system. You could get a prebuilt one for this price, too. I must stress, though, I would recommend Apple - psst, the forum 😉

Video encoding depends on your workload: If you are a professional, you want the fastest multicore machine, as you very likely would use HD material, either native uncompressed, in pro format or AVCHD/h.264 encoded. With HD AVCHD/H.264 material, it´s basically easy: Get as much processing power you can get and use software which is multicore aware.

Yes, bigger cache helps here. Graphic cards only give you performance gains, when they are well supported by the specific software.

You seem to have a homeuser profile, so a generic Quad Core and 4-8GB RAM should be fine.

... see: It might not be wrong to get a new system, especially if you happen to come across H.264 based HD videos (like from AVCHD camcorders). Now, what you could do fast is to buy a used Core 2 Duo (2Ghz and up, E6xxx) or a Quad Core machine, even a new one might be quite affordable, around US$400 (Q6600 based) and with 4GB of memory. The US$ 800 were related to the newly released Intel "Nehalem" i7 system. You could get a prebuilt one for this price, too. I must stress, though, I would recommend Apple - psst, the forum 😉

Video encoding depends on your workload: If you are a professional, you want the fastest multicore machine, as you very likely would use HD material, either native uncompressed, in pro format or AVCHD/h.264 encoded. With HD AVCHD/H.264 material, it´s basically easy: Get as much processing power you can get and use software which is multicore aware.

Yes, bigger cache helps here. Graphic cards only give you performance gains, when they are well supported by the specific software.

You seem to have a severe homeuser profile, so a generic Quad Core and 4-8GB Ram should be fine.

Sorry about the triple post, people, I had some electric troubles causing stormy behaviour ...

... now, depending on your budget, you either can go cheap and buy a used Core 2 Duo / Quad machine or built a brandnew i7 or better i5 rig. The same applies to Apple machines: You either grab a Mac Pro used or a new one - if you want the case form factor. A fast Core Duo iMac might be sufficient, too.

You could ask a friend with an up to date machine (Mac/PC) to test your material on it, so you get a feeling on how speedy your workload is to become and if your software supports newer technology - which it should.

@ the hatter: A disagree, as you could get a decent built for around US$800,- to 1000,-. Your graphiccard selection, motherboard, cooler, RAM and powersupply are way overboard/overpriced.

For the enthusiast PC builder I recommend a board witch to http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/77909774

Message was edited by: Faddh

I have know enough that for my money I go with quality that works and can be upgraded in the future. I think penny wise and pound foolish - fine for your personal taste and needs.

The consumer wanting X55 and Lynnfield is a different market.

Please buy yourself a UPS.

... but he is not you and may need a different, or at least broader advice. It doesn´t help recommending things he can´t afford, really.

PS

No UPS could have avoided this, a cat may had.

You're saying that $1400 for a computer is too high? For Halloween, I'll send a kid round with the bill I paid for mine instead of a mask or scary costume. You'll find it disturbing.
I'd think one could go best or worst in a project like that, but to get decent results one would have to keep it all on the higher quality side of things for it to come out well. No use having a pc that's hand assembled rather than one that someone else's kid brother did if it's mediocre. I wouldn't want to go through the trouble if a Dell for a grand could beat it.
Whole thing sounds like it calls for strategic planning,.. hence the more impulsive of us just strategically plan the buy. 🙂

hamtickle,

Video on standard definition DVD's is in the mpeg2 format which, because of the high compression, is not great for editing with any NLE regardless of the platform. The best approach to editing DVD sources would be to transcode the mpeg2 material to an intraframe format that is easy to edit, e.g. Apple Pro Res. This could be done without any quality loss since you are not taking a highly compressed format and directly compressing it back to a highly compressed format. I am not sure what format your "TV sources" would be captured in, but you would likely wish to do the same thing with that. Bottom line: regardless of what NLE you use on any platform, taking a highly compressed source format and recompressing it to a highly compressed format is going to result in loss of video quality and obvious video artifacts.

Tom

Samsara,

Thank you for the kind compliment. I have gotten a lot out of the Apple Forums and I try to contribute where I can while making sure I don't go beyond what I know.

Having used both PC's and Macs over the years, I find that good work can be done on both platforms. The secret is in properly maintaining both the hardware and the software on the machine. I switched to the Mac only after I had two rather expensive PC's die within one week (motherboard failures in both cases and yes, both were throughly protected by UPS's and no power surges or disruptions occurred during that week). While I realize that the same thing could happen on a Mac, I decided it was time to return to the Mac which I had not used for more than 20 years. When I did return to the Mac, I was very pleased with the OS (Tiger at that time) and I have remained very satisfied with Leopard and now Snow Leopard. I was also pleased to find that Apple's pro level software (Aperture, Final Cut Studio, Logic Pro, etc.) is of outstanding quality and offers a lot of value for the money. Finally, I was happy to see that important third party support, e.g. Adobe, is available, and I have the full Adobe Production Premium suite of program also installed on my Mac.

As I mentioned previously, I believe the only area where I have been disappointed in Apple and the Mac has been in Apple's slow and tentative support for Blu-ray. Blu-ray is an important part of my work, and without third party support I would not have been able to produce a Blu-ray disk until recently (with FCS3's introduction), and I think it is ridiculous that while you can now create Blu-ray disks on the Mac, you still cannot play them without booting the Mac up under Windows.

Tom

I wanted to compare what a similarly spec'd PC configuration would look like, cost, and performance.

People don't buy Mac Pro if they are looking to cut corners, or want the cheapest components. They want it to work today and still deliver over the years and be upgradable as much as possible. And pride their system on quality, quiet (and w/o LCS even) and solid construction.

If I wasn't such a dweeb I'd probably go with better cooling to try hitting the magic 4GHz number. Or drop in an Xtreme 975, except any Core i7 920 does 3.3GHz w/o breaking a sweat.

I read every review that I saw on DDR3, PSU, X58 vs others, considered older 9665 but in the end and thousands of pages later, X58 and Nehalem won me over.

Thanks Tom,

Like you I try to return what I've found here. These pages, rather the people who reply, have taught me almost all I know about Macs and computing. Unlike you, I tend to approach peoples issues even if they are beyond my complete knowledge. I just put myself in their shoes and try to construct in my mind what they are dealing with. It sometimes works, but your way is sure to. I can say without a doubt that many of us here look upon you and people like you with great respect and admiration.
Thanks for being here.

Macs vs. PCs... Pretty much as I thought. Comes down to the man and his demands I guess. Rembrandt could paint using an aardvark if he had to.
Blu-ray... I've never even seen a bluray movie, but from some of the posts here, many people are pretty darn unhappy that Apple has failed to address it.

Well Met, Tom,
Steve

thousands of pages later

Hence you are the consummate Strategic Planner. I like how you held here, went forward there, all while holding the grander vision in mind. What impresses me too is how you seem to now have an evolving machine capable of more upgrades now and in the future. That's pretty cool in my book.. Why get a whole new machine if one doesn't need to?

Great information guys if I may interrupt, I am using Power PC Dual 2.5 Ghz with 4 Gigs of Ram, I am mostly doing some documentaries in HD and thinking about Tv and production for Broadcast (I am also in Wedding business, introduced Blue Ray few months ago to my customers)
It seems there is no anymore support for "oldies" ( OSX and PPC0 and my logical next step is Intel Mac.I assume they are much faster than my system now, I preffered to buy best in line at the moment, It should be 8 Core Mac Pro right? There is some new processors on horizon and I am not in rush to do it. I will appreciate any good opinion and suggestions,
Regards