Extreme budget editing system

[NervousLarry]

OK, here's my revised package if anyone wants to give me opinions. I'm using this to edit mostly standard def 480p for now, but thought about being able to edit 1080p (with minimal FX plugins) down the line. This will not be used for gaming, RED footage, or anything else of the sort.

-Gigabyte AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard GA-880GA-UD3H $100

-AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX $120


-Cooler Master Cooler Master Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case with Window (RC-430-KWN1) $50

-Corsair Builder Series CX V2 430-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Intel and AMD Platforms ATX 500 CMPSU-430CXV2 $45

-Liteon 24X DVDrw Sata Retail $18

-4GB RAM (to start out) $35

$370

I plan to upgrade RAM later. I switched to the 4 core instead of 6, I'm wondering if there is a HUGE difference between an AMD 6 core and 4 core when editing in say, Premiere? Going x 4 saves me $60 bucks and I guess leaves me the option of upgrading the CPU in the future (if AMD releases new processors for the AM3 socket?) I've heard varying things, some people say the extra cores won't do much, others say they could come in handy. Not sure if it's worth the 60 buck investment now.

 

[Indigo]

I saw huge differences in render time on CS5 with my X6 vs my old X4 CPU (I had an X4 940, upgraded to an X6 1100T) so it's totally worth it if you can load up the cores. 4GB of RAM should be fine to start with, I only use 5-6GB if I import FRAPS video and it converts it into a format Premiere understands, but if I do it one at a time, 4GB was plenty.

If you get one of the approved nVidia video cards, you can also render video outputs using that card - we configured one at work here with a GeForce 560 and it absolutely screams at video rendering.

The only thing I would change is the power supply. If you want some headroom in the future, upgrade to a 650 watt model just to be safe, or if money is a concern, get a 520 watt continuous rated unit from Antec or Corsair. 430 is just a tad low for me to feel comfortable with, even if you decide to stick with onboard video.

 

[NervousLarry]

Yeah, I have since upgraded the PSU to the Corsair builder 600W (will cost me an extra 20, but oh well for peace of mind), which should be good for me forever, provided it doesn't fail in the first few months (which if it does, it seems to have several fail safes to NOT fry my system...and corsair has a good warranty).

I never plan to buy a video card, but if I do, it would be sub 100 bucks. If I really need to put some life in the old system down the line (in like 4 or 5 years), I'll just buy a good graphics card and better PSU.

But good to know about the 6 core. I'll probably be getting the 1050T rather than the 1100, unless I can find a deal (newegg has one today but I can't get it quite yet...). Some people suggested I cut 60 bucks off my spending and just get the x 4 and overclock it, but I don't want to be bothered with overclocking and extra cooling concerns (and bigger PSU concerns!). Again, that would be a last resort down the line when the system becomes outdated and needs and extra oomf.

 

[Indigo]

There's nothing wrong with the 1050T, other than being slower than the 1100T, so you're not sacrificing much. Many review sites online actually tell folks to buy the lower priced versions and just overclock, which is pretty accurate given that my 1100T can hit 3.9 GHz on air cooling without any voltage bumps. There's plenty of headroom in the 1050T's as well.

As for overclocking, unless you raise the CPU clock by a huge amount, I don't see a reason to buy a larger PSU unless the system is unstable and you can trace it to the PSU.

 

[NervousLarry]

thanks for the responses